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Settlers of Catan is the modern classic board game of resource gathering, empire building, and the occasional earthquake. Anyone who's spent time carefully laying out Catan's hexagonal tiles knows that the entire play field can be pushed apart by one errant bump. More recent editions of the game come with borders that clip into a frame, which helps keep everything in place. But since that frame is made from the same cardboard material as the tiles, it's still prone to shifting, coming apart, or warping. Today the official Settlers of Catan Facebook page unveiled what looks to be, at last, a solution to one of board gaming's most common party fouls.
The Catan Board appears to be a thick mat that the hexagonal tiles and trade ports slot into, preventing them from shifting around. As seen in the video above, the main Catan Board divides in half so that a third section can be dropped in for playing with the 5-6 player expansion. The Facebook post gives no details on pricing or availability, but in the comments the company confirmed that fans would not need to rebuy the entire game; the Catan Board is merely an accessory that works with the existing tiles.
This isn't the first time someone has attempted to improve on the Settlers of Catan design. The Boardcrafting Kickstarter project solved the earthquake problem in style with a beautiful, laser etched wooden platform. But that premium frame costs hundreds of dollars and doesn't support the 5-6 player expansion. The Catan Board appears to be a more versatile, and almost certainly cheaper solution.


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Scythe Unveils ACB-TYPE3 Open-Air Acrylic ATX Chassis
Subject: Cases and Cooling | July 31, 2012 - 05:29 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: scythe, open bench, open air case, atx case, acyrilic case
Scythe, a PC enthusiast hardware company popular for its line of fans and processor heatsinks will soon be launching a new open air case. The ACB-TYPE3 is a clear acrylic case that forgoes side panels for an open bench design.
The case weighs in at under 6 pounds, the case is constructed of 5mm acrylic and can accommodate ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX motherboards. Additionally, it features three 5.25" drive bays, three 3.5" hard drive bays, and two 2.5" drive bays suitable for storing SSDs (solid state drives).
Another cool feature is that the open air case can hold tower coolers up to 190mm, which is not quite big enough for the 100W passive TwinBlock cooler but will be good enough for most any other high-end air cooler.
According to FanlessTech, the Scythe acrylic case will be available for purchase soon, and will cost around $85. It certainly seems like a neat option for benchmarking test beds and enthusiast's that like to show off their computer hardware (nothing wrong with that!). You can find more photos over at the Fanless Tech website.
Video News
plus you get to see all dust build up over time as well.
Can I place a 360 water radiator there?
Should have been tinted or a dark color so you can hide your cables unless you can trim them down or buy super short ones. Even sleeved cables might not look that good with them hang out of the "case".
I agree. Probably gonna be a rats nest of cabling, thus taking away any possibility of an attractive design.
Beats buying acrylic and cutting it yourself, plant Silentmaxx TwinBlock HSF Passive on top and you would have a very nice Bonsai plant type thing...think about the dust as snow over japan... ;-)..or something....
This must have been a concept. I have searched no one sells this or has sold it. Almost 3 years since this page was created.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi everyone!
I am a first-year biomedical engineering student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. I stumbled upon this site while researching bento ideas and what not. I found bento to be the perfect solution for a healthy yet delicious lunch or dinner on the go. I am often far from my dorm because my classes and labs are spread all over the campus. I thoroughly enjoying cooking and baking in general (though I currently don't have kitchen access because I live in a dorm) and love to try out new things.
I'm actually not Japanese; I am a Vietnamese-American. Before all of this, I was a manga/anime fanatic but soon grew to love other aspects of Japanese culture as well. I love to learn about other cultures and their customs and traditions (especially foods).
In my (scarce) free time, I enjoy playing piano and soccer. I read manga and watch animes and dramas. I enjoy reading newspapers and scientific magazines. Bookwise, I enjoy military history and cooking. I am an avid airsofter and I love cats (if you couldn't tell from my name/pic haha).
I hope I can contribute more to the community in the future (when I actually have a kitchen!).
"Food is an important part of a balanced diet."
-Fran Lebowitz
Hi. What exactly is biomedical engineering? It sounds like you'd be developing artificial organs and bone and tendon and fancy wound dressing materials. It's not a subject that's available here in New Zealand, must be interesting.
Welcome to Just Bento anyway. There are plenty of forum members who don't have access to kitchens. There are whole threads on how to cook everything you might possibly want to cook with the bare minimum of equipment. Maki's a bit of an expert at present.
My blog is Food and Shoes
You more or less hit it dead on! Biomedical engineering concerns artificial organs, fluids (like blood), prosthetics, medical/surgical devices, and nanoengineering (stuff like little surgical robots). It's a relatively new field here, something like the marriage of biochemistry and engineering.
I'm currently investigating the limits of my microwave haha and looking to invest in a small electric grill. We will see how that goes ^_^
I have an excellent kitchen at home, but I also have a little cooking area in my office at work. I have a small single hotplate and a tiny panini/sandwich press thing. I can use the microwave in the tea room, but it's surprising what you can cook on a panini press. I've fried eggs and steak on it, and they are THE best thing for making hash browns - just turn it on and squash a leftover boiled potato in it. From what others say it sounds as though a rice cooker is a good idea for non-kitchened people too.
Yup, I have a small rice cooker on my desk. Right now, besides cooking rice, I like to use it to steam vegetables and boil eggs. I've heard you can cook soup in it too haha.
Is there any particular panini press you recommend?
No. The one in my office is a little wee one I picked up for $12 on a bargain table in a department store. It's just big enough to cook one toasted sandwich, and you can fit one fried egg in it! You could probably fit two, but they'd merge together. At the other end of the spectrum, my brother has a big Cuisinart one that has interchangeable plates - flat for sandwiches and ripple for steaks and suchlike - that cost an arm and a leg.
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No, it didn't, that's the point. I actually heard his comments. He basically said Linden screwed over the players, whether he (Linden) meant to or not. He said that he was sure Linden's intentions were good though.black ace wrote:Apparently during the pre game show yesterday Gallagher said that the Canucks will get more breaks from the refs now because Bettman owes Linden.
Even if Linden did go behind Goodenow and broker a deal (which it is pretty well known he did) didnt it work out really good for the players ??
Gallagher needs to move on.
And yeah, he claimed it would have an affect on how the refs call Canuck games. I think the guy needs to be committed.


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Jan 31st 2013
Know How... 30
Mount a TV
Mounting a television can be a daunting project, but we'll give you the know how.
Pick your mount
Your mount is dependent on your television. Find a mount that would fit your television in size and weight. Your next choice is to decide what kind of mount you want. There are several options including articulating arms that let you pull your TV away from the wall and tilt it at various angles. There are also low-profile mounts like the one we installed. The low-profile mounts don't allow you to tilt your television, but they keep the television very close to the wall to keep everything nice and neat. It's your call.
Mounting your television
The best way to mount your television is to mount it to the studs in your walls. Studs are normally 16-inches apart on load bearing walls. On non-load bearing walls, they can be as far apart as 24 inches. Use a studfinder to find the studs in your walls. More expensive studfinders will also warn you if there is AC power behind the drywall. That way you'll avoid disaster.
Once you find your studs, mark them. The mount we used was in two pieces - the mounting plate and the mounting brackets. Take the mounting plate and line it up with the studs. Level the plate and mark off where the plate matches the studs. From there, you can drill pilot holes for your lag bolts. The lag bolts will hold the mounting plate to the wall. These are beefy bolts, so you'll want to make sure you're going into the stud. Attach the mounting arms to the television. This is relatively straight forward. Four bolts will attach the two brackets to the television. Be careful not to overtighten.
Once the brackets are attached to the TV, attach whatever cables you'd like to your TV. Your HDMI cables, audio, and others since it may be hard to connect your cables once the TV is up on the wall. Now grab a buddy. This next part is definitely a two-person job. Pick up the television and place it on the plate. Then secure it with either the securing screws (or in our case the securing lever).
And there you have it. A television on a wall. If we can do it, so can you!
Special thanks to Sarah Lane, Jeff Stewart, and Chad Johnson for their help on the show.
Hi Iyaz
Watched the show thought this would be of interest. This is $10.00 software for iPad, really very good. Controlled via bluetooth keyboard or remote. You can also plug iPad into HDMI monitor(via adapter) of any size and use iPad as controller.
Cheers Leon
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Rum a.k.a Switchman (Dj Khaled's New Artist) - Heavy In The Streets
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Why User Names and Passwords Are Not Enough (SecurityWeek) Source: SANS ISC InfoSec News FeedPublished on 2019-01-31
For most organisations and companies these days, maintaining a high level of cyber security couldn't be more important. Not only is it key to protect customers and users' personal and financial information.
Click below and we'll send you a quote as soon as possible.
Username or Email Address
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text:
Trademark Protection
Little League Baseball is a Federal Incorporation granted a bill signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 17, 1964, and amended September 24, 1974, to reflect the admission of girls. The legislation, which received unanimous approval from both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, is Public Law 88-378. It is the highest recognition that the federal government can accord. It provides for incorporation of Little League Baseball in all 50 states as an educational institution, endowing the program with protective integrity by the U.S. Government.
Action of the President and Congress places Little League Baseball in the same category as Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Boys Clubs of America and a select group of other agencies similarly chartered. However, Little League is the only youth sports organization so honored. The Federal Charter of Incorporation requires Little League to submit its annual report directly to the U.S. Congress each year.
"LITTLE LEAGUE," "LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL," "LITTLE LEAGUER," "LL," "DUGOUT," "CHALLENGER DIVISION," the OFFICIAL LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL EMBLEMS, etc., are the principal registered trademarks and service marks of Little League Baseball, Incorporated. These marks are protected both by a special Act of Congress and registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. All rights in and to any and all marks of Little League Baseball, Incorporated, are reserved.
NOTE: Little League Baseball is listed in the current issue of the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. The words "Little League," "Little Leaguer," etc. should only be used in conjunction with baseball and softball programs associated with Little League Baseball, Incorporated.


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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Muslim mobs again hurled stones at Christian tourists and Jewish visitors atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Tuesday following a similar attack earlier in the week.
One police officer who was among those escorting the Christian and Jewish groups was injured, and two Muslim assailants were arrested.
Police were already on high alert for clashes atop the Temple Mount after local Muslim websites posted calls to "protect" the mosques occupying the Temple Mount from Jews who allegedly planned to desecrate them by praying there.
A day earlier, police arrested small group of Jews who they believe did indeed intend to commit the heinous crime of praying atop Judaism's holiest site.
On Sunday, a mob of some 50 Palestinian Muslims stoned a group of Christians visiting the Temple Mount. Three of the Israeli police officers who acted to protect the Christian group were wounded.
That attack was instigated by the former Muslim mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrama Sabri, who told Palestinian media over the weekend that Jewish groups were planning to break into the mosques that occupy the holy compound and desecrate them.
Muslim religious figures regularly claim that Israel is plotting to destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque to pave the way for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, which the Muslims now insist never previously existed.
Because of the constant threat of Muslim violence, and despite the fact that the Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth to Jews and many Christians, the Israeli police comply with Muslim demands for harsh restrictions on non-Muslim visitors to the site. For instance, Jews and Christians are forbidden to carry Bibles atop the Temple Mount or to utter even silent prayers within its walls. Jews and Christians are regularly detained for violating these conditions.
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MIDDLEBURY — The Farmers Diner ended an almost two-year run in Middlebury on Feb. 14 after the owners determined there was not enough customer traffic to keep the eatery afloat any longer.
"It was totally an economic decision," said Farmers Diner founder Tod Murphy. "There was just not enough business to keep us open."


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A German forum has posted a Bigfoot-esque photo of what they claim is the BMW PAS Concept. Could this be the Sasquatch we're all waiting for at next month's Geneva Motor Show?
A Toyota Venza-style crossover built onto the chassis of a BMW 5-series, the PAS concept previews the sadly inevitable BMW Progressive Activity Sedan.
As we can see from this picture, and as indicated in the dumb BMW PAS Concept Video, this is BMW's attempt to pack a sedan, an SUV and a Crossover into the same vehicle, thus removing even the notion of a unique selling point and completely destroying what little was left of this former enthusiast's passion for the brand.
We expect the PAS Concept to be a little more dynamic than the totally successful
Mercedes Farce Minivan Mercedes R-Class, but the prize for BMW is a continued dilution of brand enjoyment.
[Motor-talk.de via CarSpyShots.net]


text: > > room that takes up half the basement the cost of the electricity > > (both for power and A/C) goes from a minor expense to a major > > one. but it's not as if the university will fail to notice a new 1K-node cluster. so if they choose not to install metering equipment, it's on them. we recently built a machineroom for 1.5Kcpus, and sure enough, the U made us buy metering crap (IMO, the U should pay for it.) the U also made us buy harmonic mitigating PDUs because they didn't understand what PFC means in a power supply. > > "Typical" lab usage is widely variable but I'd be amazed > > if most biology or chemistry labs burn through even 1/10th this > > much for the equivalent lab area. Some physics lab running > > a tokamak might come close. I guess, I figure around 300W/sq ft is pretty typical for a new HPC machineroom. that's obviously more than a bio lab, but how about comparing to that glassblower over in arts, or someone pouring a new alloy in materials engineering? > > Anyway, the question is, have any of the universities said "enough > > is enough" and started charging these electricity costs directly? > > If so, what did they use for a cutover level, where usage was > > "above and beyond" overhead? > > This issue has most definitely come up at Duke, although we're still > seeking a formula that will permit us to deal with it equitably. This I guess I'm a little surprised - one main Canadian funding agency (CFI) has a program that provides infrastructure operating funds (you apply for this after being awarded a capital grant.) it pays for electricity as well as sysadmins. > As our Dean of A&S recently remarked, if there aren't any checks and > balances or cost-equity in funding and installing clusters, they may > well continue to grow nearly exponentially, without bound (Duke's I find that most faculty who have compute needs (and funding) will seriously consider buying into a shared facility instead. that's our (SHARCnet's) usual pitch: let us help you spend your grant, and we'll give you first cut at that resource, but otherwise take all the pain off your hands. most people realize that running a cluster is a pain: heat/noise, but more importantly the fact that it soaks up tons of the most expensive resource, human attention. do you want your grad students spending even 20% of their time screwing around with cluster maintenance? not to mention the fact that most computer use is bursty, and therefore very profitably pooled. a shared resource means that a researcher can burst to 200 cpus, rather than just the 20 that his grant might have bought. and after the burst, someone else can use them... > to hold them, the power to run them, and the people to operate them, all > grow roughly linearly with the number of nodes. This much is known. well, operator cost scales linearly, but that line certainly does not pass through zero, and is nearly flat (a 100p cluster takes almost the same effort as a 200p one.) > Finding out isn't trivial -- it involves running down ALL the clusters > on campus, figuring out whom ALL those nodes "belong" to, determining > ALL the grant support associated with all those people and projects and here at least, the office of research services sees all funding traffic, and so is sensitized to the value of cluster pooling. the major funding agencies have also expressed some desire to see more facility centralization, since the bad economics of a bunch of little clusters is so clear... regards, mark hahn.


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Super Meat Boy dev discusses next game
Indie dev Team Meat has described its next project as "more experimental" than the straightforward" Super Meat Boy. It also confirmed SMB is still coming to Mac, and that a Nintendo 3DS version was once being made.
Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat is already working away on its next game, which the indie describes as being of a more "experimental" and "ambitious" design than its breakout hit.
"I think it's safe to say that Meat Boy was a very straightforward game. We didn't really reach outside the box in terms of design," co-founder Edmund McMillen told Eurogamer. "I think with the new game we definitely get a bit more experimental with the design."
"I think it's going to be more ambitious design-wise and it's going to be more of a challenge for us. It's a bigger project. It's going to be fun and that's exactly why we're into it. It's going to be pretty fresh."
While Team Meat is a registered Nintendo 3DS developer, the new game's being made with no particular platform in mind, and McMillen suspects it might not be a good fit for the handheld. Besides, Team Meat doesn't have a 3DS dev kit yet anyway.
"Not many people do. At least that's what we heard. Who knows, maybe they're lying to us," McMillen said. "We've asked about when we could get one and they said there's stock coming, but we probably shouldn't even talk about this."
McMillen also revealed that Team Meat was "originally kind of into porting Meat Boy" to 3DS, but isn't working on that anymore. There's still hope for Mac gamers, though, as fellow Team Meat member Tommy Refenes confirmed that the platformer's Mac version is still in the works.
"I'm doing my absolute best. It's something that's bugging the s*** out of me, that I want to get finished," Refenes said, presumably not censoring his own profanity. "It's a lot of mental effort getting back into working on a game that I worked on for 18 months straight. The difficulty is not in the work, the difficulty is in the motivation and the desire to open up the code again and work on it when I'd rather work on new stuff. I'm doing it, it's just taking a while."
Super Meat Boy's development is covered in upcoming documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which also revolves around several other high-profile indie developers and games.
Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Super Meat Boy dev discusses next game.
Indie dev Team Meat has described its next project as "more experimental" than the straightforward" Super Meat Boy. It also confirmed SMB is still coming to Mac, and that a Nintendo 3DS version was once being made.


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McKenzie Moore, a former College Park High standout, has been dismissed from the University of Texas-El Paso men's basketball team for gambling on sporting events.
The school made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday afternoon after an investigation by the FBI.
Moore and two teammates were automatically suspended for a year for the NCAA rules infraction and also lose a year of eligibility. As a junior, Moore's college career at UTEP is over.
Any further consequences will be determined by the FBI, said school officials, who also noted that while the players did participate in betting on at least one sporting event, there is no evidence they gambled on UTEP games.
"To date, we have no evidence of point shaving," said Richard Aduato, UTEP's executive vice president.
"We evaluate every film after every ball game and I was not suspicious of any behavior that would have said they were betting on any UTEP event," said head coach Tim Floyd. "There's been no indication of that."
Moore and teammates Jalen Ragland and Justin Crosgile are also no longer enrolled at UTEP, school officials confirmed.
Moore and Ragland were suspended on Dec. 28 after Floyd received a tip that two of his players may have been betting on sporting events. The school then reported the allegations to the FBI.
Moore, a 6-foot-6 guard averaging 13.1 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Miners (10-5), had already served a short suspension in early December for disciplinary reasons. That suspension came weeks before the gambling allegations arose.
"The squeaky wheel wasn't going to get all the grease in our program and that's why he was sat down," Floyd said. "I viewed not being a good teammate as an issue… We felt like he needed to grow."
Moore was a member of the Conference USA All-Academic team as a sophomore last season, his first at UTEP.
Moore played one year of varsity basketball at College Park, earning Diablo Valley Athletic League MVP honors after leading the Falcons to a 22-4 record as a junior. He averaged 20.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists during the 2009-2010 season, but he didn't play his senior year.
In 2010, he gave an oral commitment to Saint Mary's College but never signed a letter of intent.
He played at City College of San Francisco during the 2011-2012 season, then arrived at UTEP in the spring of 2012.


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ARMANDO CAMACARO, who turns 40 on April 6, begins his 10th season on the Indians coaching staff. His duties include catching starting and relief pitchers and throwing batting practice along with assisting Indians positional coaches with functions relative to their positional responsibility.
"Cama" spent his entire 11-year professional career in the Indians organization, hitting .224 (299/1333) in 418 career games from 1999-09. He was signed out of the Tribe's Venezuelan Academy and spent two seasons in the VSL (1999-2000).
The Caracas-native now resides in Westlake, Ohio with his wife, Heidi, and their sons, Gabriel and Samuel.


text: Joe Landman wrote: > A little more than a year ago we use io-bench from HPCC which I did a > quick MPI port with. We were showing 1.8-2.1 GB/s sustained to a > Panasas disk (http://www.panasas.com) system from a cluster. We also > used the oocore (see http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?org=OCI). Again, > using the Panasas disk, we were about 5x the speed of the nearest SAN > solutions on 32 nodes, and more than an order of magnitude faster at 128 > nodes. > > If you want a copy of my rather naive MPI port of io-bench, let me see > if we can redistribute it. If you want oocore, surf over to > http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf0605 or grab it > from http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2006/nsf0605/oocore.tar.gz > Not familiar with your MPI-ported io-bench nor b_eff_io, how would you compare both? toon


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Amazon's tablet announcement today could have far-reaching implications for your gadget use.
The $199 "Kindle Fire" tablet is less than half the starting price of an iPad 2 and boasts Wi-Fi, Flash video and access to Android apps and games — as well as all the movies, books, songs and other digital content Amazon sells. Lest that make the old $114 Kindle look overpriced, Amazon replaced it with three new e-reader models, the cheapest of which is just $79.
It's the e-readers that are likely to make the bigger impact.
"This changes the e-book reader into a commodity item," says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc. The $99 Kindle Touch is $40 cheaper than Barnes & Noble's competing Nook, and the $79 Kindle might attract more consumers who hadn't previously been interested in buying an e-reader, he says. As we reported earlier this month, Amazon has reportedly also been working on a deal to provide a library of free e-books as a perk for Amazon Prime subscribers. (The $79 annual fee currently comes with free two-day shipping and free access to of the site's growing roster of movies and TV shows for streaming.)
But is the Kindle Fire an iPad competitor? Maybe, experts say. Apple devotees aren't likely to budge, but the low price point and features make it a contender to lead the Android market, Gartenberg says. Investment blogger Andy Nyquist says the Kindle Fire could at the very least shift iPad pricing. "Amazon's marketing machine and online retail presence may pose a bigger threat to the iPad2 than the device itself," he says. (Apple and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.)
Pay Dirt readers, are you tempted by any of the new Kindles?


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Words by Mr Seamus Duff
There would be some rising actors who, in the face of international acclaim for their break-out performance, might allow their success to go to their heads. Not so for 27-year-old British actor, Mr James Floyd. Having stolen the show in last year's My Brother the Devil - a coming-of-age drama about two brothers living on an East London estate that doesn't hold back - Mr Floyd remains resiliently level headed about his achievements, even if he is still riding high as we meet two days after he scooped the prestigious Most Promising Newcomer award at the annual British Independent Film Awards. Previous credits include playing Mr Freddie Mercury in the BBC biopic of Mr Kenny Everett Best Possible Taste, and he was praised for his performance in the otherwise unremarkable 2011 film Everywhere and Nowhere. Dressed in a beaten leather jacket, black long-sleeved tee and dark coloured cords, the young actor is confident, relaxed and still processing his win as we meet after his MR PORTER shoot to discuss awards, acting icons, and his penchant for erm, hot pants.
the work
My Brother the Devil
From left: Mr Floyd and Mr Fady Elsayed in the award-winning 2012 British drama
Everywhere and Nowhere
From left: Mr Floyd and Ms Katia Winter in the 2011 coming-of-age British drama
Best Possible Taste
From left: Mr Oliver Lansley as Mr Kenny Everett and Mr Floyd as Mr Freddie Mercury in the 2012 biopic


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Allow me a slight tangent to give you a little set up for my review of Sound Shapes. Jim Henson was only ever nominated for one Academy Award: Best Short Film for "Time Piece." The short is a surreal mélange of animation, stock footage, and images of Henson himself as a figure hunted by his own mortality. There's no dialogue. The sound is at first abrasive, all noise played loudly over exaggerated actions, but there's jazz in there too, brushed drums and horns, blurring the lines between what's played by instruments and what's played by everyday objects. The cumulative effect of the chaos is musical and revelatory. Cacophony, both visual and aural, transforms into song.
Queasy Games' Sound Shapes for PlayStation Vita and PS3 does the same. Its five "albums" of levels, wrought by different musicians and artists, are too random and discordant at first to be pleasurable as more than just some tight platforming levels. The game slowly reveals its order though, with music, implied story, and challenge that blossoms rather than bombards. These aren't really the main attraction though. Sound Shapes is, first and foremost, a box of tools to let you build playable time pieces of your own. Its greatest success is how understandable it makes that act of creation.
No matter what you make in Sound Shapes, the rules of the game are the same. You control a little glowing ball that pops out of a turntable at the beginning of the stage. The goal is to reach another turntable at the end of the stage, collecting coins as you go. Each coin adds a note to the song playing throughout the stage, and you want to collect them all before you get to the end. You can finish the level without all the coins in tow, but then you're not really completing the stage.
Getting from turntable A to turntable B isn't easy in the campaign. Any red object in the environment, whether a puffing little cloud guy or just an abstract shape, can kill you in a single hit, and the coins in each stage are (ideally) hidden in clever ways.
The campaign's albums are all strong in their own ways, and significantly different from one another. "Hello, World" with graphics by Capybara Games' Vic Nguyen, and music by Shapes co-creator Shaw Han Liem as I Am Robot and Proud, is bouyant and abstract, all primary colors and sweetly melancholic tunes in levels that are straightforward platforming. "Corporeal" by Jim Guthrie and Superbrothers, the musician and artist team behind iPad hit Swords & Sorcery EP, is in a creepy cross between a corporate office and hell, and heavy on environmental puzzles that culminate in a brilliantly cathartic scene. "Cities" by Beck and Pyramid Attack is a lengthy trip through ruined landscapes while deadmau5 and PixelJam's "D-Cade" is an unforgiving gauntlet of stressed beats and old-school, pixelated jumping challenges. Once you finish the main campaign, you unlock the downright mean Death Mode remix versions of each stage.
Completing the stages unlocks the materials and sounds in them to build your own stages and they're also tutorials on the versatility of the tools at hand. You can go and build something slow paced and tranquil or viciously hard and driving if you want. It's all at your fingertips, literally in the case of the Vita controls. Using the stage editor lays the game's building blocks bare. Each screen in a stage is underlaid with a fret-like 8X16 grid. First you figure out what time you want your song to play in as the beat is constantly kept through each stage, replaying the notes you place. Then you place the notes, the tone increasing in pitch as the go up the video game solfège.
The instruments unlocked by the campaign albums aren't always clearly synthesized tones though. Some just sound like skittering record scratches, others like a hammers striking, and some sound like warped banjo strings getting plucked. Many change depending on where they're placed on the scale to boot. It takes a lot of experimentation to properly learn the would-be instruments you have at your disposal. Placing objects in the environments is simpler by far. Just pick what you want, touch the screen where you want it, and manipulate it around using the rear touch screen. It is the first game ever to properly use the rear touch screen for anything. Sound Shapes really does make the Vita sing. The PS3 Vita uses the controls in a unique and interesting way, but the PS3 controls are easy and simple as well.
The test now will be how the toolbox is used. There are a smattering of user-made levels already online, some of which are even made by the game's mastermind Jonathan Mak himself, but none of them are as thoroughly realized or affecting as those in the campaign. Sound Shapes provides a sampling of "Time Piece" style chaos-to-enlightenment in its campaign, but it's gone all too quickly, placing the burden on you and others to make more. Its tools are easier to grasp and use than other creation games like LittleBigPlanet, but its challenge is much steeper. Making a great platformer that's also a great song is a master class challenge for professional artists, as evidenced by Sound Shapes nearly 6 years of development. It's great that it puts its power in your hands but it's hard not to wish it had more just to play.
Score: 9 out of 10
(This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 on a copy provided by Sony Computer Entertainment)


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President Obama's $525 billion Pentagon budget contained mixed blessings for Texas, adding hundreds of millions of dollars in military construction but cutting billions for an aircraft partially built in Fort Worth.
The budget proposal, a 1 percent reduction from last year, contains cuts in the defense budget that would achieve $78 billion savings. A large chunk of that, $13 billion, would come from eliminating Marine, Navy and Army missile systems.
The budget includes two rounds of base closures, and $78 billion in savings over five years.
"This budget was guided by the principles of our defense strategy," said Lt. Gen. Larry Spencer, Pentagon director of force structure and resources.
The budget recognizes the end of the Iraq war and anticipates the drawdown in Afghanistan.
It also contains a cut of $15 billion for the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, plagued by cost overruns, and built partially in Fort Worth.
The budget includes $80 million for continued building of an ambulatory hospital at Lackland AFB, $207 million for hospital construction at Fort Bliss near El Paso and $16 million for a Defense Finance and Accounting Service facility at Red River Army Depot near Texarkana.
Service members would get a 1.6 percent pay raise in the budget, which also includes $8.3 billion to provide child care and early education programs for children of military members.


text: Sai writes: >The ATLAS library on one of the machines compiles and gives me the >files libatlas.a, libstatlas.a, libcblas.a, libf77blas.a, liblapack.a >which I take as being the tuned libraries needed for G98 installation. I >put these files in the appropriate directory. Our systems expert helped The Gaussian release document does not recommend that you compile your own and distributes the libraries on the release CD-ROM. They have funny names (not the ones listed in the release doc or in you mail), but you can tell by the size and PIII prefix which is which. Use the distributed libraries on the CD-ROM. >with manupilating the script so that G98 executables get compiled (pgf77 >is available). That worked but now when I try to run test jobs g98 >complains saying '.../l1.exe relocation error : .../util.so: undefined You also could be having a problem with your LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable. Comments from Doug Fox below outline the issues and remedy: >> >> This file is located by the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH >> and the g98.login script adds the $g98root/g98 directory to this path. >> The most common problem is that others cannot read the file. The second >> is that g98.login is not being source'd by users. >> >> The easiest set of protections is >> >> cd $g98root >> chmod -R a+rx g98 >> >> then make sure the lines >> >> setenv g98root /xxx/yyy >> source $g98root/g98/bsd/g98.login >> >> are in the .cshrc file for each G98 user. >> >> g98l actually runs g98 but after resetting the executable search >> path so that Linda versions are found. Opening the permissions to >> read permissions for all is important for requests to read this file >> from remote machines. Best of luck, rbw #--------------------------------------------------- # Richard Walsh # Project Manager, Cluster Computing, Computational # Chemistry and Finance # netASPx, Inc. # 1200 Washington Ave. So. # Minneapolis, MN 55415 # VOX: 612-337-3467 # FAX: 612-337-3400 # EMAIL: rbw at networkcs.com, richard.walsh at netaspx.com # rbw at ahpcrc.org # #--------------------------------------------------- # "What you can do, or dream you can, begin it; # Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." # -Goethe #--------------------------------------------------- # "Without mystery, there can be no authority." # -Charles DeGaulle #--------------------------------------------------- # "Why waste time learning when ignornace is # instantaneous?" -Thomas Hobbes #--------------------------------------------------- # "In the chaos of a river thrashing, all that water # still has to stand in line." -Dave Dobbyn #---------------------------------------------------


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Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (Banned Teaser)
Kevin Hart Let Me Explain Movie opening in theaters on July 3, 2013. This is the movie teaser that was banned from Television.
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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By Ed Harris
The YMCA Skate Park is open for the summer and there is the opportunity for free skateboarding lessons.
The skate park has been in existence since 1998 and has grown in popularity through the years.
"There is no other place in town to skate legally," said Camp Sloper Director Mark Pooler.
Pooler said that the skate park averages about 20 skaters every day that it is open.
The spring hours for the Skate Park are: Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30-6: p.m. and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.
Again this year, the YMCA Skate Park will offer free skateboarding lessons to anyone interested in getting on a board for the first time. The free skateboarding lessons will run during open hours on Saturdays from 1-2:30 p.m. The decision to introduce free skateboarding lessons is part of the overall goal of the YMCA Skate Park: to be the perfect place to learn to skate.
Helmets are required for all skaters, and there is staff present during all open hours to ensure that every skater is following this safety policy. Additional padding is recommended to maximize safety.
All skaters must have a 2013 waiver form signed by a parent/guardian on file in order to skate, unless they are 18 years old or over.
"We are open to the public," Pooler said. "You just have to be a Southington resident."
If the skaters aren't local residents they must be members of the Southington and Cheshire YMCAs and in third grade or older. Parents must accompany all third and fourth graders during their time in the YMCA Skate Park.
If you have any questions regarding the YMCA Skate Park please contact Shane Altwies, Outdoor Center Program Director, by phone at (860) 621-8194 x308 or by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Comments? Email email@example.com.


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Chafing Dishes
Here you'll find an assortment of square, rectangular, oval and round dishes for serving appetizers, entrees, side dishes, desserts, and more. You'll find pans for holding food and heating water. Multifunction divided units are available for holding several items in the same chafer. These dishes come in a variety of finishes and colors that can add flair and functionality to your catering service, buffet, cafeteria or other foodservice establishment or event.


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Mark M Richardson needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 71 designs submitted by 28 freelance designers.
Bgame Communications
I live in California, near Silicon Valley. For the past 20 years I have been in public relations. I am now starting my own firm, offering PR and writing services. Eventually, I'd like to make my living solely off writing.
Business people, 25 - 60.
Need a logo for a new one-person communications and writing consulting firm. My approach and values include: Expert writer; Business savvy; focused on execution; creative and innovative; no-nonsense approach; grounded in marketing fundamentals in today's interconnected world.
Specialize in public relations and writing.
Bgame Communications
I'd like a clean and distinctive logo design. It should be memorable, but not too "busy." It is for a one-person company. It should try to capture both public relations and writing expertise.
Innovative and creative
2 colors; prefer orange, blue and white
Design should be clean, fun, professional
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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I'm a casual player, haven't played in a while and looking to start up again. I've never rated myself, but I'm guessing I'm a 3.0. I'd like to play week days after 6:30 or weekend mornings. Send me a message if you're interested!
Views: 264
Replies to This Discussion
Great, I'm at 503-784-8667 in case there's any technical difficulties
I'd be down to play. I used to be about a 4.0 but haven't played any tennis for a few years. I live in downtown SB, but could hit anywhere in the area.
© 2019 Created by Mark / The Mayor. Powered by


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Introduction and Features
Courtesy of NZXT
NZXT added two mid-tower case offerings to its Tempest series today that feature custom solutions for dual-radiator watercooling systems and dual "touch-powered" 120mm front fans with removable filters. The Tempest 410 and Tempest 410 Elite are available for $79.99 and $89.99. Today, we are kicking the tires on the Tempest 410 Elite to ensure enthusiasts and overclockers get the most bang for their buck for their next mid-tower case upgrade.
Courtesy of NZXT
Both Tempest 410 and Tempest 410 Elite cases incorporate a honeycomb mesh design to the front, top, and back panels and advanced cable management systems for concealing loose wires and power cords. The Tempest 410 Elite ups the ante with an acrylic side panel to see all the hardware inside the chassis.
Continue reading our review of the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Mid-Tower Case!!


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Buy now and save! ONLY LEFT
I am pleased to have discovered PC-Canada. I have been searching for years for a online source in Canada to buy my pro-printer supplies. I will use PC-Canada for now on. My normal experience in Canada was, No Inventory and way overpriced! I had resorted to buying my supplies solely in the US for the last 10 years. But now I can keep my money at home. So far, the items I need regularly are listed in stock and the prices are quite fair and competitive. My only real complaint is that the description of the Genuine name-brand ink cartridges I've seen, are ambiguous and could be misconstrued as fake, 3rd-party ones ( ex; genuine OEM carts should not be listed as re-fillable) . I emailed customer service, and they promptly replied that indeed the cartridges in question were indeed genuine, original name-brand OEM cartridges.


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Happy Birthday, Heritage FoundationAt 25, the right-wing agitprop machine has a lot to celebrate.Posted Friday, Jan. 9, 1998, at 3:30 AM ET
Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the Heritage Foundation, the biggest and best known of the conservative think tanks. The festivities began a few weeks ago with a black-tie gala for 1,700, at which Margaret Thatcher spoke on the topic of "Courage." ("Ronald Reagan and I refused to accept the decline of the West as our ineluctable destiny," Thatcher declared, displaying her usual modesty and sense of fun.) The revelries are to continue for two full years, with a traveling lecture series featuring such speakers as William Bennett, who will orate in Oklahoma City about "Truth," and Clarence Thomas, who will address the people of Palm Beach on the subject of "Character." Another vast dinner in Washington will cap the series and Heritage's $85-million fund-raising drive. To commemorate the occasion, the foundation also has sponsored a gushing account of its first quarter-century, The Power of Ideas, by Lee Edwards. The book's title is incongruous, since the whole point of the Heritage Foundation is that ideas alone have little power without a big push.
By all measures, Heritage has much to celebrate. From across the political spectrum, opinion appears to be unanimous that the organization has been singularly effective in accomplishing its mission of dragging American politics to the right. Since the 1980 release of its Mandate for Leadership, a detailed program for the incoming Reagan administration that the Reagan administration actually took seriously, Heritage has played a central role in setting not only the broad conservative agenda but also the details of legislation. Edwards' book delights in quoting envious encomia from the enemy camp. Michael Shuman of the left-wing Institute for Policy Studies credits Heritage with a bigger influence on American politics and policy than any other conservative institution. Will Marshall, president of the New Democratic Progressive Policy Institute, says Heritage "wrote the book on how to market and popularize political ideas." The Nation, among others, keeps up a steady drumbeat on this theme: Why doesn't the left have an advocacy organization as influential as Heritage? Well, why not?
The most obvious explanation is money. A right-wing "advocacy tank" like Heritage is able to raise much more than its liberal counterparts for the same reason that Republican candidates out-raise Democratic ones. Those who have a lot to give--corporations and rich individuals--give primarily in their own self-interest. (And, unlike political candidates, organizations like Heritage can accept donations directly from corporate treasuries.) Self-interested money goes to organizations that promote lower taxes and less regulation, two topics on which Heritage is absolutely unflinching. To be sure, there is disinterested conservative money, and self-interested liberal money, such as the union funds that go to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that opposes free-trade agreements. But such exceptions don't change the rule. The Brookings Institution, often cast as Heritage's liberal counterpart, could never dream of raising $85 million in two years.
In fact, Brookings isn't really Heritage's liberal counterpart. Though it has historically exhibited a modest liberal slant--diminished in recent years--Brookings thinks of itself as a scholarly institution devoted to objective research into public policy. It would never spend its money in an explicit effort to harm its political foes, because it does not conceive of itself as taking a side and does not view politics as ideological warfare. This is even more true of the big "liberal" foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller, and MacArthur. New Right conservatives, on the other hand, as exemplified by Heritage, are quite explicit about viewing politics as combat. In the words of Heritage's president, Ed Feulner, "We conduct warfare in the battle of ideas." Washington exerts a strong moderating influence, and Feulner has been attacked in recent years for going "establishment"--wanting to be prestigious and respected like Brookings instead of being powerful and feared. This is the same fault Heritage attacked the American Enterprise Institute for in the 1970s. But even if it has settled down a bit, Heritage still retains an insurgent mindset. It views itself as the center of a radical movement, even if it has become part of an entrenched Washington establishment.
Because of its combat mentality, Heritage has never been a place with very high standards. Like other conservative outfits, it loves the lingo of academic life. Its hallways are cluttered with endowed chairs, visiting fellows, and distinguished scholars. The conceit here is that as a PC Dark Age has overcome the universities, conservative think tanks have become the refuge of thought and learning. At Heritage in particular, this is a laugh. AEI and the Manhattan Institute frequently produce stimulating books and studies and occasionally arrive at unexpected positions. Even the more dogmatic Cato Institute has cultivated a reputation for rigorous research and analysis from a libertarian point of view. Heritage, however, is essentially a propaganda mill. There are exceptions. Stuart Butler, a Brit who runs the domestic-policy shop, has done solid work on enterprise zones, and took pains to develop a conscientious conservative alternative to the Clinton health-care plan. But on the whole, Heritage is focused on selling and promoting its views rather than on developing thoughtful or nuanced ones. It spends nearly half its $29 million annual budget on marketing. It prides itself on producing reports with concision and speed. According to Edwards, one recent innovation is the colored index card summarizing a conservative position in "short, punchy sentences." According to Heritage's "Vice-president for information marketing," these cards have been "wildly successful" with Republicans in Congress.
Its ethical standards are as lax as its intellectual ones. Heritage is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, which means it is not supposed to lobby Congress. Edwards notes that a disclaimer appears at the foot of all its publications. "Nothing written here is to be construed as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress." This is an evident absurdity. Heritage exists to aid and hinder legislation before Congress and often boasts about doing so. Edwards quotes the Heritage disclaimer immediately after he finishes explaining that Feulner and Paul Weyrich founded Heritage because in the early 1970s, AEI was taking its tax-exempt status too seriously. Having been investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, AEI didn't focus on getting its reports into the hands of members of Congress before the relevant votes. For whatever reason, liberal groups tend to be more punctilious about this. Many are split between two organizations, a 501(c)(3), to which contributions are tax deductible, and a 501(c)(4), which is simply not taxable itself, and which has more latitude in lobbying. This reduces the amount liberal groups can raise, enhancing their natural disadvantage.
At bottom, the big liberal think tanks remain temperamentally different from the likes of Heritage. They have their vices, to be sure. They can be ponderous, conventional, and gimmicky--and miraculously, sometimes all three at once. But you can't see the Twentieth-Century Fund feeding policy popcorn to Democrats in Congress. They'd be insulted by the idea. It's hard to imagine the Progressive Policy Institute naming a "Vice-president for information marketing." You can't conceive of Brookings putting out a volume of self-serving bluster like the Edwards book. In fact, Brookings did commission a history for its 75th anniversary in 1991. It was serious, critical, and self-questioning in a way that is totally alien to the Heritage Foundation. Though Democrats have become better in recent years at suppressing their differences in favor of their common interests, they still shy away instinctually from a united front of the kind that Heritage is.
Liberals say they want to learn from the most successful organization on the right. But in reality, they're more comfortable, and probably better off, wishing the Heritage Foundation a happy birthday and admiring it from afar.
on the Fray
Health care bill will require new restaurant menus that include calorie counts http://bit.ly/cd7ZTF
Become a fan of Slate on Facebook http://bit.ly/4EGWiY Follow us on Google Buzz http://bit.ly/aanSOz
Haliburton withdraws appeal in Jamie Leigh Jones rape case http://bit.ly/dB9Dwh
- Shafer: What Ross Douthat Overlooks About Conspiracy Theorists
- Why Do Investors Keep Making Bad Bets Against Obama?
- Strange YouTube Trend: The Girls Who Want To Show You the Clothes They Just Bought
- Slate's Sports Experts Size Up the Sweet 16
- Companies Get Paid To Use Less Energy. Why Not Homeowners Like Me?
- Obama's Bold Plan To Fix America's Lousy Internet Connection


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Crawford County First Responders Receive $600,000 Grant
- Jenna Ramolt
- Local News
With the help of over 48 churches, Mansfield's Christian community spent the past several weeks by visiting each church for prayer and services to help celebrate the Easter weekend.
The Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the Galion-Crestline Chamber of Commerce and several other organizations, held the first-ever Route 30 Business Expo at Bucyrus's Pickwick Place event center on Thursday.
It was an emotional day for family and friends of the late Senate President and former Marine Bill Harris as the Ashland Post Office was renamed in his honor.


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$11.62 $14.52
"Do what you love, love what you do" a fabulous motivational wall sticker quote to drive you to appreciate and love what you do in your day to day lives. A great addition for the home or office to pick you up throughtout the days!
This wall art quote is available in 3 different sizes and many colours.
* Small (30cm W x 41cm H)
* Medium (40cm W x 55cm H)
* Large (50cm W x 68cm H)
► We use the highest quality branded vinyl available on the market
► Guaranteed to last 5-7 years indoors
► Guranteed external life of 3-5 years
► Multiple colours available
► We have many years experience in the wall sticker market
Wall Sticker Quotes Made By Us -
Banksy Wall Stickers -
Wall stickers are an amazing modern way to transform any room. A wall sticker is a thin self adhesive vinyl layer, available in many colour options, plotted and cut by special cutting machinery into numerous different designs. Wall art stickers when applied to your wall or any smooth flat surface, look like they are part of your existing wallpaper or wall. This allows them to look incredible as they simply blend in to your existing wall or the surface you apply them to! Wall art stickers can also be applied to glass, tiles, plastic, wood, wardrobes, vehicles and anything else smooth and flat you can think of. All our wall stickers are made to order right here in the UK. Here at Quote My Wall, we produce all our wall stickers from the highest quality branded vinyl.
Wall stickers/decals come with an application sheet (see through material), and a backing paper (white paper). The application sheet is a low tack paper that sticks to the face of the wall sticker. This sheet allows you to apply the wall sticker on to the wall in one piece.
* Before starting, it is important to ensure the wall sticker is applied to a smooth flat surface. Our wall stickers stick to most surfaces, however we recommend a smooth and flat surface for best results. Make sure the surface is clean from any dirt, dust ormoisture. Wipe the surface down with a damp or dry cloth, ad ensur surface is dry. Failing to do so may limit the stickiness of the sticker *
STEP 1 - Lay out the sticker on a flat surface and swipe over the wall sticker with a credit card, squeegee or anything flat you can get your hands on. This will ensure the wall sticker sticks to the application sheet.
STEP 2 - Carefully begin to remove the vinyl backing paper (white back paper). The front of the decal should now be stuck to the application sheet (see through material). If required, repeat step 1 if certain parts of the sticker are not being removed from the white backing paper. Some letters/items don't always peel off. If all fails these items can be applied seperately at the end, by simply peeling them off the application sheet yourself, and applying to the surface.
STEP 3 - Position your wall sticker onto the wall or surface you've chosen, once you're all happy with it and the positioning, rub over the wall sticker again using your credit card or similar object. Be sure to apply alot of pressure to ensure the wall sticker completely applied to the wall/surface.
STEP 4 - Finally, very slowly peel away the application sheet (clear material). Your wall sticker should now be transferred onto the wall/surface. If not, repeat step 3 and ensure you press and apply pressure to all areas of the wall sticker onto the surface.
That's it :) Your wall sticker should now be applied, and should look absolutely fabulous!
Image used is for display purposes only.
1-3 business days
I'll do my best to meet these shipping estimates, but can't guarantee them. Actual delivery time will depend on the shipping method you choose.
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Just contact me within: 14 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 30 days of delivery
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.
As we're based in London, UK, people from the UK can expect their order within 1-3 days of placing their order.
Anywhere outside the UK generally takes 6-10 working days, however some instances it can take longer, so please hang in there!
Yes we do! Infact, designing customised decals is our speciality! If you can't see a decal you like and would like one made from scratch, then please contact us and we'll be more than happy to help. We will help assist you from design, right until the finished product, making sure you're 100% satisfied with your custom decal.
We offer wholesale discounts on our products. If you are planning to order 10 or more or the same item, then please contact us for a quotation.
Each of our wall decal designs vary in size options. If you want a decal in a specific size, then please contact us and we will see what we can do for you.
Our wall decal stickers are made from the highest grade matt vinyl. You can expect interior life guaranteed 5-7 years and exterior 3-5 years. You must ensure the wall is cleaned with a damp cloth before applying your wall decal. Wall decals are best applied on smooth, flat surfaces.
STEP 1 - Lay out the sticker on a flat surface and swipe over the wall sticker with a credit card, squeegee or anything flat.
2 - Carefully begin to remove the vinyl backing paper (white back paper). The front of the decal should now be stuck to the application sheet (see through material). If required, repeat step 1 if certain parts of the decal are not being removed. Some letters/items don't always peel off. If all fails these items can be applied separately at the end, by peeling and sticking.
3 - Position your wall sticker onto the wall or surface you've chosen, once you're happy, rub over the wall sticker again using a squeegee.
4 - Finally, very slowly peel away the application sheet (clear sheet). Your wall decal should be applied
Our wall stickers are designed to be stuck to any clean, dry and flat surface e.g. glass, tiles, furniture, mirrors, doors - and of course walls!
When applying stickers to walls, please note that they will stick down best when the wall has been painted with normal matt emulsion. Some glossy / silk paints, or 'special effect' paints (e.g. light reflecting paints) can be more difficult to apply wall stickers to because of their chemical properties.
Wall stickers will not adhere properly to fresh painted walls. We advise to wait a minimum of 2-3 weeks after painting.
Our stickers can be applied on top of wallpaper, and any other card / paper based products, but in these situations please note that the stickers may not be cleanly removable.


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Looking for some advice on trying to lat transfer.
I applied to the Jun 2017 board and did not get picked up. I am an NFO with not the best FITREPS(Long Story) but not sure why I missed the boat on this one. It could very well be my package, or perhaps the competition. As an NFO I couldn't apply until now due to my aviation commitment and am now a senior LT (YG2010).
My concern is that I am competing against senior LT LDO's who are already in the community. Do I even stand a chance against them? This last board only selected SWO's and LDO's. I am assuming because of the SWO commitment, I was not competing for slots against their year groups and there would be no way I would get picked up over an LDO already established and qualified.
I was kind of hopeful I was going to get picked up this time around, but the more I think about it, I am starting to think I may have missed the window to make the transition to CWO?
I am planning on talking to the Community Manager in soon, but wanted to see if their was any insight from the masses.


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Anchovy, Red Pepper, and Manchego Pintxos Recipe
Anchovy fillets, roasted red peppers, and Manchego cheese are spiked onto a garlic-rubbed baguette round and quickly toasted under the broiler. A drizzle of sherry vinegar right before serving provides some sharp acidity to cut through the saltiness of the anchovy, and nuttiness of the cheese. Salty, tangy, and crisp, these pintxos are great pre-cursors to a glass of wine or beer.
Read more: Bar Bites: Anchovy, Red Pepper, and Manchego Pintxos
- Yield:Makes 12 hors d'oeuvres, serving 4 to 6
- Active time: 10 minutes
- Total time:10 minutes
- 12 (1/2-inch) slices of baguette
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium clove garlic, cut in half
- 12 thin slices of manchego cheese
- 1 jarred roasted red bell pepper, drained and cut into 12 slivers
- 12 olive oil-packed anchovy fillets, drained
- Sherry vinegar, for drizzling
- 12 toothpicks or small wooden skewers, for serving
Brush both sides of the baguette slices with the olive oil, then place the baguette slices on a baking sheet. Lightly toast the bread directly under the broiler until golden brown, 30-seconds to 1 minute per side. Remove the bread from the broiler and rub the top of each baguette slice with the cut side of the garlic.
Place the manchego slices on each slice of bread, followed by a sliver of roasted red bell pepper, followed by an anchovy fillet. Return the baguette slices to the broiler and broil just until the cheese melts, 30-seconds to 1 minute.
Remove the topped baguette slices from the oven, then secure each with a toothpick. sprinkle with sherry vinegar and serve immediately.
This Recipe Appears InBar Bites: Anchovy, Red Pepper, and Manchego Pintxos
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.


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With October right around the corner, I have finished the Pink Monochromatic top except for the border. Judy over at Patchwork Times is our host for this great challenge that I am determined to finish even though I am a little behind. This quilt will be donated for a fund raiser to Breast Awareness --- and just happens to be a repeat of the Violet/Purple Quilt I made a few months ago. Those Chubby pinwheels are habit forming.
On the quilting table, I have the Church Quilt, next is the Blue Monochromatic, then I will quilt the Pink -- did I mention that I still have not quilted the last Bonnie Hunter's RRCB Mystery Quilt. AND -- I can't wait to start the Green Monochromatic!


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San Pedro Parks Wilderness
IntroductionThe United States Congress designated the San Pedro Parks Wilderness (map) in 1964 and it now has a total of 41,305 acres. All of this wilderness is located in New Mexico and is managed by the Forest Service.
DescriptionSan Pedro Parks Wilderness began as a Primitive Area, established by the Chief of the Forest Service in 1931. In 1941 the Secretary of Agriculture classified it as a Wild Area and set its acreage at 41,132 acres. It became the San Pedro Parks Wilderness as part of the original Wilderness Act in July 1964. Although the elevation averages 10,000 feet above sea level, San Pedro Parks Wilderness is known for high, moist, rolling mountaintops with numerous meadows and large grassy "parks." Dense stands of Engelmann spruce and mixed conifers compete for space with small stands of aspen. Clear streams wander through the forest openings and are usually abundant with trout. Be prepared for frequent afternoon rainfall in July and August. This rainfall enables the meadows to flourish with bluegrass, oat grass, sedge, rush, and Rocky Mountain iris, only to be covered with snow come November. The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail crosses through the Wilderness from Cuba, NM to the Carson National Forest. Its route follows along Los Pinos, Vacas, Penas Negras and Rio Capulin trails. Campsites with abundant water appeal to backpackers, as do the nine major trails. Trails receiving the heaviest use are the Vacas Trail to San Pedro Park (10.69 miles) and the Palomas Trail (3.63 miles), which joins the Vacas Trail. Fall brings hunters seeking elk, deer, bear, and grouse. San Gregorio Lake is a small irrigation reservoir in the southern part of the wilderness which was created before Wilderness designation. The Wilderness receives approximately 35 inches of precipitation a year, mostly as snow. May and June are generally dry months with little precipitation. Daytime temperatures during the summer are often in the seventies but nights are cool, sometimes cold. The Wilderness is open to cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Planning to Visit the San Pedro Parks Wilderness?
- Print a fact sheet
- General things to consider when visiting any wilderness
- Regulations
- Contact the Forest Service
Leave No TraceHow to follow the seven standard Leave No Trace principles differs in different parts of the country (desert vs. Rocky Mountains). Click on any of the principles listed below to learn more about how they apply in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness.
- Plan Ahead and Prepare
- Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
- Dispose of Waste Properly
- Leave What You Find
- Minimize Campfire Impacts
- Respect Wildlife
- Be Considerate of Other Visitors


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ARLA LaserWorks
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Sublimated Pro Hockey Skort/Skirt Design 4314
All Skorts available with our elasticated waistband and the option of an internal short if required.
All logos and numbers included.
This design is available in any colour combination from the Samurai colour range
Also available in any Sublimated colour you require using pantone colours
Also available in fluro colours
This design is available in the following fabrics.
Smooth Interlock
Smooth Interlock is a lightweight, durable & robust fabric. Available for cut & sew and sublimated designs.
Diamond Polyester
The easy care textured finish of this fabric makes it a popular choice for general training & leisurewear usage. Available for both cut & sew and sublimated garments.
We offer many forms of personalisation.
Club crests, sponsor logos & numbers are included in the price for a sublimated short.
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Greater Boston
Convention & visitors Bureau
From intimate dinner parties for 10 to large gatherings up to 350, Anthem Kitchen + Bar offers a variety of options for your next special event. With space on two levels, Anthem's ground floor houses a large, windowed greenhouse perfect for observing the pedestrian traffic of Faneuil Hall, while a spacious upper level loft features a sun porch overlooking the action below. A casual, upscale option for corporate events, birthday parties, showers and rehearsal dinners, Anthem is conveniently located just steps from State Street and is easily accessible by public transportation.


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Official Cover:
North America Release: Oct 7th 2014
NBA 2K14 Info
NBA 2K14 Official Cover:
Release Date:
Playstation 3 - Oct 8, 2013
Xbox 360 - Oct 8, 2013
Playstation 4 - Release date with system
Xbox One - Release date with system
First Promo:
2K14 to include Euro Teams:
"We are very proud to collaborate with 2K Sports by introducing our teams and players into the best basketball videogame in the world," stated Mr. Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball President and CEO. "With this partnership, we're able to bring fans one step closer to the action by ushering the Euroleague into the global gaming community."
The fourteen teams to be included in NBA 2K14 are:
· Alba Berlin
· FC Barcelona
· Real Madrid
· CSKA Moscow
· EA7 Emporio Armani Milano
· Montepaschi Siena
· Fenerbahçe Ülker Istanbul
· Anadolu Efes Istanbul
· Olympiacos Piraeus
· Panathinaikos Athens
· Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
· Zalgiris Kaunas
· Unicaja Málaga
· Laboral Kutxa Vitoria
NBA 2K13 Info:
Official Trailer:
As far as Special Editions go, 2K Sports is pulling no punches with NBA 2K13 and is bringing the game to your hands in a more physical way than ever before. The 'NBA 2K13 Dynasty Edition', releasing Oct. 2 for $99.99, will feature a copy of the game and some awesome basketball related goodies and, wait for it, a full-sized Spalding basketball, time to get your LeBron James on people!
The Spalding basketball included isn't you regular traditional orange orb of greatness, instead it has a more artful approach, with limbs covering most of the ball and the game title plastered on the front, so you will stand out among your basketball buddies. To go along with the basketball, the Dynasty edition also promises DLC in the form of "All-Star add-on content presented by Sprite," 2K Sports Skullcandy earbuds , and an "NBA 2K13″ skin to cover your PS3 or Xbox controller with.
Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports talked about giving something meaningful to the fans that they can really enjoy, he said, "With this special edition package, we want to give something meaningful to our great fans. This is an awesome deal that is sure to please fans, and will become a must-have item while supplies last." Previous installment NBA 2K12, sold-in over 5 million units worldwide and won more than 25 Sports Game of the Year awards, so we can expect NBA 2K13 to be an all rounded experience(no pun intended).
The "NBA 2K13 Dynasty Edition" will be exclusive to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and can be pre-ordered on the NBA 2K13 Facebook Page. NBA 2K13 is available in North America on October 2 and October 5 internationally. Let us know in the comments if you're picking this bad boy up.
If you pre-order NBA 2K13 for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 through Amazon, you will receive access to NBA All Star Game content, including the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, Three Point Contest, Rising Stars Challenge Game, and the NBA All Star Game.
2K Sports Announces NBA® 2K13's Triumphant Return to Virtual Hardwood on October 2, 2012
Fans to receive NBA All-Star add-on content presented by Sprite
with pre-order purchase, including all-new Sprite Slam Dunk Contest mode
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 30, 2012-- 2K Sports today announced that NBA® 2K13, the next installment of the top-rated NBA video game simulation franchise* for twelve straight years and the follow-up to the award-winning NBA 2K12, will be available on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 in North America and October 5, 2012 internationally for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Wii™ system and Windows PC. A Wii U™ version of NBA® 2K13 will be available in the launch window, at a later date.
Fans that pre-order NBA 2K13 for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 will receive a new downloadable NBA All-Star content package presented by Sprite. This add-on content will be set in Houston, the site of the 2013 NBA All-Star Game and will allow fans to stage their own NBA All-Star Game, including three NBA All-Star events - the Foot Locker Three Point Shootout, BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, and the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest featuring all-new intuitive, pick-up-and-play controls.
"The NBA All-Star package is our way saying 'thank you' to fans for their ongoing love of the NBA 2K series," said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. "This content provides a ton of depth and value to our fans, and it's just the beginning of a lot of big news about NBA® 2K13."
Gamers can pit the NBA's current superstars against classic players in both the Foot Locker Three Point Shootout and Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Rosters for both the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge and 2013 NBA All-Star Game will feature the 2012 All-Stars, with dynamic updates to the 2013 rosters once the participants are announced.
Developed by Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio, NBA 2K13 is not yet rated by the ESRB and will be available on October 2, 2012 in North America and October 5, 2012 internationally. The Wii U version of the title will be available during the holiday season. Fans are encouraged to pre-order now at participating retailers in order to receive the NBA All-Star content on day one at no extra cost.
NBA 2K12 Info:
Covers Revealed:
The covers are done by artist Adam Larson, a name you may not recognize, but someone whose work is all over on everything from alcohol ad campaigns, to ESPN magazine, to Beyonce's latest album cover.
The Johnson and Bird covers are limited edition, and will only be available for the first printing of NBA 2K12.
While 2K Sports has yet to reveal the extent to which Johnson and Bird appear in the game, we'd say it's safe to assume they will have gameplay features built around them, similar to Michael Jordan's in NBA 2K11
ESPN has announced the 15 legends in NBA 2K12 and their opposing teams. Both sides should have 10-12 accurate players represented according to the article. Here's the list of players and their opponents in the game:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
86-87 Lakers vs. Celtics
Larry Bird
85-86 Celtics vs Hawks
Julius Dr. J Erving
84-85 76ers vs Bucks
Wilt Chamberlain
71-72 Lakers vs Knicks
Patrick Ewing
94-95 Knicks vs Magic
Magic Johnson
90-91 Lakers vs Blazers
Michael Jordan
92-93 Bulls vs Hornets
Karl Malone
97-98 Jazz vs Spurs
Scottie Pippen
95-96 Bulls vs Sonics
Oscar Robertson
70-71 Bucks vs Lakers
Hakeem Olajuwon
93-94 Rockets vs Nuggets
Bill Russell
64-65 Celtics vs Lakers
Jerry West
70-71 Lakers vs Hawks
Isiah Thomas
88-89 Pistons vs. Bulls
John Stockton
97-98 Jazz vs. Lakers
Bonus Teams
1990-91 Warriors and 2001-02 Kings
What do you wanna see in the new game?
I hope they further enhance Myplayer mode with actual contracts, ability to make sliders harder since game gets so easy at 99 overall, etc
2K Sports won a ton of awards last year for NBA 2K11, arguably the best basketball game ever. But they're still bitter about losing to FIFA at the Spike VGAs. Not happy to rest on their laurels, 2K Sports is out to be the best again, and this time beat everyone.
While there are still a lot of details 2K Sports is not ready to talk about (like how do you follow up on a game that spanned the career of Michael Jordan, the greatest player the game has ever seen?), they used E3 2011 to show off just a few of the presentation improvements for NBA 2K12.
For the E3 demo 2K was playing a match in the recently completed NBA Finals. The Dallas Mavericks hosted the Miami Heat and I got to see some of what the developers are doing to make the post-season feel more like an event and less like just another game of basketball. Because let's face it, with most sports games the postseason is nearly indistinguishable from any of the other games you play.
In the NBA 2K12 demo, the NBA Finals logo is plastered over everything, and there's an added level of pomp and circumstance to the opening cinematic. The character rosters are moving full 3D models of the players. During the game little ads pop up on the bottom showing the rivalries of the teams, and making the game look like a TNT broadcast. The fans in the stage are wearing game shirts, showing their support with a sea of team colors. It's all a lot of fluff but it's the sort of fluff you would expect when watching the Finals on TV.
It's a nice start, and hopefully 2K Sports can follow through with it. One of my biggest complaints with sports games is that they utterly fail to capture the magnitude and excitement of a championship. If NBA 2K12 can make it feel like I've really just completed the NBA Finals then it will be one step ahead of the competition, which is exactly what 2K Sports wants.
Steve Kerr to take over announcer duties
Edited by Game, May 08, 2017 - 12:31 PM.


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[Illinois] B3SI 2012: International Collaboration Panel
17 May 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Hao-Ming Hsiao, Irfan S. Ahmad, Nai-Jen Harry Chang, Taher A. Saif, Xin Tang, Hsiang-Yu Angie Wang


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American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) unveiled deals with Bombardier and Embraer to purchase a total of 90 new 76-seat regional jets, as the company moves to update its fleet after merging with US Airways.
Continue Reading Below
The airline, now the largest by traffic, said Thursday it signed off on an order for 30 Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen aircraft and options to buy up to 40 additional jets. American expects to begin taking delivery of the CRJ900s in the second quarter of 2014.
Bombardier, a Canadian plane maker, said the firm order contract is valued at $1.42 billion, while the options could boost the deal to $3.38 billion.
American Airlines also announced firm orders for 60 Embraer E175 type aircraft, plus options for up to 90 more. The firm orders are worth $2.5 billion, according to Brazil-based Embraer. The new jets are slated for delivery in the first quarter of 2015.
The Embraer planes are capable of seating between 70 and 88 passengers, but American Airlines will configure them to seat 76. Both sets of new aircraft will have 12 first class seats, the company said.
The Bombardier CRJ900s will fly under the PSA Airlines brand, a subsidiary of US Airways. A home for the Embraer E175s will be determined at a later date, although all of the new jets will fly the American Eagle colors.
American Airlines explained that the Bombardier and Embraer planes will lower operating costs by replacing smaller, less efficient 50-seat regional aircraft.
On Monday, American Airlines officially emerged from bankruptcy and merged with US Airways. Shares of the new company ticked 16 cents higher to $26.15 early Thursday morning, adding to a 4.5% gain through Wednesday's close.


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Last week President Barack Obama's administration announced that it was going to engage Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. As the White House explained, American officials from previous administrations have already met with members of the prominent Islamist party—a party that, it's worth noting, has been resolutely anti-Western and viciously anti-Zionist since its founding in 1928. Obama administration officials said that they wish to expand contacts with the Brotherhood because they perceive, correctly, that the movement is likely to become an even bigger factor in regional politics.
The Arab Spring surely has something to do with Obama's new approach, but it is hardly the sole or even the main cause of a shift that has turned U.S. Middle East policy on its head. So, what is?
Even before pro-U.S. regimes in Tunis and Cairo were toppled, Obama had said that he opposed the existing U.S.-backed order in the Middle East, which has rested on close military and diplomatic alliances with Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, and a substantial American military presence in the Persian Gulf. Most observers assumed that the president was indulging in rhetorical flights of fancy when he said that the status quo was unsustainable. But now we see he meant every word of it.
The existing political order in the Middle East has cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives over the past 60 years. In some cases, such as Israel, our alliances have been built on cultural affinity, military necessity, and domestic political considerations. In other cases, such as Saudi Arabia, our considerations have been more commercial. The larger point of U.S. engagement in the region has been to ensure the freedom of crucial shipping lanes and the flow of oil—without which the global economy that sustains billions of people around the world would grind to a halt.
Given the strong Wilsonian streak in U.S. politics, one might imagine that Obama is a staunch idealist—a man who, like Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, or George W. Bush, is disgusted by dictators. But Obama's shameful record as a protector of human rights in the Middle East hardly bears out this theory: Iran's Green Revolutionaries begged Obama for support for weeks, only to be greeted first with silence while being shot, tortured, and maimed by the mullahs and their goons, and then by lukewarm support, and now again with silence. Syria's authoritarian rulers shoot their own people in the streets and bombard civilian neighborhoods with tanks and helicopter gunships, but the White House is virtually mum.
So, Obama is clearly not being driven by an obsession with human rights. Perhaps he is a wily master of realpolitik? A leader of this kind—like, say, Richard Nixon—would support the United States' powerful friends, like Saudi Arabia and Israel, while seeking to constrain the power of its enemies, like Syria and Iran. Yet Obama has so significantly alienated the Saudis that they have embarked on their own cash-heavy royalist-oriented foreign policy, seeking to woo American allies like Jordan and Bahrain and even Pakistan into a new alliance devoted in large part to blocking Obama's destabilizing policies in the region. Obama picks fights with Israel and then suddenly demands the Jewish state return to its 1967 borders as a condition for negotiating a peace agreement with the Palestinians—and is publicly rebuked by the Israeli prime minister, with the support of the U.S. Congress. Losing the trust and support of both Saudi Arabia and Israel in the space of a few months is hardly the move of a leader driven by realpolitik.
Perhaps, as some right-wing critics claim, Obama's policy is the product of something worse, or more sinister, like a blueprint to weaken America on behalf of its enemies? Except this doesn't fly either. Obama's no Manchurian candidate, brainwashed by U.S. enemies during his schooldays in Indonesia to ruin the country. Instead, what all these theories miss is that Obama is simply a representative man of the post-World War II American Ivy League intelligentsia, which came to see the United States in a context shaped by the collapse of the European colonial empires under the weight of greed and barbarity.
It was the furies of Europe—its anti-Semitism and racism, its need to dominate and destroy—that drove its people to war twice in the last century while inflicting a series of revolting indignities on the so-called "lesser races" whose lands they colonized and plundered. Americans believed they were different, both at home and abroad, because they were anti-colonial from birth, and with the 20th-century advent of the decolonization movement they instinctively if sometimes cautiously sided with the new nations of the world against their former European overlords. The American sympathy for decolonization began with Woodrow Wilson and was passionately held by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and most of his top aides and by their successors in the U.S. foreign policy establishment of the 1950s, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen, head of the CIA, none of whom can be dismissed as left-wing academics.
Anti-colonialism was the motor driving the Middle East policy of the American warrior who won Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose administration wished to make friends in the region by distinguishing itself from the great European powers and showing that Washington had no colonial ambitions. Ike put that premise into practice when he demanded England, France, and Israel stand down after invading Egypt in the Suez Crisis of 1956. Obama seems to understand the world similarly—the established order is wrong for us and wrong for the people of the region, morally and politically.
Obama may also reasonably believe that a United States in the grips of a financial crisis simply doesn't have the money to meddle in the Middle East anymore. This country gets less than 25 percent of its energy resources from the Persian Gulf, so why should it be up to us to make sure that affordable oil transits the region? Let China, India, and Europe share the burden. Combine a bad U.S. economy, American exhaustion with our post-Sept. 11 commitments in the Middle East, and the nostalgic logic of decolonization and you can, finally, understand the origins of Obama's regional policy.
But then you must tackle its consequences. The problem with this philosophy is that anti-colonialism is not a response to the realities of the Middle East but rather an exercise in self-congratulatory and often delusional nostalgia—and the results in practice have been awful. Eisenhower called his stance on Suez the worst foreign policy mistake of his tenure, and the results of Obama's updated version of Ike's policies have also been poor. After all the early enthusiasm for Mubarak's ouster, Egypt is in deep trouble and spinning out of the U.S. orbit. If the Muslim Brotherhood isn't rushing in to fill the vacuum, perhaps it's just because they're too savvy to want to claim ownership of a country that may be on the verge of bankruptcy and famine, as some analysts argue.
Pushing out Mubarak has made both the Israelis and Saudis wary of Obama—a move that has proven bad not only for Washington but for Riyadh and Jerusalem as well. The notion that several thousand libertine and/or fundamentalist Saudi princes are capable of formulating a coherent regional strategy is more fantastical than a J.K. Rowling novel. The Saudis on their own are a danger to themselves, the Middle East at large, and the world's largest known reserves of oil. Leaving them to their own devices is easily the worst option among an array of bad choices.
With Israel, the administration may be on the verge of accomplishing the previously unthinkable—forcing the Jewish state to find other allies who will maintain the continuing supply of high-tech weapons to ensure its qualitative military advantage over its rivals. Perhaps Russia, India, and even China are interested in Israeli technology—military and civilian—and its newly discovered energy resources. By driving Israel away, the United States risks losing the leverage it has historically enjoyed with the Arabs by being able to broker deals with the Israelis, who will care a lot less about what Washington thinks once they can produce their own high-tech fighter planes, satellites, and missile systems.
Without U.S. leadership, the Middle East is less stable and less secure than it has been at any point since the 1973 war, for both U.S. allies and adversaries alike. The Iranian-led resistance bloc has also been hurt by the Arab Spring, even as the Obama Administration has failed to capitalize on Tehran's setbacks. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is fighting for the survival of his regime, a fight that no one, not even Washington, expects him to win. Hezbollah has also been wounded and may suffer further with four of its members indicted for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The result of the political insecurity that Obama has fostered has been a plunge in the standard of living for ordinary people throughout the region and increasing instability there. In the absence of strong U.S. leadership, Turkey now fancies itself as the second coming of the Ottoman empire and creates international incidents by dispatching flotillas to Gaza and making nice with Iran and Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, further rattling the political and security architecture that the United States built, and now wishes to abandon.
Obama has locked in Washington's losses in the Middle East while ignoring opportunities to hurt U.S. adversaries like Syria and Iran. But sooner or later he will have to act there, too. It cost Obama nothing to ditch Mubarak, alienate the Israelis and the Saudis, or even wage a thoughtless war against Qadaffi. But if he crosses the line with the Iranians, as they rush to build a nuclear bomb, they have the power to retaliate by causing regional havoc and raising the price of oil to $150 a barrel—making the current global economic mess seem like a profitable holiday season and ensuring a Republican victory in 2012. The fact is that letting the Iranians get the bomb is a much worse outcome. Even if it has little effect on the president's re-election chances, Iranian hegemony in the Persian Gulf would spell long-term disaster and shape Obama's historical legacy. The lesson that the president needs to learn from his mistakes is that the status quo is worth preserving because change is dangerous in the Middle East, where things can always get worse. So far, that's exactly what has been happening.


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I've never heard anything about Steins;Gate, but I'm in the mood for a new visual novel. Is there anywhere I can buy it in English, or was it never released over here?
I have never watched any Gundam. Where should I start? Or should I start?
Quote from: Bleaker on June 18, 2013, 08:42:59 PMAlso is Eureka 7 any good?It's good, but it's definitely a slooooww moving series. I ultimately gave up on it.
Also is Eureka 7 any good?
Yeah, I'll recommend the Original Gundam in movie form too. The original series isn't bad but good luck tracking it down.That said, I'd also recommend Zeta Gundam, though not in movie format as a lot more that happens in that show pushes the plot along and is generally less episodic than OYW.Actually most UC Gundam shows tend to be okay at least (well aside from the latter half of ZZ Gundam, pretty much any time a female shows up in Victory Gundam, F91 Gundam which should've been a show instead of a movie, and 0083 Stardust Memories because the leads kinda suck). Meanwhile the only AU Gundam series that don't suck are G Gundam and Turn A Gundam (poor Turn X had serious potential but got canned before it could get to the payout, Double O Gundam had a decent start followed by a shitty second season and a horrid movie, and somewhere in there Gundam Wing has at least some redeeming value, though don't ask me what that is aside from the fact that Noin is seriously probably one of the best female pilots in the entire franchise).As for Eureka 7 (or Errecta Schlebein because if we're going to mispronounce names and words, we might as well go whole hog on the deal), it's a show that needs to be watched twice. Once to go through it blind and get utterly confused by all the terminology getting thrown around and brandied about, and again after you are aware of the big plot twist revealed near the end of the show. Basically, the majority of the show is telling you everything you need to know about what's going on and what important thing is happening next aside from the context in which any of it makes any goddamn sense. Your first watch is basically going to be about watching Renton's character development from snot nosed kid who accidentally fell into a Gundam Nirvash to level headed young adult with aspirations towards the future. Your second watch (provided you made it to the end of your first go or you got spoilered on the plot twist) is going to constitute on seeing just how much everything ties into the overall plot and the imminent crisis.But yeah, even then the show is kinda slow until you hit the part where Renton runs away from the Gecko State, after which the show stops dicking around and starts speeling the beans.