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Apply the KDE HIG, use a form layout, make the desktop file consistent and make the KCM look better.
- Reviewers
zzag ngraham
- Group Reviewers
KWin Plasma VDG
- Maniphest Tasks
- T10273: Make KCMs consistent and apply the KDE HIG to them as much as possible
- Commits
- R108:6f42e49031d2: [kcmkwin/kwinscreenedges] Improve the look of the Screen Edges and Touch Screen…
Apply the KDE HIG, use a form layout, make the desktop file consistent and make the KCM look better.
Open the Screen Edges and Touch Screen KCMs.
Diff Detail
Diff Detail
- Repository
- R108 KWin
- Branch
- improved-screen-edges-and-touch-screen-kcm-ui (branched from master)
- Lint
Lint OK
- Unit
No Unit Test Coverage
- Build Status
Buildable 14716 Build 14734: arc lint + arc unit
Comment Actions
I would reverse the labels and text box text for the top two items so it's like this:
Maximize: [x] Windows dragged to top edge Tile: [x] Windows dragged to left or right edge
This feels more natural to me because it's written like a sentence ( at least in English) and also allows the UI to easily accommodate more maximize and tile actions in the future.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital is the only specialist hospital dedicated entirely to children in southern Africa and manages 260 000 patient visits annually. Very sick children are referred to this world-renowned tertiary institution from all over South Africa and the African continent.
Since 1994, the Children's Hospital Trust, the Fundraising Arm of the Hospital has helpd raise funds for building upgrades, new equipment and skills development programmes. As the Hospital was built in 1956 the outdated facilities were in critical need of upgrading. Despite this the Hospital is world-renowned as a centre of excellence in paediatric health-care and research.
100% of donations received by the Trust go directly to the Hospital, not a single cent is spent on administration costs.


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text: BUSINESS Summit develops 'Push' TV series 9:51 AM PST 1/19/2010 by Elizabeth Guider , AP FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME Partners with E1 on small-screen extension of sci-fi thriller Summit Entertainment, the upstart film outfit behind the "Twilight" phenom as well as critical fave "The Hurt Locker," is doing what all clever indies do: "pushing" into TV.The company is partnering with another indie, E1 Entertainment, to jointly develop and produce a TV series based on Summit's recent pic "Push." The series will purportedly be an extension of the science-fiction thriller, centered on people with paranormal powers who band together to take down a corrupt government agency. The small-screen "Push" project furthers the relationship established in 2007 between Summit and E1, with the latter licensing exclusive distribution rights to Summit-produced movies in the U.K. and Canada. Screenwriter David Hayter, who penned "Watchmen" and two of the "X-Men" movies, will script the series pilot. E1 and Dark Hero Studios, co-owned by Hayter and producing partner Benedict Carver, will jointly produce the series based on the screenplay created by David Bourla for Summit. Hayter and Carver will also exec produce, along with E1 toppers Noreen Halpern and John Morayniss. Summit, E1 and Dark Hero are currently in discussion with Stateside broadcasters about the series. Hayter and Dark Hero are repped by UTA."The concept behind the 'Push' feature film offers a broad and rich canvas on which to extend the story line and characters introduced in the feature film," said Summit co-chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger in a statement. "The project is also the perfect vehicle to initiate Summit's plans of producing programming for the global TV marketplace."John Morayniss, CEO of E1 Television, suggested that this was "a perfect fit" moment: "David Hayter's work on 'Watchmen' gives him superhero status on the sci-fi front and instantly ensures that 'Push' gets the right kind of attention."Summit and E1 will jointly arrange for the U.S. TV license deal for the series. E1 is set to handle the TV sale in Canada as well as home video and broadcasting rights in Canada, Britain and Benelux. Summit will handle home video in the States. The two partners will split foreign sales by each handling separate territories.Summit released the movie "Push" on Feb. 6, 2009. Directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou, the pic grossed nearly $50 million worldwide. E1, which is listed on the AIM stock exchange in London, operates in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Holland and Belgium. Its TV division recently announced a partnership with Stephen King to produce and distribute a series for Syfy called "Haven," based on the author's novela "The Colorado Kid." The company also produces "Hung" for HBO and the upcoming "Copper" for ABC and CanWest in Canada. FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME Elizabeth Guider email@example.com @thr AP email@example.com @thr


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The Dow closed lower on Wednesday after President Obama warned of stricter oversight for Wall Street, raising the specter of greater regulation that investors fear could sap profits.
Obama's comments near the market close rattled investors however not every Dow component was punished.
In fact Bank of America soared on Wednesday largely due to comments from CEO Kenneth Lewis who said his bank does not need more federal aid and is in better shape than most rivals, even as "rumors, innuendo and falsehoods" cause its stock to fall.
Most bank stocks closed in positive territory on Wednesday as you can see from the KBW Bank Index of larger lenders. Investors sentiment was buoyed by Fed Chariman Ben Bernanke who again dismissed speculation that the government may nationalize big banks.
Meanwhile CNBC has learned the "stress test" program on banks with more than $100 billion in assets will be completed by no later than April. The tests will help regulators decide whether the banks have sufficient capital -- and the right mix of it -- to withstand any additional shocks to the economy over the next two years.


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Category Archives: Radio, Radio
Bartcop.com Funnies
Mario Piperni on Repug Roadblocks
Another Day, Another Vote – Indiana, NC and Wisconsin
May 9, 2012 By mario piperni
Election roundup:
As polls forecast, the Tea Party's efforts to cleanse the GOP of any impure conservatives has Dick Lugar out and teabagger Richard Mourdock in. Mourdock is the new Republican nominee for Lugar's senate seat…but not without a stern warning from Lugar.
If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator. But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington. He and I share many positions, but his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. His answer to the inevitable roadblocks he will encounter in Congress is merely to campaign for more Republicans who embrace the same partisan outlook. He has pledged his support to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it.
This is not conducive to problem solving and governance. And he will find that unless he modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator. Worse, he will help delay solutions that are totally beyond the capacity of partisan majorities to achieve.
Good advice but it's falling on deaf ears. Republicans have no desire to advance the concept of governance in Indiana or anywhere else in the country. It's about gaining power and pushing a far-right agenda and nothing more. Lugar strayed across party lines once too often to satisfy the radicals who currently control and fund the Republican party.
So, was Lugar part of the Republican's filibustering, obstructionist politics in the Senate? Yes he was…but he was also one of the few Republicans left in Congress who had an understanding that there existed a bigger picture which extended beyond strict, party dogma. With Lugar's departure, the Republican party has just climbed another notch on the Sociopath/Crazy scale.
Prediction: Lugar gets some kind of high profile position in President Obama's second term administration.
To further prove Lugar's point about Republican's "rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition", here's what Mourdock said this morning in regards to his understanding of bipartisanship.
"I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view."
Wonderful. That sums up the entire right-wing's approach to politics and is exactly what Dems and Obama were forced to deal with over the last three years. Anything short of Obama in the White House and Dem majorities in the House and Senate (filibuster-proof) is going to be a painful, drawn-out, four years of more obstructionist politics.
North Carolina.
In 1875, NC passed a constitutional provision which stated that "all marriages between a white person and a Negro or between a white person and a person of Negro descent to the third generation inclusive are, hereby, forever prohibited." It took 96 years (1971) before the racist provision was removed from the state charter.
Yesterday, voters in North Carolina approved a state constitutional amendment which reads, "marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized."
Way to go, NC. You have another 100 years of bigoted, intolerant legislation to enjoy.
Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett is the Democrat slated to go up against Scott Walker in the June 5 recall election. A reader sent in a first-hand account at yesterday's polls in his role as an election inspector.
Act 23, which is the Wisconsin voter ID law, is still under court injunction, so photo IDs weren't needed to vote. Surprisingly, same-day registration is still allowed by showing a valid state ID and proof of residence (like a recent utility bill, lease, bank statement or pay stub with a current address).
Most of the voters were pleased not to have to follow Act 23, although a fair number offered their cards without being asked and seemed surprised when told it wasn't necessary. Expressed voter sentiment was definitely anti-Walker (but keep in mind what I said about the ward's demographics [liberal-leaning]), and most of the people seemed pleased with their experience. […] An overwhelming majority of people seemed to be positive about being out to vote, even when there were long lines, and many expressed appreciation for the poll staff. Most people seem to think we're volunteers selflessly serving our community – they must have us confused with campaign workers, who mostly go unpaid. The work is mind-numbing and tedious, full of niggling little details, and the people who do have bad experiences and frustrations usually blame us. I have to admit, though, that there is a certain amount of feelgood that goes along with the job.
He wrapped up with…
That's three elections down for the year and three more to go. The recall general election is on 5 June, which means there will be an intense four weeks of negative ads, people pounding on my door, ads stuffed in my mailbox and not answering the phone unless I recognize the caller ID. To that end, I've posted the sign I've attached to my front door.
LUV Update
Missed posts while out of town and out of touch:
Bill Gates is selling us out again, now pushing frankenfood on behalf of his agribusiness friends, using false claims. A cursory glance shows Gates has invested in Monsanto and other agribusiness giants.
We've pointed out in the past that he's undermined his own Microsoft employees by bringing in foreign workers who work for less pay. His Gates Foundation, for which corporate media praise him, is used as a tax writeoff, not the noblest reason to do "charity" work [emphasis added].
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) requires the poor farmers of the world to pay the corporation with the patent for seeds, so that they can't have the traditional free seeds they keep from the previous year's crop, making farming prohibitively more expensive. We also have no idea if GMO crops can survive disasters, as the natural seeds have endured ice ages, droughts, insect infestations, floods and other disasters. If we become dependent on GMO seeds we may find ourselves in periods of mass starvation at some future date.
We have long said that if Bill Gates wants to effectively spend money to make a better world, he could back a cable company or satellite network capable of reaching the masses with public interest viewpoints and news, which would cause an outbreak of democracy to occur (which can't happen in darkness), in which the people would demand a fairer system without the hunger, homelessness, and other side effects from creating billionaires.
* * *
Just as protest movements are full of protesters, they are also full of infiltrators. You won't have one without the other. Even though history is ripe with examples, newcomers are still often surprised. During the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, 1 out of 6 participants was a government agent. So it was inevitable that the Occupy movement would also be beset by infiltrators and agents provocateurs — people from outside trying to stir up trouble. Then when the media reports that "protesters turned violent," credulous readers believe it. Thus the movement is discredited. Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, two of the organizers of the Occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC last year, identify the most common behaviors of infiltrators in this piece at Truthdig.
* * *
Andrew Cockburn puts his finger on one of our biggest problems with the Pentagon — lies.
Interviewing generals and admirals, we've been told that many of them are offered lucrative jobs with the Nuclear Mafia as they retire, for their Pentagon contacts, to sell out the American people by pushing taxpayer-funded corporate weapons systems that are not needed, may not function as promised, and cost fortunes to build.
* * *
LUV News is proud to present the first annual Lower than Whale Poop award to National Public Radio, for their tireless efforts to keep public interest candidates out of the presidential race.
Posted in Radio, Radio, Shared Art, The Media
LUV on NPR's Chavez
Cuban news has a great article this morning on the recent ALBA summit in Venezuela. The Bolivaran Alliance for the Americas was formed by several Latin American nations in response to the "free trade" agreements which benefit the 1% at the expense of the masses. The American mass media does not allow a peek into alternative ways of thinking about economics, particularly involving systems which benefit the 99%, such as ALBA, so this sort of thing is mass media top secret.
This morning NPR did another of its hatchet jobs on Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who was behind forming ALBA. NPR spoke only of the Venezuelan opposition, without pointing out they are the oligarchs and ruling class of the past who are not supported by the masses (Chavez has a 57% approval rating in recent polling). Nor did NPR point out that the US government financially supports this opposition to a democratic Venezuela (such reporting is why NPR gets funding from defense cheats, banksters and polluters).
We had to go to Russian news this morning to find a piece showing Chavez is currently working on a plan to get unemployment in Venezuela down to 3%. Our own government does everything it can to keep unemployment high enough to drag down wages and benefits on behalf of our ruling Forces of Greed, one of the factors contributing to our growing inequality, and would never attempt to move toward realistic 3% unemployment levels. They do identify the current 20% as 9%, by omitting a great many categories, such as those who've given up looking for a job, those in the world's largest prison/jail population, and those working part time while desperately seeking full time employment.
Posted in Politics as Usual, Radio, Radio, Shared Art
LUV News on NPR
This morning NPR's Morning Edition did a piece about an Iraqi woman, described as fiction (so one wonders why this would appear on a "news" program), who says when she saw the American troops coming to invade she "cried tears of joy" (listen here if you want to hear propaganda so extreme that FOX News would reject it).
NPR spread the lies of the Bush regime about weapons of mass destruction to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq, and its talking heads, particularly Scott Simon, pushed for war week after week leading up to Shock and Awe. At the time, we are proud to say, LUV News was reporting facts by the world's foremost experts on Iraqi weapons saying there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (we also opposed the war beforehand and ran opinion pieces by peace activists who were not allowed into the mass media).
Hopeless propagandists, NPR is still spinning the war, having, as far as we know, never apologized for the lies that resulted in so many deaths, so much destruction, leaving millions still refugees.
LUV News on Endless War
NPR's Talk of the Nation propagandist Neal Conan had Andrew Exum from the Center for a New American Security, an extended arm of the National Security State, on yesterday's program to hype:
"I think the important thing is because the United States military is held to, frankly, a higher standard than any other military, we have to be seen as being accountable. And that when atrocities take place, you have to see some sort of accountability take place in a transparent way that make sense for not just U.S. voters but, quite frankly, for the world at large."
The program was titled "What lessons should Americans draw from the Iraq War?" Peace movement people, who aren't allowed into the American mass media system, were not invited to comment as guests.
"Held to a higher standard than any other military?" Even the Commanders in Chief, Bush and Obama, have not been so much as investigated for all the lies, illegal wars (Iraq, Libya), countless massacres of innocents, torture and other horrors in violation of international law and the Constitution.
Conan found nothing wrong with what the guest he'd invited had to say, letting the comment stand, although he often interrupts callers and guests who stray from the National Security State line to "correct" them for comments that don't strictly follow fealty toward the National Security State and corporate greed at any cost to the public interest. All of the worst problems we have could be improved easily if we were allowed a single mass media public interest option, preferably a TV network required to be on cable systems, from which most Americans get their TV. Democracy is impossible in the darkness, as ignorant people are controlled people.
When one reads American foreign policy in the mass media, it is always the same opinion, in the New York Times, Fox News, NPR — wherever one looks. The American people are told who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. They shift from time to time, Saddam Hussein was a "good guy" when he was murdering leftists in Iraq, and on the payroll. He was even eventually promoted to president, after which he was given components for chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons systems (all of the forms of weapons of mass destruction) together with missile technology, with the approval of the Reagan Administration.
For reasons we've not been told, Saddam was moved to the "bad guy" list and the American people were bade by their mass media to hate him, after he met with US Ambassador April Glaspie, who signaled US non-interest in an attack by Saddam on Kuwait to set him up for a US invasion by Daddy Bush. All US mass media participated in spreading lies about Saddam's soldiers murdering babies in hospital nurseries to get public support behind the invasion, just as they spread the weapons of mass destruction lies when Bush's idiot son invaded more than a decade later.
Saddam was executed before he could testify in court, many think because he would have revealed his complicity in working for the Empire all those years, as the American people were being told by their mass media that he was the devil. This changing image of Saddam has been duplicated many times in modern history with other dictators — all mass media agreeing in unison to cover up for them when they are on the payroll, and paint them as evil when they either disobey or after they get ousted by their own populations, as happened with Marcos in the Philippines, Samoza in Nicaragua, and more recently Mubarak in Egypt (after it became obvious he was a goner).
On the current bad guys list is Pakistan, again for reasons unexplained. They have certainly helped both the Bush and Obama regimes with the Empire's phony "war on terrorism," allowing supply lines to run through their nation, allowing drone bombing of their Western Frontier population (mostly women and children have died in this) and set up checkpoints to watch for Taliban crossing the border to or from Afghanistan. Yet corporate media, as always in unison, often stick their microphones in front of people who make it sound as though Pakistan is our enemy.
For some reason late in November the USA decided to attack two Pakistani outposts dedicated to watching Taliban movements in coordination with NATO. NATO had been advised of their positions and knew their coordinates. It seems unlikely it could have accidentally attacked these Pakistani soldiers. Shaukat Qadir, previously a Pakistani brigadier, whose reporting has been outstanding enough that we keep going to him for information beyond the crap we get from our mass media, asks the questions about this important event that the cowardly sycophants of the US mass media will not, in the following piece.
But there is another twist in this from an al Jazeera column today. Congress is pushing the president to send more weapons to Georgia, knowing this will infuriate Russia, which a short few years ago went in to South Ossetia to defend those people against what appeared to be an act of genocide by the Georgian army (although US corporate media spun it as an attack by evil Russia, in pushing as they are for a renewed Cold War on behalf of the weapons sales of their owners, advertisers and board members).
Russia is currently allowing NATO forces to move supplies to Afghanistan over Russian territory as the only major land route left with Pakistan having cut off supply lines because of the US belligerent acts previously mentioned. It is believed the Russians will shut down the Northern supply line if the US sends weapons to Georgia. All of this is unsettling, Another war could break out from all this saber rattling, and the US mass media is either asleep or in bed with the National Security State in hushing all of this.
What if the Empire's desperate ruling Forces of Greed believe that capitalism is crashing and burning, and a more massive war could distract the masses while giving a boost to the most pathetic economy we've had since the Great Depression (for all but the rich, who are no longer connected to the working class because of globalization). If our forces in Afghanistan have their supplies cut off, there may be cries for war with either Pakistan or Russia, as corporate media talking heads shout "Our troops are helpless, running out of ammunition," and as brutal as the psychopaths who run the Empire are, they might be willing to allow American troops to die to have an excuse to go to a bigger war to save corporate capitalism from the trash heap it appears to be headed for. —Jack
LUV News on National Propaganda Radio
The big protest today will be the attempt to shut down West Coast ports from California to Alaska. The Democracy Movement appears to be split on this, with most in support of it, but with reservations.
Since the movement hasn't completed one of its major goals yet, that of educating the masses around the corporate media about what is happening, there is concern that there may not be enough support at this time to accomplish the goal of shutting down the ports, and if it fizzles, may make it appear that the movement is weak and not supported by the public. Another concern is that organized labor, having signed agreements that they will not participate in such activity, may be distanced from the action.
It would appear our mass media is attempting to drive a wedge between protesters and labor on this issue, and we would advise readers to look for this in mass media coverage as the protest continues throughout the day.
Internationally, corporate media are showing their usual hypocrisy by which protests they emphasize and which they ignore. This morning National Security State propagandist Steve Inskeep said on NPR that the protests in Russia were against Prime Minister Putin, who he identified with the corporate media pejorative "strong man," although, as far as we know, Putin hasn't authorized his government to murder citizens or imprison them for life without evidence, as have our own leaders Bush and Obama, not identified as "strong men" in corporate media.
As we've explained, the Russian protest was against perceived fraud in the election, but Putin is shown in polling to be the most popular person in Russia (although many protesters did speak out against Putin). Putin's popularity has never fallen below 65%, a number Obama would die for. In 2007 Putin's popularity hit 81%, the highest of any leader in the world. This morning there was a demonstration in support of Putin, ignored by Inskeep apparently because it goes against his National Security State propaganda viewpoint.
A trend has begun in Western media to put Putin in a bad light, and some Russians believe they are trying to turn public opinion against Putin as a mass media goal. If so, the Western corporate media often get what they set out to accomplish, dominating the airwaves as they do in shaping public opinion around the world.
Inskeep replaced Bob Edwards at NPR years ago, apparently because Edwards had been too objective. There is little chance that will happen with Inskeep.
And later:
We signed onto the Democracy Movement in May, long before the Occupy Wall Street group formed in New York. We did so knowing things could go bad, but we trusted the organizers, knowing they are good people, and we watched as, before taking over Freedom Plaza in Washington, participants began by teaching nonviolence. We knew there would be no violence from the protesters from the start, anybody following LUV News even for a short time knows our position against violence.
So we were enraged to hear on NPR repeated descriptions of police crackdowns on protesters across the land announcing that "protesters were mostly nonviolent," without noticing that all of the violence was instigated by police. The people who make these reports are lower than whale poop, because illegal wars costing millions of lives, bankster bailouts enriching the wealthy, the polluting of our natural environment and other major criminal activities wouldn't be possible if the masses were even somewhat informed by giving them the public interest side of things neglected by NPR and other mass media.
It gets more maddening every day that we don't have a second opinion in our mass media, representing the public interest. —Jack
HD Radio
Thinking of buying an HD radio for that special someone? Think again. The overlords of radio have been desperately trying to make some return on their big investments in the junk science, but the latest development, noted here in our sister blog on public radio, is just more of the same shit — spectrum grab that would like to muscle out the little guys in radio.
LUV Network on National Propaganda Radio
Listening to Diane Rehm on NPR yesterday, we noticed she had on a guest from one of the corporate-funded think tanks, as she usually does, telling us Social Security is going broke. He didn't mention that the government has actually borrowed from Social Security for decades in order to finance corporate welfare, and nobody on the program pointed out that he was lying through his teeth. That is what the "senior fellows," from the major think tanks are expected to say in return for the corporate funding. Corporations don't throw money away — these contributions are considered to be investments.
All of the NPR/PBS programs that deal in "news" analysis can be expected to invite these guests, and you will hear them announced daily, "X," a senior fellow from the American Enterprise Institute, Hoover Institution, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, etc., appearing on Morning Edition, The PBS NewsHour, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, etc. Their goal is always to sell out the public interest. Their tentacles are deep into the so-called "news media," all of the major TV and radio networks, newspapers, news magazines — the entire mass media spectrum.
Often their views are said to be on the programs for "balance," as though any truth that gets out must be balanced by lies. They constantly scheme to privatize more of the government, to rid the public of Social Security, Medicare and other social programs, and introduce lies with which to combat science, including "we must burn oil and coal, there is no such thing as global warming," combined with "we must spend more on weapons for the military," and "we must cut corporate taxes to spur the economy." There is no hole in the mass media, these lies are scattered over the entire electronic and print corporate-viewpoint media empire.
Pam Martens, in this piece, goes deeper into it, following the tentacles of the Koch brothers who've devoted their lives to destroying any semblance of democracy in the land and extending the plutocratic oligarchy. Until citizens understand they are controlled by their mass media, nothing will change, which is why we do LUV News —Jack
Posted in Radio, Radio
NPR Takes the Low Road
This post courtesy of the Daily Beast describes the middle-of-the-road tactic taken by NPR during the latest repug hostage crisis — describing it in reality as the lowest low:
Every time I hear NPR (that allegedly socialistic outfit) describe the latest act of terrorism in neutral terms, the reporter taking care to blame "both sides," interviewing an expert who is prudent enough to know that on NPR's 501(c)(3) air she must, if she wants to be quoted again someday, hold responsible the mysterious and mostly unnamable failings of the amorphous "system" for this or that Republican hostage-taking exercise, I wonder if these people hear themselves and understand how they're misleading America. NPR is better than most places, so surely they must, just as many elected Republicans must just as surely be a little ashamed of how they're acting in public. What can change it? Only a crisis (I mean an actual one) so deep and threatening that even NPR must call things what they are, and even some Republicans must say, "OK, there is such a thing as collective action, and we'd better undertake it." Until then? More Lofgrens.


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Written for Isahitya. You may check out the interview here
Jyotirmoy Mazumdar is the new addition to the Indian book world. He is all of nineteen but has achieved a lot in his life. His debut novel, 'Did She Love Me?' hit the stores in the beginning of this month. He is presently a first year student of B.Tech in Computer Science from SRM University, Delhi. He is basically from Guwahati and is blessed with a writer Mom. I guess the writing skills come from his genes. According to him he is a writer by accident. Budding authors do have a new inspiration.
Jyotirmoy, in a candid talk with Harshita Srivastava talks about his book, the obstacles he had to go through while getting his book published and life apart from writing.
Qus: How does it feel to hold your book in hand?
Jyotirmoy : Well, my release was delayed by a long time, that made the anticipation a bit weak but when I held the book in my hand it was something I can't describe. I was feeling happy in the same time I was a bit nostalgic and emotional. I wished if my parents would have been with me, but overall it felt very good to hold my first book in my hand.
Qus: How did writing come into existence in your life?
Jyotirmoy : My mom is a writer but I won't relate that it helped me become a writer, I am a writer by accident, there were some incidents in my life which made me compose poems and songs. But then those poems and songs weren't enough to express my feelings, the book came out
Qus: Being a debut author, what hardships you had to face while writing as well as getting your book published?
Jyotirmoy : Being a debut author, the hardest thing is getting a good publisher and a good deal which you deserve for your book. There are many publishing houses but not every house entertains new authors easily. Writing a book is the easy part I suppose over to getting it out in the market. I was rejected a few times but I waited and finally got a couple of offers for myself and I hope I got the best one.
Ques : Tell us something about your book.
Jyotirmoy : My book is basically a story of a boy named Jayrish, and how his life unfolds with hurdles and wrong decisions when he falls in love. Love makes him do all the things he never thought he could do, be it fighting or revolting with his parents or going to unknown place for his love. The way he leaves his dreams and selflessly loves his girl that is remarkable.
Qus: In your book, you've shown the protagonist to be an epitome of selfless love. Do you think people like him actually exist in today's times?
Jyotirmoy : I wouldn't have got the story if people like him were imaginary. Yes people like Jayrish exist in this world, they are hard to find but when you find them you know how good this world can be.
Qus: How did you come up with the title of the book?
Jyotirmoy : The initial title of the book was "She Played Around" but that title kind of revealed the total story of the book. When I gave a thought to it, this title came to my mind as even when the story ends Jayrish is not sure if she really loved him or was it just an illusion from her side.
Qus: Is there any message you would like to give through your novel?
Jyotirmoy : Yes, there is a message I would like to give through my novel, no matter what happens we should stand for our dreams and love at the same time, wrong things happen but that's when we learn. No one and nothing is perfect, so we should learn to accept the people and live our life with the faults. One more thing I would like to say is that we should never disrespect our parents.
Qus: Is there any particular age group you are targeting?
Jyotirmoy: Not really, but the teenage would like the book more than the elders.
Qus: Tell us something about yourself.
Jyotirmoy : I don't really like speaking about myself but if I have to speak, I would say I am just a normal guy with some big dreams, an average student now. I like to write when I find time. I did my schooling from Happy Child High School, Guwahati, till my 10th and then I shifted to Delhi, now I am a first year engineering student from SRM University with Computer science.
Jyotirmoy : In India, we can't totally depend on a full time writing career until you are someone like Chetan Bhagat who sells over 15 million copies per book. I will keep writing till the end but a career as writing is not clearly in my eyes.
Qus: What kind of reviews have you got for your book till now?
Jyotirmoy : I have got positive reviews till now. Not a single negative review. I did not expect this but I am happy to see that people are liking my work. I am looking forward to more reviews from the readers, because it is the masses who decide if a book is good or not.


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From coffee cup lids to straws, cutlery and cups, polystyrene and "Styrofoam" products are everywhere. Even SOLO cups are made of 100% polystyrene plastic—the same plastic that's in a Dunkin' Donuts foam coffee cup.
Yes, really.
In honor of #plasticfreejuly, I'm sharing more information about the growing problem of plastic polluting our oceans. And "Styrofoam" is a huge culprit. [Read more…]


text:
Medicinal cannabis is expected to be available for patient use in Western Australia next year after new Commonwealth legislation makes it a controlled prescription drug on November 1.
Health Minister John Day said on Friday the medical community was divided in its views about medicinal cannabis but he'd long believed cannabinoids scientifically proven to have therapeutic value should be available to patients under strict controls.
"This change in legislation nationally will have the effect of making it available in controlled circumstances but probably not until well into next year ... I think is an appropriate step forward," Mr Day told 6PR radio.
"No way are we normalising the recreational use of cannabis through this change."
Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said he was pleased the Barnett government had made the decision but it had been "dragged kicking and screaming to follow our lead".
"I've always been a supporter of medicinal cannabis ... we've been calling for this for years," Mr McGowan told reporters.
"Rest assured if WA Labor is elected in March, I will make this a priority to bring this in as soon as possible."
Greens health spokeswoman Lynn MacLaren said the party was pleased the WA government had reversed its "archaic" position, adding the new industry would bring huge economic benefits.
Epilepsy WA chief executive Suresh Rajan said the next step should be adding medicinal cannabis to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to make it affordable.
"As a rough estimate based on what we've seen of products so far, we're looking at costs of somewhere between $300 and $1000 a month, depending on the severity of the condition and the dosage you need," he said.


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After migrating UCD codestation to NAS we get a permission deny error. access denied to deployserver.out and others. Has anyone ever performed the relocation and it actually worked? If so what did you do?
On Windows systems, there are several options for redirecting logs and artifacts, including mklink (supported in Windows 7 and later).
If you want to relocate Codestation, relocate both the var directory and the \logs\store directory
Troubleshooting documentation is terrible, or more accurately stated it is non-existent
Answer by abhipatti (2677) | May 15, 2015 at 08:57 AM
We had many customers successfully relocating the codestation on windows. One thing you need to make sure is the userid used to install the server will be the one trying to access it (Folders on NAS), so make sure that outside of UCD that user id can access the files on the file system
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We love hearing how our guests enjoyed their experience.
See below for reviews from past guests and write your own if you've visited us write a review. You can also read visitor reviews on Trip Advisor.
Such a neat day here exploring aboriginal culture. Staff are knowledgeable and friendly. There is plenty of opportunities for interacting and getting involved i.e. boomerang throwing. There are also some amazing presentations. We also had the buffet lunch which was yum!
Review by Anonymous (25-Aug-2015)
We went to Tjapukai in July 2015 and absolutely loved it! You should not miss going here if you go to Cairns. This was the highlight of our trip. My 7 year old son loved it too. We learnt so much. All the people who spoke and danced were absolutely fantastic. Well done Tjapukai!
Review by Anonymous (25-Aug-2015)
Fantastic Excursion!
I would highly recommend visiting this beautiful Cultural Park. It was such a wonderful experience learning about the Aboriginal Cultural! Staff were amazingly friendly and helpful! Highly recommended!
Review by Anonymous (20-Aug-2015)
Great Educational Experience!
We have visited Tjapukai twice previously and were delighted to see the substantial improvement to the building with a stunning entrance and improved dining and gift shop. It remains a wonderful education for our grandchildren from Sydney and the new introduction is very well produced and performed. We strongly recommend any visitors to Cairns and Port Douglas to allow a few hours to visit Tjapekai to gain a better understanding of Indigneous Australians.
Review by Gary (28-Nov-2015)
Incredible Cultural Experiences
Our culture is so important to us and we can't express more how incredible your experiences are. We highly recommend visiting Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.
Review by AAT Kings (07-Jul-2017)
Rewarding Experience
My family and I liked our evening experience so much we went back for a day visit as well .The staff and performers were great the activities were well organised and interesting. The laser show on creation was well worth the visit on it's own. Should allow a full day to enjoy all it has to offer.
Review by Anonymous (26-Aug-2015)
Nice Day at the Park
Loved the atmosphere. The park has everything for all ages. Interesting and fun. Our teenage kids loved throwing boomerang and spears.
Review by Anonymous (18-Aug-2015)


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So, you may have seen 1 or 2 teaser posts about this, but we can finally announce our news… Poorboy – One of Hull's best independent vintage retailers will be stocking their Remade Vintage Clothing in TOPSHOP!
We love our ASOS Marketplace models!
As of Saturday 3rd March we'll have garments exclusive to Topshop, and our Remade mini-collection will still be stocked in our boutique down Humber Street, too. We've also had a revamp of our logo done by the amazing artists over at Spray Creative
Our cosy ambient Boutique down Humber St, Hull.
The Poorboy brand began back in 2003, and after a few moves and makeovers we're now trading down Humber Street in the Fruit Market redevelopment area. With an online team successfully maintaining a top-rated ASOS Marketplace Boutique, Depop and Website that sells internationally.
Remade 90's Crop sweaters, Levi's Mom Jeans in a range of colours/styles and Raglan French Worker shirts – in different sizes and cuts suitable for lads, too!
The Remade collection started small with a few unique alterations, and now houses 8 styles at any time in the TOPSHOP collection, with over 50 Remade patterns archived.
This is a long time coming for us, with so much work put into this project. We really wanted to create a concession that would stand out amongst the high-street styles, and encourage younger shoppers to try vintage on for size! Find us on the ground floor in Topshop St Stephens.
Elena is wearing Remade Raglan Baseball style branded T-shirt with midi sleeves. Made from vintage T-shirts in need of a new lease of life, available in crop & long, black & white mixed brands such as Adidas, Nike, Fila, Puma, Disney Tees, USA Destination, and more! Eleanor and Georgia are wearing our Remade cord pinafore Dungaree dresses teamed with a turtle zip neck ribbed top.
How it works – Poorboy has a team of vintage graders within the company that sift through literally tonnes of internationally sourced clothing. We try to create our Remade collection from 'waste produce' to give it a new life, and do our little bit for the environment.
BTS with Models Georgia, Kye and Elena
For example, our Levi's 501 Mom Jeans are made from larger undesirable sizes, that we re-profile into a better fitted jean in a smaller size, maybe make an aesthetic change like a slash or dye job, then it's washed, prepped, tagged, bagged, delivered and happily sold on to it's new owner.
To find out more about us, give Browse Magazine's Roots and Routes article on owner Riccardo Seaton and our history: http://browsemagazine.co.uk/fashion-poorboy-boutique-cast-anchor-humber-street/


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Thank You!
Donors and patrons are the life-blood of the Toronto Consort. We create and present work for our audiences to enjoy. In turn, our audiences supports our work through ticket and subscription purchase and individual donations. We couldn't do it without you!
Starting December, 2015, we have the pleasure of publishing, three times annually, conversations with our donors.
We are delighted to kick off with this piece on long time patron and supporter, Vivian E. Pilar.
In February 2016, we meet The Forests – Al & Jane.
The Toronto Consort gratefully acknowledges the generous ongoing support of Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, our sponsor and foundation partners, our long-time government funders and our many wonderful dedicated volunteers.


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Found 13 software entries
beginning with: "E"
from category: 3D Rendering & CAD
Found 13 software entries
beginning with: "E"
from category: 3D Rendering & CAD
E-on Vue 5 Esprit
Vue d'Esprit is a 3D computer graphics software specialized in landscape design. It has a library of objects (plants, rocks ...), a library of parametric textures and a parametric field editor. Parametric sources can be mixed with each other and...
Electric Image Animation System 2.0
Electric Image (a.k.a. EIAS) is a 3D animation system for 68K Macs (altough it requires a FPU) which lets you import your 3D models in various formats from another modeling app and then render your animated 3D scene to a movie format. ...
Electric Image Animation System 3D Toolkit v1 from DVGarage
Electric Image Animation System EIAS 2.7 for Mac 68K
Electric Image Full PPC Collection from EIAS 2.5 to EIAS 2.9
Electric Image Universe 3D ToolKit 2 from DVGarage
Electric Image Universe 4.0
Electric Image Universe 4.0 is a very good quality professional 3D modeling and animation software suite for PowerPC Macs.
ElectricImage Animation System 1.5.1
Electronic PAD
Electronics Workbench
Expert Home Design
To date, Macintosh Repository served 922635 old Mac files, totaling more than 164547GB!
Downloads last 24h = 625 : 142084.6MB
Last 5000 friend visitors from all around the world come from:


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By: David Bone
There's conspiracy afoot in Ballantrae as villagers plot all sorts of shenanigans this week. Dubious characters have been spotted gathering old clothes, and a curious pair in 18th Century garb have been seen patrolling the streets. And there's talk that local worthies are on the verge of being detained by the authorities and put on public trial. No one is above suspicion - it's all set to culminate in 4 days of frenzied activity between 21 and 24 August.
The story is there are smugglers in town. And the Exciseman and the Judge have enlisted the help of local children to draw up posters and apprehend the scandalous culprits. These posters were displayed in Girvan's McKechnie Institute from 10-17 August.
This new "Smugglers Festival" is being staged by Ballantrae Development Group supported by Ballantrae Community Council and Carrick Futures. The aim is to encourage tourism and offer fundraising opportunities to local community groups. With an action packed programme, this unique series of events, which draws on the area's murky past as a haven for smugglers, looks certain to put the village on the map.
Last weekend 17-18 August smuggler scarecrows started appearing on the streets, in gardens, businesses and homes. By the afternoon and early evening of Wednesday 21st the local Judge and Exciseman will gather local and visiting children, swear them in as members of "The Excise" and seek their help as they scour the village following a "Smugglers Trail". There will be prizes for the most smugglers spotted.
By 7.30 pm on Wednesday 21st the Community Hall will have been transformed into the "Smugglers' Arms" for the rest of the week. Star attraction that night will be Frances Wilkins, a social historian and author who will be telling "Ballantrae's Smuggling Story" to adults and children and launching her new book all about the village's smuggling history.
At 7.30pm on Thursday 22nd there will be a "Secret Smugglers Film Night" with a screening to adults and children of a well-known classic film based on the true story of a Scottish coastal village whisky smuggling. And for 20 pre-booked adults from 8.00pm there's a chance to sample some of Scotland's finest whiskies in a special tasting night run by the Kirkoswald Whisky Experience.
But while everyone relaxes on the Thursday, the Exciseman and Judge will have been busy, tracking down the rogues trading contraband in the community – they'll be arrested and brought to trial at an interactive "Court of Justice" for all the family at the Smugglers Arms on Friday 23rd at 7.30pm in a public trial which is expected to throw up a few scandalous surprises…
Finally on Saturday from 1.00pm – 4.00pm the smugglers who have been captured will be punished at the Village Fayre – it's rumoured that some of the stallholders will be trying to offload their contraband – but watch out – we hear the Exciseman is planning a raid! The events will wind up with an evening of Folk music from 8.00pm till midnight for adults in the Smugglers Arms, organised Girvan Folk Club.
For further information go to www.ballantrae.org.uk/smugglers, Facebook Ballantrae Smugglers Festival or email firstname.lastname@example.com
Tickets for the various events are available from Craigiemains Home and Garden Centre, Main Street, Ballantrae (in person), by email from firstname.lastname@example.com or by phoning 07920517700.
If you live within travelling distance of Ballantrae you are cordially invited to join in the fun.


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"Amelie" won First Place in Artist's Magazine 28th Annual Art Competition (Portrait/Figure category) and is featured on the cover. "Ina's Umbrella" was a finalist.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Artist's Magazine Cover Art
Posted by Thomas Reis at 5:41 PM No comments:
Acopal Exhibit at the Butler Institute of American Art
I've been honored with an invitation to exhibit "Amelie" during Acopal's upcoming exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art from December 8, 2011 - February 22, 2010.
The exhibitors are:
An exhibition catalog is currently available.
The Butler Institute is the first museum of American art. The original structure, dedicated in 1919, is a McKim, Mead and White architectural masterpiece listed on the National Register of Historic places.
"Amelie" 12 x 19, Oil
Posted by Thomas Reis at 5:23 PM No comments:
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Form <input> elements must have labels
How to Fix the Problem
Programmatically associate labels to all form controls and ensure there are no duplicate labels. You can do so by using an implicit
label element and explicit
aria-label, or
aria-labelledby attribute values.
Form elements that should have labels
- Text entry fields, e.g.
<input type="text">,
<input type="password">and
- Radio buttons,
<input type="radio">
- Checkboxes,
<input type="checkbox">
- Select menus,
The only exceptions for this requirement are:
- Buttons — buttons are self-labeling
- Hidden inputs — Inputs with the type attribute value of hidden (e.g.,
type="hidden"). These inputs are hidden and unavailable for user input. They therefore need no label.
When adding labels, be sure to avoid the following:
First name: <input type="text" name="fname">
This markup renders to produce a textbox with the words "First name:" next to it. Sighted users have no problem associating the text with the input field. Nevertheless, this connection is not as clear for non-sighted users, especially as forms grow longer and more complex. This ambiguity can make errors more likely, especially when the information required is more complex than a first name.
To fix the above example, you should create an association between the label text (i.e., "First name:" and the input field. Best practice is to add an explicit, rather than implicit association. All modern browsers and major assistive technologies support explicit labeling for all form elements. Explicit labels also have the added benefit of making the clickable area on a form element larger, making it easier for all users, though particularly those with motor disabilities, to click on relatively small form elements.
Methods for adding labels
- Create a
labelelement wrapped around the input field. This creates an implicit, rather than explicit, association between the label and the input field.
- Associate the
labelelement with the input field using the
forattribute whose value is the
IDattribute of the input. This creates an explicit, rather than implicit, association between the label and the input field.
- Use an
aria-labelattribute value.
- Use
aria-labelledbyattribute value.
For detailed instructions on how to implement these various labelling methods, see the Automated Checks that run as a part of this rule.
Finally, ensure that each
input element has only one label. Note that if any of your
input elements have help text, be sure this text differs from the
label element text.
Why it Matters
Effective form labels are required to make forms accessible. The purpose of form elements such as checkboxes, radio buttons, input fields, etcetera, is often apparent to sighted users, even if the form element is not programmatically labeled. Screen readers users require useful form labels to identify form fields. Adding a label to all form elements eliminates ambiguity and contributes to a more accessible product.
When labels for form elements are absent, screen reader users do not know the input data expectations. Screen readers cannot programmatically determine information about input objects without an established label relationship (or redundant text serving as a label).
The absence of labels prevent fields from receiving focus when read by screen readers, and users with impaired motor control do not get the benefit of a larger clickable area for the control since clicking the label activates the control.
Rule Description
Each form element must have a programmatically associated label element.
The Algorithm (in simple terms)
Ensures that every form element has a programmatically associated label.


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The intertwining branches of consulting
What's the difference between management consulting and strategy consulting and why does it matter?
Have you ever asked yourself what the difference between management consulting and strategy consulting is? Or perhaps the difference between leadership consulting and business coaching?
If you have, don't worry - you are not alone. Much like soft tacos and hard tacos, these terms can have subtle differences, with some overlapping features (or many, in the case of tacos). In fact, there has been some debate on Wikipedia regarding the potential of merging some articles related to different types of consulting. On a side note, "soft tacos" and "hard tacos" have already been merged into one article on Wikipedia, in case anyone is wondering.
Some specialists may argue against such a generalization of the business consulting industry, but even putting the technical definitions aside, we can explore the intertwining nature of some types of consulting.
Management consulting can be seen as more general and needs-based, advising companies on the most efficient way to operate, structure and manage their employees, or choose the best financial model. In the meantime, strategy consulting is defined to have more of a 'big picture' view, addressing questions such as "what do we do?" and "what differentiates us from our competitors?". There is a difference, when we define it in theory like this. However, in practice, are these fields that separate?
We think not. Most of the time, one type of consulting will lead to the need for another, or even oscillate between each other, like crossing the Galata Bridge in Istanbul back and forth over and over again to go between Europe and Asia, to provide a very holistic assessment and assistance to an organization.
Sometimes, it could even be impossible to provide one service without the other. A consultant could be evaluating a potential new product strategy against the competition in the market when he or she comes across questions relating to production costs or the new operating model, transitioning from strategy to management consulting services.
So what, you ask.
As company departments and divisions become better and better connected and managers start to understand and utilize their interdependence, consulting companies and independent professionals begin to offer more comprehensive services, encompassing everything from top level strategy to middle manager leadership coaching. This does not mean modern-day consultants stop being specialists in their field. However, this trend does call for a more "Jack of all trades" approach to consulting.
For small and medium sized consulting firms specializing in a specific type of consulting, this is a wakeup call to diversify. Offering more than just one kind of service could become an important differentiation factor that would result in clients choosing your firm over a competitor.


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A1′s full-service recruiting experience and network of recruiting experts use consultative and client-specific strategies to find right-fit talent for the company's culture and business demands.
For more than 16 years, A1 has provided businesses with highly qualified professionals to fill short and long-term temporary and contract positions.
Let us help you alleviate your administrative payroll burdens! We've been providing centralized payroll services for more than 16 years. So, no matter what your needs may be, we have a solution.
A1 Placements provides an entire gamut of testing and assessment services that includes consulting, test content, delivery and reporting services.


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If your company works on logistics and involves heavy containers and other heavy things, then using wooden pallets would be your basic needs. They are very easy to look for everywhere and one of the biggest company is the Houston pallets. There are a lot of pallets made of different materials available on the market, but wooden pallets are still the most popular one. They are useful and harmful at the same time, but still, the advantages of using the wooden ones becomes the main trigger of people's preference.
The advantages of Using Wooden pallets
Wooden pallets is the main option for people who works with shipments and deal with containers. And this is why recycling pallets is absolutely needed. You can see the major factors that influence people to choose this.
This pallets are just affordable and inexpensive containers and you can get this almost everywhere at very low prices compared to other options for pallets you can get including metal and plastic. Most of the client who wants to purchase pallets will as well choose the low budget containers that can be reusable at ease. Therefore, the wooden pallets is still the best option people have for a container.
Durable and strong
Although almost of these pallets are cheap but it does not mean that they don't have enough durability to resist heavy and bulky materials on them.The durability of this material is awesome as well as having reliable structure to be used as containers accommodating huge cargo in them.
Easily available
The easiness to find these pallets becomes the main reason for people to choose this kind of pallets as their primary. The clients as well like to purchase these pallets because there is no time wasted during the shipping process for searching out pallets made of specific materials that are usually not available for the clients.
Can be Repaired easily
Damaged wooden pallets are so easy to handle. You can perform the repair simply by putting in small nails with hammer. You don't need to have certain expertise to repair them.
You can recycle wood pallets easily without need of any special skills. You just need to use your own creativity and you will be able to convert them into many things such as flower beds, fences and tables.
High level friction
The main feature of wood pallets are their high friction on different surfaces which makes less chance of slipping the contained materials.
Wood pallets are not the perfect tool since it is made from organic material.
Exposed to bacterial growth
As stated before, the wooden pallets are made out of woods, which is organic and is vulnerable with various bacteria growth. You should handle these with extra care if you don't want them to produce unpleasant smell and texture.
Can develop fungus
As well as bacterias, they are also vulnerable to fungus, so you should keep them dry or put them under intense sunlight once a week.
Difficult to clean
Because of its texture, wooden pallets are also very tough to clean.


text:
VeChain (VET) Price Soars Post Microsoft Game Book Announcement
The post VeChain (VET) Price Soars Post Microsoft Game Book Announcement appeared first on NewsLogical .
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text:
Kudos is all about premium quality and outstanding service.
Russell Barker created Kudos following many years of working on prestigious vehicles like Audi, BMW, Porsche and Volkswagen. Throughout his career, Russell has achieved numerous awards for his outstanding work, customer care and management skills, a methodology he now takes into Kudos.
2014 has seen Kudos invest heavily in the latest state of the art production and technology equipment, ensuring the company delivers only the very best in customer service and quality. Kudos provide their services to both retail and trade clients and is happy to quote to meet any bespoke requirements.
Please feel free to visit us for advice or a quotation; alternatively call 01246 234595 or email email@example.com
Customer commitment:
Kudos understands the importance of customer driven service. This ethos evolved from our time working within the prestigious car market. Our commitment is to deal with your enquiry promptly, quote fairly and competitively and provide timescales that are achievable. This ensures you are completely satisfied all the way from first contact to final delivery.


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auctioned by Heritage Comics recently (registration required to see the details and full scans). It was among the stories that Mayer did in the early 1980s for foreign publishers, some of which were published in DC's digest comics of the era, but most of which have never been published in English in any format. It's a delightful little story, made all the more so when I cross-checked and verified that it neither appeared in any of the digests or on any list of the unpublished stories I had. Since I've been wanting to post some more stuff on Mayer here, and since the story seemed to work so well split into tiers, I figured I'd show it here (the original scans at Heritage are still worth taking a look at, with the blue-line editorial corrections which I cleaned up).
Anyway, while the story isn't quite to the level of Mayer's best, it's a good sample of his work. The pacing of the joke is great, the body language amazing (I love Sugar's glower and reaction shot on the last page), and I like how he sneaks in a gratuitous "Spike being knocked down" gag.
Hope you enjoyed, whether S&S is new to you or if you thought you'd read it all. If you'd like to see more, consider my recommendation in the last post about letting DC and your retailer know about it. There's over 3000 pages of material they have to work with, almost all of it unseen in over three decades, plus a few thousand more pages of Mayer's SCRIBBLY and funny animal work, enough to keep a robust publishing plan occupied for years.


text:
Join Our Team
Are you passionate about the drinks industry? Do you live and breathe exceptional customer service? Does the idea of dealing with more than 10,000 spirits, Champagnes and drinks from across the globe and bygone eras excite you? If so, you could be exactly the person we're looking for.
Our Vacancies
We currently have vacancies for the following roles:
If you think you have what it takes to join the Speciality Drinks team please send a copy of your CV to [email protected]
Speciality Drinks Group
We currently have vacancies for the following roles:
The Whisky Exchange
Speciality Brands
If you would like to find out more please send a cover letter and a copy of your CV to [email protected].


text:
A list of books at various stages of my reading pipeline.
Last updated: March 2019. If this gets more than a few months out of date, I'd appreciate a gentle reminder to update it (@kevinsimler).
Currently reading
- Ian Worthington, The Long Shadow of the Ancient Greek World [lecture series].
- Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score [audiobook].
- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
On the radar
- Thomas Metzinger, Being No One.
- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media.
- James Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, The Sovereign Individual.
Recently finished
- Garrett Fagan, The History of Ancient Rome [lecture series]. Great. I really liked Fagan's style and approach to telling history, and found him a very reliable narrator. This series is organized more thematically than Duncan's series (below), especially during the imperial period, which I greatly appreciated.
- Mike Duncan, The History of Rome [podcast]. Nominally a podcast, but more like an audiobook or lecture series. Duncan takes you through the full history or Rome, from its early Regal period, through the Republic, and to the very end of the Empire. I gave up on it shortly after the Republic turned to the Empire, though, when it turned into an endless parade of palace intrigues. At first I was pretty happy with the series, but after listening to the Garrett Fagan's version of it (above), I became disenchanted with Duncan's version. It was too much a series of events, not organized thematically enough for my tastes.
- James C. Scott, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. Excellent. Highly recommended for just about everyone. There are two things in particular I appreciated about this book: (1) States are deeply important to how our world works, and Against the Grain investigates them in their earliest, inchoate forms. The logic of things is often laid bare at their beginnings, and this is a perfect instance of the phenomenon. (2) Scott inquires about the origin of states from a contrarian perspective. The default view that you may have inherited from our culture (as I did) portrays states as unequivocally beneficial. Civilization = good, barbarism = ugly. But Scott nearly turns this on its head. He understands life in a state — especially an early agrarian state like Uruk — to be oppressive, crowded, monotonous, and subject to all sorts of ecological and political shocks (famine, drought, pestilence, war). As you might imagine, this turns out to be an especially interesting perspective from which to inquire about early statehood, because he can't assume that life in a state is straightforwardly better than life outside it.
- Richard O. Prum, The Evolution of Beauty [skimmed around to get the gist of it, but didn't read it cover to cover]. Provides a valuable perspective on evolution, namely, that runaway sexual selection is real and exceptionally arbitrary. Overall I was pretty disappointed in it, though. The book purports to be about beauty but focuses exclusively on sexual selection (mate choice), without so much as an index entry for flowers (smh...). In other words, the title is misleading.
- Tara Westover, Educated. Memoir of a woman who was raised in very fringe and isolated family of Mormon survivalists, who later reconnected with mainstream society by getting into college. I don't read a lot of memoirs so I'm not well-calibrated here, but I thought it was an interesting story and very well told.
- Ron Milo and Rob Phillips, Cell Biology by the Numbers [read about half of it]. This book pairs really well with The Machinery of Life (below). Together they paint a detailed picture of what happens inside a cell. This book, unsurprisingly, takes a more quantitative approach. It focuses on the sizes, speeds, concentrations, intensities, and many other aspects of the key objects and processes inside a cell.
- Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life. One of the most disappointing books I've read in a long time. It was more about octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which are certainly cool) than about "other minds" or intelligent life per se.
- David Goodsell, The Machinery of Life. Spectacular book for developing intuition of what goes on inside a cell. The text is OK but the illustrations are absolutely stunning and make the book worthy of a strong recommendation. If you like this blog post by Ken Shirriff, you'll probably like Goodsell's book. You can also check out most of the illustrations on Google image search.
- Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, The Dictator's Handbook. Very good, highly recommended. See tweetstorm for more details.
- Geoff Manaugh, A Burglar's Guide to the City [audiobook]. Strong meh. The book was entertaining enough, I suppose, and well-written, but I hardly learned anything from it. There was a very small kernel of an interesting concept, but it was spun out too far and couldn't hold the weight of a full book, IMO.
- Cesar Hidalgo, Why Information Grows.
- Mervyn King, The End of Alchemy. Not recommended. Offers a concrete suggestion for how to change the incentives around banking/central banking, but it doesn't seem like a great idea to me. This is the best (most critical) review, IMO. Also suggests that modern econ doesn't sufficiently emphasize our "radical uncertainty" about how markets will evolve. IOW, we put too much faith in models and don't realize how often they completely break down. Fair enough.
- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny. Great (and short!) book. Probably preaching to the choir, but it's a great sermon. I like Sam Harris's advice (from this podcast): The book is worth reading even if we aren't on the road to tyranny.
- Geoffrey West, Scale. I'm strongly ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, the topics he covers are extremely important, and he brings a fresh/deep perspective to them. On the other hand, the book is poorly-written. It suffers from long-winded digressions, weird jabs against non-physicists, and (most disappointing of all) a surprising dearth of explanations for the phenomena he describes. Also I think he overstates the case for some of his big claims. If you want a good overview of the main ideas without the bother of having to read the book, I do heartily recommend this lecture of his from a few years ago.
- Matt Ridley, The Evolution of Everything. Recommended. See tweet (TBD: some choice excerpts).
- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene. See tweetstorm. Bottom line: not recommended. It's thorough and well-written, but the ideas:stories ratio is way too low for my taste.
- Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, Algorithms to Live By (HT: Julia Galef, Ben Mathes). I wanted to hate this book. I expected it to be a vapid popularization of trivial ideas from computer science. Mostly, I was jealous that the authors had identified such a great idea for a book, and I was hoping they would botch the job. Buuuuut they didn't. The book was great. I can't say there was anything radically new for me (although I did learn some things), but the biggest takeaway was just how many different areas of life can be studied algorithmically. (Caveat: I skimmed and skipped around a lot.)
- Robert Caro, Master of the Senate (HT: Kevin Kwok, Alok Singh). I made it about two-thirds of the way through, so given my track record, I'll count this one as "finished." It was great! And it was exactly as Kevin pitched it to me — simultaneously a portrait of a system and of a man within that system. In other words, it's as much about the Senate as it is about LBJ. If (like me) you dislike traditional biographies for focusing too much on psychological factors, Caro is a breath of fresh air. He's a keen systems thinker, and it shines through in his work. Bonus: some soaring prose.
- Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet, Perfect Health Diet. Write-up coming soon.
- Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Solid self-help book on how to cultivate a more deliberate relationship with your possessions. Full of quirky advice inspired by Shintoism. Here's my full book report.
- Tudor and Pearson, North Korea Confidential. Write-up coming soon.
- Philippe Rochat, Others in Mind. I was pretty excited for this book, especially after reading Sarah Perry's riff on it. Its thesis is right up my alley — namely, that we develop self-consciousness by interacting with others and internalizing their models/judgments of us. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot out of the book, and gave up halfway through. I recommend reading Sarah's blog post instead of the book. You can also read my notes and highlights here.
- Pieter Hintjens, The Psychopath Code. (Amazon paperback; free e-book.) Easy read, pretty insightful. Full "book report" here.
- YouTube channels. I realize this isn't exactly "reading" material, but it's been intellectually stimulating nevertheless. I recommend PBS Space Time (astrophysics), 3Blue1Brown (math), and Caspian Report (geopolitics).
- Podcasts. Also not "reading" material, but there's some truly amazing content out there — in particular, Hardcore History and EconTalk. These two podcasts have both been around for a while, but for some reason I didn't start listening to them until just recently, despite many recommendations. Well, let me add one more voice to the chorus: these are both excellent.
- Martin Nowak and Roger Highfield, SuperCooperators. Read half of it, then got distracted. Excellent overview of the many different ways Nature has found to cooperate. I explored one of these mechanisms in this post, but it's good to understand all the different mechanisms. In particular, the idea that cooperation can evolve because of spatial configurations was new to me (chapter 3).
- Michael Chwe, Rational Ritual. Read half of it, then got distracted — but it's very good. Subtitle is "Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge." If that piques your interest, you will almost certainly enjoy this book.
- more...
Recently abandoned
- Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes. I know this stuff is supposed to be interesting, but I just couldn't get into it.
- Paul Feyerabend, Against Method. Wasn't really challenging my Popperianism the way I had hoped. Probably says more about me than about the book.
- Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success. Probably a great book,
but I'm easily distracted.
Other people's "reading" pages
- Venkatesh Rao. His was the inspiration for this page.
- David Chapman.
- Patrick O'Shaughnessy.
All time most influential
These are the three books I recommend to everyone, largely because they're awesome, broadly appealing, and mercifully short:
- Keith Johnstone, Impro. Packs more fascinating nuggets of insight per page than almost any other book. It's weird to be so enchanted by a book about how to teach improv. But when you're improvising, you need very quick, very accurate rules for parsing a scene and understanding your role in it. As it turns out, those rules are useful both on and off the stage.
- Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History. Clocking in at just over 100 pages, it's a concise, elegant summary of the authors' 11-volume, 10,000-page series, The Story of Civilization. The ideas are broad without being shallow, and the language is absolutely breathtaking. I recommend this book to just about everyone.
- Alan Watts, The Tao of Philosophy. Takes me very much outside of my Western/scientific/Aspie comfort zone, but in a way that really resonates with me.
And here are the rest of the books that have had the greatest influence on my thinking (in no particular order):
- Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness. Worth reading even if it's wrong. Here's my review.
- Erving Goffman, Interaction Ritual. Illustrates, probably better than any other book I've read, the intricate logic of social interaction.
- Joseph Jordania, Why Do People Sing?. You can read my summary here. An absolute mindfuck of a theory. Like Jaynes, worth reading even if it's wrong.
- Jean-Louis Dessalles, Why We Talk. Starts out slow and perhaps tedious, but picks up speed at a compounding rate, each chapter more insightful than the last. Chapters 17 and 18 explain the deepest principles of human social behavior better than any other 30 pages I've read.
- Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest. If you don't really believe, deep in your bones, that human beings are animals, this book will fix you.
- Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind. How humans actually, empirically, think about morality.
- Judith Rich Harris, The Nurture Assumption. Why parents have less influence over their children than they think. Her follow-up book, No Two Alike, is also great, and was the basis for my series on personality.
- Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations. If epistemology is the crux of a worldview, then this is what everything else hangs on.
- Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, The Mind's I. A collection of essays and stories illustrating all that is puzzling and fun about the philosophy of mind.
- Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. A college-level course in evolution, taught in Dennett's clear and engaging style.
- Thomas Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions. Some good, solid theory about how institutions (rather than individuals) process knowledge and make decisions.


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Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to Maria (Love to See You Again) by Stuart Marty. Please check back for more Stuart Marty lyrics.
Maria (Love to See You Again) Lyrics
Artist: Stuart Marty
Album: Marty Stuart
From the Fairbanks of Alaska
Through the Rockies I did run
Down the trail from Appalachia
Hiding from a long-armed lawman's gun
Stowed away in San Francisco
Down to Baja with the wind
Ah Maria, love to see you again
Ensenada was my harbor
And through the low life I did roam
There my sweet Maria found me
Took my hand and took me home
There she healed me in the waters
Of her love and tenderness
Ah Maria, love to see you again
Ah Maria, love to see you again
Sergeant Lopez can't be trusted
Though my Maria pays him well
For his silence is my freedom
And what he knows he mustn't tell
Wanted posted from Alaska
Murder in the first degree
They say that gringo in that picture
Looks a lot like me
See the walls of steel and concrete
Staring at me in the cold
Soon the chaplain will be callin'
Oh God have mercy on my soul
And when the faceless man he asks me
What might last request might be
Ah Maria, love to see you again
Ah Maria, love to see you again
Ah Maria
Stuart Marty Lyrics
Stuart Marty Marty Stuart Lyrics
More Stuart Marty Music Lyrics:
Stuart Marty - Boogie For Clarence Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Goin' Nowhere Fast Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Mirrors Don't Lie Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Mr. John Henry, Steel Driving Man Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Paint The Town Tonight Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Til The End Of The World Rolls Around Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Walls Of A Prison Lyrics
Stuart Marty - Western Girls Lyrics


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Stonington Alerts
Community and emergency notifications, directly from Town officials to you.
The Town of Stonington has implemented a state-of-the-art community notification system to alert residents about emergencies and other important community news.
The Stonington Alerts notification system provides accurate and immediate notifications to your cell, work or home phone, via text, email or voice message. Receive notifications that may affect your home, business, workplace, school or any other locations within Stonington.
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Employee Portal
Portal for Town of Stonington Employees.
Mobile Member App
Keep up to date with alerts using your smartphone!
Visit the Apple Store (for iPhone and iPad) or the Google Play Store (for Android devices) and search for the Everbridge Mobile Member App. You must already be signed up for Stonington Alerts to use these apps.
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Curriculum and Planning
Lesson Design
High Quality Instruction
Reading, writing, and student discourse
Higher order thinking questioning
Checking for understanding within a lesson
Differentiation within lessons
Data Analysis
Creating aligned assessments
Analyzing assessment results
Differentialation of Instruction
Strategic grouping
Scaffolding skills and concepts
Welcome to the New Bedford Curriculum Resources website! The site is structured around the New Bedford Instructional Framework (NBIF). The NBIF is meant to be a resource for teachers and instructional leaders in the district, and it is composed of two pieces. The first piece of the NBIF is an outline of the components of rigorous instruction, including:
These main components of rigorous instruction are not simply a new set of standards for principals to use when evaluate teachers. They are not a checklist of requirements that teachers must include in every lesson. They are not a substitute for the Educator Evaluation Rubric.
Rather, the NBIF seeks to provide a common understanding of rigorous instruction to all teachers and instructional leaders in the district so that they can engage in more substantive, growth-producing conversations about instructional practice. The NBIF breaks down rigorous instruction into a set of finite skills on which teachers can focus to develop their practice, with support from their principals and the Office of Instruction. Moreover, the NBIF is aligned with the Educator Evaluation Rubric and the district's Accelerated Improvement Plan, so it is not "another thing on our plate." In fact, it is actually a narrower view of both the Educator Evaluation Rubric and the AIP to promote greater focus in the district.
The second piece of the NBIF is the resource bank presented on this site. Organized and developed by the Office of Instruction with contributions from principals and teachers, this resource bank seeks to support all teachers and instructional leaders in the district as they strive to improve student outcomes in New Bedford Public Schools.
To get started, please click on the four components of the NBIF below to access the corresponding resources. If you are a parent or family member of a New Bedford student, please click on "Resources for Families" to access resources on how best to support your student.


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Grab the unit at Plan 3799 for 16GB model and at Plan 5000 for the 32GB model. It is also available with one-time cash out at lower plans or via prepaid phone kits.
"The long wait is over. Globe is changing everything again by bringing the white iPhone 4 exclusively to mobile phone users in the country. The white iPhone 4 is perfect for customers who want to personalize their iPhone 4 experiences with a different look while keeping everything that makes iPhone 4 amazing," said Peter Bithos, senior advisor of consumer business at Globe Telecom.
These white models of the iPhone 4 are also available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the United States.
Here are the specs I grabbed it from Apple's iPhone's website:
iPhone 4 White Specs:
•Available in 16GB or 3GB Capacity-Internal Memory
•Retina 3.5"Widescreen Multitouch Display with 960x640-pixel (326ppi)
•5MP Still Camera with auto focus,flash & zoom(5x), 2592x1944 pixels image resolution
•720p HD Video Recording (30fps)
• Keyboard, Language and Dictionary support is available at 40+ languages.
•Cellular (EDGE, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA (3G),), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS connectivity
•Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, could run up to 300 hours in standby mode and 7 to 40 hours of full usage in 3G, 2G, Internet,Video and Audio Playback, etc.
Cons: No External Memory Slot, No FM radio, No Java.


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Wooden LEGOs from Mokurukku: A non-plastic alternative
For parents who are trying to avoid plastic toys like the plague (and probably with varying degrees of success, considering the ubiquitousness of plastic), there is a Japanese company that is making affordable LEGO-style blocks out of durable woods.
Coming in a sack of 50 pieces, Mokurukku's well-crafted wooden MokuLock blocks are made out of maple and birch. Each piece measures approximately 32 by 16 by 13 millimetres, and come in a variety of subtle but natural shades, and textures perfect for sensitive little fingers.
And fear not, if your kids won't part with their plastic LEGOs, according to State of Green these wooden beauties are compatible with their plastic cousins.
An interesting aside: LEGOs used to be made out of wood, before the factory burned down, twice -- prompting the move to plastic LEGOs.
The set costs US $32, for ages three and up. Check out Iichi to purchase.


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Raven Internet Marketing Tools
Feed on Your Competitors?
Well maybe not literally, but the right platform will put you at a competitive advantage!
Raven Tools are promoted as "A Powerful Internet Marketing Platform" and claim they'll "help you work faster and smarter".
In this series of posts, I will look in some detail at what Raven actually deliver and hopefully answer your questions such as:
- Do Raven Tools deliver value for money?
- Are they appropriate for your business?
I will also look at how you can use Raven Tools to gain a march on your competitors, and leverage all their hard work.
And yes. I am an affiliate for Raven Tools, but I feel comfortable promoting >them as use them myself. (I also feel comfortable pointing out their limitations.)
Value for Money?
I first started to really notice Raven a year or so ago. They were advertising heavily on webmasterradio.fm, and I was driving a tractor round in circles mowing the front block and listening to a few downloads. I guess their advertising worked, because I decided to give them a go!
This is a bit unusual for me as I don't invest much in tools. I use spread sheets a fair bit to organise my SEO and PPC work, and many of the most important tools are free.
A good example is keyword research. Why spend money on keyword research when Google's Keyword Tool is free? Same deal with traffic and conversion analysis and Google Analytics.
So do Raven Tools deliver value for money? What type of online business are they
appropriate for? Do they add value in particular areas or do they just aggregate the data?
Here's a list of the main functional areas Raven is designed to help with:
- Keyword Research
- Competitor Research
- Assessing Website Quality and Design from an SEO perspective
- Content Management
- Link Research and Management
- Aggregating Social Media Management
- Monitoring Search Rankings
- Reporting, with white label option
The main idea is to provide a user interface that integrates these functions, so as to save time and keep everything organised.
I have some issues with the reporting side of things – at least as Raven promotes it – but I do think Raven Tools deliver real value.
There are plenty of tools available for the online business entrepreneur or consultant, and plenty of ways to spend money. So how do Raven Tools deliver value for money?
In short:
Raven provides a framework for your Internet marketing efforts.
Running effective marketing campaigns is hard. It requires an understanding of key areas such as market and competitor analysis, how to implement the right strategy and tactics for the market, how to keep up a consistent effort , and how to keep track of everything including links, content, social media, competitors etc etc.
Failure to manage your marketing effectively is as likely to cause the failure of an online business as poor selection of a product, or service.
Rather than trying to manage campaigns using a range of disparate tools and spread sheets, a set of integrated tools like Raven will help you move forward promoting your business online.
Most online businesses fail, so anything that keeps your business out of the failed side of the ledger has to be worth something.
Is Raven appropriate for your business?
Raven Tools provide two plans – Pro at $99 per month for indivduals and smaller agencies to Agency at $249 per month.
My personal view is that if you are serious about your business, then these sorts of prices are pretty small relative to other costs.
Even if you only have a single site to manage, having some serious intel on your competitors, the ongoing saga of managing links, keeping track of social media and your search rankings, all add up to major job.
Anything that can stream line all this and actually help make it happen has got to be worth serious consideration.
Raven Tools Limitations
Internet marketing is not just about tools, but it is how you use those tools that really counts
Raven Tools don't do everything. There are parts of their reports that don't add value to the way I work, and there is more to keyword research than just generating a whole bunch of lists.
One area I found to be weak was the report generator. Although the individual reports in each section of the Raven workflow were invaluable, the main reporting module – much touted as a white label solution for agencies – has limitations.
For example, if you were to do some analysis for a new client and simply print out the relevant report modules you would end up with a lot of data, and very little scope for summarising or editing the information. There is a WYSIWYG summary editor you can use prior to export in PDF mode, but this is pretty useless except for brief summaries.
Clients want you to provide insight and summary data – an overview – not just produce reams of canned data. I prefer to export the data in csv format, edit and summarise where appropriate, and compile the report in my own report template.
Other Benefits
Another benefit from subscribing to a marketing framework like Raven, is that they have to do the work in establishing an up-to-date view of the SEO and Internet Marketing world, which to some extent relieves YOU of the need to worry about it.
I would not overstate this, there are some significant areas – of keyword research and analytics for example –which are not really covered by Raven in much depth.
You still need to be learning about Internet Marketing, but I guess if you just follow the workflow implied by the Raven interface you will achieve a great deal in terms of marketing your business. And those who are new to the science will also learn a lot.
Raven Tools provide a great framework for managing the online marketing , imposing discipline and saving time.
See also – Raven Tools for Keyword Research.


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Movie News
HBO to Remake WESTWORLD With Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams
Get ready for a potential Westworld TV series! We've just learned that J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan are teaming up to bring us a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. The project is set at HBO, and will be an adaptation of the 1973 Yul Brynner cult classic of the same name.
At this moment we know that Nolan and his wife Lisa Joy are set to co-write the pilot script, while Nolan is also set to direct, and exec produce the whole thing with J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk and Jerry Weintraub.
In case you forgot, the original pic, written and directed by Michael Crichton, starred Brynner as an android in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park who creates havoc and terror for unsuspecting vacationers. Richard Benjamin and James Brolin also starred as guests of this creepy park.
As we said, according to the latest reports, HBO's upcoming project will be a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. Variety adds that the pilot production commitment is a big one by HBO's standards, indicated the depth of the pay cabler's interest in the project.
Let's hope this works out, make sure you stay tuned for more updates!