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A New Jersey mother was arrested and told to turn over her guns after reading the Constitution and peacefully protesting at a tax dispute forum, she says.
Eileen Hart was with her husband Keith and her 7-year-old daughter on Saturday at the Gloucester Community Center to dispute a mandatory home re-evaluation that would roughly double her property value (and therefore dramatically increase her rates), objecting on multiple grounds. As an Orthodox Jew, she refused to have the inspectors in her home when her husband was away at work. As an American citizen, she objected to the seemingly arbitrary reappraisal, noting that she is not planning on selling her home and hasn't renovated her kitchen in 30 years.
But at the forum, Hart was allegedly told that since she didn't let the inspectors into her home, they had a right to "assume" its value under the New Jersey state constitution.
"How could they assume that my value had doubled when there is absolutely no housing market?" she asked TheBlaze rhetorically over the phone. "There is basically no GDP growth."
After Hart started citing the Constitution, a representative of Appraisal Systems, Inc.– the company contracted by the state to conduct appraisals– started "freaking out," she said, and called for Gloucester County tax assessor Robyn Glocker-Hammond.
"Sit down and shut up," Hart said Glocker-Hammond told her, adding that she (Glocker-Hammond) was there to "enforce the law."
"I didn't see a badge," Hart noted. "Her title is tax assessor, not law enforcement officer."
Glocker-Hammond started speaking to Hart's husband like a "two-year-old," Hart claimed, and after she objected, Glocker-Hammond once again told her to be quiet.
"I have a right to speak out against this, this is a public place, my tax dollars pay your salary," Hart told the tax assessor, already incredulous at the drastic increase in her rates.
"I don't work for you," the assessor allegedly retorted.
At that point, Appraisal Systems, Inc. representative Andrew Colavecchio started advancing towards her, she said, like he was about to grab her arm. "Don't you dare touch me," she said after he allegedly got so close he touched her coat.
Glocker-Hammond then told her she had to leave the public forum and threatened to call the authorities, though Hart swears she never cursed or acted inappropriately.
That's when things got serious.
As Hart left the building she saw Colavecchio "sneering" at her and said to him in passing, "look at the little pencil-pusher."
Hart said Colavecchio threatened to call 911 and "ran after us in the parking lot like a banshee, his face was purple, [he was] disheveled, [he] started to take down my license plate and ran off. When he got to the doors of the building he screamed at us, 'let's see if you can pay your taxes now!'"
Much to her surprise, Hart returned home to numerous police cars, the officers asking if they could bring her in for questioning even though they did not have a warrant. She was not allowed to drive behind with her husband, but was forced to ride in the police vehicle.
Colavecchio had apparently told the police that Hart was "yelling and screaming" and threatened to return to the meeting with a gun.
Here's a copy of the police complaint:
But Hart told TheBlaze: "I did not use one curse word, I didn't say the word gun, I didn't swear, none of that. I aired my grievances in a public place to [tell] the government that I did not agree with what they were doing to me or to anybody else."
Hart said she was doubly surprised when, instead of getting her side of the story, police handcuffed her to a chair and charged her with "terroristic threats."
She told TheBlaze with conviction:
"I have a 7-year-old daughter, I homeschool her. I would never risk going to prison for the rest of my life and lose everything. I have no criminal history, I have no history of drug abuse, no history of alcohol abuse, I have no history of mental illness, I have never committed a crime a day in my life. And because I used my First Amendment right I was arrested for it."
After trying to "coerce" her into making a statement along the lines of "what he thinks happened," Hart said the police sergeant informed her that if she didn't turn over her firearms for "safe keeping," her bail would be set prohibitively high and it was unclear how long she would have to remain in custody.
"[So I] sit in jail and my daughter doesn't have a mother…?" she asked TheBlaze, implying that she didn't really have a choice in the matter.
Hart turned over her two firearms and associated equipment, and was told that she'll get them back "when this is all over."
Hart says she has hired a "fantastic" attorney to fight the claims, and he'll likely reach out to the other meeting attendees to corroborate her story. The group was small, so presumably someone would recall a raving woman threatening to return with a gun.
But the county's public information officer Deb Sellitto told TheBlaze in an email, without any specifics, that Ms. Glocker-Hammond "has never experienced this type of extreme behavior from a taxpayer."
She added that the Appraisal Systems, Inc. representative is the one who actually called police, though, because "he perceived the resident's statements as a threat."
Hart is deeply distressed by the entire situation.
The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Hart says she can't help but recall the "massive gun registration [and] invasion of private property" that occurred when Hitler invaded Poland.
"If quoting the Constitution makes me a terrorist, we are in Hitler's America," she said incredulously.
Andrew Colavecchio of Appraisal Systems, Inc. has not responded to TheBlaze's request for comment, and the company's CEO Ernest Del Gurecio told us they plan to wait for all the facts before making a statement.


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Think After Earth is just about Will Smith reconnecting with his son on a dangerous future Earth? WRONG. There's a whole baffling alien backstory, that you don't even know about. It's just not in the trailers. Journey with us as we attempt to untangle M Night Shyamalan's ridiculously complicated movie. And meet the Skrels, who kill humans! For unknown reasons!
Spoilers ahead...
Thanks to the movie companion book the United Rangers Corps Survival Manual,we now (kind of) understand the wickedly overcomplicated plot behind After Earth. Turns out, there are aliens in this movie — lots of them. Different species, in fact, which sound infinitely more interesting than a boy with a spear in the woods.
But in order to fully explain it we're going to need to break down what leads up to the jungle adventure, year by year.
1908 - An alien ship crash lands in Russia. All collective world governments then keep this discovery a secret basically forever. (But they let smarties like Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein play with the remains).
2012 - NASA announces that they've invented WARP ENGINES. By secretly tapping into the alien spaceships knowledge of the universe's "dark energy." Tah Dah!
2071 - 2072 - Earth is all GTFO, humans. No one can live here any more, because it's poison for us, so 750,000 survivors leave on ARKS (one is named the Asimov). The Arks were created thanks to additional information pulled (over the years) from the downed spacecraft.
32 AFTER EARTH - The Rangers (who are basically the super militarized government now) invent a religion while on board the Arks. Because you gotta have faith. It's called Primus, after the band. This backfires horribly.
67 AE - Primus makes its own religious army, because of course they do. And they also decide to rewrite their rules, to make the head of Primus (also called Primus) the ruler indefinitely, until death. A few of the remaining Arks (some die out) start adopting the office of Primus.
100 AE - Only three out of the six Arks survive. But the rest of the folks land on their new planet Nova Prime.
222 AE - A Primus leader starts speaking out against science and industrialization on their new planet, because that's what got them all in this mess in the first place. Of Course They Do. After "much debate" the role of Savant is created to oversee the science side of the human race on Nova Prime.
243 AE - The Skrel attack Nova Prime for reasons unknown. Nova Prime was allegedly uninhabited when they landed, so this is a big WTF. The Rangers manage to protect the civillians. The Primus zealots have a field day. Note these are NOT the same aliens that crash landed on Earth.
350 AE - The Skrel return with a new look (see picture). No one has actually seen a real Skrel body yet — just the ships and Skrel drones.
576 AE - The Skrel return again, but this time to drop off the Ursa, a genetically engineered creature who's designed to kill humans. How the people of Nova Prime know that, since they have never met or spoke to a Skrel and this is the only other alien they've met, remains to be seen. Anyway, this Ursa creature evolves into an a better killing machine with each new generation. Think Resident Evil monsters, only not as fast. Ursa can only see humans based on our secretions caused by fear. Because that's how the Skrel made them — without eyes. But they can smell our fear.
651 AE - More Ursa are dumped on Nova Prime. Once an Ursa "imprints" on a human, it will hunt them until its prey has been killed. Which is basically the same thing that happens in Twilight. They have secret a black venom that paralyses victims.
726, 876, 951, 997 AE - Even MORE Ursa are unleashed, now mutated into super-fast killing machines. The Rangers struggle to save what remains of humanity. The Rangers' best defense is "ghosting," in which a Ranger becomes fearless, and thus can fight the Ursa without being smelled. 980 AE Is the first "official" Ghosting.
OOOOOOH NOW those After Earth ads make sense!
1000 AE - Will Smith and his son are traveling somewhere with a Ursa who's been captured, in a big pod (pictured above). They crash land on Earth and NOW we are where the trailer starts. PHEW.
Apart from explaining this wildly detailed and yet pretty vague backstory, the Rangers Manual has a bunch of images of their tech and doo dadery. Most of it was your usual scifi gadgetry (hologram maps, hologram instructions, but the LUNG GEL jumped out at me the most. Here is a shot of the Universal Air Filtration Gel, which coats the lungs, so they can breathe on the now fairly toxic Earth. It looks like hair treatment.
And finally, here are a few shots of the more civilized parts of Nova Prime, a few decades after they first arrived. Along with a few shots of the Rangers' air base. It's actually pretty gorgeous.
So there you have it — the secret behind M. Night's new world has been revealed. Does it make you want to see the movie now? Is anyone surprised there's a overly complicated backstory tied to this? Hey at least it's not a twist, unless... WE ARE THE SKRELS!
Honestly we could be into a movie just about this backstory.

subset: commoncrawl


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|Learn as little as 17 minutes per day.
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You will learn about these themes as well.
How do you say in Afrikaans: "The menu, please?"
What is "Cheers!" in Afrikaans?
Naturally you will want to eat out in order to try the local specialities in South Africa.
In order to facilitate ordering in restaurants, we have developed a lesson only devoted to "food".
We have also prepared a useful list of phrases for emergency situations.
You will learn important phrases for dealing with emergencies.
I have stomach trouble.
I have a head ache.
You need medical assistance in South Africa?
The Travel Course will teach you how to communicate with the doctor or the pharmacist.
How do you say "What is your name?" in Afrikaans?
How do you ask in Afrikaans "Where do you come from?".
That will certainly interest your new friends in South Africa!
The first step is always the most difficult, namely approaching people.
Therefore the most important things first:
You will learn how to say "Hello" in Afrikaans.
We will show you how to say "Bye" in Afrikaans.
Can you read these signs in Afrikaans?
Where is the emergency exit?
Behind which door are the ladies toilets?
Where is parking forbidden?
We have prepared a list of the most important signs that you should be able to read.
You want to drive in South Africa?
To help you if you need to visit the petrol station, we have prepared a collection of the most important words related to motoring.
How do I get to the station?
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In the Travel Course you will learn how to ask the way to all the most important destinations.
"I must quickly learn to count in Afrikaans."
The numbers are always important to learn in a new language.
This will help you to pay in restaurants.
How do you say "Yes" and "No" in Afrikaans?
What is "please" and "thank you" in Afrikaans?
Everyone should be able to say that in any language.
|And much more!


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A brief look at upcoming ASUS P67 Motherboardsby Ian Cutress on November 14, 2010 1:22 PM EST
- Posted in
- News
- Motherboards
- Asus
On first inspection, this board's aesthetic blue and black livery is impressive. The big blue heatsinks on the VRM, while looking good with a large surface area, intrude slightly on the socket, potentially resulting in restricting the orientation of high end air coolers.
Among the standard features you'd expect on a P67, such as the four dual-channel DDR3 slots, and four SATA 3Gb/s with two SATA 6Gb/s supported by the chipset, there is another two SATA ports, but it is unclear if these are for the RAID, 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s, or how they are powered, as they are not labelled and the chipset heatsink covers quite a bit. Two NEC controllers give two USB 3.0 ports on the back panel, and the possibility for another two via a header on the board connectable to the case, or to an ASUS USB 3.0 port box (as shown in the P67 Deluxe images). The Sandy Bridge platform on P67 relies on discrete graphics only, and as such there are no video out connectors on the back panel, but two PCIe x8 slots on the board itself (or one PCIe x16 if only one card is used). There is another PCIe slot available, presumably x4, for non-GPU duties.
The back panel itself is fairly standard – dual PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, S/PDIF out, six USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two eSATA connectors, firewire, 5.1 audio and gigabit Ethernet. Also of note is the Bluetooth receiver, which is a nice addition, but the lack of a second gigabit Ethernet port, which by now we feel should be a staple on all high end boards and any board with the 'Pro' moniker, isn't too pleasing.
On the board, we see two switches for TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) and EPU (Energy Processing Unit). The TPU is designed to monitor FET thermal temperatures, while the EPU will moderate power appropriately across the VRMs. Both can be turned on and off by the onboard switches, and presumably in the BIOS as well.
Speaking of switches, we're disappointed that ASUS have not put easy-to-use power and reset switches on the Pro. Sure, not everyone needs them, but they are a nice addition rather than having to short two front panel pins with a screwdriver (when slightly tired, it's never a good idea to accidentally short the wrong pins, unless you want to see some sparks).
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duploxxx - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkThe Sandy Bridge platform on P67 relies on discrete graphics only, and as such there are no video out connectors on the back panel, but two PCIe x8 slots on the board itself (or one PCIe x16 if only one card is used). There is another PCIe slot available, presumably x4, for non-GPU duties.
wow Intel is that all youc an design 1*16 or 2*8 nice one for a high-end board.....
strikeback03 - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkThese first SB chips aren't going to be the absolute high-end for Intel, see here: http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cpu/intel/sand...
So maybe there will be a further high-end chipset that supports more PCIe lanes for the true high-end SB once it launches.
Stahn Aileron - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - linkI would think so. We (or at least I) haven't heard of any announcements concerning something like an X6x-series Chipset. (I would think X68 if Intel is keeping with it's chipset naming scheme since the 3-series.)
If nevcairiel is correct regarding the all the arly CPUs coming with iGPUs, there's no real need for an X-series chipset board from Intel yet. Then again, that set of SB chips are coming with a new socket type. Maybe the high-end SB chips will come on LGA1366 and you can just re-use the X58 chipset. (Assuming Intel lives up to it's pledge of supporting 1366 for a while longer...Heaven forbid they release ANOTHER socket in so quickly again. I don't want to see an LGA1365 or something for high-end SB chips...)
DanNeely - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkThat's because like LGA1156 intel views LGA1155 as a mainstream platform. The high performance platform will transition from LGA1366 to LGA 2011 sometime around Q3 of next year.
Stahn Aileron - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - linkAh, crap...I forgot about LGA2011...And now that I saw this post and read up on Wikipedia, there will be an X68 chipset for the high-end...
Veroxious - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkI agree about the price. I wish there was not such a big price differential between uATX and full ATX as well........... I hate uATX because they are usually very minimal and when the features are up to scratch the amount of PCI-E slots are lacking
neoflux - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkAny details on ASUS's P8P67-I mini-ITX board? Specifically, is RAID built in and what Wi-fi specs are built in i.e. b, g, or n and then 2.4 and/or 5GHz?
As seen here and here:
neoflux - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkAlso, why does it have HDMI, DVI, and VGA if the P67 series doesn't support on-board graphics?
DanNeely - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkAt a guess in addition to all the other integrated stuff itemized, there's a low end amd/nVidia GPU hiding somewhere on the board.
strikeback03 - Monday, November 15, 2010 - linkOr the reported name could be incorrect, might be an H67 instead to take advantage of the graphics on the chip


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Sending business cards with mailed correspondences is one of the easiest ways to network with them. This may seem like a strange method but how many do you get every time you open your mail? This is because companies know you will see their business cards and it is why you should use every letter, "thank you" note, bill and shipped package as a chance to distribute your own business card.
Here are four other business card networking tips use:
- Use business cards for multiple purposes.
Ever ran into a friend you wanted to give your number so you jotted it down on a piece of paper? Why not use the back of your business card instead? He or she may not be looking for your services now, but the card may come in handy one day. Printing yearly calendars, inspirational quotes, conversion tables or even how-to tips relating to your services on the back can all help to make your cards more appealing.
- Use business cards at networking functions or when introducing yourself to the prospects you meet on a daily basis.
By doing this you make sure that the people you think most likely to use your service have a way to get in touch with you at all times. Additionally, persons are likely to accept your card when it is offered within context because it has some amount of meaning.
- See if places like your pharmacy or a store you shop at often would be willing to let you leave a few on the counter.
Ever seen flyers or pamphlet in little holders at your usual stores? Believe it or not they don't all belong to someone working at the store. People use the option all the time because it means individuals they may never meet may see their business cards, take one and eventually call them when the need arises.
- Post your business card on notice boards in high traffic areas.
Some notice boards are free for use while others require permission so always check before you start leaving business cards anywhere. Once you get an affirmation go ahead post a few of your business cards at your local supermarket, school or library. Even restaurants and gyms are great options.


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|Mexico City
|Peso (MXN)
|<rating country='mx' />
|Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots or BeWelcome
|<map lat='23' lng='-102' zoom='4' view='0' float='right' />
Mexico is a country in North and Central America. Despite its notoriety, hitchhiking in Mexico is not only possible but it can be a rather enjoyable experience. Due to its sheer size it's impossible to give a general hitchability rating for this country: the experiences vary from state to state. As anywhere, you can go fast on highways and very slow on small less used roads.
Avoid disappointment and unnecessary loss of money by keeping your proof of payment of the tourist fee when you enter the country! They will want to see it again when you leave.
License plates
Mexican license plates are very easy to interpret: The name of the issuing federal state is written on them (as you will easily notice once in the country). When traveling longer distances or in central Mexico with its many small states it can therefore be useful knowing which state your destination is in (if you have one).
- Acapulco
- Arriaga
- Campeche
- Cancun
- Ciudad Valles
- Culiacán
- Guadalajara
- Guanajuato
- Mexico City (capital)
- Oaxaca
- Palenque
- Poza Rica
- Puebla
- Querétaro
- San Cristóbal de las Casas
- San Luis Potosí
- Tehuantepec
- Toluca
- Tuxtla
- Xalapa
Hitchability and General Advice
Hitchability in Mexico varies wildly depending on the region and on the setting. by the touristic coast of Oaxaca, for example, it's extremely easy to find rides, while you might wait a few hours on low-traffic rural roads or by the overwhelmingly crowded casetas de cobro near Mexico City.
A peculiarity of Mexican hitchhiking are the ubiquitous pick-up trucks where you just jump in the back, hold onto your hat, kiss the wind and forget about communicating with the driver. Many people will offer you food and drinks, especially Coca Cola! On routes with poor public transportation, payment is sometimes expected and ordinary pickups magically turn into collectivos (shared taxis).
On the small roads, however, hitchhiking can sometimes be time-consuming – waiting times of 2–3 hours are not unheard of. Be prepared with patience, water and sun cream. Although in many places locals hitch to get home from the grocery store for instance, hitchhiking as a lifestyle or as a means of long-distance travel is not so common in Mexico and not everybody might immediately understand what you want. So, on the mountain roads for instance, your brain should be wired more to enjoy the magnificent views and eating the abundance of fruit nature has on offer rather than making a lot of progress.
As for security, most hitchhikers never encounter any major problems. Mexico is an enormous country and experiences vary a lot from state to state. If you want to avoid risks, you can avoid the states close to the border with USA - Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua and Durango, i.e. take buses and collectivos when traveling north of the line between Tampico, San Luis Potosi and Mazatlan (the map). Apparently also the states of Guerrero and Michoacán (mostly by the coast), Sinaloa and Veracruz can be risky.
If you go hitchhiking in Mexico, being able to speak and understand at least a bit of Spanish is nearly mandatory. Apart from touristic areas, most people you encounter do not speak English, unless they have lived in the US which isn't all that infrequent. Still, if you know Spanish you can communicate way better with people and get a closer connection with them. Useful Spanish words are "ride" and "aventón", both meaning a lift. Near the Guatemalan border the word "jalón" is used. No one understands what hitchhiking or autostop means so say "busco/buscamos un ride" instead when looking for a ride.
Signs are almost always unnecessary in Mexico. However they really seem to help when you're hitching at a caseta de cobro, especially when the highway splits soon after.
If you're in an area with a lot of local traffic, it might be useful to make a sign that says "Siguiente Gasolinera" (next gas station). Then you can get a ride to a better hitchhiking spot. Similarly, signs that say "reten" (checkpoint) or "caseta" (tollbooth) can be really useful, especially when cars are passing quickly and the checkpoint or tollbooth is only 10 or 20 km away.
Where to hitchhike?
You can hitchhike pretty much everywhere, even on the highway (although pretty much no one stops at such high speeds). In general, asking at gas stations (gasolinera) or even traffic lights (semáforo), especially on bus stops and the like, can get you far pretty easily. Sometimes it is better to be among the cars, in the traffic lights, and directly ask rides from people who have open windows. Sometimes you can just jump in the back of a pick-up without even telling where you are going and just tap on the window when you want to get off.
Other good places include exits from shopping centers, in truck stops or at the restaurants where truckers eat. Some petrol stations in the north don't allow people to do that, but you can try to speak with the manager. It works sometimes. Otherwise, just stay by the cashier of the petrol station or at the door (they can't forbid you that) and ask.
Mexico also has many border control and military and police checkpoints (retén) in the middle of the highways throughout the country. These can be great for hitchhiking. It's usually good practice to ask the personnel for permission beforehand, and oftentimes they'll be asking all the drivers where they're going, so they can even let you know if someone's going to your destination.
You can also catch long rides at the exits of the cities when you travel on the highways. Many cities have speed bumps (tope) where the highway begins at the edge of town. Where there are police posts at the entrance or exits to towns, there are usually topes too. On smaller highways in more rural areas, there are often speed bumps at every little town, making it easy to move quickly with a number of shorter rides.
Many of the larger, faster highways operate on a toll system. It's common for there to be a free road (libre) parallel to the paid one (cuota), the former being slower and easier to catch rides, but the latter much more likely for getting longer rides. The tollbooths (caseta) can be good places too, and the ones near the cities can usually be reached by local transport. However, sometimes you might be told to stand about 100m past the tollbooth itself, so traffic has often already picked up speed by the time they get to you and it can be difficult for cars to pull over. Fortunately, there are often restrooms, gas stations and stores just past the caseta, so you can talk to drivers that stop there. Signs can come in really handy at tollbooths.
In some mid-sized cities like Tampico, Oaxaca, and Pachuca there are no transit roads and you have to cross the city. Taking a bus makes things easier.
It is even less recommendable than in other countries to take drugs or weapons with you, especially since after 2010 the Mexican government, backed by the US DEA who are actually present in Mexico (!!), have decided to crack down on drug and weapon trafficking. This has declined again since the following government of Peña Nieto seems to be more friendly towards the narcos. There still are numerous checkpoints all around the country, but in general it doesn't seem very likely that you will be checked and the soldiers hardly ever search all the way through a large back-pack, unless you answer their questions really bad. If the vehicle you're riding in does get stopped just stay calm, show your passport, say the magic words "turista" ("tourist") and "de paseo nada más" ("just passing"), and if they ask to see your stuff open you bag and show them that it's all clothes and stuff. Small quantities of marijuana are decriminalized and police officers can probably be convinced to overlook them with a small payment, although of course the Hitchwiki community endorses neither drug possession nor bribery. ;-) Be aware that knives are illegal as they are considered "lethal weapons" according to Mexican law and can theoretically be punished by up to five years of prison.
In the south, your drivers might ask you about your immigration status and advise you of immigration check points.
Single Women
One of the great things of hitchhiking in Mexico is that even if you travel alone, you rarely have to hitch-hike alone, because hitchhiking is such a common activity among locals - joining locals hitching will not only add to the fun, but also your safety. This is especially handy as in certain areas - like in the North, around Chihuahua - men might take you for a prostitute (even if you have a large bag and totally look like a foreigner).
Zenit seriously disagrees with the statement that "you rarely have to hitch-hike alone" in Mexico. In three months, between Baja California and Cancún, he only saw other hitchhikers two or three times.
two_string_sally thinks the day she hitched from San Isidro Mazatepec, Jalisco to the airport (50 km) was a fun ole time! prior to that she'd hitched 2,600 km with her male friend and received the usual creepiness of the world. she will say, however, that mexican men (and turkish, indian etc) seem to perceive us western women as free lovin' (which, relative to their culture, we are), and had the usual, 'do you want to have sex with me?,' leg touching drama you just have to deal with. nothin' dangerous, she might add. FUN TIMES!
Vegetarians/vegans: if you ask food carts or taco places if they have anything vegetarian, and they say no, look at the ingredients they've got in their work area and get creative! One vegetarian traveller's favourite is tomato and avocado taco.
Personal experiences
Hitchhikers Katja and Augustas barely fit with all their stuff in the front of this pickup.
Katja is ready to get a ride!
Sometimes hitchhikers can be of help to a driver - here Lithuanian hitchhiker Augustas helping to push a truck somewhere in Mexico.
It may be extremely easy to hitch in mainland Mexico, but in the Baja California peninsula, it's a completely different story! In Baja California, there is only one road, the HWY 1, which isn't hell to hitchhike on but requires a lot of patience: there are often large distances in between cities (which are barely even cities, rather a few ranches and cactus farms) and even larger distances between petrol stations (example: El Rosario is the last one before Guerrero Negro, about 360 km further down in Baja California Sur). Getting stuck in the middle of the desert is NOT fun, and many people can only take you from town to town as it is local traffic or gringos doing one of the many races down in the Baja. Also, unless you are planning on staying in Baja and going back up towards the USA-Mexico border, you should hitchhike from Mexicali south. If you plan on heading to mainland Mexico from the Baja, you must take a ferry in either La Paz or Cabo San Lucas towards Mazatlán, which costs about 80$ USD - Narfette, April 2008
The Yucatan Peninsula (Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo), on the other hand, outshines all Mexico for its ease and amiability of hitchhiking. You might not even fall victim to Moctezuma revenge eating old papaya slushies and bean burritos out of the trash in some of those tourist strips. Hey
In 10 months and tens of thousands of km covered by thumb, my only "bad" experience was between Pto. Angel and Oaxaca City (a notorious drug route, as I later learned). The driver asked me to drive and once I was behind the wheel informed me that the van was full of Colombia's finest. I nearly shat myself, but the experience turned out to be quite interesting, as we were forced to make several detours to avoid police checkpoints, taking me through beautiful and remote parts of the Oaxacan mountains I otherwise never would have discovered. Be careful not to get set up. A very, very, rare occurance, but one that can happen.- unknown hitchhiker, July 2010
I traveled for 8 months in Mexico, all by thumb. I came down Baja California, hitched a sailboat from La Paz to Mazatlán, steamed over to Veracruz for the carnival, went up and around the Yucatán, then down into Chiapas, Guatemala, and then back to Veracruz, across to all the big central cities, and down the Pacific coast to Oaxaca and Guatemala once more. I got picked up by plenty of self-proclaimed drug dealers. Whatever. Lovely country. - Chael777, August 2011
I hitched at exits and on-ramps and speed bumps (topes) and made excellent time from Matamoros to Catemaco. As long as cars are going somewhat slow any place is really a good place to hitchhike. I rarely waited more than fifteen minutes. People were very hospitable. I was treated to lots of delicious food and given places to stay by those who picked me up. This is my favorite country to hitchhike thus far - Eripson, March 2012
The small less trafficky roads, in the mountains and in Chiapas for instance, can test your patience. If you are coming from south (Guatemala) people might be afraid to pick you up because there are so many checkpoints. Even the ones who do stop ask if you have problems with authorities, if you are smuggling drugs or if you have a passport. - Astikain (talk) 15:59, 4 June 2013 (CEST)
I hitchhiked for two months through the mainland and had a great experience. People are very friendly and willing to help. The biggest thing is getting outside the city. The good thing about the big highways is you are more likely to get a long ride, the bad thing it can be rough to have someone pull over. The small villages are easier to get rides but tend to be short. - Jason
ANDALE! México remains my favorite place to catch a ride- starting in san diego, cali and winding up in ciudad de guatemala a month later was a breeze. forget about that one 24 hour wait in Tonalà (7eleven outside Guadalajara, you were cruel to me), and hear me out when i say that topés (speed rumps) are your besties and camionetas (pick ups) are the most splendid way -and most common ride- to view méxico, especially with a cold Modelo in your hand and Chalino Sanchez serenading your ears from the front seat. got our shit checkpoint-searched HARD in southern baja, witnessed bribes in guate, were taken to unknown aguascalientes in jalisco, had too much tequlia in Tequila, got robbed in jocotepec, hitched a ride with turkeys, bread, candy and piñatas, drank the waters of canyon aguacero in chiapas. oh what a wonderful world. thumbed it solo as a chick and with a male and later female road dawg. ¡buen viaje! signing off.- two_string_sally april 2018
For general info about moneyless travels in Mexico, see this handy document.
Nomadwiki & Trashwiki
Check Nomadwiki for info on accommodation, showers etc. or Trashwiki for dumpsters...and share your wisdom :)
Aguascalientes • Baja California • Baja California Sur • Campeche • Chiapas • Chihuahua • Coahuila • Colima • Durango • Guanajuato • Guerrero • Hidalgo • Jalisco • Mexico State • Michoacán • Morelos • Nayarit • Nuevo León • Oaxaca • Puebla • Querétaro • Quintana Roo • San Luis Potosí • Sinaloa • Sonora • Tabasco • Tamaulipas • Tlaxcala • Veracruz • Yucatán • Zacatecas


text:
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text:
Friday, February 10, 2012
2012 Kansas City World of Wheels caters to all automotive tastes
I really do look forward to this show every year. Sure, part of it is that I want to get out of the house, but it actually is one of the bigger events in the area. I wouldn't say this year's offering was the best ever, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to miss it.
This is the first outing with my new Canon S100 digital camera. I wanted something that I could carry in my pocket, but I was also tired of apologizing for the quality of my pictures. I got the first part down, because it does, indeed, fit in my pocket. The second part is a little iffy, because I obviously have a lot to learn to get better quality pictures. These aren't terrible, I suppose, but hopefully I'll really have the hang of it by the end of the summer. Anyway, there are 428 photos from the 2012 World of Wheels in the slideshow below.
Posted by Craig Hover at 10:38 PM
6 comments:
I thought the photos were very good - an indoor show is a difficult environment for photography.ReplyDelete
Looks like there were several really great cars and trucks - and some really poor english ... Thanks for sharing.
- AnonymousFebruary 12, 2012 at 3:21 PM
Thanks for all the photos and taking the time to post them.ReplyDelete
Love the Henry J.....
Your pix are fab! Thanks, I wanted to go but couldn't make it. This is the next best thing.ReplyDelete
Thanks, Guys!ReplyDelete
Excellent slideshow (as usual)...got some beautiful rolling works of art there.
Feels like I was really there.
Nice job.
Happy Motoring.
Roll safe out there.
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text: The Juniper compatible SFP28 transceiver provides 25GBase-LR throughput up to 20km over single mode fiber (SMF) using a wavelength of 1310nm via an LC duplex connector. Featuring low power consumption, high speed, this 25G transceiver is ideal for 25G Ethernet, telecom, and data center. Each SFP28 transceiver module is individually tested in targeted switch, it is fully compliant with the SFP28 MSA and CPRI standard.


text:
It happened this spring, in the 2012 Virginia Scholastic and Collegiate Chess Tournament. Both Quentin Moore and his opponent, a rising star on the D.C.-area chess scene named Clark Smiley, came into their match undefeated over the weekend-long competition. So the state title and an expenses-paid cross-country trip to the national high school championships would likely go to the game's winner.
Judging by his pre-tournament rating — 2141, according to the U.S. Chess Federation system, making him the second-highest of the 75 players vying for the high school title — Moore shouldn't have had any trouble getting past Smiley (1875). But Smiley was on fire, having won nine of the 12 previous rated tournaments in which he'd played and taken second place in the other three. Smiley's former high school coach, forgetting that the kid's spree came in state and regional events and not globally significant competitions, now says Smiley had put up "a record only Bobby Fischer could have."
And in a match played in an earlier round at the Scholastic tournament, held at a Best Western in McLean, Virginia, Smiley had whupped Aravind Ponukumati, a teammate of Moore's on the perennial state champion chess squad from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Smiley was rated almost 200 points below his opponent, but played "several hundred points above his rating," Ponukumati says.
"He was playing so aggressive," Ponukumati said. "I remember thinking, He's crushing me!"
Against Moore, Smiley continued his dominance. For an opening, he played what pawnheads would describe as the Kevitz variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, a sophisticated attack for which Moore had no good answer. Smiley had Moore in check after 16 moves and never let up.
"I was about to resign," Moore says.
Moore was too focused on just avoiding checkmate to pay much mind to Smiley's off-board behavior. He ignored Smiley's frequent tap-tap-tapping away on a handheld Dell computer. Smiley had been given permission to use the device to keep a digital record of each move — but only for that purpose.
"A lot of kids use those now, and I knew those were allowed," says Moore of the scorekeeping app, called eNotate, which had only recently been sanctioned by the chess powers that be for tournament use. eNotate received the blessing of administrators after its designers convinced the USCF that the software was fail-safe for cheating. Moore, then an 18-year-old senior at TJHSST, generally regarded as one of the brainiest high schools in the country, shunned the gizmos in favor of an old-school record-keeping method: paper and pencil.
But while Moore ignored his opponent's between-move activities, tournament director Robert Getty didn't. Getty, who says he was aware of Smiley's winning streak, monitored the match from across the ballroom. Its one-sidedness held his interest most.
"I've watched Quentin Moore play in these tournaments over the years," Getty said. "He's always been a strong player. And while I've seen him lose before, I'd never seen him take a beating like he was taking here. He was getting destroyed."
And when he spotted something fishy about the way the player consulted his personal digital assistant, Getty moved in for a closer look. After Moore's 28th move, Getty halted the match and asked Smiley to show him the PDA. Smiley pulled away and turned off his device, says Getty, but after several uncomfortable seconds he handed it over without saying a word.
Getty fired up the Dell again, and no score sheet appeared. Instead, a screen popped up for a program from the Fritz line of so-called "chess engines." These are super-smart, user-friendly apps able to analyze the positions of all pieces on the chessboard and consider millions of possible outcomes in a matter of nanoseconds before suggesting the best next move. By pushing all the right buttons on a good chess engine, any Kardashian sister could conceivably checkmate Fischer.
And, as proven here, with Fritz's assistance, Smiley could destroy Moore.
Smiley admitted to Getty and others that he'd cheated. While making his confession, though, Smiley said the game against Moore was the first and only time he had ever accessed the illegal program.
Smiley was ordered to forfeit that match and all previous games in the event, and was thrown out of the tournament. Despite the player's unadvanced age, the Virginia Chess Federation used Smiley's name in their announcements of the suspension, one sign of how seriously they are taking the offense. The federation quickly suspended Smiley for what was termed "using unauthorized software indicating an assessment of his position and analysis of possible variations." His ethics case was referred to the national sanctioning body, the U.S. Chess Federation. According to USCF president Bill Hall, Smiley is, at 16 years old, the youngest computer cheat ever brought before his group.
He now faces a lifetime ban.
"He's just a little boy who made a mistake," says Catherine Smiley, his mother.
Clark Smiley, whose mother declined to make him available for an interview, was removed from his high school team. His neighborhood club, which had become the strongest and most hard-core chess clique in the D.C. area, had a civil war over the scandal; Smiley's high school coach, distraught over what he said was a shaming of the game he loved, led a separatist movement and formed a new confederation designed only for "honest players."
But even though the kid's only confessed misdeed came among small-time players in an otherwise unremarkable tournament, the electronic score-sheet caper could have implications far beyond the hotel ballroom where it occurred. Most important for everybody but Smiley: Along with being the youngest techno-cheat, he is also the first player of any age caught exploiting an approved software application as part of a cheating scheme.
So folks at the USCF are now trying to determine exactly how Smiley cheated, and how often. The answers could affect not only the severity of his punishment, but the future of computers in competitive chess.
"This is all new for us," says VCF president Andrew Rea. "This is a serious breach. We can't just let it go."
Gadgetry of any sort has a rocky history in chess.
In the late 18th century, for example, a Hungarian engineer named Wolfgang von Kempelen toured Europe with a machine called The Turk, which he promoted as a mechanical chess master. Legend holds that Napoleon and Ben Franklin are among the chess aficionados who lost to Kempelen's brainchild. Decades after those big wins, word got out that The Turk, which Kempelen built to woo Empress Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina of Austria, was a royal scam: For all its pulleys and wheels, Kempelen always made sure an accomplished and totally human chess player was hiding inside the machine, making all the right moves.
The Virginia scandal involved the opposite ruse, in which a machine surreptitiously called the shots for a player. The chess engines this scheme centered on are relatively new: Computers only surpassed humans at the chessboard during young Smiley's lifetime. Scientists had an easier time designing digital brains that could produce atom bombs or navigate lunar landings than they did fashioning a machine that could play chess worth a darn. Plainly, until relatively recently, chess was too complicated for computers. An analysis of chess's complicatedness in Wired determined that the number of possible positions in an average 40-move game is 10 to the 128th power, a sum "vastly larger than the number of atoms in the known universe."
In 1966, MIT brainiacs entered MAC HACK VI, a computer program they'd devised, into the Massachusetts Amateur Chess Championship, making it the first computer program ever to enter a tournament. It drew just one match and lost four.
And it wasn't until 1981 that any computer program beat a player with a master rating in tournament play. (Full disclosure: My brother, Geoff McKenna, who, despite being a chess master by rating and among the strongest players in the D.C. area, was never a threat to take Garry Kasparov's crown, got written up in chess and scientific magazines in the early 1980s after defeating Belle, a product of Bell Laboratories and back then the reigning world computer chess champion.)
But by 2007, a chess engine called Rybka was routinely shutting out grandmasters even when spotting the humans a pawn and taking black, thereby letting humans go first, the more statistically desirable position. Computers have gotten noticeably better since then; humans haven't.
The man-machine war in chess is no longer contested: "Computers are better than us," says USCF president Ruth Haring.
Some old-school gamers lament humanity's slippage. "Chess was more fun when computers were patzers," says Peter Biyiasas, a former grandmaster and Canadian chess champion. Biyiasas says his decision to retire from competitive chess was helped along by the advent of superhuman electronic aids.
But Haring and other caretakers of the game have been pushing to increase technology's presence. Without computer intervention, they fear kids who spend most of their days accessing one app or another would ignore the sport of kings (and queens and rooks, et al.). And some portions of the computer creep have inarguably been a boon — online chess, for example.
And as training tools, chess engines, including the Fritz software that Smiley depended on, are a godsend to the game.
"I grew up when nothing was computerized and you had to live in New York or San Francisco to get to play against great players," Haring says. "You just played your neighbor. Now, you can train against a grandmaster-strength program, and all the openings of all the great players are available at your fingertips. There are all these tools that have really opened up the game."
The dark side, of course, is that technology-aided cheating episodes have popped up all over the place in recent years.
Among the more entertaining techno-scams: In the 2006 World Open in Philadelphia, the most moneyed tournament in the land — this year's event, which concluded in July, had a kitty of $250,000 — tournament director Mike Atkins got bad feelings about a competitor named Steve Rosenberg, entered in the 2000-and-under division (a category for competent but non-master players). Rosenberg came into the tournament having won 18 matches in a row. Then Rosenberg kept his winning streak going against superior competition in the early rounds of the World Open, all the while wearing several layers of clothing in the heat of the Northeastern summer and playing each game with his hands cupped over his ears. Atkins eventually surmised the oddball get-up was part of a scheme, and that Rosenberg was somehow getting moves fed to him. With Rosenberg undefeated heading into the late rounds of the tournament and one win away from taking home the $18,000 first prize, Atkins confronted him about his suspicions, and during the interrogation a tiny electronic device was discovered in Rosenberg's ear. The player claimed it was a hearing aid; Atkins hopped on his laptop and from Internet research quickly found that the gadget, called a Phonito, was in fact a radio receiver that could be used to relay information from a third party, and, in this case, was likely a third party accessing Fritz or some other chess engine. (The $270 Phonito was manufactured by Phonak, a Swiss electronics firm that at that time was in the news as the sponsor of Floyd Landis during his Tour de France cheating episode.) Rosenberg declined to answer Atkins's questions; given what was at stake, the tournament director took the non-answers as a confession and booted him out of the tournament.
"If you're going to lose $20,000, you'd scream bloody murder," Atkins told me in 2006. "Instead, he just said, 'If you're going to forfeit me, just give me my thing back and I'll go home.' And he left."
Rosenberg has never been heard from again in competitive chess circles. (A caller responding to messages left at the phone number in Canton, Michigan, listed for Steve Rosenberg in old USCF directories said that though his name was Steve Rosenberg, he didn't play chess.)
And not all the bad acting in chess takes place on our shores: In July, the World Chess Federation bounced three high-level French players for an elaborate cheating scheme from the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Siberia. Joanna Pomian, the head of the Fédération Française des Échecs, the French chess federation, dropped a dime on members of her own national team. She discovered that the French squad, led by 21-year-old grandmaster Sebastien Feller, was being fed strategy in the middle of games by coaches who were consulting computer chess engines. Pomian said she'd acted only after finding incriminating text messages sent between team members, including one from a player to a coach that read, in French, "Hurry up, send moves."
A couple years ago, I spoke with Larry Kaufman, a designer of the Rybka software, regarded in recent years as the strongest chess engine on the market. I asked if he worried that his brainchild would be abused by bad guys. Never, he said.
"The cheating part isn't hard," Kaufman told me. "Getting away with it is. I don't think chess players are good enough to get away with it."
Smiley clearly wasn't good enough to get away with his chessboard crime, though questions remain about how good a cheater he really was. His PDA was not confiscated after he was caught using a chess engine at the Virginia Scholastic. "I showed the PDA to [other tournament officials], who also saw the PDA running with the illegal software," says Getty, "and after he'd admitted to cheating, I returned the device to the player. I had no right to keep it."
That meant officials couldn't perform an autopsy on the Dell to learn how often Smiley had accessed the program illegally during tournament play.
Catherine Smiley says she believes her son's once-and-only-once version of his cheating timeline. She also says accusations of serial cheating are nothing more than "sour grapes from people he beat fairly."
Sour grapes or no, it is true that all the evidence contradicting Clark Smiley's contention that he only cheated against Moore is circumstantial.
It's also pretty darn convincing.
Smiley's tournament wins started coming in bunches in the summer of 2011, after he'd attended a camp sponsored by the Ashburn Chess Club. They take the game very seriously there. The Ashburn club only formed in 2009, but this year its teams took first place in both the Open and Amateur Divisions of the D.C. Chess League, one of the strongest confederations in the U.S. For Ashburn's camps, international master Nikolay Andrianov serves as the lead counselor. The club charges members for sessions with Andrianov, a Russian native who commutes cross-country from his Phoenix home. He can command such a fee because of his 1978 win over Kasparov — meaning he's one of the few to ever beat the greatest chess player of all time in his prime.
Understandably, Ashburn brass did an awful lot of patting itself on the back and cheerleading during Smiley's winning streak. A solicitation for Andrianov's clinics put out last year called Smiley "a model for scholastic players."
"Clark Smiley did it again!" read a blurb in the club's online newsletter from August 2011, after Smiley went 5-0 while winning last year's Atlantic Open. Smiley took home $1,200 in prize money for that win.
"[Smiley] has improved tremendously since the Ashburn Chess Camp," read the club's newsletter after the Atlantic Open win. "Congratulations, Clark. You make us proud of your achievements!"
The USCF stats show a turnaround that sure does seem too good to be true. Before July 2011, Smiley's career record as a tournament player was 180 wins, 151 losses, and 13 draws. But Smiley went 41-3-2 in the 46 official games he'd played heading into the Virginia Scholastic.
"Forty-one and three? That's a record only Bobby Fischer would have," says Dino Obregon, the faculty adviser for the chess team at Stone Bridge High School, the Loudoun County, Virginia, school Smiley attends and played chess for before being removed for cheating. "This kid isn't Bobby Fischer. I beat him."
The climactic match of the Atlantic Open came when Smiley defeated Bryan Simonaire in the final round. "That would have been my biggest win," says Simonaire, who wasn't aware that his opponent had subsequently been caught cheating until he was interviewed for this story. The news triggered some memories of the matchup.
"I remember talking to [Smiley] after our game," says Simonaire, who away from the chessboard is a Maryland state senator and member of the Special Senate Committee on Ethics Reform. "My impression of this kid wasn't Whoa! This is a tough chess player!, which is that attitude you often get from kids who can really play, kids who know the game. But he just seemed like a regular kid. I figured he had a good day."
Asked what else he recalled about their match, Simonaire says, "He had some device in his hands the whole game."
The USCF website allows a player's ratings growth to be displayed in graph form. Smiley's personal chart features a massive vertical hike in his rating beginning last summer. Robert Getty points out that Smiley's USCF rating in so-called blitz chess, a quickie version of the game, is now 283 points below his standard tournament rating. And while winning nine of his 12 standard tournaments prior to the Virginia Scholastic, Smiley never won a blitz tournament. (Moore's blitz rating stands only 77 points lower than his tournament rating; Ponukumati's blitz-tournament differential is just -38.)
"That's significant because in blitz you don't keep score," he says. "There's no electronic score-sheet app for blitz."
Getty is one of a large contingent of folks familiar with the Virginia scandal who believe Smiley's cheating scheme lasted much more than just one game.
Adam Chrisney, a fellow member of the Ashburn Chess Club, is another. Just two weeks before he was officially caught cheating, Smiley won an event called the Virginia Open. Chrisney, also an entrant, says he found Smiley's tapping away on his PDA in the early rounds of the event bothersome, but didn't initially think anything ominous was taking place. eNotate's novelty and reputation as being cheat-proof provided a great cover, says Chrisney.
"I knew that [electronic score sheets] were allowed, so I figured this was a kid using his new toy," says Chrisney.
But when Chrisney had to face Smiley in the last round of the tournament with the Virginia Open title going to the winner, his opponent's keyboard work no longer seemed harmless.
"It should take maybe three or four taps, max, to record a move on a score sheet," Chrisney says. "He was making copious amounts of taps on the keyboard, and I really started wondering what the hell he was doing."
Smiley whupped Chrisney in that game, but after the match Chrisney reported what he suspected was cyber-cheating to tournament director Mike Atkins — the same guy who blew open the Phonito cheating scam at the 2006 World Open. Atkins questioned Smiley, but didn't find enough evidence to overturn the result. (Atkins declined a request to discuss the Smiley case for this story.) The win over Chrisney gave Smiley the tournament title and a $400 cash prize. Chrisney says his judgments were vindicated after Smiley was caught at the Scholastic tourney, but says the situation makes him feel bad for the perp.
"He's a kid, and this isn't murder," says Chrisney, who would have won the Virginia Open had he beaten Smiley. "But cheating is bad for chess."
Ponukumati is also convinced he was up against a computer when he was supposed to be playing just Smiley. Virginia Scholastic tournament rules prohibited players to leave the main room if they weren't playing. While Moore was facing Smiley in the fifth round, Ponukumati was hanging out with TJHSST teammates in an adjacent room doing a postmortem on his loss to Smiley earlier in the event. Ponukumati says he plugged all the moves from the earlier game into various chess engines and "found a clear pattern of cheating."
"Every move from moves 13 to 30 matched [the computer]," says Ponukumati.
Moore, with a question, offers perhaps the strongest argument that this wasn't a one-off incident: "Why would he start cheating in the fifth round of a tournament?"
The failure to seize the Dell also means some mystery remains about Smiley's cheating methodology. It's unclear exactly how Smiley accessed the chess engine while ostensibly also running eNotate.
"This is the first time there's been an incident reported with eNotate," says Rea, "so there's still a question about what was done so [Smiley] could enable other software applications on that device."
The two options are:
1. Highbrow But Sneaky: Somebody hacked the eNotate program stored on Smiley's PDA to allow the app to run concurrently with a chess engine.
2. Lowbrow But Brazen: Smiley simply turned off eNotate once a game started and ran the cheating program exclusively.
Moore, who will study computer science at the University of Virginia, isn't ready to discount the possibility that hacking took place. He admits being daunted by the brainpower that would take, however. "I couldn't do it," he said.
Sevan Muradian, the designer and primary vendor of the eNotate software, asserts no hacking took place. The USCF rulebook specifically states that to gain tournament certification, vendors of electronic score sheets must prove that anybody using the score sheet "cannot access a chess engine or any stored games, openings, or analysis contained within the electronics of the device." And, say USCF officials, eNotate passed muster. Muradian remains convinced it's hack-proof.
"Once you enter recording mode of eNotate, recording the game, you cannot flip to another application. You cannot use any other program — not Fritz or any chess engine," says Muradian. "We deactivate any wireless connection and disable any hardware buttons. [Smiley] didn't override that. No way."
Only "about 500" copies of eNotate, which sells for from $50 for just the software to about $150 for a loaded PDA, have been distributed so far. Each copy is registered with the North American Chess Association. The NACA website shows Clark Smiley's father, Mark, registered as no. D866204. Registrants can authorize others to use their software in tournaments, according to Muradian.
Muradian says his own investigation of the Virginia Scholastic cheating episode leaves him convinced the player took the low-tech route to the low road and ran only the Fritz program while cheating. Of course, if it were proven that a high school kid could override eNotate's firewalls through a hack, the software would likely immediately be banned from tournaments. Asked if his theories on what happened were colored by what was at stake, Muradian says no.
"There was no hack," he says.
Even so, Muradian says he's going to design new screens for eNotate that are "more annoying," so tournament directors can more easily discern whether a player's PDA is in fact running the sanctioned program. He thinks that'll be enough to prevent copycat cheats.
The USCF has not said when it will announce a ruling on Smiley's ethics case.
As for how the scandal will affect others: Moore will henceforth be wary of every PDA-equipped opponent he faces. "I'd played [Smiley] twice when he was using the handheld device, and he beat me both times, and once when he wasn't, and I won that game," says Moore. "But I had no reason at the time to suspect he was cheating. I'll suspect everyone who uses these things from now on."
Getty intends to keep a closer eye on players of any age who show up at the table using an electronic score sheet.
Haring says she's troubled by the cheating episode, but has no plans to use it to launch a technological crackdown within USCF.
"Technology we can work with," she says.
Haring ascribes her positive outlook to an incident involving (who else?) Bobby Fischer. In the early 1980s, Fischer, already well into his exile from the chess world and the real world, came to San Francisco to hide out and stayed with Haring, whom he knew through chess. And while there he came across a stash of paper score sheets from her playing career, all from long before the advent of Monroi and eNotate. "I kept all my old games in a shoe box in a closet," says Haring, who was an international master as a player before entering a career in chess administration. "And I came home from work one day and saw that Bobby Fischer had found the box and had gone through all my games. I was terrified, but I asked him, 'So, what do you think?,' and he said something that helped me with the rest of my life. He said, 'You're a pretty good player, but you're too pessimistic.' He was right. And when Bobby Fischer speaks, chess players listen. So I use that as a general guiding rule in the rest of my life, too: Don't accept a bad situation; look for ways to improve your situation. It helped my chess game and my life. It helped me to look for a positive, better outcome; there's a better move there. So, technology, yes, there are threats, but it's good for the game."
The Ashburn Chess Club held another summer chess camp in August, led once more by Andrianov. The 2012 camp ended with an in-house tournament, with the winner receiving a trip to Russia to play against kids in the world's chess epicenter. That's a big prize. But, because of the actions of a former camper at last year's gathering, a new rule was in place. The Ashburn website advised all prospective attendees that they would have to get through camp "without the use of electronic devices."
"I like pencil and paper," says Andrianov. "That's what kids in Russia use, and it's worked out pretty well for them."


text:
Principles for the safe design of machinery
Annex I of the Machinery Directive defines five steps as the basis for designing safety-related machinery:
1. Define the limits of the machinery. This includes intended use and any reasonably foreseeable misuse.
2. Identify the hazards that can be generated by the machinery and the associated hazardous situations.
3. Estimate the risks, taking into account the severity of the possible injury or damage to health and the probability of its occurrence.
4. Evaluate the risks, with a view to determining whether risk reduction is required, in accordance with the objective of this Directive.
5. Eliminate the hazards or reduce the risks associated with these hazards by application of protective measures, in the order of priority established in section 1.1.2(b).
The directive for the safe design of machinery is relevant for whom?
Under the terms of the Machinery Directive, a machine manufacturer must perform a risk assessment in order to identify all the hazards associated with his machine. He must then design and construct it taking account of his assessment.
This requirement also applies to operators, who act as manufacturers under the terms of the Machinery Directive. This is the case, for example, when machines are interlinked or for machinery that has been upgraded and substantially modified in the process.
Risk assessment and risk reduction in accordance with EN ISO 12100
EN ISO 12100 explains methods for risk assessment. The risk assessment consists of a risk analysis and risk evaluation.
|Safety of machinery
General principles for design. Risk assessment and risk reduction
Further information:
Pilz lndia Pvt Ltd
6th Floor, 'Cybernex', Shankar Seth Road, Swargate,
Pune - 411037
Telephone: +91 20 49221100/101/102
E-Mail: email@example.com
Telephone: +91 20 49221100/101/102
E-Mail: email@example.com


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Friday, August 25
Daily Farm Photo: 8/25/06
Snugglebunny's Twin Girl Hiding In The Summer Sun
A year of Daily Photos ago:
Some Of The Most Cheerful Wildflowers
7 comments:
Hi Susan! I did a post about making your tomato pie on my blog - and I was hoping you would post a permalink? I kinda cheated, but the recipe still came out good. What a great idea. I love your stories and pictures!ReplyDelete
Check out the post at www.aliceqfoodie.blogspot.com. Cheers!
- Anonymous8/25/2006 6:55 PM
Long-time reader, first time poster, yadda yadda yadda.ReplyDelete
I just wanted to say that I adore your daily farm photos and despite the hardships of farming life, I envy you and all the wonderful things you get to see and experience!
Aren't digital cameras awesome? I love the depth of field in this photo. Absolutely beautiful...ReplyDelete
I'm having such troubles with my own blog. I haven't been able to post to it since last week. Boo hoo...ReplyDelete
But, I can visit Farmgirl and life is back to "normal." As normal as life in Wonderland.
Thanks for the dreams. Nite, nite, as I tell Skye Bird-dee
Nana Texas in Hot, hot, hot & dry Texas
- Anonymous8/26/2006 12:01 AM
I enjoy your farm photos. I'm a city girl and a spinner/knitter/wanna-be weaver. What do you do with your sheeps' fleece? Are you a handspinner? What breed are they? My 4 1/2 pound Yorkie is the only livestock I have.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous8/26/2006 9:31 AM
I have really enjoyed your blog...just found it recently and now check it daily! I have been roaming around it as time permits and just discovered your beer bread. I am going to make a batch today! I have started collecting recipes for soda/quick breads. I would like to share on that I found which is really delicious...thought you might like it/it is traditional Irish brown bread. Here's the link: http://breadnet.net/irish-brown.htmlReplyDelete
hey! it's my baby! glad she's having a good romp in the field...ReplyDelete
December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.
Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.
Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!
Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.
I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!


text:
Hello there! It's been well over a year since my last post but for some reason you people seem to keep coming back to my humble little blog anyways. So for that I say, thank you! I appreciate your continued support.
To get your attention, here is the before and after that I'll be sharing today:
In my 1.5 year hiatus from the blog, a few things have changed around here...
1. I got married
2. I bought a house
3. I started grad school
(Wedding photo cred to the fabulously talented Holly Lynn Photography)
So WOW it has been a while and a lot of things are very different. But I'm back in full swing and have continued being crafty so there's no shortage of exciting projects to share with you all :)
First stop: the house.
The house that my husband and I bought was built in 1918 so it is almost 100 years old. We fell in love with its charm, character, and especially the location!
From our initial walk-through, there were quite a few cosmetic updates that we wanted to do to make it our own. BUT our budget is quite limited (newlywed grad student life doesn't come with a large salary!)
This little house has seen a lot in its lifetime...including some pretty ugly wallpaper and a watermelon pink bedroom.
The first room makeover I'll be sharing is our upstairs bathroom. It's definitely small but our budget couldn't handle any large-scale renovations to make it larger so we had to get creative and make it look and function the best possible with our limited finances. All in all, we were able to complete this makeover for about $300!
Here is the before and after again:
Today I'll be sharing the story of how I redid the countertop and the wall with the medicine cabinet.
(Please excuse the bad lighting and random tools; I took the initial pictures quickly right when we got possession of the house and started immediately on reno that day!)
First dislike: the tile. It was slightly off-white and felt dirty. Plus it just gave the whole bathroom an outdated look.
We also weren't terribly fond of the medicine cabinet. It offered limited (and poor quality) mirror space and, once again, felt outdated.
We wanted to keep the cabinet because its odd shape offered a reasonable amount of counterspace for such a small bathroom. Plus, keeping the cabinet allowed us to keep our budget low.
So the first step in making it all look good was removing all the tile plus the medicine cabinet. I used a hammer and a chisel and it was so satisfying to chip it all off. The countertop tile came off pretty easily.
This is what the countertops looked like underneath the tile. The countertop had originally been a laminate with boomerang shapes on it. Flashback to the 70's! I then removed all the laminate and stripped it down to the MDF-type material underneath in order to have a better grip for the concrete I'll discuss later.
So here I am, chiseling away, feeling like an empowered, construction-savvy woman and then...
The wall tile. Gosh dern that stubborn wall tile. It just didn't want to budge. And when it did, it took everything else it possibly could with it. I kept chiseling and started to reveal more and more of the lathe.
This is the best picture I have of that hot mess:
Thoughts running through my head at this point:
What have I done? We can't afford to get entirely new drywall! What I've I've structurally damaged the walls? I'M ONLY A CHEMIST WHO ALLOWED ME TO DO THIS KIND OF THING. Oh crap, this is my house. I'm responsible for all of this. Haaalp.
So I did what any sane person would do, I called my dad. And next time he was in town, he saved our cute little bathroom from impending doom (AKA saved us from spending oodles of money on someone to fix my mistakes). He used drywall to patch up the part of the wall where the lathe was exposed plus the big gaping hole that taking out the medicine cabinet left.
The picture below also shows how the countertops looked post-tile removal and post-laminate removal:
Thank goodness for dads, am I right?
The next step was patching all of that uneven, drywall mess with lots and lots and lots of spackling putty. Here's a picture of me holding a putty knife and regretting my life choices.
This is the godsend of a product that I used for this:
In the beginning of home reno, I bought a couple small tubs of this stuff. In the end I started getting it by the gallon bucket. (Other projects I'll feature later will explain why).
So finally, after hours of patching and spackling, we had a smooth wall again. The next project to tackle was the countertop. We didn't want to fully replace the countertop because that would have cost a lot of money due to its funky shape (trust me, I got many estimates for everything from poured concrete to laminate to granite).
So I used my vast knowledge of all things Pinterest and decided to make a concrete countertop myself. To do this, I used the increasingly popular technique of skim coating the existing counter with feather finish concrete. There are good tutorials of that here and here.
This is what the countertops looked like after, but pre-sink install:
**You MUST use the feather finish type in order to do this. Trust me, I tried using another kind of concrete that was cheaper and it flaked off as soon as it dried. Learn from my mistakes, people!!**
After finishing up the countertops and installing the original sink, we switched out the sink hardware for a new, more modern look and this is the end result:
My mom and I bought this huge mirror at a yard sale for $20 (score!) and spray painted the frame a dark gray to match our color preferences.
I will definitely be posting more about the other updates in this bathroom (backsplash tile, floors, and more!), but for now here is the cost breakdown of the entire bathroom so you can see how (as advertised) it cost around $300!
Floor tile: $200 (cost of tile + installation)
Concrete countertops: $20 (materials cost, self installed)
Mirror: $20
Sink faucet: $25
Tile backsplash: $35 (materials cost, self installed)
Paint: free (leftover from kitchen painting)
We also got a new toilet but that was a Christmas gift from my parents last year (yay adulthood!) and doesn't necessarily change the updated look of the bathroom (it's just a lot nicer and less dirty) so I did not include that in the total.