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Friday, December 3, 2010
Where Does Wikileaks Money Come From?
So where is the money coming from?
I've constructed a baseline for the costs. Servers, are likely around $7,000 USD a month, or $84,000 a year. It might be more. Remember, Wikileaks must have extensive hot-backup, large security measures, and the ability to move content quickly to a new hosting platform. This costs far more than your basic hosting at Rackmount or Bluehost. Then of course there are the massive bandwidth charges, that probably amount to around $7,000 a month minimum. The money could well be higher.
Wikileaks has a staff of roughly around 20 people. These people are not ill-trained outsourced staff in India or China, with English as their next language. They include, translators, expert coders, systems administrators, all earning high Western wages. Likely around $60,000 per year at a minimum. Some probably more, others less, but that is the likely staffing cost. Recall they must harden systems against attack, provide security, and prevent disclosure of sources giving them material in the first place. This would amount to about $1.2 million a year, and perhaps substantially more.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange travels extensively. Travel is not cheap, and neither is lodging. While sometimes he stays in private homes, sometimes he does not. I doubt he is staying at Motel 6, they seem unlikely to have left the light on for him, as their slogan goes. Assange is in the habit of buying his tickets at the last minute, with cash, to avoid detection of his travel patterns and avoid arrest. At a minimum, this would amount to about $1,500 a week for travel (late purchasers pay more for tickets) and perhaps double that amount, depending on if he goes short-haul or long-haul (halfway around the globe). At a minimum, we are looking at $78,000 per year ($1,500 times 52 weeks) and this may understate his travel expenses if he travels twice a week, or does lots of trans-global travel.
This of course excludes Assange's salary. Judging by his attire, he seems to be able to clothe himself well. So perhaps there is another $100,000 in expenditures on Assange himself. That would bring us to at least $1,362,000, or perhaps even $1,462,000, in total expenditures for Wikileaks yearly.
Where does that money come from?
The well-known propensity for large monetary charitable donations among the denizens of Slashdot, and the open source community? Unlikely.
The most likely source for that sort of money (which could be even higher) is a sovereign government. With the sources of money that can be disguised, seeking to use the open-ness of the West against itself.
So who is the likely donor?
China comes to mind. It is worth thinking about that little that is unflattering, and even less that is damaging, has come out about China. While there have been unflattering portraits of Putin and his "Robin" Medvedev, and more confirmation of the Litivenko assassination (the cables suggest Putin personally authorized it given his attention to detail and micro-managing history), nothing about China's leaders has surfaced that paints them in an unflattering light. Nothing about Tibet. Nothing about tensions with India, and China's influence in Himalayan kingdoms abutting India. Nothing about China's military-to-military assistance with Pakistan's nuclear program and ballistic missile program. Nothing about who is up, and who is down, in the Chinese leadership. Nothing about the corruption of the Red Princes. A mere tidbit here and there expressing some Chinese frustration with North Korea. That is all.
In the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," Holmes directs Watson's attention to the curious affair of the dog in the night-time (the prize racehorse Silver Blaze has been stolen). Watson protests that the dog did nothing in the night-time. Indeed, Holmes replies, that is what was so curious.
Every action by an intelligence agency, to conduct covert operations leaves evidence. Ripples in a pond, or dogs barking or not. It is telling that in all the cables disclosed so far by Wikileaks, not one has fairly derogatory information about China. There is plenty about Russia, about Turkey, about Iran. But nothing about China. Not even the standard gossip of which Red Princeling is making the most money off a father or grandfather's influence in the Politburo. Only the already known disclosure that China hacks Google, most other US companies, and the US government.
It would seem China is the dog not barking in the night-time. The most obvious (so far) paymaster of Wikileaks.
Consider this. For a few million dollars, China has been able to fund embarrassing and hurtful disclosures about the US, that will prevent any major diplomatic deals being done (because potential participants know the US cannot keep secrets) and will also prevent any critical information from being passed along confidentially.
This gives China an element of surprise. For a "massive stroke" ala Pearl Harbor in whatever form: military, commercial, or both. The US literally will have no warning, and no ability to cobble together any effective diplomatic response. China obviously wants things: conquering Taiwan, probably South Korea, possibly Japan. If nothing else, the massive sex imbalance with far too many men and not enough women can only be changed conquering neighboring territories and taking the women as the new version of "comfort workers."
Economically, China has failed to stimulate domestic demand. This is unsurprising, it remains mostly desperately poor, desperately uneducated, and unable to generate internal wealth wide and deep enough to provide a Western style of living (and thus consumption and wealth) for most of its people. Wal-Mart's expansion into China is not on the Wal-Mart model, rather the hypermarket of Latin America, basically a brick building with concrete floors and no air conditioning, offering only a few really cheap items in bulk.
Can China grow at a 8% rate, year after year? No. At a certain point, the growth created by building roads and electrifying villages comes to an end, and economies either transition to higher value growth (Japan, South Korea, West Germany) or fail: the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, likely China. The only alternative is military adventure to capture territory, resources, and people.
China seems edging ever closer into the same conflict over who will rule the Pacific that Japan did with the US all those years ago. Wikileaks is potentially part of this process of edging into conflict. It is unlikely of course there is a master plan by the Chinese Politburo. Merely a desire to constantly chip away at the US ability to master both diplomatic coalitions (particularly around China's periphery, the disclosure of candid and private conversations by Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew was no accident) and gain advance information about China's aims and actions, that incrementally leads to conflict.
The Chinese are certainly adept at Cyberwarfare, and have a predilection for the indirect approach to conflict. They have the resources. They match the strange exclusion of humiliating and embarrassing secrets against China in the Wikileaks cable dumps.
But one thing is certain. Running Wikileaks is not cheap. It requires money and certainly more money that a shoe-string, independent donor driven outfit like Wikileaks poses as could generate. If not China, then some intelligence agency is using US open-ness and lack of deterrent (by punishing Wikileaks founder Assange and his co-workers in very nasty ways to prevent it from happening again) to take away America's ability to create diplomatic alliances and gain critical information.
24 comments:
Fascinating idea, Whiskey. You have cut to the quick on the issue--how does Wikileaks fund itself? No one is paying attention to it, mostly because the press are boobs and useful idiots.
China is a good example of an entity that could have funded this, Russia is another---Putin is an expert in intelligence affairs, and the revelations make him seem more of a badass, not less; it could be subterfuge.
Osama bin laden is as well, considering he is a billionaire's son.
I always think, however, of private people with large funds that hate freedom and America, but not enough to kill directly. George Soros certainly has enough money and knowledge of financial affairs enough to hide it through Swizz bank accounts. He might not like that his little fascist in the white house isn't pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan soon enough. Plus he already hates the country and people not doing what they're told by Daddy Gov.
But then again, it could just be that Assange gets his money from people who just like transparency. The US still is the most powerful country in the world, so we are the big target to take down.
- December 3, 2010 at 3:45 PM
Why don't we just ask the CIA, NSA or any of the other intelligence agencies. They must know what's going on.
This whole operation seems much more focused towards the public. Possibly to create confusion, or to create justifications before they are needed. When they tried to justify attacking Iraq, they came off as fools. Remember Colin Powell with the vials? Nobody believed them and they had to fight massive public resistance to go in. If they have a pseudo-independent organization releasing 'leaks' that conveniently demonize the next target before it's time to publicly justify an attack, it will make it that much easier to do.
These leaks are not going to seriously jeopardize any real diplomatic negotiations. Those go on behind the scenes and real (potentially damaging) intelligence that those in power have an interest in keeping secret mostly stay secret, or at least are neglected by the media. Remember what a huge fiasco it was when Robert Novak revealed the identity of that CIA agent? And that was just one agent, not serious national secrets. That was the media censoring itself. You can see how if this was really damaging to the people in power, it wouldn't be publicized.
- December 3, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Acc to Sailer its the neo-cons,which means America harvested for the money by Israel.
- December 3, 2010 at 5:30 PM
wow thats weird.I just happened to click on this site--I love Whiskey!-at the exact same time a s "modern guy"!Kinda psychic!
- December 3, 2010 at 5:31 PM
- Whiskey said...
Valerie Plame was not damaging to National Security, which is precisely why Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's aide, disclosed it (likely on orders from Powell). Plame was a trophy wife of a guy who thought he could muscle Powell out of State. That's why Plame was disclosed (she was already known to the Russians and Chinese and ran no network). She worked at a desk.
And yes the information is damaging. High level contacts such as Lee Kwan Yew will now no longer give us the discreet and unvarnished truth. If we cannot keep (and we cannot) keep their confidences secret we simply will not have them. And the opinions of highly placed senior leaders is often invaluable. How much control does China have over North Korea? What are the Chinese Aims? How stable is the North Korean leadership? These are things worth knowing that we will now no longer know. Or ever have a hope of knowing.
Nor can we conduct secret deals. Because such deals are guaranteed to leak out all over the place. Killing them before they are born.
As for Israel, it is unlikely. My problem with Sailer is that he ignores the evidence (George Soros got his start hunting out fellow Jews for the Nazis in Hungary, and is proud of it, also wants Israel destroyed) of Jewish disunity and overestimates Israeli effectiveness (now very questionable).
- December 3, 2010 at 6:11 PM
- Whiskey said...
Israel's objectives are stopping Iranian nukes, since they are the first demonstration target. It is not enough for Iran to have nukes, they must make a useful demonstration to show both US impotence against them and what could happen to those who do not play ball. Hence Israel must die, the "one bomb state" rhetoric. For Iran to rule the Gulf and up through the Balkans, in a reconstituted Persian Empire, they must show what happens if they are defied, and how helpless the US is.
The disclosures would be high risk for Israel (and have earlier fueled isolationist, anti-War sentiment in Iraq and Afghanistan). Israel benefits when the US is perceived as powerful and a power not to be crossed in the Gulf region, they are hurt by the putative protection of the US seen as nothing. And the cable leaks do not provide help in stopping the Iranian nuclear program.
Also there are unflattering things about Netanyahu, Israel, and the penetration by organized crime in Israel. The first instinct of an intelligence service is to make their leaders and country look good. The arrow more plausibly points to China, which looks "relatively blameless" in a very odd fashion.
- December 3, 2010 at 6:16 PM
- Whiskey said...
As far as the CIA goes, there is myth and there is fact. According to Robert Baer, and others, there are about no more than 400 people in the CIA running informants, without official cover at embassies (where the host country tolerates it). The rest are basically analysts in Langley who work at a desk all day. Reading various open source and classified reports to produce more reports.
The National Reconnaissance Office does the spy satellite imaging interpretation and management. The NSA does signals intelligence. Both can be defeated simply by not making a spectacle of one's self, and using couriers, etc. Swiss bank secrecy is now a joke, given how easily the Germans, British, Italians, French, and Americans bribed workers to hand over USB sticks of people with accounts (tax dodgers).
US Intelligence is widely believed to be fairly good at signals and satellite imagery, and very poor at human intel. It is possible that given direct orders someone in the community has taken a look at Wikileaks finances.
But you must remember the first and last order of business among intelligence agencies in the real not Hollywood world is avoiding being hauled up by a Congressional Committee because a rival spilled a bunch of leaks to the New York Times.
The revelations of the East European "black" interrogation sites, the flights by the CIA to the sites, people involved, basically shut down that outsourced interrogation that provided valuable insight into AQ. Same with the revelations of proxy use by the CIA in Pakistan and Afghanistan to chase AQ and the Taliban across the Pakistani border, or bribes/promises to secure Pakistani nukes sited as far away from India as possible, in the heart of Taliban country.
In addition, there is the DIA, various military intel agencies, the FBI (which now has foreign bureaus and liason offices around the world) and State intel agencies. All of which are believed to be poor in sorting out money flows, particularly those routed out of Hong Kong and Shanghai.
- December 3, 2010 at 6:24 PM
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- December 3, 2010 at 9:12 PM
A blogpost worth hecking out on iran.
- December 3, 2010 at 10:02 PM
Sorry Whiskey, Soros has his fingerprints all over this. He did it in Eastern europe and now its the worlds turn.
- December 4, 2010 at 1:07 AM
This is not bad theory of who funds Wikileaks. I might add that the Wau Holland foundation which manages much of it's donated money is named after leftwing hacker Wau Holland. He was a member of the Chaos Computer Club. Which in 1989,managed to hack into American defense databases and steal U.S. defense secrets. They sold these secrets to the Soviet Union. Wikileaks is basically an organization connected with a group of leftwing hackers who have a long history of cyberespionage. That provides further clues to who funds Wikileaks. The Chinese could have very well decided to hire many of the same German hackers, who helped the Soviet Union in the eighties, to subvert the United States today. Give it a new fancy name and some new blood. You got the perfect front for cyberespionage.
- December 4, 2010 at 1:13 AM
Wikileaks could easily be self-funding through blackmail. They have a large number of informers sending them information from around the world. It wouldn't take much to seek out a few wealthy targets of that information and work out a deal. If they have all this information an American bank that they claim, they could easily get enough to fund the operation for 10 years (according to Whiskey's calculations) by finding the right person and offering to suppress it.
Assange is just the guy who would try this - getting the "bastard" capitalists to fund the dismantling of the secretive military industrial complex. Just removing one banker's name from the contents of a big leak might be worth several million - considering the banker in question may have received hundreds of millions or even billions if they were at a hedge fund. Of course that makes Assange a target for revenge or mafia killings - which may partially explain his secretive behavior. He's a lot more worried about the bad guys taking him out than the government doing it.
- December 4, 2010 at 9:13 AM
- Whiskey said...
Would killing Assange have a material impact, however?
I mean, he has an organization that would presumably simply elect/select a new President, and continue the same thing? I mean yes there is a risk, but also a reward. Low-level gang bangers take similar risks (rivals will kill them) for rewards far less (respect, a measure of infamy/fear, better quality of women).
Generally the pattern of intimidation killings is fairly clear: various associates are killed and the offer of "plomo o plata" which is literally lead or silver. We have not seen that, and tellingly WikiLeaks has not sent any corporate honcho to jail or produced charges.
For all of WikiLeaks hype, no massive corporate wrongdoing with smoking gun memos have been released. Not for BP, not for RJR, not for GE, not for much of anyone so far. The main target has been ... the US government. In itself significant. In that there is no blackmail money in it, so the money must come from somewhere else.
- December 4, 2010 at 12:52 PM
- December 4, 2010 at 11:07 PM
- James A. Donald said...
"Can China grow at a 8% rate, year after year? No. At a certain point, the growth created by building roads and electrifying villages comes to an end, and economies either transition to higher value growth (Japan, South Korea, West Germany) or fail"
China is already transitioning to higher value growth. China is developing a significant technological lead on the US. For example, the US does not make the blue light semiconductor lasers or DVD device needs. China does. Your computer's memory chips were probably made in China. China is using made-in-China coal-to-liquids technology. Everyone else is using forty year old made-in-South-Africa coal to liquids technology. China's nuclear reactors are running at higher temperatures than our nuclear reactors. China leads the world in internet mediated transactions.
- December 7, 2010 at 8:48 PM
Whiskey, now that Assange is an official Alpha bad-boy since he has been publicly accused of bedding two attractive women in the same week, one of them in her 20s, does that guarantee female support of his cause?
And from the report I read today he's not just bedding them - he gets them to pay for everything as well. Alpha times 2.
- December 7, 2010 at 9:45 PM
- **** ***** said...
i was combing through some of the doucments, and i found it odd that there seemed to be very little spying regarding China as well. just stuff, we all, already, basically know.
especially since they are such a world power in terms of economic growth, ignoring copyright laws, and their support of North Korea in general.
- December 8, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Israel of course! Raeding all the crap about how every Arab country wants to attack Iran pretty much shows that!
- December 9, 2010 at 6:05 PM
"not including Assange's likely generous salary"
thanks for including that at the start so i knew for sure you had no idea what you were going on about considering Julian doesn't receive a salary.
get your facts right
- December 10, 2010 at 8:32 PM
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Remember that Sunday night beat down against the Texans in 05? Alexander had 140yds and 4 tds and Morris had 104yds and a TD. The team was having such a good time and they were really gelling.
I fell that vibe right now. Lynch with 120yds and 3 Td's and Turbo going over 100yds. Sherman and Rice dancing on the sideline. This team is having a good time and are coming together at the right time. It's exciting being a Seahawks fan after the last few games.

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm up at 5:30 am writing this, which is not something I'm doing for fun, because the only thing I do at 5:30 for fun is sleep or sleep-eat. But I happened to wake up at 4 in a mild panic about All The Things, my ever-growing list of work obligations, and I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something important I said I'd do. And now everyone is mad at me. (If I ever write a memoir I'm going to title it "Everyone is Mad at Me." Don't steal that! That's mine!)
It's great to have a huge work load, I know. I've had plenty of early-morning panics about not having enough work. This is better. I am okay with all the work; it's the NUMBER of different projects that I can't seem to wrap my head around. It's giving me a temporary case of ADD, an obsessive need to write list after list, and a strong yearning for a butler, or a chef. A chef-butler. At least someone to make me breakfast.
In the middle of all of this I'm trying to get off a Big Project off the ground, which I hope to unveil in a couple of weeks. Forgive me for being so secretive. I will remain alive for a while so that I may shortly reveal all. That is my pledge to you. ("I Will Remain Alive" is my second memoir title, written when I am frighteningly old. The cover will be a close-up of one of my eyes. When I die all the copies of the book will burst into flame. I've thought this through.)
In the meantime, here's a watercolor I did recently.
And another!
I could do nothing but paint all the time. I love it so much. I think I'm an art nerd. Is that a thing? I'm walking around with the dog and I see a gnarled, stumpy tree and all I want to do is draw it. All the dog wants to do is pee on it. And then I want to draw the dog peeing. And then I do. I need help. Or art supplies! That shit is pricey.
Oh, you people are too good to me.
I took your advice/requests and created a Zazzle store. You can now purchase prints of the tree picture--in poster, card, or wrapped-canvas format, if you're fancy. I'll add more paintings, when I clean up some other scans I have. Thank you!


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Last Saturday, the lazy late-summer afternoon was punctuated by the sounds of bat hitting ball and ball hitting glove. On the Amagansett School field, a group of men and women were engaged in a spirited but friendly game.
This first annual meeting — on the diamond, that is — of music industry attorneys lay at the end of a long and winding road shaped by the seismic changes in the music business over a relatively brief period.
Bob Donnelly, an attorney with Manhattan and Minneapolis firm Lommen Abdo, is a 34-year veteran of the music industry. On Saturday, as colleagues played catch on the school's field, the Sag Harbor resident considered the broad range of events that have transformed the industry and brought the players together on a baseball field.
Mr. Donnelly is known as a champion of recording artists. He was part of the team that won a judgment in unpaid royalties for the artist Ronnie Spector against her former record label. Former New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer credited him with a case that resulted in payment of $55 million in back royalties by labels to artists. And he was a prominent figure in the repeal of the changes to the "works-for-hire" provision of the Copyright Act of 1976, which paved the way for recording artists to take ownership of their master recordings after 35 years. The act went into effect in 1978: As 2013 approaches, many recording artists are indeed moving to claim their master recordings.
"Gigantic," Mr. Donnelly said of the implications. "Right now, 60 percent of all [record labels'] sales are deep catalog."
This effort on behalf of songwriters and musicians — few of them among the most business-savvy members of society — reflects a lifelong love of music, evident in the attorney's often self-deprecating remarks. "Like so many people in the business side of the music business, I'm a hopelessly failed musician," he said. "I took guitar lessons when I was in the sixth grade, and at the end of the semester you'd play that concert for your parents. I had one song, three chords. I played it so badly that even my mother, who to the day she died was my greatest apologist, could find nothing redeeming to say. When your mother thinks you suck at something, that's the time to change course. I then became the kid that had every record, even every imported record. Whether you hated me or not, you had to invite me to your party because I had the best record collection."
Mr. Donnelly attended Providence College on a track scholarship, and then pursued a master's degree in counseling psychology at Columbia University, "which, I like to joke, I use more dealing with artists than I use my law degree." The School of Law at St. John's University was next, after which the young graduate worked for New York State Assemblyman Edward Meyer's campaign for Congress.
"Right after the campaign," Mr. Donnelly said, "I got a job that enabled me to negotiate a deal with Steve Leber and David Krebs, who had just left the William Morris Agency and were forming what grew to become the biggest management company in America, Leber/Krebs. They offered me a job to become general counsel. I was intensely flattered, until I discovered they intended to pay me about one-eighth what I was currently making. But it was a full-time music position, and that's what I was looking to do. I was very lucky, because the first band that Leber/Krebs signed was an unknown band from Boston called Aerosmith. On their heels came Ted Nugent, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Parliament-Funkadelic. I was in-house there for about three years and then went off on my own, with them as my first client."
With the birth of grunge in the early 1990s, the music industry rode Nirvana and other artists to unprecedented prosperity. But as the decade drew to a close, a software called Napster was spreading like a virus across college campuses and, quickly, across the record-buying public. With Napster and the programs that quickly followed, digital audio files could be freely shared by anyone with a computer and modem. The music business would never be the same.
"During the 1990s, we would increase the price of a CD by a buck each year, and everybody would say we were going to hit the wall, there would be price resistance," Mr. Donnelly said. "To our utter amazement, sales went up. While the film business, the theater business, all the similar entertainment industries were going up and down, we were going straight up. An arrogance developed, along the way, that we were smarter than everybody else."
The industry was slow to react, finally launching user-unfriendly Web sites to sell their recordings and attempting to stuff the genie it had unleashed, in the digitization of pre-recorded music via the compact disc, back into the bottle. But all copy-protection schemes were easily hacked, and the labels couldn't compete with free, albeit inferior, MP3 files of their products.
"It was a demonstration that we didn't get it, we didn't understand the technology revolution that was happening around us," Mr. Donnelly conceded. "And 2000 was the watershed year. Since then, our 'hard good sales' — CD sales — are off, I think, 40 percent."
Such a dramatic reduction led to widespread layoffs, from which attorneys were not exempt. With the consolidation of the major-label industry (now numbering just three transnational corporations) and far fewer artists being signed, "You have a larger pool of attorneys seeking to represent a smaller pool of artists," Mr. Donnelly said. "In that way, our business isn't as economically viable as it once was."
A manifestation of the music industry's retrenchment is reduced travel expenditures, one result of which is fewer East Coast-based attorneys able to attend the annual Entertainment Law Initiative luncheon and scholarship presentation during Grammy Week in Los Angeles. "For many years, when I would negotiate a deal, even though we would do it over the telephone for the most part, at the very least we would meet on the day of closing, where the label and the artist and the lawyers would all get together in the conference room," Mr. Donnelly said. "If at no other time, you were assured of meeting your colleague. That doesn't happen anymore; we do everything with FedEx, PDFs. The ELI luncheon has become an important part of doing things."
With the participation of the Sag Harbor resident Joe Serling, of Manhattan company Serling Rooks Ferrara McKoy and Worob, a meeting of attorneys, not in a conference room but on an Amagansett baseball diamond, began to make sense. "We were on a conference call organizing a breakfast we're going to have in October for music lawyers," Mr. Donnelly said. "There were other folks on the call who were also out here. We were all saying, 'We're all going to be out here in August, why don't we get together?' Joe organized this."
"I'm a big fan of Bob's," Mr. Serling said. "He knows what he's doing and is good to negotiate with. Bob is a very solid guy, and a very decent guy to be on the other side of deals with."
In recent years, Mr. Donnelly co-founded Modern Works Music Publishing, a publishing administration company with a decidedly artist-friendly bent. "In an ever-shrinking music industry" the company will soon hire its ninth employee, Mr. Donnelly said.
At home, where he lives with his wife, Marie, Mr. Donnelly grows oysters from the end of his dock on Sag Harbor Cove, part of a program overseen by Cornell University to introduce oysters grown in captivity to Peconic Bay. "I don't know who enjoys it more. Me? My grandkids? The oysters?"
Despite the rampant piracy of prerecorded music and consequent contraction of the music industry over the last dozen years, he remains an optimist, and clearly retains a deep love and enthusiasm for his work.
"The revolution grabbed us by the throat and threw us down on the floor," he said. "But it's caused us to think about the business differently. One of the objections that people had for the last few years is that everyone, including the artist, was guilty of being obstructionist in trying new technologies. I'm still nervous when [music streaming service] Spotify pays 0.00027 cents per play. But I'd rather be exploring these new avenues. I'd like to leave the business in as good shape as I found it, because I love music. Even though I'll battle with the record labels, and have had my fair share of wrestling matches with them, I don't want to see them fail. They're a crucial part of what makes this work. But they've got to change in the same way that the rest of us do."


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Missing Transactional Emails Always Make You Late to the PartyGuest Author
We love hearing from happy customers. Dean Gammell, CEO of www.stagit.ie and www.henit.ie is fortunately one of them. Learn about how he turned his email delivery issues upside down when he switched to SendGrid. The following is a guest post from Dean.
I used to literally pull my hair out with the problems with had with our email deliverability. That's not good for a 26 year old CEO battling to maintain his youth. We had email problems coming from two different directions—our suppliers and our customers. When they never got an email with key information it could mean a ruined event for 10-15 people.
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How We Use Email
We built an in-house system to help us manage all our bookings more efficiently. This took us about 1 year to build and we were really happy with the results we were getting out of it initially. That was until we started running into email problems. It was without a doubt the most frustrating period we went through trying to get our emails delivered to our customers and suppliers. We were hitting problems every day and were starting to upset our customers and suppliers.
We have two different receivers of our emails—suppliers and our customers. The following is the sort of pain we had to go through when they did not receive our emails.
Customer Implications
Our key emails were not getting delivered to all of our customers. People were not getting their invites and reminders were not being received. This meant that they were missing their payment dates and people within the group would not know any of the event details.
Also, some customers were not receiving their itineraries for their weekend trips. They would call us in a panic looking for these when they should have already been sent by email.
Supplier Implications
Suppliers were not receiving key information from us, i.e. when we made a payment to them. This would lead to problems on the day of the event when a supplier would refuse to take our group as they would think they had no been paid by us.
Suppliers were also not receiving our group size update emails. So if we booked a group of 20 people into a hotel and 3 weeks before the event we would email the hotel to say that only 10 people are going, they were not getting this email. The hotel would then be left with empty rooms, which they would not be happy about!
Initially we were trying to fix our email deliverability issues in-house. We tried everything for our servers and got in some email deliverability experts to try and help us. But it ended up being an uphill battle that we could not get the better of.
58% Increase in Delivery
I then came across SendGrid through a transactional email I got from another website. I looked into their service and it seemed too good to be true. I researched 2 other email providers after this and my programmer and I looked at them in detail. We chose SendGrid at the end as it had the best features at the best price—which was one of our concerns.
What really stood out to us was that SendGrid provided features to report on our email open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates. So not only were our emails getting delivered now, but we also had a host of reporting features behind it telling us data down to every last email. No longer could anyone try and blame us for not getting an email because we knew whether they got it or not, that was powerful for us.
After we got SendGrid set up through their API it was like flicking a switch. All our emails were now starting to get delivered. Before, we had around a 60% delivery rate…now it's over 95%. It was a big sigh of relief for us and left us to focus on more important things. What's even better now is we can see exactly what emails have and have not been delivered to people.
What the Future Holds
We built an in-house software to manage all our groups. We are now in the process of selling this software to other similar companies through www.thegroupsystem.com and we will be using SendGrid as our email provider without a shadow of a doubt!
Many thanks to Dean for sharing his success story with us. If you're running into similar issues as Dean was and would like to learn more about how SendGrid can help your delivery rate, contact our sales team.


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Here we go again. The Republicans, who have relentlessly lied again and again to the American people about President Obama, are now engaged in a new lie, this time calling it a pledge with America.
Why can't they get it? Americans are sick and tired of the lies.
Is Obama the best president we've ever had? I don't know. Is he the worst president we've ever had? I don't know. But one thing I do know is why Obama was elected president.
It's because Americans were sick and disgusted with George W. Bush's eight years in office. Americans were sick of the lies the Republican administration told about Iraq, about Guantanamo Bay and about secret CIA prisons set up in different countries to skirt the rule of American law. We were tired with the Christian president chosen by God telling us it was okay to torture people.
We were sick of 'misunderestimating' George Bush and listening to the absolutely stupid comments that would come out of his mouth.
So instead of accepting this and actually doing something about it, what do Republicans do? They pick John McCain and Sarah Palin to represent the party after Bush/Cheney. At first Republicans shied away from Mitt Romney because of his Mormon beliefs. Then they pick one of the nuttiest chicks ever to kill a moose in Alaska to run for VP. Was there any wonder Obama/Biden won?
Democrats took over in 2006 in both houses and got the anti-filibustering 60-votes in the Senate in 2008. What did Republicans do? Did they finally get it and realize what they had to do? NO.
They went on the attack. They accused Obama of being born outside of the United States, offering no evidence. I know some out there reading this are going, "Corey, there was evidence offered."
Okay, let me rephrase that. Republicans accused Obama of not being born in the United States without offering any credible evidence.
The Republicans accused Obama of being a Muslim. When that didn't work they went after his rather fiery, nutty, former pastor, who is a Christian.
When American seamen were being held hostage off the coast of Somalia, he was blamed by Republicans. When the rescue mission went off beautifully, Republicans accused him of trying to take credit for the operation.
Republicans have blamed Obama for everything that is wrong with the economy. They have blamed him for TARP, an idea pushed by the Republicans' darling, Mr. George W. Bush himself. You don't hear the elephants talking about that, do you?
So now the party of NO has come up with another clever ruse to fool the American people into electing them back into office. It's called the Pledge to America. It's enough to make me want to puke.
Remember the lies that were the Contract with America? Remember term limits? It's something Republicans said to Americans to get into office and it's something Republicans pushed away once they were in. How many Republicans who agreed to follow the Contract with America actually stuck to it? How many Republicans didn't run for re-election when their so called 'term limits' came up?
Does anyone know? I think there has been more Chinese that have walked on the moon than there are Republicans that honored their Contract with America.
So now we have the pledge. Wonderful, more lies.
Let's see, the Republicans want to lower taxes, cut spending and make it possible for insurance companies to cut coverage to their customers if they get sick.
And the Republicans never tell the American people how they're going to pay for all these things. It's all smoke and mirrors. I've heard Republicans say they want to go back to pre-2009 spending levels. How about pre-2000 spending levels? Do Republicans believe things were going well in 2008? Then why go back to spending the way we were in 2008? Oh, because it was a Republican spending us into oblivion then rather than a Democrat.
One interesting thing to note, according to a quote attributed to the Cato Institute's president in 2000, the combined budgets of 95 percent of the major programs the Contract with America promised to eliminate increased by 13 percent.
This pledge the Republicans are touting is just a clever ruse to trick the fanatical tea-party members. Those are the ones the elephants are trying to corral.
Let's hope it doesn't work. I don't think I could take eight years of a Palin administration. If that happened I would just have to hope like heck she follows through with her pattern of quitting halfway through the job she was elected to do.
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Whistleblowers covered by one of 22 statutes administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) now will be able to file complaints online.
The online form will provide workers who have been retaliated against with an additional way to reach out for OSHA assistance.
Currently, workers can submit complaints to OSHA by filing a written complaint or calling the agency.


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Skid loader overturns in manure pit, killing teen
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a 15-year-old Pennsylvania boy was driving a piece of farm machinery when it overturned in a manure pit, killing him.
The Lancaster County coroner says Jonas King was operating a skid loader Saturday morning when it flipped into the pit on his family's farm in Leacock Township.
Police say the boy was completely submerged when emergency personnel arrived. It took rescue crews more than an hour to pull him out.
Jonas was pronounced dead at the scene. The coroner says the cause was asphyxia.
The Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal (http://bit.ly/1q2GtZz) reports that six local residents have died since 1989 as a result of falling or jumping into manure pits, which store waste from farm animals.
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Thanks so much to all my amazing readers, friends and family for voting for my blog!
It feels really good to know that I have a great support system out there:)
Homeschooling is a lot of work, but I love it and I see such incredible results in my amazing little munchkins- I am so glad that you are able to share in our adventures in homeschooling!
So please continue to stop by and check out what we are up to- and keep that positive feedback coming:)
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Oct. 11, 2008
Courtesy Curry Sports Information
MILTON, Mass. - Curry College scored eight touchdowns from seven different players and rolled past visiting MIT, 59-27, in New England Football Conference (NEFC) Boyd Division action. The Colonels captured their 36th-consecutive victory against NEFC rivals, and their 33rd-consecutive victory at home.
The Engineers (3-3, 1-2 NEFC Boyd) took an early 7-0 lead when senior running back Robert Utz cashed in from one yard out at 13:25 of the opening frame. Five minutes later, Curry (6-0, 3-0 NEFC Boyd) got a 26-yard field goal from sophomore Matt Alksninis to trim the deficit to 7-3.
Over the span of four minutes late in the first quarter and early in the second frame, the Colonels got back-to-back touchdown scampers (four and 16 yards) from junior running back Jamaal Woods to establish a 17-7 lead.
MIT cut the deficit to 17-14 on the first of two scores by junior running back DeRon Brown; the first covering 60 yards. Ultimately, the first half ended with a 31-20 Curry advantage after a 15-yard scoring run by junior fullback John Sughrue and a 36-yard pass from senior quarterback Ryan Van De Giesen to freshman wide receiver Norman Landry. Sandwiched between the two Colonels' touchdowns was a four-yard scoring pass from junior quarterback Rick Mancuso to Utz.
Curry stormed out to 59-20 lead with four second-half touchdowns from four different players. The Engineers only points in the second half came with 3:15 remaining in the contest on an eight-yard dash by Brown.
The Colonels tied a school record for total offense in a game with 665 yards (425 rushing, 240 passing). MIT amassed 339 yards (171 rushing, 168 passing). Curry held the edge in first downs, 33-17, and in time of possession, 35:22 to 24:38.
Van De Giesen finished 11-of-22 for 174 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Mancuso had 13 completions in 33 attempts for 168 yards with one TD and one interception. Senior running back Steve DiFabio paced the Curry ground attack with 112 yards on 18 carries. Brown led all rushers with 139 yards on 22 carries. Taylor had seven receptions for 94 yards, while senior wide receiver Kevin Vogelsang also had seven catches for a game-high 108 yards.
Defensively, Curry's effort was paced by sophomore defensive back Jason Ryan, who had a team-high six tackles (five solo). Junior linebacker Daniel Dawson contributed five tackles (three solo), including three tackles for loss. The Engineers were led by senior defensive back Steven Nunez, who amassed a game-high 11 tackles (10 solo) while adding an interception with an 18-yard return.


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Lloyd Banks Clowns On Shyne's Comeback & Diss Track To 50 Cent! "That Nicca Is Wack Right Now. He's Horrible" [Audio]
Shout out to NyzMostWanted
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Chicago Cops Drops This Kid Off In A Rival Gang Territory! "You Scared Now"
"The Chicago Police Department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating the video, which you can see in its entirety above"
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August 4, 2012
Music by the Hood River band Jamba gets an assist from maraca-playing sisters Caitlyn (7) and Jaclyn (3) FitzHenry of Redmond, at the first Fruit Festival at Streich's Orchards near Parkdale Saturday. The girls and their parent...s and grandparents disembarked Mount Hood Railroad at Streich's Park at Woodworth Road. Local vendors offered food, drink and handcrafts, and the Streich family sold cherries and gave tours of their adjacent cherry and pear orchard. The park abuts the tracks and has ample shade as well as sun, and views of Mount Hood. The park has been available for weddings and other private rentals, but this was the first public event hosted by the family. Hannah Streich said the family wanted to provide a venue for local vendors and local residents to gather..
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Here are pictures I took this morninghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/57543147@N04/sets/72157625646232707/
What the heck is that weird Santa doing in the Indian Orthodox church?? It looks like their at the altar, but surely not...
I don't think they are at the altar. They are cutting a Christmas cake, which I don't think is something you would find at an altar. Also, Indian altars, like Armenian altars, have steps on them ("gradines.") The table they are at is flat. It seems to be a post liturgy celebration of some sort.
What the heck is that weird Santa doing in the Indian Orthodox church??
Looks to me like the altar - and so what! They look like they've celebrated the Liturgy and are having a good time. Before we judge other cultures' aesthetic sensibilities we should first look at the impact in their faces. The joy of the Nativity is there to be seen. When people of other cultures do things with a sense of irony it seems to get lost on the "developed" world.
Photos of Orthodox Christian Nativity Celebrations Worldwide. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas mainly on 25th of December, 6th and 7th of January.2010/2011http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2011/01/orthodox-nativity-celebrations-worldwide-snaps/
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Hollywood is not the center of the cinema universe in film critic-historian Mark Cousins' acclaimed 15-hour documentary, "The Story of Film: An Odyssey," which has its U.S. television premiere Monday evening on Turner Classic Movies.
Cousins, 48, said he didn't want to make a film about show business or celebrity or box office. "I think I mentioned the Oscars twice in 15 hours," he said.
In fact, Cousins, who hails from Northern Ireland, looks upon the dream factory as less dream and more factory.


text: Dear all, I'm using ISPConfig 22.214.171.124 under Debian 6.0 (2.6.32-5-686) on my server. My problem is when I create a new mailbox (like [email protected]) then no directory will be created under /var/vmail/mydomain.com but if I send a mail from my PC the directory will be created automatically. It seems to me that the welcome message not sent by ISPConfig (since the directory will be created automatically once I send a mail to it). Another issue is when I delete the mailbox it will be deleted from my MySQL table but the joe directory will still remain under /var/vmail/mydomain.com. Can anybody advise something? Regards


text: I am new to this forum so apologies in advance if this is posted in the wrong place. At my workplace, we have 2 servers running Debian 6 and have another 8 machines running Kubuntu, mostly 11.10 and about to upgrade to 12.04 LTS. Most are 64 bit machines but one is a 32 bit machine (it is infrequently used to control a scientific instrument, and is overdue for an upgrade). What I would like to be able to do is to setup a local repository for Kubuntu and upgrade all the Kbuntu machines from that. I have installed apt-mirror and started playing with that. However I am still quite new to Linux and am not confident of getting it right. Is there any how-to here at HowtoForge on just how to achieve the setup of a local repository on one of our machines, not necessarily using apt-mirror; perhaps there is some other suitable tool, and then reconfiguring all the other computers to us that local repository? Is it possible for the repository to include both the i-386 and amd64 architecture files or do I need two separate repositories for that? If the latter, how then do I use them both? I am guessing a more comprehensive sources.list file would do the trick. Also is it possible for a local repository to be only a subset of the full distro based on the software we use here or does it have to be the full distro? If so, how do I restrict the repository to just the subset I want? Thanks in advance to those more knowledgeable than me. Any advice is very welcome. Cheers. Joe Aquilina


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|Birth Date:
|March 4, 1991
|Alabaster, Ala.
|High School:
|General Curriculum
Marcus emerged as one of the outstanding defensive players on the team and within the Ohio Valley Conference in 2010, and should be a leader in his junior season...the OVC leader in quarterback sacks as a sophomore...opened the year as a "Bandit" but moved to the "Bear" position and should see loads of playing time at the key position...has excellent quickness and exhibits an explosive pass rushing ability...runs to the ball well...brings good strength to the field through hard work in the weight room...made a career of being around the football during his high school career and has shown that same reputation in the first two seasons of his college career...physical and aggressive player who will stand out on special teams in kick coverage...received public commendation (along with teammate DeShawn Harris) from Cookeville and TTU Police Departments for helping to apprehend theft suspect during the spring...potential to be a post-season candidate for honors.
AT TECH (In 2010): Marcus saw extensive action
in all 11 games as a sophomore, including one start at Austin
Peay...made 15 solo tackles and assisted on 14 to finish with 29
total tackles...had 9.0 tackles-for-loss for 49 yards to rank
second on the team and 15th in the OVC...led Tech and topped the
OVC with 7.5 quarterback sacks for 46 yards...made career-high
seven tackles against eastern Illinois inluding 4.5 quarterbak
sacks for 31 yards...named OVC Defensive Player of the Week
following his efforts against the Panthers, and also receieved
National Player of the Week nod...had five stops against UT Martin
including three tackles-for-loss and two sacks...
(In 2009): Played in nine games as a true freshman...finished the year with 17 total tackles...career-best game included four tackles at Jacksonville State...had a quarterback sack and three tackles against Southeast Missouri.
HIGH SCHOOL: Marcus finished his career at Thompson High School with 530 total tackles and 20 quarterback sacks...also forced 10 fumbles during his prep days...as a senior he was an All-Region selection and named the All-County Iron Man Award winner...chosen the Pat Patricks Player of the Week on his way to 211 total tackles and 10 quarterback sacks...also forced six fumbles, made three interceptions, blocked five field goals and one punt...lettered in four sports, including football, baseball, basketball and track & field.
PERSONAL: The son of Morris Edwards and Lisa Kirkland...birthdate is March 4,1991...full name is Marcus Jameal Edwards...enrolled in general curriculum.


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1. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemMylenium Dec 18, 2011 5:15 AM (in response to grandill)
You're looking in all the wrong places... Check your footage interpretation rather than messing with the comp framerate and Twix' settings. And when you do, keep in mind that 24 fps is not the same as 23.97 fps or any of that, including fake reverse pulldown, fields and all that other stuff that figures in. Also set your interpolation settings in Twix to motion estimation or motion weighted blend. This gives much better results in most cases.
2. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemDave LaRonde Dec 18, 2011 4:35 PM (in response to grandill)
Here the important question: how MUCH are you making Twixtor slow the clip down?
2 times, or 50% speed? No sweat.
5 times, or 20% speed? That's getting dicey.
10 times, or 10% Speed? Fuggetaboutit.
Twixtor's good, but it can't work miracles.
3. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemgrandill Dec 18, 2011 2:09 PM (in response to Dave LaRonde)
So as the more fps the footage has, the better twixtor works with it right?? Still, isn't there a good slow motion program? I didn't had the time to verify the thing with interpretation but as soon as I'll see how it work I'll post some results.
Thanks for the help!
4. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemRick Gerard Dec 18, 2011 2:57 PM (in response to grandill)
Twixtor works great for many kinds of shots. If you're going to do slow motion and you are stuck with standard video (HD or SD) you should shoot interlaced at as high a frame rate as you can. Some cameras have the ability to shoot 60P, that's even better. Once you get past the 60p mark you are into the specialty gear and the sky is the limit there. Some guys have even invented a fancy camera array that shoots trillions of frames a second. Fast enough to see a particle of light.
That said, if I had some 1080i footage I'd separate fields, double the comp's frame rate, render to a 10 bit production codec, then drop that 59.97fps footage in a new comp and fire up twixtor. Providing there is the right kind of motion in the frames, Twixtor will do an amazing job of slowing down the footage. Try the same thing with 24P footage and you've got nothing but headaches.
5. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemgrandill Dec 18, 2011 3:18 PM (in response to Rick Gerard)
Yeah, I guess I'm stuck with the headaches, not to complain but, I shot some footage with the same camera and worked some slow motion in sony vegas 9 and it worked great. Here, in ae, everything I try only makes my footage look like it's shot through some marmelade or shot with a polaroid and the glued together. I can't believe there's no way to make some quality slow motion with a d90. I'll keep on searching. I appreciate your help.
6. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemRick Gerard Dec 19, 2011 4:55 AM (in response to grandill)
Have you gone through the tutorials on the ReVision site? If you're getting all kinds of weird results you've got something fouled up in the settings. How much of a speed reduction are you trying to do? Stretching 1 second to 10 is going to be tricky, but stretching 1 second to 5 should be doable unless there's an astounding lack of detail in your shot.
I'd love to see the shot you're trying to slow down.
7. Re: Twixtor slow motion problembogiesan Dec 19, 2011 9:20 AM (in response to Rick Gerard)
D90? A Caonon DSLR? Have you unpacked the MPG4 to frame-based codec first?
8. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemgrandill Dec 19, 2011 9:54 AM (in response to bogiesan)
Not be noobish but I don't really knew about it bogiesan and don't know how to do it. This is the video stock.
9. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemRick Gerard Dec 19, 2011 10:32 AM (in response to grandill)
How much do you want to slow this clip down?
10. Re: Twixtor slow motion problembogiesan Dec 19, 2011 10:58 AM (in response to grandill)
What is the source's codec?
You can be a noobie only for so long around here. Then you are forced by peer pressure to dive into the mechanics of what is a huge, deep, and ultra complex application. If you are trying to apply Twixtor to a i-frame codec like what normally comes out of a DSLT, H.264, every frame must be parinfully reconstructed from the keyframes. This takes about ten time as long as trying to aply Twixtor to a conventionally uncompressed codec.
11. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemgrandill Dec 19, 2011 1:25 PM (in response to bogiesan)
I applied the twixtor effect on a stock footage, not modified or compressed or anything. I just tried to do the slow motion on the stock footage and the apply some effects. If you have any links that explain the source codec I'd appreciate it. So what is your suggestion then? Should I apply a different codec? I'm a bit confused here.
12. Re: Twixtor slow motion problembogiesan Dec 19, 2011 1:31 PM (in response to grandill)
"Stock footage" is not helpful. That's like saying it's a Quicktime file. What codec is it? Exactly.
Once we know that, we have path. Until then, we're guessing and that's a waste of time.
13. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemgrandill Dec 19, 2011 1:51 PM (in response to bogiesan)
14. Re: Twixtor slow motion problembogiesan Dec 19, 2011 2:26 PM (in response to grandill)
Oh, my. I have no idea what gspot is or what it does. Just stick with the tools you have in AE.
And, just so you don't tell us it's an AVI, know that AVI is not a codec, it's just a wrapper, like Quicktime.
In an earlier post you claimed to be using footage from something called a d90. Are you or are you not?
> I can't believe there's no way to make some quality slow motion with a d90.<
Message was edited by: bogiesan
15. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemDave LaRonde Dec 19, 2011 2:43 PM (in response to grandill)
grandill wrote:
I can't believe there's no way to make some quality slow motion with a d90.
A NIKON D-90? Sorry, but you picked the wrong camera, bud.
According to my information, that thing shoots 720p 24 and nothing else, which is the worst frame rate you could get for slo-mo work. 25p would be the next-worst. There's only so much you can do to slow that stuff down before the image quality starts going down the toilet.
You would have stood a fighting chance at fairly good-looking slo-mo with with a Canon 7D, which at least can shoot 720p60. Just conforming video from it to 24p makes it 2.5 times slower. Combined with Twixtor taking it the speed down by a factor of 4, and you'd have video 10 times slower than normal.
But a 7D has its weaknesses, too: that stinky long-gop h.264 codec, for one. You'd have to convert the footage to a lossless codec before using it in AE.
16. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemDave LaRonde Dec 19, 2011 3:04 PM (in response to grandill)
I just got a good look at your screen grab, and you're headed for trouble.
You've set the speed in Twixtor to 3%! Three percent of normal speed, which would be 100%! That is more than THIRTY-THREE TIMES slower than normal!
And you're wondering why Twixtor doesn't come thorough like a champ? You're lucky to have any kind of image at all!
You want something that slow? Go rent a camera that's designed to shoot slo-mo. You're asking for the impossible.
17. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemgrandill Dec 19, 2011 4:19 PM (in response to Dave LaRonde)
I've tried with 50% speed and it has the same bad result. I didn't know I wouldn't manage some easy slow motion. The camera was borrowed from a friend because I don't have money for a 7D yet. Still to say that I've done in the past a slow motion with some videos filmed with this camera in sony vegas and managed pretty well. Didn't expect some outrageous result in ae but still, what kind of slow motion can I do? In the end nikon d90 it's not the worst camera in the world, it's just the first photo camera in the world that took video shots. I honestly do not know how to find out in AE what codec does the video use. I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge regarding this, I should've known more about footage information. I don't want so much slow motion, that was just a pure test, but I'll still try to make as much as possible out of this footage.
I really appreciate the help and your interest in this!
18. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemTaverino Dec 19, 2011 9:59 PM (in response to grandill)
Some of the best info on shooting for Twixtor:
19. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemRick Gerard Dec 20, 2011 8:09 AM (in response to Taverino)
I took a look at the footage and it looks like the frame rate is wrong. It's hard to tell because you put up an FLV file and didn't post the original footage. The FLV does not contain all of the frames and the frame rate doesn't match the movie because there are a bunch of repeated frames.
Here are a few thoughts.
- You shot with a DSLR so there are some rolling shutter problems that must be fixed to keep the car from distorting. There are plug-ins for that. Fix the rolling shutter problems (jello cam) first.
- You may have interlacing issues and 3:2 pulldown issues. Make sure that every frame of the movie is properly interpreted. You can do this by dragging the original clip into the new comp icon, then doubling the frame rate of the composition, then interpreting the footage as interlaced. If the footage is interlaced you'll see a different frame every time you advance one frame. If you see 2 or 3 different frames, then 2 duplicate frames, the footage has 3:2 pulldown. You must remove it. If, after you set footage interpretation to separate fields you only see pairs of frames, then the footage is truly progressive.
- Once you have the footage properly interpreted make sure that the interpretation is exactly copied to the appropriate fields in Twixtor and experiment with all the settings, isolate the background, and you should get acceptable results.
None of these suggestions will work if your footage is misinterpreted. If you want to post the original footage to You Send It or Dropbox I'll gladly take a look when I can.
20. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemmacuser88 Dec 29, 2011 7:38 AM (in response to grandill)
I just saw a great video comparing twixtor and adobe premier pro's applications for slowmo:
http://eduardoangel.com/2011/12/27/how-much-is-slow-mo-worth-twixtor-vs-adobe-premiere-pro -cs5/
A lot of people are still experiencing problems with twixtor, but once it is rendered it looks pretty damn good! Is anyone using other slowmo applications that might not be as expensive as twixtor?
21. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemDave LaRonde Dec 29, 2011 7:54 AM (in response to macuser88)
macuser88 wrote:
Is anyone using other slowmo applications that might not be as expensive as twixtor?
There might be, but I doubt it. The Magic Bullet slo-mo plugin also works well, but it's also in the same price range.
I started using AE with version 3.1. Magic Bullet and Twixtor were common then, and people are still recommending them; hence my doubt.
22. Re: Twixtor slow motion problembogiesan Dec 29, 2011 8:22 AM (in response to Dave LaRonde)
We've had great luck simply using the optical flow built into FCP and Motion.
The best way to get good slow motion is to shoot it using appropriate technologies like a camera that will shoot at least 90 frames per second. Difficult to convince an inexperienced producer but usually cheaper in the long run to rent or buy a suitable camera than to mess with pixel-mapping applications for days in post.These decisions must be made during the preplanning phase to make sure the footage from a rented camera will incorporate into the rest of the project's images. All pixel flow evaluation and interframe creation software requires excellent source footage and those specifications are rarely considered during shooting because the software is purchased after the primary shoting has been wrapped.
23. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemmacuser88 Jan 6, 2012 6:21 AM (in response to bogiesan)
http://eduardoangel.com/2011/12/27/how-much-is-slow-mo-worth-twixtor-v s-adobe-premiere-pro-cs5/
It seems that the slow motion editing in FCP is just ok. It is not as smooth as Twixtor in my opinion. In the link above, you can see how FCP's slow mo looks a bit choppy. Is it because the photographer was not shooting at 90 fps. It is shot with a Canon EOS 7D and I believe the highest that will go is 30 fps. What are some cameras that will shoot higher than this?
24. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemDave LaRonde Jan 6, 2012 8:04 AM (in response to macuser88)
Go to the Abel Cine web site at look at the Phantom Camera.
25. Re: Twixtor slow motion problemmacuser88 Jan 7, 2012 8:17 AM (in response to Dave LaRonde)
Thanks David...I have seen the Phantom in action before. Simply Incredible!


text:
A boy who turned to German officials nine months ago saying he had lived in the woods for years and didn't know his identity is Dutch, the ANP news agency said, Friday quoting police sources.
The teenager at the centre of a tale that last year captured the world's imagination is a 20-year-old from the northwestern town of Hengelo in the Netherlands, the report said.
He was identified after a Dutch woman called the authorities saying she had recognised the smiling teenager in photos that German police released to news outlets on Tuesday, asking for help in solving the case.
The Dutch police contacted their German colleagues and his identity was confirmed, ANP said.
Officials have not released his name and it was not immediately clear why he had left the Netherlands and how he ended up in Berlin, although people who had recognised him told Dutch television that he had had "personal problems."
On Tuesday police in the German capital sent a picture of a smiling blond teenager wearing a t-shirt and a gold necklace to news outlets asking for help in getting to the bottom of the mysterious story that began last year.
On September 5, 2011 a teenager showed up at Berlin city hall. Speaking English and just a few words of German, he gave his name only as "Ray" and his date of birth as June 20, 1994.
The boy was unable, or refused, to give his family name, birthplace or any other biographical information but said he had spent the last five years living in a forest with his father until he died suddenly in August.
Ray told police he had buried his father "in a hole in the forest underneath some stones" but, after "walking north for five days" to Berlin, could not explain how he had died or where authorities could find his body.
"A corresponding dead body has still not been found," police said in their statement on Tuesday.
Ray said his mother "Doreen" had died in a car accident, which he also did not remember, when he was 12 and that he assumed scars on his face were incurred in the crash.
After a brief stint with Berlin's emergency youth services, Ray was placed in an institution for assisted living and assigned a legal guardian.
Youth services and police had "great doubts" about the story he told and decided to publicise his picture asking for any information that could help them solve the case.


text:
MicroVolts is a free2play online multiplayer third-person shooter with dynamic cartoon style graphics. It includes deep customization options, tight controls, excellent gameplay mechanics, engaging social features, and impressive visuals.
MicroVolts characters come with a wide range of customization options. There are two female characters, one male human character and one male robot character, all of which can be further customized by their hair, face, top, bottom, hands and shoes, as well as with various accessories. Every player has the ability to create a character that represents their unique personality and style.


text:
South Africa v New Zealand, Port Elizabeth, August 20
All Blacks looks to heap woe on Springboks
ESPNscrum Staff
August 19, 2011
Stand-in skipper Victor Matfield will attempt to inspire a turnaround in fortunes for the Springboks © Getty Images
South Africa will look to breathe some life into their Rugby World Cup preparations against old foes New Zealand in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The Springboks are riding a run of three straight defeats in this year's Tri-Nations having seen their second string come up some way short against Australia and New Zealand on their overseas tour before a much strong line-up were beaten by the Wallabies on home soil last weekend. In contrast the All Blacks are unbeaten having crushed the Boks in Wellington before putting Australia in their place in Auckland.
South Africa require a return to form and quickly in what is their last outing before they kick off their World Cup campaign against Wales in Wellington on September 11. The squad is under increasing pressure and unless their big names hit their straps at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium they are in danger of beginning their World Cup defence out of form and stripped of confidence.
That is something that New Zealand are not short of having opted to rest many of their front line stars from this contest, well aware of the physical demands of the sport's showpiece event, and they know defeat here will still leave the Tri-Nations crown within reach. An 'under-strength' All Blacks line-up may offer hope to the Boks but they will be more worried about finding their own form before worrying about that of their rivals.
South Africa - Player to Watch: If the Springboks are going to find an extra couple of gears then fly-half Morne Steyn will need to set the tone. The Bulls playmaker also needs a big performance to make the No.10 shirt his own for the World Cup.
South Africa - Team News: The Boks have made five changes in the wake of their reverse to Australia last weekend. Steyn is recalled at fly-half at the expense of Butch James while back-row forward Willem Alberts, hooker Bismarck du Plessis and loose-head prop Gurthro Steenkamp all come back into the side to replace Danie Rossouw, John Smit and Tendai Mtawarira respectively. In the other change, versatile back Pat Lambie will start at fullback in place of the injured Frans Steyn.
New Zealand - Player to Watch: Fly-half Colin Slade has the ability to quash all those doubts about his ability to deputise for Dan Carter in the All Blacks' No.10 shirt but can he deliver in just his second start?
New Zealand - Team News: Skipper and openside flanker Richie McCaw is being rested, as is fly-half Dan Carter, with Adam Thomson and Colin Slade named in their place. Veteran hooker Keven Mealamu will captain the team for the second time in a Test. Jimmy Cowan is back at halfback, while in the forwards Liam Messam is at No.8, Sam Whitelock returns to lock alongside Ali Williams and John Afoa returns from his eye socket injury at tight-head prop.
Key Battle: South Africa need big performances from some of their big names including the second row duo of Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield who must master their Kiwi rivals, Sam Whitelock and Ali Williams, and provide on-field leadership if the Boks are to stop the rot.
Trivia: This is the first game the Springboks have played at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium that played host to the British & Irish Lions' 20-8 victory over the Southern Kings during their 2009 tour of South Africa.
Stats: Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis will appear in their sixteenth Test together as brothers, eight more Tests than Carel and Michael du Plessis between 1984 and 1989.
Quote Unquote:
"It's still the ultimate test for the Springboks, because New Zealand are almost always the best in the world, the team you measure yourself against."
"I think it's huge for them, this is the one they need to win or the pressure on them is just going to increase."
Prediction: South Africa are up against it and there can be no excuses this time around. Expect that pressure to trigger a return to form of sorts and a narrow victory against an untried but hungry-to-impress All Blacks line-up.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Communication error please reload the page.


text:
This winter has been a mild one in Addison County, but it has also seemed the harshest of the three Vermont winters I've experienced. As the days get longer, it's exciting to see a few signs of spring.
Don't get me wrong — the mild winter has been a benefit to many of Vermont's inhabitants. Warm weather and lack of snow has made things easier for those who faced damage during Tropical Storm Irene last summer, and has eased the financial situation of those struggling with high costs of heating. The lack of snow and relatively dry conditions also mean that a repeat of last year's spring thaw flooding is highly unlikely. Still, there are unique trials in dealing with what a friend has referred to as 'four months of November'. A mild winter in Vermont is still by no means warm, and it's been harder to keep active compared to last year when it was at times possible to cross country ski right from our porch. The brown, snowless fields also remind me of dry times in southern California, where drought, not cold, is the limiting factor to most forms of life.
While I'm still hoping for a late dumping of snow, I'm also looking forward to spring. This past week, temperatures rose above 50 degrees in much of the area, and for the first time in several months I was able to comfortably sit by the river in a light sweater. We enjoyed a downright warm walk up Chipman Hill in Middlebury and I even saw some snowdrops blooming in a front yard. Despite a cold start to this week, more spring-like weather is on the way, and even warmer temperatures are possible this Thursday.
As spring enters full swing, I look forward to the signs of the changing season - the songs of spring peepers and wood frogs, the emergence of spring ephemeral wildflowers, and that short spring period where the maple trees are painted pink by their newly emerging leaves. We may also be spared a nasty mud season due to the lack of melting snow, though deeply frozen ground in some areas may still cause problems as it thaws. By the time June rolls around I will be more than ready for warm nights of fireflies and distant lightning, and tentative dips in slowly-warming lake waters.
Perhaps it was the 'sameness' of our four subsequent "Novembers", more than anything that made this mild winter seem so long. As bird activity increases around me, and the first green shoots of early bulbs poke through the ground, I am reminded of my favorite part about spring: the promise of progression and change, and the anticipation of the landscape coming to life again.
Charlie Hohn is a recent graduate of the UVM Field Naturalist graduate program. He has been closely watching the weather ever since he was a child in southern California. Charlie will be posting occasional blog posts here about Addison County weather. He also maintains a blog about water at slowwatermovement.blogspot.com.


text:
Four into One
The four identical equilateral triangles can be
arranged together to make exactly the same equilateral triangle, only
bigger, just as shown in the upper left illustration.
The object is to arrange the four shapes shown in the center of the
illustration into the same shape as one of those shapes is, only
bigger. You are allowed to rotate and flip the shapes as you wish but
the pieces are not allowed to overlap in the final shape.
Move the pieces dragging them. To rotate/flip a piece over simply
click it - when the rotate mode is activated it will be rotated, when
the flip mode is activated it will be flipped over. To activate one of
the two modes click the respective button in the lower left part of
the illustration.
Use the Restart button to start the solving of the puzzle again.
Step Through:


text:
Seminars are scheduled at 10 Wisconsin locations for veterinarians who need to be certified or recertified to conduct caudal fold testing for bovine tuberculosis.
The training is required for veterinarians last certified in 2008, newly licensed veterinarians who plan to do TB testing, and others seeking certification in Wisconsin for the first time. The certification will be good until 2014. The training is free and pre-registration is not required.
Caudal fold testing, or CFT, is done only on cattle, bison and goats. Separate certification is required to do single cervical testing on deer.
The seminar schedule is as follows:
*La Crosse – Monday, May 23, 7-10 p.m., Days Hotel & Conference Center, 101 Sky Harbour Drive, Mississippi Room
*Belmont -- Wednesday, May 25, 7-10 p.m., Baymont Inn Conference Center, 103 W. Mound View Ave., conference center
*Oshkosh -- Wednesday, June 1, 7-10 p.m., University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Gruenhagen Conference Center, 208 Osceola Ave., Titan Lounge
*Eau Claire -- Wednesday, June 1, 7-10 p.m., Chippewa Valley Technical College, 620 W. Clairemont Ave., River Room 30A
*Barron -- Thursday, June 2, 7-10 p.m., Barron County Courthouse, 330 E. LaSalle Ave., auditorium
*Merrill -- Friday, June 3, 7-10 p.m., AmericInn, 3300 E. Main St.
*Hancock -- Saturday, June 4, 1-4 p.m., Hancock Agricultural Research Station, N3909 County Road V, office building
*Oconto Falls -- Saturday, June 4, 1-4 p.m., Oconto Falls Community Library, 251 N. Main St., meeting room
*Oconomowoc -- Saturday, June 11, 1-4 p.m., Oconomowoc Public Library
200 South St., Hiram A. Lyke meeting room
*Madison -- Wednesday, July 13, 1-4 p.m., Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, 2811 Agriculture Drive, board room
Wisconsin began requiring training and certification in 2005, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has since instituted the same requirement. The change was in response to an upswing in cattle TB cases nationwide at a time when most Wisconsin veterinarians have never seen TB, because the state was declared free of the disease in 1986.
About 630 veterinarians in Wisconsin are certified to do official TB testing.
For further information, call 608-224-4882, or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Source: Wisconsin DATCP


text:
Review Group Week 249 - HELLBOY DOUBLE FEATURE OF EVIL
Hey you! Reader! Want to be a part of the GREATEST COMIC BOOK AND GEEK COMMUNITY on the web?! Well, they're not accepting new members, but we'll take anyone here, so why not sign up for a free acount? It's fast and it's easy, like your mom! Sign up today! Membership spots are limited!*
*Membership spots not really limited!
Hey you! Reader! Want to be a part of the GREATEST COMIC BOOK AND GEEK COMMUNITY on the web?! Well, they're not accepting new members, but we'll take anyone here, so why not sign up for a free acount? It's fast and it's easy, like your mom! Sign up today! Membership spots are limited!*
*Membership spots not really limited!
by David Bird » Sun Nov 21, 2010 11:41 pmI hate scoring or grading or whatever. I think someone should just read the review and know how good you think it is, but... if I gotta, I gotta: 8.5. Not the greatest Hellboy story ever, but still a great Hellboy story.
by Daringd » Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:04 amLoved this book. I have been a fan of Hellboy for a while and when ever Richard Corben is on art I get excited. As usual he blew it out of the water. As for the story I really like the first one and was meh on the second. Overall 7.5/10
by David Bird » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:02 pmOkay, my question: What is the process for picking artistic collaborators?
Since Mignola restricted himself to covers, a lot of people have taken a turn at Hellboy--unlike B.P.R.D., where Guy Davis quickly established himself as the title's artist--who decides who will be given the opportunity? On what basis? How are they approached? Who have you wanted to see try, but haven't been able to get? Any chance Hellboy will be getting his own Guy Davis (who will take over the principle work)?
And that's one question!
by BlueStreak » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:07 pmMemory Review!
Comics like Double Feature of Evil show why the one-shot isn't entirely dead in comicdom. Mike Mignola shows it's possible to write a simple story with no reprecussions that's fun and enjoyable. While I generally read the Hellboy in trades, issues like this make me wonder if there's any other hidden gems that I'm missing. My only complaint is that the art isn't Mignola's as well. Although Corben does an admirable job with art, no artist can really live up to Mignola's interpretation of the characters.
Story: 9
Art: 8
Overall: 8.5
by BlueStreak » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:09 pmAlso, friendly reminder that the cutoff for questions is 9:30 PM, EST. I'll be assembling the questions after that.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:41 pmDavid Bird stole my question.
by ****** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:21 pmHellboy: Double Feature of Evil
Seeing as this was my pick, it should be pretty obvious that I love Hellboy. I tend to have lots of favorite comics, but Hellboy and B.P.R.D. in conjunction would have to be my favorite favorite. While the big sweeping epics filled with building continuity are amazing, it's nice to get one of these stand alone one shots once or twice a year just as a reminder that underneath all that destiny stuff is a damn fun character.
This being a double feature, both of these stories taking place in 1960 is just about the perfect setting and Hellboy investigating old B.P.R.D. cases always makes for fun comic booking. While in the first story we get a more complete telling from introduction to completion, in the second there's a bit more of a sense of being in progress. Both are equally quirky and fun be it a house buying souls by the coin or an Egyptian alligator deity taking offense to prayers made to a rival.
Every time I read a Hellboy comic with Richard Corben art I'm amazed at how he maintains his very specific and unique style but still blends it with the look Mignola established when he was the primary artist. When combined with Dave Stewart's always brilliant colors, it produces a delightfully weird result that is unlike anything else in comics.
As far as finding some little nitpick or gripe with this goes, I got nothing. It was a charming little comic that entertained me. That's the whole reason for reading these things, right?
Story: 10
Art: 10
Overall: 10
by ****** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:38 pmSo the questions are supposed to be specific to Double Feature of Evil, right?
Hurm, hard.
Mike, in a lot of the afterwords in the trade and library collections you've talked about the folklore and other inspiration for your stories. What was the primary inspiration for the house in Sullivan's Reward?
by ****** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:47 pm
As usual, Punchy speaks without knowledge.
Mignola is doing a series of Hellboy stories in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/201 ... 1_ST_N.htm
by Starlord » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:58 pmThis was a really good week, by the way. Really enjoyed the stories and it looks like nobody was really disappointed.
by Zero » Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:13 pmHellboy: Double Feature of Evil
Hellboy typically comes in two flavours. Big ol' epics with punching and shorter, more idiosyncratic stories. They usually feature punching, and we get two of them here.
I'd love to get a peek at Mike Mignola's library as I'm sure it's full of books which themselves are filled with wonderful little stories which themselves are filled with wonderfully odd situations which themselves are filled with delightfully creepy characters like Sullivan. The addition of Hellboy to these stories adds a layer of humour to the proceedings and his weary attitude towards the supernatural is a nice contrast to the mayhem around him, especially in the second story. Both stories have nice little ideas, but only the first off them really lingers afterward, the second feeling rather too familiar to really stand out.
Richard Corben is a great artist, and while I still miss Mignola's own stylish and shadowy art the rounder look provided here works well to see the slightly sleazy vibe the two 'villains' here need. The first story in particular gets credit for both the creepiness and the humour required for the coins and the dusty, sepia toned feel of both stories sell the time period we're playing in well.
One great Hellboy story and one perfectly serviceable one is as much as anyone can ask from a comic these days. There's nothing quite like these comics and I'm always grateful for the chance to read shorter stories like these.
For a question if I'm not too late:
What's your favourite piece of folklore that you haven't been able to fold into the Hellboy mythos?
For a different thing: Great way to send off Snowypoo, and a great way to get us all on side Streak.
by 48THRiLLS » Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:30 pmI got to my shop later than I normally do and they were out so I am skipping this week.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:36 pmHellboy: Double Feature of Evil
After the wordless intro simulating the camera panning into the old movie theater I was sold already, because I'm a big Hellboy fan but I'm an even bigger Richard Corben fan and seeing his take on Hellboy again is an automatic win right there.
The movie theater of the dead double-feature frames two "Tales From the Crypt"-type stories that feel like something straight out of the past, from EC Comics' early days, also informed by Corben's style.
This one-shot follows closely on the heels of the Hellboy/Beasts of Burden one-shot that was a solid ten for me. Only the fact that the second story felt a little slight to me, as though Hellboy were more a spectator in his own story, prevents me from giving this book a perfect score as well. It's a minor qualm though, so:
Do you think one-shots like this one and the Beast of Burden crossover can be read in isolation from the greater Hellboy continuity? In other words, if one is several trade paperbacks behind in one's Hellboy reading, can a person read these one-shots before they are caught up with the regular book?
by Greg » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:52 pmI plan to pick up the issue and review it, but one question I have: Any possibility of finally getting Caribbean based folklore, specifically Haitian folklore characters/stories showcased in one of your books?
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