text:
Studies in Patriotism
@ Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S Cornell Ave, Chicago, IL 60615
Opening Saturday, August 26th, from 2PM - 4PM
Join the some of the artists included in "Virtue of the Vicious" exhibition as they discuss the work on view. Kevin Blake, Jasmine Clark, Eric J. Garcia, Michelle Hartney, Jay Turner Frey Seawell, Emilio Rojas, and Adela Goldbard talk about their work through the the lens of patriotism in America.
About Virtue of the Viscious:
Virtue of the Vicious presents an examination of the current political climate from the perspective of eight contemporary artists. Curated by Hyde Park Art Center's Director of Exhibitions & Residency Programs Allison Peters Quinn, the exhibition features photography, sculpture, painting and video by Paul Stephen Benjamin, Kevin Blake, Jasmine Clark, Eric J. Garcia in collaboration with Luis Mayorga, Michelle Hartney, Jay Turner Frey Seawell and El Coyote Cojo (Emilio Rojas and Adela Goldbard). Patriotism manifests itself in the American landscape and culture in obvious and covert ways. Artists participating in the exhibition reconsider the pride, loyalty, ownership, discrimination, and fierceness that simultaneously characterize this conflicted allegiance in the current political climate through their artwork.
Assessing the nation's moral compass through visual clues in the landscape, cityscape, media imagery and historical anecdotes, artists evoke a range of emotions. The hopeful "Make American Love Again" campaign by artist Michelle Hartney quietly encourages compassion as a patriotic exercise, while an installation by the El Coyote Cojo collaborative illustrates the uncomfortable historical thread of the popular past time baseball, creating a metaphor for Mexican-American experience of loss and negation of identity.
In his photographs, Jay Turner Frey Seawell frames Washington DC's national monuments, architecture and government buildings, some in disrepair, as symbols for the relationship between citizens and the government. Eric J. Garcia's graphic animation and sculpture criticize America's culture of violence using the satirical tradition of political cartoons. For the exhibition, Garcia works with Luis Mayorga to create a new large scale animation, illustrating filter bubbles and distortive reporting in the news media. The title of the exhibition, taken from a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde, alludes to the complicated emotions associated with loving and supporting one's country while not being proud of its' actions.


text:
Photo: Visual Photos
Three Israeli backpackers were evicted from Fiji after a Muslim immigration officer ruled that they had humiliated Palestinians during their military service in the territories.
The three – Amit Ronen, Eldar Avracohen, and Nimrod Lahav – left Israel in February for a tour in Australia.
In July they decided to spend a week in Fiji. On July 13 they arrived at Fiji airport where a surprise awaited them.
"We gave our passports to the officer, and when she saw we are Israelis she asked for ID cards. We told her we don't understand why we need ID cards and she responded shouting: 'You know very well how to ask Palestinians for IDs and humiliate them for three years."
That's what Avracohen wrote in a complaint letter he sent to Israel's Ambassador to Australia Nati Tamir.
The three were held at Fiji airport for six hours and officials rebuked their pleas to be allowed to make a phone call.
Armed policemen took them to a cell at the airport where they spent the night before being sent back to Australia.
"I don't look like a terrorist and there is no reason to point a gun at me," Nimrod Lahav wrote in a letter to ambassador Tamir.
Avracohen wrote that the incident was the most humiliating experience he had ever gone through.
The Foreign Ministry said the matter is being dealt with.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
2006 Honorees
Carla Bittner
Milken National Educator Awards
As a little girl, Carla Bittner often played school, knowing early that teaching was her passion. She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Houghton College, settling in New Jersey with her husband Michael. Carla began teaching at Evergreen Avenue School in Woodbury, and became involved in Schools Attuned, piloted the multiage program and acts as the building coordinator. Carla earned her master's degree in reading education from Rowan University, just after the birth of her son Tyler. Currently she is working on her principal certification through Drexel University which she will complete shortly before the birth of her second son.
Pictured from left to right: Joseph Jones, Woodbury Schools Superintendent, Jane Foley, Executive Vice President of the Milken Family Foundation, Carla Bittner, 2006 Milken recipient, Lucille Davy, Commissioner of Education, and Frances Carey, Evergreen Avenue School Principal.
Tonya Breland
Milken National Educator Awards
Tonya Breland's purpose is to make a difference one child at a time. One parent conveyed to her the impression made on her son, "He said that you had made him believe that he could be and accomplish anything he wanted to in life if he made the effort…". Tonya has taught on several grade levels as well as coordinated summer school and served as Literacy Coach. To meet students' needs, she differentiates instruction using menus for varying ability levels and literacy centers while playing classical music as a backdrop. She demonstrates her belief that all students have the capacity to reach their maximum potential when provided with exceptional educational opportunities, proven instructional practices, strong parental support and outstanding leadership. Tonya supports student achievement through involvement in professional development programs, Language Arts Vertical Articulation Team, Equity Team, Student Achievement Team, Grading Policy Committee, and staff mentoring. She aspires to become a principal.
Pictured from left to right: Jane Foley, Executive Vice President of the Milken Family Foundation, Chris Manno, Burlington Township Superintendent, Tonya Breland, 2006 Milken recipient, John Johnson, Fountain Woods School Prinicpal, and Lucille Davy, Commissioner of Education.


text:
At one time or another, just about everyone living in the US -- and many who have passed on -- have filled out an application for a Social Security number.
Two generations ago, these were largely being filled out by adults. As the Social Security system matured, parents began filling them out for their children as well. But regardless, an application was filed for just about everyone.
These can be family history goldmines. Though the application has changed over the years, the earlier ones contained details such as:
- Full name
- Maiden name (where applicable, of course)
- Complete address
- Current employer
- Date of employment
- Date of birth
- Place of birth
- Father's full name
- Mother's full name and maiden name
- Race
The form required a signature, which is also part of the application record.
Like I said, a real genealogy goldmine.
You can get a copy of the original application form directly from Social Security. There is a modest fee, which varies depending on the nature of your request. A family member who is living will have to make the request themselves, but if they've passed on, then you can request a copy.
Worth the effort...worth the cost.
Visit the main page of Free Genealogy Tools for more, umm, free genealogical tools.
And don't forget to also check for your family history at Ancestry.com and NewspaperArchive.com. These are subscription databases, but they are among the most powerful research tools available for looking into family roots.


text:
Just wondering what are you guys going to buy ?
The PS4 has a slight advantage over the Xbox one with it's GDDR5 memory vs Xbox DDR3 but the Xbox live services are priceless. Your thoughts ?
To be human is to choose.
It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.
- Emiliano Zapata
B] my first montage! http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...69237798&hl=en
I didn't integrate it with my cable box yet, not happy about the camera, but man, the graphics are stunning. You know my gamertag Riva77 so see you around so I can kick your ass in RYSE or FIFA ? lmao Been 7 years since I played console but I couldn't resist xbox one even with it's Kinect kinks hopefully they will update it quickly.
To be human is to choose.
It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.
- Emiliano Zapata
If I had to get a console it would be an Xbox One for Titanfall.
Looking forward to that game just finished Son of Rome couple days ago, pretty good but short.
Fifa is frustrating, it's either draw or I end up with 7 goals deficit.
To be human is to choose.
It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.
- Emiliano Zapata
Xbox i think is better then ps
This thread needs to be ressurected
Especially after this year's E3 and the announcement of Xbox One "Scorpio" and the confirmation of the Playstation 4 "Neo".
Are there anyone who currently only owns one of the consoles but are now ready to purchase the other? If so, which console and for what reasons?
My friend only has the regular Xbox One and has wanted for a very long time to purchase the PS4 for games such as Until Dawn, Street Fighter V and the upcoming Detroit. However, the rumours that spread of the existence of a potential 4K Playstation 4 has held her back for almost 5 months now. She doesn't want to pull the trigger and buy the console before the upgrade is out. In the meantime she is upset that she cannot play Street Fighter V on the Xbox One, but we do get to enjoy Killer Instinct and plenty of other great titles together.
My console evolution was roughly like this (just so you don't feel like I'm a biased b^&tch).
- Xbox 360
So in conclusion. PS4.
wow this forum went to hell heh
anyway I'm posting here (no activity) just in a case if I forget my username so I can get back to Philip
XBONE until I switched to PC a couple months ago.
I've always liked PC gaming better than consoles for some reason.


text: by David Crane There's a new sheriff in town, and it's called LOSAT. Brought to you by the good and enterprising people at Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control, LOSAT is one of a new group of anti-tank weapon systems that is quickly changing the face of the modern battlefield, specifically in the area of ground-to-ground combat. Here's my prediction …Read More »


text:
Citrix Systems is upgrading XenDesktop, acquiring Virtual Computer, introducing a new type of hardware-assisted thin client and initiating a cloud project in an effort to make its virtual desktop infrastructure offering more attractive.
The company is focusing on that effort at its Synergy user conference, which opened Wednesday and runs through Friday in San Francisco.
Desktop virtualization is one of the main themes at the event as the company provides its take on how enterprises can best deal with the challenge of managing desktops and applications in a new mobile-centric world.
Project Avalon will allow enterprises to run any Windows application or desktop in a public, private or hybrid cloud. The desktop or client can be delivered across any network, to any device, according to Citrix.
"Moving to a cloud architecture enables us to simplify the installation and expansion of [virtual desktop deployments] and how people can flexibly manage and optimize the utilization of those resources. It also adds a layer of automation," said Bob Schultz, vice president and general manager of Citrix's desktop and applications business.
The platform will run on an integration of XenDesktop and Apache CloudStack, on which Citrix has developed its own CloudPlatform. The combination enables multitenant installations across multiple locations that will be able to scale to over 1 million users, according to Citrix.
The transition to cloud-based desktops and applications isn't going to be a magical moment where enterprises move everything in one swoop, according to a blog post by Citrix's Joe Vaccaro, who oversees strategy and development for desktop and application delivery in the cloud.
Instead, it will be process where enterprises place new desktop and application groups in an on-premise private cloud and possibly look at getting extra capacity from a public cloud for their desktop and app needs, Vaccaro said.
The best way to get started is to continue deployments of XenApp 6.5 and XenDesktop 5.6, and use CloudStack, said Schultz.
When Project Avalon will arrive remains to be seen. Citrix isn't announcing availability, it said.
On Wednesday, Citrix also announced the acquisition of Virtual Computer, which will help Citrix improve its XenClient hypervisor, and create the Citrix XenClient Enterprise edition, it said.
XenClient is a so-called bare-metal hypervisor for desktop virtualization. The technology holds the promise of allowing desktop virtualization to work without a network connection and letting the IT department issue laptops that come with one OS for corporate use and one for personal use.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
While Project Avalon and the acquisition of Virtual Desktop is about Citrix's future, the company also made announcements that will have a more immediate effect for users.
Working with partners such as Hewlett-Packard, Citrix is announcing a new generation of thin clients that are based on the company's HDX System-on-Chip initiative, which was announced last October.
By using optimized hardware-based acceleration rather than decoding and rendering virtual desktop traffic on a general purpose processors in software, these clients can deliver the user experience of thin client hardware costing twice as much or more while reducing power consumption, heat, and footprint, according toa Citrix blog post.
Devices based on the initiative still run a Receiver client in an embedded OS, it said.
Besides Hewlett-Packard, hardware vendors such as Atrust, Centerm, NComputing and ThinLinX are also onboard, Citrix said. The thin clients are compatible with both XenDesktop and VDI-in-a-Box.
In June, Citrix will also start distributing XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1, which will simplify printing; use compression technology to reduce bandwidth requirements for 3D content from CAD/CAM or GIS applications; and process voice and video locally. The latter will, for example, work with Cisco System's VXI Unified Communications and Lync 2010 from Microsoft.
Send news tips and comments to email@example.com


text:
In this article I want to tell you about some general details of
SQL Server 7.0 installation.
I also described hardware and software requirements for SQL Server 7.0
and SQL Server 7.0 editions.
Hardware and Software Requirements
Hardware requirements:
90MB (management tools only) plus 50MB for OLAP Services
and 12MB for the English Query
By the way, there is no hardware restriction on the processor speed
(you can run SQL Server 7.0 on the Pentium with minimum mhz), I have
checked it on Pentium 120, but don't use this hardware on production
server, only for the test purpose.
SQL Server 7.0 will run under Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98,
Windows NT Server/Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 4 and Windows 2000
(all editions).
SQL Server also requires Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1
or later, or Internet Explorer 5.0 or later. You can install Internet
Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 from the SQL Server CD-ROM.
SQL Server Editions
There are three SQL Server Editions:
Desktop Edition can works on the Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows
Windows NT Server/Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 4, Windows NT Server
Enterprise Edition and on the all editions of Windows 2000.
This edition has some restrictions:
Standard Edition can works on the Windows NT Server 4.0 with
Service Pack 4, Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition and on the
Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server/Datacenter.
This edition has the following restrictions:
Enterprise Edition can works on the Windows NT Server Enterprise
Edition and on the Windows 2000 Advanced Server/Datacenter
(as far as I know).
This edition can uses 32 CPU and more than 2Gb RAM, it also supports
Full-text search and SQL Server Failover Support.
Installation Types
There are three SQL Server 7.0 installation types:
The Typical installation option is recommended for most users. This is
the default installation options. The Typical option installs the upgrade
tools, replication support, client management tools, online documentation
and so on.
This installation can takes only 65Mb on your hard drive and contains
the minimum configuration necessary to run SQL Server.
There are no upgrade tools, full-text search, client management tools,
online documentation, development tools and code samples.
This type of installation allows you to change any or all of the default
options. Custom installation is recommended for advanced users. You can
choose full-text search (if you have Standard or Enterprise edition), you
can install code samples, choose to install the development libraries and
so on.
Testing an installation
There are several ways to test SQL Server 7.0 installation. When the
installation is complete, you can verify SQL Server installation with
osql (or isql) utility. This is the description:
1. Start MSSQLServer service.
You can start MSSQLServer service by entering from a command prompt:
or by run SQL Server Service Manager and start MSSQLServer service
2. Run osql utility.
Once the server is running, type the following command-line options:
If successful, this osql prompt appears:
Now you can verify SQL Server 7.0 installation by entering this simple
If successful, this query returns the name of the server on which SQL
Server is running. Now you can exit by typing exit command.
1. SQL Server Books Online
2. Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Unleashed


text:
Protesters burned buildings around Bangkok Wednesday even after troops overran the red-shirt camp and their leaders surrendered. Clashes left five people dead.
Bangkok, Thailand — Thai troops punched into a downtown protest camp Wednesday, ending a five-week rally but failing to stop violent unrest spreading around the capital as a nighttime curfew was declared.
Leaders of the red-shirt protesters, who draw support from rural and working-class followers, surrendered to police in the early afternoon, when it became clear after a dawn assault that troops using armored personnel carriers and helicopters had taken control of the site.
The leaders told the crowd from a stage under an elevated train line that they were surrendering to avert further bloodshed. The announcement drew boos from some red shirts, though others held aloft photos of the leaders as they sat on the road.
But as the rally wound down, nearby department stores were set ablaze, part of a wave of arson attacks that have gathered pace in recent days. Across the city, pockets of resistance seemed to grow stronger as angry mobs torched buildings and tire barricades, sending black fumes into the sky. Fire trucks struggled to reach the scene, and gunfire and explosions echoed around neighborhoods where power supplies were cut. The stock exchange, a TV station, and banks were set ablaze.
Authorities said five people died in the takeover of the red-shirt camp. An Italian journalist was among the dead. Gunfights erupted around a park where militant reds were spotted. Troops advanced slowly into the barricaded site, a prime commercial district that once hummed with foreign tourists but has been turned into a vast squatter camp.
Government officials said on state television that the situation was returning to normal. A cabinet minister described the unrest as anticipated "aftershocks" and blamed "violent-prone protesters."
Worst Violence in Years
But the clouds of billowing smoke on the horizon and sense of anarchy sowed fear among some residents. The political violence is the deadliest seen in Bangkok in nearly two decades, with more than 50 dead in six weeks. In recent days some neighborhoods have been evacuated.
"I don't mind demonstrations, but this is rioting. We can't go out at night, we fear robbery," says Siriorn Doyle, a housewife, who peered out from her 10th-floor apartment at raging fires along a nearby road. She had to walk up the stairs as power had been cut off. Gas stations had been closed for days to stop protesters igniting homemade bombs, she says.
The red shirts, called the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, began gathering supporters in Bangkok on March 12 in a call for snap elections. Many UDD members are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lost power in 2006 to a military coup. They argue that Bangkok's traditional elite and the powerful military have hijacked democracy.
After deadly clashes on April 10, negotiators thrashed out a peace plan that included a promise of elections in November. But the deal fell apart as UDD leaders failed to muster support for compromise and more radical voices came to the fore, including a renegade Army general, Khattiya Sawadispol. Last week he was shot by a sniper, the trigger for deadly clashes with soldiers who set up a cordon around the site.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a politics professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, says the red shirts should have accepted the peace plan offered by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Pro-UDD politicians were favored to win the election, as they have huge support in the countryside.
Moderate leaders "were ready to declare victory and go home," he says. Opposition came from militants accused of fomenting violent attacks and the exiled Mr. Thaksin, who wants to return to power, he says.
Anusart Suwanmongkol, a conservative senator, says Thaksin had been the biggest obstacle to brokering a cease-fire. "In the end, whatever negotiators agreed upon they have to get the final approval" from him, he says.
Thaksin Denies Involvement
In a statement Wednesday, Thaksin denied that he was the mastermind behind the protests and said that he didn't believe in violence, CNN reported. He also denied that he had meddled in the talks. "They did not demand anything for me or on my behalf. I am not UDD," he said.
At an intersection south of the rally site, hundreds of people gathered at midday to watch burning tires in a near-deserted six-lane road and cheer as motorbike riders dodged gunfire from behind the black smoke. Residents said that Army snipers were hiding in an unfinished apartment block near the barricade of tires. Several shops were also burning.
A black pickup truck careered out from an ally and skidded to a halt at the junction. In the back were a dozen or so car and bicycle tires. Men wearing scarves to cover their faces and carrying radios circulated in the crowd.
Then, loud shots rang out, wounding a protester in the shoulder. As he was bundled into a pickup truck to take to hospital, explosives rent the air and gunfire erupted from both sides. The black smoke curled into the sky, shrouding the high-rise towers.
We need to update you on where Truthout stands this month.
To be brutally honest, Truthout is behind on our fundraising goals for the year. There are a lot of reasons why. We're dealing with broad trends in our industry, trends that have led publications like Vice, BuzzFeed, and National Geographic to make painful cuts. Everyone is feeling the squeeze of inflation. And despite its lasting importance, news readership is declining.
To ensure we stay out of the red by the end of the year, we have a long way to go. Our future is threatened.
We've stayed online over two decades thanks to the support of our readers. Because you believe in the power of our work, share our transformative stories, and give to keep us going strong, we know we can make it through this tough moment.
Our fundraising campaign ends in a few hours, and we still must raise $11,000. Please consider making a donation before time runs out.


text:
Can't afford health care? Barter for it
In these cash-strapped times, bartering is gaining popularity - even for dental surgery and prescription drugs.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A few entrepreneurs are exploring a novel solution to the problem of finding affordable health care for themselves and their staff: Swap for it.
Bob Viking, who owns a party supply store and event entertainment company in Portage, Wisc., hasn't had to pay cash for office computers or services like remodeling in seven years. Instead, he barters for them, using a system he's now exploring for health care as well. Viking paid for his own dental surgery with barter "cash," and he recently met with a service that barters dental, eye care and emergency health coverage to discuss building an employee benefit plan.
As the recession drags on, barter is booming. International Monetary Systems (IMS), the network Viking uses, has seen its volume of inquiries double since last year. Business owners with an eye toward cutting costs are increasingly viewing bartering as a viable option for obtaining medical services for themselves and their employees.
"The vast majority of small and medium businesses just don't have the resources today to offer those big insurance platforms with large coverage, so they're turning to alternative forms to be able to provide similar benefits at less cost," said John Strabley, CEO of IMS.
Not offering health insurance has hurt staff recruiting and retention over the years at his company, Viking said.
"I just can't afford to do it as a small business owner, even if I only paid a portion of it," he said. "The portion I'd have to pass onward would also be problematic for any employee. It really is too expensive for me to add to my bottom line."
That's a problem that plagues many entrepreneurs. President Obama has made reforming the health care system a political priority this year, a move that's in line with small business owners' needs. Entrepreneurs frequently cite the cost and restricted availability of health care as one of their top business challenges. A recent survey by the Main Street Alliance, an industry group lobbying for health-care reform, found that just 34% of the small employers it polled offer employee health coverage.
On a volume basis, bartering isn't yet ready to fill the gap. IMS, which boasts 18,000 clients and handled a barter volume of $120 million last year, does only 3% to 5% percent of its trading in the medical field, Strabley estimated. That includes services from massage therapists and chiropractors, as well as more traditional medical help from dentists, doctors and optometrists.
But the handful of providers who have stepped up to swap are finding a growing demand for their services. Wall Family Dentistry in Milwaukee, Wisc., has been a member of IMS and its predecessor for sixteen years, amassing "barter bucks" that owner Tim Wall has traded for a baby grand piano and a pontoon boat. Business was traditionally slow, but lately Wall is fielding what he calls "probably as much as I can handle." He sees up to 15 patients a month who have bartered for care.
He's noticed another new trend, as well: Customers have shifted their priorities to more vital, basic services. A year ago, network members would use barter to pay for cosmetic procedures like tooth whitening. Now, they want fillings and cleanings, he said.
Entrepreneur Shawn Christian relies on barter trade for all of his employees' health care services. Christian has a vested interest in promoting bartering: He owns the Dallas franchise of Itex, a barter network that focuses specifically on serving small businesses. But Christian also owns a maid service, and although he offers a health insurance plan, none of his staff have purchased it because the premiums are still too high, he said.
Instead, Christian barters cleaning services for credits that he then swaps for dental care and visits to emergency clinics. He estimates that he spent about $15,000 in barter money last year paying for staff health care.
Medical barter has its limits: Christian would love to barter for prescription drugs, but can't because there are no providers participating in his network.
Corwin Discount Drugs, one of the few pharmacies that have joined the barter trade, sees heavy demand for its wares. Based in Lockport, Ill., the prescription drug supplier does around $100,000 a year in barter revenue, accounting for around 8% of the store's annual sales.
Owner Walter Beich, who has been involved with the IMS network for almost 20 years, says his barter trade is up 20% from two years ago. He uses his barter credits to pay for software, vehicles and store maintenance, freeing up cash for other purposes.
That isn't to say that there's a headlong rush to start swapping oil changes for heart surgery. Though it's growing, barter itself is "still a wrinkle in the economy," Strabley acknowledges. Still, his network is soliciting for new members in the medical fields in greatest demand, such as eye doctors, dentists and chiropractors. Medical professionals currently make up less than 5% of IMS's membership, a figure Strabley would like to grow to 7%.
As with most networks, IMS' medical members are mostly sole practitioners and small operators. Red tape-heavy hospitals don't generally engage in barter.
Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., is a notable exception. The hospital's Artist Access program has since 2005 allowed more than 400 uninsured musicians, actors, dancers and visual artists to barter their talents in exchange for surgical procedures and dental care.
Artists can teach an opera class, paint murals or act out scripts to help doctors in training practice delivering bad news, earning credits to apply toward the services they need. Since the economy worsened, coordinator Amy Duquette says she's seen two or three inquiries a week, up from the previous average of one a week.
"As they're calling me, they're specifically saying, 'well, I just lost my job, so I don't have health insurance now,'" she said.
For business owners like Viking, it's bartering or bust when it comes to expanding access to medical services for himself and his staff.
"The pool of available money for health care dries up very quickly," he said.To write a note to the editor about this article, click here.
Health care: The hidden business killer
The death of the corner pharmacy
Why health care pools haven't worked
The Cheesecake Factory created smaller portions to survive the downturn. Play
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Derek Christian pays to train his employees for new careers. More
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These firms are the last left in America making iconic products now in their twilight. More


text: San Antonio, TX - SABCS 2009 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: ML Kwan addresses the GENERAL SESSION 1 ? Abstract 17 session at the 2009 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here today, Thursday December 10, 2009. Over 8,000 Physicians, researchers and healthcare professionals from over 60 countries attended the meeting which features the latest research on Breast Cancer Treatment and Prevention. Date: Thursday December 10, 2009 Photo by © SABCS/Todd Buchanan 2009 Technical Questions: firstname.lastname@example.com; Phone: 612-226-5154.


text:
Coromandel Cottages is a relaxing beautiful place to stay.
Tietoa meistä
Coromandel is just a 3-minute drive away when you stay at Coromandel Colonial Cottages Motel, located in the heart of the Coromandel Peninsula. The property offers a seasonal outdoor solar-heated swimming pool.
All cottages are self-contained and feature a large lounge, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and separate toilet. The cottages have rear covered car port parking and front patios with a table and chairs. All have a flat-screen TV.
There is a tour desk at the property. There is also a children's playground and large BBQ area with covered gazebo.
The surrounding area is poplar for fishing (charters available), swimming and beautiful walks. Coromandel Town is 32.9 miles north of Thames and the nearest airport is Auckland Airport, 2.5-hours drive from Coromandel Colonial Cottages Motel.
Ota yhteyttä
Coromandel Cottages Ltd
1737 Rings Rd, Coromandel, Coromandel Town, 3506, New ZealandLisätietoja


text:
Ever since the Pebble watch became an cause célèbre in tech circles for its kickass Kickstarter moves (it's raised almost $7mm dollars and counting), something's been nagging me about the company and its product.
It's now Valley legend that the company had to turn to Kickstarter to get its working capital – more than 46,000 folks have backed Pebble, and will soon be proudly sporting their spiffy new iPhone-powered watches as a result. Clearly Pebble has won – both financially, as well as in the court of public opinion. I spoke to one early investor (through Y-Combinator) who had nothing but good things to say about the company and its founders.
But why, I wondered, were mainstream VCs not backing Pebble once it became clear the company was on a path to success?
The reasons I read in press coverage – that VCs tend to not like untested hardware/platform plays, that retail products have low margins, etc., all sounded reasonable, but not enough. In this environment, there had to be more going on.
Now, I don't know enough to claim this as anything more than a theory, but it's a Friday, so allow me to speculate: Perhaps one reason VCs don't want to invest in Pebble is because they fear Apple.
Here's why. If you watch the video explaining Pebble, it become pretty clear that the watch is, in essence, a new form factor for the iPhone. It's smaller, it's more use-case defined, but that's what it is: A smaller mirror of your iPhone, strapped to you wrist. Pebble uses bluetooth connectivity to access the iPhone's native capabilities, and then displays data, apps, and services on its high-resolution e-paper screen. It even has its own "app store" and (upcoming) SDK/API so people can write native apps to the device.
In short, Pebble is an iPhone for your wrist. And Apple doesn't own it.
If we've learned anything about Apple over the years, it's that Apple is driven by its hardware business. It makes its profits by selling hardware – and it's built a beautiful closed software ecosystem to insure those hardware sales. Pebble forces an interesting question: Does Apple care about new form factors for hardware? Or is it content to build out just the "core" hardware platform, and allow anyone to innovate in new hardware instances? Would Apple be cool with someone building, say, a larger form factor of the iPhone, perhaps tablet-sized, driven by your iPhone?
I don't know the answer to that question (and doubt Apple would answer my call asking such a question), so I'll toss it out to you. What do you all think? Is Pebble playing with fire here? Would Apple ever change its developer terms of services to cut the new company off?


text:
...in the lousiest decade in living memory. It can't end too soon. Sure, we had all sorts of things to be happy about. For one thing I think the 'aughties will become known as the era personal tech came into its own: laptops, iPhones, Blackberries, and more keeping us connected to the world at large wherever we are and giving us huge leeway in personalizing the experience. But does that make up for eight nightmare years of misrule that sped us down the path to global economic collapse? Not quite. Let us hope the 'teens will be a time of prosperity. Kind of like the '90s. You know, we may have had a philandering dolt with dubious taste in interns as president and a pronounced gift for acting even dumber than Tiger Woods in the aftermath. But at least we wrapped up the decade with a nice fat budget surplus. And the music was better then too.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
One day to go...
18 comments:
- Anonymous12/31/2009 6:29 AM
There will be good times, and there will be bad times. That's life.ReplyDelete
although technically, the decade ends in 1 year - but why split hairs? I'd just as soon cut it short too.ReplyDelete
I think we do decades differently than we do centuries. I don't know of anyone who thinks 1990 was in the '80s. It's all informal anyway.ReplyDelete
I just stepped outside and the weather here in Austin is perfect! At least this horrible era is ending on a high note.
I have not argument with you about the leadership for the past decade but to blame him for every thing that went wrong gives him too much credit. Leaving the foreign policy blunders aside, the root of much of the economic collapse was millions of people making poor financial decisions. You can blame banks, mortgage companies and the credit card companies but in the end it comes down to poor personal decisions. Much of this can be attributed to poor critical thinking skills.ReplyDelete
Religion is one of the biggest promoters of poor thinking skills. The promotion of faith, acceptance of authority and inner knowledge over reality are not a good toolkit for dealing with the world we actually live in. As the new year approaches it is a time to renew our commitment to resist this flawed worldview and continue to show that there are better alternatives.
Wishing for a better decade - let's work to make it happen.
All I know is, if the world doesn't look like Back to the Future Part II by 2015, I'm gonna be pissed.ReplyDelete
I want my auto-lace-up shoes, holographic sharks and rehydrate-able pizzas, damnit.
Flying cars...not so much, actually. Sounds kind of horrifying given the type of driving I see people doing in normal cars.
As for the whole "what's a decade question", just count the yearsReplyDelete
2000 was a year, 01 was a year, etc etc.
0-9 comprises 10 numbers, ten years = decade.
DavidCT: By "him" I'm sure you're referring to Bush, whom — you will find if you look over the original post one more time — I did not in fact name. I mentioned 8 years of awful leadership, and certainly Bush was a major player in that arena. But there's plenty of blame to spread around, of course.ReplyDelete
@ MartinReplyDelete
I realized that you were being more inclusive and should not have been singling out one person for general poor leadership. My point was about poor decisions on the part of many individuals that cannot be completely blamed on their leaders. This is not limited to the US. The level of unsupportable real estate debt is even worse in the UK. There is more than enough dumbass to go around.
It is another great day in central Texas. I'll wait till next year to go back to fighting foolishness. That will have to include my own.
Happy New Year!
Politically, the 00's were like a bad hangover from the Reagan years.ReplyDelete
The problem with that, Sparrowhawk, is that if you keep reckoning decades backward, you get to years 1-9, as there is no year zero. That's 9 years. That leaves us with 200 decades and one nonade. Not a real problem, I suppose, but it's somewhat inelegant.ReplyDelete
So I am not the only who thought the decade sucked big time. On a personal level, I did fine, but our time in history really was a giant step backwards. Hell, the new millenium started off with 9/11, easily the worst beginning for the last three millenia. I said it began with 9/11, since as I have learned in my history of literature classes, a century, a millenium or any new era does not start with an arbitrary 00 or 01, but with an event that will change history. We can safely say that the last decade saw irrational thoughts and fanatism dominate public life. Let's hope secular humanism will make a come back in the Western world at least.ReplyDelete
I've recently found The Atheist Experience - first on YouTube and then this blog.ReplyDelete
My eyes are now permanently crossed from reading and watching so much over the past few days!
Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year.
Thank you all for all you're doing!
I'm sure a lot of us could stand to be a little less foolish. I, as much as anyone.ReplyDelete
Glad to have you, Sunstreaked.ReplyDelete
Thanks, Martin.ReplyDelete
Grinning here - let me clarify something if I'm gonna post here. My pic is not me, but something I participate in elsewhere. I'm also a she, not a he, as the pic implies.
Just thought I'd throw that out as I always have to explain it at some point!
Well, the 00's gave us YouTube, which gave The Atheist Experience (among others) global exposure, so the decade didn't completely suck.ReplyDelete
It's kind of frightening to think that millions of people probably never even heard an atheist argument prior to YouTube. There's no going back now, thank Zeus.
Not sure I'm with on the music front... ;-)ReplyDelete
"the root of much of the economic collapse was millions of people making poor financial decisions. You can blame banks, mortgage companies and the credit card companies but in the end it comes down to poor personal decisions. Much of this can be attributed to poor critical thinking skills."ReplyDelete
And the big stinking fertilizer that let those roots take hold was Clinton being a dumb-ass and removing the restrictions that prevented people from being insanely stupid.
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Derya Davenport
Hello, fellow Raveller!
Check out the Laylock Blog for printables, downloads, tutorials, articles & design stories.
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|Using Web Service Explorer to test a Web service
Using Web Service Explorer to test a Web service
By Kathy Chan
This document is one of a series of tutorials to demonstrate the use of the Web Services tools in the Web Tools Platform Project using a WTP 1.0 driver.
This tutorial shows how to use the Web Service Explorer to test a Web service via native WSDL and SOAP. It demonstrates how to use the Web Services Explorer to invoke operations on a Web service named " Delayed Stock Quote " as available from XMethods on the internet.
The only prerequisite is that you be connected to the internet. If you are connected via a firewall, you can use the Internet preferences page (choose Preferences -> Internet from the main menu). Otherwise, you can begin with a completely fresh workspace and no installed servers.
|Using the Web Services Explorer to test a Web service
return (float): 79.28
You may need to move the horizontal bar separating the Actions and Status panes upwards a bit to get a better view. Result:
The Web Services Explorer is a JSP Web application hosted on the Apache Tomcat servlet engine contained within Eclipse. It is integrated into Eclipse on two levels: visually by virtue of it running in the embedded browser, and logically by virtue of it running as a thread in the Eclipse JRE. Though not demonstrated in this scenario, this latter type of integration allows the Web Services Explorer to access resources in the workspace, write resources into the workspace, and launch various Web services wizards.
The Web Services Explorer provides three key services to the user:


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The digital Loeb Classical Library extends the founding mission of James Loeb with an interconnected, fully searchable, perpetually growing virtual library of all that is important in Greek and Latin literature. Now with enhanced navigation »
Josephus, soldier, statesman, historian, was a Jew born at Jerusalem about 37 CE. A man of high descent, he early became learned in Jewish law and Greek literature and was a Pharisee. After pleading in Rome the cause of some Jewish priests he returned to Jerusalem and in 66 tried to prevent revolt against Rome, managing for the Jews the affairs of Galilee. In the troubles which followed he made his peace with Vespasian. Present at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, he received favours from these two as emperors and from Domitian and assumed their family name Flavius. He died after 97.
As a historical source Josephus is invaluable. His major works are: History of the Jewish War, in seven books (the Loeb edition is in three volumes), from 170 BCE to his own time, first written in Aramaic but translated by himself into the Greek we now have; and Jewish Antiquities, in twenty books (nine volumes), from the creation of the world to 66 CE.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of the works of Josephus also includes the autobiographical Life and his treatise Against Apion.


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The price of gold may have come under increasing pressure in past weeks with concerns that the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy may be coming to an end, but analysts have told CNBC that the precious metal can still break through the $2,000 mark in the long term.
"We're in a very good situation. QE (quantitative easing) is going to go for six to twelve months. They are talking about $500 billion to $1 trillion more in the system," Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank told CNBC Monday.
Record low interest rates by central banks around the globe have resulted in negative real interest rates — when allowing for inflation. Traditionally gold has an inverse relationship to interest rates and is used as a hedge against inflation, which can occur as a result of monetary stimulus.
"So a very positive environment for gold," Weinberg said. "But for now the demand for safe haven is not there so probably even the professional buyers are going to be keeping off the market. But longer term we forecast the prices to rise above $2,000."
(Read More: Will Gold Shine in 2013?)
The precious metal has remained a talking point in recent weeks as many now feel the spot price has stalled below $1,700. Inflation has yet to materialize and a slight change in rhetoric has emerged from central bankers.
The Federal Reserve announced its last QE program last month, but minutes from that meeting show that several Fed officials thought it would be appropriate to slow or stop asset purchases well before the end of 2013, citing concerns about financial stability and the size of the balance sheet.
The suggestion of an end to its asset buybacks caused the price of gold to fall more than 1 percent.
(Read More: Gold Mega-Rally Hangs in Balance After Fed Decision)
"If the economy performs well in 2013, the committee will be in a position to think about going on pause with its balance sheet policy, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told CNBC on Friday.
Weinberg said that commodities in general are set for a good 2013 as the world continues to grow, but other analysts aren't as convinced.
"I think that the commodity cycle is broken," Hans Redeker, head of global currency strategy at Morgan Stanley told CNBC Monday, adding that he believes peaks in prices for commodities have already occurred.
(Read More: Gold May Be Down but Bulls Aren't Counting It Out)
Martin Arnold, senior research analyst at ETF Securities, sees an upturn for gold in the longer term.
"With other central banks also flooding financial markets with cheap liquidity (ECB, Bank of Japan, and potentially more from the Bank of England with new governor in 2013), the global monetary stance continues to be supportive of gold in particular," he told CNBC.com.
"While cyclical growth pick-ups may cause short-term pauses in debasement policies and the gold price rally, until real debt burdens are reduced, gold should remain in a structural bull market."


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On Friday 10 March 2017, HHJ Lindsey Kushner Q.C. drew a 43-year legal career to a close by detaining a rapist for six years. After 14 years on the bench, her final trial at Manchester Crown Court involved a set of facts grimly familiar to criminal practitioners, in which the defendant, Ricardo Rodrigues-Fortes-Gomes (19), led the 18-year old victim, who had been drinking lager and vodka and inhaling amyl nitrate, from a city centre Burger King to a canal bank, where she was raped. Her cries were heard by a witness in a nearby flat, who called the police.
The details are scantly reported, but it appears that there was a co-defendant, and it was said that they took turns to have intercourse with the victim on the canal bank. They each claimed that the sex was consensual. The co-defendant was acquitted while Rodrigues was convicted. (For those immediately curious as to how this might be, it should be emphasised that the burden of proof means that such a verdict is not a finding that the co-defendant was innocent and that the intercourse with him was consensual; all we can divine from the verdict is that the jury could not be sure that there was not consent (or reasonable belief in consent).)
Having passed a sentence of six years' detention in a Young Offender Institution, HHJ Kushner Q.C. took her last ever sentencing remarks as an opportunity to share some wider observations. This is not uncommon; recent years have seen retiring judges use their last hurrah to shoehorn in some long-suppressed views about, for example, the crumbling Crown Prosecution Service. Given the trial over which she had just presided, HHJ Kushner Q.C. chose the topic of sexual offences on which to offer her insight. The remarks bear repetition in full, given the interpretation that has since been attached to them:
"We judges who see one sexual offence trial after another, have often been criticised for suggesting and putting more emphasis on what girls should and shouldn't do than on the act and the blame to be apportioned to rapists…There is absolutely no excuse and a woman can do with her body what she wants and a man will have to adjust his behaviour accordingly. But as a woman judge I think it would be remiss of me if I didn't mention one or two things. I don't think it's wrong for a judge to beg women to take actions to protect themselves. That must not put responsibility on them rather than the perpetrator. How I see it is burglars are out there and nobody says burglars are OK, but we do say 'please don't leave your back door open at night, take steps to protect yourselves'…Girls are perfectly entitled to drink themselves into the ground but should be aware people who are potential defendants to rape, gravitate towards girls who have been drinking."
The judge also went on to remark that "potential defendants to rape" target girls who have been drinking because they are "more likely to agree as they are more disinhibited, even if they don't agree they are less likely to fight a man with evil intentions off". She said a woman would be less likely to report a rape "because she was drunk or cannot remember what happened or feels ashamed to deal with it".
"Or, if push comes to shove, a girl who has been drunk is less likely to be believed than one who is sober at the time…It should not be like that but it does happen and we see it time and time again. They are entitled to do what they like but please be aware there are men out there who gravitate towards a woman who might be more vulnerable than others. That's my final line, in my final criminal trial, and my final sentence."
It did not take long for a flare to be sent up. This, it was swiftly asserted, amounted to classic Victim Blaming. Dame Vera Baird, former solicitor general and Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
"When somebody is raped they feel guilt and shame and they find it very hard to report it. If a judge has just said to them 'Well, if you drank you are more likely to get raped, we are not likely to believe you and you have been disinhibited so you've rather brought it on yourself' then that guilt is just going to get worse."
"Ms Baird said the judge should have given advice to help women stay safe instead of implying "it's your fault for having attracted him in the first place"."
"This looks like victim-blaming and they (organisations such as Rape Crisis) are worried that, yet again, it is going to become harder to get women to make reports. That's a terrible shame."
Similar sentiments were echoed by numerous charities and pressure groups. They were ad idem in their condemnation – the judge was blaming victims for the horrors that they suffered at the hands of their attackers. She was "telling women that they wouldn't be believed" and "deterring victims from coming forward".
This is the message that has since dominated the reporting of this story. And, with respect, it is wholly and dangerously wrong.
Victim blaming – ascribing moral fault to victims for crimes committed against them – is insidious and wicked for all the reasons correctly identified by Baird and campaigners. It wrongly seeks to diminish the moral culpability of the criminal by apportioning fault to the victim, in a manner unthinkable outside the arena of sexual offences; it increases the suffering of the victim; it deters present and future victims from reporting offences; and its logical conclusion holds that the solution to preventing these offences lies solely with the women who "invite" them, rather than the men who perpetrate them.
But it is not the same thing as seeking objectively to identify factors that increase one's risk of vulnerability to crime, and urging awareness of those factors.
The sensitivity to perceived victim blaming in the criminal courts is understandable. The law – courts, judges and lawyers – has for centuries indulged in stark and blatant victim blaming. From the historical lack of respect and credibility afforded to "unchaste women", to 1980s judges suggesting that a victim's clothing or demeanour meant she was "asking for it", to the fact that as recently as 1991 a wife could not in law be raped by her husband, the law has rightly been forced to update attitudes rooted in what is at best patriarchy and at worst institutional misogyny. And, while much has improved, it would be naive to assert that such attitudes can be comfortably boxed up as historical remnants.
The Fawcett Society earlier this year published a report suggesting that 38% of men and 34% of women surveyed said that a woman was "totally or partly to blame" if she went out late at night wearing a short skirt, got drunk and was the victim of a sexual assault. A High Court judge last year made comments, similar to those expressed by HHJ Kuschner Q.C., but with the added, ill-advised suggestion that the victim had been "foolish" to have exposed herself to risk. I criticised this on Twitter at the time as deeply unhelpful, representing, while not "victim blaming" as such, nevertheless a moral judgment of victims that we should strive to avoid.
It plainly still needs to be said, and should be said, loudly, clearly and repeatedly: It does not matter what a woman is wearing. Or how much she has drunk. Her body is her own. If you violate her autonomy, the responsibility is entirely yours. No-one else's. She is not to blame for exercising her freedom. You will not, as happened in one notorious case in 1982 at Ipswich Crown Court, find yourself handed a shorter sentence on the basis that the victim is culpable of "contributory negligence" for putting herself in a position of vulnerability. Your crime is wholly your own.
But, to repeat the point – this should not be conflated with attempts to point out ways in which people can minimise the risk to themselves. The "locking your windows to keep out burglars" analogy often reached for in this debate, and indeed floated by the judge, carries an admitted crassness, comparing as it does a crime against property with an invasive sexual offence; but that does not diminish its inherent truth. Saying that there are common factors which are exploited by criminals is expressing empirical fact. It is not a value judgment on character or behaviour. It no more increases the moral culpability of the victim or decreases the agency of the offender than pointing out that going out without shoes increases your chances of cutting your feet on broken glass. You are not in any way morally to blame for someone else leaving broken glass on the floor, nor for expressing your right to dress as you please; the message is simply: here's what experience teaches us you can do to minimise this risk.
In the instant case, it is obvious that this was all that the judge was doing. She was talking about a very specific type of offence which, although thankfully rare, crosses the criminal courts far more often than humanity can bear; namely, cases where a highly intoxicated lone young women is targeted by a predatory rapist due to her vulnerability. This is not a myth created by misogynist judges to frighten women into never leaving the house – it is an appalling reality. And what is more, as the judge carefully explained, the specific vulnerability of being blind drunk can be exploited not only in the commission of the offence, but a second time over by the defendant seeking to deny his guilt at trial. In the case that HHJ Kushner Q.C. had just heard, the guilty defendant had alleged consent. I can guarantee you that the defence barrister will have spent significant time in cross-examination tugging away at the minor details of that fateful evening to demonstrate how the alcohol had inhibited the victim's memory in an effort to undermine the reliability of her evidence.
None of this, as the judge was at pains to say, is to in any way blame the victim for what happened to her. But it would be a nonsense to suggest that, in cases such as these, one's vulnerability is not heightened by drinking to excess.
It is in many ways bizarre that at a time when there is a belated emerging social consensus that tackling "general" crime requires a multi-faceted approach, looking not only at the individual culpability of the offender but the broader environmental and causative factors that create the conditions for crime to occur, the tune of self-professed progressives is often one-note when it comes to sex offences. In political terms, emphasising that an effective criminal justice policy has to recognise the social and environmental factors that facilitate crime, and that so doing does not excuse the moral culpability of the individual, has been a gruelling campaign of the centre-left. It is usually the gravel-throated wails of the reactionary right that drown out attempts at nuanced assessments of crime that move beyond locating cause (as opposed to moral culpability) solely in the offender. But this is the adopted philosophy of those who shout down HHJ Kushner's advice with the mantra of, "Rape is only caused by rapists".
The choices of the offender are the largest part of the problem, of course. But it is blinkered to suggest that the solution to making the public safer lies simply in condemning louder and punishing harsher. Unpleasant as it is to accept, we will never eradicate violent and sexual crime. Never. There will always be people – usually men – who irrespective of the law, will rape. As long as we recognise that truth, it is incumbent upon us to help keep each other safe. This we do by focussing on the offender, and potential offenders, through social, criminal and penal policies combining education, deterrence, rehabilitation and punishment; but also by limiting opportunity for those who are determined to offend. A solution that focusses solely on the offender, asserting that there is nothing that can be done by the public to protect themselves, is no real solution at all. It's cyclopic, prioritising the purity of The Cause ahead of pragmatic realities.
That, I fear, is what we are witnessing with this latest outburst against the judge.
And, again, in making these observations, I do not question the sincerity of the cause. And I understand why, whatever label one puts on the judge's comments, it might still be suggested that they were not helpful. There is a justifiable worry that emphasising personal victim safety might deflect attention from the offender's culpability in a way that is superficially extremely unattractive. One could argue that the prevalence of such remarks reinforce misnomers about sexual offending, and disguise more complex realities, such as the fact that the "stranger rapist in the bushes" is statistically rare, the offender and victim most likely to be known to each other. One might contend that the discussion about what steps it is objectively "reasonable" for a woman to take can easily fissure into normative value judgments about how women should act, or dress, or otherwise restrict their own liberties.
I would argue that none of those arise in this case – the judge's remarks appear plain, sensitive and carefully targeted – but I can see why those who dedicate their lives to supporting victims may tire of what they perceive as an imbalance in public discourse, and wish that emphasis were placed elsewhere.
Nevertheless, whatever may fairly be tossed into the debate, and whatever deeper, noble motivations may pertain, the claims of "victim blaming" here are entirely unjustified. The ubiquity with which the term "victim blaming" is now thrown around, like "fake news" by a deranged faux-Presidential clown in a wig, risks degrading its meaning to "something we'd rather not hear". Worse than that, it results in vital, non-judgemental messages about personal safety being lost in the din.
Judges and police trying to press home the message of personal safety find themselves like doctors telling a patient that there are certain environmental factors that increase their risk of vulnerability to a disease, and having their offer of advice angrily rejected as "victim blaming".
In fact, it is worse than that. To stretch the analogy, Vera Baird's words are akin to telling people: "If you go to see a doctor, you will suffer victim blaming." Dame Vera, although I don't doubt motivated by a genuine desire to improve the lot of victims of sexual offences, is becoming a repeat offender in this area, the first to heighten alarm rather than assuage concerns. The quote to the BBC, in which Ms Baird suggested that the judge had said "you've rather brought it on yourself" is, I'm afraid, simply untrue. Either Ms Baird did not read the remarks before commenting, or, worse, she did and has dishonestly misrepresented them to support her point.
It is a genuine shame that the publicity generated by the judge's comments were not seized upon as a platform for a united message of support for victims, instead of being exploited as an opportunity for division and recrimination. Imagine if, instead of rushing to condemn this judge – who, with respect, will have a far deeper, broader and more objective understanding of the topic than many single issue campaigners – Vera Baird had said something like this:
"As this highly experienced judge rightly recognised, crimes of this type are always the fault of the offender. Furthermore, this type of rape is rare; but there are simple steps that we would urge people to take on nights out to increase their personal safety. Predators often seek out women who are drunk and alone and exploit their vulnerabilities. Of course go out, drink and have fun – but just take care. And, should the worst happen, please do not be deterred by media scare stories from reporting what has happened."
It has been suggested that such advice is otiose, or patronising. As the Guardian was told by End Violence to Women:
"The group pointed out that women already take steps as a matter of routine. "They leave early, get taxis instead of buses, don't wear 'that' top or 'that' skirt and they still get raped.""
And of course, the judge's advice is not a panacea. It cannot and was not intended to be. But tragically the daily experience of the criminal courts shows that the message about personal safety still bears repetition. It won't erase the problem, but it may help, in a narrow subset of cases, to save a few potential victims from having to pick up the fragments of their shattered lives off the courtroom floor. And if it does, it is a message which should be cheered by us all, with its judicial messengers celebrated rather than beaten into submission by misplaced accusations of "victim blaming".


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Archetypes and Class Options
Each base class draws upon a central idea—a basic concept representing a commonly held understanding of what a character of a certain class should be—and is designed to be a foundation for a wide array of characters. Within that basic concept, however, exists the potential for innumerable interpretations and refinements, ways for the rules to cater to a more specialized interpretation of the class. A member of the swashbuckler class, for example, could be a daring infiltrator, a queen's musketeer, or a masked avenger. Such choices are refined through background details, class options, feats, and skills, all to better forge the character the player imagines and make her more effective at manifesting her unique personality and pursuing her goals.
Some character concepts are too close to existing classes to warrant being full classes of their own, yet prove compelling enough that they come up in play time and time again. For these situations, the game has archetypes—sets of modified abilities that can be easily swapped out for those of a given class to help customize its focus. The following pages detail new rules options and alternate class features to help you create iconic fantasy characters.
While most sections in this chapter focus on archetypes, a few focus on other new class options, or present a combination of the two. Many of the archetypes and options in this section allow members of classes from previous books to gain class features of the new classes presented in this book.
Selecting Archetypes
The primary way that archetypes modify base classes is by replacing class features. When a player selects a class for his character, he could choose to use the standard class features found in the class's original description, but he could also choose to adopt an archetype. Each alternate class feature presented in an archetype replaces or alters a specific class feature from its base class. For example, the strangler archetype's neckbreaker class feature replaces the awesome blow and improved awesome blow features of the standard brawler class. Class features that are not specifically replaced function as described in the original version of the class.
When an archetype includes multiple alternate class features, a character must take all of them—often blocking the character from ever gaining certain standard class features, but replacing them with other options. All other class features of the base class that aren't mentioned among the alternate class features remain unchanged and are acquired normally when a character reaches the appropriate level, unless otherwise noted. A character with an alternate class feature due to an archetype doesn't count as having the class feature that was replaced for purposes of meeting any requirements or prerequisites.
On the other hand, any alternate class features listed as altering an existing class feature otherwise works as that original class feature, and is considered to be that class feature for purposes of meeting any requirements or prerequisites, even if that feature is renamed to fit a new theme. For example, a class feature that alters the bard's bardic performance still counts a bardic performance for any prerequisite that requires that ability.
A character can take more than one archetype and garner additional alternate class features, but none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the base class as the other alternate feature. For example, a warpriest could not be both a champion of fate and a disenchanter, because both archetypes replace the channel energy class feature with something else.
If an archetype replaces a class feature that's part of a series of improvements or additions to the base ability (such as a Fighter's weapon training or a ranger's favored enemy), the next time the character would gain that ability, it counts as the lower-level ability that was replaced by the archetype. In effect, all abilities in that series are delayed until the next time the class improves that ability. For example, if an archetype replaces a rogue's +2d6 sneak attack bonus at 3rd level, her sneak attack doesn't jump from +1d6 to +3d6 at 5th level—it improves to +2d6 just as if she finally gained the increase for 3rd level. This adjustment continues for every level in which her sneak attack would improve, until at 19th level she has +9d6 instead of the +10d6 of a standard rogue.
If an archetype replaces a class feature that has a series of improvements, but it does not list one individual improvement, that class feature replaces the entire class feature and all of its improvements. For example, if a class feature says that it replaces trap sense without mentioning a specific bonus, it replaces all of trap sense.


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{ Yamini + Bhavesh }
December is a season packed with weddings and we are always on the move. Despite the fact that travelling a lot becomes tiresome at times, we renew our energy when we shoot couples who are intensely in love and who are also in love with the camera. One such couple is Yamini & Bhavesh :) They were super sweet and very cooperative that made our job real easy. We are extremely happy that they gave us ample time to shoot and glad that the pictures have come out the way we had expected them to !!Read More


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Spa & Beauty Saloon Billboard Bundle is a designed for Any types of companies. It is made by simple shapes Although looks very professional. Easy to modify, change colors, dimensions, get different combinations to suit the feel of your event.
This file is setup at 70×30in (without 1" bleeds) – CMYK – 150DPI. This file is very well organized, with layers named appropriately.
File Information:.....................................................
- Size: 30×70in (without 1" bleeds)
- Photoshop CS File
- AI CS6 & EPS CS File Format
- InDesign CS6 & IDML (InDesign CS4 or Later) File Format
- Resolution: 150DPI
- Print Ready
- Well Organized Files
- 3 Color Variations
- Unlimited Color Facility
- Bleed, Trim & Safe Zone lines included
- CMYK – 100% Vector in all layer (Re-sizable)
- The Photoshop files are layered allowing text to be edited to desired needs.
- Model Photograph is not included in the main item download. Contact me if you would like info on them
Free fonts used: Lobster-two & Signika
Which can be downloaded here -
Photo Credits:
Individual Link
Spa & Beauty Saloon Billboard | Volume 7
Spa & Beauty Saloon Billboard | Volume 8
Spa & Beauty Saloon Billboard | Volume 9
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Waterloo Tea at The Washington in Penarth is a project that has become a much loved addition to the local community. Momentum developed a space that met the owner's specific vision for his second teahouse, the original is at Waterloo Gardens in Roath.
Clean lines and a minimalistic finish enchances the feeling of light and space and creates a relaxed atmosphere. Momentum's furniture package for Waterloo Tea included tables from Ethnicraft and chairs from Ethnicraft and Vitra.
Momentum are delighted to showcase the refurbishment of the restaurant in the Mount Haven Hotel, designed by Architectural Interio Designers at 3idog and furnished by Momentum.
The new CAFÉ at Polden for Bath University students is now open. A bright and comfortable space which is inviting for students to both work and relax in.
We have worked with The Maltings Cardiff for several years with the aim of transforming their their indoor/outdoor spaces with productivity in mind.
Kauto is Woky Ko's second Asian style restaurant based in Clifton in Bristol. Run by MasterChef finalist Larkin Cen, the Woky Ko concept is to serve authentic dishes in a cool and contemporary environment.
Another Friska has opened its door and they've gone further north this time! Now with 10 sites and counting, Friska is taking over with its menu of fresh and healthy dishes inspired from around the world.
Creative Bristol designers Simple Simon Design have designed another stunning Wellbourne Brasserie. This latest restaurant is located in the wonderful White City site in west London, to add to those in quaint Clifton Bristol and Salardu in the picturesque Aran Valley in Spain
This French influenced fine dining restaurant and wine bar is set in a grand traditional oak panelled Grade I listed building, designed by William Burges in 1871 and suggested by Cadw as 'perhaps the most important 19th century house in Wales'. Momentum has worked with the owner on a number of occasions to design and furnish the different areas within the restaurant.
Sïo is a new café run by the popular Chapter Arts Centre in the striking building at the end of Lloyd George Avenue in the heart of Cardiff Bay.
Wellbourne is a wine bar and restaurant located in the Clifton Village area of Bristol.
Highlands End Holiday Park is one of the five parks in the family-run West Dorset Leisure Holidays group. Situated on Dorset's coast, the newly refurbished Martin's Bar is a busy bar and restaurant on the Highlands End Holiday Park site.
Set on a spectacular beach on the north coast of Cornwall is The Watergate Bay Hotel, a perfect loaction for a beach holiday. Watergate Bay's Beach Hut restaurant has stunning views overlooking the sea and has recently had a major refurbishment to bring the interiors right up to date.
Friska in Temple Quay Bristol is the fourth site that Momentum has collaborated with Story Design and Friska in order to source and supply cool and contemporary furniture to fit the brief.
The Seahorse Club is part of Pentewan Sands Holiday Park which is located in the Cornish seaside village of Pentewan, nestled between St Austell and Mevagissey.
Mokoko recently opened their second café at Wapping Wharf - hailed as the new cultural quarter in Bristol.
The popular St Austell Brewery visitor centre and Walter Hicks bar in Cornwall have recently had a major refurbishment.
Momentum were selected to supply furniture for the newly opened Friska café in Birmingham after previously supplying furniture for Friska in Harbourside, Bristol.
Momentum supplied furniture for the Sail Loft café on St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.
Set in the new development of One Central Square in Cardiff City Centre, Momentum supplied the furniture for the new Milk & Sugar café on the first floor of the new building.
Yr Hen Lyfrgell (The Old Library) is a Welsh culture centre based in the heart of Cardiff in the beautifully refurbished old library.
A few minutes' walk from Charlestown Harbour, the Rashleigh Arms is a traditional village inn in the heart of Cornwall. Momentum worked with Interior Designer Steve Coombe of 3idog in Cornwall to supply furniture, some bespoke, to fit the designer's and the client's brief.
Friska is a café chain in and around Bristol now with six sites and the newest has just recently opened in Bristol Harbourside. They are passionate about what they do and it is important to them that they provide comfortable yet stylish places for their customers to visit.
Holm House is a popular hotel and restaurant situated on Marine Terrace in Penarth with views overlooking the beautiful Welsh coastline.
Momentum worked with Steve Coombe of 3idog Interior Design to supply the furniture for the café restaurant area of Trevornick Holiday Park in Cornwall.
Waterloo Tea has recently opened their third café and restaurant in Cardiff. Following the success of its other two restaurants at the Washington in Penarth and Waterloo Gardens in Roath the new city centre location is in the beautiful Wyndham Arcade. Momentum has worked directly with the client on all three restaurants supplying the furniture, lighting and space planning.
St Enodoc is considered one of the finest links golf courses in England, located along the north Cornwall coast overlooking the Camel estuary. With 2 separate courses there is the Church course, which is the James Braid designed championship course and the shorter Holywell course.
The Godolphin Arms is a family owned beachside inn located on the beautiful coast of Cornwall. Interior designer Steve Coombe of 3iDog chose to work with Momentum on this major renovation of the inside and outside public areas.
The Coffee Gallery is a prime location within Cardiff Metropolitan University's Llandaff Campus. Located directly above the main reception it is a busy hub for both Staff and Students. Momentum were approached by the Catering & Hospitality Service Manager for the University following work on several projects in and around the many University Campuses.
Ffresh is a bar & restaurant located at The Wales Millennium Centre, in the heart of Cardiff Bay. This exciting restaurant uses the best local ingredients to reflect the values of the Millennium Centre which is designed to represent the identity of Wales. It has not just become a popular pre-theatre dining venue but is now established as one of Cardiffs top places to dine.
Momentum worked with the talented interior designer Steve Coombe from 3idog in Cornwall to source and supply furniture for this project.
Waterloo Tea at The Washington in Penarth is a project that has become a much loved addition to the local community. Momentum developed a space that met the owner's specific vision for his second teahouse, the original is at Waterloo Gardens in Roath.
Entrecote Cafe de Paris restaurant and conference centre is located in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay. This delightful design from Fran at Oscar Clarke includes a top class French restaurant, two private dining rooms and a conference facility for 70 people.
Goldbrick House is the stunningly designed popular restaurant/cafe located on Park Street in Bristol. Momentum provided furniture and lighting for the champagne bar, restaurant, meeting rooms, outdoor terrace and coffee shop. The range in function of rooms meant that the same style had to be continued throughout without compromising the functionality of the rooms. Goldbrick House is probably THE place to be seen in Bristol.
Consultant designer to the St Moritz Hotel and Spa Steve Coombe from 3idog, worked with Momentum to supply furniture for the Seaside Brasserie and swimming pool area of the award winning St Moritz Hotel and Spa located in Cornwall. The furniture selected is modern and durable, perfect for year round use.
Interior designer Steve Coombe from 3idog chose Momentum to supply the furniture for this London project.
Momentum worked directly with the customer to select suitable tables and chairs for the outside area of this cafe. The Society Cafe is located in Bath and is a busy place serving fresh coffees, cakes and sandwiches.
The Kuku Club in Cardiff city centre is designed around a Moroccan theme with a modern twist, combining intimacy and indulgence to create a unique and sophisticated atmosphere. This club is proving to be one of the most popular venues in Cardiff for the discerning night owl!
Interior design practice Anne Webster Design choose Momentum to supply furniture for Coast.
The Blueprint bar in Milton Keynes was an early project for Momentum, featuring Johanson Designs, Pedrali and Cardiff made curtains and drapes.


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George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of Aberdeen
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- Title / Office:
- prime minister (1852-1855), United Kingdom House of Lords (1801-1860), United Kingdom
- Political Affiliation:
- Conservative Party
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of Aberdeen, original name George Gordon, (born January 28, 1784, Edinburgh, Scotland—died December 14, 1860, London, England), British foreign secretary and prime minister (1852–55) whose government involved Great Britain in the Crimean War against Russia (1853–56).
Orphaned at age 11, George Gordon (who added his deceased first wife's family name to his own surname in 1818) was reared by his guardians, the politicians William Pitt the Younger and Henry Dundas (afterward Viscount Melville), and inherited the earldom and associated titles from his grandfather in 1801. In 1813 he was appointed special ambassador to Austria. He was a central figure in European diplomacy at that time, helping to form the coalition that defeated Napoleon I. In 1814, after signing the Treaty of Paris on behalf of his king, he was created Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen in the peerage of the United Kingdom. In the government of the duke of Wellington, he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster (January–June 1828) and foreign secretary (June 1828–November 1830), while in the brief first administration of Sir Robert Peel (November 1834–April 1, 1835), he was secretary for war and the colonies. As foreign secretary again (September 1841–July 1846) in Peel's second government, Aberdeen settled long-standing disputes over the eastern and western boundaries between Canada and the United States, by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) and the Oregon Treaty (1846).
On December 28, 1852, Aberdeen formed a coalition Cabinet of Peelites (of whom he had been acknowledged leader after Peel's death in 1850), Whigs, and a Radical. In 1853, as his ministry reluctantly neared war with Russia over conflicts of interest in the Middle East, his indecision hampered the peacekeeping efforts of his foreign secretary, the 4th earl of Clarendon. War became inevitable after Aberdeen and Clarendon sent the British fleet to Constantinople (September 23) and then, three months later, into the Black Sea. Both Great Britain and France declared war against Russia on March 28, 1854. Although he was ill-informed by the British generals in the Crimean War, Aberdeen was constitutionally responsible for their mistakes, and he resigned on January 29, 1855.


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Belief in hell, according to international data, is associated with reduced crime
(Phys.org) -- Religions are thought to serve as bulwarks against unethical behaviors. However, when it comes to predicting criminal behavior, the specific religious beliefs one holds is the determining factor, says a University of Oregon psychologist.
The study, appearing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, found that criminal activity is higher in societies where people's religious beliefs contain a strong punitive component than in places where religious beliefs are more benevolent. A country where many more people believe in heaven than in hell, for example, is likely to have a much higher crime rate than one where these beliefs are about equal. The finding surfaced from a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries.
"The key finding is that, controlling for each other, a nation's rate of belief in hell predicts lower crime rates, but the nation's rate of belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates, and these are strong effects," said Azim F. Shariff, professor of psychology and director of the Culture and Morality Lab at the UO. "I think it's an important clue about the differential effects of supernatural punishment and supernatural benevolence. The finding is consistent with controlled research we've done in the lab, but here shows a powerful 'real world' effect on something that really affects people -- crime."
Last year, in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Shariff reported that undergraduate students were more likely to cheat when they believe in a forgiving God than a punishing God.
Religious belief generally has been viewed as "a monolithic construct," Shariff said. "Once you split religion into different constructs, you begin to see different relationships. In this study, we found two differences that go in opposite directions. If you look at overall religious belief, these separate directions are washed out and you don't see anything. There's no hint of a relationship."
The new findings, he added, fit into a growing body of evidence that supernatural punishment had emerged as a very effective cultural innovation to get people to act more ethically with each other. In 2003, he said, Harvard University researchers Robert J. Barro and Rachel M. McCleary had found that gross domestic product was higher in developed countries when people believed in hell more than they did in heaven.
"Supernatural punishment across nations seems to predict lower crime rates," Shariff said. "At this stage, we can only speculate about mechanisms, but it's possible that people who don't believe in the possibility of punishment in the afterlife feel like they can get away with unethical behavior. There is less of a divine deterrent."
He added, however, that these are correlational data, and so caution should be taken with the conclusions. Though Shariff and study co-author Mijke Rhemtulla of the Center for Research Methods and Data Analysis at the University of Kansas tried to account for obvious alternative explanations, more research is needed to explore other interpretations for the findings.
"This research provides new insights into the potential influences of cultural and religious beliefs on key outcomes at a societal level," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation. "Although these findings may be controversial, dissecting the associations between specific belief systems and epidemiologic behaviors is an important first step for social scientists to disentangle the complex web of factors that motivate human behavior."
Journal information: PLoS ONE
Provided by University of Oregon


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FAQ How do I find out more about a certain extension point?
To find out more about a given extension point, try the following.
- Consult Platform Plug-in Developer Guide > Reference > Extension Points Reference.
Here you will find the official documentation for all extension points, including extension point schema descriptions and examples.
- While adding a plug-in in the PDE Manifest Editor, click the Details
button (Figure 5.1). It will take you to the page discussed above.
- Perform Search > Plug-in Search (the keyboard
shortcut is Ctrl+H). You can search for a given extension point and also find all contributors to a given extension point. This gives you valuable access to examples of how the rest of the platform uses that extension point.
<img src=../images/extpointdetail.jpg>
Figure 5.1 The Details button with more extension point information
This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.


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Speaking at last month's China Wind Power 2012 conference, National Energy Bureau deputy director Liu Qi said China's grid-connected wind installations would exceed 60GW by the end of this year. This will bring wind power in behind thermal and hydropower as the third largest power source in China, generating 100 billion kWh. By the end of June, China had 52.58GW of wind turbines connected to the grid.
Beautiful China
Liu made his announcement just days after China revealed the new leadership of a seven-man politburo led by incoming president Xi Jinping. The new leadership promised to create a "beautiful China" over the next decade, with wind in a major role.
According to the national plan, China will have 100GW of wind turbines connected to the grid by 2015, generating 190 billion kWh annually and making up 3% of China's power supply mix. Wind power comprised 1.2% of China's power supply in 2010.
Liu promised conference delegates that China would strive to promote sustainable development of the industry, listing a number of measures including the promise to strengthen and expand the grid to enable it to admit more wind onto the system.
Liu's remarks received an enthusiastic response from industry officials, as poor grid access has led to the curtailment of many operational wind farms' output and lengthy delays in connecting new projects. In 2011, the curtailment rate was 16% nationwide and over 20% in northeastern Jilin province.
Li Junfeng, director of the China Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA), said at the conference that China curtailed wind turbine operations last year that could have generated 10 billion to 15 billion more kWh electricity. The situation would deteriorate this year, he said, with wind farms losing the opportunity to generate 20 billion to 25 billion kWh.
Liu said this problem reflected that the traditional energy system, management system and policy measures have not been able to accommodate wind development.
Li said that connecting wind turbines to the grid, previously a headache for wind farm developers, is no longer the biggest problem, and that grid connection is faster than turbine installation in growth rate.
The bulk of China's wind installations are concentrated in the north of the country. The problem with consumption, said Li, mainly rests with delays in constructing transmission lines to deliver this wind power over long distances to economic powerhouses in central and eastern areas.
Zhang Zhengling, spokesman of utility State Grid, said the firm has planned to build three east-west and three north-south ultra high voltage (UHV) transmission lines to constitute an UHV grid network in the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015). Three north-south UHV transmission lines send wind power from north China's Inner Mongolia and Hebei province to the eastern Jiangsu and central Henan provinces.
In May this year, State Grid started to construct 800kv UHV direct current transmission lines, capable of sending wind power from northwest China's Xinjiang to central Zhengzhou in Henan province.
But Li said: "A UHV transmission line is not the only solution. We can build more 500,000kv transmission lines to send over wind power instead."
Building smaller-scaled decentralised wind farms, to be connected to 110kv grid for local consumption in eastern and southern areas has also been favoured by wind power developers. Li expects China will take two to three years to solve the wind power consumption problem.
China's wind companies have all been struggling this year as installations were slowed by the government as it sought to stem the grid-access issues by limiting new projects. The recession was apparent at the China Wind Power 2012 conference, where in sharp contrast to bustling scenes in previous years, few companies exhibited new products and technologies or promoted expansion plans.
This slowdown is hitting turbine manufacturers particularly hard. Sinovel, for example, had CNY 3.634 billion ($577 million) operating revenues in the first nine months of the 2012 financial year, down 57% from the same period last year. In the third quarter, its operating revenue was only CNY 548 million ($88 million), down 82.12%. It lost CNY 280 million in the third quarter, compared to CNY 242 million in profits in the same period of last year.
Sinovel last month put 351 staff workers - 12% of its staff - on a so-called "paid vacation". The chosen staff, mainly from the firm's Beijing headquarters, will earn a CNY 1,080 ($173) wage each month, 80% of the minimum wage in Beijing. They previously earned CNY 6,000-10,000 ($964-1606) per month.
Industry insiders said Sinovel did not specify when the staff would return to work, and that it was a move to sack the staff in a disguised form. In May, Sinovel unilaterally broke contracts with 350 enrolled college graduates.
Delegates at the China Wind Power 2012 conference believe the incident was a landmark, showing China's wind turbine manufacturing sector is in hot water. Insiders said the move indicated that Sinovel is operating under capacity, has insufficient cash flow, fewer market demands and a dropped rate of margin.
Speaking at the conference, CREIA's Li said: "Wind turbine makers should understand the situation clearly. They should not blindly expand production capacity. Instead, they should put in time and energy to improve the quality of turbines, and elevate turbine stability and power generation capacity."


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