text:
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The high-stakes battle between the world's largest smartphone makers is scheduled to wrap up this week after a monthlong trial that has pulled the curtain back on just how very cutthroat the competition is between Apple and Samsung.
Closing arguments in the patent-infringement case are scheduled to begin Monday, with the two tech giants accusing each other, once again, of ripping off designs and features. At stake: $2 billion if Samsung loses, a few hundred million if Apple loses.
Teams of attorneys on both sides have spent the month trying to poke holes in obscure and bureaucratic patent legal claims, while keeping the eight jurors engaged. Drawing the most attention in the courtroom and the media are insider emails and meeting presentations documenting the frustration each company faced as they competed for market share.
Less than a year after Apple unveiled its iPhone in 2007 combining a Web browser, music player and phone in one swipeable device, Samsung officials noted they were quickly losing customers.
"While traditional OEMs are busy fighting each other in the feature phone space Apple is busy making the category obsolete," said one confidential briefing presentation. "What makes the iPhone unique is software (applications) and services, beautiful hardware is just a bonus."
But Samsung fought back, using Google's Android system, offering less expensive smartphones with larger screens.
"Consumers want what we don't have," said a 2013 Apple presentation a few years later, noting that the low-priced, easy-to-view competition was surging ahead.
Both have studied each other's marketing as well.
In 2009, Samsung designers examined step by step why iPhones were known to be easier to use than Samsung, finding their own offerings weren't friendly and lacked emotion and charm.
When Samsung aired a Super Bowl ad in 2013, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller had praise for the competition.
"It's pretty good and I can't help but think 'these guys are feeling it' (like an athlete who can't miss because they are in a zone) while we struggle to nail a compelling brief on iPhone," he wrote in an email. "That's sad because we have much better products."
Throughout the three years of litigation, Samsung's market share has grown. One of every three smartphones sold last year was a Samsung, now the market leader. Apple, with a typically higher price, was second, with about 15 percent of the global market.
Although it's impossible to predict what a jury will do, two years ago a federal jury found Samsung was infringing on Apple patents. Samsung was ordered to pay about $900 million, but it is has appealed the judgment and has been allowed to continue selling products using the technology.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.
Send questions/comments to the editors.


text: Every rapper worth his salt has a crew to back him up. Since the collapse of his late, lamented Hot Boyz team, Lil Wayne's support system has been Young Money Entertainment. With full backing from his Cash Money label and "Daddy" Birdman, the New Orleans scion formed the clique and production company in 2005. He shuffled prospects through the system for years; only fellow N'awlins rapper Mack Maine, who achieved modest success on the mixtape circuit, stuck around for the long haul. By 2009, and in the wake of his multi-platinum Tha Carter III, Wayne finally settled on a winning team. The roster is currently headed by Mack Maine, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Jae Millz and Tyga. Lesser-known members include Gudda Gudda, Lil Chuckee, Lil Twist, Shanell, Short Dawg and T-Streets. The crew's debut, 2010's We Are Young Money, relied heavily on Wayne for hits such as "EveryGirl in the World," "BedRock," "Steady Mobbin" and "Roger That." However, Young Money has begun to yield breakout stars. Drake's Thank Me Later was one of the biggest rap albums of 2010. Nicki Minaj, a rapper from Queens, NY, has drawn attention for her quirky visual style and inventive rhymes.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Apricot Open Game project recruitment starts now! We are looking for three Blender artists to come to Amsterdam for 3 to 6 months to help us making a compelling 3D game using Crystal Space and Blender! Read this article at the Blender site for more information.
In addition you can also participate in the new Open Projects Forum to discuss Apricot and other open projects.


text:
Would you have the kleptomaniac guard the jewelry store?
Would you put the inmate in charge of the asylum?
For our liberal friends out there: would you want industry writing OSHA health and safety regulations? Would you want industry writing EPA pollution standards?
Would you want the teachers' union to decide who gets to be teachers?
A major teachers union wants to create a rigorous professional exam for K-12 teachers that would serve the same function as the bar exam for lawyers and board certification for doctors.All of that sounds reasonable, but why would you expect something so noble from a union? Answer: you shouldn't. Ole Randi and the gang have quite the ulterior motive:
"Unlike law, medicine, architecture and engineering, we hand teachers the keys and tell them to go into the classroom and do their thing," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who is expected to announce the plan Monday. "This is about raising the standards of our profession and making sure that kids get teachers who are prepared."
A task force of teachers and education experts Weingarten assembled spent a year developing recommendations to improve teacher preparation and certification.
Under the AFT plan, prospective teachers who have undergone training at an education school would have to demonstrate knowledge of their subject areas, an understanding of the social and emotional elements of learning, and spend a year in "clinical practice" as a student teacher before passing a rigorous exam.
At the same time, alternative teacher preparation programs have sprouted up, offering a streamlined path to certification and the classroom. Teach for America, for example, gives college graduates five weeks of training before sending them into some of the most troubled schools in the country.My guess is that the TFA candidates would, in their summer "boot camp" have received more practical knowledge and less political indoctrination than the typical teacher candidate, but that's just a guess.
A bar exam would "just level the playing field," Weingarten said. "Maybe all the alternative certified teachers will pass with flying colors. But if only 10 percent of TFA passed it and 90 percent of the students from Teachers College passed it, that would say something."
With her last comment quoted above, Randi's shown her true colors. She's not as interested in improving the teaching corps as she is in deciding who gets to be a part of that teaching corps.
Her suggestion isn't altruistic, it's entirely self-serving--painfully, transparently so.


text:
Thank You
You will receive reset instructions in your mailbox. When you follow the link in the email, please make sure that you use the same device and network as when you submitted this request.
Your shopping basket is currently empty!
Foodie tours are a great way to explore Toronto. These tours often take folks through neighbourhoods such as, The Distillery District, Kensington Market or The Junction. It is one of the best ways to connect with the brilliant talent in your community. This gift is like taking a tour that expands beyond the neighbourhoods of the city and can be enjoyed from the comfort of home.
This gift ships from Toronto.
Add branding to your gift program
Give us a call at 1.800.848.6102 we're here to help.
Larochelle, Toronto, ON
Give us a call at 647.493.3213 we're here to help.
We hand-pick each and every one of our gift baskets with a curated selection of local artisan products from across Canada.
Inspirational stories about hard working folks who create the locally made products in our gift baskets.
Even though most of our products are devoured in mere moments, our gift boxes create a strong positive association with your brand and business.
Gift basket delivery across Canada with free shipping options.
What time do I need to place my order by for next day delivery?
Orders must be placed by 12pm (Pacific time), on business days, to qualify for next day gift basket delivery in Vancouver. Orders are shipped via UPS Standard, Purolator or CanadaPost which all offer next day delivery for Vancouver, surrounding municipalities and most of BC. Orders received after 12pm will be assembled and shipped the next business day.
Orders must be placed by 12pm (Eastern time), on business days, to qualify for next day gift basket delivery in Toronto. Orders are shipped via Purolator or CanadaPost which offers next day delivery for Toronto, surrounding municipalities and most of ON. Orders received after 12pm will be assembled and shipped the next business day.
Due to the various FDA regulations, our ability to ship food based gift baskets into the United States is limited. Give us a call, email or order online, and we'll be happy to explain what we can do to meet your needs. We can help, it just requires some extra attention on our side. Flat rate shipping to the US is $35 per shipment. Call us at 1.800.848.6102 today.
Unfortunately we do not offer a pick up service at this time.
Same day service is only currently available for our Vancouver gift baskets. Give us a call at 1.800.848.6102 or locally in Vancouver at 604.210.2932 and we'll do our best to meet your needs based on availability. A $20 same day shipping rate will be charged. Orders requiring same day service must be placed by 12pm Pacific time. Shipments to commercial addresses will be delivered by 5pm and to residential addresses by 7pm that evening. Additional shipping fees may apply if you require quicker service.
See more


text:
When it comes to gifts, it's not the thought that counts. At least, not in America's wealthiest households.
Two-thirds of affluent American women want gift cards. But less than a fifth of men will give it to them, according to a report from American Express Publishing and the Harrison Group out Thursday.
Instead, 70% of women are gifted clothing or jewelry.
A survey of 625 households that represent the top 10% of the nation's wage earners found a wide gap between what people want and what they will actually get.
Related: 9 'fantasy gifts' of 2012
Men should also lower their expectations. They want food and alcohol -- a third hope to get gourmet foods and fine wine, and another third want gift cards. But women like to give none of those -- 30% are expected to give clothing, and another 15% books.
What wealthy shoppers are better suited for, is giving gifts to themselves.
Nearly half of women said they were extremely, or very likely, to buy themselves presents this holiday season. A third of men have similar intentions.
"Perhaps America is giving itself a bonus this year," said Jim Taylor, vice chairman of Harrison Group, in a statement.
Holiday retail sales are expected to increase 4.1% this year, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation. That's the most optimistic forecast from the group since the recession.


text:
Thousands Entering Calif. Schools Without Vaccines
Last year's class of California kindergartners had a record high percentage of parents who used a personal belief exemption to avoid immunization requirements, a development that concerns state health officials.
More than 11,000 kindergartners missed at least one vaccine in 2010 because their parents decided to forgo inoculation. At nearly 2.5 percent of the state's 470,000 kindergartners, that's California's highest rate of declined vaccines since at least 1978, the year before the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was required.
The percentage is more than double that in certain parts of the state, particularly in more affluent coastal communities in Northern California.
The public debate over childhood vaccinations has been growing throughout California, where last year a deadly spike in whooping cough cases killed 10 babies and sickened more than 9,100 people. The outbreak prompted a state law that requires middle and high school students to get whooping cough booster shots before going back to school this year.
The percentage of parents who sign vaccine exemptions based on personal beliefs has been rising steadily since 2004. The increase coincides with rising use of the Internet for information, said John Talarico, chief of the immunization branch for the California Department of Public Health.
"We really think a lot of it is due to honest, valid concern that parents do the best thing for their child coupled with misinformation that gets out through various forms of communication," he said.
He said state health officials want to study the personal-belief exemptions to better understand trends and behaviors. For now, he is hoping the trend will begin to slow, especially with media coverage of last year's whooping cough deaths.
Just last week, state health officials said the number of reported measles cases in California had reached a 10-year high of 28. Of those, 22 people were either unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown.
"When people can see disease around them, it generally drives them to think about the benefit the vaccine can give their children versus whatever else they hear," he said.
Vaccine statistics for this year's kindergartners will not be available until 2012.
Parents can file two types of vaccine exemptions - a medical exemption or a personal belief exemption. The medical exemption is rarer and typically is reserved for children who cannot be vaccinated because of auto-immune disorders or allergies. It requires a doctor's signature.
For a personal belief exemption, parents are not required to supply any information to explain their decision.
Doctors and medical experts say vaccines are a reliable means of preventing illness with little risk of injury, but some parents don't buy into the safety of immunizations. They cite concerns about vaccines making their children susceptible to autism or diabetes.
In a comprehensive safety review of vaccines issued last month, the Institute of Medicine found there is no link between vaccines and autism or diabetes. The institute, part of the National Academy of Sciences, found that serious side effects of vaccines are rare and can include fever-caused seizures and occasional brain inflammation.
The increasing number of kindergartners entering school without immunizations poses a risk to others, especially children who have legitimate medical exemptions that prevent them from getting their shots, said Linda Davis-Alldritt, a school nurse consultant at the California Department of Education.
"Disease prevention is really a very important thing," she said. "These are diseases that can be very serious, and it can cause death and it can cause long lasting illnesses."
Parents receive information from schools and the Department of Education about the importance of inoculation and the dangers of unvaccinated children spreading infectious diseases to the rest of the community.
Overall immunity of a population to illness typically is achieved when 90 percent of the population is properly immunized. But Talarico, California's top immunization officer, said that can be misleading because unvaccinated children tend to cluster in pockets where like-minded parents decide to forgo immunizations.
"When we see these clusters, that represents the possibility of transmission of disease more quickly and in a more sustained fashion," he said.
A cluster of unimmunized children in San Diego led to an outbreak of measles in 2008 that infected 12 children. Nine of them had not been inoculated because of their parents' objections, while three others were too young to be immunized.
In some schools, as many as 30 percent of kindergartners are vulnerable to at least one vaccine-preventable communicable disease, according to data from the state Department of Public Health. The majority of schools have 100 percent immunization rates.
Certain areas of California have higher exemption rates than others. In Marin, Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties, more than 6 percent of incoming kindergartners in 2010 had parents file a personal belief exemption. By comparison, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Fresno counties had rates below 2 percent.
Barbara Lowe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center in Vienna, Va., said parents sometimes decide to file the personal belief exemption form because they cannot find a doctor who will sign a medical exemption form.
"We've had families whose children have had reactions to vaccines, and some of them have become injured or even died. They want to make an independent, informed decision for their other children, and they can't find doctors who will write medical exemptions," she said.
She said the mission of her nonprofit is to prevent vaccine-related injuries or death through public education. It does not take a position on whether parents should have their children vaccinated, but it does defend a parent's right to opt out of a vaccine.
Some parents base their decision on what they hear from others or see on the Internet, rather than in consultation with a medical expert, said Catherine Flores Martin, director at the California Immunization Coalition, a Sacramento nonprofit that receives some of its funding from vaccine manufacturers.
"Parents have access to so much information on the Internet and I think a parent, even when they're really well educated, will have a hard time sifting through the credible resources versus the anecdotal stories," she said. "You can find whatever you want on the Internet to support your belief."


text:
30 S.Ct. 368
54 L.Ed. 418
GEORGE E. ZARTMAN, Trustee in Bankruptcy of Francis Bacon, Plff. in Err.,
No. 74.
Argued January 12, 1910.
Decided February 21, 1910.
This was a suit brought in the supreme court of the state of New York by the First National Bank of Waterloo, New York, against Francis Bacon and George E. Zartman, as Bacon's trustee in bankruptcy, to procure the reformation of a written contract made by plaintiff and defendant Bacon February 15, 1902.
Before the contract was made, Bacon was president of the First National Bank of Waterloo, New York, and also of the Waterloo Wagon Company. He was active in the office of the wagon company, while the business of the bank was looked after by its cashier, Becker. The Waterloo bank had extended credit to the wagon company and to Bacon individually, discounting paper and taking notes.
The Exchange National Bank of Seneca Falls, New York, held, by assignment from Bacon, 461 shares of the stock of the wagon company, and 253 shares of the Waterloo bank, as continuing collateral security for any existing or future indebtedness of Bacon or the wagon company.
The contract between Bacon and the Waterloo bank provided that the shares were 'to be held by said bank as a continuing collateral security for the payment to it of any indebtedness or liability of any kind, absolute or contingent, due or not due, now existing or that may hereafter exist, arise, accrue, or be contracted, on the part of himself or of the Waterloo Wagon Company, Limited, to said bank, and the said Francis Bacon hereby agrees with the First National Bank of Waterloo that the said certificates of stock above named are transferred to and may be held by the said First National Bank of Waterloo as a continuing collateral security for the payment to it of any indebtedness or liability of any kind, absolute or contingent, now existing or that may hereafter exist, arise, accrue, or be contracted on the part of the Waterloo Wagon Company, Limited, or himself, to said bank, and said shares of stock, upon their surrender by the Exchange National Bank, shall be deposited with the said First National Bank of Waterloo.'
The words in italics were omitted from the contract by mutual mistakes made in preparing and executing it, and the New York supreme court, by its decision, reformed the contract by inserting them. In the meantime, however, Bacon had become a bankrupt, having been so adjudicated May 4, 1904, and defendant Zartman had been appointed trustee.
This action was begun October 17, 1904. The trustee alone defended.
The judgment was unanimously affirmed by the appellate division of the fourth department (113 App. Div. 612, 98 N. Y. Supp. 717), and, on appeal to the court of appeals, the decision of the appellate division was unanimously affirmed without opinion. 189 N. Y. 533, 82 N. E. 1126. The remittitur was filed below November 9, 1907, and this writ of error was thereupon allowed.
Mr. George E. Zartman, in propria persona, for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. W. H. Sholes and Hammond & Hammond for defendant in error.
Statement by Mr. Chief Justice Fuller:
[Argument of Counsel from pages 136-138 intentionally omitted]
Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:
The jurisdiction in equity to decree the correction of errors in written contracts which have been caused by mutual mistake is firmly established and needs no citation of authority to sustain it. In the present case, the evidence of the mistakes in question was undisputed. We are not aware that the bankruptcy law has suspended that jurisdiction.
The position of the trustee in bankruptcy seems to be that the mistake made by Bacon in dictating or writing out the contract between himself and the Waterloo bank 'is an asset in his hands, as part of the estate of the bankrupt;' but we cannot agree to that. The trustee claims that he takes the same kind of title as a bona fide purchaser for value; but the rule applicable to this and all similar cases is that the trustee takes the property of the bankrupt, not as an innocent purchaser, but as the debtor had it at the time of the petition, subject to all valid claims, liens, and equities. Thompson v. Fairbanks, 196 U. S. 516, 49 L. ed. 577, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 306, and cases cited. And this is so well settled that our jurisdiction of the writ of error is exceedingly doubtful. Judge Williams, speaking for appellate division, fourth department, treated of this point thus:
'It is said that the bankruptcy of Bacon constituted a bar to the relief granted in this action. This cannot be true. The trustee took the bankrupt's property in the same condition and subject to the same liens as the bankrupt himself held it. The trustee is in no sense a bona fide purchaser for value, and entitled to protection as such. No new lien was created by the decision and judgment appealed from. The original lien was adjudicated and determined.'
We concur in this view, and the judgment is affirmed.


text:
Houston, TX – Despite a tight victory over Houston, Tennessee's slim chances of making the playoffs went awry Sunday afternoon.
Nate Washington caught four passes for 92 yards and a touchdown, including the game-deciding 23-yard score late in the fourth quarter, as the Titans took a 23-22 victory over the Texans.
Matt Hasselbeck threw for 297 yards and two scores on 22-of-35 passing for Tennessee (9-7), which was eliminated from postseason contention when Denver lost at home to Kansas City later in the day.
"I think it just means as a team we're heading in the right direction. You won more than you lost so that's a good thing," Titans head coach Mike Munchak said about his team's record. "The good thing is the 9-7 means we're on the right track."
After Washington's touchdown, the Titans held the Texans to a punt and were going to try to run out the clock, but Ahmard Hall fumbled to give Houston the ball back at the Tennessee 36.
Jake Delhomme found Bryant Johnson in the back of the end zone for a five-yard touchdown with 14 seconds left on the clock to bring Houston within a point.
With the No. 3 seed in the AFC already locked up and perhaps not wanting to risk an injury in overtime, the Texans went for a two-point conversion.
But Texans tight end Joel Dreessen was whistled for a false start on the first attempt and the snap sailed over Delhomme's head on the second, with Tennessee recovering for the win.
"We wanted to win the football game. That was important," Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said about his decision to go for the two-point conversion. "Now we've got to move on. Now we have a very, very big football game for this city and this football team."
T.J. Yates started at quarterback for Houston, but left the game in the first quarter with an injury. Yates completed all four pass attempts for 47 yards in his lone drive. Delhomme replaced him and completed 18-of-28 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown.
Ben Tate carried the ball 16 times for 97 yards and a score, while James Casey caught seven balls for 91 yards for the Texans (10-6), who ended the regular season on a three-game losing streak.
After a 22-yard field goal by Neil Rackers on the first snap of the fourth quarter tied the game at 16, neither team crossed the 50-yard line until Tennessee started a drive at its own 44 with seven minutes left in the game.
Faced with a 3rd-and-9 on his own 45, Hasselbeck found Chris Johnson over the middle right at the first down marker to cross midfield. The referees brought out the chains for the measurement and the tip of the ball just barely made contact with the marker to keep the drive alive.
Two plays later, Hasselbeck floated a pass to Washington, who had worked behind his defender and made a leaping 23-yard touchdown catch for a 23-16 Titans lead with 4:31 left in the game.
Delhomme tossed a 40-yard strike near the right sideline to Bryant Johnson on the first play of Houston's ensuing drive to move the ball into Titans territory.
But Tate was hit for a one-yard loss on first down and Delhomme was sacked for a nine-yard loss on second down before having his third-down pass knocked to the ground, forcing a punt and setting up the late fumble by Hall.
Houston marched 90 yards down the field on its first possession with a 13-play drive that lasted almost seven minutes.
The Texans converted two third downs and moved down the field with a mix of short passes and runs before Tate rumbled into the end zone from four yards out.
Yates took several big hits on the drive, though, and left the game with an undisclosed injury.
Each team traded three-and-outs over the next two touches before the Titans took over at their own 28 and drove down to the Houston three. Chris Johnson had a 27-yard run down the left sideline, but the Titans could not push the ball into the end zone and had to settle for a 21-yard Rob Bironas field goal early in the second quarter.
Houston later started a drive at its own three and managed to move near midfield with a couple of big gains, but Delhomme was stripped of the ball by Titans defensive end Dave Ball and Tennessee recovered at the Houston 33.
Hasselbeck turned the favorable field position into a one-yard touchdown pass to Donnie Avery in the left corner of the end zone for a 10-7 Titans lead.
Rackers knotted the game by splitting the uprights from 52 yards out on the Texans' ensuing possession, but Bironas snuck a 43-yard kick inside the right upright as time expired in the half to give Tennessee a 13-10 lead at the break.
Tate opened the second half with a 56-yard rush up the middle after starting right and cutting back to his left, but Houston would not get another first down and Rackers nailed a 37-yard kick to tie the game at 13.
The Titans regained their three-point lead near the midpoint of the third quarter after a 55-yard reception down the left sideline by Washington set up Bironas' 33-yard kick.
Game Notes
Tennessee leads the all-time series 14-6...Hasselbeck's 297 yards gave him 3,571 for the year, marking his third career season with over 3,500 yards. His day also gave him 33,150 yards for his career, making him the 25th player in NFL history to throw for that many yards...Chris Johnson carried the ball 15 times for 61 yards to give him 1,047 for the year, joining Hall of Famers Earl Campbell and Eddie George as the only players in Titans history to rush for 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons...Washington ended the season with 1,023 receiving yards to surpass 1,000 yards for the first time in his career.


text:
Check out these low quality shots of Charlize Theron, with her son Jackson, and Sean Penn at the baseball game the other day. They weren't even sitting in a box. They risked being among the people. The rowdy people. The ones who've been in the sun all day drinking beer.
That is not usually a safe environment for crusty old Sean Penn.
But this is not the crusty old Sean Penn we've grown to know over the last 30 years. For the last 5 months, that Sean Penn has been replaced by a dude who happily poses on red carpets with Charlize Theron and doesn't chase paps down the beach when they're shooting him and he hasn't punched anyone waiting outside a restaurant after their romantic dinners.
Half a year and I am still not used to it. Are you? I keep asking you this and you keep saying no. So when will we get used to this? I'm going to keep asking. Because I don't understand, I can't understand.


text:
Working hoursPublic holidays and annual leave entitlementsSupport and allowancesLife at the workplaceStaff RegulationsSeat Agreement
Every staff member and SNE is required to work 40 hours per week, spread over 5 working days. The standard working day is 8 hours for a full day and 4 hours for a half-day.
ACER aims to provide a working environment which supports healthy work-life balance. In accordance, ACER introduced flexible and core working hours Staff members and SNEs are free to choose the beginning and the end of their working day respective of the core hours during which they shall be present in the office. One rest break of at least 20 minutes per working day must be taken outside core hours when the time worked during the day is 5 hours or more.The Agency applies the following core hours:
ACER has between 17 and 19 days of public holidays spread across the calendar year, established annually by a Director's Decision.
Staff members and SNEs are entitled to annual leave of 2 days per month. Additional leave days depending on the age and grade may be granted. Staff members may request additional special leave days under specific conditions.
Staff Member's pay is constructed of basic salary and various allowances based on their socio-economic status. Learn more about future Entitlements and Salary Information here.
With the annually organised special working day, the Away Day, ACER creates the opportunity to build coherence between departments and teams in a non-formal setting while benefiting from the highlights of one of the touristic sights of Slovenia. Furthermore, each year, various events are organised by the Staff Committee.
A channel for the expression of opinion by staff is represented by the Staff Committee, whose members are chosen among the eligible Agency staff by elections. The Staff Committee represents the interests of the staff vis-à-vis the Agency and maintains constant contact between the Agency and its staff.
Further details of rules managing staff can be found in the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union.


text:
It's only because of special effects.
That's one of the things that enters your mind when you're watching a movie. Humans can't fly. They don't usually live in luxurious spaceships, meet only pretty girls, transport through walls, drive magic cars, or turn into werewolves. Nifty tricks, no doubt, thanks to a first-class special effects department.
So what other Hollywood creations do you question? Which Tinseltown beliefs make you a disbeliever? If La-La Land fills you with wondering, the new book "Hollywood Myths" by Joe Williams may lay your celluloid fears to rest.
The tabloid headlines scream about the latest scandal, but you just roll your eyes. How is it possible that stars think they can do that stuff? Joe Williams indicates that you should take it all with a teaspoon of skepticism.
John Wayne, for instance, wasn't a "hero" in the newest sense of the word. With the help of his studio bosses, he never actually fought in battle. That "weighed heavily upon his conscience for the rest of his life."
Charlie Chaplin, says Williams, wasn't the King of the Silent Era; he was, however, king of preserving his own film. That's why we see so much of his work, which leads to the myth of royalty. As for the King of Rock & Roll, can you imagine Elvis in West Side Story, or starring opposite John Wayne or Barbra Streisand? That almost happened, until Tom Parker put a stop it.
The tabloids like to dupe you with scuttlebutt, but Williams proves that rumors are often misleading. Woody Allen, for example, was innocent (although Angelina Jolie owes Mia Farrow a "thank you"); Lana Turner was innocent (says her daughter); Fatty Arbuckle was innocent; Jean Harlow was innocent; and Spencer Tracey never married Katharine Hepburn, but not because of his Catholicism.
And then there are the Only-In-Hollywood scenarios: Brian Keith may have "followed in his stepmother's footsteps." Harrison Ford may have secretly been a child-star. Ginger Rogers was the only one of Fred Astaire's partners who "never cried from the workload." Jayne Mansfield's IQ equaled that of Darwin. And the filming of Casablanca was a first-class mess.
But really – does all this actually matter? It is, after all, only the movies. It's all just make-believe, right? And besides, says Williams, Hollywood isn't the film capital of the world anymore anyhow…
Oh, my. I wanted to love "Hollywood Myths." I really did.
But I didn't love it as much as I wanted to because it's filled with a lot of common knowledge, red herrings, and scandals that are older than Grandma. Rehashing the ninety-year-old Fatty Arbuckle scandal, for instance, offers nothing new. A chapter on Sharon Tate is really more about the Manson Family. And old rumors about The Wizard of Oz? Yawn.
Yes, author and film critic Joe Williams offers several nuggets of WOW! here, but mostly what you'll find are retreads and continuity mistakes that didn't impress me. Faithful tabloid readers might find enjoyment in that, but for most H-wood observers, "Hollywood Myths" isn't anything special.


text:
Jack Steinberger
I was born in Bad Kissingen (Franconia) in 1921. At that time my father, Ludwig, was 45 years old. He was one of twelve children of a rural 'Viehhändler' (small-time cattle dealer). Since the age of eighteen he had been cantor and religious teacher for the little Jewish community, a job he still held when he emigrated in 1938. He had been a bachelor until he returned from four years of service in the German Army in the first World War. My mother was born in Nuremberg to a hop merchant, and was fifteen years the younger. Unusual for her time, she had the benefit of a college education and supplemented the meagre income with English and French lessons, mostly to the tourists which provided the economy of the spa. The childhood I shared with my two brothers was simple; Germany was living through the post-war depression.
Things took a dramatic turn when I was entering my teens. I remember Nazi election propaganda posters showing a hateful Jewish face with crooked nose, and the inscription "Die Juden sind unser Ungluck", as well as torchlight parades of SA storm troops singing "Wenn's Juden Blut vom Messer fliesst, dann geht's noch mal so gut". In 1933, the Nazis came to power and the more systematic persecution of the Jews followed quickly. Laws were enacted which excluded Jewish children from higher education in public schools. When, in 1934, the American Jewish charities offered to find homes for 300 German refugee children, my father applied for my older brother and myself. We were on the SS Washington, bound for New York, Christmas 1934.
I owe the deepest gratitude to Barnett Faroll, the owner of a grain brokerage house on the Chicago Board of Trade, who took me into his house, parented my high-school education, and made it possible also for my parents and younger brother to come in 1938 and so to escape the holocaust. New Trier Township High School on the well-to-do Chicago North Shore, enjoyed a national reputation, and, with a swimming pool, athletic fields, cafeteria, as well as excellent teachers, offered horizons unimaginable to the young emigrant from a small German town.
The reunited family settled down in Chicago. We were helped to acquire a small delicatessen store which was the basis of a very marginal income, but we were used to a simple life, so this was no problem. I was able to continue my education for two years at the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) where I studied chemical engineering. I was a good student, but these were the hard times of the depression, my scholarship came to an end, and it was necessary to work to supplement the family income.
The experience of trying to find a job as a twenty-year-old boy without connections was the most depressing I was ever to face. I tried to find any job in a chemical laboratory: I would present myself, fill out forms, and have the door closed hopelessly behind me. Finally through a benefactor of my older brother, I was accepted to wash chemical apparatus in a pharmaceutical laboratory, G.D. Searl and Co., at eighteen dollars a week. In the evenings I studied chemistry at the University of Chicago, the weekends I helped in the family store.
The next year, with the help of a scholarship from the University of Chicago, I could again attend day classes, so that in 1942 I could finish an undergraduate degree in chemistry.
On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. I joined the Army and was sent to the MIT radiation laboratory after a few months of introduction to electromagnetic wave theory in a special course, given for Army personnel at the University of Chicago. My only previous contact with physics had been the sophomore introductory course at Armour. The radiation laboratory was engaged in the development of radar bomb sights; I was assigned to the antenna group. Among the outstanding physicists in the laboratory were Ed Purcell and Julian Schwinger. The two years there offered me the opportunity to take some basic courses in physics.
After Germany surrendered in 1945, I spent some months on active duty in the Army, but was released after the Japanese surrender, to continue my studies at the University of Chicago. It was a wonderful atmosphere, both between professors and students and also among the students. The professors to whom I owe the greatest gratitude are Enrico Fermi, W. Zachariasen, Edward Teller and Gregor Wentzel. The courses of Fermi were gems of simplicity and clarity and he made a great effort to help us become good physicists also outside the regular class-room work, by arranging evening discussions on a widespread series of topics, where he also showed us how to solve problems. Fellow students included Yang, Lee, Goldberger, Rosenbluth, Garwin, Chamberlain, Wolfenstein and Chew. There was a marvellous collaboration, and I feel I learned as much from these fellow students as from the professors.
I would have preferred to do a theoretical thesis, but nothing within reach of my capabilities seemed to offer itself. Fermi then asked me to look into a problem raised in an experiment by Rossi and Sands on stopping cosmic-ray muons. They did not find the expected number of decays. After correcting for geometrical losses there was still a missing factor of two, and I suggested to Sands that this might be due to the fact that the decay electron had less energy than expected in the two-body decay, and that one might test this experimentally. When this idea was not followed, Fermi suggested that I do the experiment, instead of waiting for a theoretical topic to surface. The cosmic-ray experiment required less than a year from its conception to its conclusion, in the end of the summer of 1948. It showed that the muon's is a three-body decay, probably into an electron and two neutrinos, and helped lay the experimental foundation for the concept of a universal weak interaction.
There followed an interlude to try theory again at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where Oppenheimer had become director. It was a frustrating year: I was no match for Dyson and other young theoreticians assembled there. Towards the end I managed to find a piece of work I could do, on the decay of mesons via intermediate nucleons. I still remember how happy Oppenheimer was to see me come up with something, at last.
In 1949, Gian Carlo Wick, with whom I had done some work on the scattering of polarized neutrons in magnetized iron while still a graduate student at Chicago University, invited me to be his assistant at the University of California in Berkeley. There the experimental possibilities in the Radiation Laboratory, created by E.O. Lawrence, were so great that I reverted easily to my wild state, that is experimentation. During the year there, I had the magnificent opportunity of working on the just completed electron synchrotron of Ed McMillan. It enabled me to do the first experiments on the photoproduction of pions (with A.S. Bishop) to establish the existence of neutral pions (with W.K.H. Panofsky and J. Stellar) as well as to measure the pion mean life (with O. Chamberlain, R.F. Mozley and C. Weigand).
I survived only a year in Berkeley, partly because I declined to sign the anticommunist loyalty oath, and moved on to Columbia University in the summer of 1950. At its Nevis Laboratory, Columbia had just completed a 380 MeV cyclotron; this, for the first time, offered the possibility of experimenting with beams of T mesons. In the next years I exploited these beams to determine the spins and parities of charged and neutral pions, to measure the pi– pi0 mass difference and to study the scattering of charged pions. This work leaned heavily on the collaboration of Profs. D. Bodansky and A.M. Sachs, as well as of several Ph.D. students: R. Durbin, H. Loar, P. Lindenfeld, W. Chinowsky and S. Lokanathan.
These experiments all utilized small scintillator counters. In the early fifties, the bubble-chamber technique was discovered by Don Glaser, and in 1954 three graduate students, J. Leitner, N.P. Samios and M. Schwartz, and myself began to study this technique which had not as yet been exploited to do physics. Our first effort was a 10 cm diameter propane chamber. We made one substantial contribution to the technique, that was the realization of a fast recompression (within ~10 ms), so that the bubbles were recompressed before they could grow large and move to the top. This permitted chamber operation at a useful cycling rate. The first bubble-chamber paper to be published was from our experiment at the newly built Brookhaven Cosmotron, using a 15 cm propane chamber without magnetic field. It yielded a number of results on the properties of the new unstable (strange) particles at a previously unattainable level, and so dramatically demonstrated the power of the new technique which was to dominate particle physics for the next dozen years. Only a few months later we published our findings on three events of the type Sigma0-> Delta0 + gamma, which demonstrated the existence of the Sigma0 hyperon and gave a measure of its mass. This experiment used a new propane chamber, eight times larger in volume, and with a magnetic field. This chamber also introduced the use of more than two stereo cameras, a development which is crucial for the rapid, computerized analysis of events, and has been incorporated into all subsequent bubble chambers.
In the decade which followed, the same collaborators, together with Profs. Plano, Baltay, Franzini, Colley and Prodell, and a number of new students, constructed three more bubble chambers: a 12″ H2 chamber as well as 30″ propane and H2 chambers, developed the analysis techniques, and performed a series of experiments to clarify the properties of the new particles. The experiments I remember with the most pleasure are:
– the demonstration of parity violation in D decay, 1957;
– the demonstration of the ß decay of the pion, 1958;
– the determination of the p0 parity on the basis of angular correlation in the double internal conversion of the g rays, 1962;
– the determination of the w and j decay widths (lifetimes), 1962;
– the determination of the S0 – D0 relative parity, 1963;
– the demonstration of the validity of the DS = DQ rule in K0 and in hyperon decays, 1964.
This long chain of bubble-chamber experiments, in which I also enjoyed and appreciated the collaboration of two Italian groups, the Bologna group of G. Puppi and the Pisa group of M. Conversi, was interrupted in 1961, in order to perform, at the suggestion of Mel Schwartz, and with G. Danby, J.M. Gaillard, D. Goulianos, L. Lederman and N. Mistri, the first experiment using a high-energy neutrino beam now recognized by the Nobel Prize, and described in the paper of M. Schwartz.
In 1964, CP violation was discovered by Christensen, Cronin, Fitch and Turlay. Soon after I found myself on sabbatical leave at CERN, and proposed, together with Rubbia and others, to look for the interference between K0s and K0L amplitudes in the time dependence of K0 decay. Such interference was expected in the CP violation explanation of the results of Christensen et al., but not in other explanations which had also been proposed. The experiment was successful, and marked the beginning of a set of experiments to learn more about CP violation, which was to last a decade. The next result was the observation of the small, CP-violating, charge asymmetry in K0L leptonic decay, in 1966. Measurement of the time dependence of this charge asymmetry, following a regenerator, permitted a determination of the regeneration phase; this, together with the earlier interference experiments, yielded, for the first time, the CP-violating phase jh+ – and, in consequence, as well as the observed magnitudes of the CP-violating amplitudes in the two-pion and the leptonic decays, certain checks of the superweak model. The same experiment also gave a more sensitive check of the DS = DQ rule, an ingredient of the present Standard Model.
In 1968, I joined CERN. Charpak had just invented proportional wire chambers, and this development offered a much more powerful way to study the K0 decay to which I had become addicted. Two identical detectors were constructed, one at CERN together with Filthuth, Kleinknecht, Wahl, and others, and one at Columbia together with Christensen, Nygren, Carithers and students. The Columbia beam was long, and therefore contained no Ks but only KL, the CERN beam was short, and therefore contained a mixture of Ks and KL. It was contaminated by a large flux of L0, and so was also a hyperon beam, permitting the first measurements of L0 cross-sections as well as the Coulomb excitation of L0 to S0, a difficult and interesting experiment carried out chicfly by Steffen and Dydak. The most important result to come from the Columbia experiment was the observation of the rare decay KL -> µ+µ– with a branching ratio compatible with theoretical predictions based on unitarity. Previously, a Berkeley experiment had searched in vain for this decay and had claimed an upper limit in violation of unitarity. Since unitarity is fundamental to field theory, this result had a certain importance.
The CERN experiment, which extended until 1976, produced a series of precise measurements on the interference of Ks and KL in the two-pion and leptonic decay modes, thus leading us to obtain highly precise results on the CP-violating parameters in K0 decay. I believe the experiment was beautiful, and take some pride in it, but the results were all in agreement with the superweak model and so did little towards understanding the origin of CP violation.
In 1972, the K0 collaboration of CERN, Dortmund and Heidelberg was joined by a group from Saclay, under R. Turlay, to study the possibilities for a neutrino experiment at the CERN SPS then under construction. The CDHS detector, a modular array of magnetized iron disks, scintillation counters and drift chambers, 3.75 m in diameter, 20 m long, and weighing 1200 t, was designed, constructed, and exposed to different neutrino beams at the SPS during the period 1977 to 1983. It provided a large body of data on the charged-current and neutral-current inclusive reactions in iron, which permitted first of all the clearing away of a number of incorrect results, e.g. the "high-y anomaly" produced at Fermilab, allowed the first precise and correct determination of the Weinberg angle, demonstrated the existence of right-handed neutral currents, provided measurements of the structure functions which gave quantitative support to the quark constituent model of the nucleon, and, through the Q2 evolution of the structure functions, gave quantitative support to QCD. The study of multimuon events gave quantitative support to the GIM model of the Cabibbo current through its predictions on charm production.
In the CDHS experiment we were about thirty physicists. Since 1983, I have been spokesman for a collaboration of 400 physicists engaged in the design and construction of a detector for the 100 + 100 GeV e+e– Collider, LEP, to be ready at CERN in the beginning of 1989. In the meantime I had also helped to design an experiment to compare CP violation in the charged and neutral two-pion decay of the K0L. This experiment was the first to show "direct" CP violation, an important step towards the understanding of CP violation.
In 1986, I retired from CERN and became part-time Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. However, my chief activity continues as before in my research at CERN.
I am married to Cynthia Alff, my former student and now biologist, and we have two marvellous children, Julia, 14 years old, and John, 11 years old. From an earlier marriage to Joan Beauregard, there are two fine sons, Joseph Ludwig and Richard Ned.
I play the flute, unfortunately not very well, and have enjoyed tennis, mountaineering and sailing, passionately.
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Addendum, June 2005
In 1988, I was the spokesman of a collaboration of about 350 physicists, preparing the detector we called ALEPH, which we had started to plan in 1981, for the CERN electron-positron collider then under construction called LEP, and which started to operate in 1989. Altogether, about fifteen hundred physicists participated, using four such detectors. LEP results dominated CERN physics, perhaps the world's, for a dozen or more years, with crucial, precise measurements, which confirmed the Standard Model of the unified electro-weak and strong interactions. The physics scene had changed a lot since the time of my thesis experiment in 1948, which I could do quite alone. For some time I could help, as manager, but also contributing to the detector design and the physics analysis. This came to an end in 1995, partly because I had no new ideas on the physics we might learn, and partly because the challenges became more and more technical, especially in the use of computers, and I could not compete with the younger generation.
Since that time I have enjoyed learning cosmology and astrophysics, and following its progress. This has given me much satisfaction: on the one hand it involved having to learn some basic physics new to me, physics important to cosmology but unimportant in particle physics, such as general relativity and hydrodynamics, on the other hand these have been spectacular years in astrophysics, with the discovery in 1992, and continually improving observational results, of the inhomogeneities of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which give a totally new map of the universe, at a much earlier time than stars or galaxies, much simpler and therefore much easier to learn from, and more precisely. I still come to CERN, the 10 km on my bicycle, every day and sometimes enjoy trying to learn something new.Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2005
Jack Steinberger died on 12 December 2020.
Watch the 2023 Nobel Prize announcements
Watch the live stream of the announcements.


text:
We are who we say we are.
Is the woman who applies make up everyday 'being herself"? How about the woman with implants, is she 'being herself'? What about the woman wearing high heels becasue it boosts her height 4 inches? Is the girl you see in nothing but party pics on FaceBook being herself? Lets turn it the other way, what of the woman wearing a business suit that emphasizes her shoulders with pads in the jacket is she 'being herself'? If she colors her hair does this make her less genuine?
If being ourselves is an idealized state then I should reasonably be able to expect a like-minded fitness model to be attracted to me even if my greatest passion is to sit on my couch, eat a large pizza and wash it down with a 6 pack of Michelob while watching Monday Night Football, right? After all, I am just being myself – it's who I am.
Believe and so you shall become
The hardest distinction the uninitiated have with the JBY (just be yourself) dynamic is that personality is malleable. Personality is always in flux. The person you are today isn't who you were 2 years ago, nor the person you'll be 2 years from now. There are traits and characteristics we may carry with us for a lifetime, but even these are subject to change depending upon circumstance. You define what being yourself is at any given moment and it's relative to your personal conditions and environment. So where do you draw the line? When does a genuine change of character become legitimate rather than being 'shallow' or 'superficial'? Those are just catch terms that women (and too many chumps) have used with success over the centuries and men have internalized as being states of perception that women think are undesirable, yet they never accurately define. Rather, they stay intentionally ambiguous and relative to an individual woman's interpretation, while their behaviors indicate their own motivations.
You are who you believe you are, and you are who she perceives you to be.
One of the hardest things for anyone, male or female, to hear is that they need to change their lifestyle because it implies that their just 'being themselves' is in some way at fault for their present conditions. It's analogous to telling someone they're not living their lives 'correctly' or that they're raising their kids wrong. If I have a friend that is shooting heroin and I actively encourage him to stop and make an effort to help him 'clean up', society calls me a hero or a savior. When I encourage my friend to quit smoking before she gets cancer, I'm a concerned good-friend helping my friend with a health risk behavior. But when I tell a friend he needs to change his approach to women and this is a reason for his unhappiness and he needs to change his outlook on, and approach with women, look better and feel better, then I'm a 'shallow' prick and insensitive to his 'problem'. Worse still is even attempting to offer constructive criticism, in as positive a light possible, that a person can improve themselves by changing their outlook and modifying their behavior.
Personality is not only malleable, but it can change dramatically under specific conditions. An easy example of this is veterans with post traumatic stress disorder. These men were exposed to traumatic environments that fundamentally altered their personalities. While this is an extreme illustration it proves that becoming a 'different person' is a matter of conditions. If my conditions are such that I enjoy sitting at home eating a whole pizza, washing it down with a six pack of Budweiser and watching Anime on a Friday evening, can I realistically expect that hot fitness instructor at the gym to come on over and genuinely want to fuck my brains out? And why not? After all I'm only being myself and she should "love me for who I am", right? If this were my case, the conditions that define my personality are incongruous with attracting and/or maintaining a relationship with someone whose conditions are not my own.
JBY is an operative social convention that aids hypergamy.
Women are only too happy to endorse and reinforce JBY for the conscious reasoning that it 'sounds like the right thing to say'. It's an unassailable position; who wouldn't want you to be you? If what counts is all on the inside then anyone telling you to change MUST be manipulating you for their own selfish reasons. This dovetails nicely into the popularized
fat-acceptance self-acceptance mantra most women will fall back on when the impact of the Wall begins to manifest itself in their physiques and they want to be loved for "who they are" rather than what they used to look like. However, on a subconscious level, the latent purpose of fostering the JBY social convention in men is yet another sexual selection filtering mechanism. Actually it's more of a filtering failsafe in that by socially mandating a genuineness in the general populace of men, women are more secure in the accuracy of their sexual assessment of men. If all men are Just Being Themselves and are encouraged to be the person they 'truly are', this then aids a woman in determining which man will best satisfy her hypergamy.
As I've stated in many a prior post, women claim to want honesty from men, but no woman wants full disclosure. In a general sense I advise this because it serves to sustain a Man's aura of mystery, only to be progressively discovered by women with the appropriate levels of interest and responsiveness to men. However, another reason to remain deliberately ambiguous is to defuse the JBY dynamic that women assume would be a man's default psychology.
Always let a woman figure out why she wont ƒuck you, never do it for her.
An integral part of maintaining the feminine imperative as the societal imperative involves keeping women as the primary sexual selectors. As I've detailed in many prior comments and posts, this means that a woman's sexual strategy necessitates that she be in as optimized a condition as her capacity (attractiveness) allows for her to choose from the best males available to satisfy that strategy.
JBY is a tool in maintaining the feminine imperative as the social imperative. Furthermore JBY serves in optimizing hypergamy in aiding a woman's sense of security about assessing which man will best suit her hypergamy. Ironically, the JBY dynamic gets upended once a monogamous relationship is established by a woman's anxiety for 'fixing' her partner once in that relationship. What was once the pseudo-genuineness of just him being himself is replace by "I'm working on him" in order for him to become the ideal man to meet with her hypergamic approval – thus exposing the calculated nonsense JBY really is to begin with.
We are who we say we are
We can alter our own personalities and have them altered by our conditions or any combination of the two, but to suggest that personality is static is a falsehood. The trap is to think that altering personality is in anyway disingenuous – there are certainly teriffic 'actors' or 'poseurs', and the like, that when we are confronted with them we sense (or even know) that they are pushing an envelope that they may not be entirely comfortable with, but there is merit to a 'fake it till you make it' doctrine. We only percieve it as being 'false', 'superficial' or as "trying to be something your not" when we have a concept or knowledge of a previous set of personality behaviors. If you met a likable cocky-funny guy at a club this weekend, how are you to know whether he's the real deal or stretching the limits of his personality if you've never met him before?
Law 25: Re-Create Yourself
Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions— your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.


text:
Las Vegas is known for some pretty far-out things, but this just might be a Sin City first. A new 6,432-square-foot Denny's will not only offer the restaurant's signature 24-hour-breakfast delights, but — like many other places in Vegas — a quickie wedding chapel as well.
Frances Allen, Denny's Chief Marketing Officer, is hoping this new space, the casual dining chain's third in Las Vegas, will revitalize the concept of the traditional American diner, which she calls the original social network. "It was that sort of ecumenical social scene where everybody converged," she told the Los Angeles Times. In that vein, this new location aims to bring a lot of new things to the beloved franchise.
(MORE: Want Fries with that Ring? McDonald's Offers Weddings)
Vegas was an obvious fit for the makeover as it will allow Allen to capitalize on Las Vegas' 24/7 lifestyle and outsize appetites. (Luckily, since what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, all those calories won't count.)
"It's going to have all the things you love about Denny's," she said, "combined with the fun vibrancy of the area and some unexpected twists, as well." And, in case you were wondering, that will include a full service bar.
"It's unique. It's different. It's going to be an icon within Vegas. People are going to want to travel to see this Denny's," she said. "The wedding scene is such a part of Vegas, and who doesn't want a wedding cake made out of pancakes?"
Who indeed?


text:
CHIMAIRA frontman Mark Hunter has revealed to Metal Insider that the band is "really deep" into the songwriting process for the follow-up to 2011's "The Age Of Hell" for a tentative summer release via eOne Music. "We have twelve demos written and we've actually gone into the studio and demoed it professionally instead of just a standard computer/Pro Tools kind of thing," he said. "We're getting ready to enter the studio in February and make a new album."
He added: "2011 sucked. [laughs] This year's been all about rebuilding and we got a chance to do overseas. Our first show with the new line-up was at Soundwave in Australia in front of 10,000 people. It was really nice to have to go through such a terrible year and just kind of stand on top of a mountain and go, 'Wow, OK, we got out of it, and we're here, we got a band, we sound great, and we can move forward.' So this year has been restructuring the entire business from the ground up, realigning ourselves with new teams; be it management, agent, merchandise companies, everything from the whole ground up. In my opinion, the only way to move forward was to rebuild the whole thing from the bottom up.
"We want to come out with an album that not only captures the essence of what the fans have grown to know over the years, but we want to do something not only for the scene that's special, but for musicians out there, too. The musicianship in this band now is definitely on the next level. Everyone's pretty much a virtuoso at their instrument. Some of the stuff Emil [Werstler, guitar] was writing yesterday on this new song, I'm watching him play and I'm like, 'There are only going to be about a handful of people that'll able to play this!' [laughs] I'm imagining like a kid getting home, getting our new record and maybe they have the guitar, and they go sit down and try play along to it. And it's going to take them a very long time. [laughs]
"We couldn't be happier moving forward. It sucks that we had to go through hell — no pun intended — to get to where we are now. But I think all of us, coming from lessons of life, lessons of bands, lessons of the industry, we've lived and learned and now we have something completely different to prove."
CHIMAIRA will return to the stage for its first and only remaining U.S. appearance of 2012 on December 29. The 13th annual Chimaira Christmas will take place at Cleveland, Ohio's House Of Blues.
CHIMAIRA's current lineup is as follows:
Mark Hunter – Vocals
Matt Szlachta (DIRGE WITHIN) – Guitar
Jeremy Creamer (DAATH) – Bass
Emil Werstler (DAATH) – Guitar
Sean Zatorsky (DAATH) – Keyboards
Austin D'Amond (BLEED THE SKY, THE ELITE) – Drums
"The Age Of Hell" sold more than 7,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, "The Infection", opened with 15,000 units back in April 2009 to land at No. 30. This figure was roughly in line with the first-week tally registered by CHIMAIRA's 2007 album,"Resurrection", which shifted 16,000 copies to enter the chart at No. 42.
"The Age Of Hell" was released in the U.S. on August 16, 2011 via eOne Music; in Germany on August 26; and in the United Kingdom, Australia and the rest of Europe on August 29 through Long Branch Records.
Source: www.blabbermouth.net


text:
The perfect way for any beer enthusiasts to display their favorite craft beers. This cut out of Texas Map will delight everyone from the homebrewer aficionado to the Joe down the street who just likes a pint in the pub. This craft beer cap map is perfect for a man cave, groomsmen gift, father's day, or birthday.
The holes are the perfect size to hold all of your favorite caps. Just simply push the cap in the hole from the back of your Beer Cap Map. It is made from high quality light 5mm birch plywood with semi gloss finish. Everything is cut with a high precision laser. Finishing nails are included so you can hang your Texas beer cap map right away. There are several small holes to make hanging very easy.
Amazon Prime Shipping (3 business days)
Approximate size: 30" x 30"
Looking for our most popular beer cap map? Here is our walnut stained USA map.
Don't see the shape you're looking for? Message me with suggestions.


text:
Hey everyone!
We promised you a little treat for this release, so head over to the "Upload" or "Your Music" page to check this rocking new feature!
Just like the rebellious Mathangi Arulpragasam (M.I.A) that inspired our new release, we've decided to bumrush the current state of things in file sharing: you can now invite people OUTSIDE of SoundCloud to listen or download your private tracks!
Just set your track to "private", enter your recipient's e-mail and they'll get an instant invitation to check out your track. It's much more faster, reliable and most of all secure than yousendit/sendspace/etc… could ever be. No more, annoying adds, links to copy, slow speeds, upload limits and neverending typing, just write your friend's e-mail and it's done! Enjoy this one friends.
Needless to say, we're preparing some major improvements and features coming up your way. Another gem is soon hitting the site. Hold tight!


text:
July 6, 2009
The World's First Fantasy Magazine - Der Orchideengarten
29 comments:
--I can't believe the magnitude of my mania for weird books--ReplyDelete
You can't?!!
Heh. And we are all thankful for it. A few of these (the first few especially) would be hard to date if seen alone and out of context. Twistedly innovative. Just how I like my ... visual delights.
Thanks peacay.ReplyDelete
I didn't put them in order of issue date so I could load my favorites at the top. (My favorite happens to be the first issue.)
Someone in Chicago is selling a bound set of 24 issues for $6000 -- now that is f*cking crazy. Luckily I will never have that kind of money.
Many thanks for posting these. As you know, I've been eager to see more of this stuff having being tantalised for years by Rottensteiner's book.ReplyDelete
John, this post is more for you than anyone.ReplyDelete
That reminds me, any questions for Rottensteiner? He's providing a lot of info on international sf/fantasy, including the story behind Seabury Press (early publisher of Lem in English). He was actually Lem's international rights agent from the 70s to about 1995.
Amazing covers.ReplyDelete
Thanks as always. If I had any visual skills at all I'd be envious. Instead I just let my jaw drop.ReplyDelete
- NekronotJuly 7, 2009 at 4:30 AM
This is wonderful! Thank you for sharing :DReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 7, 2009 at 6:23 AM
You may want contact the ZVAB - I found many of my Orchideengarten-Issues there (it's a kind of central site for nearly all appropriate / antiquarian german & austrian bookstores)ReplyDelete
Greetings form Hamburg, Germany
- AnonymousJuly 7, 2009 at 6:24 AM
Stupid me: http://www.zvab.comReplyDelete
I just found your blog and I love it! I would give my eye teeth to see even one of these pulp mags in person. The covers alone are fabulous! Now I'm hooked.ReplyDelete
No-one does weird like the German(ophone)s :DReplyDelete
I think it must be a German/Austrian/ Swiss endeavour.
The Publishers are called 'Three Lands Press' and list cities in each of the countries.
I found your post via Morbid Anatomy. I am blown away. These are amazing. Please post more!ReplyDelete
GREAT post. I'm a bit of a history buff. I even run a small history blog, The Great Geek Manual. (http://www.thegreatgeekmanual.com/blog/)ReplyDelete
Does there happen to be a more specific date on that first issue? I'd love to know the month it was released. Write me at email@example.com
thanks for all the comments.ReplyDelete
That first issue is from January 1919.
- AnonymousJuly 9, 2009 at 8:14 AM
Thanks for aking me discover this great magazine.ReplyDelete
Is the title "Der Orchideengarten" a reference to Octave Mirbeau's "Jardin des Supplices"?
Hi there,ReplyDelete
I really enjoyed your post. I wrote a book about one of the authors of "Orchideengarten": Alexander Moritz Frey, probably listed as AM Frey. Could you maybe confirm the titles of the stories Frey published in "Orchideengarten"?
"The phantastic rebel", a book about the forgotten satirical writer Alexander Moritz Frey who was in a platoon with Adolf Hitler during WWI.
"Hitler's years in the German army during World War I have long been a mystery due to the lack of eyewitness accounts. Now a memoir written by a forgotten German author of fantastic literature has been rediscovered -- and sheds new light on the Führer." -> English review with some excerpts at Spiegel Online: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,478359,00.html
I'm also hosting a MySpace for Frey: http://www.myspace.com/amfrey
Find me at www.popmoderne.de
Cheers from Berlin,
these are wonderful! does any one know if they ever got reissued in book format, i don't have $6000 to blow on the original sets. thanks.ReplyDelete
oh and by the way will, i just stumbled across your blog page and greatly enjoying myself. keep up the good work.
Thanks Angus. I'm fairly sure these have never been reprinted as I've been digging and haven't seen one.ReplyDelete
You can still find issues in the $15 to $50 range from German dealers. The $6000 price tag is probably inflated because the person is selling a collection, presumably a lot harder to find than any one issue.
Hello together!ReplyDelete
This is really an amazing blog, thank you!
I´m a collector of german weird fiction (esp. 1900-1930)and a lucky owner of all original (unbounded!)Orchideengarten-magazines that I found some years ago as a complete collection for a "very special price".
Greetings, Peter
Peter, I would love to hear from you directly -- my email address is email@example.com
I'm mainly interested in learning how many issues I'm missing.
Thanks for writing,
"der Orchideengarten" is available on my Website www.idesetautres.beReplyDelete
Bernard GOORDEN
Incredible, perhaps I'm too sheltered but I have never seen anything like this.ReplyDelete
Hi everyone, I have had a bound copy of the first 18 hefts of Orchideengarten and have loved it for its illustrations and the advertisements foolishly not reading the stories (my German is not very good) Sadly it has been bound without those spectacular covers. I know it came from Germany. I have never until now realised that it had historic significance. Can anyone out there put a value on it? Im not really sure that I want to sell it but just curious.ReplyDelete
Love the artwork on this site maybe you will like www.philipcharlesparker.comReplyDelete
Hi Phil,ReplyDelete
it´s different to put a value on it. I think, without the covers you will reach 30-40% of the price of the complete issue, although the first 18 issues are very rare. So we talk about max. 400-500€. But, of course, the prices have a great range at the moment. I wouldn´t sell my issues at the moment, although i have two of all three volumes(one bound and one original).
- Phil ParkerJanuary 13, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Thank you for the information Peter. I think I'll keep them for now and improve my German!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 31, 2011 at 4:33 PM
Can you help? I am looking for images by Alfred Ehlers for Der Orchideengarten?
Best regards,
Duane, when I have a chance I'll go through the books and see if there any images by Ehlers in the issues I own. It might take a couple days.ReplyDelete


text:
NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Pelicans completed their second big move in two days, acquiring Jrue Holiday from Philadelphia and trading the rights to rookie Nerlens Noel.
The deal was agreed to on draft night, when the Pelicans drafted Noel with the No. 6 overall pick. They sent his rights to the 76ers along with a 2014 first-round pick for Holiday, who made his first All-Star team last season.
Pelicans general manager Dell Demps said Friday in a statement that Holiday "is the ideal fit for our team" and "will be an integral addition to the Pelicans' family for many years to come."
Holiday will join Tyreke Evans, acquired from Sacramento on Thursday, among New Orleans' newcomers. The Pelicans also received the rights to No. 42 pick Pierre Jackson from Philadelphia.
Noel was considered the potential No. 1 pick despite tearing his ACL during his lone season at Kentucky.


text:
The FIA has announced it will bring back the '107% rule' in 2011.
From next year drivers whose best times are more than 7% slower than the fastest time set in the first part of qualifying will not be allowed to start the race.
The World Motor Sports Council announced today:
From 2011, any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest Q1 qualifying time will not be allowed to take part in the race.
Under exceptional circumstances, however, which may include setting a suitable lap time in a free practice session, the stewards may permit the car to start the race. Should there be more than one driver accepted in this manner, the grid order will be determined by the stewards.
The 107% rule was previously abolished at the end of 2002.
Had the rule as proposed been in place this year it would have prevented both HRT drivers from starting in Bahrain and Malaysia. Lucas di Grassi would have been out of the Malaysian race as well, leaving just 21 cars on the grid.
Bruno Senna would have missed out on racing at Barcelona – by just one-hundredth of a second – and Karun Chandhok wouldn't have been on the grid at Canada last week.
All this assumes the stewards not handing out dispensations – without which Fernando Alonso would not have been able to start at Monaco either.
Read more: Why F1 doesn?������t need the 107% rule


text: Discover your English ancestry today by searching through millions of records from England. Explore our national and local census records and employment records to find your ancestor. Learn how and when your ancestor emigrated or uncover if your ancestor spent any time in a workhouse or prison with our records pertaining to travel and institutions respectively. Delve into our extensive birth, marriage, and death records to help build up your family tree.


text:
SGS's international network of laboratories offers third party commercial analysis services at all critical supervision and transfer points during transport of your shipment, including load-port, pre-shipment and settlement analysis and assays.
We use uniform analytical and operational methods, follow industry-leading quality assurance and quality control practices, and use standardized templates for data reporting.
SGS provides load-port or pre-shipment assays to:
- Provide underwriters with the data required to insure the shipment for the approximate dollar value.
- Ensure financial parties can calculate partial payment while the parcel or cargo is en-route to the customer.
Assay techniques are chosen based on turnaround time and quality.
SGS works for you to protect your interests and reduce your risk. Partner with us today for independent and reliable commercial analysis.
6755 Mississauga Road, Suite 204,
Mississauga, Ontario, CA-ON, Canada


text:
Imagine, if you will, that a pop star is releasing a long-awaited album. The pop star announces the project with the kind of fanfare usually reserved for a royal baby or the arrival of a new year; the pop star does a television special and starts showing up everywhere, Jay-Z in tow, like some sort of repatriated music monarch. The pop star lands a major corporate endorsement. The pop star makes a few jokes about ex-bandmates. The pop star seems a little self-congratulatory and then under-delivers on the artistic front. How do you respond?
It's a trick question. There's one answer ("enthusiastically") for Justin Timberlake, and there's another answer for Beyoncé, who recently got raked over the coals for following the same promotional instincts (minus the snide jokes, because she'd never) that we've excused in JT these past months. More to the point: There's an answer for male celebrities, who get a hall pass in the Likable Celebrity Wars, and another for female celebrities, who must humble themselves (physically) before the public, lest they end up crying in the Oscars bathroom like Anne Hathaway.
Consider the recent female hate outbursts: There was Beyoncé, who dared to be successful and then celebrate it, and poor Hathaway, loathed because her Oscars acceptance speech wasn't as "real girl" as Jennifer Lawrence's. Lena Dunham was called a narcissist, an anti-feminist, and a racist, all because her excellent television show reflects a very personal set of experiences and skills. And even Taylor Swift — who never should have brought Tina Fey and Amy Poehler into this and who should learn to take a joke — gets unfairly massacred for mentioning her past relationships in song.
If we held the omnipresent Justin Timberlake to the same standard as these women, he'd be a pariah — a self-aggrandizing sell-out like Beyoncé (Bud Light Platinum, anyone), a cloying fake like Hathaway (Serious Actor glasses? Instagram filter? Check), a self-indulgent nuisance like Dunham (an album of seven-minute space jam sessions and a love song about himself?), and a vengeful brat like Swift (that Joey Fatone joke had nothing on the Britney sketch. Also: "Cry Me a River"). Instead, we call him charming. We enjoy his talents — SNL, the first half of most of the songs on The 20/20 Experience — and skip over his flaws. We do not mention the all-denim suit of 2001.
This extends beyond JT, of course; it's hard to think of a male celebrity who has been subjected to the kind of treatment we've put the aforementioned women through in the past few months. We forgive James Franco his spaciness and dilettantism, as it's part of his multitasking stoner appeal. Justin Bieber's bad behavior is written about with concern; other artists step in to defend him. Kanye rants are a creative tradition at this point, and we treasure them. (That was said earnestly.) To find a genuinely hated male celebrity, you'd have to reach all the way to Chris Brown, a terrible and unrepentant human being who beat up his girlfriend.
It is no great revelation to state that male celebrities have it easier than female celebrities, or that famous women are not often judged on the merits of their work. This is the Internet, not Happy Make-a-Friend Fantasyland. But if we are going to dissect the minute personality details of every celebrity who seeks our good graces — and by the looks of 2013, we really are — then it is time to start applying that obsessive attention equally. At the very least, we could remember that "likability" is an entirely subjective quality, and that women could have it if we'd just allow it in them. Or we could all take a cue from Amy Poehler and just cut the Taylor Swifts of the world some slack. Would it be too much to ask for all three?


text:
IK Multimedia iRig Mic
- Make quality audio and vocal recordings anywhere on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Pro quality performance and recording made easy
Rig Mic is the first handheld, quality condenser microphone for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad designed for all of your mobile sound needs. Now you can make professional audio and vocal recordings anywhere on your iOS device.
iRig Mic is ideal for the singer, vocalist and songwriter on the move, but also perfect for recording speeches, instruments, performances or other sound sources in the studio, on stage or in the field.
The iRig Mic features a highly unidirectional condenser-electret microphone capsule that provides quality recording in both close mic and long distance mic conditions, and provides real time monitoring with its dual mini-jack connector design. A three-level gain switch makes it instantly adjustable for any sound pressure condition — from soft speaking to loud playing. Its familiar form is perfect for handheld performance, plus it allows you to mount it on any mic stand leaving your device free for operating your favorite app. Its rugged metal body is road-ready for the mobile musician.
iRig Mic also comes* with VocaLive FREE, IK's new real time effects processor suite for the singer and vocalist, and AmpliTube FREE for guitar players and songwriters and iRig Recorder FREE, an IK app for quick audio recording and processing. iRig Mic also works with a wide variety of other vocal and audio processing apps for the iOS platform.
₨ 16,000


text:
Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.
Welcome to my little corner of the web. My name is Barbara
Rogan and I am a writer. Im many other things, too, as you'll
discover herein: teacher, editor, speaker, former literary agent,
ranch hand and nature reserve ranger, wife and mother,but always
and forever a writer.
Come inside; browse my bookshelf. Along with reviews of my
eight novels and other works, you'll find the stories behind the
story. Check out the writers on my desert-island list, too.
"News" is the place for updates on appearances, classes,
upcoming books, movie deals, and other developments. For the
latest information on my online writing workshops, you can also
visit my Next Level
Workshop site, which focuses on my teaching and editing
Pour yourself a cup of coffee in the Writers' Lounge, where we
kick back and talk about both the craft and the business of
writing. You might find some useful resources on my list of great
websites for writers.
I love hearing from readers and answer their email personally,
so drop me a line. And if you should find that you're trapped in
my web, don't worry: I'll be along shortly.
Painting by Elizabeth Fraser
web design for writers by ktf design


text:
July 27th, 2011
As businesses clamor to join Google+, it may be no coincidence that Facebook has introduced a new site walking potential advertisers through the process of advertising and marketing on the social network.
The site, Facebook for Business, "provides step-by-step guidance for how to best use Facebook's marketing tools," a company rep says. Such tools include Pages, Ads, Deals, social plugins and Sponsored Stories.
Though Facebook is sought after by marketers, many have found the process of buying ads on the network complex, which has spawned a network of third-party agencies that specialize in placing ads on the network. With the site, Facebook hopes to offer more of a helping hand. "We want to inspire small businesses by seeing how other businesses have found success on Facebook by sharing their stories," the rep says.
The new site is the latest effort by Facebook to court advertisers. In April, the company launched Facebook Studio, which showcases successful Facebook campaigns and gives awards for the best work.
Share some of the details of your project with us to start the conversation!


text:
Derrick Rose Iconic
Derrick Rose walking away from the camera in the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Just discovered this photo was used (without permission) as the basis for a mural in a Chicago restaurant. According to an article by Jon Greenberg of ESPN:
"Inside Harold's Chicken Shack #53, a newer, modern restaurant tucked in between a Subway and a cell phone store at the corner of 79th and Western, is a mural of Rose that covers an entire wall. It's starting to get famous."
"In the painting, Rose stands underneath banners at the United Center with his back facing the viewer. He is described as "The Rising Star.""
See the mural.
See the ESPN Page.
Read the article on ESPN.
Jack White
Michigan Fest 2011. Headliner: The Raconteurs
The Raconteurs 10:00
Sheryl Crow 8:15 - 9:30
Ronnie Dunn 6:45 - 7:45
The Romantics 5:30 - 6:15
Mark Farner 4:10 - 5:10
Jeff Daniels 3:05 - 3:50
Wendy Starland (Special Performance) 2:30 - 2:45
Mitch Ryder 1:25 - 2:10
The Ben Daniels Band 12:30 - 1:00
The Rockets 7:00 - 8:00
Ty Stone 5:30 - 6:30
JEFF the Brotherhood 4:25 - 5:10
Black Belles 3:30 - 4:00
Black Milk1:50 - 2:20
Thornbills 1:00 - 1:30
Shock Wave 12:00 - 12:30
23rd Street Silhouette
A girl with coffee waiting for a train on 23rd Street.
Mounted Police
These officers were nice enough to let me take their picture.
9/11 Memorial
A sailor and others look across the memorial.
Rice Throwing
Ben and Emily Wedding Ceremony.
Calvary Episcopal Church
3766 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220
Just Married!
Helen and Chad, just married.
Ben & Emily
A quick photo shoot with Ben and Emily during the reception.
Dirt Nose
The Listener
Orangutan Portrait
The orangutan was staring at Dave while he was reviewing photos on his camera.
Make a Wish
Katelyn blowing out her candles.
Birthday Star
Yes, tell Geoffrey the Giraffe I'll call him back; and someone put more presents over there. Also, I'm going to need more cake and pop.
Chelsea waiting for her ball.
Nikki and Coy's wedding ceremony at the Toledo Zoo's formal gardens.
July 4th, 2013
Nathan Roberts and the New Birds
Nathan Roberts and the New Birds
In Focus
My beautiful photography companion focusing in on something in Arches National Park. On our way to Tower Arch.
Taking It In
Bri watching the sun set in the John Hancock Observatory.
Paddleboard Eclipse
A woman paddleboarding from Esch Road Beach into the sunset on Lake Michigan.
Self-portrait of Bri and me watching the fire on the beach.