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BBC News
- Labour conference: Move to abolish deputy post ditched
- Glasgow loyalist parades pass off 'without incident'
- Extinction Rebellion Dover: Ten climate activists arrested
- Thomas Cook asks government for bailout in funding race
- Night in national park 'for every schoolchild'
- Labour conference: Menopausal women 'should get flexible work hours'
- Battle of Arnhem: Mass parachute drop marks WW2 assault
- Harlesden stabbing: Boy, 16, charged with murder
- Ian Paisley apologises for criticising journalist
- New bus passes: Website still down after 10 days
- Nearly 200 legally held guns stolen in Northern Ireland in five years
- Bianca Del Rio: 'I never know what's going to come out my mouth'
- 'Wheelchair crowdsurfing makes me feel powerful'
- Thomas Cook customers fear ruined weddings and holidays
- Tattoos in Japan: Why they're so tied to the yakuza
- Labour conference: Five things to look out for in Brighton
- Sirius Minerals: The people who spent thousands on a Yorkshire mine
- Gambling: How much do we spend in the UK?
- What do you know about saving energy at home? Take our quiz
- Labour conference: Jeremy Corbyn asked about plot to oust Tom Watson
- Climate march organiser: 'This could be a tipping point'
- How one runner started a group for women of colour
- Hampshire angler Marina Gibson highlights prejudice in fishing
- King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery train on Holkham beach
- The Papers: EU 'dismisses' backstop alternatives
- Brighton fire: Large blaze tears through block of flats
- Veteran, 97, parachutes again over Arnhem
- Derry's factory girls: 'A window into the adult world'
- South Wales Metro: Warning over toilet-less trams
- Vicky Glass murder: Police appeal over unsolved 2000 killing
Local Pubs in KELFIELD:
BeerInTheEvening.com search for pubs in KELFIELD
TheGoodPubGuide.co.uk search for pubs in KELFIELD


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I'm not kidding or trying to be controversial when I say, "What You Know (correctly) About Mountain Bike Skills is Hurting Your Progress!" Let's say you know to ride in balance in the correct body position, how could that possibly be hurting you? The answer is simple, if you are like I was when I first turned pro you aren't doing what you know! Also, again, like me, you might know 50-80% of the skill but are probably missing a few/a lot of the details of that skill.
Knowledge can be a scary thing as it often makes us feel competent when we aren't. An example of this in my first 10 years of riding and in nearly every rider I see on trail (from beginners to pro cross-country racers) is the skill of looking ahead. We all know to look ahead, heck I came from snowboard racing background and then snowboard coaching background, I won a lot of races looking ahead and
taught told the athletes I coached to do the same. The scary thing is, as a mountain biker I wasn't looking ahead on trail, maybe sometimes (when it was easy) but I finally realized I was looking down, a lot! That is the trap of knowledge and why I say knowledge is worthless without action. What good is knowing how to do something if you aren't doing it? When needed! We teach our students HOW to look ahead and provide drills to master this mountain bike skill.
A couple of students summed this up pretty well, one, Peter Tsang in this review on mtbr: http://reviews.mtbr.com/review-betterride-three-day-mountain-bike-skills-camp and another, Matt MacKay in his comments after reading the article. Matt wrote, "I can't say enough good things about this camp. I went to Las Vegas in February to ride in Gene's camp, and like the reviewer, I had knowledge of a lot of what was being taught. However the structure of the camp and Gene's teaching style brought all of that knowledge and technique together. All of the pieces fell into place, and seemingly overnight I was a better rider. There is still a lot of learning for me to do. But now I know what my mistakes are and how to fix them." (you can read his entire comment on mtbr) A real simple way of saying this is both Peter and Matt were not doing what they know (at least not very well).
We do this a lot in life, especially on our mountain bikes (Were you looking ahead in the last rock garden you encountered? The entire way?) because our big brain knows how to do something we think we are doing it! The problem is we don't use our conscious, thinking brain to do anything athletically. We rely on our subconscious "autopilot" and it needs structured repetition to first understand and then master a skill. Even once we master a skill if we don't use structured practice we will soon use the sharpness of that skill!
So, once you learn, hear and/or read about a skill take the time to drill it into your body (after making sure the skill is correct!). There is an old saying sports, "Amateurs practice until they get it right and pros practice until they can't get it wrong". Sadly, 95% of mountain bikers have never practiced at all, they just go out and ride. Practice is the way to create your best ride yet!

subset: commoncrawl


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The U.S. armaments industry today looks more the way it did when Dwight Eisenhower entered West Point in 1911 than it did 50 years later, when, in a farewell speech, he famously warned Americans to beware the "military-industrial complex."
Until World War II, Eisenhower reflected, the U.S. had no real weapons industry--"American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well." By 1961, however, the U.S. had formed "a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions," overseen by a huge work force "directly engaged in the defense establishment." This development implicated "our toil, resources and livelihood." At stake was "the very structure of our society."
Both halves of Eisenhower's dark vision are now rapidly fading into history. It takes far fewer people to fight and direct wars today than it did even a decade ago. That's because the speed and power of the front-line soldier have been so greatly amplified by smart weapons and smart delivery systems, and because accurate information now moves so easily up the chain of command. Our distant wars are now fought, once again, by the few, the band of brothers, while most of the rest of us lie abed, watching their progress on CNN.
The center of gravity of defense manufacturing has shifted decisively back into the civilian sector, as well. Large contractors still assemble the guidance system and explosive in a smart bomb and the complex mix of steel and silicon that makes up a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. But the components that account for much of the cost and all of the astounding precision and agility of the new weapons--powerful chips, together with the countless layers of software that make them function--are manufactured by the same companies that build microprocessors for PCs and amplifiers for cell phones. It is the huge civilian demand for PCs, digital assistants, cell phones, high-tech cars and smart appliances that has made these components as cheap and disposable as bullets.
This isn't to say that the technology moves only in one direction. Integrated circuits emerged from aerospace programs in the 1960s; gallium arsenide semiconductor amplifiers that make possible the compact, cheap cell phone were pioneered by TRW for defense purposes a decade ago. The indium phosphide, gallium nitride and silicon carbide power chips that will land in consumer electronics a decade hence are being developed today in R&D programs funded by the military.
As a part-time partner in a small venture capital firm, I have visited dozens of innovative startups that have developed new semiconductors, lasers, sensors and power-control systems under Department of Defense auspices and are now ready to begin moving their products into civilian markets. These technologies invariably started out too difficult, esoteric and expensive to be of interest to anyone but the military. The military couldn't afford them, either, but for the fact that successful information and power technologies invariably make the transition into the civilian sector, where mass production leads down the cost curve.
For volume production the military and its main contractors are now firmly committed to buying parts off the commercial shelf whenever they can. Smart weapons are mostly built from civilian components, suitably packaged and hardened for the battlefield.
Thus the military-industrial complex now consists of two relatively thin bookends to our enormous, civilian, high-tech economy. Military R&D programs push the leading-edge development of power semiconductors, software and sensors, a decade or so out ahead of Intel, Motorola or DaimlerChrysler, then encourage the migration of successful technologies out into the civilian sector as quickly as possible. Military contractors end up buying back the same technology at mass-production prices, embedding it in every vehicle, weapon and projectile on the battlefield.
"Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry," Eisenhower warned in 1961, "can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
That was perhaps true in 1961. Today, however, it is our liberty, our routine, peaceful purchases and pursuits that support the huge industrial base on which the arms manufacturers completely depend. Unconsciously, and without ever setting out to do so, our civilian sector gave our soldiers the tools they needed to bring this war to its mercifully quick conclusion.
Peter Huber, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, is the author of Hard Green: Saving the Environment From the Environmentalists and the Digital Power Report. Find past columns at www.forbes.com/huber.


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Family photo album (green leaf nature design)
Combine a nature theme with pictures of the kids and family in this 16:9 photo album template with a green leaf design. Inside you'll find a variety of frame styles and layouts. Use just the ones you want and organize them the way you like.


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The opponent for the Havelock Rams in round three of the NCHSAA 3A state playoffs � the North Forsyth Vikings � bused over four hours to tangle with the defending state champion.
HAVELOCK � The opponent for the Havelock Rams in round three of the NCHSAA 3A state playoffs � the North Forsyth Vikings � bused over four hours to tangle with the defending state champion.
The Rams were waiting, raring to drive a �bus� of their own.
Havelock unleashed an offensive firestorm that included five rushing touchdowns and 421 yards of total offense in a 48-2 mauling.
Supreme senior running backs Derrell Scott and Taylor Woods each contributed huge performances.
Scott rushed for 201 yards on 23 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns.
Woods carried 14 times for 97 yards with three scores and hauled in a 6-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Travis Sabdo.
�I give all of the credit to the line. They were blocking their tails off tonight and I love those guys. They played as well as they could tonight,� Woods said.
While Sabdo�s passing numbers weren�t eye-popping, the junior passed for 92 yards with a 50 percent completion rate and tossed two touchdowns to zero interceptions.
Micheal Bowman also had a solid night with 86 yards receiving on five catches and a touchdown.
�I thought we played really good offensively and defensively. Our guys came to play from the first quarter through the end of the game tonight,� Havelock coach Jim Bob Bryant said.
The win was Havelock�s 28th consecutive victory and 13th straight postseason win.
�It feels great to be making this postseason run in my senior year,� Scott said. �You always want to go out on top your senior year and that�s what we�re trying to do.�
Havelock will now face Eastern Wayne in the East final for the right to go to Raleigh and play for the state championship.
The Warriors knocked off Eastern Alamance, 12-7, to advance.
�We are going to have to keep playing good, sound defense and cut down on the penalties some. On all three phases of the ball, I think we are starting to peak at the right time,� Bryant said.
The East final will kickoff next Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Havelock.
North Forsyth 0 0 0 2 - 2
Havelock 14 13 21 0 � 48
First Quarter
H � Derrell Scott 4 run (Dylan Baker kick)
H � Taylor Woods 1 run (Baker kick)
Second Quarter
H � Woods 9 pass from Travis Sabdo (kick blocked)
H � Micheal Bowman 12 pass from Sabdo (Baker kick)
Third Quarter
H � Scott 2 run (Baker kick)
H � Woods 10 run (Baker kick)
H � Woods 37 run (Baker kick)
Fourth Quarter
NF � Safety
Total Offense 196 421
First Downs 12 18
Rushes-Yards 28-109 49-333
Passing Yards 87 88
Comp-Att-Int 13-29-1 7-14-0
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 2-0
Penalties-Yards 6-50 10-115
Punts-Avg. 6-31.0 2-45.0
Individual Statistics:
Passing: North Forsyth � Maurice Little 10-22 - 76 yards (INT), Brandon Travis 3-7 � 11. Havelock � Travis Sabdo 6-12 � 92 yards (2 TD), Cory Cooper 1-2 (-4).
Rushing: North Forsyth � Jabriel Jackson 6-74 yards, Calvin Hawkins 8-18, Travis 7-16, Little 4-7, Marques Cochran 2-(-2), Brandon Campbell 1-(-4). Havelock � Derrell Scott 23-201 yards (2 TD), Taylor Woods 14-97 (3 TD), Sabdo 4-19, Dejohn McCullough 1-19, Matt Boykin 1-5, Taron Wallace 1-4, Montrece Gatling 2-(-1), Cooper 3-(-11).
Receiving: North Forsyth � Derrek Williams 5-43 yards, Gevontae Hardy 1-18, Travis 1-11, Devin Dustin-Thomas 2-7, Brian Brock 1-5, Adrion Miller 2-3, Campbell 1-(-6). Havelock � Micheal Bowman 5-86 yards (TD), Woods 1-6 (TD), Kyran Bowman 1-0, Boykin 3-(-2), Christian Crowe 1-(-4).
Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29


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Everyone knows that alcohol makes a person do things he wouldn't otherwise do. It dulls the senses and motor skills; renders otherwise rational people boorish and incoherent; and encourages promiscuity, dangerous risk-taking, and over-sharing.
But alcohol's effects on a drinker—and the drinker's relationship with his alcohol—has more to do with what the drinker thinks alcohol should do him than with the direct effects of alcohol. Malcolm Gladwell explored this in a recent New Yorker article, where he described an anthropologist's findings about the drinking habits of the Camba people of Montero, Bolivia. The anthropologist observed and participated in weekly social gatherings that centered on heavy alcohol consumption. These drinking parties resembled fraternities' in the quantity of alcohol consumed, but the strength of the Camba's alcohol wasn't the measly 8– to 12-proof beer that coeds favor. It was 180 proof—90% alcohol—the equivalent of laboratory grade alcohol. (By comparison, Budweiser beer is 10 proof, and wine is most often 25 to 29 proof.)
But as the researcher explained, "There was no social pathology [at the Camba's parties]—none. No arguments, no disputes, no sexual aggression, no verbal aggression. There was pleasant conversation or silence." Contrast that with a college campus, where "beer—which is to Camba rum approximately what a peashooter is to a bazooka—[is] known to reduce the student population to a raging hormonal frenzy on Friday nights."
If alcohol is less a cause of than an excuse for bad behavior, then the logical thing would be to expect better behavior out of our drunkards. (Society fails at that task today. As Gladwell wrote, "When confronted with the rowdy youth in the bar, we are happy to raise his drinking age, to tax his beer, to punish him if he drives under the influence, and to push him into treatment if his habit becomes an addiction. But we are reluctant to provide him with a positive and constructive example of how to drink.")
Extending the logic one step further, we should also expect more of the positive effects of alcohol out of the sober. After all, alcohol's effects aren't all bad. Indeed, many of the effects that are so deleterious on a large scale and positively desirable at lower levels. It's "liquid courage" many shy, would-be ladies' men. It's the conversational lubricant that makes forced social gatherings—like workplace happy hours where you realize why you don't normally hang out with your colleagues after hours—enjoyable (or at least bearable). And it's the relaxing influence that helps audiences let down their guard (there's more to a comedy club's 2-drink minimum than just inflating the tab).
So, if alcohol's negative effects are mostly in imbibers' heads, then its positive effects are too. My own acquaintances bear that out. One friend dislikes the reliance that lots of folks have on mind-altering chemicals to enable them to do what they want (her caffeine habit notwithstanding). She says that she can get as wild and crazy as the next would-be pole-dancer, but without alcohol and without claiming or actually losing control.
Similarly, most of my friends with alcohol allergies or intolerances seem to manage social situations just fine, whether they're chatting up strangers or getting their groove on. And, many Mormons seem to do just fine organizing alcohol-free gatherings; the gatherings themselves can often get plenty wild—or at least a bit loosey-goosey—without crossing the line into pandemonium.
Even if teetotaling isn't necessary, alcohol is still too often and too easily used as a crutch. It's an excuse for bad behavior, and its absence is likewise an excuse for not being able to loosen up or muster up the courage to get over one's hang-ups. But it's not a particularly good excuse, and it needn't be such a crutch.


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[working as specified] Set Up Error
Hi, I was playing a regular chess game but one of the games I played today was really weird. Mainly, the chess pieces are set up wrong, bishops in a1 and b1, queen in h1, rooks in c1 and g1, knights in d1 and f1 with king in e1, pawns are set up normally. When I went back to review this game, it just said I resigned with no notation.


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There's a weird story floating around about Obama, the Fiscal Cliff talks, and the fear of bond vigilantes.
According to WSJ's report on how the Fiscal Cliff negotiations broke down, Barack Obama told Boehner that without a comprehensive debt deal, interest rates could spike, because investors might lose faith in our debt.
Krugman was really bothered by this, because it's nonsense. If there's no deal, and the country goes into recession, rates will almost certainly drop (as they did after the debt ceiling/downgrade/confidence shock of summer 2011).
Anyway, economist Greg Mankiw has called out Krugman (via @dutch_book) for contradicting himself — specifically something Krugman said back in 2003, when Bush was the President, and the deficit was huge, and Krugman was warning about it.
Says Mankiw:
I am having trouble reconciling these points of views. Has Paul changed his mind since 2003 about how the bond market works? Or are circumstances different now? If anything, I would have thought that the fiscal situation is more dire now and so the logic from 2003 would apply with more force. I am puzzled.
Anyway, there's an answer to this question about whether Krugman has changed his mind. He has. We asked him about it in an interview earlier this year.
"My thinking has evolved," says Krugman. "If you haven't updated your views in the face of new experiences, you're not doing your job."
Specifically, coming to recognize the importance of a country having its own currency (unlike, say, Greece) is something that helped shape Krugman's thinking. So yes, he has changed his mind, and admitted it. And furthermore, even if he hadn't, it's not entirely clear that the deficit situation is more dire today. The currency question aside, Krugman has argued for awhile that running deficits does not cause a problem with the private sector so inclined to save, etc. In 2003 we were not in that liquidity trap, and there was no reason to be spending as much as we were.
Here's our full discussion with Krugman on deficits.


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House Tour: Ship Shape
Modern cottage
White-painted vertical V-groove wall panels contrast a cedar vaulted ceiling for clean cottage style. A framed American flag from 1837, the year Michigan became a state, inspired the living room's red, white and blue color scheme.
Outdoor action
Multiple decks and an integrated above-ground pool with an outdoor shower enhance the western red cedar shingle-sided cottage overlooking the lake.
This northern Michigan cottage grew out of a childhood memory for homeowner Gregg. A few feet from where the getaway sits now, Gregg often pitched a tent as a child. It was an easy, fun way to expand sleeping space at his parents' lakeside cabin. "I was one of six kids in a tiny cottage that was chaotic and loud," Gregg says. "But I loved going there more than anything in the world." His grandparents have a place at the lake, too. When property next door came up for sale a few years ago, Gregg bought it without hesitation and built a vacation home for his wife, Sue, three sons and their big extended family.
Local flair
Black honed granite countertops and industrial pendants look sleek in the white kitchen. Above the range, a tile backsplash with a custom map of Michigan (by local artist Glenn Wolff) showcases the homeowners' pride of the area.
White inset cabinetry reflects the home's cottage scheme and hides integrated double dishwashers, a warming drawer and clever storage, like pullouts for dog dishes. Gregg's idea to build a booth into the island makes the kitchen kid-friendly. "I wouldn't normally advocate an island that big," says designer Scott Lankford. "But the U-shape booth cutout creates a great gathering space." Drawers below the cherrywood seats store games often played on the tabletop.
Creative niches
Family members read, nap or enjoy views on a wide window seat, which has storage below.
On the home's main level, the living room, kitchen and dining area merge as one. An open, connected layout encourages family togetherness, while creative "hang out" niches like the one pictured offer respite.
Complementing the laid-back atmosphere, the cottage design combines Michigan casualness with Nantucket style. Easy-to-clean slipcovered furniture, accent pillows and minimal accessories carry an all-American red, white and blue color scheme throughout the house.
Upper deck
In the shingle-sided screen porch, new wooden oars form a railing around a loft hideaway.
Nautical accents
In the serene master bedroom and other areas of the home, a cedar ceiling with exposed Douglas fir trusses contrasts white walls. Nautical design elements tie the interior to the lake. Round windows resembling portholes on interior walls allow light to flow room to room. "We wanted to make the space as light and airy and bright as we could," says architect Bob Holdeman. Metal marine light fixtures add industrial edge. Artwork of beach scenes and boats by northern Michigan artists brings local flavor.
Light and privacy
High windows in the bathroom let in natural light while maintaining privacy.
Porthole passage
Barn doors with salvaged porthole windows separate the lower-level game area (with air hockey and Ping-Pong) from the bunkroom. Spaces for 'round-the-clock recreation were a must for this active family.
Sleep and play
On the lower level, a bunkroom with a connected dressing room mimics the setup of a summer camp cabin. Niches for three trundle beds leave the floor—made of cushioned sports court material—clear for playing soccer and hockey. Red walls help visually separate sleeping alcoves from play areas.
Boys' bath
Gray slate tile flooring continues up walls as wainscoting in the boys' bathroom.
Captain hooks
Galvanized dock cleats, used to secure boat lines, serve as towel hooks in the lower-level bathroom.


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Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have enabled investors to quickly and easily capitalize on opportunities around the world. Stock options can help enhance these strategies by effectively controlling upside potential and downside risk. In this article, we'll explore one such strategy that can help limit downside risk during times of uncertainty without any added expense [see 101 ETF Lessons Every Financial Advisor Should Learn].
What Is an Equity Collar?
Suppose you've just purchased the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY, A) with a specific price target and stop loss in mind. Many traders might simply set a stop-loss or take-profit limit order, but stock options provide an alternative that may be attractive in certain cases. Collars are a unique strategy that are perfect for cases like these, effectively setting both of these points via an option contract [see ETF Call And Put Options Explained].
Collars are created by going long in an underlying equity-such as the SPY-and then purchasing a put option to create a floor and selling a call option to create a cap. The premium from selling the second call option reduces the cost of purchasing the put option, often cancelling each other out ("zero-cost collar") or even providing a small premium income.
For instance, if SPY is trading at 160.00, a collar may look something like this:Option Details Strike Price Premium Write Call Option 165.00 $0.28 Received Buy Put Option 147.00 $0.29 Paid
The resulting collar position was established for just $0.01 per share, and it limits upside to $165.00 per share and limits downside to $147.00 per share.
Since each option represents 100 shares of a stock, collars and other options strategies require that investors hold at least 100 shares of an underlying equity - such as SPY in the example above. Trading options may also require that traders have a brokerage account that supports options trading and possible trading on margin, depending on the position.
Who Is the Collar Options Strategy Right For?
Collar strategies are most commonly used during times of high volatility to limit the downside risk in a given portfolio. In particular, it may not make sense to liquidate a portfolio position in certain cases and instead simply limit risk during a time of uncertainty. Since the two options positions used in a collar typically cancel each other out, this strategy is usually "free" to initiate [see also 10 Questions About ETFs You've Been Too Afraid To Ask].
For example, suppose that you're concerned about a pending interest rate decision that could send the markets sharply lower. While this is a potential catastrophic risk, you're otherwise happy with your existing ETF position. Initiating a collar will enable you to reduce the risk during the time of uncertainty for free, while reducing transaction costs by holding onto the ETF.
Fund managers may also use collars to avoid realized gains or losses or tax consequences resulting from the sale of equity at inopportune times.
What Are the Risks/Rewards?
Collars have very well defined risks and rewards relative to many other options strategies, since the trader owns the underlying, and the options limit both upside and downside. The only two risks associated with establishing collars are opportunity costs (from lost profit potential) and the negligible counterparty risk in the event that the other side of the option doesn't deliver [see also How To Swing Trade ETFs].
Maximum Profit
Using the SPY example above, if the index moves higher during the time period, your profit will be limited to the strike price of the call option that was sold. Traders can avoid physically selling their stock position-as this is usually a protective strategy rather than an exit strategy-by repurchasing the option at a loss equal to the lost upside.
Maximum Loss
Using the same example above, if the index moves lower, your losses are limited to the strike price of the put option that was purchased. Collars are often purchased as protective options, so the stock position is usually liquidated in these scenarios. However, if you wish to hold the stock, you can simply sell the option at a profit equal to the covered downside.
How to Hedge Your Long ETF Positions
Investors can use collars to hedge their ETF equity positions fairly easily during times of uncertainty or bear markets. The key to establishing these positions is to ensure that the premium from selling the call option offsets most or all of the premium paid for the put option, since the benefit of a collar is that it's a fail-safe that can be established "free" of charge [see 13 ETFs Every Options Trader Must Know].
Here's a brief guide on setting up these hedges:
- Purchase or own at least 100 shares of an equity ETF at a given price (X).
- Sell a call option with a strike price (X+1) that matches your take-profit price.
- Use the premium from the call option to purchase a put option with a strike price (X-1) that matches your stop-loss price, ideally for even-money.
- Monitor the position over time and exit it when the uncertainty is gone.
The Bottom Line
Collars are a useful options strategy for limiting risk during times of uncertainty with very little expense. For instance, an investor concerned about the market moving down from an interest rate decision from the central bank may set up a collar on an SPY position. While upside is limited by the call option sold, downside is also limited by the put option purchased, temporarily limiting risk until the uncertainty has passed without having to sell the ETF position.
[For more ETF analysis, make sure to sign up for our free ETF newsletter.]
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.
Read more posts on ETF Database »


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Non-Dominant Discourse: Rachel Zeng, Sha Najak, Ezzam Rahman & Seelan Palay
Art has been known to speak out of turn. In Singapore, there is a phrase, 'O.B. marker', that in local parlance is used to describe topics that are considered officially 'out of bounds'. The phrase, borrowed from golfing terminology, to designate spaces where play is not allowed, on an island with limited land but a surprisingly large number of golf courses, is seldom used with[…..]


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My Thanks Today
1. Dear Lord, I thank Thee for this day of blessings rich and rare.
I thank Thee for the joy of earth about me ev'rywhere.
2. I thank Thee for the birds that sing, for butterflies and bees,
for flowers nodding in the sun, for wavring grass and trees.
I'm glad to be alive and share the things I hear and see.
So please accept my little prayer of praise and thanks to Thee.
Text: Anna Johnson
Music: Nora Hogan
Artist: Johnson/Hogan
Album: Music Published in the Church Magazines: Friend
Composition Date: 1990-11-01
More Info: Friend


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Dallas News Homes / SEARCH: 9705 Rubicon Trail Oak Point, TX 75068
- 4 beds
- 2 baths
- $320,990 price
- 1577127 mls id
- Square Feet: 2,233 sqft
- Neighborhood: Wildridge:Wildridge: Artisan Series - 50ft. lots
Listing Description
Wildridge is the perfect place to live life naturally.. The recreation and amenity center encourage healthy lifestyles amid the natural surroundings, while the wide open spaces, shady trees and winding trails invite neighbors to enjoy the simple things. Wildridge brings the community to life with events like poolside movie nights, live music concerts, and foodtruck family gatherings. Best of allthe natural beauty of Lake Lewisville and nearby forestry reserve create a backdrop like no other in North Dallas.
- Bhi Subdivision Community Style MasterPlanned
- Builder Website
- NewHomeSource Listing
- NewHomeSource Subdivision Website
- New Construction Yes
Subdivision: Wildridge:Wildridge: Artisan Series - 50ft. lots
9705 Rubicon Trail Oak Point, TX
Dallas News Real Estate Powered by Placester


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Google has launched a settings feature that allows people to specify what happens to their accounts after a long period of �inactivity� � meaning, their death.
Google has launched a settings feature that allows people to specify what happens to their accounts after a long period of �inactivity� � meaning, their death.
Google users can set an expiration date for their accounts � three, six, nine or 12 months � and allow trusted contacts to download specific data from accounts once the time has passed.
For example, you could give your spouse access to your photos and Google Plus profile, and give a colleague your contact list and shared documents.
Settings can be changed at any time. It�s wise to keep this information current so your private files don�t fall into the hands of a vengeful ex or a resentful former coworker.
Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites don�t make end-of-life planning so easy. Facebook will not disclose login information to family and friends of a dead person unless it receives a court order. Loved ones can request to memorialize a page � that is, friends can still write on the person�s wall and browse photos, but no one can sign in to the account. All messages are sealed.
Verified family members can request that a Facebook page be deleted. But if there is no consensus on what to do with the account, it can create a rift in the family. Some families and friends find solace in visiting the Facebook page of someone they�ve lost. Some argue that it�s better to remove the page.
Twitter will work with an executor of the estate or an immediate family member to deactivate an account. That requires a copy of the death certificate and a signed statement that explains the relationship of the person making the request.
There are plenty of cases, though, in which people don�t know all the social media monikers used by a family member. Many parents have no idea their children use Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare or Instagram � much less what they are. They�re not likely to spend time tracking down accounts and contacting social networking sites.
No, this isn�t the highest priority when someone dies. But social media sites can help survivors make this unfortunate task a little easier.
Five states have enacted laws that authorize the transfer of a deceased person�s digital assets to the executor or manager of the estate. Connecticut and Rhode Island�s laws apply only to email. Indiana�s law applies to any electronically stored documents, while Oklahoma and Idaho include social media.
But the better approach is for the social media companies to adopt privacy policies that are similar to Google�s. People could determine exactly who will get what � just as they do in a will.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retail sales barely rose in January as tax increases and higher gasoline prices restrained spending, setting up the economy for only modest growth in the first quarter.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales edged up 0.1 percent after a 0.5 percent rise in December.
The small increase suggested the expiration of a 2 percent payroll tax cut on January 1 and higher tax rates for wealthier Americans were hurting the economy.
Still, economists said consumer spending was unlikely to buckle given rising home values, moderate job growth and rallying stock market prices. Stocks have surged in recent months partly on stronger than expected corporate earnings.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index has gained 6.4 percent so far this year.
"We are starting to see the impact of higher taxes, but we have a positive wealth effect from increasing house prices and a boost from equities," said Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica in Dallas. "My expectation is that consumers are able to continue to increase spending but only moderately."
So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, ticked up 0.1 percent.
The S&P 500 briefly touched a five-year high during Wednesday's session before retreating to end little changed. Prices for U.S. government debt fell, while the dollar was flat against a basket of currencies.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. That helped soften the blow to the economy from slower inventory accumulation and sharp cuts in defense spending.
The government said last month that economic output slipped at a 0.1 percent rate in the final three months of 2012.
However, the retail sales report showed core sales were a bit stronger in November and December than previously reported. In addition, businesses outside auto dealerships accumulated slightly more inventories in December than earlier thought.
Taken together with a smaller trade deficit in December, the data suggested the government will raise its estimate for fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth when it publishes a revision later this month. Even so, the economy likely grew at under a 1 percent rate in the fourth quarter, economists said.
Consumer spending growth is expected to pull back from the fourth-quarter's clip as households adjust to smaller paychecks and gasoline prices march higher. Prices at the pump have increased 30 cents a gallon so far this year.
Estimates for consumer spending growth in the first quarter currently range between 0.7 percent and 1.8 percent.
While some economists were encouraged that consumers had maintained purchases despite a reduction in their disposable incomes, they cautioned sales could remain weak over the next months.
"By no means are we completely out of the woods when it comes to the impact of higher taxes," said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. "Evidence from past episodes suggests it could take up to two quarters for spending to fully adjust to new tax realities."
A softer pace of consumer spending is expected to limit GDP growth to a 1.8 percent rate this quarter, according to a Reuters poll of economists. For the year as a whole, economists expect growth of just 2.3 percent.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed higher oil prices helped push up the cost of imported goods by 0.6 percent last month. Import prices had fallen by 0.5 percent in December.
Still, non-petroleum import prices edged up just 0.1 percent in January and have risen just 0.2 percent over the past year, showing a lack of broad inflation pressure.
The Federal Reserve is likely to take solace in the tame non-petroleum import price reading and continue with its bond-buying program for several more months. The Fed is buying $85 billion in bonds per month and has said it will continue with purchases until the labor market outlook improves substantially.
Retail sales were mixed last month, with receipts at auto dealers slipping 0.1 percent after rising 1.2 percent in December. Excluding autos, retail sales increased 0.2 percent last month after advancing 0.3 percent in December.
There was an increase in sales at building materials and garden equipment suppliers, reflecting gains in homebuilding as the housing market recovery shifts into higher gear.
The impact of the tax increases was most evident in restaurants and bar sales, which were flat.
"Dining out tends to be one of the first areas of spending to get cut from household budgets when finances get squeezed, said Ellen Zentner, a senior economist at Nomura Securities in New York.
There were declines in sales at clothing and furniture stores. Sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores, as well as electronics and appliances stores showed gains in sales.
Additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci and James Dalgleish


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Story highlights
- Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is launching a "Ban Bossy" campaign
- Peggy Drexler: Abolishing the word is pointless; other words will take its place
- She says banning the word seems to say bossy qualities are bad when they're not
- Drexler: There is pride in being opinionated and motivated -- that is to say, bossy
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's latest headline-making action is a new "Ban Bossy" campaign, which aims at getting rid of the word "bossy." Her nonprofit group, LeanIn.org, has even teamed up with big names like Beyonce and Condoleezza Rice to produce a public service announcement to stop using the word "bossy."
In a weekend op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, co-written with Girl Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chavez, Sandberg put the word at the center of the problem of unequal treatment of girls and boys, noting that girls who lead are more often described as "bossy" and "overly ambitious" while boys who lead are described as "strong" and "determined."
Sandberg raises valid points, and as a powerful woman her voice adds much to the ongoing conversation about why it's important to insist on equal treatment of, and expectations for, boys and girls, and men and women.
But while Sandberg isn't wrong that "bossy" is disproportionately directed at girls and women, and usually with negative connotations, the problem isn't the word itself, but how and when the word is used. Ban "bossy" and other words will spring up in its place: "Bitchy," "cold" and "aggressive" come to mind.
Instead, the focus should be on how to reclaim the positive and indispensable nature of "bossiness," turning it from a word used to describe the domineering and unlikable to one used to describe those very necessary qualities for those who lead.
Sheryl Sandberg is bossy, and it's a quality that likely played a pretty key role in helping her become one of the technology industry's most successful women. So, how about an initiative to reclaim bossiness as a point of pride?
Bosses are bossy, plain and simple. As Sandberg even notes: "...if you look at my childhood, if you look at the childhood of most of the leaders we talked to, they lived through being told they were bossy." And, well, look where they are now.
In fact, moving to abolish the word "bossy" risks sending the message that there's something wrong with those characteristics associated with bossiness: taking charge and speaking your mind. Again, the problem isn't the word, or the behavior, but the reaction to the behavior, and the acceptance among women of the word as a disparaging one.
There's also the very important fact that by focusing on how to foster those girls who, like Sandberg, grow up inclined to lead rather than follow—to boss—a message emerges that leadership is the only road to success. And that's just not true.
Initiatives are commendable, as is any opening of dialogue. But it's hard not to interpret "Ban Bossy" as a reaction to the tepid response Sandberg received to her last initiative, "Lean In," through which she was criticized as being too privileged to be a valid motivator.
With "Ban Bossy," she certainly makes an effort to position herself as among the downtrodden, one among many who've been victimized by "the other B-word." But there's some overreaching going on here.
Let's not forget: There is evidence that girls and women aren't in fact being overlooked, or discouraged into meekness. Girls are outperforming boys in schools. More women than men are graduating college and going on to earn as much, if not more, than their male partners. Fortune's latest ranking of America's 500 largest corporations includes more female CEOs than ever.
Things aren't perfect, of course, but they're getting there, as women—and men—embrace not only their bossiness, but all those other qualities that lead them to live lives that are fulfilling in any number of ways.
The lesson to children, and to the parents and teachers who raise and nurture them, should be that there is pride in being opinionated, motivated and motivating—that is, bossy.
There is also pride in being not-so-bossy, and in recognizing whatever other specific traits make them special, whether they go on to become leaders or not. There's a word to describe that, too: individuality.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.


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Sequestration goes into effect Friday
Congress created a budget rule perceived so odious, congressmen wouldn�t let it go into effect.
That was 1985.
The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation governing the congressional budget process for 28 years, butted up against the modern Congress where bipartisan budget deals are hard to come by.
And Friday comes sequestration and its spending cuts that touch virtually every corner of the federal government and into state and local governments where much of that spending goes. That is, unless President Barack Obama, Senate Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives reach an agreement beforehand.
Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., who is up for reelection in 2014, held a conference call with statewide reporters Tuesday to discuss her stance on the issue. She�s looking at the process through the lens of cuts to defense and military readiness, and said she hopes to work out a deal with fellow senators on the matter.
�I am truly troubled by the sense of inevitability among members of Congress that this sequestration is just going to take effect,� Hagan said. �And I am just as frustrated with the people I talk to at home that the partisan bickering has brought us to this point of where we are today.
�Reducing the national debt is one of my top priorities, but these indiscriminate, unprioritized cuts that are being put on the backs of our service members, I do not believe is the way to get our fiscal house in order.�
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said spending needed to be cut, but there should be a better way to go about the process.
�I would prefer more prioritized cuts that would address real waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending, but this plan was crafted by the President and rather than indicating he will work with Congress to avoid sequestration, he is moving the goal posts by now asking for a tax-hike as well,� Burr said.
Though the penalty was put into play in 1985, Congress never seriously played chicken with sequestration until the debt ceiling negotiations in 2011. A deal without sequestration was in the works between Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner that year. However, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., in his profile by Ryan Lizza in the March 4 edition of The New Yorker, says he talked Boehner out of the agreement.
�As Obama waited by the phone for a response from the Speaker, Cantor struck,� Lizza wrote. �Cantor told me that it was a �fair assessment� that he talked Boehner out of accepting Obama�s deal. He said he told Boehner that it would be better, instead, to take the issues of taxes and spending to the voters and �have it out� with the Democrats in the election.�
Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., said he voted against the 2011 agreement that included sequestration because of the deep military funding cuts, but says a deal would be ready right now except for the failure to act by Senate Democrats.
�I have cosponsored multiple bills to replace the sequester with alternative cuts,� Jones said. �We cannot continue to grow the government and kick the can down the road. We could completely replace sequestration by pulling out of Afghanistan right now and putting an end to the $235 million a day that we�re spending over there. We could end foreign aid, cut the federal Department of Education, repeal Obamacare.�
Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., voted against the 2011 budget plan as well, and takes a position similar to Hagan�s in that he wants to stop the cuts from going into effect by putting together a new agreement soon.
�Our national security, jobs, education, health care, and transportation will all be negatively impacted when this measure goes into effect,� McIntyre said. �We must work together to find a bi-partisan solution to address this immediate issue.�
Kinston City Manager Tony Sears said the city should experience much in the way of funding problems, but Lenoir County agencies would feel the pinch.
�Typically, the county would have more involvement at the federal level than the city would, and that would be because of social services,� Sears said. �If there�s a service or a funding source that would be impacted by the sequestration, I am unaware of it at this time.�
At the Lenoir County Department of Social Services, Director Susan Moore said last year the agency received more than $100 million in federal dollars, though 25 percent of that went to entitlements that would be untouched by sequestration, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid.
�But, other programs would be (impacted), like the incentives we receive for collection efforts in child support, (and) child care subsidy funding that we provide help to pay for daycare to low-income working parents,� Moore said. �We get funding from the Social Security Act, and its Title IV (Part) E, and we also get extra money. The IV-E money won�t be cut, but some of the other child services funds would be cut. Those are the ones that have been identified for us right off the top.�
Moore noted 20 percent of the department�s federal dollars go to the daycare program.
The Kinston Housing Authority receives all of its funding from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, so its entire budget is in the air. KHA Executive Director Rhonda Abbott said the agency could lose $165,000-$170,000 in Section 8 funding, $20,000 earmarked for staff, $150,000 exclusively for public housing and $50,000 from a capital fund.
�We�re just trying to be conservative with our spending, at far as public housing, and not to do things that are not absolutely necessary,� Abbott said, �For example, when we have vacant units, we have been going in and putting in new tile flooring and new kitchen cabinets, things like that, we will stop doing until we�re sure of what the financial situation�s going to be. And then on the voucher side, basically we�re not issuing new vouchers right now, because we are not sure we will have funding for any new vouchers.�
The KHA hasn�t issued a new housing voucher since Jan. 1, and Abbott said she hopes they don�t have to take away an existing voucher in the future.
For Lenoir County Schools, Superintendent Steve Mazingo said he isn�t sure what the impact will be on the school system. Not enough information has filtered down, but the district, its students, faculty and staff aren�t in immediate financial peril.
�We have very little information on what it�s going to be for us,� Mazingo said. �What we know, officially, is it will not affect our budget this year. That means it will not affect us through June 30. Of course it will affect some of our federal programs � we know it will not affect child nutrition, we�ve been told that � but we�ve been told a rough estimate of maybe 8-10 percent on our Title I funds.
�That, of course, helps our disadvantaged students and our disadvantaged schools. Also, in terms of our federal funding for exceptional children, there�s a possible 8-10 percent cut there. But then, we hear other numbers.�
But one thing is for certain. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the air traffic control facility at the North Carolina Global TransPark would be closed, along with similar facilities in New Bern, Concord, Hickory and Winston-Salem.
Planes would, however, continue flying in and out of these airports.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.


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Chris Dodd Resorting To Outright Lying In A Desperate Attempt To Get SOPA Passed
from the regret-the-error? deptMPAA boss Chris Dodd has apparently resorted to out and out lying as he makes a big push to get SOPA passed. On Tuesday he spoke at an event for the Center for American Progress, in which he pulled out his usual "woe is us" story about why Congress needs to pass SOPA/PIPA. However, Dodd, once again, appears to be factually challenged. For example, during questions, Dodd claimed:
"The entire film industry of Spain, Egypt and Sweden are gone."James Losey thought this was odd, given that he was familiar with some films coming out of Sweden:
Sweden actually produces a number of high quality films. Released in 2008, the vampire flim Let The Right One In received critical acclaim here in the U.S. Additionally, all three best-selling books of the Millennium Trilogy are Swedish films and 2009's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was quite successful. The film made a modest $10 million in the U.S. and a respectable $104 million worldwide.Of course, there's also plenty of actual data on the film industries around the world, so I figured that perhaps I'd dig into the numbers a bit more than James' excellent debunking, just to see if there was any truth to Dodd's bizarre claims. Thankfully, the folks at the UN actually track this data. On top of that, the awesome chartsbin has laid out how many films every country produces in a neat interactive map:
Considering the budget for the U.S. remake of the film is $100 million - as much as the original film has earned to date - perhaps Dodd meant that the film does not count until Hollywood gets a chance to remake it. Ironically, the U.S. remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was shot in Sweden.
Chris Dodd was correct to say that film is an international industry, but he was wrong to say that the Swedish film industry has disappeared and misleading to imply that all Hollywood jobs are American jobs. At least for this Hollywood production, Sweden has a lot to gain.
via chartsbin.com
Okay. Let's look at Egypt. The latest UN data shows Egypt produced 46 films in 2009. Not bad. But perhaps it used to be much bigger? Oh, whoops. 1996 (the earliest data available) shows that Egypt produced 24 films that year. So it looks like the industry has about doubled. Gone? Oops. Dodd is lying.
Finally, let's check out Spain. Spain has been a favorite target of both the MPAA and the RIAA lately. They like to claim that "lax" copyright laws there have decimated the entertainment industry in that country. Once again, the facts show a totally different story. If you look at the map above, you can see that Spain is actually a movie making powerhouse in Europe, and the data shows that it just keeps making more and more movies. In 2009 it produced 186 movies, and the trend has been directly up. In 2008 it was 173. Go back to 2005 and it was 142. Go back to 1999? 82 films. Back to '95? 59 films. Yeah, film production has more than tripled in the last fifteen years.
Sorry, but Chris Dodd is flat out lying.
Why do the public and politicians let him get away with blatant falsehoods as he seeks to push a law that will set up an American censorship system? The facts say that he's full of it... and yet we're supposed to trust him that this bill is needed?
Filed Under: chris dodd, egypt, movies, pipa, protect ip, sopa, spain, sweden
Companies: mpaa


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The activity Where Am I? helps students use triangulation to find a lost classmate.
How do we get a perspective on our surroundings? We take a look around. If you lie on the ground, stand on a hill, or climb a tower, your perspective changes. If you go up in an airplane or a space capsule, your view changes even more. For thousands of years, humans have looked up to the heavens. Now we can go to the heavens to look back at ourselves.
What is the history that has led up to the new way in which we look at our home planet? The first maps were probably sketches in the dirt. A small clay tablet 4000 years old is the oldest known map, depicting a river valley in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Polynesians made charts of their region using woven palm fibers to show the wave patterns of the Pacific Ocean. Sea shells marked the location of islands. Eskimos carved their coastal features on pieces of driftwood. Even from earliest times, people realized that a picture was worth a thousand words.
Who knew the Earth was round and when did they know it?
People knew the Earth was round 2500 years ago. They just forgot.
Because Earth-bound observers could only view a small section of the globe at a time, it wasn't possible to tell from direct observation whether the Earth was a flat disk or a sphere. The Greeks were the first to theorize that the Earth was round. Scholars like Pythagoras in 500 BC based their belief on observations about the way the altitudes of stars varied at different places on Earth and how ships appeared on the horizon. As a ship returned to port, first its mast tops, then the sails, and finally its hull gradually came into view. Aristotle, who lived 300 years before Christ, observed that the Earth cast a round shadow on the moon. When a light is shined on a sphere, it casts the same shadow. The Greeks calculated the general size and shape of the Earth. They also created the grid system of latitude and longitude, so that with just two coordinates one can locate any point on the Earth. Greek philosophers also concluded that the Earth could only be a sphere because that, in their opinion, was the "most perfect" shape.
Around 150 AD, Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek geographer, mathematician, and astronomer, compiled an encyclopedia of the ancient world from the archives of a legendary library in Alexandria, Egypt. His eight-volume Geography included extensive maps of the known world, all based on a curved globe.
Unfortunately, learning and intellect went out of fashion in Europe between 400 and 1200 AD. The storehouses of Greek knowledge were lost to Western society with the advent of the gloomy period known as the Dark Ages. Sea monsters and Vikings ruled the seas, and ships that ventured too far from shore were sure to fall off the edge of a flat Earth. Maps made in that time were based on religious beliefs or superstitions, not on observations, calculations, or scientific inquiry. Rectangular maps of the Earth represented the "four corners of the Earth." Circular maps usually placed the birthplace of Christianity, the holy city of Jerusalem, at the center of the world.
After 1250, map making in Europe took a turn for the better. Land maps and nautical charts were produced for travelers using measurements and observation rather than mythology and literary sources.
In Europe, the Middle Ages progressed into the Age of Discovery. Meanwhile, the Arab world had preserved Ptolemy's Geography. Ptolemy's works were rediscovered by the Western world and translated into Latin. Ptolemy's map projections explaining how to represent a sphere on a flat piece of paper enabled cartographers and explorers to chart newly-discovered lands and seas. The invention of the printing press made it possible for more people to use, circulate, and refine maps.
Christopher Columbus' voyage in 1492 confirmed that the Earth was round. Magellan's crew proved the fact definitively by circling the globe on a three-year voyage from 1519-1522. Map making joined hand in hand with the Age of Discovery.
Ferdinand Magellan (c.1480-1521) was a Portuguese sea captain who launched an expedition funded by Spain to find a new route to the Spice Islands, north of Australia. Magellan is credited with leading the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe, but he didn't live to complete his journey. After weathering storms, several mutinies, animosity between Portuguese and Spanish crew members, and near starvation when they were forced to eat rats, ox hides, and sawdust, they landed in the Philippine Islands. Although they were welcomed there by the natives, Magellan became involved in local politics and was killed in a battle between two rival factions of Filipinos on Mactan Island.
Magellan discovered the passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans at the tip of South America, which became known as the Straits of Magellan. As he passed through the straits, he and his crew became the first Europeans to sail into the "new" ocean. Magellan named it Pacific (which means peaceful) because it appeared calm after the stormy Atlantic. In reality, the Straits of Magellan and the Pacific Ocean are noted for their high winds, giant waves, and violent weather.
It took Magellan's crew three years to complete their voyage, while today it takes a satellite about 100 minutes to circumnavigate the globe.
This boom in map making, or cartography, served many purposes. Knowledge of coastlines, hills, roads, houses, and town and country boundaries enabled colonists, generals, and tax collectors to claim land, prepare for invasions, mark strategic defensive positions, quell local rebellions, and levy taxes.
Knowledge is power
In the latter half of the 17th century, distances on English maps were first recorded in statute miles of 5280 feet. Surveyors measured actual distances by counting the number of revolutions of a foot-wheel. In this way, it was computed that the distance between London and Berwick on the Scottish border was not 260 miles, as previously thought, but 339 miles.
Map making became a respected and indispensable element of the expanding universe. Maps of the New World and the Far East were important fund-raising tools. Deeds to property in "undiscovered" regions were exchanged for monies to finance expeditions to these far-off places. Never mind that native populations already occupied the lands that the Europeans investors purchased.
The accuracy of map making improved greatly with the use of the Ramsden theodolite, a giant surveying instrument used to measure vertical and horizontal angles, equipped with telescopic sights to view long distances. It was accurate to within 5 inches over 70 miles. British surveyors mapped the huge country of India over several decades in the1800's with the use of a theodolite.
Modern surveying instruments have come a long way from the theodolite. Pieces of the Earth that took surveyors years to map are now recorded by cameras high above the Earth in seconds.


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With Possible M L B Realignment on the Horizon…..Some Renegade Thoughts
There has been more than a few whispers and discussion lately about the possibility of forming a "mega- payroll" division staking the big money payroll of mega competitors' Boston and New York and maybe infuse them with 3 other high threshold salary ceiling squads to form a prestigious "diamond" division.
Sure putting the high dollar darlings in a central division will make it more difficult for them to realistically step over the carcasses of low payroll squads, or teams that rely on their farm systems instead of the Free Agent market. But that also opens a second concern. Could such a maneuver bring about a reversal of the recent parity within the M L B and again pay homage to the league's "elite".
We all know that within the upcoming MLB/MLBPA Labor Pow Wow there will be chatter about expanding the post season, but there will be more heated discussion about a more balanced schedule and a possible realignment of the whole enchilada.
Football fans were enraged and bewildered the N F L decided to conjure up another division situated almost exclusively within the Southeastern region of the country. From the moment this region was considered for realignment, people began to refer to it as the "NASCAR Division".
Some might think with my high Southern posturing I might take offense to this connotation, but I really do not have a problem with it at all. Even though that statement was further stereotyping this region, NASCAR is a symbol of the South.
So it was a bit of a backhanded compliment to Southerner's like myself. And, yes, I have been known to attend the Daytona or even Talladega NASCAR races, and I do glance at the television sometimes on Sunday to glance at the boys going around with constant left turns.
The formation of this Southeastern division helped the NFL get closer to a level of league-wide parity, which baseball will need to comprehend and address if it expects every M L B team to flourish and grow fiscally as well as physically. This action by another of America's premier sports might be the successful course of action if MLB brass do not want to see a revolving door of top money payroll teams sprinting towards the Playoffs finish line every October in the near future.
Sure there have been odd twist of fate in the last few years, including the match-up of the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants making it to the World Series after eliminating 2 of those payroll bastions (Philly/NY) . The usual M L B pattern has been that spent dollars have bought more Championships instead of heart, homegrown talent and determination.
Maybe a fourth division in the American or National League would seem to throw the whole globe off its axis and we go wobbling through our orbits tumbling like a deflated ball among the Milk Way. I think we have already started that dizzying journey and have not recognized it yet.
So what did I have in mind to maybe change this?
First off, I would like to introduce the idea of taking one team from every division in both the AL and NL, excluding the AL West, which is already lopsided with 4 teams. You might ask why I would want to dissect a team from each division? To be completely honest, it would then make most of the other divisions a four-team division, with the NL Central lowered to five teams.
You had to already gandered that I would like the Tampa Bay Rays to be included in this new division, and with this new collection in the AL, we hold on tightly to the Designated Hitter rule. The Rays are prefect for this new division because the new division will be rooted in the SE, and only the new abode to open in 2012 in Miami,Florida is further South than St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Rays are already well versed in the ways and means of being a small market team, this division's formulation can effectively give them the payroll flexibility of knowing that they will not have to adjust and implode their own cash box every year to keep up with the Epstein's and Cashman's upgrades via the money pot to survive.
The second team in this division would come out of the National League East and could instantly establish a great Southern rivalry like the annual Florida-Georgia Football game in Jacksonville. I would enjoy seeing the famous Atlanta Brave's Tomahawk Chop going on right next to the deafening sound of the Rays Republic's Cowbells.
This expected rivalry could replace some of the expected lost revenues of Boston or New York based on previous sell out crowds during the last time these 2 teams faced off in InterLeague at Tropicana Field. Flights are affordable between the 2 cities, and could muster up a second caravan of road trips for Rays fans to see away games. The Braveswould be the perfect new nemesis of the Rays.
You might question why I did not take the Florida (Miami) Marlins place them in this division instead of Atlanta. I consider the Fish to be perfect InterLeague foes for the Rays, and did not want to split up a AL and NL presence in the state of Florida. I think this state is better for a presence in both the A L and N L , and want to preserve that Citrus Series relationship as it is right now.
Third squad to be added would come out of the AL Central. I did not have to take long to think about this because it came to me the moment I looked at the division. The Kansas City Royals would be my choice based on the simple fact they are a small market squad and would benefit extremely by being in the same division as the Rays.
The relationship between these two AL teams is already formed, and the cities are close enough within the geographical region of the Southern part of the country to make same day flights and televised games a viable options for both teams.
Fourth team to be added would come out of the NL Central division and take their division down to four teams. I thought long and hard as to if I wanted to realign the entire MLB a bit, or just select this one team and end the debate fast and furious on which Texas teams would get an invite to the NASCAR division.
I thought the team that would get the most out of the move would be the Houston Astros. Not only would they be able to convert to the D H system easily, they have the talent in-house already to pop a great DH in the line-up as early as 2012.
I think that the teams on this division "wish list" have great stadiums with a awesome home team presence, and would be totally conducive to building a rivalry and expanding their team concepts without minimal changes.
Realignment is on the horizon. It will be talked, debated, then instituted. This is just my idea of what could effectively comprise a movement towards giving the high dollar and low budget teams a breather and a chance to compete yearly in the post season.
I like the concept and potential of this NASCAR division. It will have great speed, solid defense and a ton of raw young talent circulating throughout the years. Several of the teams that would comprise this division have been hotbeds of minor league talent. That new talent would bring excitement along with value to these teams.
It is a division I not only would pay money to see at Tropicana Field, but would definitely travel to other cities to see play against our Rays. In turn, that would help these small market teams keep their coffers filled to pay their young players to stay with their teams past their arbitration years….It is a "win-win" proposition.


text:
Undergraduate Degrees, Majors and Concentrations
ENGR3400 - Software Verif and Validation
Summer 2019
This course provides an in-depth understanding of Software Verification and Validation. V&V methods and techniques are introduced with emphasis on technical reviews, requirements definition/refinement, and software testing. The lecture component of this course focuses on theoretical understanding of V&V concepts, processes and tools. The lab component will focus on hands on exercises in Software Quality Assurance (SQA). Case studies will be reviewed and requirements analysis will be performed In addition debugging, pair programming and software inspection lab exercises will also be carried out. Students will also complete a project in software testing.
Prerequisite: ENGR3410
3 Credits
Schedule Book for All Active and Available Future Terms, Course starting with ENGR3400
No Courses Found


text:
MU Extension > calendar
Professional development events
Missouri 4-H events
Missouri Business Development Program calendar
Nursing Outreach Conferences
CAFNR events calendar
University of Missouri calendar
MU Extension Ag Land Lease Seminar (Session 2 of 4)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Land leases are an important aspect farm management. About one-third of Missouri's agricultural land is farmed under lease agreements. While ag land leases are commonplace in Missouri, there is a lot of uncertainty among land owners and tenants regarding the fairness and legality of leases. Land owners and tenants often ask the following questions: What is a fair cash rental rate? What costs are customarily shared in a crop share lease? What is a "flexible cash rent" arrangement?—Is a flexible cash rent arrangement right for me? What are my legal obligations as a land owner or tenant? These questions and more will be addressed in the MU Extension Ag Land Lease Seminar to be held in Lafayette, Ray, Saline, and Carroll counties in January and February.
Session topic:
The MU Extension Ag Land Lease Seminar will be held in Richmond on January 22nd (6 to 8 PM at the Eagleton Center)
The MU Extension Ag Land Lease Seminar will be held in Higginsville on January 15th (6 to 8 PM at the Lafayette County MU Extension Center), Richmond on January 22nd (6 to 8 PM at the Eagleton Center), Marshall on January 29th (2 to 4 PM at the Saline County MU Extension Center), and Carrollton on February 5th (2 to 4 PM at the Carrollton Public Library). During the seminar, Whitney Wiegel, Agricultural Business Specialist with MU Extension, will make presentations and answer questions related to agricultural land leases. Participants will receive informative publications, lease templates, and other resources that will help them manage their leases. For more information or to register to attend the seminar, call the sponsoring MU Extension Center of the seminar location of your choosing.—For the Higginsville seminar call 660-584-3658, for Richmond call 816-776-6962, for Marshall call 660-886-6908, and for Carrollton call 660-542-1792.
$0.00The cost to attend the seminar is $10 for early registrants (early registration closes the Friday before the respective seminar) and $15 for late registrants. All fees collected will be used to offset the material costs of the seminar.
Focus on Kids--Platte County
When: Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Focus on Kids is the court-mandated program in Platte County for separating or divorcing parents and for parents doing modifications.
Parents whose cases are filed in Platte County must contact the Circuit Clerk's office for information on how to register: 816-858-1986Parents whose cases are filed in another county or out-of-state, but wish to take the Platte County class must contact the University of Missouri Extension Center at 816-407-3490 for information on how to register.
Class size:
Event full:
© 1993
to 2015 Curators of the University
of Missouri, all rights reserved, DMCA
and other copyright information
University of Missouri Extension is an equal opportunity/ADA institution.
University of Missouri Extension
© 1993
to 2015 Curators of the University of Missouri, all rights reserved


text:
The lawyer of Robert Bales claims that U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident, as reported by Bill Rigby of Reuters.
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales has been officially charged with the premeditated murder of 17 Afghan civilians and could face the death penalty.
The 38-year-old soldier's lawyer, John Henry Browne, released a statement Friday that said that the defense team is " facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client."
Browne said his investigators spoke with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but were obstructed from speaking to any witnesses.
From Reuters:
"When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," Browne said in the earlier statement.
"The next day the prosecution team interviewed the civilians injured. We found out shortly after the prosecution interviews of the injured civilians that the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them." That means potential witnesses will scatter and could prove unreachable, Browne said.
Prosecutors had not shared their investigative findings with his team, and would not share images captured by a surveillance camera on a blimp above the base which the Army says shows Bales returning to the camp after the alleged shooting, he said.
Bales is accused of walking off a U.S. military base in Panjwai district of Kandahar province before dawn on March 11 with his 9mm pistol and M-4 rifle and killing nine Afghan children and eight adults as well as burning some of the bodies.
Afghan villagers doubt Bales acted alone, but other reports suggest Bales left his base twice during the night.


text:
The U.S. Navy is outfitting its submarine fleet with Kindle knockoffs that come with fewer features at a much higher price, according to Navy Times.
For about $3000, deployed submariners will get an e-reader called a "NeRD" or, Navy e-Reading Device, which comes preloaded with 300 books.
Why not just outfit sailors with Kindles or iPads? Well, since there is plenty of secret information on subs, the Navy needed a device that couldn't take photos or give away positions with electronic signals.
That means no internet connection, so sailors won't be able to download any other books.
"This is our first run at it," Nilya Carrato, an official with the Navy's library program, told The Times. "So for NeRD 1.0, the titles won't change because it can't connect to the Internet and can't do a digital push."
The device, built by Ohio-based Findaway World, will come with titles selected from the Navy's professional reading list, as well as public domain classics and contemporary non-fiction and fiction, such as "Ender's Game," and "The Stand," among others.
At roughly $3,000 each, they aren't cheap. The cost includes the e-reader itself and the rights to all 300 books loaded on it.
With each sub set to receive five NeRDs each (385 total), the total cost is just north of $1.15 million.


text:
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klášter obutých karmelitánu s kostelem sv. Havla, Praha - Staré Mesto, CZ
in Abbeys, Convents and Monasteries
Originally Baroque monastery of Carmelites, converted to other use.
posted by: Noe1
location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
date approved: 12/12/2013
last visited: 3/5/2015
Old Town Convent - San Diego, CA
This building is located beside the Casa de Aguirre in San Diego's OOld Town State Park. The site is now used for tourist shops.
posted by: Metro2
location: California
date approved: 12/4/2013
last visited: 2/14/2014
Benedictine nun's - Venio Abbey / Benediktinky - Opatství Venio (Prague - Bílá hora)
A small Baroque complex built around pilgrimage Church of Our Lady Victorious at Bílá Hora (Kostel Panny Marie Vítezné na Bílé Hore), nowadays known as Venio Abbey, is a seat of community of Benedictine nun's.
posted by: Dorcadion Team
date approved: 11/25/2013
last visited: 3/2/2014
Jasna Góra Monastery - Czestochowa, Poland
The Jasna Góra Monastery (Jasna Góra) in Czestochowa, Poland
posted by: puczmeloun
location: Śląskie, Poland
date approved: 11/23/2013
last visited: never
Stift Geras - Geras, Austria
Geras Abbey is a Premonstratensian monastery in Geras in Lower Austria. Since 1783 it has also owned the premises of the former Pernegg Abbey nearby. / Das Stift Geras ist ein Kloster der Prämonstratenser in Geras in Niederösterreich, Bezirk Horn
posted by: Arne1
location: Niederösterreich, Austria
date approved: 11/21/2013
Afkule Monastery - Fetiyhe, Turkey
An old abandoned monastery in the Turquoise Coast in Turkey.
posted by: Torgut
location: Turkey
Stavrovouni Monastery - Larnaca (Cyprus)
The Stavrovouni Monastery, located on the summit of lonely mountain ca 17 km NW of Larnaca, is the oldest and probably also the most important Orthodox monastery on Cyprus.
location: Cyprus
date approved: 11/3/2013
Svata Dobrotiva Monastery - Zajecov, Czech Republic
Svata Dobrotiva Monastery in Zajecov.
posted by: ToRo61
location: Středočeský kraj, Czechia
date approved: 10/31/2013
Premonstratensian Abbey in Jasov / Premonštrátské opátstvo v Jasove (East Slovakia)
Premonstratensian Abbey in Jasov (Premonštrátské opátstvo v Jasove), founded in 1173, belongs among the oldest and from architectonic and historic point of view the most important Catholic monasteries in Slovakia.
location: Košický kraj, Slovakia
last visited: 5/18/2014
Cistercian Abbey of Sedlec / Cisterciácke opatství v Sedlci - Kutná Hora (Central Bohemia)
Complex of former Cistercian Abbey of Sedlec (Cisterciácke opatství v Sedlci) belongs among the most important architechtonic and historic monument of Royal mining town Kutná Hora.
date approved: 10/24/2013
last visited: 6/1/2012
Lesnes Abbey - Abbey Wood, London, UK
The ruins of the 12th century Lesnes Abbey are located at Abbey Wood in south east London. The monastery was destroyed in the 16th century. Information tables, around the site, give a look and feel to the abbey.
posted by: Master Mariner
location: London, United Kingdom
date approved: 10/21/2013
Badia Fiorentina - Florence, Italy
The Badìa Fiorentina is an abbey and church now home to the Fraternity of Jerusalem situated on the Via del Proconsolo in the centre of Florence, Italy.
posted by: razalas
location: Toscana, Italy
date approved: 10/15/2013
last visited: 7/1/2014
Benedictine monastery - Police nad Metuji, Czech Republic
Former Benedictine monastery in Police nad Metuji.
location: Královéhradecký kraj, Czechia
last visited: 2/12/2015
Chiesa e monastero dei Santi Agostino e Cristina - Florence, Italy
The Chiesa e monastero dei Santi Agostino e Cristina is a Catholic place of worship in Florence, situated on the Costa Scarpuccia, a hill road of the district of Oltrarno.
date approved: 10/9/2013
Complesso di San Firenze - Florence, Italy
The Complesso di San Firenze is one of the rare examples of the Baroque style in the center of Florence, the most important of the late period of this style.
date approved: 10/1/2013
last visited: 9/22/2014
The Cistercian Monastery - Osek, Czech Republic
The Cistercian Monastery in Osek.
location: Ústecký kraj, Czechia
date approved: 9/14/2013
last visited: 6/19/2014
Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls - Little Falls, MN
Roman Catholic Convent and Ministry located in Central Minnesota.
posted by: lenron
location: Minnesota
Ulverscroft Priory - Ulverscroft, Leicestershire
Ulverscroft Priory is a former hermitage and priory in Ulverscroft, Leicestershire.
posted by: SMacB
location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
date approved: 9/3/2013
Grace Dieu Priory - Thringstone, Leicestershire
The Grace Dieu Priory was an independent Augustinian priory near Thringstone in Leicestershire, England. It was founded around 1235-1241 by Roesia de Verdon and dissolved in October in 1538. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St Mary.
Louka Abbey - Znojmo, Czech Republic
Premonstratensian monastery Louka in Znojmo.
location: Jihomoravský kraj, Czechia
date approved: 8/31/2013
last visited: 12/25/2013
Abbaye de Cluny - Cluny, France
[FR] L'abbaye de Cluny, en Saône-et-Loire, fut fondée le 2 septembre 9091 ou 910 par le duc d'Aquitaine et comte d'Auvergne Guillaume Ier. [EN] Cluny Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France.
posted by: RakeInTheCache
location: Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
date approved: 8/25/2013
last visited: 12/27/2013
Rosa Coeli Monastery - Dolni Kounice, Czech Republic
Ruins of the Rosa Coeli Premonstratensians Monastery.
date approved: 8/19/2013
last visited: 5/26/2012
Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Monastery - Tucson, Arizona
This is a working Catholic monastery and church in central Tucson.
posted by: tugies
location: Arizona
last visited: 9/5/2013
St Davids Bishop's Palace - Monastery - Wales. Great Britain.
The remains of the Bishops of St Davids principle Palace, and medieval Monastery are located alongside St Davids Cathedral in a grassy hollow. This would have been the finest collection of buildings in Wales during the medieval period.
posted by: veritas vita
location: South Wales, United Kingdom
date approved: 8/15/2013
last visited: 7/8/2013
Igreja e Convento das Domínicas - Guimarães
[PT]A Igreja e Convento das Domínicas localiza-se na freguesia de São Sebastião, concelho de Guimarães, distrito de Braga, em Portugal. [EN]The Church and Convent of dominicas located in the parish of São Sebastião Guimarães municipality, Portugal.
location: Braga, Portugal
date approved: 7/4/2013
Copyright (c) 2019 Groundspeak, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Sunday Sweets: Be My Valentine?
Today I got you a very special valentine. Yes, you. No no, not you - YOU. [waggling eyebrows]
Now, it might look like a regular Sunday Sweets post, but it's filled with awesome Valentines cakes. Just the way you like. Yep. (Who loves ya? Huh?)
Check it out. This one says, "I'm wild about you, Valentine!"
I think it's also saying "Eat me!" - but in a really polite way.
This one is for that adorable nickname I gave you:
By CakeCentral member Miranda1987
"Curly cherry stem."
And I know how much you like Snoop Dog, so...
You're welcome.
Remember that time we released a single balloon at the park, and stood together watching it rise and rise as it drifted off into the rich red sea of the sunset?
Well, this is pretty anyway:
By hello naomi
Simple perfection.
Just like you.
If I had the time, ability, or inclination to hand form and dye hundreds of tiny sugar hearts, and then apply them one-by-one to a beautiful cake, it would never look this good:
By Erica O'Brien Cake Design, tutorial for sugar hearts here
But I like to think it'd still make you smile.
Boxes of chocolates are sweet, but you know what's even sweeter?
Boxes of chocolates that let you EAT THE BOX.
And from now on I've giving every box lid a test nibble, just for you.
Speaking of edible, you're not going to believe this, but you can eat this lace:
Well, and not choke on it, I mean. That is, it's supposed to be eaten. Wowza. Can you imagine if ALL lace was edible?
On second thought, never mind. (Hi, kids!)
Ah, here's just the Sweet we need to rescue my dignity:
That is some serious swag.
Of course, the best Valentines always celebrate what's *inside*:
By Bakingdom
And this makes my technicolor heart oh-so happy.
Speaking of which, you know I have to give you a Valentine that reflects my geeky side, too, right?
Just try not to read too much into the red-shirt thing.
Sub'd by Lisa R., made by SugarRushTreats
I call these, "Love Bytes."
And finally, the ultimate expression of love and companionship:
By Cloudy Cakes
And that's no lie.
Have a great Valentines this week, Valentines!
Have a Sweet to nominate? Then send it to Sunday Sweets (at) Cake Wrecks (dot) com.


text:
NCAA College Field Hockey DII Scores, Schedule
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- What's next for Saint Mary's — the most improved team in Division I men's college soccer
- Women's college soccer: 5 things to know before ACC play kicks off
- Virginia rises to the top as North Carolina, Stanford drop in newest women's soccer rankings
- The 2020 NCAA bracket predicted, less than two months from opening night
- DII football: Schedule, scores, top games and how to watch Week 3
- Utah joins the top 10, Virginia makes a jump in latest AP Poll
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|A Perfect Murder
|Tuesday, 03 November 1998
As one character here points out, sexual jealousy and money are the two biggest motives for murder. Odd, then, that 'A Perfect Murder' doesn't generate more sense of lust or greed. It is diverting and reasonably competent, give or take a few plot holes, but the film disappears from memory minutes after it ends.
Fabulously rich commodities trader Steven Tyler (Michael Douglas, doing a variation on his 'Wall Street' character) discovers that his independently wealthy, beautiful young wife Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow) is having an affair. Interestingly enough, her lover David (Viggo Mortensen) is not really the sensitive starving artist Emily imagines him to be. Steven, out for revenge and Emily's loot, offers David $500,000 to murder her. And then . . .
As all of the above happens fairly early in 'A Perfect Murder,' we might reasonably anticipate plenty of twists to follow. The developments will come as less of a surprise to viewers already familiar with Frederick Knott's play 'Dial M for Murder' and/or Alfred Hitchchock's film version, but there's one great pivotal shock in store. After that, Patrick Smith Kelly's script moves along with speed, but events unfold more or less as we expect they will. Little touches that we first assume to be clues--a police detective's fluency in Arabic, the fondness of Emily's best friend for Steven--turn out to be grace notes instead. It's nice that the filmmakers want to fill their landscape with idiosyncratic details, but in a suspense thriller, we also want story threads that pay off, and 'Perfect Murder' is short on these.
Director Andrew Davis ('The Fugitive') stages a couple of good "jump" scares and gives Steve and Emily's world a suitably sumptuous look, but neither he nor Kelly ever really make us sit up and take notice. Davis does make good use of silence rather than sound to create suspense, so it's a good idea to view this in a quiet room for maximum impact.
The special-edition DVD version of 'A Perfect Murder' is an improvement on its bigscreen predecessor, mainly by virtue of special audio tracks that do much more than round up the usual suspects. Yes, director Davis and star Douglas weigh in with their opinions and recollections, but so does writer Kelly. Any behind-the-scenes effort that realizes screenwriters are an integral part of the creative process automatically deserves high marks. A separate audio track contains the reminiscences of producer Peter Macgregor-Scott, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and the film's design team. Davis even provides commentary over footage of a more cynical alternate climax. The extensive supplemental material provides handy insight into how decisions are made about what you do and don't see on screen, even if the finished product in this instance isn't all that compelling.


text:
|2010-02-03, 14:59
|Link #1
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 39
Muv-Luv Franchise - Game & General Discussion
Following on from the stories told in Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and Akane Maniax, the Muv-Luv franchise takes things into a wide and growing range of, one might say, Alternative directions!
The stories of Muv-Luv are spread over a range of timelines and settings. The first of the two universes shown in the original game is Extra - which starts the day after the events of Akane Maniax finish. In this reality, things seem somewhat normal, or at least as 'normal' as a Japanese high school setting in anime seems to be...
Yet, it is the second half of the original game, Unlimited, where things really start to get interesting. Rather than the relative peace (in Japan, at least) which one found in Extra, this world has been slowly ground down by a full-scale alien invasion, launched by a collection of life forms known to humanity as BETA. It is here where the Senjutsuhokousentouki (or Senjutsuki for short) - i.e. the mechs which help to define the franchise - are introduced.
The next game, Alternative, jumps to a second war-ravaged timeline. This is the world which has formed the basis of the range of spinoff stories - for example, while Alternative is mainly set in Japan, Total Eclipse is set in Alaska, while The Euro Front is, as its name suggests, in Western Europe.
After Alternative comes Altered Fable, which goes to a timeline which looks more like the peaceful world shown back in Extra. So far, unlike Extra/Unlimited and Alternative, Altered Fable does not seem to have an all-ages version, though I could be wrong (and there may or may not be such a version, if you'd want one, along sooner or later anyway.)
Included with Altered Fable, however, is the introduction to one of the side-stories previously mentioned - Total Eclipse. This story has been running in Tech Gian and published as a series of novels for a while now, and shows no sign of stopping.
The second notable side-story is The Euro Front - which has been updated in Hobby Japan each month. One of the notable aspects of this world is the range of Senjutsuki shown here, as opposed to those elsewhere on the planet. (In this setting, many of the mechs are named after 'real' warplanes, and are intended to echo them design-wise. TEF includes units based on the real-life Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale, compared to the craft of Japanese, Russian and American origin elsewhere.)
There are a few other side-stories, too - some of which are previewed in this video - though it seems that TE and TEF are the ones to watch in terms of future development.
There's been a range of other merchandise released, too. Mitsurugi Meiya, one of the leading ladies of Muv-Luv, has been released in Figma form. Her signature mech, as well as a load of others from Alternative, Total Eclipse and The Euro Front, have been made by Volks, in their A3 line. (Damn, I wish that black EF-2000 wasn't an exclusive...) Plus, there are a few background books, not least Integral Works - which looks pretty neat...
Oh, and there's a Japanese-language wiki for the Alternative timeline, too. (On the TE page, it says there will be an all-ages release of that story released in 2010, but I'm not sure where the source for that comes from, so...)
And one other thing: Both the original Muv-Luv game (incorporating Extra and Unlimited) and Muv-Luv Alternative have an English translation project in the works.
So, have you already acquainted yourself with the Muv-Luv multiverse (Muv-tiverse?), or are you still wondering what all the fuss is about?
Last edited by Nerroth; 2010-02-03 at 18:01.
|2010-02-05, 13:32
|Link #2
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: USA
Age: 30
I remember seeing KGNE and was blown away. Then I looked into Maniax and was like "...nah."
Then I read that exact wiki page a couple years ago and basically my reaction was (and I'm precise with the number of each punctuation here)
|2010-02-05, 14:11
|Link #3
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 39
Which brings me to a point which stands out for me here, compared to other franchises I know.
If one looks at stories from, say, Type-Moon, the kind of details, events and supernatural creatures involved may differ, but the underlying connection to the broader Nasuverse is still present - or rather, it's present in terms of going into a story and expecting the unexpected, as it were.
To put it another way, Fate/Stay Night is a very different story to Tsukihime, but if someone told you they are in the same broader setting, it wouldn't be that hard to imagine it so.
In this case, however, neither Kiminozo nor Akane Maniax - nor, indeed, Muv-Luv Extra - give much in the way of clues as to what other timelines are out there... or that these are all somehow connected.
(Of course, that was part of the point - you weren't supposed to know until they suckered you with it. At this point, however, I think it's safe to say the cat is well and truly out of the bag.)
If you went into one game/anime/manga/etc expecting a certain kind of story, seeing things go in such a direction might seem more jarring to some.
I don't mind it, personally, as you might have guessed, but I can understand if others did.
|2011-04-02, 19:47
|Link #8
Mahjong Triple Pro
Join Date: Sep 2006
Alternative is the most spectacular visual novel I've ever played. 10/10, 100/100, 10000/10000 - one can't call it anything less than a Masterpiece. It needs a lot of investment in watching KGNE, Akane Maniax and then playing Extra and Unlimited, but it was well worth it.
I'm ruined for anime/manga, it can offer me nothing more after playing Alternative.
|2012-03-17, 08:39
|Link #11
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Look up. I am hanging from your celing
They're still remaking the kimi nozomu universe and muv-luv games endlessly I think rather than new ones.
|2012-05-09, 00:43
|Link #13
Join Date: Jul 2009
By the way - english translation of MLA prequel "Schwarzesmarken"`s first chapter from Mister V is here:
Promising story about DDR pilots fighting BETA in 1983, 18 years before The Day of Alternative IV with art from CARNELIAN.
What a pity that we have raw scans only for first chapter that was published in Tech Gian!
|2012-05-28, 16:23
|Link #15
Storm Vanguard
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Type-00
Muv-Luv general thread, huh? Anything Muv-Luv related? Does that mean we can discuss the other series outside of the main trilogy? Just double-checking to make sure. >:3
On the side note, there sure have been a lot of TE figures being released as of late.
Who else is hoping for GSC releasing more figures of the characters in their eishi suit? I sure am. I'd do anything for a Yuzuka, Irisdina, or Yui eishi suit pvc. T^T
|2012-06-17, 13:43
|Link #16
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Scanning...
Age: 33
I don't know if this is the right thread or not but did anyone else noticed this:
I really wish this gets finished, i don't even need a story just fighting swarms of beta in an actual TSF suffices for me XD.
|2012-06-25, 11:12
|Link #18
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Scanning...
Age: 33
Found quite a gem of a video it really makes you remember all the good parts of the series:
|2012-06-25, 15:54
|Link #20
Forever Young
Join Date: Jun 2012
|eroge, military science fiction, yuimoto
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