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"Nonrigid Coregistration of Diffusion Tensor Images Using a Viscous Fluid Model and Mutual Information", IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 26, no. 11, pp. 1598-1612, 2007. Download paper (1.85 MB)
"Wavelet denoising of multicomponent images, using Gaussian Scale Mixture models and a noise-free image as priors", IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 1865-1872, July, 2007.
"Wavelet-based Multicomponent Image Restoration", Wavelet Applications in Industrial Processing V, part of SPIE Optics East, Boston, MA, United States, September 9-12, vol. 6763, October, 2007.
"Acquisition of the EELS data cube by tomographic reconstruction", Ultramicroscopy, vol. 106, no. 3, pp. 269-276, March, 2006.
"Chlorophyll retrieval from canopy reflectance over orchards using hyperspectral techniques", 2nd International Symposium on Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing, 25-29 September 2006, Torrent (Valencia), Spain, 2006.
"Enhancement of fMRI image series with the aid of an anatomical image", ISBI'06, IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging, Arlington, Virginia, april 6-9, pp. 1052-1055, 2006.
"Multi-channel coregistration of diffusion tensor images based on a viscous fluid model", Belgian Day on Biomedical Engineering - IEEE/EMBS Benelux Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, pp. 139-142, 2006.
"Multiscale white matter fiber tract coregistration: a new feature-based approach to align diffusion tensor data", 14th Scientific Meeting - International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Seattle, USA, pp. 437, 2006.
"Multiscale white matter fiber tract coregistration: a new feature-based approach to align diffusion tensor data", Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 1414-1423, 2006.
"Non-rigid coregistration of diffusion tensor images using a viscous fluid model.", 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology, Warsaw, Poland, pp. 191-192, 2006.
"Stress detection in orchards with hyperspectral remote sensing data", SPIE Remote Sensing, Stockholm, Sweden, september 11-14, vol. 6359, no. 38, September, 2006.
"Wavelet Denoising of multicomponent images using a Gaussian Scale Mixture model", ICPR'06, International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Hong Kong, august 20-24, vol. 3: IEEE Computer Society, pp. 754-757, 2006.
"Wavelet Denoising of multicomponent images using a noise-free image", ICIP'06, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Atlanta, Georgia, October 8-11: IEEE Signal Processing Society, pp. 2619-2622, 2006.
"Affine Coregistration of Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Images Using Mutual Information", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3708, pp. 523-530, 2005. Download full paper (1.26 MB)
"A Band Selection Technique for Spectral Classification", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 319-323, July, 2005.
"End point clustering for diffusion tensor white matter fiber bundle tractography", 22th Annual Scientific Meeting - European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology, Basle, Switzerland, pp. 129-130, 2005.
"Generic Wavelet-Based Hyperspectral Classification Applied to Vegetation Stress Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 43, pp. 610-614, March, 2005.
"Hyperspectral classification applied to the Belgian coastline", SPIE Remote Sensing, Bruges, Belgium, 19-22 september, vol. 5982, no. 15, 2005.
"Retrieval of oceanic constituents from ocean color using simulated annealing", IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS 2005, Seoul, Korea, 25-29 July, vol. 8, pp. 5651-5654, 2005.
"TRACT: Tissue Relative Anisotropy based Curvature Thresholding for deterministic MR diffusion tensor tractography", 22th Annual Scientific Meeting - European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology, Basle, Switzerland, pp. 289, 2005.
"Wavelet-based enhancement of remote sensing and biomedical image series using an auxiliary image", SPIE Optics East, 23-26 October, Boston, Massachusetts USA, vol. 6001, no. 5, pp. 41-52, 2005.
"Classification of Dune Vegetation from Remotely Sensed Hyperspectral Images", Image Analysis and Recognition Proc. of International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition, Porto, Portugal, Springer, pp. 497-503, 2004.
"Classifying hyperspectral airborne imagery for vegetation survey along coastlines", IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS, Anchorage, USA, 20-24 september, vol. 2, Anchorage, USA, IEEE International, pp. 1475-1478, 2004.
"Upscaling of spectroradiometer data for stress detection in orchards with remote sensing", SPIE Remote Sensing, Gran Canaria, 13-16 september, vol. 127, Maspalomas, Spain, SPIE, pp. 37-45, 2004.
"Wavelet Based Hyperspectral Data Analysis for Vegetation Stress Classification", Proc. of Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems, Brussels, Belgium, pp. 387-391, 2004.


text: Start the engines, turn on the lights, flip on the fan with quality switches. This Calterm quality Duck Bill switch is designed for numerous applications. The Off-On duck bill switch is made out of chrome and is extremely durable making it an ideal switch for varied uses. The duck bill has a wide, flat actuator and the terminal is ¼ inch. UL Listed and CSA Certified switch is designed for Indoor use.All switches come in a variety of styles and functions.

subset: commoncrawl


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Evernote is highly acclaimed here at Lifehacker, and I will admit, it's for good reason. It is a versatile program with a lot of useful features. However, after leaving and coming back to it (to give Whitson's suggestion a try), I've started realizing the reasons why I really don't like the program and why I generally don't open it in my day-to-day life, even though I have been storing so much data in it. This post is to share my thoughts and see if I'm not the only person who has had the same experience.
I'm a firm believer in choosing apps/services that, for whatever reason, you find yourself using a lot — not necessarily what is considered the "best" app/service or has the most features. It's different for everyone. Certain apps that aren't exactly critically acclaimed have actually been some of my most used ones because I just naturally find myself gravitating toward them.
Here are the reasons why I find Evernote actually inconvenient — and why I don't gravitate toward opening the app regularly and utilizing all the data I've stored in it.
Image Clipping
Clipped image notes are pretty inconvenient. If I just want to clip an image, I don't want it to show up in a word processing window whenever I open the "note." I would much rather view it like any other photo on my phone or computer would view in a photo viewing app — full screen, nothing in the way on the top and bottom, easily zoomable, all that jazz.
If I am going to create a notebook of images (eg. to view a list of desk design concepts for a building project), I would want to be able to view it like a photo album, with the ability to swipe between the next and previous image once I've selected one on a phone. Evernote is set up so that you have to press the Back button and then choose the next image/note every time.
PDF Clipping
PDF clipping also isn't all that great. If you want to open a clipped PDF, you have to open the note first, then the PDF. When I clip a PDF, all of my written or highlighted notes in relation to it are made in the PDF itself, not in a word processor window that lists the file as an attachment.
Ideally, viewing a PDF note should be like viewing a regular, typed Evernote note, minus the ability to edit the text. Maybe that means an option to import a PDF such that it can be reformatted to the best view for the current device screen.
List Making
It's been discussed for years now: bullet list support, the crux of note-taking, is pretty terrible in Evernote. To name a few gripes — indentation is unpredictable, you can't have double or special spacing between bullets, and there is no support for multiple bullet levels.
Audio Notes
Audio notes are so compressed that I have often found mine to be close to unusable. It's great that uploading space is saved from compression, but it goes too far for my uses, and there is no option to control audio quality. For my purposes especially, which often involve recording live music and spoken voice, that extreme loss of quality just doesn't cut it.
Instead of Evernote, I find myself just using iOS's Voice Memos as my audio-note-taking app. It's quicker, higher quality, and all of my audio notes — which are usually in the same category or similar anyway — are in one easy list that I can access with one tap. It doesn't sync wirelessly, though, which drives me crazy. (I am considering DropVox).
Evernote Premium Restriction
(This one isn't deterring me from using Evernote every day, but it is something that prevents me from utilizing it's full potential.) Even if I had the option of higher quality recordings with a premium membership, it wouldn't necessarily be all that useful, because Evernote Premium only gives you 1GB of uploading space. [EDIT: My bad, thanks for clearing this up, you guys. I do understand that it's 1GB *per month* as opposed to Dropbox, which is overall capacity based. I still think Dropbox is a way better deal, though.] Not to sound stingy, but if someone is going to pay for a service, it shouldn't still be so restrictive. (I am aware you can buy another GB once you're reaching the max, but it's not worth it to me — I would just buy Dropbox Premium, which offers literally 100 times the size Evernote Premium offers, for the same price as buying that one extra GB).
General App Format
I'm not sure what it is about the program, but I just can't seem to get used to the way it displays everything. The new update for iOS 7 looks so beautiful, but I still find myself glazing over all the information on the screen, wondering what I'm supposed to be looking for or doing.
Another huge reason I don't automatically open up Evernote to take notes is that the app, especially the Desktop version, is more "heavy-weight" than light-weight. I think that's why I barely open Wunderlist, as well, but I do constantly open nvALT/Simplenote.
The things listed above are the most common and important types of notes in my Evernote database — and they are all inconvenient to use. All of that to say, I just listed things that make me not gravitate toward Evernote. I'm not highlighting all the good stuff that the app has to offer, which I think is a lot. If it all works great in your experience, then I say good on you!
I'm not going to completely get rid of Evernote, but I am going to accept that it's just not the productivity app for me. I'll keep utilizing Dropbox and nvALT/Simplenote as my main productivity apps.
Comment with your good/bad experiences with Evernote.


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Mind-altering drugs could be as common as coffee within a couple of decades to boost performance at school and at work, to "unlearn"
addiction and to erase memories of distressing events such as a terrorist attack, according to a government think-tank.
Society may end up realising Aldous Huxley's vision of a Brave New World in which people take a supposedly perfect pleasure-drug, Soma - though the report shies away from discussing whether future governments will be tempted to encourage the use of "happy pills" for social control.
The Foresight think-tank points out that psychoactive substances have been part of society for thousands of years. It heralds the development of new recreational drugs, some of which might be less harmful than those already costing society around ?13 billion annually, mostly due to crime.
"We have not reached a ceiling for recreational drug use," it said.
"Psychoactive drug use may spread more across the life course and may become more common than is currently evident in middle-aged or even older age groups."
One of the team that produced the report, Drugs Futures 2025?, Prof Gerry Simpson, of Imperial College London, said: "If there is such a thing as Huxley's Soma, that really does raise crucial questions for governments around the world about how legitimately to regulate a substance like that."
Sir David King, the Prime Minister's chief scientific adviser, who led the think-tank, said: "We are on the verge of developments that could possibly move us into a world where we could take a drug to help us think faster, relax, sleep more efficiently or even subtly alter our mood to match that of our friends."
In addition to drugs that boost pleasure and sexual performance, the report raises the possibility of drugs that cause selective amnesia, for instance of a bomb attack, after the discovery that substances called beta blockers can reduce memories of stressful situations.
But the report warns that there are potential abuses of a tool that makes people forget, "examined in a number of films such as Total Recall or The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where characters are able to forget about painful relationships".
Other possibilities would be drug testing of children before they took exams to ensure that some did not cheat with cognitive enhancers, or "cogs".
"The ethical debate about whether or nor to use drugs to improve performance in normal schoolchildren and students will probably be resolved over the next 20 years," said the report. "Similarly, there will be continued debate about the ethics of using cognition enhancers in the workplace."
However, it added: "In a world that is increasingly non-stop and competitive, the individual's use of such substances may move from the fringe to the norm, with cognition enhancers used as coffee is today."
One problem raised by the report is that the pharmaceutical industry might change its focus from drugs that treat mental health to cognitive enhancers, "mental cosmetics" and treatments for addiction.
"The pharmaceutical industry may not make new medicines for mental health conditions," he said.
The report lists existing cognitive enhancing drugs, such as modafinil (Provigil), which was developed for sleeping disorders, and methylphenidate (Ritalin), a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Both are already being used to improve alertness and performance, including by students.
"Modafinil improves working memory, that is your ability to remember telephone numbers, to give you an extra digit or two, and improve your planning when you are tackling chess-like problems," said Prof Trevor Robbins of the University of Cambridge. "The drug makes you less impulsive and more reflective about a problem."
Sir David said yesterday that the findings of the think-tank were "independent of government and don't constitute government policy. It is for government to respond."
By Alfa · Jul 23, 2005 ·
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Prism key to music
It takes critically important performance venues like the Prism to keep traditional music alive. And these venues wouldn't exist without folks like Fred Boyce and Kenyon Hunter, who have, quite simply, dedicated their lives to this cause.
It breaks my heart to imagine how these alleged "dictators" must have felt seeing your "Prism Schism" story, as they went about their usual routine of mopping the floor, hustling meals and lodging for the artists, making and hand-distributing concert posters, negotiating future concerts on a shoestring budget, writing press releases, paying the utility bills, scrubbing the pots and pans, keeping the sound equipment in order, handling ticket sales, cleaning up after musicians, and doing the countless other unknown, unglamorous and uncompensated tasks necessary to keep this beloved institution afloat.
Jon Lohman
Virginia Folklife Program


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AudioRealm UpdatedTue, 29 Jun 2010 09:18:35 +0000
We have updated AudioRealm to the latest stable release, version 2010.5. This new version includes several enhancements and fixes for issues identified in the previous major release. Improvements in the new release include:
- Technology filtering: The player will detect which plugins your browser has available, and which streams are playable with your existing plugins. For streams which can not be played with your system's existing technology, the web site will provide suggestions and guidance to install the correct plugins.
- Better handling of non-working streams: The player will attempt to use additional streams for the station if default streams are not available.
We hope you will continue to enjoy outstanding internet radio from around the world with AudioRealm, and that these updates will enhance your listening experience.
If you have any feedback on the updates, or any other comments or suggestions, please feel free to post them on the AudioRealm forums.
The AudioRealm Team
AudioRealm UpdatedFri, 07 May 2010 14:07:44 +0000
AudioRealm has been updated to release 2010.03. This release ads many new features to the AudioRealm web site, and also includes significant improvements to some of our existing features.
The new features include:
- Customized auto-play: Registered users can now select a station to play automatically when they visit the AudioRealm site or log in. Users can choose between the current featured station, or any of their preset stations. To update your personal customization settings, click on your username at the top right once logged in.
- Customized station list: Users can customize the way the station list is displayed on the listen page. You can choose to show or hide station logos, the number of stations to display, show or hide listener statistics and show or hide inactive stations in your favorites list.
- Improved station browsing: The station browser on the listen page has been completely revamped. Visitors can now find stations in popular music genres with one click. The browser also has one click access to talk and sports stations, and to popular stations or new listings.
- Share stations with your friends: If you're listening to a station that your friends might like too, you can easily share it with them by clicking on the Share button on the AudioRealm player. You can post a direct link to the station on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, or have a link inserted in a ready-to-send e-mail.
We hope you'll enjoy these new features. Please post any feed back you have on the AudioRealm forum.
Thanks for listening!
The AudioRealm Team


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Global Pet Expo Video Recap - Cesar Millan
Cesar Millan, dog behaviorist and star of the television series, Leader of the Pack, debuted a line of pet products at Global Pet Expo 2013. The line embodies his philosophies for exercise, discipline and affection, and adds to his Dog Whisperer branded pet care line. The Brights Line of pet accessories was inspired by contemporary fashion trends and retains Millan's emphasis on functionality. The line combines fashion-forward colors with functional designs.
Millan also debuted the Pro-Form Dog Treadmill, which allows pet owners to train their dogs from the comfort of their home. It features iFit Techonolgy, which uses a wireless Internet connection to deliver specialized training programs voiced by Millan to owners and their pets. The different workouts for all types of dogs offer tools, tips and inspiration to lead dogs to healthy, happy lives.


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Dead Bride Costume Photo 3 of 7
Rate this costume:
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This homemade costume for girls entered our 2012 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Will, the 'Dead Bride' costume creator:
This is my daughter Cory. She is a dead bride. We started by making a mouth piece for her out of liquid latex and toliet paper. We stitched it with black string and then applied... Read more »


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Qualifying RPS Market States (Saskatchewan, Canada)
Last modified on February 17, 2013.
EZFeed Policy
| Saskatchewan, Canada
|Applies to States or Provinces
|Saskatchewan, Canada
|Qualifying RPS Market States (Saskatchewan, Canada)
|Policy Type
|Renewables Portfolio Standards and Goals
|Affected Technologies
|Biomass/Biogas, Concentrating Solar Power, Energy Storage, Energy Storage, Geothermal Electric, Hydroelectric, Hydroelectric (Small), Solar Photovoltaics, Wind energy, Energy Storage
|Active Policy
|Implementing Sector
| State/Province
|Primary Website
|Applicable Jurisdiction
| Out-of-state RPS
This entry lists the states with RPS policies that accept generation located in Saskatchewan, Canada as eligible sources towards their Renewable Portfolio Standard targets or goals. For specific information with regard to eligible technologies or other restrictions which may vary by state, see the RPS policy entries for the individual states, shown below in the Authority listings. Typically energy must be delivered to an in-state utility or Load Serving Entity, and often only a portion of compliance targets may be met by out-of-state generation. In addition to geographic and energy delivery requirements, ownership, registry, and other requirements may apply, such as resource eligibility, generator vintage and capacity limitations, as well as limits on REC vintage. The listing applies to RPS Main Tiers only, and excludes solar or distributed generation that may require interconnection only within the RPS state. This assessment is based on energy delivery requirements and reasonable transmission availability. Acceptance of unbundled RECs varies. There may be additional sales opportunities in RPS states outside the Eastern Interconnection. REC prices in markets with voluntary goals (North Dakota, South Dakota) may be lower.
Authorities (Please contact the if there are any file problems.)
|Authority 1:
| Minnesota RPS
|Authority 2:
| North Dakota RPS
|Authority 3:
| South Dakota RPS
|Authority 4:
| Wisconsin RPS


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The protagonist of this video has had it rough lately. He wakes up in a strange world, with strange creatures. He loses his brother. He seems to be hallucinating, fighting for survival.
In part three of this real-life vision of the Minecraft universe, the situation seems to go even more awry. Watch what happens in this desperate man's continued struggle in the latest episode you see above.
The video's recap does a fairly good job to keeping you up to date, but be sure to watch the other two if you want the full experience.


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Is atheism predicated partially on the belief in evolution and the current prevailing views of science.
If so, then such a belief is subject to drastic changes as discoveries and theories
have recently arose that shatter the paradigm that is the foundation of such a belief:
Discoveries keep pushing back the inception of civilization, indefinitely back in time
Evidence of coastal civilizations existing during the ice age are arising in now inundated coastal region due to rising seas.
The concept of a missing link is no longer postulated as a bush of hominids lineages walked the earth. With what was once considered ancestors, actually being contemporary with postulated descendants. A bush of hominids actually existed as recently as 30,0000 B.C.E.
Though theories of evolution abound no working scientific model exists for the emergence of life.
Our very existence is interwoven with the anthropic principle. As such this has required scientist to postulate the multiverse to explain how the anthropic principle is mindlessly satisfied by nature. However this just substitutes one unfalsifiable believe for another.
In truth, Darwin's world has been shattered and the truth has become intractable. Even as we cope with dark matter and energy. Terms that falsely connote that we have defined them, when in fact they are no more apparent than God. As such new scientific theories continue to emerge based on the inadequacy of the standard model. This will continue into infinitum since, as God there is no means to detect these alleged entities with scientific instrumentation.
Views: 4659
"loosen the bands of the seven sisters" meaning what?
leviathan… you mean giant squid?
The constellation of Pleiades consists of seven stars that are bound by a gravitational aggregate. Leviathan is a metaphor for a strong nation or kingdom. Just as Behemoth was a metaphor for Egypt. It would be the Roman Empire past and future or its precursor in history.
From the biblical meaning, because that's the context it was used in.
"Leviathan is a metaphor for a strong nation or kingdom. Just as Behemoth was a metaphor for Egypt. It would be the Roman Empire past and future or its precursor in history."
That would be YOUR interpretation of the ramblings of whatever lunatic wrote the book of Revelations, either certifiably insane, high on peyote, or both.
It's really hard for any of us to put much stock in the ramblings of a lunatic, interpreting the ramblings of yet another lunatic - sorry, Charlie --
Michael, that is irresponsible to say. You can't even try to say that because this is not a text which scholars have a consensus on. What you are doing is guessing.
Some commentaries say it is a Nile crocodile. Ken Ham says they are dinosaurs. You can't definitively say they are for sure Rome and Egypt! And I don't know of one commentary that does... If you want a more general view, try this: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&artic... It most likely was a set of mythical creatures that the Jewish people believed in, but I date Job post-exilic. It has words in it that didn't appear until much later I have been told by a Hebrew language expert.
If I were to venture a wild guess - and that's little different from what Michael is doing - I would suspect that as Canaanite sailors, who were known as the Phoenicians by the Greeks and other cultures with which they traded surrounding the Mediterranean, brought home the same sea monster stories as did their Viking counterparts.
The fact that Leviathan is never described in any great detail, means to me that it was never seen.
You'd be the knuckle-dragging Michael that your posting buddy, the smart Michael, described to us --
Tell me Michael, which Pharaoh would that be? The unnamed Pharaoh that the fictitious Abram went to see, and told his wife was his sister? Or the unnamed Pharaoh that fictitious Abe's fictitious son, Issac, visited, telling him that his wife was his sister? Or the unnamed Pharaoh to whom the fictitious Joseph became his right-hand man, though there's no record of Joseph in any Egyptian archives? Or the unnamed Pharaoh the fictitious Moses ran away from, though there's no historical record of any mass Jewish exodus from Egypt?
Interesting, don't you think, that no one at the time seemed to know the names of any of these all-powerful Pharaoh's, rulers of a vast empire?
These smug dismissals of the biblical record have now been thrown into disarray by David Rohl's revolutionary new book. Without any religious axe to grind, Mr. Rohl has launched an all-out assault on the authenticity of accepted Egyptian chronologies, and a vitally important by-product of that as sault has been the discovery of new archeological evidence that substantiates the Old Testament narratives about the birth of Israel.
Rohl's basic point is that scholars have been looking for the archeological evidence of the Israelites in the wrong place, because they have been relying on flawed Egyptian chronologies.
Before proceeding to consider Rohl's astounding discoveries, let's pause for a moment to consider how ancient peoples dated events. The system they used is what scholars call "regnal dating." That means they dated events to the regnal years (the reigning years) of a monarch. Thus, Egyptian inscriptions tell us that the Battle of Kadesh took place in "year 5 of Ramesses II." This same dating system is used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. For example, in 1 Kings 14:25-26 we are told that the Egyptians looted the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in "the fifth year of King Rehoboam."
Now, how do scholars end up assigning a date of 1275 BC to the Battle of Kadesh or 925 BC to the plunder of Solomon's Temple? They arrive at these dates by counting the sequence of regnal years backwards from the birth of Jesus. But, this is not as simple as it sounds. The task is complicated by incomplete records, co-regencies (a father and son reigning together), parallel dynasties (two or more competing kings reigning at once), and interregna (periods when there is no monarch at all).
The biblical records present all these problems. Let me give you an example. If you were to go through the Hebrew Scriptures and add up all the years each monarch of the northern kingdom of Israel reigned, you would come out with a total of 245 years. But we know that the northern kingdom lasted only 209 years, from 931 to 722 AD. Why the difference? Because of co-regencies and parallel dynasties.
The traditionally accepted Egyptian chronology is full of these problems. Look for a moment at the chart to the right. Note the three "Intermediate Periods." These are time periods when there was no central controlling dynasty in Egypt. Instead, there were several dynasties reigning at the same time, all claiming sovereignty over the whole land, but in fact ruling only portions of the territory, like regional war lords.
The Egyptian chronologies are especially plagued by incomplete data. There are inscriptions that give long lists of pharaohs, but the lengths of their reigns are either omitted or else the numbers have been obliterated over time. The result is that guesses have to be made as to how long they reigned and whether each one's reigning period was solitary or shared.
Rohl's contention is that many bad guesses have been made, and he presents a mountain of evidence much of it rather recently discovered to make his point. In the process, he resorts to incredible (and often very tedious) detective work to prove that major errors have been made in compiling the Egyptian chronologies.
Rohl concludes that the Third Intermediate Period is "artificially over extended." He argues that it should be shortened by 141 years because of parallel dynasties. He then presents a convincing case for lengthening the Second Intermediate Period by 219 years.
These and other adjustments result in a shift of 345 years for the beginning of the 19th Dynasty, from 1295 BC in the traditional chronology to 950 BC in the New Chronology. (See the "Close-up Chart" below.) This is a very significant shift because the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty was Ramesses II. This means Ramesses ceases to be the pharaoh of the Exodus and becomes, instead, the pharaoh who sacked the Jerusalem Temple in 925 BC.
But how can this be when the Bible specifically states that the pharaoh who plundered the Temple was named Shishak (1 Kings 14:25-26 and 2 Chronicles 12:2-9)? Traditionally, this name has been identified with Pharaoh Shoshenk I, the founder of the 22nd Dynasty. But in one of the most fascinating chapters of the book, Rohl shows that pharaoh's had both reginal names and nicknames (called hypocoristicons). The royal name of Ramesses II was Usermaatre-Setepenre Ramessu-Meryamnn. But his hypocoristicon was Sisah, which transliterated into Hebrew, becomes Shishak. Further, Rohl proves that Shoshenk's military campaign into Israel never touched Jerusalem whereas the records of Ramesses' campaign specifically states that he plundered Shalem the ancient name of Jerusalem.
Rohl makes two adjustments in the traditional biblical chronology. The first is one that Evangelicals will have to wrestle with. He shortens the sojourn in Egypt from 430 years to 215 years, which results in the date of the Exodus shifting from 1250 BC to 1447 BC. (See the "Close-up" chart).
The length of the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt has traditionally been set at 430 years because of Exodus 12:40 which reads as follows: "Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years."
From this passage, the length of the Egyptian sojourn seems to be indisputable. But, Rohl points out that our modern translations of this passage are based on the Masoretic text which dates from the 4th Century AD. Rohl shows that there are three more ancient versions of this text and that all three state that the 430 years was from the time the Hebrews entered the land of Canaan, not Egypt.
The three older sources are The Septuagint (the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in about 280 BC), the writings of Josephus (who quotes the verse in his First Century AD writings, stating that he is quoting from Temple documents), and The Samaritan Version of the Torah (which dates from the 2nd Century AD). The Septuagint version reads as follows: "And the sojourning of the children of Israel, that is which they sojourned in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (Chapter XV:2) puts it this way: "They [the Israelites] left Egypt in the month of Xanthiens, on the fifteenth day of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen years only after Jacob removed into Egypt."
It appears that in the compilation of the Masoretic text, the phrase "and in the land of Canaan" was dropped either because of a scribal error or because of an exercise in interpretation.
There are other passages in the Hebrew Scriptures which provide clues that substantiate the revised Exodus date of 1447 BC. These are noted on the "Close-up" chart.
The second adjustment Rohl makes in the biblical chronology is to lengthen the time of the wilderness wanderings, the conquest of Canaan, and the period of the Judges from 220 years to 417 years. This adjustment does not raise any biblical problems since it corresponds to dating clues in the biblical narrative (see 1 Kings 6:1 and Judges 11: 26).
Now, with these adjustments having been made (see the "Close-up" chart), archeologists who believe in this New Chronology have suddenly started making some astounding discoveries all because they are looking in the right places for the first time.
For example, according to the New Chronology, the pharaoh of the Exodus becomes Dudimose at the end of the 13th Dynasty. The history of Egypt written by the High Priest Manetho in the Third Century BC contains this remarkable observation: "In his reign [Dudimose], for what cause I know not, a blast of God smote us..."
Could this be a reference to the plagues of Moses? Excavations dated to the revised time of Dudimose (mid-1400's BC) reveal "plague pits" where hundreds of bodies were thrown one on top of the other.
Recent excavations of Tel ed-Daba, located in the Nile delta area and referred to in the Bible as the land of Goshen (Genesis 45:10 and 47:27), have revealed it to be the ancient city of Avaris. An examination of the tombs in this area has produced the startling discovery that the people who populated the area were from Palestine and Syria. Rohl believes these were the children of Israel. Another interesting discovery is that the area has a much higher percentage of infant burials than what has been found at other ancient archeological sites. Rohl believes this is due to the Egyptian slaughter of the Israelite infant males at the time of the birth of Moses.
As further evidence of a significant Jewish presence in Egypt, Rohl points to a tattered papyrus scroll in the Brooklyn Museum (scroll #35.1446). It has been dated to the reign of Pharaoh Sobekhotep III who held power a generation before the birth of Moses, according to the New Chronology. The scroll fragment contains a copy of a royal decree which authorizes the transfer of ownership of a group of slaves. Over half the names of the slaves listed in the document are Semitic, including such common Hebrew names as Menahem, Issachar, and Asher. The bible tells us that prior to the birth of Moses, the Israelite population was subjugated into slavery by a pharaoh "who did not know Joseph" (Exodus 1:8).
Perhaps the most amazing revelation to be found in Rohl's book relates to Joseph. The excavations at Tel ed-Daba (Avaris in Bible times) have revealed a large Egyptian-style palace dating from the early 13th Dynasty (see the "Close-up" chart). Rohl concludes that this must have been the retirement palace of Joseph, built in the midst of his people.
In 1987 the excavators began to uncover a large pyramid-style tomb adjacent to the palace. They discovered that the tomb had been carefully emptied in antiquity. There was no evidence of the ransacking that characterizes the work of grave robbers. Further, they discovered the head of a very large statue of the man who had been buried in the tomb. The head is most unusual in that it displays very un-Egyptian type features like a mushroom shaped coiffure or wig. The figure is also clean shaven. Most remarkably, this person is wrapped in a coat of many colors!
Rohl concludes that this is a statue of Joseph, and in the process, he reminds the reader that before Joseph died, he made the sons of Israel swear that when they returned to Canaan, they would take his bones with them (Genesis 5:4-25). We are told in Exodus 13:19 that when the Exodus began, Moses ordered that the bones of Joseph be taken with them. And in Joshua 24:32, we are told that Joseph was reburied in Shechem, which is located in the hills of central Israel, in the area called Samaria.
I said the discoveries relating to Joseph were "perhaps" the most amazing related to the New Chronology. The reason I qualified that statement is because Rohl points out that a review of ancient documents, using the New Chronology, may have produced letters referring to David as well as letters written to the Egyptian court by King Saul of Israel!
The documents, known as "The Amarna Letters" were discovered in Egypt in 1887. They proved to be the "House of Correspondence" of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. They exist in the form of 380 cuneiform tablets and they mainly consist of letters sent to the pharaoh by foreign kings.
Now, no one has ever searched these tablets for letters from the United Monarchy of Israel (Saul, David and Solomon) because, according to the conventional chronology, Akhenaten (late 18th Dynasty) lived and died long before the United Monarchy of Israel was established. But the New Chronology places Akhenaten at the beginning of the reign of Saul.
So, Rohl went to these documents with the expectation of finding correspondence from the new Hebrew kingdom an expectation no one else had ever had. The first thing he ran across were letters from city-state rulers of Palestine that contained copious references to a group of marauders called the "Habiru." These references are obviously speaking of Hebrews, and they have always puzzled scholars because the conventional chronology placed these letters a century before the Exodus. But the New Chronology places them during the reign of King Saul when David and his mighty men kept alive by pillaging the countryside. Rohl concludes that these letters relate to David and his soldiers of fortune who hired themselves out as mercenaries.
Rohl's second discovery was a series of letters written by a King Labayu of the hill country north of Jerusalem. His name means "Great Lion of Yaweh." Rohl believes this was the true name of King Saul and that Saul was his hypocoristic name (nickname). Rohl reviews the letters in detail to show that they describe events that parallel incidents during the reign of Saul.
These remarkable letters some by Saul and some by his son, Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 2:8) contain references to Ayab (Joab, commander of David's forces) and also to Benenima, Dadua, and Yishuya. Rohl concludes from what is said in the letters the Benenima is Baanah, one of Israel's tribal chieftains who later assassinates Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 4). He concludes that Dadua is David and that Yishuya is David's father, Jesse (Yishay in Hebrew). The evidence he presents in behalf of these conclusions is fascinating and convincing.
So there you have it — the New Chronology producing evidence all over the landscape that substantiates the biblical records concerning the origins of the Jews, their formation as a nation in Egypt, their exodus and wanderings, and their conquest of Canaan. The evidence has been there all along, but it has been invisible because of flawed Egyptian chronologies.
Remember Kathleen Kenyon's conclusion that Jericho was destroyed at least 200 years before the Israelites entered the land? Well, she was right when relating the destruction to the conventional chronologies. But the New Chronology has the Jews entering the land at least 200 years earlier, precisely at the time that Jericho was destroyed!
I urge you to read Rohl's book for yourself. You will find it to be a faith building experience.
The Discovery Channel has recently made the BBC television adaptation of the book available to the public that run a total of 150 minutes. It comes in an attractive slip case box and can be ordered by calling 1-800-938-0333.
Ahh - proof positive that the ancient art of Copy/Paste rules again!
RE: "They arrive at these dates by counting the sequence of regnal years backwards from the birth of Jesus. But, this is not as simple as it sounds."
I'm sure that's true. Rohl makes the dates more accurate by counting backward from the birth of a man for whom there is no historical record whatever. That makes sense.
What I'm getting from this, is that every time a date didn't fit Rohl's needs, he warped, twisted and mashed it until it did. Good to know.
Whoops, here we have a date that doesn't say what we want it to say - well, we'll just keep looking until we find something with a date that does, then we'll make up an explanation as to why THIS date is the real truth, and toss everything else --
And no, you're not knuckle dragging Habilis - knuckle dragging Habilis isn't even bright enough to KNOW that he's knuckle dragging Habilis. (Your cry of the great bull ape needs work too --)
I really do hope you are feeling better after your little purge - a pat on the head is needed, I know - TA should be charging you for all the fabulous information, insight and wisdom being imparted to you - free of charge - how good is that.
I give you an A++ for the ability to Copy/Paste - you have passed that exam - Bravo you. Do you think you could find evidence concerning my lovely White Unicorn - I really would be pleased.
Bad Juju might still happen, there is a very long list of ugly things that 'could' happen just because of global warming, but this not seem mentioned by/during Michael's tirades. Maybe 'blowing smoke out his..' while mildly alarming, does not rise to the level of 'get your bucket list finished'. Motivating I or others to 'be saved' is not really working, and the people I would have to share the stage with during my 'saving', would be more nutty than spice cake!
As Michael has many times, tangentially mentioned, the 'sky is falling'. But maybe the fall is only in the eyes of extremists, mostly. I take a more balance approach, 'things change, like the weather, sometimes you are the bug, other times the windshield'. I hope to live a kinder life even than this, but I have no guarantees...
@James Cox - why did you delete your poem? I had a great response, which I refuse to waste, despite its absence:
I haiku too!


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The Cubs released LHP Nate Robertson because he was basically horrible this year, going 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA in 14 games in Iowa.
The subsequent move was signing Shane Lindsay and assigning him to AAA Iowa. Lindsay might be familiar to Chicagoland baseball fans as he pitched last year in the White Sox organization. He was named to the International League All-Star team with the AAA Charlotte Knights. Lindsay was 2-2 with a 1.98 ERA and four saves in 45 games at Charlotte. He also got some time in the bigs last September when the White Sox called him up, though it was limited (4 appearances). He was released by the Dodgers earlier this month.
Thanks for reading,
– George


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Tag Archives: centrepiece
Thanksgiving Pumpkin Centrepiece
What's better than relaxing at the cottage? What's better than Thanksgiving dinner? When you have them both together! Even though I was crazily working on my IB extended, I managed to take a break to do some flower arranging during … Continue reading
Posted in DIY Tagged arranging, centrepiece, DIY, flower, pumpkin, thanksgiving 1 Comment


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NOTE: I wrote this a few weeks ago, sent it to some movie website that blew me off. Here it is anyway:
Star Trek Into Darkness opened to a four-day domestic weekend of some $80 million. This is a staggering amount of money, yet the movie was characterized as underperforming. Into Darkness did record business overseas (for Star Trek), but its emphasis in fast-moving action after months of hype-through-secrecy left core Trekkies mumbling the Vulcan proverb, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."
In college I took a film theory class during which I asked the professor if it was true that movies today (circa 1996) had too many close-ups, because directors were familiar with television and music videos. The professor responded with one of the guiding principles of my life: "That may be true, but I try not to beat up on historical change."
Which is to say, the point of this essay is not to complain about blockbuster Hollywood filmmaking, which cheapens our culture with its relentless violence, stupidity and ideological reinforcement. (Hollywood preaches social liberalism—tolerance of different peoples, which broadens audiences—and economic conservatism, so as to tell each and every one of us we are special and we must pursue our individuality…with the help of some products by the sponsors.)
That is, of course, true. But more interesting are the problems inherent in creating and maintaining "franchises," as they are called (not "movies" anymore; certainly not "films"). Hollywood studios used to produce an array of small-, mid- and large-budget pictures, but today only one truly interests them: the franchise, promising huge grosses (and merchandising) in predictable, repeatable intervals.
It makes sense—it's not just the cost of the movie, but the marketing, and nothing beats brand awareness. The trend toward franchises has occurred, like everything, because of technology: digital effects have allowed superpowers to be rendered in photorealistic detail.
And yet we may have reached a moment of "Peak Blockbuster" in which it is mathematically impossible to improve upon record grosses (Avatar, The Avengers)—at least until they invent $50 tickets with direct-brain stimulation. The word "porn" is thrown about nowadays—superpower porn, action porn, explosion porn. These movies have all of that, even "emotion porn"—teary payoffs at proscribed moments (often, the main character expresses his love for Daddy), finely tuned by script consultants and test screenings.
Like previous trends in spectacle that fizzled out—'50s CinemaScope spectaculars and '70s disaster films—the current wave of geek franchises will collapse under their own weight. Box-office prognosticators will compare worldwide box-office hauls against ever-rising production and marketing budgets, and wonder, what went wrong?
"Franchise fatigue" has been used to characterize specific properties that have withered, but I would apply it to the entire phenomenon.
This essay is about why.
One of the truths of existence is diminishing returns—the second candy bar does not taste as good as the first. If any franchise is suffering diminishing returns, it is Star Trek, now on its 12th feature film, after five live-action TV series and one animated one.
Star Trek Into Darkness contains some of the most breathtaking spectacle ever realized of the Star Trek universe—stuff that Trekkies could only dream about in the days of paper-maché sets and spaceship stock footage.
And yet, Star Trek was never about the FX. The secret of its success is its optimistic future and, more than that, its detailed, comforting universe—Starfleet is nothing if not in loco parentis. In Star Trek, the human characters might as well be robots, but the alien (or android) characters are versions of human children, learning how to be adults: Spock coping with his emotions, Worf with his aggression, Data with socialization. The stories unfold like morality tales for radio, not cinema—the FX is mere icing on the cake.
But it's a very old cake. The series' first unsold pilot, "The Cage," was produced in 1964—nearly fifty years ago.
Much has been made of the Star Trek's prescience in anticipating technologies such as cell phones and CAT scans, racial harmony and the end of the Cold War (with a Russian serving on the bridge)—but other aspects have dated horribly. The show is 19th century colonialism in space, uncomfortably translating white Americans to the Starfleet heroes, with blacks/Jews/Asians/everyone else cast as the aliens. And everybody speaks English—not really, thanks to the "universal translator," but is that bullshit or what?
On a level of plausibility, in 1964 there was still a reasonable expectation that mankind would travel in spaceships to other worlds. Today, it is complete fantasy. This is a major distinction.
Movies are not reality; as William Goldman pointed out, they must not be real so much as believable. But believability comes from the real world; when science fiction is exposed as bogus science, and historical assumptions are proven wrong (today's threat is Global Warming, not the Cold War—ourselves, not the Other), the stories built on those foundations transform from plausible to mythical—like Star Wars (more on that below).
Star Trek is a vision of the future created two generations in the past. It has been updated successfully once—when Star Trek: The Next Generation stumbled upon a variety of episodes dealing with postmodern notions of identity via memory and perception (all those Holodeck and mind-fuck episodes)—but is otherwise treading water.
Star Trek cannot be changed because then it is not Star Trek; but as Star Trek, it is stuck in the past and no longer relevant. (As J.J. Abrams and his colleagues have learned, if you change a button the bridge, you had best be prepared to incur Trekkies' wrath.) Pull on its threads and it makes no sense. Why are all aliens humanoid with bumpy foreheads? (Because there are no aliens in the Screen Actors Guild, the producers used to joke.)
Star Trek is not the only franchise to be nearing the half-century mark.
The first James Bond movie (Dr. No) was in 1962—the books started in 1953. Their setting is the Cold War; recent films have paid lip service to Bond as a relic, trying to hang a lantern on his anachronism.
Marvel's key characters were created in the early 1960s: the Fantastic Four (1961), Spider-Man, the Avengers and the Hulk (all 1962), Iron Man and the X-Men (1963), Daredevil (1964); Wolverine (a great character) came relatively late (1974). Back then, nuclear radiation caused wondrous and fantastic superpowers—not cancer.
Captain America was created even earlier (1941), competing with the earlier wave of DC superheroes like Superman (1938) and Batman (1939).
What else? Planet of the Apes (newly rebooted by 20th Century Fox) was filmed in 1968, from a 1963 French novel.
Indiana Jones began in 1981—famously a mélange of 1930s serials and 1950s B-movies like Secret of the Incas and Valley of the Kings.
We watch Mad Men and chortle at the sexism and political incorrectness, absolving us of responsibility for their legacy. And yet almost all of our beloved franchises were created in that pre-Civil Rights, pre-gender equality, and certainly pre-Internet mindset.
There is, of course, everything to be said for reinventing a story. Especially in pop storytelling, one always pours old wine in new bottles. Superman, the oldest of the superheroes—a Depression-era, Jewish immigrant power fantasy—flourished on radio in the 1940s, on television in the 1950s, and on the big screen in the late 1970s and early '80s.
Batman, the vigilante superhero, is easiest to update—without actual superpowers, he is not leashed to malarkey science. He was camp in the 1960s, Tim Burton gothic in 1989, and dark and realistic in the recent Christopher Nolan movies.
The Nolan Batman, however, shines a light on the dominant filter of the era: 9/11 and terrorism, as analyzed recently by Andrew Johnson [http://moviemezzanine.com/tony-stark-is-a-villain-how-the-iron-man-films-subvert-traditional-views-of-the-war-on-terror]. Johnson does not, however, mention the single most influential "superhero" of the 9/11 era: Jason Bourne, the human weapon with amnesia, seeking answers for his existence. Created in a 1980 novel (the first in a series), the character didn't come alive in pop culture until the 2002–2007 movies starring Matt Damon. James Bond may have come first, but Daniel Craig's 007 walks and fights in Bourne style—as does Nolan's Batman, as does the recent incarnation of Star Trek's Khan by J.J. Abrams.
Audiences, it turns out, know in their human DNA there is a price to pay for their bloodlust—they want the action porn and 'splosions, but they hunger for something that we used to call literature: stories that tell us things we know about the world to be true, but have forgotten. How to do escapism with relevance? Bourne.
The most brilliant line George Lucas ever wrote was the first one in Star Wars: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…." That changed everything. This was not reality—it was metaphor. Myth. Star Trek is futurism (not modernism), but Star Wars is postmodernism. Postmodernism does not mean "after modernism," though that is its chronology. It has to do with revealing art as being in the eye of the beholder, making the mind aware of the act of perception, and the constructed nature of our reality (go drop this on a coed).
As myth, Star Wars presents its own set of problems for the orgy of sequels and spin-offs about to be unleashed by Disney.
A story only has a story if it has an ending—and as far as I can tell, the six Star Wars movies tell one story rather well: how an idealistic boy (Anakin Skywalker) becomes a villain (Darth Vader), then is redeemed by his son. Since the new movies will not be a reboot, you can prepare yourself for many characters to be repetitively tempted by the Dark Side.
In the new Star Wars movies, some characters will turn evil, others will turn good. It will essentially be a television series—or a soap opera.
It's worth comparing the essential difference between a television series and movie.
A movie is the permanent and irrevocable change of the protagonist: Luke (in the original Star Wars Trilogy) goes from a boy to a Jedi Knight (over the course of three films, but still). Michael Corleone goes from idealistic youth to mafia kingpin. (We don't have to continue with every movie ever made—you get the point.)
But a television series is the gradual, glacial change (if that) of the characters—their perpetual wrestling with their inner nature (Tony Soprano's depression, Don Draper's philandering, Walter White's mortality). In Star Trek's best-ever episode, Kirk (married to his ship, not a woman) has to sacrifice his lover in "The City on the Edge of Forever" to restore the timeline, but he's fine again next week. (The Sopranos' ending may have seemed a cheat but it was truthful: David Chase realized that his character, Tony, honestly would not change; thus our time with him simply stops.)
Television series have much more in common with comic books than movies…and we're beginning to see the problem of adapting television and comic book characters to movies.
A television character exists in the state of becoming himself—actively becoming the same. Yes, that's a paradox.
If the new Star Wars movies are done with intelligence and care—and I have no doubt that their makers will try—they will be designed as a multi-movie series, like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. But they had better have an ending, or else they are not the good version of television—the high-end cable visual novels with planned resolutions—but the bad version, where a show is run out there until it jumps the shark, people stop watching, and it is canceled.
The bad version is also known as a comic book.
I read Marvel Comics religiously from 1985–1988. That timeline is important: four years. After four years, stories start to repeat themselves. Comic professionals know this and try to plan accordingly. (In the 1980s, children could actually afford to buy comic books.)
When I read X-Men, it was at issue 200 or so. Now it is north of 550. I dare anyone—die hard fans excepted—to read a synopsis of those 550 issues. It's gobbledygook.
Or, it's a soap opera: in a soap opera, bad guys come to town and are slowly integrated into the community. In a comic book, characters (which never or barely age) are put through changes that take them away from their familiar, essential (and marketable) selves—they quit, get married, turn evil/good, die (!)—only to reset to normal. I was nine when I learned not to fall for the character dying—he'll be back in record time.
The popular comic book characters are brilliant for their mythical simplicity: the boy who learns responsibility (Spider-Man), the man with the monster within (the Hulk, a rip-off of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). The X-Men stumbled upon the Dr. King/Malcolm X Civil Rights duality in Professor X and Magneto, and it works like gangbusters.
How does one adapt a comic book, or the bad version of a TV show, to a movie? With great difficulty.
Characters on HBO's The Wire talk about prison sentences as consisting of only two days: "The day you go in, and the day you come out."
We could say the same thing about a comic or TV character translated to a movie. There are only two stories worth telling: how they came to be (the origin story), or, if they are very old, how they came to be again (the redemption story).
The best-ever Star Trek movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, is the latter, with an aging Kirk remarrying his ship via the sacrifice of his friend, Spock (it doesn't even have to be a Star Trek movie—it's just a good movie).
The problem is trying to do something in the middle. The obvious answer is to do a version of the series'—or comic's—best episode/issue. For the X-Men, that's the Dark Phoenix saga (in X-Men: The Last Stand) or "Days of Future Past" (the next movie).
But those are really about the villain—pick the hero's iconic nemesis and tell a story in which the villain beats the shit out of the hero and everything he loves, and the hero must risk losing his humanity to defeat his adversary. (In the post-9/11 world, the hero risks losing his humanity an awful lot, because that is our fundamental anxiety.)
Two problems: the villain invariably upstages the hero (the Joker, be he Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger, always steals the show from boring, straight-laced Batman; Gene Hackman upstages Christopher Reeve). Moreover, the audience, who have waited two to four years to see our friend on the big screen again, do not want to experience him behaving like an asshole from losing his humanity!
Nicholas Meyer, the literate curmudgeon behind the best Star Trek movies, likes to say, "The audience may be dumb, but they're never wrong."
The problem with the geek audience to which the franchises cater is that they are both dumb and wrong—not about movies they've seen, but about movies they haven't. Every year at Comic-Con, nerds haul plastic bags of worthless promotional crap through sweaty masses of humanity. And they seem thrilled at the privilege!
I would like ask them if they had any interest in plastic bags of last year's crap, because I suspect the answer would be no—they've already seen those movies, some of them were very good, most were average, and some were execrable. (One year a giant robot was erected outside from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Talk about a monument to hype.)
But next year's movies? They can't get enough. It's J.J. Abrams's "mystery box" at work—the promise of something new, something different, something unknown, is more captivating than anything that could actually be in the box.
But a movie is not a mystery box. A trailer is a mystery box. A movie is a movie.
James Cameron began the current cycle of breathtaking computer FX with the metal man in Terminator 2 (1991)—and he may very well have ended it with the 3D world of Avatar (2009). When The Matrix (1999) came out, Shane Black came back from the premiere (sorry to name drop, but I was at his house), started to describe one of the action scenes, gave up and explained: "I have honestly never seen that in a movie before."
It's hard to imagine what could inspire that reaction today, only 14 years later. (And it's a shame that The Matrix, a truly innovative piece of mythical storytelling that believably modernized action mayhem—it all takes place in a computer, so anything goes—could become so lame, so quickly as to vanish.)
Audiences will pay to see something they've never seen before—be it the weird conversations in Pulp Fiction, the gonzo reality of The Blair Witch Project, or the epic team-up of characters in The Avengers—but at a certain point, they know that anything they want to see they can already view on Netflix at home. That point may already be here.
When technology allows everyone access to the best visual effects, pursuing larger and faster spectacle only causes headaches. Remember the creepily supremacist worry bandied about The Incredibles? "When everyone's super…no one will be."
Does that not explain the fundamental sameness and disappointment of these movies?
There is a reasonably accurate way to predict when an upcoming franchise movie will be any good—simply looked at whether the last one stunk. Nolan could reinvent Batman because everyone hated the Joel Schumacher version. Man of Steel might be good because the Bryan Singer Superman broke the reverence for the Christopher Reeve movies. An example from television: nobody (except die-hards) loved the original Battlestar Galactica, thus Ron Moore had carte blanche to reinvent it.
Iron Man was never an A-list Marvel character. He had never been filmed (except as a cartoon) prior to the 2008 movie—at the time, Robert Downey Jr. (brilliantly cast) was seen as a washed-up drug addict, not a movie star. The movie had license to succeed because there were no expectations.
The James Bond films are unique in that they coasted for decades on their tropes—but Bond was a cypher. The recent Daniel Craig films are, for the first time, filling in his character; Skyfall was origin and redemption story combined. (Good luck following that one.)
Perhaps the best example of how to produce a quality tentpole are the Harry Potter movies. J.K. Rowling's creation is relatively new, so it is relevant for our era; the films are wonderfully made (thank you, British actors), and tell a complete story with a definitive ending.
So there will always be good movies—including blockbuster movies. In Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterpiece Dune—made once as a stylish but bad David Lynch movie, and a bland but good pair of TV mini-series—Duke Leto tells his son of the importance of new experiences, for without them a person sleeps inside: "The sleeper must awaken."
A line like this lingers because it is true. Dune also warns us, "Fear is the mind-killer"… let's just say there is a lot of mind-killing in Hollywood.
The good movies will come from the filmmakers who pursue new experiences, without fear. Some will fail, others will succeed—it's hard to predict. As Yoda tells us in The Empire Strikes Back, "Always in motion is the future."
But franchise fatigue will happen, if it is not happening already. Why?
One of the most famous lines in political history was never uttered in real life—though everyone thinks it was. William Goldman invented it for the movie, All the President's Men. There, it had a specific investigative purpose: "Follow the money."
If that line is not the fundamental explanation for our civilization—and its commonly mistaken origin a foundation of our postmodern condition—I don't know what is.


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+ Script to change the default system font for Khmer in Windows Vista from Daunpenh to KhmerOS System. Two applications are given to change the default font to KhmerOS system and to revert the change back to the original settings. Changes made through this script can be reverted to the original settings.
+ Install:
- If you do not have the KhmerOS fonts in your system, please use the corresponding KhmerOS installer for 32 or 64 bits, depending on the version of Windows you have on your computer. If you do not know if you Windows is 32 or 64 bits, check it by right-clicking on the "Computer" icon and opening "Properties". The information will be there.
- Double click on "fixVista.reg" and a dialog box will open. Click on "Run". You will asked to confirm three more times that you want to do this. Please respond "Yes", "Yes" and "Ok"to the three questions.
- Restart your computer.
In case you you want to revert to have Daunpenh as the default system font, please double click on restoreVista.reg, confirm by clicking on on "Run" and respond "Yes", "Yes" and "Ok"to the three questions and then restore your computer.
These scripts have been written by "Meka" and published in the nokorsoft.com website on May 2012.


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Ride Home 10/12
I rode next to a Maserati today. What's the difference between a Maserati driver and a BMW driver? About a half an inch, maybe. (What? I'm talking about how closely they pass you. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
I deliberately rode slowly down Massachusetts. Not slowly enough because a considerable line of car traffic awaited me at the bottom. I rode in the "no curb lane" lane, which is closed to cars in the afternoon because it's the entrance to the Park That Turns Into A Highway for Whatever Reason Road an that runs only outbound in the afternoon. I recommend riding in that lane and then merging after the light at Waterside Drive. Typically there's some space there, but you can always bail to the sidewalk. Perhaps that would have been better, since I was almost struck by a gray Mercedes (which I believe is what you get when a black one mates with a white one) pulling out from a parking spot. Close, but no cigar.
I wonder where everyone is in the afternoon. R street is always crowded in the morning, but there's rarely any traffic on Q.
11th street is great, especially from Rhode Island to Massachusetts, where there's a bike lane. Only problem is the buses and their drivers, who make you work. They'll block the bike lane at a stop and when you try to ride around them, they'll pull back out and it takes some real effort to get around them because they're moving pretty quickly to get through the route. #everyrideisahustle
Sometimes I wonder if downtown drivers all have some kind of amnesia. "What? Congestion? Again? Today? I can't believe it! Let me honk it away! HONK! Why is it still here? Why? WHYYYYYY?" What if the anti-honking ordinance (not ordnance) was enforced? Noise pollution is lame. It's rather lame between Massachusetts and H Street.
G to 10th to Pennsylvania to up the hill to home. At this point it was proper raining and I wasn't terribly happy about it. Sometimes you just have to get home. It wasn't cold, so I'm grateful. If you convince yourself that it could always be worse, it helps and you'll have no problem bike commuting year round.
5 comments:
You're absolutely right - it could always be worse! Imagine "proper raining" in December with some sleet thrown in. I'd rather have snow anytime than freezing rain.ReplyDelete
Good for you. I gave up at all the traffic around McPherson and threw my bike on the bus. Which just made it even worse, because I was huffy, not cycling, and got home late.ReplyDelete
@Rachel: it's almost always better to just keep biking. No matter how bad it is, the bus will almost always be worse.ReplyDelete
So true. I know there are some people whose best option is to drive into the city, but for the rest of them, how can it be worth the headache? Traffic is always maddening.ReplyDelete
@ultrarunnergirl: This is something I think about a lot. I think that they've convinced themselves (or made it such) that traffic is an unavoidable fact of life and there's nothing they can do about it. People make their mode choices for a lot of reasons and I think once they make the decision (bike commuters included), they rarely reconsider them and their hassles just fade into the background, even though they remain glaring everyone who goes a different way.ReplyDelete


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Contact us: For a private, confidential and no obligation discussion on what is really happening in your street, precinct and suburb from a buyer's perspective, contact Architect Adam on 0413 318 079 or Gina on (+613) 9804 3133 or 0457 835 255 or Mal on 0408 107 988 from James Buyer Advocates.
Alternatively if you see us at an open for inspection or an auction please feel free to come over and say hello – perhaps we could send you a buyer rating, a result or simply open diaries and work out a time to sit down and talk about the market, values, negotiation, alternative homes or your needs from a buyer's perspective.
For the record each of us is involved in 2 to 3 homes, around 20 inspections and attending/assisting/bidding on up to 4 auctions on a weekly basis – all in that specialist $M+ price range.
A sample of testimonials from satisfied clients http://www.jamesbuyeradvocates.com.au/testimonials.php


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Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.Classified ads are not allowed on the forum.
1969Norwood06A-Month and week of vehicle assembly427-Engine M22-Transmissionin-line-Position of the u-joint flanges on each end are in line.
The most important question to be answered in any of this discussion (at least for 1969 IMO) is why the vast majority of driveshafts had offset u-joints and yet some of the more powerful engine / transmission options had the u-joints in phase.


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MCC announces 'Spring Extravaganza'-career & technical competition set for May 1
MARSHALLTOWN - Marshalltown Community College will host its first ever 'Spring Extravaganza' event this May that will feature career and technical competitions between area high school students. The festivities will take place on May 1, at the BTC/Construction Building from 9 am - 1 pm. Over 100 students from five local high schools will be competing in business, metals, woods, and culinary areas. This competition will become a yearly event for the college.
"We have a lot of talented Career Tech students in our local high schools and we're excited to grant them the opportunity to showcase their talent," says Lorna Kennedy, Career Tech Consultant for the AEA.
The area high schools competing in this event include BCLUW, East Marshall, West Marshall, GMG, and Marshalltown. Each competition will be judged by members of the community. Judges will work from a specific rubric in which they will be grading the students.
The Construction competition will have students assembling sawhorses. Judges will be looking for safety/cleanliness, cut lengths, cut accuracy, fit and overall appearance. 'Cupcake Wars' is the baking competition and will judge students on the design, creativity, neatness, and taste of the cupcake. The welding competition will see students work on four different types of welds. Judges will rate pairs on safety processes, weld consistency, location, thickness, and size. The business competition consists of student research on business topics such as the effect that social media has on today's business landscape.
At approximately 11:30 am, after the competitions are over, lunch will be served to all participants. After lunch there will be an awards ceremony. The high school with the most points earned will win the overall competition. In addition, each of the four career competitions will award certificates to the top schools for that competition and all students will receive a certificate of participation.
The 'Spring Extravaganza' officially starts at 9 am and is open to the public.


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Physicians Play a Key Role in Colon Cancer Screening Rates
According to a study in Ontario, Canada, you are more likely to get a colonoscopy if your family doctor has undergone screening.Read More
The GastroIntestinal Diagnostic Center of Catonsville specializes in colon cancer screening and the treatment of gastrointestinal problems. Our freestanding outpatient endoscopy facility has proudly served the greater Baltimore area for more than 13 years.
GastroIntestinal Diagnostic Center is committed to ensuring that your experience with us is relaxed and worry-free, from consultation through recovery. To assist us, we ask that you read and comply with all guidelines.
At GastroIntestinal Diagnostic Center, your time is as valuable to us as it is to you. That's why we provide online access to a variety of forms that patients may complete before their visit. The following documents will help us expedite the check-in process for your appointment. Please take a moment to download and print the appropriate form(s).Learn More
GastroIntestinal Diagnostic Center accepts most major insurances. As a courtesy to you, we will bill your insurance carrier for you; however, we cannot tell you what your policy will cover. Since your insurance policy and coverage is between you and your carrier, we urge you to contact them prior to your procedure. You will be responsible for any co-pays and/or deductibles. We accept cash, check or credit card.Learn More
According to a study in Ontario, Canada, you are more likely to get a colonoscopy if your family doctor has undergone screening.Read More
You may think you do not need a colonoscopy because you feel healthy. Will Smith made the same assumption, but he was wrong.Read More
A new study says colonoscopy offers at least ten years of protection against colon cancer mortality.Read More
Subscribe to our newsletter for updates and information.


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about six years ago
Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - Patrick Kane's goal with 8:43 left in overtime sent the Chicago Blackhawks all square in their Western Conference quarterfinal series with the St. Louis Blues, giving the defending Stanley Cup champs a thrilling and critical 4-3 Game 4 victory at United Center. Kane also scored earlier in the contest and contributed an assist as well to help the Blackhawks record their second straight win after a pair of heartbreaking overtime defeats in St. Louis, where the series will now shift for Friday's pivotal Game 5. "We kind of have the momentum now," Kane said. "We know it's going to be a tough game in Game 5 in their building. They're going to be fired up and that's always a tough place to play, pre-season, regular season or playoffs. So, we'll expect them to get better and we'll get better too." Bryan Bickell came up with a big goal as well for Chicago, as his marker with 3:52 remaining in regulation tied the score at 3-3 and ended a sequence of three straight scores from the Blues that erased a 2-0 deficit. Andrew Shaw also lit the lamp in the win, while Corey Crawford backed up his 34-save shutout in Monday's Game 3 by turning aside 30 shots on Wednesday. Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice for the Blues in a losing cause, with Maxim Lapierre accounting for the other St. Louis goal and Ryan Miller finishing with 30 saves. "Oh, they've got the momentum now," St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We've got to take it back. We've got two of three at home, but we've got to take the momentum back. These have been two really hard-fought games here. This is a momentum-builder for them, and we've got to find a way to regroup and take it back from them. That's a big challenge for us." Miller was able to thwart a couple of good scoring chances during the extra period, in which Chicago produced a 6-2 shot advantage, but couldn't prevent a hard-charging Kane from finishing off a strong Blackhawks rush that resulted in the game-winner. The standout wing skated into the St. Louis zone and faked a pass before rocketing a wrister over Miller's right shoulder that evened this tightly played series. St. Louis had taken its first lead of the night courtesy of Tarasenko's fourth goal of the series and second of the game, which came with 7:33 left in the third period. Taking in an outlet pass from Alex Pietrangelo that began a 2- on-1, the talented youngster beat Crawford glove-side after racing down the right wing for a 3-2 Blues advantage. Bickell, a key contributor during last year's Stanley Cup run, forced another overtime less than four minutes later with a successful redirect of Michal Rozsival's long drive from near the blueline. After neither side found the back of the net during an opening period that featured a 13-save effort from Miller, the teams combined for four goals during a more wide-open second stanza. The Blackhawks capitalized on a tripping penalty to Lapierre 8:29 into the frame to strike first. Kane fed the puck to Jonathan Toews for a close one- timer that was blocked in front of Miller, but Shaw was perfectly positioned to backhand in the carom just 11 seconds after the infraction occurred. Kane made it a 2-0 lead with just under four minutes remaining in the period, placing a cross-ice pass from Johnny Oduya over Miller's glove to finish off a Chicago rush. St. Louis quickly got right back in it, however, with a pair of goals over the final 69 seconds of the session. The Blues needed a mere seven seconds to convert Kane's penalty for shooting the puck over the glass, with Tarasenko putting his team on the board with a wicked left-circle drive while T.J. Oshie screened Crawford. St. Louis kept the pressure on with time winding down in the second, and were rewarded when Steve Ott's diving play to keep the puck in the Chicago zone turned into Lapierre's blast that clanked off the right crossbar and in just 3.1 seconds prior to the intermission. Game Notes The Blues played a second straight game without captain David Backes, still recovering from an upper-body injury caused by a hard check from Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook in Saturday's Game 2. Seabrook received a three-game suspension for the hit which will end following Game 5 ... Toews recorded two assists ... The Blues lost for only the second time in eight all-time playoff meetings in Chicago that went to OT ... The team that has scored first has won all four matchups of the series.
2020 Taylorville Daily News,
Miller Media Group
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I had dinner at my aunt and uncle's on the Upper West Side a few weeks ago and we got to talking about Morris, the deli counter man at the old Daitch Shopwell that used to be on Broadway. They loved Morris and the little old ladies who would visit him. This is what they overheard, back when.
Old Lady: Is the potato salad fresh?
Morris: Yes, we made it today.
Old Lady: It looks like yesterday.
Morris: Lady, you're from yesterday.
Old Lady: How's the roast beef?
Morris: It's gorgeous.
Old Lady: Give me a half of a quarter pound of baloney.
Morris: You're having a party?


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Lady Lion Lucas named Senior CLASS candidate
Lady Lion Lucas named Senior CLASS candidate
UNIVERSITY PARK Pa. -- Penn State Lady Lion senior guard Maggie Lucas (Narberth, Pa.) has been selected as one of the 30 candidates for the 2013-14 Senior CLASS Award, given to the student-athletes that have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Each of the 30 candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
On the court, Lucas added several honors to her trophy case during an outstanding junior campaign, including Big Ten Player of the Year, Wade Trophy Finalist, Wooden Award Finalist, USBWA All-America, Associated Press All-America second team, Full Court Press All-America second team, WBCA All-America honorable mention and Big Ten All-Tournament team. She was third in the Big Ten in scoring (20.1), third in free throw percentage (.900), sixth in steals (2.3) and second in three-point field goals made (3.1). Additionally, Lucas led the Big Ten and was fourth nationally in three-point field goal percentage with a .462 mark, which was also the second-best single-season mark in school history. Lucas enters her final season in Happy Valley seventh in program history with 1,838 points and is on pace to become the fifth member of Penn State's 2,000-point club. She also ranks second in Penn State history and third in Big Ten history with 292 career three-pointers made.
Off the court, Lucas has been involved in several community service projects in her time at Penn State. Among her community service experiences, Lucas has painted houses as part of the United Way Day of Caring, volunteered at local elementary schools and the YMCA, worked our annual Special Olympics Basketball Clinic, helped at several local organizations, including Pets Come First and the State College Area Food Bank. Lucas and the Lady Lions are also very active in the Pink Zone (Play 4 Kay) initiative to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. In six Pink Zone events, the Lady Lions have donated more than $825,000 to breast cancer causes and Lucas has been played a roll in helping to raise funds by attending various fundraising events (Hoop Shoot, Little Black Dress Goes Pink, etc.).
In the classroom, Lucas is a Recreation, Park and Tourism Management major and was an Academic All-Big Ten selection in 2012. She will be interning in the events/public relations office at the Bryce Jordan Center in the spring semester.
The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2014 NCAA Men's Final Four® and NCAA Women's Final Four®.
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
Penn State opens its season against St. Francis (Pa.) on Fri., Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. The Lady Lions will raise their 2013 Big Ten Championship banner and give away commemorative championship ring banks to celebrate back-to-back Big Ten titles. The Lady Lions also face Fordham on Sun., Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. to close out opening weekend.
Lady Lion Basketball single-game and season tickets are available by calling 1-800-NITTANY. Single-game tickets are $15 and $12 for adults and seniors and $9 and $7 for youth (12 and younger). Season tickets are $99 for adults and $50 for youth (12 and under), this includes a Nittany Lion Kids Club Membership for 2013-14. New this year, the Lady Lions have introduced a Family Season Ticket package. For $200, fans will get two adult tickets and two youth tickets for the 2013-14 campaign. The PNC Flex Books are available again this year for $99. The Flex Book gives fans 12 vouchers, 10 that can be redeemed in any combination for Nittany Lion and Lady Lion Basketball tickets throughout the year and two extra vouchers for the Nittany Lions' Coaches Vs. Cancer game and the Lady Lions' Pink Zone game.
The 2014 Pink Zone at Penn State will take place on Sunday, Feb. 16 as the Lady Lions take on Wisconsin in the Bryce Jordan Center at 1 p.m. Last year, the Lady Lions donated a record $260,000 to breast cancer causes. This year's fundraising efforts will benefit the Mount Nittany Medical Center, Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital and Lewistown Hospital. For more information on the Pink Zone at Penn State, visit the official Pink Zone website at www.pennsylvaniapinkzone.org.
The Lady Lions are on Twitter. Follow sports information contact Kris Petersen (@ladylionsid) and the Lady Lions and coaches (@pennstatewbb) to get the inside scoop. The Lady Lions are also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pennstateladylions.
2013-14 Senior CLASS Women's Basketball Candidates
Gennifer Brandon, California
Heather Butler, Tennessee-Martin
Alyssa Charlston, Idaho
Hallie Christofferson, Iowa State
Jerica Coley, Florida International
Allyson DiMagno, Cornell
Alexis Dobbs, American
Stefanie Dolson, Connecticut
Jamierra Faulkner, Southern Mississippi
Ataira Franklin, Virginia
Chelsea Gray, Duke
Sarah Hansen, Florida Gulf Coast
Cassie Harberts, Southern California
Jordan Hooper, Nebraska
Natasha Howard, Florida State
Amanda Hyde, IPFW
Dequesha McClanahan, Winthrop
Sarah Nelson, Creighton
Eilise O'Connor, Missouri-Kansas
Chiney Ogwumike, Stanford
Haley Peters, Duke
Theresa Plaisance, LSU
Michelle Plouffe, Utah
Odyssey Sims, Baylor
Alex Smith, Holy Cross
Kacie Sowell, Seattle
DeNesha Stallworth, Kentucky
Rachel Tecca, Akron
Alli Wiliams, Saint Francis


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Truckee High School youth seek support for positive change
TRUCKEE, Calif. – This fall Truckee High School (THS) students are taking a leadership role in preventing teen drug and alcohol abuse. In October THS Friday Night Live (FNL) Club co-presidents Gustavo Cabrera, Jessica Garcia, and vice president Francisco Colmenares attended a two-and-half-day youth leadership training in Butte County. At the conference, the youths learned the scope of teen drug abuse problem and how other communities are successfully preventing it. Upon returning, the teens started sharing what they learned and quickly jumped into action.
They joined fellow student Zoe Peterson volunteering with the Tahoe-Truckee Future Without Drug Dependence (TT-FWDD) coalition as youth sector representatives. This multi-sector volunteer group meets to plan initiatives to reduce substance abuse. As coalition members, the youth work to assist adults in reducing underage drinking, marijuana, and prescription drug abuse.
The teens developed positive messages targeting local adults, recorded at KTKE, which are currently airing on the radio. These 30-second spots urge parents and other adults to support teens by signing a pledge to create a drug and alcohol-free environment that is safe and fun for teens and their friends. These students are also presenting the pledge and collecting signatures at school and community events.
Additionally, Zoe Peterson volunteered at the September Rx Take Back Event held in collaboration with law enforcement, water quality, and public health. Peterson surveyed and educated participants to build awareness of the growing prescription drug abuse problem. This event, held in Tahoe City and Truckee, collected 106 lbs. of unwanted prescription and OTC medications. This event safely disposed of the medications preventing them from contaminating the water supply or being diverted into the wrong hands.
For information visit http://www.ttfwdd.com.


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This video, from Kent, purports to have hallucinogenic effects so long as you watch it and follow the instructions. I have watched the video and can confirm: YEP I FEEL WEIRD. But it's totally worth doing it because life is boring and seeing everything turn all wavy is rad.
I have to go throw up now.


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BOX OF ROCKS pits human against rocks in a battle of wits competing in trivia to determine once and for all if you are smarter or dumber than a box of rocks.
Try it, and know shame.
CRAZY LETTERS will leave everyone wondering which way is up! The first player to solve the word wins the card - but it's not easy! Unique fonts, wild colors, varied sizes, and rotated letters add to the topsy-turvy challenge.
ONE 2 TEN is a social card game that exposes how players feel about certain items (including things about themselves and other players) on a scale from 1 to 10.
WORDAROUND challenges you to quickly figure out where the word starts and to read it aloud before your opponents. The game seems so simple, but you'll find yourself baffled as you race to spot and call out words.
LAST LETTER is a race to blurt out a word from one of the picture cards in your hand. Think fast and remember that your word must begin with the last letter of the word previously called. Get rid of your cards first to win.
TRIVIATHON is a fast-paced trivia game where players can compete and win without ever knowing the answer to a single question!
TOTY Nomination: Game of the Year
Toy Industry Association (2014)
TAGIE Rising Star Nomination
Chicago Toy & Game Fair (2010)
100 Best Children's Products
Dr. Toy (2009)
Voted Top 5 Best Game
Chicago Toy & Game Fair (2009)
Top Summer Toys Award
The Toy Insider (2014)
Five-Star Certified
WTS Toy Review (2010)
Seal of Approval
The Toy Man (2010)
Award of Excellence
The Toy Man (2010)
Editor's Choice Award
The Toy Man (2010)
Q1 Top Ten Award
The Toy Man (2010)
Best New Party Game in the U.S.
GAMES Magazine (2010)
Best Family Board Games of 2013
Good Housekeeping Magazine (2013)
Recommended by Mensa
American Mensa (2013)
Top 10 Board Game
FamilyFun Magazine (2013)
Major Fun Award - Puzzles
Major Fun (2013)
Laugh Out Loud Winner
Tillywig Awards (2010)
PAL Award
Play Advances Language (2013, 2015)
Best Literacy Game Gold Award
Imagination Gaming (2013)
Recommended Toy Award
National Assoc. for Gifted Children (2014)
Game Design Excellence
Gaming Industry Examiner (2009)
Three-time Game of the Year winner
Creative Child Magazine (2009, 2010, 2011)
Preferred Choice Award
Creative Child Magazine (2014)
PTPA Winner
Parent Tested, Parent Approved (2009)
NAPPA Honors
National Parenting (2009)
TNPC Seal of Approval
The National Parenting Center (2009)
Parent's Choice Gold Award
Parents-Choice.org (2014)
Parents' Choice Recommended Award
Parents' Choice (2013)
iParenting Winner
iParenting Media (2009)
Gold Award Winner
Family Review Center (2010)
Joe Herbert
Dave Herbert


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BALTIMORE, MD – The eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team jumped out to a 9-1 halftime lead and had 11 different players score as the Blue Jays eased past visiting Michigan, 14-5, at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays improve to 3-0 on the year, while the Wolverines slip to 2-2.
The win was the 150th for Dave Pietramala as the head coach at Johns Hopkins and it came in his 200th game as the head coach at Homewood. He is now 150-50 as the head coach at Johns Hopkins and 173-67 overall.
Hopkins sprinted out to a 6-0 lead after the opening 15 minutes as five different players found the back of the net. Junior Michael Pellegrino's transition goal opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game and JHU added five more goals on 13 first-quarter shots to push out to the early six-goal lead.
Junior Wells Stanwick assisted on Pellegrino's goal, added a strike of his own four minutes later and got the helper on Brandon Benn's second goal of the quarter in the final minute to fuel the early run, which also included unassisted goals from midfielders Bronson Kelly and John Crawley.
Doug Bryant broke a game-opening Wolverine scoring drought that reached more than 21 minutes when he fired home an unassisted goal at the 9:21 mark of the second quarter, but a three-goal Blue Jay run that took less than two minutes midway through the period effectively put the game away. A pair of Holden Cattoni goals, including one while the Blue Jays were on the extra-man, and a strike from senior midfielder Rob Guida accounted for JHU's second-quarter scoring and gave JHU the eight-goal halftime lead.
Michigan eventually outshot the Blue Jays 41-36, but the Blue Jay defense did a great job of pushing the Wolverines to their off-hand and tough angles. Senior goalie Eric Schneider posted eight of his career-high 20 saves in the first half as the Blue Jays built their lead. Schneider's 20 saves are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Pierce Bassett had 20 in a win against then eighth-ranked Loyola on May 8, 2010.
The Blue Jays nearly matched their three-goal second-quarter run with a three-goal flurry in the third quarter that took just under three minutes and included Guida's second and goals by sophomore Ryan Brown and freshman Cody Radziewicz. Guida's goal with just over 10 minutes remaining gave the Blue Jays a 12-1 lead.
Michigan won the statistical battle over the final 20 minutes of the game and outscored the Blue Jays 4-2 over that span to account for the 14-5 final score. David McCormack, David Joseph and Kyle Jackson scored unassisted goals during that time for the Wolverines and Peter Kraus assisted on a Riley Kennedy goal for the Wolverines, who fired off 27 of their 41 shots in the second half.
Benn, Guida and Cattoni all scored twice for the Blue Jays, who also got the one goal and three assists from Stanwick.
The Blue Jay defense held Michigan's starting attack and first midfield to a combined two goals and no assists on 18 shots. Sophomore Brad Lott had a great day on faceoffs for the Wolverines as he was 14-of-23 and added nine ground balls.
Notes: Johns Hopkins is 3-0 for the fifth straight year and the sixth time in the last seven years • JHU improved to 20-3 all-time in the month of February • Benn's two goals extended his goal-scoring streak to 19 games.
Michigan (2-2) 0-1-2-2/5
Johns Hopkins (3-0) 6-3-4-1/14
Goals: M: McCormack, Jackson, Bryant, Joseph, Kenedy. J: Guida-2, Benn-2, Cattoni-2, Stanwick, Crawley, Pellegrino, Schuler, Brown, Madarsz, Radziewicz, Kelly, B. Assists: M: Kraus. J: Stanwick-3, Benn, Brown, Guida, Reed, Schneider.Saves: M: Zonino-7. J: Schneider-20, Ryan-1. Shots: M-41, J-36. EMO: M: 1-for-1. J: 1-for-1. Attendance: 1,603.


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Discuss all things related to Priston Tale. English requirement.
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Command line ?
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