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The University of North Carolina System, the largest such system in the state, graduates 54,000 students each year across 200 academic programs. In addition to its 17 campuses, the system offers hundreds of online programs and thousands of fully online courses. This continues to drive online learning growth for a student body where more than one-fifth take at least a single online class each year. But beyond the UNC system, what other online colleges in North Carolina are fueling this growth, and which stand out when it comes to quality and cost? The following page gives current and future online students in the state a great place to start their online college research.
North Carolina boasts both public and private universities with historic pasts and strong reputations. The state has high student retention rates compared to neighboring states, indicating that these schools provide substantial support and motivation for students to finish their degrees. North Carolina's online schools offer a variety of majors and degree options, including renowned science programs at Duke University, the School of the Arts at the University of North Carolina, and the Wake Forest University School of Business. Let's see which North Carolina colleges with online programs are the best for 2018.
If you're interested in becoming a part of North Carolina's online and non-traditional college student population, start by asking the following questions:
Most major universities in North Carolina have separate departments overseeing the online student population, each with its own online portal. For example, students can use the University of North Carolina System's portal, UNC Online, to browse online programs or individual courses. This makes it easy for online students to identify which classes are available to them in their chosen majors.
Those interested in one of North Carolina's many private or nonprofit universities can browse their online programs using the North Carolina Independent College and Universities database.
The University of North Carolina generally accepts transfer credits from a regionally accredited institutions and for courses in which students earned a "C" grade or higher. Certain military training can also translate to UNC transfer credits. However, technical and professional school courses rarely transfer. For example:
North Carolina State: This school has a similar transfer policy, accepting courses completed with a grade of "C-" or higher. Online students at this school can reach out to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to discuss transferring.
Western Carolina University: The school's experiential learning program allows students to submit a work portfolio for consideration for full or partial course credits, although individual departments ultimately decide how to award these transfer credits.
The average high school graduate earns a living wage in North Carolina, but a college degree can significantly boost annual income. Here's a quick look at average annual salaries in North Carolina by minimum degree level requirements for their careers.
Mean Annual Salary for All Occupations in North Carolina, by Minimum Degree Requirement:
|No Formal
|High School
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017
Management positions in sales, marketing, and finance are some of the highest-paying positions that North Carolina college graduates can attain, with salaries exceeding $140,000 on average. Many of these careers require just a bachelor's degree, but significant advancement means years of business and leadership experience.
Sales represents a major portion of the North Carolina workforce, with more than 460,000 professionals in the field. A typical college-educated sales representative in the state earns about $96,520 per year. Sales agents working in securities, commodities and financial services earn about $88,000 per year.
Education is another growing field in North Carolina. Education professionals with college degrees typically earn about $57,320. Elementary and middle school teachers with bachelor's degrees earn about $45,690 on average. Postsecondary vocational education teachers are the highest-paid teachers in the state, earning about $53,610.
According to Payscale, the most lucrative bachelor's degree in North Carolina is a bachelor of science, followed by a bachelor of business administration and a bachelor of arts.
Bachelor's degree students have a wide range of online programs available to them in North Carolina. The University of North Carolina alone offers hundreds of programs. Narrow down your choices by seeking institutions with regional accreditation—the stamp of approval that matters most when vetting potential colleges.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) is a regional accrediting agency in North Carolina that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Major university systems in North Carolina, such as UNC, are accredited by the SACSCOC. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States, considered on par with Ivy League institutions. It is SACSCOC accredited and offers a robust catalogue of online courses.
Without accreditation, a school's degrees may not be recognized by employers or graduate programs, and students may not qualify for federal financial aid.
Also called subject or specialized accreditation, many programs within colleges apply for accreditation at this level to illustrate specific expertise. For example, a psychology department may seek accreditation from the American Psychological Association (APA), and a business school may approach the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) to earn accreditation for its MBA program. Some employers may look for graduates from these programs specifically, so make sure you research your academic accreditation needs before applying.
While some of North Carolina's highest-paying occupations require higher education, a college degree requires financial investment. According to Ballotpedia, in-state tuition and fees for North Carolina students at four-year colleges have risen by 56 percent in the past 10 years. This is 2.5 times faster than inflation rates. Tuition costs at UNC in particular have plateaued, but fees for certain majors continue to rise. At least half of North Carolina college graduates are paying down student loan debt three years after completing their programs. Let's see how in-state tuition looked in North Carolina in 2015.
In-State Tuition, Public Colleges & Universities: $6,944
Change from 2015 $286
National Average:$8,778
In-State Tuition, Private Colleges & Universities: $29,307
Change from 2015 $1,130
National Average:$27,951
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, 2016
Ballotpedia also reports that rising costs may be one contributor to North Carolina's decline in full-time student enrollment since 2012. Many students are drawn to online programs because their flexibility allows students to work while earning their degree. For example, UNC Pembroke has seen a 7% rise in online enrollment since 2008.
Some North Carolina schools remove on-campus fees for online students, helping to lower costs. For example, Appalachian State University waives most on-campus fees in its distance learning programs.
Schools generally charge comparable tuition rates for on-campus and online students. NC State, for example, charges $1,140 for up to five credit hours on campus, or between $240 and $1,180 for one to five credit hours online.
North Carolina's public colleges are generally more affordable than the state's private colleges, especially when you take in-state tuition into account. Each UNC campus has its own charges for online courses and credits. Prospective applicants can find tuition and fee information for individual online programs on UNC Online.
Each school has its own policy regarding online education costs, but there are some overarching rules established by North Carolina law. Learn more below:
According to the North Carolina Residency Determination Service, students must have established a legal residence in North Carolina for at least one year before starting school to qualify for in-state tuition at local colleges. In-state tuition recipients must also prove that they intend to live in North Carolina indefinitely, not just while attending college. Schools consider factors including where students are registered to vote, where their vehicles are registered and where they went to high school.
Both on-campus and online students can apply for residency status through the North Carolina Residency Determination Service.
North Carolina offers one of the most affordable public educations in the country, and online programs are no exception. For instance, UNC's Charlotte campus charges roughly $14,000 for a full-time, four-year online education, which is far less than the average U.S. online tuition of $37,200. Looking at online credit costs for undergraduates in 2018-2019, here are how some of North Carolina's colleges stack up against neighboring schools:
Liberty University (Virginia)
NOTE: Be sure to also factor in the additional fees online colleges charge beyond straight tuition per credit rates to fully understand the cost of earning an online degree in North Carolina.
North Carolina undergraduates have several options to secure financial support and scholarships for their educations. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is most students' first step. The College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) offers personalized help in completing the FAFSA.
Scholarships are also a great option for students looking to drive down the cost of their college program. Here are four scholarships specific to North Carolina.
Carolina Covenant is the University of North Carolina's scholarship program for students with significant financial need. It has helped nearly 2,500 students graduate with little or no debt.
UNC also offers the need-based Johnston Scholarship, which awards $10,000 for in-state residents and $20,000 for out-of-state students.
The Assistance League offers a unique scholarship opportunity for single working parents in North Carolina to earn their bachelor's degree, from $1,000 to $10,000 per academic year.
The NC Reach scholarship supports residents who aged out of the North Carolina foster care system or were adopted after their 12th birthday.
For comprehensive lists of North Carolina scholarship opportunities, view this CFNC database and this UNC page.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, nearly 70,000 North Carolina students participated in adult education programs in the 2016-2017 school year. These programs allow students to succeed during and after school while working and caring for a family. Here are some examples of adult education opportunities that can help aspiring college students get on the path to earning an online degree in North Carolina:
Adult High School Diploma Programs For some, the first step to earning a college degree is completing high school equivalency—learn how to do this in North Carolina.
College and Career Pathways Those who aren't sure what the best path through college means for them can take advantage of these college and career readiness programs.
English Language Acquisition Adults in North Carolina who are English language learners can use these courses to acquire the literacy proficiency needed to earn an online degree in the U.S.
North Carolina Community Colleges provides a list of adult education course providers for those interested in learning more about their local options.


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Replacing engine mounts
Oct 17, 2012 STORY AND PHOTOS BY HARRY HUNGATE
Engine mounts play a key role in preventing engine vibration from passing to the boat. These mounts were not aligned properly prior to installation.
If your engine mounts are more than five or six years old, or have been contaminated with seawater, engine oil or coolant, change them. Even if the mounts look perfect, the tough elastomer (rubber-like) material in the engine mount work-hardens over time and ceases to isolate the boat from the engine's vibrations. Seawater rusts the metal parts of the mount and can cause delamination of the elastomer and metal parts. Rust also weakens the mounting bolts and in extreme cases can cause bolt failure. Engine oil and coolant deteriorates the elastomer and also hastens delamination.
Poorly aligned engine mounts can also cause bolt failure. And, if you have noticed screws backing out on your boat, or if your oil pressure sensor has failed recently, then the root cause may be increased vibration due to bad engine mounts (or a misaligned shaft.)
This unit has a fractured mounting stud.
Engine mounts are designed specifically for each family of engines. The physical dimensions are an obvious requirement, but the dynamic response of the mount itself is not so obvious. While an aftermarket replacement mount will fit your engine, it may not necessarily damp the engine vibrations over the operating range. Specify replacement mounts from the engine manufacturer, or after-market mounts that have given satisfactory service on an engine identical to yours. Avoid experimentation as it is both costly and aggravating.
While waiting for your new engine mounts to arrive, measure the heights of each mount above the engine bed. Using a felt tip marker, place a mark on the engine bed and on the engine mounting arm so you can duplicate the measurement later. Make a sketch of the engine and write the dimensions down on the sketch. A digital caliper makes this job easy.
Repeat the measurement several times to determine an average reading. These measurements will be of great help in aligning the engine on the new mounts. Take the time to squirt some Liquid Wrench or other rust-breaker solvent onto the bolts, holding the engine mounts to the engine beds, and to the nuts above and below the stud that fastens the mount to the engine proper. Getting all of these fasteners free is important.
Inspect the engine carefully for water, oil, and coolant leaks. Repair these now before installing the new engine mounts. Inspect the exhaust mixer elbow carefully as it might be leaking. It is just above one of the mounts and any leak will drop onto the mount. Fix it now — it will probably take longer than you think!
Yanmar mounts are manufactured specifically for each side of the engine. That is, either the starter side or the oil filter side, as engine torque will change the effective loading on either side of the engine. Make sure that you get the mounts positioned on the correct side of the engine.
With a felt tip marker, make a "witness mark" on the two halves of the shaft coupling before removing the coupling bolts. Using a flat-blade screwdriver, separate the coupling halves an inch or so to allow the engine to move free of the shaft. Soak the bolts in some rust remover. Do not try to raise the engine without first disconnecting the shaft coupling.
Digital calipers are used to measure the mounting height.
The next step is to raise the engine off the mounts by using the adjusting nuts on each mount, and a series of wooden blocks of various thicknesses. Be very careful and think your way through each step. Replace one mount at a time, as you surely do not want the engine to fall. A pair or two of wooden wedges is very handy in blocking up the engine. Cut these on a power saw before you start this project.
Before removing each mount, note the position of the enlarged mounting hole or slot on one end of the old mount. Install the new mount accordingly.
Clean the engine bed of rust and debris before installing the new mount.
Install all of the bed bolts in each mount, but do not tighten them yet, as you will need to move the mounts to align the engine.
After all four new mounts are installed, and the engine lowered onto them, let the engine sit for a day or so to "settle" the mounts. The elastomer will compress a bit. If you align the engine immediately after replacing the mounts, the engine will drop a bit on the new mounts and negate your fresh alignment job.
Using your digital calipers, restore the engine to the original height per your sketch. Carefully clean both faces of the shaft coupling as any grit or corrosion will prevent an accurate alignment. Reconnect the halves of the shaft coupling. Remember to observe the witness marks to return the coupling halves to their original orientation. Install only one coupling bolt and nut loosely — just barely finger-tight. Using a feeler gauge, align the engine horizontally and then vertically. A rule of thumb is to get the alignment to less than one thousandth of an inch per inch of coupling diameter; i.e., to within 0.004 thousandths of an inch for a four-inch diameter coupling.
Repeat the vertical and horizontal alignments a few times, as each adjustment will change the other. Take your time and get the engine aligned as close to perfection as possible. There are several good YouTube videos on how to align a shaft or coupling if you are new to this game.
Drilling an engine bed bolt hole with right angle drill.
After making an adjustment, give the engine a few good shakes to settle it before checking the alignment with the feeler gauge. When you are satisfied with the alignment, tighten all of the engine mount bolts. If one or more of the engine bed bolt holes require redrilling, a right angle drill will make quick work of the job.
Check the alignment once more with the feeler gauge, clean the faces of the shaft coupling, and replace the coupling bolts after cleaning the threads with acetone and applying a drop or two of blue Loctite on the threads of each bolt.
Check all of the engine mount bolts for tightness before starting the engine. Run the engine in gear, over a wide range of revolutions, listening and feeling for any vibration. Shut the engine down and feel the coupling. A properly aligned coupling will not be hot.
Harry Hungate and his wife Jane replaced their engine mounts in Gaeta, Italy, last year before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They are now cruising the U.S. East Coast aboard their Corbin 39 Cormorant.
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THE RAVEONETTES get a lukewarm review for Pretty In Black. FWIW, I like what I've heard so far, though perhaps not as much as Chain Gang of Love, at least on first listen. I suspect the reviewer may be too young to remember that the Velvet Underground and the Jesus and Mary Chain mellowed over time also.
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TOM AND KATIE UPDATE: Katie Holmes once told Seventeen magazine: "I think every little girl dreams about (her wedding). I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise." But she's also said she's saving herself for Mr. Right and there'll be no sex before marriage. I knew that the New York Post would want to land on this like a ton of bricks and the paper bypassed Page Six to do an entire article on media skepticism of the pairing. The lede: "LESS than 48 hours after Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' publicists sought to convince the world that the unlikely pair have embarked on a hot romance, CNN's Bill Hemmer said on American Morning: 'What kind of sham is this, by the way?'"
CRUISE EXTRA: Out promoting War of the Worlds with Spielberg, Tom gets hit with some tough questioning about his involvement with Scientology by Der Spiegel (which isn't surprising, given that Scientology has had a rough go of it in Germany).
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY topped the weekend box office, but I was mildly disappointed. The filmmakers were in a bit of a box -- people who know the material won't have much to complain about, but they won't be surprised much, either. Nevertheless, glad I saw it, if only for Sam Rockwell, who turned a typically wonderful performance as Zaphod. I also saw Kung Fu Hustle and liked it but didn't love it -- which may be a recommendation since I don't care much for the martial arts genre.
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THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND settled a lawsuit stemming from human waste dumped from a tour bus onto people touring the Chicago River, agreeing to pay $200,000 to an environmental fund and take measures to avoid a repeat of the incident. Not sure what that last bit means... maybe they won't be using the john on their tour bus anymore.
NELLIE McKAY is working on her next album for a September release, which will feature a duet with Cyndi Lauper on a track titled "Bee Charmer." If you haven't herad her debut double-disc, you can stream clips from her site.
THE CAESARS seem to have a good attitude about the fame the iPod Shuffle ad using "Jerk It Out" has brought: "And if they only come out to hear the iPod song, that's fine too. We'll never complain about that. We'd rather be a one-hit wonder than a no-hit wonder, you know?"
IRAQ: Forensic experts are investigating a mass grave thought to contain the remains of as many as 1,500 Kurds killed in the 1980s.
IRAQ II: The U.S. and Italy disagree on the conclusions of a joint investigation into the killing of an Italian agent by U.S. troops in Iraq. An Army official said Italy was disputing two factual issues in the report: the car's speed as it approached the checkpoint and the nature of communications between the Italians and U.S. forces before the incident. CBS news has reported that a U.S. satellite had filmed the shooting and that it had been established the car carrying Calipari was traveling at more than 60 mph as it approached the U.S. checkpoint in Baghdad. For some reason, the Los Angeles Times edited that fact out of the Reuters story I just linked. Twice, actually.
CULT OF THE iPod: The Dutch are considering taxing MP3 players by the gigabyte.
CHINA: The government is now decrying demonstrations against Japan, having figured out that the marchers were not simply motivated by opposition to Japan.
ADVERTISING IDOL: Jeff Jarvis figures out a new way to get people to watch advertising.
GANGADHAM: A Hindu Disneyland on the Ganges? It's the Moksha Kingdom!
BACTERIA can now be programmed like a computer.
A CALIFORNIA PROFESSOR IS SUSPENDED after students in the Deaf Studies program complained that he tried to get them to take part in a Nigerian investment scam.
PENELOPE CRUZ denies she's a lesbian. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
LEBANON: The government formally announced the election will be held on time - on May 29th 2005. Michael J. Totten, blogging from Beirut, is ecstatic.
DIGITAL CINEMA: Steven Soderbergh has signed a deal with the billionaire entrepreneurs Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner to create six pictures shot by Soderbergh on high-definition video that will be released simultaneously in theatres, on DVD and television.
ROBOTS can elect their leaders and operate in packs. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
BURIED TREAURE UPDATE: Maybe it wasn't buried: The men who made national headlines by claiming they found a buried treasure in a Massachussetts back yard were charged Friday with stealing the collection of old currency from a house where they were doing roofing work.
EXPLODING TOADS UPDATE: As the exploding toads spread from northern Germany to Denmark, a scientist studying the amphibian remains theorizes that the phenomenon may be caused by crows pecking out their livers.
KEIKO IHARA, a former Japanese "race queen," is competing in the British Formula Three championship which produced Formula one great Ayrton Senna.
THE UNITED NATIONS Commission on Human Rights will have Zimbabwe sitting as a member for the next three years. No wonder even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed disbanding the UNCHR.
QATAR is paying protection money to al-Qaeda. A Qatari says they "are not the only ones doing so."
KYRGYZSTAN may be moving toward democracy; let's hope that helps put a stop to the growing practice of abducting women for marriage.
MALE AND FEMALE BRAINS are different. Who'da thunkit? Research into these variations could lead to sex-specific treatments for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.
JACKO JUSTICE: Prosecutors in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial on Friday showed jurors two books seized from his bedroom in 1993 that include pictures of nude boys. Would you be surprised to learn that Googling the titles of those books turns up A History of Homoerotica? Of course not.
DON'T CROSS THE GIRL SCOUTS: A scout group has filed small-claims lawsuits against people who failed to pay for their Girl Scout Cookies.
DO YOU BELIVE IN MIRACLES? That's what Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said it would take for Democrats to win a majority in 2006.
TRADING PLACES: At the Washington Monthly, Kevin Drum blogs an essay by Michael Walzer in the current issue of Dissent arguing that over the past few decades the basic temperaments of left and right in the United States have swapped places with each other. I think that there will be those on both sides that will disagree with that assessment, but it's an interesting argument.
SPIDERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA and... Donald Rumsfeld.
HIGH GAS PRICES: The New York Times has run an article arguing that one thing President Bush could do immediately to fix our energy woes is to bring back the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit. Aside from the fact that Congress would have to do this, rather than the President, the graph accompanying the story undermines the argument, as it shows that demand for gasoline did not drop until five or six years after the 55 m.p.h. limit was imposed in 1973. EconoPundit notes better strategy. Plus, the article ignores the Hagar factor.
EATING ICE CREAM MAKES YOU HAPPY, as confirmed by scientists. And thousands of women dumped by their boyfriends.
DROP THE CHALUPA! No, really, drop it.
FRIDAY TIME-WASTER: Yo La Tengo: Prisoners of Love -- the hipster's version of the classic "Breakout." And a nice way for Matador Records to promote the band's retrospective collection.
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS have posted the title track from the forthcoming Twin Cinema for download. Me likes it!
THE POSIES' album, Every Kind of Light, comes out around the end of June. You can hear a clip at the site for the Paleo festival.
BLOC PARTY is shaking up British indie rock, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
LEADBELLY: The only known film appearance of the legendary singer, edited by Pete Seeger, can be streamed at iFilm.
THE TROGGS TAPES: Said to be a major inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap, tapes of "instrumental incompetence, mutual recrimination and much foul language" are available to stream or download at LimeOne. Internet... I think I love you...
TALKING BACK TO 80's MUSIC: The latest in a series at Protein Wisdom. Also: the latest in Scenes From An Italian Restaurant.
REVENGE OF THE SITH: Kevin Smith, director of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, has seen Episode III and geeks out over it: "Revenge of the Sith is, quite simply, f---ing awesome. This is the Star Wars prequel the haters have been bitching for since Menace came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying. As dark as Empire was, this movie goes a thousand times darker..."
GEORGE LUCAS talks about "Life After Darth."
MARK MOTHERSBAUGH talks about life after Devo.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Us Weekly and Star magazine are having a tabloid catfight over those famous photos.
TOM CRUISE AND KATIE HOLMES photographed kissing, but still met with skepticism.
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL investigation spreads to German companies and a French bank.
PRESIDENT BUSH TO WED SAUDI PRINCE: A Borowitz Report exclusive and likely to remain so.
THE BIG BOY GRAVEYARD. Or Dr. Evil's crash site.
BOOZE IS BRAIN FOOD, when taken in moderation, of course.
TWIN CITIES FOLK like Pate bassist Mike Kelly may want to check out the newly-launched mnspeak site which, despite its title, does not read as though written by the cast of Fargo.
WAL-MART will burn a mix CD and mail it to you.
TABLETOP FUSION: Seth Putterman, a physicist at the UCLA, has turned a tiny crystal into a particle accelerator. Putterman is not claiming to have created a source of virtually unlimited energy, because the reaction isn't self-sustaining. Even so, it's pretty neat.
DO THE BOSSA NOVA to the songs of The Clash, Joy Division, Modern English and more, courtesy of Nouvelle Vague, streaming from VH1.
BOB MOULD: Billboard has details on his July release of Body of Song.
MINUTEMEN: Flagpole magazine covers the making of the documentary, We Jam Econo: the Story of the Minutemen.
CBGB Gallery hosted a fete for director Don Letts' Punk: Attitude, which premieres on IFC in July. Tommy Ramone, "Handsome" Dick Manitoba of the Dictators, Martin Rev of Suicide, Punk magazine founders Legs McNeil and John Holmstrom and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch were among those who turned out for Letts, who direcrted every Clash video. ALSO: The legendary venue could be could be saved if you bought enough chocolate.
COBRA VERDE'S John Petkovic examines the merger of hip-hop and pro basketball.
SPRINGSTEEN: Uncle Grambo raves over the Boss in the Motor City.
THE ONION: The St. Petersburg Times goes behind the laughter with the writers of the satirical newspaper.
BATMAN BEGINS: The full trailer is online, looking good in glorious QuickTime. As much of the movie was shot in Chicago, I'll have some behind the scenes photos for y'all as the June premiere approaches.
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY opens today to mixed reviews. But if you're so inclined, here's a guide to the Guide.
IRAQ: Iraq's National Assembly approved a list of Cabinet members Thursday to form a new government, though five positions have been filled temporarily after talks failed to produce a compromise. ALSO: The toughest commute in Iraq is the trip to the airport.
DOGS are going gangsta. And I'm not talking about Snoop, fo shizzle.
BLOGGERS AS JOURNOS: Julie Hilden of FindLaw (via CNN) argues that bloggers should benefit from any privilege that extends to journalists, largely for the reasons I have stated here before, but adds another point: Those who doubt that bloggers should share journalists' legal privileges should consider that bloggers already share journalists' legal risks.
THE HUFFINGTON POST: Arianna Huffington's soon-to-launch celbrity group blog is already being parodied -- oddly enough -- by The London Guardian.
ROSIE O'DONNELL: New blog address, same demented blank verse.
JUICED BASEBALL: While Congress turns its eye to other sports, Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, tells a tale of two sluggers.
PROM THEME: The Boston Globe reports that local high school administrators, worried about students' increasingly vulgar music tastes, have been delivering a pointed message to DJs: Keep it clean, or we keep the paycheck.
SONGS OF THE DECADES, as voted by BBC Radio 2 listeners. The current round of voting covers 1965-74. BTW, the Beatles didn't win the prior period...
JINGLES: Watching the zillionth ad to use a rock song as a soundtrack for no particular reason, it occurred to me that advertising has suffered from the death of the jingle. My co-clerk Debbie pointed me to this stream at NPR on the topic.
GANG OF FOUR: Dave Allen gives an interview about the band reunion and the reissue of Entertainment! to Suicide Girls.
ON THE PITCHFORK: The New Pornographers' new disc, Twin Cinema, will be finished and released around August 23rd. Ben Folds' Songs for Silverman gets a decidedly snarky review.
PULP founder Jarvis Cocker gives BBC Radio 4 his desert island discs. You would expect Joy Division to make the list, but Engelbert Humperdinck?
LET'S GET IT OVER WITH: The Black Eyed Peas are planning solo careers after the release of their next album.
ONE HIT WONDERS are blogged at The Volokh Conspiracy. Is Looking Glass mentioned? Of course!
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Angelina Jolie has been accused of tipping off photographers about her romantic holiday with Brad Pitt, for personal and charitable reasons.
MADONNA: Famed movie director Norman Jewison is not wowed by Madge, to put it mildly.
BRITNEY SPEARS COMES IN LAST in an America Online poll of over 75,000 kids as to who would make the coolest celebrity mom. Jessica Simpson won. That's bad news for Britney and civilization generally.
LINDSAY LOHAN: Page SixSixSix comments on a blind item from the New York Post's Page Six.
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: Bradgelina, Jessica Simpson and the Lohan also made People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People issue, due out Friday. Oops... Spears loses again. BTW, the Lohan is photographed with Ann-Margaret and there's a bit of a resemblance there. Jessica Alba makes it, natch. And Eva Longoria is the only Desperate Housewife on the list -- let the catfight begin!
TOM CRUISE AND KATIE HOLMES have been dating for a few weeks. I can't wait to read the innuendo Page Six will ladle onto this story. Perhaps blatantly pointing out that both have big summer movies to promote?
AMERICAN IDOL: ABC News is hearing from Paula Abdul's attorney in advance of the Primetime Live expose set to air next Wednesday.
X-WING STARFIGHTER up for auction on eBay. You still have a couple of days to bid!
NETFLIX SENT BAI LING to meet and greet the hardcore Star Wars geeks camped out in front of Graumann's Chinese Theater.
IRAQ: Hours after gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim lawmaker in her home, Iraq's new prime minister submitted a complete list of 36 Cabinet members. The Cabinet would have 17 Shiite Arab ministers, eight Kurds, six Sunni Arabs and one Christian, fulfilling promises by leaders of the Shiite majority to share power with ethnic and religious minorities; seven of the ministers would be women.
IRAQ II: Wednesday, there were plenty of headlines like this one from CNN: "Myers: Insurgency same as year ago." The story itself is a little different. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers noted that while the number of attacks was about the same as a year ago, that's less than before the election, half of the attacks are ineffective and U.S. troops are devoting more of their time to training Iraqi forces. Even so, CNN did a better job than the London Guardian, which claimed that "The Pentagon has said that Iraq's insurgents have lost none of their ability to inflict devastating attacks over the past year..." Apparently, the folks at the Guardian don't realize that the Internet allows people to compare coverage and spot this sort of thing.
GOOD MORNING, TIKRIT! Lt. Col. Todd Wood of the 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion of the 70th Infantry Regiment, does a weekly radio call-in show on FM 96.5, which the troops call "the Rock of Tikrit." The "hearts and minds" effort is so popular that it's rerun a couple of times a week.
JACKO JUSTICE: Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe testified that she was never scripted or rehearsed to say positive things about him to rebut a damaging TV documentary. However, she had been offered a list of questions by her interviewers. Rowe said of Jackson, "we've been friends and we were married." Asked about her domestic arrangements, she said, "We never shared a home." Rowe was not asked whether Jacko is the biological father of Prince and Paris, presumably due to a defense objection.
DOG HELD FOR RANSOM is recovered unharmed.
MEET THE NEW JAMES BOND, same as the old James Bond. But not the James Bond.
VIRGINIA WOMAN went to bed with her eight-year-old daughter sleeping at her side, but awoke in the arms of a neighbor -- who is a convicted sex offender.
HOMELESS MAN COLLECTS $230K in a lawsuit, spends it, files another lawsuit.
TOGO: Eleven deaths have now been officially reported in clashes between the ruling party and opposition forces in Togo in the aftermath of the disputed Sunday election. Wait, make that 22 dead.
ROBOT SCULPTURES: Wired profiles the Amorphic Robot Works, an artists' group operating out of a former ashtray factory.
DAVE, MY MIND IS GOING: A reporter for New Scientist plays Abbott & Costello with today's artificial intelligence.
DAVID SCHWIMMER AND KIM CATRALL canoodling? And to think I just ate...
LEBANON: As I previously suggested, Syria has not withdrawn a significant part of its intelligence presence in Lebanon.
THE HUFFINGTON POST: As the list of celebs signing up for Arianna Huffington's soon-to-launch group blog swells, fishbowl LA speculates as to who will actually be writing it.
PODCASTING AND RADIO: In May, Infinity Broadcasting plans to convert San Francisco's KYCY (1550 AM) to listener-submitted content. Business 2.0 asks, Who Needs online Radio? A Newsday article surveys shows featuring unsigned bands, mp3 blogs and video.
PERSONALIZED POSTAGE: Although embarrassed when editors from the Smoking Gun website ordered stamps featuring a high-school photo of the Unabomber, former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosovic and Monica Lewinsky-confidante Linda Tripp, the Postal Service has given Stamps.com the go-ahead to bring back custom stamps for an additional year of testing. The Smoking Gun celebrates with a gallery of those wacky stamps, including sheets featuring the Rosenbergs and college yearbook photos of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who used the postal service to deliver his homemade bombs.
BELARUS: Police detained more than two dozen protesters who tried to present a petition to President Alexander Lukashenko on the 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
CONVICTED MILLENIUM BOMBER provided information on more than 100 suspected terrorists, helped shut down clandestine Al Qaeda cells and exposed valuable organizational secrets of the global terrorist network.
YO, HO, A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR YOU? Disney online is developing a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Pirates of the Caribbean, to promote the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in Summer 2006.
THAI MAN had around 50 maggots hatch in his ears. Everybody say it together: Eeeeeewwww!
HEY, HO, LET'S GO: End of the Century, the critically-acclaimed documentary on the Ramones, airs on PBS this week, along with a short on Joe Strummer. Find out when it's airing where you live and more at the Independent Lens section of the PBS website.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: Amazon is streaming four cuts from The Sunset Tree for those with the Windoze Media Player and posting John Darnielle's rather esoteric list of music you should hear. The Big Ticket has a download from the disc and another leak from the forthcoming Sufjan Stevens disc noted here yesterday.
TICKET BROKERS: Rolling Stone looks at state of the art scalping: "As of Monday afternoon, April 11th, ticketsnow.com was selling 292 seats to Springsteen's New Jersey show -- almost nine percent of the 3,300 seats that went on sale to the public -- with some going for as much as $2,565 apiece."
BONO stayed at Bill Gates' mansion when U2 played Seattle. Gates is a fan of U2 and Bono's activism, but his loyalty only extends so far...
ON THE PITCHFORK: A big thumbs-up to The Best Party Ever, by The Boy Least Likely To. "The album's best song, the dreamy "Paper Cuts", channels Brian Wilson via Summerteeth-era Wilco through the lens of Aztec Camera." That seems likely, based on the streaming samples at the band's site.
STEVEN TYLER of Aerosmith is moonlighting as a tour guide.
THE HUFFINGTON POST: Excerpts of Arianna Huffington's celebrity group blog will be syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The PR-savvy Huffington keeps announcing more bloggers, including Nora Ephron, Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer, David Mamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Medved, Harry Shearer and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who must be mad that the reintroduction of the Today Sponge story is passing her by). The New York Times notes that Huffington has hired away Mr. Drudge's right-hand Web whiz, Andrew Breitbart, who used to be her researcher. Breitbart gave a further statement to writer-blogger Roger L. Simon.
GETTIN' BLOGGY WITH IT: fishbowl NY connects a piece in Slate on newspaper's decisions to offer online content for free or by subscription with an academic piece calculating the ratio of blog-links to circulation -- which essentially measures the "blogginess" of online newspapers.
VIDEO KILLED... well, just about everything. The ever-so-bloggy Christian Science Monitor focuses on education: "For all of their pedagogical virtues, video presentations tend to appeal more to emotions than to logical reasoning. Unless viewers make the effort to pose critical questions while they watch - and also make time to reflect on what they're seeing - some experts worry the shift from print- to video-based instruction could be coming at a cost of less comprehension." But the same issue arises in other situations, such as the "CNN effect" on foreign policy, such as President Geowge H. W. Bush's decision to intervene in Somalia as well as President Clinton's decision to leave Somalia, and so on.
SAUDI ARABIA: Matt Welch notes that the cozy photo op with President Bush and Crown Prince Abdullah sends a very bad message abroad. Indeed, with the chief justice of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council encouraging young Saudis to go to Iraq to wage war against Americans, a little less smooching for the cameras in Crawford might have been appropriate.
WEIRD ADS: Seth Stevenson rails in Slate: "I don't think these ads work as pieces of marketing. And I've grown immune to them as pieces of entertainment. So, why are they all over my TV?"
BURIED TREASURE: Two men dug up nine tin cans containing old money and certificates valued at over one hundred grand in a backyard in Massachussetts.
AMERICAN IDOL: Matt Drudge reports that Fox is threatening to sue ABC over the Primetime Live expose set to air next Wednesday. As Drudge puts it in classic Drudge fashion: "FOX believes ABC has interviewed a half a dozen losing contestants -- contestants who will claim AMERICAN IDOL producers and judges somehow manipulate the show's outcome!"
LEBANON: Michael J. Totten explains why the the success of democracy there matters far beyond the country's borders: "A victory by Lebanon's democratic opposition will deliver a blow against Syria, a blow against Iran's Hezbollah proxy, a blow against dictatorship, a blow against terrorism, and a blow against hate."
A WOULD BE CAR BURGLAR in California locked himself in the trunk. "Genius, pure genius," said Fresno County Sheriff's Lt. Louis Hernandez.
JUSTICE BEHIND THE CHEDDAR CURTAIN: A Wisconsin judge ordered an Appleton woman convicted of theft to decide whether to spend 90 days in jail or donate her family's Packers tickets next season to charity.
CULT OF THE iPod: Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin continues to pusue his dream of an MP3 player with satellite radio.
JUICED GIRLS: American girls, some as young as 9, are using steroids to get the toned, sculpted look of models and movie stars, experts say.
RELATIVE RELATIVISM: Richard Lawrence Cohen explains it. I was taken by his example (expanded upon by his son in the comments) of the merits of Mozart and Indonesian gamelan music.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEBODY STOP HIM: George Lucas is doing a cameo on The O.C. a week before the rollout of Revenge of the Sith.
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: The sci-fi comedy took a long, strange trip to get to your local cineplex this Friday. Decades, really.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Palestinian Boy Scouts playing bagpipes.
RECORDED TERROR ATTACKS SOAR IN '04: Most of the increase involved an increase in violence in Kashmir, which is claimed by India and Pakistan. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote Secretary of State Rice that the large increases in terrorist attacks reported in 2004 may undermine administration claims of success in the war on terror. The article suggests that the government is devoting more resources to counting them. Also, imho, just as there were more battles after the U.S. got diretly involved in WWII, the direct engagement of the U.S. in places like Iraq has undoubtedly increased the number of attacks, but says little about whether the U.S. is winning the war.
ISLAMIC SCHOLAR CONVICTED of exhorting his followers in the days after 9/11 to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops. He becomes the 10th person convicted in the government's prosecution of what it called a "Virginia jihad network." Two were acquitted.
SISTER SHOT OVER PHONE PHOTO: A Jordanian man shot dead his divorced sister after seeing her photo on his friend's camera-equipped cellphone in the latest "honor" killing in the kingdom, hospital officials said Monday. Those found guilty of honor killing usually face a maximum sentence of one year in jail under Jordanian law. In America, that's called a misdemeanor... among other things.
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL UPDATE: I recently noted that her comments partially blaming the U.S. for 9/11 sounded like she was asking for a spanking. Well, she had to turn the comment feature off on her web site. I would be tempted to suggest that she's trying to drum up controversy to publicize her new film, but her comments seem consistent with her prior statements over the past few years.
CAMILLE PAGLIA has a new book on her favorite poems, which gets a generally good review from The New Criterion Prof. Ann Althouse has related thoughts on Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock."
THE COLLAPSE OF BIG MEDIA? Former TV Guide critic and co-creator of Entertainment Weekly Jeff Jarvis rounds up several pieces on trends in advertising, circulation and viewership that should be a major wake-up call to conventional media. Whether it will be is another question.
"PORNOGRAPHY," shrugged Scott Timsit, a dark-haired 16-year-old in wire-rimmed glasses, "is just part of the culture now. It's almost like it's not even, like, porn." An article in the L.A. Times has the subhead, "If it's corrupting them, the data don't yet show it." But I think the story itself may suggest the exact opposite.
GLOBAL WARMING: Novelist Ian McEwan writes that "reports from a range of scientific disciplines are telling us with certainty that we are making a mess of the earth, we are fouling our nest, and we have to act decisively and against our immediate inclinations." But he adds: "The environmental movement has been let down by dire predictions, 'scientifically' based, which over the past two or three decades have proved spectacularly wrong. Of itself, this does not invalidate dire scientific predictions now, but it makes the case for skepticism -- one of the engines of good science. We need not only reliable data, but their expression in the rigorous use of statistics."
WHAT'S SCARIER? Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds or the news that Michael Bay is remaking it? I ask because my parents took me to see the original when I was three years old and I am told I laughed through it. Which explains a lot, doesn't it?
HATE HOAX: Police say an African-American female student has confessed to sending threatening letters targeting fellow minority students at her small Christian university, apparently to convince her parents the school was too dangerous for her to stay.
IRAQ: In February, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi narrowly escaped arrest by U.S. forces by diving from a SUV, but the troops seized a top henchman, recovered Zarqawi's laptop computer and seized over one hundred grand of his money. The laptop confirmed two way communication with Osama bin Laden and suggests that Zarqawi is in worse physical condition than previously believed and recovering from a wound to his stomach.
IRAQ II: U.S. investigators have found that American troops who shot dead an Italian agent at a Baghdad checkpoint on March 4th committed no wrongdoing and will not be disciplined, an Army official said on Monday. But Italy disagrees with key findings in the preliminary report by the U.S. military investigators and has balked at endorsing it, added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Giuliana Sgrena, the anti-war journalist rescued by the agent, described the conclusion of the leaked report as a "slap in the face." However, Ms. Sgrena's own ever- shifting accounts of the shooting make me skeptical of her opinion. I'll wait to hear what the Italian investigators say.
A.J. SOPRANO allegedly dated and assaulted a 41-year-old fitness guru?
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SEX ED CASE: A former teachers aide accused by prosecutors of stripping naked in the classroom, touching herself in a seductive manner and having sexual contact with seven students, both boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 15, was charged today with nine criminal counts. She also is charged with choking a 13-year-old girl to the point where an ambulance had to be called.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS' new disc is out today. The New York Times pours on the love. on the Pitchfork, the review is good, but not gushing. In honor of the release, Chromewaves posts the band's version of "The Boys Are Back In Town" for download.
LEGAL MUSIC DOWNLOADERS are frustrated by restrictions placed on songs they have bought from online stores. Imho, one way of reducing illegal downloading would be to avoid alienating legal downloaders.
JEFF TWEEDY: The audio from the Who Owns Culture? panel featuring the Wilco frontman and Professor Lawrence Lessig talking about music, remixing, artistic freedom and the law is now available as a stream or a download.
SUFJAN STEVENS! Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance returns with a leaked download of "Come on Feel The Illinoise," from the Illinois disc due in July. It is not the Slade or Quiet Riot tune. Blogger Keith does a decent job of explaining what it does sound like.
ELTON JOHN plans to marry his long-term partner David Furnish once civil partnerships between gay couples aree allowed in Britain after December 5th. Had the U.K. passed such a law earlier, it would have just been Five Weddings, which would not have been as funny.
BONO: The new Washington Examiner gives you some of the quotable rock star, excerpted from "Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas," which hits bookstores this week. Mr. Vox keeps it going with criticism on foreign aid for Canadian Prime Minister Martin, who is currently scrambling to keep his minority government alive amid growing anger over a Liberal Party cash-for-favors scandal. And he greenlighted the sample for Fugee Pras Michel's "Haven't Found," which you can stream from Stereogum.
EXPLODING TOADS invade Hamburg, Germany by the hundreds. So bad has the death toll been that a lake in the Altona district of Hamburg has been dubbed "the pond of death."
IRAQ: Arthur Chrenkoff has his usual round-up of under-reported good news from Iraq, including an uncharacteristically positive piece from the BBC. Shia Iraqi hitmen admit they were paid to join the Sunni insurgency by Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Sunni politicians have dropped their demand to include former members of Saddam Hussein's party in Iraq's new Cabinet, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney exhorted top Kurdish and Shiite politicians to come together, in thehope that formation of the government will put a damper on the insurgency.
IRAQ II: The New York Times (via the Contra Costa Times) recycles complaints about the armoring of Humvees, when they could be complaining about the rise in fatalities caused by rollovers of armored Humvees instead. Two MilBloggers, Jason Van Steenwyk and Greyhawk, both of whom spent time in Iraq (Jason was in the area at issue before the Marines), comment on the story and add perspective.
BLOGS AND BUSINESS: Henry Copeland of BlogAds blasts BusinessWeek and its cover story on blogs (linked here yesterday), complete with visual aids.
BLOGS are becoming so widespread that David Byrne has one. Even a superhero has one. And so does Darth Vader, at least until Lucasfilm's lawyers show him the true meaning of the Dark Side.
SPEAKING OF GEORGE LUCAS, he plans to further devalue the Star Wars franchise with a live-action TV series.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Page SixSixSix's exclusive (linked here yesterday) that Brad Pitt and Jolie were spotted together in Africa has been confirmed by London's Sun and People magazine. The pictures are all over the 'net.
CHILD SUPPORT: Maine officials are coming after a 35-year-old man who they said owes thousands in back child support for a child that is not his. They say the man failed to file a court motion three years ago that would have relieved him or any financial responsibilities for the child.
THE PARENT GAP: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of the Progressive Policy Institute worries: "The past two presidential elections revealed a growing 'parent gap.' In 2000, Al Gore lost married parents by 15 points and John Kerry widened the gap, losing them by a whopping 19 points."
THE END OF ANALOG TV? According to MSNBC, "Depending on the outcome of discussions in Congress, television as we know it may end at exactly midnight Dec. 31, 2006." Congress left a loophole in the Telecom Act of 1996 and could let the cut-off date slide, but powerful lobbyists now are pressing legislators to set a "date certain" for the analog lights-out. Color me skeptical -- what member of Congress wants to be blamed for turning off peoples' television or making them buy a new TV or converter?
TV SWEEPS PREDICITION: on the strength of American Idol, buyers believe Fox will edge past CBS to win the adults 18-49 viewer race for the sweeps period (April 28-May 25)--and for the season as well. That could leave CBS and ABC duking it out for second place, while NBC takes fourth. Advertisers also predict that CBS CSI finale, directed by Quentin Tarantino, will overtake NBCs finale of The Apprentice 3.
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: Cinema Confidential interviews Zooey Deschanel, who reveals she was the biggest fan of the book in the cast and the only one with a computer or an iPod. Her boyfriend just got her "into this band called the Raspberries."
DALEKS: A Dalek is set to appear in the current run of Doctor Who in the U.K. Their return was almost ruled out completely by a lengthy dispute between the BBC and the estate of late Dalek creator Terry Nation, but the dispute was resolved last August. The new model seems even more dangerous than the original.
GOOGLE is worth more than companies like Viacom, Disney, General Motors, Ford and Hewlett-Packard?
AFGHANISTAN: The United Nations' top human rights investigator in Afghanistan has been forced out under American pressure just days after he presented a report criticising the U.S. military. At least, that's what a number of media outlets are reporting. However, I would note that Cherif Bassiouni (also a professor at the DePaul University College of Law) told WBBM radio Monday morning that he thought the problem was not with the troops so much as with the CIA and private contractors working at the Afghan prisons.
TOGO: As noted yesterday, the snap election in Togo was fraught with danger. The country's two main political rivals acted to avert further bloodshed yesterday, agreeing to form a government of "national unity" following disputed presidential elections on Sunday. All sides in the election, for the west African nations first new leader in nearly four decades, alleged fraud and intimidation, and there are fears of more bloodshed when the results are announced later this week.
BOB KERREY, who left the Senate to become president of the New School University in New York, may be regretting it. Students have hired lawyers to sue the Kerrey administration for violating students contracts, false advertisement and defrauding students out of millions in tuition fees.
WILL FERRELL is set to star in a Land of the Lost comedy feature based on the 1974-77 television series created by Sid and Marty Krofft. But where is my H.R. Pufnstuf movie? Or The Bugaloos?
BADA-BING: Federal agents on Monday began a round-up of reputed Chicago mob members in connection with more than a dozen unsolved murders dating back to 1970. It is the largest number of organized crime figures brought down in a single indictment in Chicago history. And many have cool nicknames.
CLAW HAMMER ATTACK: In Connecticut, police have arrested a man who injured a friend with a claw hammer because he wanted to see "what it would be like to kill someone."
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN (formerly of the KGB) called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest political catastrophe of the last century" in his state of the nation address. Worse, he did so in the context of complaining that it left tens of millions of Russian people living outside Russia, in breakaway republics formerly under Soviet control. As much as I try to avoid Hitler analogies, that's the sort of concern Hitler cited in invading the Sudentenland and later Poland.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is becoming an issue outside the border states.
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' lawnboy Jesse Metcalfe is afraid of being seen in public with his rumored new flame, pneumatic bad girl Tara Reid? If he isn't, he will be.
AL-JAZEERA AND AMERICAN TV: Dorrance Smith, a former ABC News producer who spent nine months in Iraq as a senior media adviser to Ambassador Paul Bremer, raises questions about journalistic ethics in U.S. networks' working relationship with the Qatar-backed channel.
BREACH OF PROMISE TO MARRY is a claim rarely seen in courtrooms today, but an Indian who became a man to marry a female relative and was dumped after the surgery looks to sue for "breach of trust" in India.
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Dear Sir,
I appreciate you for writing interesting novels in Tamil in an enticing style.
However, I do not understand why you chose to rewrite the North Indian story of Mahabharata in Tamil. Mahabharata heroes share one wife between the five of them. This runs counter to Tamil tradition. None of the heroes were born to their mothers' wedded father. This a shameful aspect according to Tamil tradition which values chastity above all virtues.
Please uphold good Tamil traditions.


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Vishal Gondal is the founder of India's largest digital gaming company Indiagames, which is now part of the Walt Disney Group. Founded in 1999, Indiagames evolved fast to become one of the top 10 mobile gaming firms in the world by 2006. And Gondal has become a widely popular thought leader in the gaming and mobile sectors, representing the gaming community at FICCI, NASSCOM and CII.
However, this innovative entrepreneur has also set up Sweat & Blood Venture Group, a seed/early-stage venture capital fund. He is not part of any angel network but actively seeks out companies and talents on his own. He independently assesses start-ups, irrespective of whether others are investing in those or not, and does fewer deals than others in this space. His typical deal size is between $50,000 and $100,000.
Investment DNA
Preferred Sectors: Sector-agnostic – he has invested in healthcare, Internet and e-commerce. However, he is not at all keen to invest in services companies. Only start-ups which have a vision to develop a product/intellectual property arouse his interest.
Preferred Location: India and abroad.
Involvement: Gondal feels that angel investment is very intimate, unlike venture capital investments. Also, he is a totally hands-on investor. While others invest with a portfolio strategy, he believes in doing fewer deals and making them all a success.
Key Investments: Healthcare start-up DocSuggest, blogging platform Instablogs, GaMa Entertainment Systems, which makes entertainment hardware and software for retailers, and Kyko, a UK-based stealth start-up.
Hits & Misses: Exited Instablog in 2010, selling it to BCCL Group. GaMa Entertainment and Kyko have also raised subsequent rounds of funding.


text: On 2001.04.04 15:11:12 Anders Blomdell wrote: > Is there any way to start the boot-loader from a telnet prompt (i.e. make > it possible to ktest or kflash a board without access to the reset and > boot > button), since this would greatly improve turnaround time when testing a > deeply embedded etrax board (major disassembly needed to get access to > the > reset button). > Maybe you could download the kimage into the RAM disk mounted at /tmp and then do a "cat kimage >/dev/flash1"(you have to look up which partition that holds Linux+ROMfs. I'm not sure that it is /dev/flash1.) and then "reboot". I havn't tried this, but I think it could work. /Jonas Ċberg


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Nearly 700,000 Europeans with Permission to Stay in the UK After Brexit
Nearly 700,000 people have been granted permission to remain in the UK after Brexit, the UK Department of the Interior reported, e-mailing the Daily Mail.About 166,900 people turned to the government scheme to settle European citizens in May to secure their status after Brexit, according to statistics.
As of May 31, the total number of applications since the scheme was opened was 788,200, with 668,000 approved, according to a statement from the Ministry of Interior.
Of these, 66% received established status and 34% received a pre-established status.
Interior Minister Sajid Javid told parliament on June 10 that his number has risen to over 800,000 and nearly 700,000 have succeeded.
The scheme was open to the audience on March 30th.
As for EU citizens, the scheme is open to citizens of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway who are in the European Economic Area (EEA) but are not EU Member States, as well as those from Switzerland. Successful candidates are granted immigration status confirming their right to continue living and working in the UK indefinitely.
People who have lived in the country for five years can get established status. People with less than five years' residence may have a pre-established status that can later be converted into established status.
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|Cleaning the blood off of the ice
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Blood on the Ice
Attended a small town hockey game here in McCall, Idaho. What an awesome slice of America.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Kitchen Window
Saw this guy and his buddy playing outside of the kitchen window yesterday so I was ready with the Nikon V1 when he showed up again today.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Curing TMCS
I'm reluctant to buy the Garmin GPS bike computer because I already have a GPS on my fancy Windows 8 smart phone. However, there are two problems with using a smart phone as a bike computer: one phones are not weatherproof so you can't mount them in a visible location (i.e. to your handlebars) and two the phone (at least my phone) goes into sleep mode when inactive for sixty seconds – so I'd have to touch my phone every minute to keep my stats visible - not possible while wearing gloves. It seems that these smart dudes at WahooFitness have come up with a solution.This appears to be a sweet set-up. You get your HR data from a chest strap, you get the cadence from a bike mounted sensor and you get all the other GPS type stuff from your smart phone. What a great solution for TMCS (Too Much Crap Syndrome). Only problem is that it isn't available for the Windows Phone. Screwed again
Monday, February 11, 2013
The Crap We Cherish
Yesterday my son and I stopped by an estate sale on our way home from a morning of skiing at Alpental. I guess I've never actually been to an estate sale before, and I must say I found it a bit depressing: you simply walk into a home where everything looks kind of normal – albeit with small stuff scattered all around – the only real difference being the small price tags attached to everything. It was easy to see that the folks had lived in the house for quite some time and that they were fairly affluent, but honestly most of the stuff was junk: a dusty sewing machine, an old typewriter (my son didn't even know what it was), and random glasswear. I suppose that maybe there had been some descent furniture at one time, but anything of value had either already been sold or carted away for sale at a higher price.
All of this stuff had been purchased, used and held onto by the former owners of the house, but in the blink of an eye it all went from cherished possessions to nearly worthless junk that was being sold for a nickel or a dime. It was a wakeup call for me as to determining what is important and what isn't. Family, friends and a few things that are actually worth owning (like a good bicycle) that's what's important, the other stuff, well someday that's all going to be garbage.
Pick your crap wisely.
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The Air Jordan 7 Doernbecher was designed by ten year old Damien Phillips, who is a huge Chicago Bulls fan. The Doernbecher features red and black, which represent the Bulls' team colors, a guitar pick on the laces, a heel tab resembling a guitar neck and Damien playing a power solo on the outsole.
100% authentic.


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While our teens are busy completing courses and filling up transcripts, they are fast becoming young adults, taking giant strides out the door of our home into the exciting adult world beckoning them.
This hits home dramatically when our teen gets his first driver's license. Yes, we take them out practicing and celebrate their first vehicle and take pictures of them holding their new license, but meanwhile, our hearts are screaming, "NO! Don't go! Don't drive away just yet!" But drive away they must, out into the wild blue yonder (or maybe into the mailbox).
It is scary when teens drive off. Will they come home? When? Will they get into trouble? How much? Finding a balance between protecting and empowering, teaching and training, discipline and grace is never so difficult as when letting the teen drive. A few reminders helped me stay (relatively) calm:
It is time to let them practice adulting. Teens can't grow up unless we allow them to practice being responsible. They must drive off, stand on their own, and choose what kind of person they will be.
Teen driving represents a huge milestone in your young person's life — and in yours. With grace, guidelines, and some good tissues, you'll survive this stage and maybe even look back at it fondly.
This post is an excerpt from my new book Homeschool High School Made Easy, available on Amazon. Get your copy today!
And don't miss the prequel, Homeschool Made Easy.


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When travelling in Cork, touring the Wild Atlantic Way or hopping between our charming towns and villages, you'll often find the best food in humble country pubs.
Across the county (the biggest in Ireland) you'll find innovative, exciting food in the most unexpected places, with chefs that are using the very best of locally sourced ingredients, from fresh-caught fish to hillside lamb and rare-breed cattle, organic veg and fruits. They are often quirky, always friendly and exclusively family run.
And you don't have to take our word for it when it comes to excellence, just ask the good people at the Michelin Guides, who have crowned Cork as the gastropub capital of Ireland, saying you won't find better on the Wild Atlantic Way.
The Michelin Eating Out In Pubs Guide, considered the gold standard for gastropubs in Britain and Ireland, lists just 30 pubs on the island of Ireland for 2018. Eight are in the North (clustered around Belfast). Of the twenty-two in the Republic, four are in West Cork (down one from last year).
While West Cork alone has four pubs currently on the Michelin list, Dublin, our capital and by far the most populous county in Ireland, has just two.
In 2018, the Michelin people reckon you'll find some of the best country pub dining anywhere at the Poacher's Inn (Bandon), Deasy's (outside Clonakilty), The Bulman in Kinsale and Mad Fish at Cronin's of Crosshaven (a old fishing village, a short hop from Kinsale and the start of the Wild Atlantic Way).
There are other stars of the West Cork pub dining scene, Mary Ann's in Castletownshend has been a regular on the Michelin gastropubs guide and there are champions for the likes of Arundel's By The Pier in Ahakista (UK TV star Graham Norton has his summer house across the road and is a fan), the Timoleague duo of Dillon's and Monk's Lane and Clonakilty's An Súgán.
One exciting new addition has just been announced. In the characterful, quirky village of Ballydehob, young chef (and local legend) Robbie Krawcyzk will soon re-open the long-closed Chestnut Pub as a 16-table dining space, cooking locally sourced produce over wood and charcoal grills, serving a no-choice menu.
Robbie and his small team have spent the past few months renovating the old village pub themselves, working long hours in the winter-dark and documenting the layers of funky '70s wallpaper and beauty-board on their social media feeds.
When you talk to the chefs working in often small kitchens, in old pubs perched on harbour walls or in small, out of the way villages you will hear the same theories as to why West Cork is a place apart when it comes to food.
They will tell you about the incredible quality of the produce from local farms and small fishing harbours, the adventurous small-holding, rare-breed and artisan producers and the influence of strangers who regularly wash up on the shores of West Cork from all over the world.
With world class cheeses, cured meats and fish and produce fresh from the fields and waters, West Cork is a foodie paradise. And the locals reckon the best place to enjoy this food is in the cosy, informal setting of a country pub.
In fine dining country pubs like Deasy's, The Bulman and the Poachers Inn, the menus tend to be seafood orientated, with influences from as far afield as Bangkok, Sydney or Capetown. The Mad Fish in Crosshaven is famous for its oysters, razor clams and scallops, served "nude" or with tangy dressings.
"The Atlantic coast off West Cork has some of the cleanest waters in the world and the best fish you'll find anywhere," says chef/patron Barry McLaughlin of The Poacher's Inn in Bandon.
"And we get ours dropped off every morning by a guy in a van driving over from Union Hall".
West Cork chefs will always tell you about their "fish guy", their "veg guy" or even their "chilli guy". These small-scale producers are often one of the region's many blow-ins (from Holland, France, Germany or further afield), small-holders living off-the-grid up the side of a mountain and growing exotic fruits and veg in rows of polytunnels.
West Cork also has its strange "micro-climates", fostered by the Gulf Stream and sheltered by rugged mountains. You'll find bamboo groves and sub-tropical plants, often wind-blown escapees from grand gardens such as those on Garnish Island, growing wild in the hedgerows.
At Deasy's, a Michelin-rated pub by a tiny pier in Ring, outside of Clonakilty, chef Caitlin Ruth has a signature dish of catch of the day cooked in Banana Leaves. The fish is from local day-boats, the leaves come from her own banana plants, growing in her back garden.
"Before I came here, I really had no idea you could grow banana trees in Ireland. But you can in West Cork," she says.
Caitlin is a self-taught chef who worked in her native US and Holland before finally settling in West Cork almost two decades ago.
She had no problems in persuading the owners of Deasy's to let her take over the food side of the operation. But all involved also wanted to keep the friendly, informal pub atmosphere going. It's a place for pints as well as great food.
And virtually all of Caitlin's ingredients come from local producers, from the day-boats that sail out of West Cork's historic fishing villages to the local growers and farmers who now have an international reputation for quality.
"You can get pretty much whatever you need locally, but it often comes in gluts," says Caitlin.
"Somebody will drop in with a giant sack of chillies or tomatillos and you think; "Right, I'll come up with two ways to use them on the menu today and I guess I'll be doing a lot of pickling".
Just about the only basic, everyday ingredient she "imports" from Cork City is coconut milk. West Cork may have bamboo forests and sub-tropical gardens, but Bantry and Skibb are not famed for their lush coconut groves.
Like many chefs in West Cork, Caitlin says she is almost compelled to work with what they can get locally. But that's not a problem when what they can get within ten or fifteen miles of their doors is often the best of the best.
"Why would we bring anything in when we have this amazing produce right here?"
Caitlin tells the story of how, after a year or two at Deasy's, she asked her local butcher about where he sourced his beef from after he had made a delivery to the pub, which looks out over Clonakilty Bay.
"He just pointed to the field across the water there and said; "See those cattle? They're mine". And that's the way it is here".
"People bang on about organic and locally-sourced like it's new but that's just what we've been doing for the past 20 years, or more. It's all here. I've got my local butcher, my fish guy, delivers every day from Union Hall. We got our veg people, they're just up the road."
Caitlin's signature dish is her Thai fish soup, a hot, tangy bowl of goodness that tastes like a bowl of traditional West Cork Chowder went to Koh Samui on its gap year.
It's much loved by her regulars – and has rumoured miracle-working qualities when it comes to babies.
"I can't take it off the menu, people would freak out. Plus, there's a local myth that it brings on labour in pregnant women who have gone over their due date. When I see a very heavily pregnant woman, maybe a little cranky, coming in, I know they're here for the Thai fish soup".
West Cork's gastropubs are busy, fun places to be at the height of the season, when visitors mingle with locals, sailors come in off their yachts and you'll see farmers sitting at the bar with pints and bowls of chowder. But you can eat well in West Cork all year round.
"It's a very short season, so the visitor trade is important, but we are open throughout the year so we have to really think about our regulars and locals as well," says chef Barry McLaughlin of the Poacher's.
"It's great to be on the Michelin pub guide, it does add to your reputation, but word of mouth is just as important, maybe more so, as is keeping up the quality year in, year out".
"People here, locals and visitors, they appreciate the informality of it all. If you are on the beach all day, touring around or working, you just want a great meal in a relaxed atmosphere. The pub is perfect. Our signature dish is our seafood tapas and people love to share a couple of plates with a pint or a good glass of wine".
Barry, who quit a career in recruitment to set up Poacher's over a decade ago, says that as Cork has built a strong reputation for its quirky, innovative food culture, his own West Cork has really upped its game.
"People know about food now, they expect value and quality. And what's been huge for Cork is the amount of young people who have gone away, worked in kitchens all over the world and brought back new ideas and approaches," he says.
"We know we can depend on our suppliers. We won't get a bad delivery, because we get stuff from them every day and we know where it's coming from. And here in Cork, there's just no question at all, we've got the very best".


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Vietnam's unprecedented performance has grabbed the attention of international investors. Last year, its GDP growth reached 6.8 percent and exports continue to rise. And with stable growth expected for the medium- and long-term, investor confidence in the Southeast Asian economy grows stronger.
Click here to download a PDF of Vietnam: An Investment Hotspot


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I've written a few entries about the things said by some politicians to try to excuse their lack of (or outright opposition to) action on climate change. One that i saw this week was the half-truth about electricity prices.
A forecast increase of 11% this year was quoted. It's a half-truth because it's said in a way that leads the listener to think that whole number is attributable to the action (in Australia's case a carbon price). This kind of politician doesn't ever say what the increase would be without action. It might have been 10, 10.5, 10.99% - or maybe even greater than 11%.
In fact, long-time readers will remember my analysis of prices in my home state - going up 54% in 4 years with no price on carbon. By that measure, an increase of a mere 11% sounds like a dream. Or at least not as much of a nightmare as the shady politician would have us believe.
Of course, knowledgable people know the main factor increasing electricity prices has nothing to do with carbon, and that (if anything) extra renewable energy can drive down prices. But this doesn't stop some politicians weasling out of taking action, and giving us a half-truth to pretending their inaction is doing us a favour.
I guess i say this to help people spot when their rightful concern about increasing bills is being preyed upon by people trying to camouflage their own inability to take action.


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Carpet One Near Ramona
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Higher Ed'S Conflict of Interest ProblemDoug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, Sept 13, 2007
Commentary by Stephen Downes
This story focuses on the student loan scandal that has caught a number of universities in its grip, but looks more broadly at the way corporate providers seek to influence academic purchasers for a larger share of student dollars. This obviously has an impact in the field of educational technology. For example: "The American Council on Education's corporate alliance program offers members of the president's circle the chance to meet with college presidents, among other benefits, for a contribution of at least $200,000, and provides other benefits at lesser donation levels. The several dozen corporate partners of Educause, the higher education technology association, pay anywhere from $20,000 to more than $100,000 over the course of a year for a series of benefits that include the opportunity to make presentations to the association's members at the group's annual meeting." Where do open source and open content rate in this network? They don't. This is a lengthy and detailed report, worth a careful read, even if the apologists who immediately chimed in through the comments section disagree.
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