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In case anyone thinks that one side of the political spectrum has a monopoly on paranoid ranters, we present today's offering from Gore Vidal (Left) and John Perry (Right) on the coming American military dictatorship. Both men agree that it's a likelihood, and both men blame Barack Obama. Let's start with the Perry, warning in Newsmax that just because something has never happened before doesn't mean we can't predict that it won't happen soon, or something (via Tom Maguire):
What happens if the generals Obama sent to win the Afghan war are told by this president (who now says, "I'm not interested in victory") that they will be denied troops they must have to win? Do they follow orders they cannot carry out, consistent with their oath of duty? Do they resign en masse?
Or do they soldier on, hoping the 2010 congressional elections will reverse the situation? Do they dare gamble the national survival on such political whims?
Anyone who imagines that those thoughts are not weighing heavily on the intellect and conscience of America's military leadership is lost in a fool's fog.
Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?
Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.
Newsmax actually ran this as a column, not a blog post. It's a lunatic fantasy straight out of Greek theater. In those days, when mediocre tragedians wrote plots so complicated that they couldn't resolve them through character interaction, the Deus ex machina (loosely, the Flying God Machine) would deposit a new actor portraying one of the Greek pantheon onto the stage to sort out the mess. Perry fantasizes about a military takeover that would be the world's most powerful Deus ex machina, mainly out of political laziness:
Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don't shrug and say, "We can always worry about that later."
The alternative, non-violent solution is the one we've been using for 220 years: elections. We have another coming in 2010. If the American people get fed up with the direction of this government, then we will change it in the midterms. We do not need our military to rescue us from ourselves, thank you very much.
One might excuse this kind of nihilism if it came from a college freshman who had no sense of his own nation's history, but this comes from a man who served two White House administrations. There is simply no excuse for this hankering for a banana republic in America from someone who should know much, much better.
That goes for Gore Vidal, too, who envisions this scenario more darkly:
Barack Obama is failing as President and the US is in danger of sliding into a military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal, the American essayist and intellectual.
In an exclusive interview with The Times, Vidal, 83, reveals that he regrets switching his allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Mr Obama during last year's campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
I don't think Hillary regrets it, especially now.
Vidal added: "He loves quoting Lincoln and there's a great Lincoln quote from a letter he wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War. 'I am President of the United States. I have full overall power and never forget it, because I will exercise it'. That's what Obama needs – a bit of Lincoln's chill." He also predicted Obama may be assassinated: "Just one lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital."
America has no intellectual class and is rotting away at a funereal pace, he believes. "We'll have a military dictatorship soon, on the basis nobody else can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being overeducated. He doesn't realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is."
Vidal isn't pining so much for a military dictatorship as warning about one, but otherwise it's just as ludicrous. The American military isn't interested in conducting coups, and having dissolute pseudo-intellectuals blathering about them to the London press does the professionals in our military an extreme disservice. It's an insult to their honor, as well as ours.
Both men should be encouraged to take some time off and regain their senses, and should be roundly ignored until they do.
Update: Newsmax removed Perry's column. Bob Owens has their statement and a bit of Perry's background:
It is also worth noting that Perry is not a conservative; his bio says he worked for both LBJ and Carter Administrations and Democratic Governor of Florida, LeRoy Collins.
Fair enough, but no one disputes that Newsmax is a conservative-oriented news and opinion site. This wasn't a blog post but a column published by Newsmax. They made the decision to publish it, and thankfully they made the decision to remove it.


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Last week, my co-worker mentioned a craving for cranberries. I said I was craving pumpkin and other fall spices. Hence, Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins!
I adapted Dorie Greenspan's delicious Pumpkin Muffin recipe. I skipped the raisins and sunflower seed topping, and added cranberries and walnuts. I also topped it with some raw sugar.
Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Pumpkin Muffin (Baking from My Home to Yours)
2 cups flour (I used 280 grams)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp groung ginger
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
1/2 cup brown sugar (100 grams)
2 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla (Dorie uses 1/2 tsp)
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (no need to thaw), cut in half
Raw sugar, for sprinkling on top
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (Dorie's recipe is 400 degrees but I tried that and my muffins burned) Prep a 12-cup muffin tin. This recipe makes 12-14 muffins.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmet. Set aside.
3. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating one minute after each addition.
5. Beat in vanilla, pumpkin puree and buttermilk. Don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled at this point.
6. On low speed, add the flour mixture a little at a time. Don't overmix - better to undermix and finish it by hand.
7. With a spatula, fold in walnuts and cranberries.
8. Dish out into muffin tins and top with raw sugar.
9. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until done.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Im currently running on Windows XP and I wanted to setup Linux SUSE as a secondary OS. I new to Linux and was wondering if anyone can tell me if I can setup Linux to have a compatible file system that can read Win XP's NTFS. If so, is it one of the three choices (Linux ext2, Linux ext3 or Linux Swap)? Thanks in advance.


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Nepal –Tibet Trekking (P) is a leading trekking and adventure outfitter in the Himalayas. We have highly qualified and professional team members, who are dedicated to customer service and satisfaction. We provide personalized tours and…Read More
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I am seriously excited about our trip next week, which we had to organize around the weather and the schedules of Anne and her husband (our pilot for the flight back.) But the current plan is to leave from the Mat-Su Valley on popular (and hopefully nicely packed) snowmachine trails and trek toward Shell Lake over three days, give or take a long night. That's about 110 miles on the Iditarod Trail, on foot, bivying outside in the cold for at least one night and possibly two. (We are hoping to utilize a backcountry lodge during the first night, if we make good distance.) Considering the context — self-supported snow run — it's a pretty ambitious plan that's probably going to end up being more demanding than the actual race I'm training for, the Susitna 100. It's also probably going to be even more fun, of both the Type 1 and Type 2 variations, so I am quite excited.
But for now, we're going to enjoy a weekend of holiday food celebrations and winter play. Let it snow!


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Laptop computer designers, audio amplifier makers, and power supply manufacturers can keep their products cooler by following these fundamental heat-sink design equations for natural convection and forced-air cooling.
Power transistors and modules, many power-supply regulator assemblies, and high-current diodes typically generate more heat than their own mass can safely dissipate. For this reason, power devices must securely fasten to a suitable heat sink to effectively increase the mass and surface area of their heat-dissipating junctions. Heat sinks come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and surface finishes for specific and general applications for semiconductor circuitry.
Power device heating
The amount of heat that a power semiconductor or module generates depends upon its mode of operation, bias level, signal amplitude, and the shape of the applied signal. For example, power transistors used as Class A amplifiers for sine or complex waves or pass transistors and modules for regulating dc power supplies generate much more heat than square-wave oscillators, Class AB amplifiers, Class B square-wave amplifiers, and PWM (pulse width modulation) amplifiers. For example, when a power transistor operates with square waves, the collector voltage is high with low current, then high current with low voltage during the saturation and cutoff periods. The result is very low average power dissipation. But, in either case, these devices need some type of heat sink to help dissipate the internal power they generate.
Thermal gradient and temperature differential
A silicon power transistor or high-current diode that must be heat sinked has an allowable maximum junction temperature of usually 150 °C or a little more. If the heat-generating device does not connect to a greater mass or surface area, the amount of junction current and voltage as given in a typical specification sheet could hardly be approached before the device would exceed the maximum collector junction temperature. The reason is that the device specification sheets list their characteristics with the device mounted on a heat sink of considerable size, usually called an "infinite" heat sink.
The temperature of the air surrounding the heat-generating device must be much less than the maximum allowable junction temperature for the device to cool. The heat sink attempts to reduce the junction temperature to that of the surrounding medium. If the heat sink was thermally perfect, the transistor junction temperature could reach the same as the lower ambient. However, this is not possible in practice. The thermal conductivity path from the transistor junction to the ambient air contains physical connections between the junction and case, case and heat sink (through an insulator, if used), and heat sink and ambient. These connections are not thermally perfect and therefore produce a temperature differential. They are thermal resistances, and each thermal resistance has a unique coefficient number. The coefficient is expressed as a temperature in degrees centigrade per watt of dissipation (°C/W). Due to these resistances, a temperature differential always appears between the collector junction and ambient. This variable must be kept to a minimum.
The actual temperature difference depends upon the amount of power the junction dissipates. The average power dissipation for a transistor is approximately: Pd=Ic x Vce , where Pd = power dissipation in watts of constant current generation; Ic = collector current; and Vce = collector-to-emitter voltage.
First, study the characteristics of a single-ended, class A amplifier stage. The transistor selected for this example has a peak collector current of 15 A and a power dissipation capability of 90 W at a case temperature of 25°C. The power dissipation capability decreases linearly from 25°C to zero watts of dissipation at 100 °C case temperature. See Figure 1.
When the Class A amplifier stage output power is 90 W peak, the quiescent collector current is about 1.5 A at 30 V collector-to-emitter (biased at midpoint on its load line). Using the equation for power dissipation, the class A stage produces 45 W (Pd = 30 V x 1.5 A = 45 W). The product of collector current and voltage either side of this quiescent state produces less power dissipation, so 45 W is the maximum power dissipation to consider. This value is used below to calculate the heat sink required.
Heat sink characteristics
A suitable heat sink can now be selected. As the amount of power dissipation in the device increases, the size of the heat sink must increase to allow more surface area to be exposed to the ambient. First, the heat sink material and size are considered. Thermal conductivity of the material should be as high as possible. Copper is about the best for thermal conductivity and aluminum follows a close second. The difference in cost between copper and aluminum exceeds their difference in thermal conductivity, therefore aluminum heat sinks are pretty much an industry standard. The ability of aluminum to conduct heat to the ambient is measured in °C/W of power dissipation, which primarily depends on its surface area and finish.
First, consider a square of bright aluminum, 1/8-in. thick with a surface area of 5 in.2 per side, positioned vertically. From actual measurements, the thermal resistance is about 9 °C/W. Refer to Figure 2. If it increases to 10 in.2, the thermal resistance reduces even more until a practical limit is reached of about 140 in.2 of heat sink area. Here, the thermal resistance is about 1.4 °C/W in free air, and increasing the surface area does not significantly decrease the thermal resistance. More than 140 in.2 in this case would be considered an infinite heat sink. Copper positioned vertically, 1/8-in. thick, by 140 in.2 has a thermal resistance of about 1.0 °C/W compared to aluminum at 1.4 °C/W.
The most commonly used type of commercially available heat sink is the finned extruded aluminum style, as shown in Figure 3. It is usually painted flat black with a bare exposed area for mounting the semiconductor device, or it may be completely black anodized. It can be punched to accommodate any pin or mounting arrangement. This basic shape of radiator is most desirable for forced air and natural convection cooling because much surface area is exposed to the surrounding air within a comparatively small volume. Approximately 80 in.2 of radiating surface can be contained in a volume of only 4.5 x 1.5 x 3 in. These same heat sinks can be given a serrated surface to increase even more the available surface area per unit volume. Also, some heat sinks come in "pin-grid arrays" and other geometries for special applications.
Now, return to the sample calculations for heat dissipation and match the requirements to a proper heat sink. First, sum the thermal resistances, multiply the sum by the power dissipation of the semiconductor, and add the results to the ambient temperature. This yields a new junction temperature. If the temperature just calculated exceeds the maximum allowable temperature for the device as shown in the derating curve (Figure 1), one or more factors in the computation must be changed. For example, the ambient temperature could be lowered or the power dissipation reduced by lowering the input voltage or current. Also, any one of the thermal resistances could be reduced to achieve the same end.
Refer to Figure 4: The equation used for determining the device junction temperature is:
Tj = Pd(Θjc + Θcs + Θsa) + Ta, and
Θja = Θjc + Θcs + Θsa, or
Tj = Pd (Θja) + Ta
Tj = junction temperature, °C
Pd = power dissipation, W
Θjc = junction thermal resistance, °C/W
Θcs = insulator thermal resistance, °C/W
Θsa = heat sink thermal resistance, °C/W
Θja = junction to ambient, °C/W
Ta = ambient temperature, °C
The previous calculations of the single-ended, Class A amplifier dissipated 45 W. Select a maximum ambient temperature of 50 °C; a transistor thermal resistance Θjc of 0.8 °C/W; silicone grease to give a Θcs of 0.1 °C/W; and a commercial heat sink as shown in Figure 4 with a Θsa of 1.8 °C/W.
Now check it out:
Tj = 45(0.8 + 0.1 + 1.8) + 50
Tj = 171.5 °C
This is not a satisfactory solution: only a Tj of 98.6 °C is allowed in the example, so fine-tune the numbers in order to lower the temperature to a more reasonable level. Although this temperature is under the maximum allowable for the transistor, a look at the derating graph shows that only 2 W of dissipation is allowed at 98 °C. The transistor would have to dissipate 16 W more than it was designed to handle and would quickly fail. Lowering the ambient from 50 °C to 30 °C would yield a Tj of 78 °C and the derating curve allows over 18 W at this temperature, so this is a satisfactory heat sink, transistor, ambient temperature combination. However, if the original 50 °C is a necessary parameter, then reduce the required output power; use additional output stages; select a different power transistor (where Tj = 175 to 200 °C maximum) or heat sink (or use forced-air cooling as discussed below).
Heat Sink spec Sheets
Graphs, charts, and tables supplied with fabricated heat sinks yield much useful information as to how they can be efficiently used. A typical graph as shown in Figure 5 conveys the thermal resistance characteristics for the heat sink in Figure 3. The temperature differential reads directly in °C from the mounting to ambient air as seen on the vertical axis of the graph. The power dissipation capability of the heat sink in watts is plotted along the horizontal. The vertically mounted heat sink has a thermal coefficient of about 2.2 °C/W. The transistor can be isolated electrically from the heat sink with a mica or other insulator. However, the mica insulator has a coefficient of 0.8 °C/W to 0.5 °C/W, which must be added to the thermal resistance of the heat sink. Silicone grease on both sides of the insulator reduces the resistance by half or 0.4 to 0.25 °C/W. In any case, the transistor or module should be mounted near the lower edge of a vertically mounted heat sink for best dissipation.
Another special characteristic some manufacturers indicate is the effect of forced airflow for a natural convection heat sink as shown in Figure 6. Thermal resistance of the heat sink is shown along the ordinate and the airflow in CFM is given along the abscissa. As shown, the thermal resistance of the heat sink can be reduced considerably from 1.7 to less than 0.6 °C/W with airflow of only 16 CFM.
The ambient temperature of 30 °C that was decided upon as a solution for the amplifier stage is too low to be used in actual practice. A much more realistic temperature is the 50 °C that was first proposed. Using the 18 W previously calculated, select a forced airflow of 16 CFM, heat sink Θsa of 0.6 °C/W, and an ambient of 50 °C. Substitute these values in the equation for solving Tj, and the result is 77 °C. The derating curve shows an allowable 25 W at 77 °C, so forced air is indeed a viable option. However, this means that each transistor or power module requires its own heat sink with airflow of 16 CFM. The forced air cooling made the difference between an impossible and a possible circuit-heat sink combination for a 50 °C environment.
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Filed Under: Electronics • electrical, Power supplies


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Just about all sabotage is self-sabotage.
We don't get forced to eat that cookie, we choose to. And so the diet is ended.
Marketing self-sabotage is fascinating to watch and understand. Consider the college application: it's primarily an opportunity for teenagers who aren't sure of where they want to go to undercut their chances by exposing their uncertainty. The lizard brain, the voice in the back of the head that wants security and safety–it's not eager to go to a college that might be 'too hard' or 'too good'. The easy thing to do is to scale back the effort, not do what works, but do what feels right instead.
Or consider the way we resist opportunities to lead, to connect, to do work that matters. We don't resist because we're not capable of it… we resist because if our marketing fails, if we don't get the job or earn the trust, then we're off the hook. No promises made, which means no promises to keep.
We know more than enough about marketing now. We know how to craft a story that will spread, we know how to find and lead tribes. The thing we have trouble with is making the commitment to do it even when it's frightening and difficult.


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Mini Stock Project Car - City Boy
Two City Boys, No Racing Experience, And A Stock Four-Cylinder Mustang: We're Building A Mini Stock!
Related Video
There I was, standing in Editor Rob Fisher's office, attempting to convince him to let me build and drive a Mini Stock Mustang. Now, that may not seem like such a crazy request coming from an Associate Editor of Circle Track magazine but, well, I'm not actually an Associate Editor of Circle Track magazine. In fact, the last time I was at a circle track, which, coincidentally, was also the first time I was at a circle track, I remember hearing only one piece of advice. Make sure you show up early, so you can get a good seat. Good seat, are you kidding me? I got to the track five minutes late and there was absolutely no one sitting directly off of the fence in Turn 4. As I sat down, thinking about how silly it was that everyone was sitting off to my right, the first piece of debris hit me in the face, then the second, then like bats out of hell, the rest of the rubber, rock, and asphalt came toward me and I did my best to grin and bear it, hoping no one would notice the error of my ways. For two hours I sat in that spot, stubbornly pretending that I knew what was going on, embarrassed to look back at my friends in the tenth row, knowing that they had a great laugh at my foolish inexperience.
So, with that being my collective experience in circle track racing, why did Editor Fisher allow me to embark on this project? Who knows! As a person who grew up in a large city, surrounded by nothing but straight roads and highways, my experience has been mainly in building late-model fuel-injected GM street cars and, while I have plenty of experience mashing the gas in a straight line, I certainly bring nothing to the table when it comes to turning left.
Maybe Editor Fisher was tricked by my unwavering charisma or devilish good looks, but it probably didn't hurt that I left out the fact that I have never driven a real race car on track. But honestly, I think he has chosen me, or should we say caved into my pleas, because like many of you, I'm passionate about racing, have a desire to get on track, and have finally decided that the time was right to see what I'm made of.
For those of you who haven't raced yet, our real goal is to show you how easy it can be to get on track, how cost-effective it can be to have a great time, and hopefully, how to win some Mini Stock races.
If his name rings a bell, it's because Epple helped crew chief the Roush Yates-powered Project DLM with driver Bobby Clark, and actually took the car to a First Place trophy in only its second race. He's also an avid Mustang enthusiast and has probably forgotten more about the Fox body Mustang than most people will ever learn, so it made perfect sense to team up with him for our first real project in the Mini Stock world. Of course, besides Epple and me, we will also have the guidance of Mr. Fisher, Senior Technical Editor Bob Bolles, and hopefully, readers and supporters of the best magazine in the world, Circle Track.
So, first things first-we needed to find a car. After scouring the internet, searching popular sites like eBay.com and craigslist.org, we actually found a perfect candidate by mistake, in a casual conversation with an old friend.
"I have a four-cylinder Mustang in Savannah, Georgia, I'm looking to unload," he told us. "If you go pick it up, it's all yours." If you're familiar with Mini Stock racing, you probably already understand the allure of a 2.3-liter Mustang, but for those of you new to the class, let's cover some of the groundwork.
First, we found a local track and hit up its website for some rules. For us, this meant we had plenty of great Florida tracks to choose from, but we ultimately based our car around Desoto Super Speedway's rulebook for Mini Stock, which is not unlike many around the country. Billed as a class for "Cars only, 1971 or newer, compact or subcompact with factory steel top and body. Passenger cars or station wagons only. Front or rear wheel drive. No sports cars, vans or pickups." That certainly leaves it wide open, which is great for competition, variety, and most of all, ease of entry.
We chose to run a Mustang for several reasons, although many other cars would also be great in a class similar to this. First and foremost, the Mustang is a popular car, which means parts are plentiful and information is abundant. Getting replacement panels or engine parts will be simple and many aftermarket companies already support the chassis, which means less fabrication and less cost.
The Mustang also has a great engine, which fits perfectly in Mini Stock. Restricted to 2.3-liters (2,300 cc's) with an 0.060-inch overbore and 0.010-inch allowance for wear, the Ford powerplant comes in right on the limit of displacement, which puts it at a power advantage over smaller motors. The 2.3 is also known worldwide for its strength and reliability, which means we can hopefully race all season without needing to rebuild or replace our motor, further reducing our operating costs and increasing our chances of racking up some good points.
The Mustang chassis is also reasonably lightweight, and since the rules don't allow for any cutting of the interior metal, we need to start with as light of a chassis as possible to stay competitive.
Lastly, the Mustang is also something Epple is familiar with, which will allow us to rely on his skills and knowledge early on, hopefully getting us to the front of the pack faster than usual. If you're going to follow along at home, I advise you to pick a car with similar attributes and, just as importantly, one you are comfortable working around.
Other than car-specific issues, Mini Stock runs a fairly open rule book, with Desoto Super Speedway's rules printing out on just four pages, two of which are the introduction and the new rule changes for the current year.
The body of our car must remain stock, with no modification of any kind, except for the addition of an aftermarket, but factory appearing nose. We will have to remove the usual parts, like the glass, lights, and moldings but will not be able to add a wing or splitter.
The suspension must remain mounted in the factory locations and aftermarket shocks are allowed, but they can't be air or coilover, which reduces the cost for everyone in the class. Wheels will be 8 inches wide and Desoto Speedway requires a specific tire, which keeps everyone on an even playing field.
The drivetrain rules are as restrictive as the rest, with the only rearend modifications being a new ring-and-pinion. Our Mustang came with a non-functioning automatic transmission, but we will be removing that to install a factory correct five-speed manual. Other than that, the rules are as closed or open as you read them to be, which makes this a perfect class for a couple of beginners like us.
Anyway, enough about the rules, let's get started on the good stuff! Clearly, Epple and I have plenty of work ahead of us, and time is not on our side. By the time you read this, we should be deep into our rollcage and safety install and the Mustang will be shedding some serious pounds. If you're interested in seeing this project's progress, check out the rest of our journey in these pictures and make sure you tune in next issue for the next installment of the City Boy build. For me, I'm off to work on my Victory Lane dance and to practice turning left...hopefully our next outing to the track won't end like my last, although we make no guarantees!
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Roy Spencer is a global warming skeptic and the author of the hypothesis that the water cycle acts as the earth's thermostat. In a previous article I attributed that hypothesis to "the father of climatology" and that was incorrect. The father of climatology is Reid Bryson. He is a global warming skeptic though.
Roy Spencer is just as qualified (if not moreso) as Bryson. From wiki:
Roy W. Spencer is a principal research scientist for University of Alabama in Huntsville. In the past, he served as Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Spencer is a recipient of NASA's Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.
Anyhow, I only knew Spencer from the climatology work and I just happened to see an article he wrote about evolution and ID. I reproduce it below the fold…
Faith-Based Evolution
By Roy Spencer 08 Aug 2005
Twenty years ago, as a PhD scientist, I intensely studied the evolution versus intelligent design controversy for about two years. And finally, despite my previous acceptance of evolutionary theory as "fact," I came to the realization that intelligent design, as a theory of origins, is no more religious, and no less scientific, than evolutionism.
In the scientific community, I am not alone. There are many fine books out there on the subject. Curiously, most of the books are written by scientists who lost faith in evolution as adults, after they learned how to apply the analytical tools they were taught in college.
You might wonder how scientists who are taught to apply disciplined observation and experimentation and to search for natural explanations for what is observed in nature can come to such a conclusion? For those of you who consider themselves open-minded, I will try to explain.
True evolution, in the macro-sense, has never been observed, only inferred. A population of moths that changes from light to dark based upon environmental pressures is not evolution — they are still moths. A population of bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics does not illustrate evolution — they are still bacteria. In the biological realm, natural selection (which is operating in these examples) is supposedly the mechanism by which evolution advances, and intelligent design theory certainly does not deny its existence. While natural selection can indeed preserve the stronger and more resilient members of a gene pool, intelligent design maintains that it cannot explain entirely new kinds of life — and that is what evolution is.
Possibly the most critical distinction between the two theories (or better, "models") of origins is this: While similarities between different but "related" species have been attributed by evolutionism to common ancestry, intelligent design explains the similarities based upon common design. An Audi and a Ford each have four wheels, a transmission, an engine, a gas tank, fuel injection systems … but no one would claim that they both naturally evolved from a common ancestor.
Common ancestry requires transitional forms of life to have existed through the millions of years of supposed biological evolution. Yet the fossil record, our only source of the history of life on Earth, is almost (if not totally) devoid of transitional forms of life that would connect the supposed evolution of amphibians to reptiles, reptiles to birds, etc. This is why Stephen Jay Gould, possibly the leading evolutionist of our time, advanced his "punctuated equilibria" theory. In this theory, evolution leading to new kinds of organisms occurs over such brief periods of time that it was not captured in the fossil record. Upon reflection, one cannot help but notice that this is not arguing based upon the evidence — but instead from the lack of evidence.
One finally comes to the conclusion that, despite vigorous protests, belief in evolution and intelligent design are matters of faith. Even some evolutionists have admitted as much in their writings. Modern biology does not "fall apart" without evolution, as some will claim. Maybe the theories of the origins of forms of life fall apart, or theories of the origin of capabilities that those life forms exhibit, or the supposed ancestral relationships between them fall apart. But these are merely intellectual curiosities, serving only to stimulate discussion and teach the next generation of students the same beliefs. From a practical point of view, the intelligent design paradigm is just as useful to biology, and I believe, more satisfying from an intellectual point of view.
Intelligent design can be studied and taught without resorting to human creation traditions and beliefs, which in the West are usually traceable to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Just as someone can recognize and study some machine of unknown purpose built by another company, country (or alien intelligence?), one can also examine the natural world and ask the question: did this machine arise by semi-random natural physical processes, or could it have been designed by a higher power? Indeed, I was convinced of the intelligent design arguments based upon the science alone.
Of course, ultimately, one must confront the origin of that higher power, which will logically lead to the possibility of an original, uncaused, First Cause. But then we would be firmly in the religious realm. All naturalistic cosmological theories of origins must invent physics that have never been observed by science — because the "Big Bang" can't be explained based upon current physics. A naturalistic origin of the universe violates either the First or Second Laws of thermodynamics — or both. So, is this science? Or faith?
It is already legal to teach intelligent design in public schools. What is not currently legal is to mandate its teaching. The Supreme Court has ruled that this would violate the First Amendment's establishment of religion clause.
But I have some questions relating to this: Does not classical evolutionism, based almost entirely upon faith, violate the same clause? More importantly, what about the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion?
If the public school system insists on teaching evolution as a theory of origins, in the view of many a religious activity, why is it discriminating against the only other theory of origins, intelligent design? (There is, by the way, no third theory of origins that anyone has ever been able to determine.) At the very least, school textbooks should acknowledge that evolution is a theory of origins, it has not been proved, and that many scientists do not accept it.
There are a variety of ideas that try to blend evolution and intelligent design, the most unified one being "pantheism" that sees God and nature as One. This view, which has been held by many peoples throughout recorded history, has also been advanced here at TCS. But more commonly, people subscribe to the notion that a Creator "got things started," and then evolution "took over."
The problem I have with this is that it grants far too much significance to macroevolution, since it has virtually no observational evidence to support it. One wonders: Why do so many people defend it so fervently?
Whether intelligent design is ever taught in school is probably not as important as the freedom that we have in a free society to discuss, and study, such issues. And for that, I am thankful.


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How To Fix Ugly 1970s Bumpers
Got disco-era bumpers? Clean up the look of any 1970s car with these easy techniques.
Related Video
Between 1973 and 1982, the federal government mandated that every car sold in the U.S. must have a front bumper and a rear bumper that could withstand a 5mph collision without damage. While good intentioned, this virtually destroyed the aesthetics of car design for 10 years, until the law was changed from 5 mph to 2.5 mph for the 1983 model year.
As the price of '60s muscle cars continues to rise, hot rodders are turning to less expensive alternatives. Like you, we're always looking for the next thing, and all those disco-era bumper cars from the 1970s represent a vast untapped reservoir of project car fodder. Their only problem is that a car's oversized protruding bumper--especially the rear bumper--overshadow the beautiful silhouettes that lie beneath.
Nevertheless, there is an easy fix. All you need is a good eye and the right tools. We're going to show you how we fixed the front bumper on a 1976 Chevy Camaro (which happens to be the same for all Camaros from 1975 to 1977), and the rear bumper of a 1975 Chevy Laguna (the same one found on all 1973 '77 Chevy Malibus and Monte Carlos). That said, the techniques and tools used here can pretty much be employed on all makes and models from the era.
You may recognize both cars as past Popular Hot Rodding project vehicles; the '76 Camaro is Project g/28 (chronicled between 2005 and 2008), and the '75 Laguna is Project Talladega (ne Project Laguna). As we've since discovered, both Chevrolet body styles have stunning profiles that were destroyed front and rear by huge battering rams. Turns out, these cars aren't ugly after all! Watch as we show you how to fix ugly 1970s bumpers.
All of the work on our 1976 Chevy Camaro project car was performed by the artisans at Johnson's Hot Rod Shop in Gadsden, Alabama. JHRS has produced some of the most notable hot rods and muscle cars in the last decade, winning both the prestigious Street Rod Of The Year and the Ridler Award.
All of the custom fabrication work on our 1975 Chevy Laguna project car was orchestrated by Heath Elmer Restorations, including the custom rear NASCAR-style spoilers, narrowed and tucked rear bumper, blow-out straps, quarter-window covers, cowl air inlets, and headlight covers.
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Make the most of your Dayforce experience
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"A thaw of sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean last year sent extra plant food to exotic creatures on the deep sea floor in a shift that might leave polar bears hungry at the surface, scientists said on Thursday."
"The study, using robot submarines down to 4,400 metres (14,400 ft) deep, could be a glimpse of radical changes for life in the sunless depths of the Arctic Ocean after ice thinned and shrank to cover a record low area in September 2012.
Scientists found large amounts of algae growing on the underside of the ice last year, apparently because more light was getting through as it thinned in a trend blamed on global warming, according to the study in the journal Science.
Much of the algae, of a type that forms strands up to a meter (3 ft) long, then sank to the seabed where they were food for brittle stars, which are related to starfish, and tube-like sea cucumbers that grow up to about 5 cms (2 inches) long."
Alister Doyle reports for Reuters February 15, 2013.
"Drowned Polar Bear Paper Vindicated – Again" (PEER Release)


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SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday commended Trump administration efforts to reunify young children and families separated at the border but also said he plans to watch closely as a deadline approaches involving older children.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said at a hearing in San Diego that the government has demonstrated good faith and largely complied with a deadline this week to reunite families with children under 5.
At the same time, he indicated he will be monitoring the administration's actions ahead of a July 26 deadline to reunite more than 2,500 older children with their families.
The judge said the administration must provide a list of names of parents in immigration custody and their children by Monday and complete background checks for them by Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the separated families, has said the administration failed to meet last Tuesday's deadline to reunify dozens of children under 5 with their families and should therefore be closely watched as the next deadline approaches.
The administration disputed that characterization, saying it reunified all 58 children under 5 who were eligible and that it complied with the judge's order.
It acknowledged that 19 of the 58 children were reunified Wednesday and one came on Thursday — after the deadline — "for logistical reasons specific to each case."
The administration filed a plan Friday saying it would immediately begin reuniting the older children with their families.
Those reunions were expected to begin "on a rolling basis" leading to the deadline, according to the Justice Department. The reunifications will occur at six to eight unspecified locations determined by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The government said it was using "truncated" procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks involving 2,551 children.
Officials said they were concerned the process threatened child safety but noted it was adopting the shorter procedure to comply with court orders.
Friday's hearing was the fourth in eight days on the issue, a sign of how closely Sabraw is monitoring the process and ruling quickly on any disputes. He scheduled four more hearings for updates over the next two weeks, including one Monday.
"There will be a lot of interaction and a lot of opportunity to raise these issues, whatever may come along as we go," he said.
Late last month, Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, gave the administration 14 days to reunify children under 5 and 30 days to reunify children 5 and older.
The ACLU said in a joint court filing Thursday that it wants the administration to deliver a list of all children 5 and older by Monday to "ensure that reunification plans are not formulated haphazardly at the last minute."
The administration initially provided a list of about 100 under-5 children who were believed eligible for reunification by this week's deadline but whittled it down to less than 60 by Thursday.
It said parents of 11 children were excluded for their criminal histories and Judge commends family reunification, eyes next deadlineseven turned out not to be parents. Others were determined to be a danger to the child.


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Maloofs agree to sell Kings to Seattle-based group
The only thing stopping the Sacramento Kings from a sale and move to Seattle is approval by NBA owners.
The league confirmed in a statement Monday morning that the Maloof family has agreed to sell the Kings to a Seattle group led by investor Chris Hansen. The deal is still pending a vote by the NBA Board of Governors.
A person familiar with the decision said that Hansen's group will buy 65 percent of the franchise for $525 million, move the team to Seattle and restore the SuperSonics name. The Maloofs will have no stake in the team.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal was waiting approval.
The plan by Hansen's group is to have the team play at least the next two seasons in KeyArena before moving into a new facility in downtown Seattle. The deadline for teams to apply for a move for next season is March 1.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said last week he had received permission from NBA Commissioner David Stern to present a counteroffer to league owners from buyers who would keep the Kings in Sacramento.


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Fox hosts GOP candidate who assaulted detainee to criticize Obama's handling of bombing suspect
Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade hosted Lt. Col. Allen West, a Republican congressional candidate in Florida, to criticize the Obama administration for its handling of Northwest Airlines bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab without noting that West is a Republican candidate. Moreover, despite noting that West's "personal enhanced interrogation tactic" got him "essentially a forced retirement" from the Army, Kilmeade did not report that West's resignation came after he admitted that he "threatened to kill" an Iraqi detainee in his custody, that "four of his soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion beat the detainee on the head and body," and that, according to military prosecutors, he "followed up on that threat" to kill the detainee by shooting a pistol near his head.
Fox & Friends hosts West to criticize Obama administration without noting he's a GOP congressional candidate
Kilmeade introduced West as a congressional candidate in Florida, did not note he is a Republican. Introducing West, Kilmeade said that West is "running for Congress in the 22nd congressional district here in Florida." At no point during the segment did Kilmeade note that West is a Republican congressional candidate.
West criticized Obama administration's handling of Christmas Day bombing attempt. During the segment, West said, "When I look at what's going on right now with the Nigerian terrorist, it's almost like a Greek tragedy of epic proportion." West further stated that the Obama administration has "established a very dangerous paradigm with this Mirandizing" of terror suspects, "because now they're going to continue to come with more and more attacks, because we're -- they're coming here, and we're giving them lawyers."
Kilmeade did not note that West reportedly resigned from the Army "after pleading guilty to assaulting an Iraqi detainee during interrogation"
Kilmeade did not note circumstances of West's "forced retirement." Introducing the segment, Kilmeade said of West: "One of the reasons you're such a great guest is because your personal enhanced interrogation tactic got you essentially a forced retirement and saved a lot of lives in Iraq."
West reportedly resigned "after pleading guilty to assaulting an Iraqi detainee during interrogation."According to a December 13, 2003, CNN.com report, West admitted that he "threatened to kill" an Iraqi detainee in his custody, that he watched as "four of his soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion beat the detainee on the head and body," and that, according to military prosecutors, he "followed up on that threat" to kill the detainee by shooting a pistol near his head. A December 14, 2003, Boston Globe article further noted that a "disciplinary proceeding found that the actions by ... West were serious enough to 'merit a court-martial.' " From the Globe article:
An American officer has been stripped of his command after pleading guilty to assaulting an Iraqi detainee during interrogation, the military announced yesterday. A disciplinary proceeding found that the actions by Lieutenant Colonel Allen West were serious enough to "merit a court-martial." But the military said in a statement that mitigating circumstances -- specifically, the "stressful environment" of combat -- and West's distinguished service record prompted the Army to instead relieve West of his command, fine him $5,000, and order him back to the United States, where he will be allowed to retire.
"Frustration and anger overcame his professional ethics and personal values, and he performed what he knew to be illegal and immoral acts," said the statement issued by the Army's Fourth Infantry Division.
During a closed-door tribunal Friday in the town of Tikrit, West was found guilty of three counts of aggravated assault and a single count of communicating a threat. The ruling was issued after West pleaded guilty to misconduct.
He is the most senior officer to receive disciplinary action since the start of the war. West served as a battalion commander with the Fourth Infantry Division and was in charge of about 800 soldiers operating in one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq. For the past few months, he has been confined to the division's base in Tikrit.
The military said that during an interrogation of an Iraqi police officer Aug. 20 near the village of Taji, north of Baghdad, West fired his pistol near the head of the prisoner, threatened to kill him, and allowed his troops to beat the man. The detainee, Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi, was suspected of having knowledge of a planned attack on US troops in the Sunni Triangle, the region north and west of Baghdad that has been a hotbed of anti-US resistance. Scores of soldiers have been killed or wounded in bomb, rocket, and small-arms ambushes in the area.
West acknowledged last month before a military tribunal that his actions were wrong, but said that at the time of the incident he believed he was protecting the lives of his troops. "If it's about the lives of my men and their safety, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can," West said during the earlier proceeding.
The disciplinary action against West was ordered by General Raymond Odierno, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division.
The military said that through his actions against the detainee, West "disobeyed laws, ignored orders ... and mortgaged future discipline in his unit. Without discipline, there is no trust, no cohesion, and no higher purpose for which we fight."
But the military also stated, "while his crimes merit a court-martial, mitigating factors were considered, including the stressful environment ... and Lieutenant Colonel West's record as an officer and commander."


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Strategy matters more than ever
When everyone is playing the same game, your execution is critical. Your store is like their store, your bread is like their bread, so we care very much about the care and skill you put into your product or service.
Of course, that still matters, but the revolution of the web means that the way you go to market, the structure of your offering, the model of your business–these are sufficient to cause you to lose, regardless of how you play the game. (And able to give you a huge post if you plan right).
Sam Walton was a huge success, largely because he developed a new retail strategy, not because he was better at running a store than anyone else. Local bookstores are in trouble, not because they don't work hard or care a lot, but because they are saddled with expenses that used to be smart (rent for a local storefront) in a world where they are merely ballast.
Running a business with the wrong strategy in the wrong place at the wrong time is possible, but it's an uphill battle. The alternative is to think very hard about your model, your costs and the benefits you offer to the people you'd like to serve.
You could change from a product to a service offering, from free to expensive, from low service to high service, from storefront to web, from large to small, from spam to permission, from acquiring new customers to delighting old ones, from wide open to invitiation only, from dirty to green, from secret to transparent, from troll to benefactor, from custom to mass, or for any of these, vice versa.
Not changing your strategy merely because you're used to the one you have now is a lousy strategy.


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Below are the steps to properly configure a permanent (301) URL rewrite with Magento CE 1.9.
- Navigate to Catalog > URL Management
- Edit the URL for the existing category and set the Redirect value to Permanent (301). Then choose Save.
- Back at the URL Management screen. Click the Add URL Rewrite button.
- Choose Custom from the drop down menu.
- Enter the ID Path (desired path), request path (original path) and target path (desired path). Also, select Permanent (301) for the redirect. Reference the image below. Choose Save.
- You now have a Permanent (301) URL rewrite. Congrats.


text:
s in The Princess and the Goblin, MacDonald's second and final tale about Princess Irene and Curdie begins on the mountain. While Princess Irene has moved away from the castle on the mountainside, Curdie and his father remain miners and continue to delve into the depths of the now goblin-less mountain. Although the audience is already well acquainted with this particular mountain from Princess Irene and Curdie's last adventure in its subterranean depths, MacDonald lingers over his description of the mountain at the beginning of The Princess and Curdie:
I will try to tell you what they are. They are portions of the heart of the earth that have escaped from the dungeon down below, and rushed up and out. For the heart of the earth is a great wallowing mass, not of blood, as in the hearts of men and animals, but of glowing hot, melted metals and stones. And as our hearts keep us alive, so that great lump of heat keeps the earth alive: it is a huge power of buried sunlight — that is what it is.
Think, too, of the change in their own substance — no longer molten and soft, heaving and glowing, but hard and shining and cold. Think of the creatures scampering over and burrowing in it, and the birds building their nests upon it, and the trees growing out of its sides, like hair to clothe it, and the lovely grass in the valleys, and the gracious flowers even at the very edge of its armor of ice, like the rich embroidery of the garment below, and the rivers galloping down the valleys in a tumult of white and green! And along with all these, think of the terrible precipices down which the traveler may fall and be lost, and the frightful gulfs of blue air cracked in the glaciers, and the dark profound lakes, covered like little arctic oceans with floating lumps of ice.
All this outside the mountain! But the inside, who shall tell what lies there? Caverns of awfullest solitude, their walls miles thick, sparkling with ores of gold or silver, copper or iron, tin or mercury, studded perhaps with precious stones — perhaps a brook, with eyeless fish in it, running, running ceaselessly, cold and babbling, through banks crusted with carbuncles and golden topazes, or over a gravel of which some of the stones are rubies and emeralds, perhaps diamonds and sapphires — who can tell? — and whoever can't tell is free to think — all waiting to flash, waiting for millions of ages — ever since the earth flew off from the sun, a great blot of fire, and began to cool. [85-86]
MacDonald invites us to think, to dream, of these huge cavernous spaces filled with beautiful glittering treasures lying deep beneath the pastoral spaces of open mountainside. This contrast between the familiar hillside and grassy valleys which MacDonald must have explored during his childhood in Scotland, and the unknown vastness just beneath forces the reader to confront our own vulnerability. As we are not all miners, we will never know what lies within the mountain, we can only, and indeed we must, be "free to think." Furthermore, dreams must not be discounted, Curdie's father admonishes the boy, "Then dream often, my son; for there must then be more truth in your dreams than in your waking thoughts." (97)
The emphasis on contrasts between what appears without and what lives within, or between waking reality and dream truths, remains a primary theme throughout The Princess and Curdie. In fact Curdie sets off for court armed only with Queen Irene's gift, the ability to feel the truth of a man's inner self. Curdie is growing up and it is time for him to leave home and the mountain.
Whereas The Princess and the Goblin resembles a youth's adventure story in which Princess Irene and Curdie, no matter how threatened by goblins or lost within the mountain, will follow their thread or string and return home to Nurse or Mother, in The Princess and Curdie, both child protagonists have had to grow up; there is no longer string or thread to guide them surely to safety. Rather, Curdie must rely on his gift to distinguish appearances from reality and the Princess Irene must guard her King-papa's troubled sleep. Indeed, for much of the book, the children must deal with adults. On reuniting in the King-papa's bedchamber, Princess Irene states "I am not the little princess any more. I have grown up since I saw you last, Mr. Miner." To which Curdie replies, "So I see, Miss Princess... and therefore, being more of a princess, you are the more my princess." (131) The use of these titles reminds us of their respective roles in an adult society, Curdie remains a miner but he is no longer a miner's son but a miner in his own right, and Irene is no longer the childish girl who insisted Curdie call her by her first name.
Yet even as Princess Irene and Curdie cleanse the court of corruption and evil men, they retain an aspect of their innocent childhood. In fact, MacDonald affirms his faith in the child: "The boy should enclose and keep, as his life, the old child at the heart of him, and never let it go. He must still, to be a right man, be his mother's darling, and more, his father's pride, and more. The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born." (89)
1. The surprising ending to The Princess and Curdie seems at odds with MacDonald's faith in men as children "forever fresh born." Princess Irene and Curdie, retaining their childish innocence and purity, are themselves childless and eventually, human greed for the riches hidden within the mountain causes the city to fall and disappear from existence and even memory. What does MacDonald think of mining then, within the mountain? How are Peter and Curdie good men and miners, the fortunate few able to see the riches within the mountain, different from the greedy kings who lead the kingdom to ruin?
2. Strong parallels to Christianity appear throughout The Princess and Curdie. For instance, the emphasis on bread and wine that bring real nourishment and salvation to the King-papa draws strongly from Christianity. How does Curdie's mission parallel Christian work? Queen Irene admonishes him, "You must not be like a dull servant that needs to be told again and again before he will understand. You have orders enough to start with, and you will find, as you go on, and as you need to know, what you have to do. But I warn you that perhaps it will not look the least like what you may have been fancying I should require of you. I have one idea of you and your work, and you have another. I do not blame you for that — you cannot help it yet; but you must be ready to let my idea, which sets you working, set your idea right. Be true and honest and fearless, and all shall go well with you and your work, and all with whom your work lies, and so with your parents — and me too, Curdie" (111) What about the King-papa's rebirth in Queen Irene's fire of roses? How does MacDonald's faith shape Princess Irene and Curdie's lives and the history of the kingdom. Why does, or must, Gwyntystorm fall?
3. The Princess and the Goblin deals with a subterranean race of once-men who now appear fearsome and terrible, such is their lack of humanity that they have even lost their toes! In The Princess and Curdie, it is not so easy to distinguish between friend or foe. Only Curdie, with his magical hands, is able to tell which men have become true beasts. Both volumes begin with an evil plot to take control of the kingdom, and generally involve marrying the Princess Irene off. How do the goblins compare with the man-beasts? What about Curdie's curiously-shaped helpers? After all, they too seem to come from the mines, "It was plain to Curdie, from the universal hardness among them, that they must all, at one time or another, have been creatures of the mines." (149) Given that both Lina and Curdie's Uglies as well as the goblins come from the depths of the mountain, and that Curdie spends a substantial amount of his childhood in the mines, what distinguishes good from bad? It is clear that not everything that comes from the depths of the mountain are bad. What then, makes men, goblin or animal evil?
4. Princess Irene plays a substantially diminished role in The Princess and Curdie. Although she too rides to battle, the princess is much more helpless and passive than in her previous adventures. Again, she faces the threat of being married off to wrest power from her King-papa. At the end of the book, Princess Irene is finally summarily married off by her father, the King-papa who states, "My child cannot choose but to love you, and when you are grown up — if you both will — you shall marry each other." (166) Why this contrast between the accepting child-girl and her namesake great grandmother? It is, after all, Queen Irene's pigeons who turn the tide of the battle in the King and Curdie's favor. Again, what are MacDonald's views of women here? And do they contrast with his presentation of gender in The Princess and the Goblin?
4. Finally, why had Curdie replaced goblins in the title? Perhaps it is because the Princess Irene finally marries Curdie and not Harelip, the aptly-named goblin prince, or a beast-man of the corrupted court's choosing. Or perhaps it is because at the book's beginning, Curdie threatens to grow up into an ill-bred miner man and not the Prince and King that he could be?
MacDonald, George. The Princess and Curdie. 1883.
Last modified 17 July 2007


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ECE434 Project Christmas Wreath
Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder
Team members: Emily Dougherty Ryan Taylor
Grading Template
I'm using the following template to grade. Each slot is 10 points. 0 = Missing, 5=OK, 10=Wow!
09 Executive Summary 09 Packaging 09 Installation Instructions 09 User Instructions 09 Highlights 09 Theory of Operation 09 Work Breakdown 09 Future Work/Conclusions 09 Hackster.io 09 Demo/Poster 00 Late Comments: Have a good day. Score: 90/100
(Inline Comment)
Executive Summary
We want to create a "smart" Christmas wreath that allows the user to display a pattern of LEDs and play Christmas music from a mobile app (blynk). Animations and songs will be predefined and predetermined. Currently, we have the LED strip utilizing the PRU units on the BeagleBone working correctly to display colors on a small LED ring. We plan on moving to a more complete LED strip in the next few days. We have also started development on the USB connected audio jack. We are able to play .mp3 files using the mplayer command on the command line. We believe that the most difficult part of the project will be implementing the functionality of the music player and the LED strip in parallel. To accomplish this, we plan on running separate threads for running the LEDs and playing music. We have not yet been able to successfully run these two in parallel. Overall, we hope to spread a little Christmas cheer before we leave campus at the end of the term. Both of us are excited to be able to control a Christmas wreath using a mobile application.
If you have hardware, consider Small Build, Big Execuition for ideas on the final packaging.
Installation Instructions
Give step by step instructions on how to install your project.
- Obtain the code from Github: https://github.com/dougheea/ECE434/tree/master/Project
- Make sure that mplayer is installed on the device that will be running the code. To install, run sudo apt install mplayer on the beaglebone.
- Install the Blynk App on your mobile device
[Put in paragraph explaining how to make a blynk app real quick?]
- In the blynk app, select "New Project" and enter a name like "Christmas Wreath" and choose hardware option Generic Board. Make sure the connection type is "WiFi" and click "Create Project". An authorization code has been sent to the email associated with your blynk account.
- Add your own authorization code into the setup.sh file
- Add 5 button widgets to the project workspace and tie them to Virtual pins V0-V4. These buttons will be tied to the predetermined songs and the stop button.
- In the command line: source setup.sh
- Finally, run ./playSongAndLights.py
User Instructions
Once the installation instructions are completed, all that is left to do is start playing Christmas music! The user can choose 1 of 4 different songs: Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You," NSYNC's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays," The Ronette's "Sleigh Ride," and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's version of "Carol of the Bells." Each song corresponds to a specific button on the Blynk app. The user can press the desired song's button to begin the music and turn on the LED animations wrapped around the wreath. The user can stop a song at any time by pressing the stop button. Once the song and LEDs are stopped, the user can chose the next song to play.
Here is where you brag about what your project can do.
Include a YouTube demo the audio description.
Theory of Operation
Give a high level overview of the structure of your software. Are you using GStreamer? Show a diagram of the pipeline. Are you running multiple tasks? Show what they do and how they interact.
Work Breakdown
Timeline and Milestones
- Brainstorm various light patterns to implement (11/5)
- Find more songs to use (11/5)
- Get the music to stop playing on a button press (11/6)
- Thread the music and lights so that they occur at the same time (11/8)
- Finalize the Blynk app (11/11)
- Assemble final project (11/13)
Who Did What
List the major tasks in your project and who did what. Also list here what doesn't work yet and when you think it will be finished and who is finishing it.
Major Completed tasks:
- Setting up Blynk App environment (Emily)
- Starting and stopping music using mplayer in a python program (Emily)
- Setting up lights and defining animations using PRU (Ryan)
- Using threading to use mplayer and the light strip in parallel (Emily)
- Procuring external power supply for final demo (Ryan)
- Documentation (Emily and Ryan)
Future Work
Suggest addition things that could be done with this project.
With more time, we would like to add functionality of a webpage to change the settings on the wreath. This webpage would be accessible from smartphones, tablets, or regular browsers. It would have the same functionality as the blynk application, but would be more accessible--the blynk app only works for smartphones who have a specific page created.
Additionally, we would like to change the type of lights we use to a more traditional style of Christmas light instead of the LED strip. These single LEDs could be multicolor or just white, but would have the same functionality as our LED strip with more of the look of traditional Christmas lights.
We would also like to put in a way for users to upload their own music to the Wreath. Currently, there are only 4 songs that are pre-loaded and have pre-defined lighting. It would be nice to expand this capability to allow users to customize the music they can play.
Give some concluding thoughts about the project. Suggest some future additions that could make it even more interesting.
Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder


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Dan Herrington says his first inkling of a brewing IT talent war came early this spring, when he noticed that "college kids weren't accepting our offers on the spot."
This was a first for Herrington, who is executive sponsor of college recruiting for IT at USAA, a San Antonio-based Fortune 200 insurer and financial services company that has been No. 1 on Computerworld's Best Places to Work in IT list for two years in a row.
Herrington adds that another disturbing new trend is a "marked increase" in the number of college hires who accept job offers but then later change their minds. "We've seen college students reneging on internships as well," he notes.
USAA has responded by expanding its out-of-state college recruiting efforts and stepping up communication with interns between the time they accept an internship and their first scheduled day on the job. So far, the approach appears to be working, as evidenced by nearly 200 college hires -- both full-time employees and interns -- in 2011.
In Melbourne, Fla., Vinay Patel, senior software engineering manager at Harris Corp., has been seeking experienced software developers for three or four months. So far, only two applicants have passed both telephone and in-person interviews. Both were offered employment, but one turned down Patel's offer and the other accepted but subsequently reneged a week before he was due to start. Apparently, he received a better offer, Patel says. "The job seekers seem to be in the driver's seat right now," he notes.
A quick scan of numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms this about-face in the IT job market. In May, it pegged the IT unemployment rate at 3.8%, significantly lower than the national average unemployment rate of 9.1%. At the same time, 65% of 900 hiring managers surveyed by Dice.com said they expect to hire even more tech professionals in the second half of this year than they did during the first six months of 2011. "The growth has reached a level where positions are staying open for months due to a shortage of qualified technology professionals," according to the Dice report, which went on to suggest that now may be a great time for IT job candidates to ask for more money than they're offered initially.
"Technology professionals are the basis for innovation, efficiency and creating an agile workplace," says Tom Silver, senior vice president of Dice.com. "Now is the time to ask for more money. Negotiate hard at the outset of a new job, because that initial salary may set the base for the next three years."
Talent Pipeline
Building Bench Strength
Long-term IT workforce planning and job rotations are two of the best weapons in the war for IT talent, say many CIOs.
After conducting a demographic study and realizing that 35% of the IT workforce at Guardian Life Insurance was eligible for retirement in the next decade, CIO Frank Wander and his team got cracking on the company's new Talent 2020 program. Among other things, the program analyzes the skills of all IT employees and then pairs newer employees with veterans to facilitate knowledge transfer.
At Medtronic, CIO Mike Hedges has established an IT Talent Council, which is headed on a rotating basis by IT vice presidents from Medtronic's various business units.
"The council consists of directors and senior managers who look at talent across the organization and come up with new ways to attract and retain," Hedges says. One of the programs involves moving 30 to 40 managers from the business units to the company's shared services unit "to make sure that people are not getting stuck in a rut," he says.
Hedges also has identified the company's top IT talent, which he defines as "people we'd have a significant challenge replacing because of their interpersonal, leadership and planning skills."
Hedges meets with at least five of these employees monthly and has them all meet regularly, sometimes for dinner, as a way to practice their interpersonal skills and forge closer relationships.
"It's the softer skills -- like teamwork and communication, problem-solving and analytical skills -- that we'd find harder to source," he notes.
Harris Corp. rotates employees through various departments and roles so they can gain broad first-hand knowledge about the company's lines of business across its commercial and defense units. The idea is to give employees a chance to see opportunities for growth and what kinds of work might most appeal to them.
"I want to make sure I can provide an environment where employees feel they can grow their skill sets and professional characteristics and be in an engaged learning environment," says Vinay Patel, senior software engineering manager at Harris. "We constantly push people to different roles and give them different projects. I can't think of a single person on my team who has been in the same role for more than two to three years."
— Julia King
A surge in corporate use of social media, mobile tools and cloud technologies, coupled with loosening IT purse strings and pent-up demand for IT-based business projects, are all big factors driving the escalation in need for IT talent -- and the related escalation in competition for that talent. The shrinking size of the pool of qualified college graduates and the ever-expanding surge of baby boomer retirements are also key contributors.
Earlier this year, 48% of CIOs said it is very or somewhat challenging to find the skilled IT professionals they need, according to the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
"The reality is that as technology pervades every aspect of personal and professional life, the need for technical talent is huge," says Shawn Banerji, managing director of IT recruiting company Russell Reynolds in New York. "People on the service provider side are looking to hire, and traditional corporate IT departments are also looking to hire. There is absolutely a war for talent."
Wanted: Deep Experience
But it's not just any IT professionals they're after. What most companies want are IT people with experience in newer technologies they're looking to deploy or those with very deep technology and business experience in a particular industry. Experience with developing mobile and social media applications, using newer programming languages like Ruby, and deep integration skills for linking on-premises computing systems to cloud-based services are at the top of recruiters' wish lists.
Harris' Patel, for example, says the application development openings he has are for highly experienced professionals. "For these positions, which are for new projects, we need people with five to 10 years' experience. They are not positions for new graduates," he says. "It has been very difficult to fill them."
Guardian Life Insurance in New York recently conducted an IT workforce assessment and found that 35% of its IT staffers are over 55 years old. "Almost half [of our] IT workforce will be eligible for retirement in 10 years," says CIO Frank Wander. "It's staggering. These are our most experienced people."
What Guardian is looking for, he says, are young IT professionals to whom extremely high-value senior IT employees can pass on their experience and knowledge about Guardian's business and processes (see sidebar). On the technology front, Guardian -- like just about every other company that's hiring for IT -- needs professionals with data modeling and design skills and mobile application skills. The insurer is also seeking IT workers with data center consolidation experience.
"Fifty percent of Fortune 500 companies will be modernizing their a href="https://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/154/Data+Center">data centers over the next five years. The reason is that devices are becoming more powerful. They take up less space and need less electricity," Wander notes. "We're doing a data center modernization and consolidation initiative, and we want people who have been through this. It's very hard to get. It's one of the hottest areas."
Healthcare IT
Hospitals Compete for IT Talent
Healthcare providers in the U.S. are encountering a shortage of qualified IT job candidates as they race to meet federal government deadlines for converting paper charts to electronic health records.
At stake is $25 billion in funding allocated in 2009 by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for spending on EHR technology and other forms of healthcare IT. Medical providers will be compensated for the cost of these systems if they meet certain implementation deadlines.
"You can imagine there's going to be a fair amount of hiring," says John Halamka, CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a Computerworld columnist.
To manage the hospital's EHR rollout, Halamka opted to outsource the task to a firm that specializes in EHR implementation and practice transformation. The healthcare facility is also developing a private cloud, which required hiring IT professionals with backgrounds in database development, wireless networking, security and server administration.
Equally critical are employees who grasp how introducing technology into medicine changes how care is administered.
"I need an analyst who really understands how it is you can take a paper-based office environment and then move it to this new world of using electronic records, because it isn't just digitizing paper," says Halamka. "So they really have to understand how you leverage the technology and change processes in order to move doctors from what they may have been doing for 30 years to a new world."
Beyond IT skills, Halamka looks for candidates who "have a working vocabulary of healthcare" and are familiar with the industry's privacy, security and regulatory compliance needs.
Halamka has found, however, that his organization must compete with EHR vendors for staff. Candidates may find these vendors' fast growth and lucrative salaries more appealing than what a nonprofit hospital can offer, he says. But, he adds, Beth Israel's connection with Harvard University's medical school gives him an edge in the talent wars.
— Fred O'Connor, IDG News Service
This version of this story was originally published in Computerworld's print edition. It was adapted from an article that appeared earlier on Computerworld.com.
Also high on corporate IT recruiting wish lists are any and all skills having to do with cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies, as well as the business process and technology integration know-how needed to link these newer technologies to legacy computing environments.
Recruiting experts say this particular need is both a blessing and a curse for corporate IT departments. On one hand, IT professionals want to work with these newer technologies, so in-house cloud and SaaS projects can help corporate IT departments attract and retain the best and brightest.
At Purdue Pharma, a privately held pharmaceutical company in Stamford, Conn., CIO Larry Pickett says a modern IT infrastructure that includes cloud technology is a big reason the company is able to retain its most talented IT employees. "We're right in the middle of implementing state-of-the-art technology and doing things that are innovative and building [IT employees'] skills, so it increases retention," Pickett says. "We are implementing a private cloud infrastructure across two data centers, so there's an opportunity to learn those skills without leaving Purdue."
Competing With Vendors
On the other hand, corporate IT's need for IT professionals with cloud, SaaS and integration skills pits corporate IT directly against technology companies themselves in the escalating war for talent.
"Vendors look at people who have worked at [user companies] as bringing institutional and cultural knowledge with them and a hands-on knowledge of workflows," says Russell Reynolds' Banerji. This makes corporate IT employees prime poaching targets for technology vendors.
What puts IT shops in an especially tough position, experts say, is that job seekers typically view technology vendor companies as more innovative and better able to offer opportunities for growth.
"If you think of corporate IT budgets and the way they spend, 80% is usually going to maintenance of old stuff and maybe 20% goes to innovation," notes Woodson Martin, a senior vice president who heads recruiting at Salesforce.com. IT professionals "want to work on cloud and languages like Ruby. They want to work on the future, not the past, but the fundamental mechanics of that 80/20 means it's hard to keep the talent happy."
Big budgets for research and development give vendors another advantage, says Steven John, strategic CIO at Workday, a SaaS vendor based in Pleasanton, Calif.
"Corporate America can't go as deep [into the technology] to challenge the best people. That's all happening on the vendor side," says John, who was previously CIO at specialty chemical maker H.B. Fuller; he joined Workday when Fuller became a Workday customer.
"Workday is doing some very cool technology. We're one of the leading cloud vendors out there, so this is one of the places high on the list of places to be on the cutting edge," he says.


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Hello! National Tour of The Book of Mormon Opens in Boston
It's time to man up! The national tour of The Book of Mormon opens in Boston on April 1. The Tony Award-winning musical will play the Boston Opera House through April 27. The show stars Mark Evans and Christopher John O'Neill.
Written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez, The Book of Mormon follows two young Mormon missionaries sent to Uganada, who soon discover their training did not quite prepare them for the world outside of Salt Lake City. The Broadway production opened in March 2011 and went on to win nine Tonys, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Director. The original Broadway cast recording took home a Grammy Award in 2012 for Best Musical Theater Album.
The cast features Evans as Elder Price, O'Neill as Elder Cunningham, Samantha Marie Ware as Nabulungi, Grey Henson as Elder McKinley and Kevin Mambo as Mafala Hatimbi.
The musical is directed by Parker and Casey Nicholaw, who also serves as choreographer. The Book of Mormon features set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt and sound design by Brian Ronan.
Don't miss your chance to see this most amazing musical; buy your tickets today!


text: Turido Paus was one of the artists who worked with Walter and Norbert Neugebauer on their animation and comics projects in Zagreb. As a comic artist, he illustrated among others 'Zimski radovi' in Plavi Vjesnik, a story written by Norbert Neugebauer. He joined them when they went to Munich in Germany to work for Rolf Kauka on Fix und Foxi, just like his colleagues Branko Karabajic and Vlado Magdic. Paus, whose name is spelled as Turido Pausch in Germany, illustrated several stories with 'Fix und Foxi', and also participated in the animation project 'Die Abenteuer der Maus auf dem Mars'.


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TechRadar Verdict
It sounds clean and revealing and offers set up facilities that few can match
- +
- +
Superb VTA adjustment
- +
Remarkable value
- -
What's not to like at this price?
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
People have been modifying Rega's classic RB series tonearms for some time now, but never have we come across such a dramatic transformation as the one achieved by the Audiomods Series III tonearm.
It uses the arm tube, lift mechanism and rest clip from an RB250 and replaces everything else with machined aluminium parts that, like the tube, are polished for a perfect finish.
If that weren't enough, Audiomods adds a micrometer to the system that allows precise VTA adjustment on-the-fly. The arm is also presented in a padded wooden box and comes with alternative counterweights.
In fact, how this can be done for the asking price is a bit of a mystery.
Double helix technology
The most striking thing about the arm are the holes drilled into it, these run down the arm in two spirals to form a double helix. The purpose is to reduce mass without undermining stiffness, as would be the case with a straight line of holes.
Audiomods also inserts press-fit discs inside the arm to increase radial stiffness and reduce resonant peaks.
The biggest change to a standard RB250 is in the bearings, which are ceramic hybrid types in a machined yoke. Interestingly, the same type of bearing is also used for horizontal movement and both are decoupled from the base.
It comes in two wiring variants: one terminates the arm cables in a five-pin plug in the base (£625) and the option shown above, which has a continuous 900mm-long loom that ends in a pair of Nakamichi phono plugs. The wire used is silver litz and terminates in silver tags at the cartridge end.
Audiomods also supplys two sizes of counterweight, extensive set up instructions, alignment gauges for different null positions and annealed copper shims to mass load lighter types of cartridge.
Balanced performance
We listened to this arm on a Townshend Rock 7 and the Dr Feickert Analogue Woodpecker (in both instances it supported a van den Hul Grasshopper III cartridge).
The heavier of the two counterweights proved big enough to balance the heavy cartridge and the Townshend damping paddle, but only just. However, this didn't stop the Audiomods from delivering a far more fluid sound than the standard RB300 it replaced.
We also enjoyed the easy adjustment of VTA while the record played, a feature which encourages positioning it where it can be easily accessed from the listening seat.
Beautiful tunes
Moving over to the Woodpecker, the difference between this and the Rega was even more pronounced, the finesse of the shiny arm making the latter seem crude by comparison.
It plays beautiful tunes across the band, but this is most obvious in the bass where the abilities of various musicians is never less than obvious.
The degree to which you can hear what's going on in the mix is quite remarkable and the way it combines this analysis with musicality is extremely engaging.
Impressive build
This impressively built arm has a very calm and clean presentation that makes more expensive alternatives seem brash and up front. Cymbals could not sound more realistic, while kick drums have weight and power.
There have been many attempts at refining what is a very good arm design in the RB250, but this is by far the most comprehensively capable and revealing example we've encountered. The fact that it has been so well thought through and is supplied with every bit of hardware and information you need to get it to sing, shows just how much effort Audiomods has put into the job.
It seems under priced for what you get, but we're not complaining!
Follow TechRadar Reviews on Twitter: http://twitter.com/techradarreview


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Spring Step – Comfort in every Step
Spring Step footwear is designed with the quality and craftsmanship of true European tradition. Spring Step combines quality, comfort, technology and style to bring you everything that is important in a shoe. Driven by the mission to deliver a product that provides an extraordinary experience for your feet and provide that experience for every occasion in your life. Comfort in Every Step.
Providing the ultimate in walking pleasure from casual comfort to fashion contemporary, Spring Step shoes have the answer. Spring Step's extensive collections of boots, clogs, sandals, and slip-ons offer the total footwear solution for discerning woman.
If you demand beautiful skillful design, European craftsmanship, sumptuous leathers, exquisite detailing, and luxurious comfort, look no further than Spring Step. Style and comfort is just a step away with a pair of Spring Step shoes.


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Burning Man 2010 Panoramas with new Flash Viewer
I have put up a page of panoramas from Burning Man 2010. This page includes my largest yet, a 1.2 billion pixel image of the whole of Black Rock City which you will find first on the page. I am particularly proud of it, I hope you find it as amazing as I do.
There are many others, including a nice one of the Man while they dance before the burn with the whole circle of people, a hi-res of the temple and the temple burn, and more.
However, what's really new is I have put in a Flash-based panorama zoom viewer. This application lets you see my photos for the first time at their full resolution, even the gigapixel ones. You can pan around, zoom in and see everything. For many of them, I strongly recommend you click the button (or use right-click menu) to enter fullscreen mode, especially if you have a big monitor as I do. There you can pan around with the arrow keys and zoom in and out with your mouse wheel. There are other controls (and when not in fullscreen mode you can also use shift/ctrl or +/- for zooming.) A help page has full details.
Go into the gigapixel and shot and zoom around. You'll be amazed what you find. I have also converted most of my super-size city photos of Black Rock City to the zoom viewer, they can be found at the page of Giant BRC photos as well as many of my favourites from the various years. I'm also working at converting some of my other photos, including the gallery of my largest images which I built recently. It takes time to build and upload these so it will be some while before the big ones are all converted. I may not do the smaller ones.
If you don't have flash, it displays the older 1100 pixel high image, and you can still get to that via a link. If you have flashblock, you will need to enable flash for my photo site because it will detect you have no flash player and display the old one.
Get out the big monitor and it will feel like you're standing on a tower in Black Rock City with a pair of binoculars. The gigapixel image is also up on gigapan.


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Search for Counterparts is Frustrating (and other stories)
September 18, 1997
more news on gamma-ray discoveries
"The facts we have in hand refuse to organize themselves into any kind of coherent framework," said Dr. Kevin Hurley of the University of California at Berkeley. "We have not observed any flaring radio or optical counterparts, but have in X-rays. We have observed fading counterparts in radio, optical, and X-rays."
Hurley reviewed the search for counterparts to bursts at the Fourth Biennial Huntsville Gamma Ray Burst Symposium hosted by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. On Thursday, scientists will discuss their searches for counterparts in visible and radio wavelengths, and discuss what kinds of galaxies might be home to these most elusive phenomena.
Although not finding something means failure to most people, to scientists it just means an upper limit, a brightness or strength that an event will not reach, so you have to look closer or use a more powerful instrument to find the details.
Before the Dutch-Italian Beppo-Sax satellite discovered the February 28 burst, several searches with radio and optical telescopes turned up nothing that could be matched to a gamma ray burst. However, radio, optical, and X-ray counterparts have been found for a few fading bursts.
Japan's Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics and the United States' Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer have seen fading X-ray components of at least three bursts. In the case of GRB 970616 (June 16), ASCA saw three sources within the error box defined by other satellites. One is the likely GRB counterpart because it is fading rapidly.
"All the ASCA observations are fading rather quickly," said Toshio Mirukami of Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences.
Luigi Piro and Enrico Costa of Italy's Institute of Astronomical Sciences said Beppo Sax has discovered three X-ray afterglow counterparts, but that they also faded rapidly, and in the case of the May 8 event, the spectra changed rapidly, either due to changes in the burst's own brightness or because of absorption by material between the burst and Earth.
Y. Takeshima of Goddard Space Flight Center said that the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer has only been able to catch two of five bursts it was tasked to locate.
"Different bursts with different properties will have different fading counterparts," Hurley said. "So how do we organize the bursts (so we can set up better searches for counterparts)? I don't know the answer to this one. I'm not even sure there is one correct answer."
Part of the challenge is that so few counterparts have been found that no pattern can emerge. The two optical counterparts are "not terribly consistent." GRB 972028 appears to be deep in the universe and embedded in the edge of a fuzzy galaxy. GRB 970508 appears to be in a slightly closer galaxy about 8 billion light years away and has a radio counterpart; none has been detected for GRB 970228. Although in gamma rays these two resemble many other bursts, that similarity has not led to the discovery of other fading bursts.
Nor has anyone definitely found quiescent counterparts, the nearly dead, still glowing aftermath of an old burst that still would be worth studying.
Hurley said that about 100 counterparts are needed, then "we could really do something about the nagging questions."
He expects that continued observations with Beppo Sax, and with the High Energy Transient Experiment (scheduled for launch in 1999) will locate more X-ray counterparts and help clarify the issue.
Author: Dave Dooling
Curator: Bryan Walls
NASA Official: John M. Horack