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Nothing should have survived the garage collapse. Holy lord, if only you could've seen it. The outer wall crashed into the alley and the roof fell straight down. The west wall with the garage door half-stood, the springs still attached to the twisted metal track hidden under the rubble. The east wall in back looked fine, like nothing had happened, but the force of the cave-in blasted glass and dust and wood everywhere. You'd find pieces two houses down, if you looked.
Tony wasn't even home to witness the disaster. When it happened he was completing a job interview, his stupidest one yet. The interviewer owned a bunch of carwashes, and he sat behind his messy desk in a sweater, even though it was summer, and a big bushy mustache, even though it made him look like a skuzzy pervert.
"I need someone to do marketing," said the businessman.
"What does that entail?" asked Tony.
"You tell me. You're the one with the…" The perv looked at Tony's resume. "…the bachelor's degree in business."
"I know what marketing is," said Tony. "Obviously. Are you thinking social media, print ads, event planning, something else?"
"I don't give a shit, as long as I sell more carwashes." The guy stared at the resume until Tony wondered if it was time to get up and leave. Then Mr. Mustache locked eyes with Tony and asked the official first question of the interview. "Are you some kind of Mexican or something?"
"No," said Tony, who had a dark complexion, but was not some kind of anything.
"I don't know what the hell I'm looking for," said the businessman. "If I change my mind about the marketing, you can wash cars, right?"
"But I have a bachelor's degree," said Tony. "In business. I have a bachelor's degree in business."
Tony's roommate Stuart wasn't home to witness the garage crisis either. He had flown two days prior to Belize. He told everyone he was attending an "international herpetology conference," but that was bullshit. His boss at the pet store sent him to a big black market gathering where buyers went to purchase illegal animals and then smuggle them back into the country. Down there no one cared, so they had wine receptions and classes on breeding your new Rainbow Ameiva whiptail lizards and workshops on the best ways to sneak handfuls of bearded dragon babies past customs. Stuart would arrive home in a week with a bunch of new reptiles for his collection and tons more smug reptile knowledge. "The black spiny-tailed iguana is the world's fastest lizard. Guess how fast it can go. Twenty-two miles an hour. Can you believe that?" And then Tony would ignore him and keep watching TV or doing the dishes and Stuart would ask again. "Hey. Can you believe that?"
Of the two roommates, Stuart should have been the one at home to witness the collapse, or at least clean up the aftermath, because the damp, dark garage was where he kept all his pets. The snakes, skinks, geckos, the big ones, the little ones, all of them. Their cages and aquariums lined the walls from floor to ceiling, plus the containers of mice and crickets that served as food for all the creatures. The room smelled absolutely outrageous. The UV lamps made the garage windows glow like an alien science experiment.
But not anymore.
Tony parked on the street in front of his house after his stupid interview, and he couldn't tell right away what was different. All of the scraggly trees still lined the sidewalk. The neighbors still hadn't taken their yard couches inside. But he knew something was different, as if he sensed the open space on the far side of the house where the garage used to be. He walked toward the carnage, then saw the folded-over garage door, then ran.
When he rounded the corner he screamed a little, out of surprise and a little bit out of sympathy for the victims. But mostly he panicked because of Stuart. "I'm done paying all the rent," Stuart said before he left for Belize. "If you don't have a job by the time I get back, you're gone. I'm serious." Tony still hadn't found employment, and now all of Stuart's pets had died on his watch. He was so screwed, he screamed again.
He grabbed a corner of the collapsed roof and lifted, which was never going to work, except the wood was so wet and rotten that it crumbled apart, and Tony figured out that if he pulled and twisted he could make sections of shingle pop free, and just like that, little by little, he cleared a good portion of the single-stall garage. Every time he moved he paid attention to where he placed his feet to avoid stepping on any survivors, but only rocks and pieces of driftwood and plants littered the concrete floor. He found the first victim, the red snake with the black stripes, crushed by the collapsed frame of its aquarium. A roof beam smashed the tortoise's shell while it cowered in its little plastic shelter. Crickets blanketed everything; every time Tony removed another section of roof, more jumped away. A couple of other smaller lizards lay amongst the rubble, newts or salamanders or whatever, but Tony was surprised. He expected way more bodies than he found.
They must have all escaped. This wasn't a catastrophe, this was salvation. After the crash they all probably looked around, smelled the fresh air, saw the sunlight, and thought, "What the hell, let's see what's going on out there." Tony expected to set up an infirmary in the kitchen, maybe shuttle all the wounded to Stuart's pet store for assistance from the other employees. But the disaster didn't claim many victims at all.
Tony kept pulling back sections of roof and moving aside shelving and tubs and containers, his khakis and his interview shirt and tie covered in dirt and sweat. He picked up a plastic bin that had been flipped upside down and about a million mice scurried off in every direction. This could have been worse, this could have been a lot worse, he told himself, until he worked his way to the wall of the house and found Lucy pinned in the corner of her cage. Lucy, the mature four-foot iguana, Stuart's best friend in the world, and when she saw Tony she pleaded for help with her eyes, something Tony had never seen before from any animal, and his heart broke. It shattered. He pried away the bent sections of cage and carried her inside like he had watched Stuart do a hundred times, set her on the floor, and at that moment he understood he needed to rescue the reptiles. All of them.
Reptiles are creatures of silence and mystery, easily startled, quick to hide. People like cats because their affection isn't given, it must be earned. But if you're into animals that play hard to get, try a lizard. You've got nothing they want, ever.
Tony forgot this as he ran down the sidewalk and attempted to remember all the super dumb names Stuart had given his pets. Stuart thought old people names were funny. He called one of the snakes Stan, one of the big turtles Phyllis. Besides those, damn it. If Tony could have recalled more, he would have shouted them, as if the animals would come scurrying out of the underbrush, looking for treats and belly rubs. He scanned the tree branches and the lawns, the decks and the driveways, and found nothing.
Until he rounded the corner across the street from the elementary school playground.
Two boys and a girl stood under one of the plastic tubes kids crawl through from platform to platform. Their attention focused on what looked like a bright green jump rope draped over the cylinder, but it would move and the kids would jump up and hit the curved plastic and it would try to escape and obviously it wasn't a jump rope. It was a snake, and those mean kids were harassing it like it hadn't been through enough already. Tony ran towards them, sweating like he hadn't sweated in years.
"Stop it," he yelled. "What the hell are you doing?"
The two kids on Tony's side of the playground equipment took off running, sending up a spray of wood mulch with their ratty sandals. The boy on the opposite side jumped, snatched the snake, then followed his friends. They dashed through the gap in the fence that surrounded the schoolyard and hightailed it down the sidewalk.
Tony hadn't run since high school, but he was a grown-up and they were little kids so he caught up to them quick. The punk in back couldn't go as fast because he carried the snake out in front of him with both hands. Just as Tony was about to grab the hooligan's shoulder, the kid threw it into the yard they ran past. Tony stopped immediately while the gang turned down an alley between houses and kept running.
The snake must have been stunned because it didn't slither away. Tony grabbed it behind its head, like he was supposed to, and supported its body, like he assumed he should, and carried the thing home. Halfway there, it came back alive and tried to wriggle away. Tony looked right into its eyes. "Hang on, dude. We're almost there."
One year earlier, after Tony graduated and needed a place to live, he found out his brother-in-law's brother-in-law Stuart had a room to rent. Two weeks after moving in, Tony headed upstairs to bed one night and holy shit, he found an orange and white snake climbing the stairs in front of him. And Stuart? Stuart was at his girlfriend's house for the night. Tony panicked for a moment, sure, but then he took a deep breath and grabbed the thing and carried it back down the stairs and out to the garage. He put it in the cage he thought looked empty.
The next day Stuart returned and Tony said, "You had a jailbreak last night."
Surprise popped onto Stuart's face. "Not last night. He's been missing for a week."
"Are you serious, Stuart? Are you goddamn serious? That thing could have been in my bed? Hanging from the showerhead? You didn't tell me?"
"It could have, but it wasn't." Stuart shook his head. "Relax. I didn't tell you because I knew you'd freak out."
The playground kids got away and Tony returned home with the green snake and put it in a plastic tub in the kitchen. He fed Lucy some bananas and decided to head out for one more search before dark. This time his walk down the sidewalk was slower, quieter. He watched for movement in the beds of leaves under the pine trees and in the open spaces at the bases of porches. But he didn't need to. He just needed to look for old ladies huddled up around the trees.
He could hear their conversation from half a block away.
"That's one of those Komodo dragons, I'm sure of it," said the woman in the white capris and white hat.
The other old woman, in navy blue capris and no hat, turned to face her friend. "It is not. Komodo dragons are huge."
"Not the baby ones. You think they're born that size?" She looked back at the tree. "I saw a program on TV once. That's exactly what they look like."
"I saw the same program," said navy capris. "They don't look anything like that."
"Oh, you saw it too? What did you think?"
"I thought, thank goodness we don't live in a climate that gets many lizards." She gestured at the tree. "Until now, apparently."
White capris leaned in closer. "You think it's poisonous?"
"I think you'd better get your face away from it, in case it is."
Tony stepped between them and they both shied back. "It's not poisonous at all." He held one hand in front of the lizard and pushed it forward with the other. It slowly climbed aboard his palm. "It's a chameleon. You know the color-changing ones? That's why it's brown right now."
"Oh, I know those," said white capris. "That's right. Chameleons."
"I didn't know any lived around here," said navy capris.
"They don't," said Tony, holding the reptile close to his chest and whisking it on home.
Tony's next interview was twenty-four hours after the garage collapse, at 8:00 AM, at a bank. Not a crappy bank, either -- one of the ones downtown with dark wood and glass and granite and women in high heels and men who looked and smelled like new leather coats. Tony wore the interview shirt he had washed the night before and his other pair of dress pants because yesterday's khakis had permanent stains from the garage search-and-rescue.
He said hello to the receptionist, then waited on a couch. He followed a different woman back to a conference room with a wall full of TVs, and talked to a man in a suit who crossed his legs and gestured with his pointer finger. The interview went better than amazing. It went better than amazing times a thousand.
The banker asked, "What do you hope to get out of this job?" and Tony said, "I want to build a career in the business and finance world, and this institution would be either a great place for that career, or an enviable first line on my resume."
The interviewer asked, "What trait of yours will benefit us the most?" and Tony said, "I am a hard-worker, I'm honest, I can be fun, but more than anything I am dedicated. Whatever task needs completing, I will stick with it until it's done."
At the end, when pointer-finger guy asked, "Do you have any questions?" Tony said, "What are the prospects for advancement?" It's what his professor told him to ask during the class period they spent on interview strategies, and the interviewer looked impressed. He nodded and smiled and explained the manager trainee program.
When they finished the banker led Tony back out to the lobby and shook his hand, and after the guy left, Tony stayed and spun a slow circle and looked around because this was where he'd be working, he just knew it. After the full three-sixty he locked eyes with the receptionist and said, "I think I got it," and she said, "No, you didn't. They're hiring the assistant manager's niece. They're only going through interviews as a formality."
"Are you sure?" said Tony.
"Pretty sure," said the receptionist before she looked back at her computer and Tony went home.
He picked up the search as soon as he returned, but this time something occurred to him. He had a minuscule chance of seeing the animals as he completed his circuits around the neighborhood, but what about everyone else? The neighbors must have seen things. They could point him toward the crevices and other hiding spots. So Tony started knocking on doors.
Some people weren't home. Others flipped out when they heard that a garage full of snakes and lizards had collapsed and released the animals into the neighborhood. A handful said they might have seen things, but couldn't be sure, and one lady pointed Tony towards the spot near her garbage cans where she for sure saw a humongous brown snake, but Tony couldn't find it.
Then he knocked on a door and a gigantically overweight guy with black curly hair opened it. Tony delivered his whole spiel about the garage. The guy nodded along.
"I might have seen one," said the guy.
"Oh, yeah? What did it look like?"
"Kind of like a big fat snake with tiny little legs."
"Yep. That's definitely one of them."
"But there was something real weird about it. Are you listening? This thing had a blue tongue like it just finished a…" The big man wiped his forehead and reestablished his balance. "…a blue-raspberry popsicle or something."
"Sure. That's one of the ones I'm looking for."
"Or, or a cotton candy sucker. You know those little ones that turn your tongue blue?"
"It's a blue-tongued skink. Where did you see it?"
The big guy looked back into his house, then over Tony's shoulder into the yard. "Actually…" He ran his hand through his hair again, and took a few quick breaths. "I don't remember now. It's really strange, but I can't remember. I'm sorry."
"Oh." Tony couldn't take it anymore. He failed, and he kept failing. All the lost and scared animals needed him desperately, and he was days away from getting kicked out of his house. He hadn't found anything since the chameleon, and Lucy, the most important thing in the world to Stuart, had stopped eating. She just sat motionless in the corner of the kitchen next to the stove. Tony didn't know what to do. "Thanks anyway."
As Tony walked away, curly said, "Hey, what should I feed a blue-tongued skink?"
"I don't know. Most of them eat fruits and vegetables and crickets. I think they all love crickets."
"For sure, for sure," said the big guy. "And is it okay if I hold it?"
"Yeah, you can probably hold it."
One other time shortly after they became roommates, Stuart got bit by a snake, right in that soft spot between his thumb and index finger. Stuart didn't yell or anything. Tony found him in the bathroom with the snake attached to his hand, running its head under the faucet.
"What are you doing?" asked Tony.
"If he can't breathe, maybe he'll let go."
"Then fill the sink and put its head underwater."
"I don't want to kill him."
Tony descended the stairs and sat on the flaking leather couch to watch TV. Stuart came down ten minutes later with his snake hand in a big plastic bucket.
"I'm just going to wait until he releases," said Stuart.
"That's the best idea you've got?"
"Listen, Tony." Stuart tipped his head and opened his eyes wide. "I'm not bleeding that badly. I can't pry open his mouth with a screwdriver or ask him nicely to let go, obviously. Mind your own business."
They watched half a movie before Tony went to bed, and by morning Stuart sported two pinhole scars that he showed everyone for weeks.
The light started to fade by the time Tony left the fat guy's house. Tony learned in fourth grade science that reptiles are cold-blooded, which meant he needed to find sunny spots. He circled back to the playground and checked the broad west wall of the school. He paused by the concrete driveway aprons and swaths of sidewalk that caught rays between the tree gaps. He walked slower than before, because his legs hurt, and because his hope had pretty much died.
Two blocks from his house he passed a ramshackle duplex to discover a blocky 1970s home with a big west-facing balcony on the garage roof. Reptile heaven, pretty much, open and protected and bathed in sunlight. Tony approached the front door and rang the bell, but no one was home. He should have left, but he hadn't found any animals all day, and his impending eviction hung over him like the summer heat. So he crept along the front of the house and down the side, up to the TV antenna tower. He climbed, double-checking each foot placement and handhold, until he reached the balcony railing. He hopped over.
The space looked like a tropical resort. Plants lined the perimeter, with lounge chairs circling a babbling fountain. Tony could have pictured himself reading a book up there in the afternoon sun, except all over the floor, in between the pots and the chair legs, lay squished geckos. Someone had stomped them like enormous bugs. Their damp entrails stained red circles in the wood floor.
Tony found one still alive, hiding on the wall behind a palm frond. He grabbed it and held it loosely in his balled hands. He stood on the deck and stared at the steel tower and had no idea how to get it back down.
The lady in the teal dress with big earrings needed someone to help with her scrapbook stores. She owned six, but she knew little about office management or marketing or human resources or any of that. So she took out an ad and Tony responded and a few weeks later, forty-eight hours after the garage collapse, he sat at a big table surrounded by paper cutters and pictures of moms smiling with their kids.
"I'm assuming you don't do much scrapbooking yourself. How do you see yourself fitting in with our family?"
Tony sighed. "You're right, I've never scrapbooked. But the fundamentals of business are the same no matter what you're selling. Managing people, selling a product, inventory control, all that."
"Fantastic," said the woman. "Absolutely fantastic. Off the top of your head, what sort of marketing strategy do you envision?"
Tony noticed himself slouching again, so he sat up straight. "I'd certainly look at advertising in publications your customers read. Family magazines, the local paper. And maybe you could sponsor some youth sports leagues or parks or something, get your name in front of people taking pictures and looking to preserve memories."
The woman covered her mouth and her giant earrings swung back and forth. "Oh my God."
"I'm sorry if that was a dumb answer," said Tony. "It's been a really, really weird couple of days."
"Don't move," said the woman.
She pointed at Tony's shoulder. He kept his head still and strained his eyes to see what she referred to. On his shoulder sat a little orange, black, and white newt.
"I'll get something to kill it." She kept her eyes on the lizard while she felt around the table for a pair of scissors.
"No, no! It's okay." Tony picked the reptile off his shoulder and held it in his cupped hand. It lifted its front legs one at a time, back and forth, as if deciding whether to make a break for it. But then it settled. Its head bobbed slightly as it breathed. "My roommate is the reptile manager at a pet store, and this week he's in Belize." Tony told the woman the whole story, the collapse, the pets he'd found so far and the pets he'd lost. He mentioned the interviews that pulled him away from the search, and how many times he'd had to do laundry in the past three days. "I should have been taking pictures. It would've made a great scrapbook page."
The woman laughed. Tony had more interviews scheduled for later in the week and in the weeks to come. He had more resumes under consideration, and more job listings to find and pursue. He faced hours of scouring the neighborhood for lizards and snakes, and the terror of explaining to Stuart what happened. He soon would need to find a new place to live. Right then he wanted the scrapbook store job more than anything else he'd ever wanted, and he petted the newt and looked at the businesswoman and her earrings and tried to think of something else to say.
The woman nodded, slowly at first, then faster. She pointed at the newt and said, "I'd shake your hand, but…"
Tony tried to find somewhere safe to set the animal and he checked his pockets and turned to consider the tables and bins of art supplies and the look on the woman's face told him he probably got the job, but either way he definitely needed to try harder.
Eric Rasmussen teaches high school English in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He is pursuing an MFA from Augsburg College, and his work is featured in Fugue, Sundog Lit, Gulf Stream, South Carolina Review, and Volume One Magazine, among others. He serves as editor of the regional literary journal Barstow & Grand, and fiction reader for Split Lip Magazine. His website is www.theotherericrasmussen.com.
Kelsey Melamed is an elementary school teacher in Maryland whose photography has been featured in SoulPancake: Chew on Life's Big Questions by Rainn Wilson. You can follow her work on Instagram at @kmelam2.
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The Phnom Penh Post reported that Thailand finally has dropped its seat quota on commercial flights to Cambodia after its government approved the removal of air restrictions. This follows an aviation agreement between the two countries that was signed back in May. The approval comes months after Cambodia already decided to drop any kind of restrictions for Thai airlines flying into the Kingdom, fully liberalising air travel between the two countries.
"We've both agreed to remove the quotas on flights and our airlines can fly without limits," said Vann Chanty, director of Air Transport at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA).
Previously, the two countries experienced limited growth in air traffic and tourism by imposing quotas on both the total number of flights and seats on commercial passenger flights between the two countries. Chanty said Cambodia scrapped its quota of 5,300 seats per week at the start of the year, but had to wait for Thailand to reciprocate. Thai aviation officials agreed in principle during a meeting with their Cambodian counterparts on May 18. The Thai Cabinet signed off on the decision on Tuesday, according to the Bangkok Post."The announcement by the Thai side might just be an official one aimed at informing its air carriers in order to promote more flights to Cambodia," Chanty went on to say.
The lifting of restrictions for the total number of flights and seats will help at promoting tourism and investment, and ensuring fair competition in the market, he added. During the May meeting, the two countries also agreed to permit airlines from each side to use six and seventh freedom traffic rights to include their airports for a stopover before flying to a third-tier destination. Two countries are now part of the agreement including South Korea.
"We've chosen South Korea as one of our two destinations, but we haven't decided which airline [will fly the route], or the other destination," Chanty added. Thailand has yet to announce its choice of destinations.
(Source: Phnom Penh Post)

subset: commoncrawl


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Oculus, Facebook's virtual-reality division, on Wednesday announced plans to ship a $199 virtual reality headset that doesn't require a smartphone or a PC early next year.
Facebook hopes the Oculus Go will appeal to consumers who have balked at paying for the more expensive Oculus Rift headset, which requires a powerful-enough PC, and to those who preferred lower-priced, lower-resolution competitors that require a smartphone to run.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset will help Oculus reach a goal of getting 1 billion people into VR.
"I'm more committed than ever to the future of virtual reality," he said during the opening keynote of Oculus Connect 4, the company's annual conference for virtual reality developers at the San Jose Convention Center.
"It's not about escaping reality, it's about making reality better," Zuckerberg said. "It's about curing diseases, connecting families, spreading empathy, rethinking work and bringing us all closer together. VR is about imagining the world as it could be."
In another effort to boost sales, Oculus said it has dropped the price tag of the Rift, including touch controllers, to $399. The headset alone cost $600 when it went on sale last year. It's the latest of a series of deep price cuts across the industry that signal companies' eagerness to reach a mass audience.
The company is also working on a wireless Rift prototype that would eliminate the current cable between the headset and a PC.
Oculus Go could give the company a relatively high-level VR experience but without the high price of equipment, which includes the secondary cost of a computer powerful enough to run the technology.
The research firm CCS Insight predicted that the vast majority of headsets shipped this year -- 13 million of 16 million total -- will be smartphone-reliant devices such as Samsung's Gear VR, which uses Oculus technology. The rest are divided up between Oculus, HTC's Vive and Sony's PlayStation VR.
"Facebook is betting on hardware pricing to broaden VR appeal," CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber said. However, he said, "$199 for the new stand-alone headset and $399 for the Oculus Rift bundle is punchy, but it's still a tough sell. Getting consumers to just experience VR is the first hurdle."
And while the Go could broaden the audience, he said, consumers still need "a compelling reason to adopt it."
Oculus previewed upcoming VR titles from Disney's Pixar Animation Studios due out in November, an upcoming "Blade Runner 2049" game for next year and a first-person combat shooter from "Titanfall" maker Respawn Entertainment scheduled for 2019.
But Gartner analyst Brian Blau said Oculus executives still realize VR will not capture a larger audience right away.
"They think that VR and immersive tech is the next great computing platform, but they're also cautious in saying it's going to take a long time to develop," Blau said. "They want people to be patient and enjoy what's there now."
Zuckerberg issued an apology this week after posting a virtual and augmented reality tour of hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico. In the video, Zuckerberg and Rachel Franklin, Facebook's head of social VR, are the tour guides, but both are represented on-screen as cheery cartoon versions of themselves, built with a Facebook VR creation tool called Spaces.
"One of the most powerful features of VR is empathy," he wrote in a post. "My goal here was to show how VR can raise awareness and help us see what's happening in different parts of the world. I also wanted to share the news of our partnership with the Red Cross to help with the recovery. Reading some of the comments, I realize this wasn't clear, and I'm sorry to anyone this offended."
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny ___
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
This article is written by Benny Evangelista from San Francisco Chronicle and was legally licensed via the Tribune Content Agency through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to email@example.com.


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Marisa Taylor
Al Jazeera
April 3, 2014
Scientists on Wednesday unveiled a detailed, three-dimensional map of the 75 million neurons of the mouse brain, the most complex diagram of a mammalian brain ever created. Researchers say it is an important step toward understanding the way the human brain works.
The Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science revealed its Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas, in which scientists used high-resolution scans to render detailed images of the neural connections of every portion of the mouse brain.
The so-called "connectome" shows the circuits formed by connections between individual brain cells, or neurons, which work together to process and code information that ultimately produces emotions and bodily functions. The atlas, which anyone can access online for free, wraps up four years of research from the Allen Institute involving the scans of 1,700 mouse brains, detailed in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"Understanding how the brain is wired is among the most crucial steps to understanding how the brain encodes information," Hongkui Zeng, senior director of research science at the Allen Institute, said in a news release.
The researches said the atlas contains a total of 1.8 petabytes of data — the equivalent of 23.9 years of continuous HD video.
The news comes exactly one year after President Obama unveiled the "BRAIN" Initiative, a $100 million government investment in research on the human brain and brain disorders including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and autism.
Despite the importance of neuron connections in understanding how the brain works, "our knowledge of it remains remarkably incomplete," the authors wrote in the Nature paper.
The only other species for which scientists have completely mapped the neural connections is the C. elegans — a worm with just 302 neurons. The mouse, by comparison, has 75 million neurons, and humans have an estimated 100 billion.
But much of the available data has been scattered or incomplete, the authors say, showing just a few images or extreme detail of one small region of the brain. Otherwise, details on brain connections have been binary — meaning that the presence of brain connections are known in "yes" or "no" terms, without any quantifying details.
That simple "yes" or "no" doesn't tell us much about the strength or nature of connections in the brain, Zeng told Al Jazeera. And as a result, scientists lack a comprehensive understanding in terms of whole-brain connectivity.
So they created an "atlas," by imaging one mouse brain at a time, injecting a synthetic virus that would light up a particular area of the brain with a fluorescent green protein.
The scientists then did high-resolution scans of the entire mouse brain to see the neural connections in each illuminated site.
"We found amazing diversity in the connectional strengths," Zeng said.
The connections were found to vary in five orders of magnitude — that means there were 100,000-fold differences in strength between neural connections in different regions of the mouse brain. Some regions of the mouse brain only have a few connection fibers, and others have hundreds of thousands of them.
What also interested Zeng and her group was that there was a small number of very strong brain connections, and a large number of weaker connections. "So it may be that the brain is processing information through a few small pathways, but then there is a large number of weaker connections" that moderates the processes of those few, strong connections, she said.
But at this point, Zeng added, it's just a hypothesis.
Since the database will be completely open and free to the public, scientists will be able to mine the data about specific connections to guide more research. For example, if this is what connections in a normal mouse brain look like, what do they look like in animal models of human diseases such as, say, Alzheimer's? How and where do those brain connections change?
"We believe that [the atlas is] only scratching the surface," Zeng said.
She said the project raises more questions than it offers in terms of distinct answers.
"Why does the brain need all these different types of connections with all these different strengths? Our result is always raising more questions than providing answers," Zeng said. "That's always the case."-
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
A free Lions download
Click here to hear "Sweet Soul Music" streaming on my Vox blog. This piece was recorded live during a Lions in-store appearance in February. To download it, follow this link to Amoeba.com.
Interesting side note: The singer on this track is actor Alex Désert. (He co-starred in the sitcom "Becker.")
Here is a half-hour video of the Lions' performance at Amoeba:
5 comments:
- Brian Lindenmuth said...
I'm a little disappointed Dave :)
Alex Desert was in PCU w/ Jeremy Piven. Why should anybody give a shit? Because when the good people of The Pit throw a party in order to raise money to save their house who plays the party...
...George Clinton and Parliment-Funkadelic.
They play
-"Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)"
-"Erotic City"
- July 13, 2009 at 3:09 AM
- Undercover Black Man said...
^ How quickly I forget!
Here's "Stomp," for those who don't know.
Jon Favreau was also in that flick. Dang... 15 years ago that was.
Piven, by the way, is a real-deal funkateer. I saw him in the crowd at a Bootsy's Rubber Band show at House of Blues.
- July 13, 2009 at 6:37 AM
- bklyn6 said...
I thought that guy looked familiar (I remember when he had locks). I just didn't know his name.
- July 13, 2009 at 9:29 AM
- Unknown said...
Aight Im gonna make ur blog apart of my morning routine. Judging by ur blog u seem to be on point, then on Dv .net u confuse the hell outta me man.
- July 13, 2009 at 9:41 AM
- Undercover Black Man said...
^ Dr. Illinstein! Welcome to my spot.
- July 13, 2009 at 9:45 AM


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Plazmites are small bug-like creatures that spend a large amount of their time flying through the air in search of small organisms to feed on. They mainly avoid confrontations with other creatures though are capable of defending themselves when threatened. They can easily be spotted due to their emitting a bright, glowing light.[2]
Samus encounters these creatures on Tallon IV in the Chozo Ruins (though she first saw them in captivity on the Frigate Orpheon). They do not attack her and mainly just fly around the areas they inhabit. The light they emit is very useful in the dark rooms they inhabit, though killing them causes the rooms to become darker. These rooms feature Plazmites: Ruined Fountain, Dynamo and Totem Access.
These insects share the same functions as the Firefleas found on Zebes in Super Metroid. The Plazmite was originally called "Fireflea" in the early versions of the game on the Frigate Orpheon. The Glow Fly of SR388 is also similar to the Plazmite.
Official websiteEdit
"Plazmites spend most of their time flying through the air in search of small organisms to feed on. They tend to avoid confrontations, but are capable of defending themselves when threatened in enclosed spaces.
Perhaps the most beautiful life-form on Tallon IV, Plazmites are winged creatures which emit a radiant glow in light."
Logbook entryEdit
Morphology: Plazmite
Small insect capable of storing and releasing thermal energy.
Plazmites are attracted to sources of heat, thriving on the energy present there. They emit light when hunting, and will expel small burst of thermal energy when threatened.
- This is the only creature that can be frightened away by shooting a surface near it. The technique is useful in maintaining the creature's light emitting properties whilst moving it out of Samus' path.
- Although most Plazmmites explode when shot, the Plazmite found in the room Dynamo has a unique death animation. No matter how it is killed, this Plazmite always falls down to the floor before dying.
- ^ Log Book Guide. Metroid Recon. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
- ^ a b Inter-Stellar Network — Plazmite. Metroid.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.


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Spring 2012 Ready-to-WearSass & Bide
The new streamlined sensibility in Sass & Bide's Spring collection wasn't purposeful. In fact, designers Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton seemed surprised when a few interviewers suggested the notion after the show. "I suppose it was unconscious," said Middleton. "But there was a lot of newness in the silhouettes and the colors."
Clarke and Middleton's love of marrying various elements together was still quite present, only less piled on. The seed of the collection was opposing forces, and in a single look you might find some amalgam of tiny burnished silver sequins, a navy and white batik polka dot, bright silk, a bit of neoprene or metallic leather, and a dash of tribal beading. It sounds like a lot—too much even—but the execution had an almost minimal precision. It seemed as if their magpie urban lass had taken to heart the old Coco Chanel chestnut about taking off one thing (or a few) before you leave the house, but in a macro way. Combing her hair into a sleek, middle-parted chignon didn't hurt the elegance factor, either.
Speaking of opposing forces, instead of styling the show themselves as they've done in the past, Clarke and Middleton hired Julia Sarr-Jamois, the Wonderland fashion director beloved by the street-style set for her high-end mix mastery and outsize halo of hair. A stylist's input is a wholly unquantifiable behind-the-scenes element, but from this end, it seemed a smart match.


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A lot of people aspire to become a journalist. Whether it's reporting on current events, covering sport or writing about celebrities, the career paths available to a journalist are many.
Most importantly, journalists will need to have well-honed writing skills. Good reporting requires a specific writing style, delivered in an informative and non-biased way.
However, you still need to tell a story and draw readers in.
Journalism today has rapidly changed from the medium it once was. It is now more common for people to report digitally rather than in print. There's also a lot more ways to consume the news than reading it. Many publications are offering their updates through video and audio means, delivering breaking news right to a person's computer or Smart Phone.
Where once you read yesterday's news today, people expect to hear about major global events minutes after they take place.
This means that how journalists find sources for their stories has also greatly changed. There are websites dedicated to helping journalists discover important news (HARO) and it's common to see journalists trawling twitter to get updates on live events.
One thing is for sure, this is a fast-paced industry with no set hours.
When a story breaks, you can be working all hours to keep your audience updated.
It's also a career that offers little 'permanent work'. While some publications will hire journalists on a full-time basis, most will look for multiple contributors that they use on a freelance basis.
This is both good and bad.
Good that you have the opportunity to work with many different titles. Bad that until you can build a name for yourself, it can be difficult to secure regular work.
Education & Training
It's recommended that journalists achieve a bachelor's degree in journalism or communications etc. However, if you have a strong writing style and develop a well-rounded portfolio, you can write on a freelance basis with little difficulty.
You should have a good understanding of journalism including legal areas. This is important to make sure you are reporting using the correct terminology and not landing yourself in trouble.
Courses that can help you to develop your knowledge in these areas include:
- English for Journalism – University of Pennsylvania
- Become a Journalist: Report the News! – Michigan State University
- Gathering and Developing the News – Michigan State University
- Effectively delivering the news to your audience – Michigan State University
- Create your own professional journalistic portfolio – Michigan State University
You really need to write and start building a great portfolio. Concentrate on the areas you're interested in and start from there. A fantastic way of doing this is to start a news blog. If you can write regularly and develop a following, this is very attractive to potential employers. Who knows, you might just decide to keep writing for yourself if you learn to monetize your news site correctly.
If you are looking to work for a leading publication, however, then you will need to gain some experience. You can do this by developing your own site, however, larger news companies will prefer you to understand how they operate.
In this regard, it's recommended to secure work experience or an internship. Not only will this give you the experience that you need, it will also help you to decide which area you want to go in.
Your duties and responsibilities will depend on the type of journalist you are and whether you're writing for yourself or not. However, common elements of the position include:
- Interviewing people from a range of backgrounds.
- Building a wide range of contacts to help you discover breaking news.
- Finding stories and sources and verifying facts.
- Press Conferences
- Attending events with the view of reporting on them or developing your network.
- Reacting quickly to breaking stories.
- Working with editors and photographers.
- Using Shorthand.
- Recording Interviews.
- Producing great copy to strict deadlines, multiple times a day.
- Writing filler stories on slower news days.
- Using a website CMS to upload content
- Live reporting and blogging.
Career Paths
There are many areas you can specialize in as a journalist. Some people want to cover news, others love sport, some write article after article on all the latest celebrity news etc.
It really depends on your interests and your style of writing or filming. Whatever area you decide to focus on, you're going to need to develop a portfolio of work in that area, develop a list of source and contacts, and start building your name.
Branding yourself as an expert in your field is essential to climbing the career path. If you want to focus solely on producing content then the more known you are, the easier you'll find this to do.
Some people go down the route of creating a news site or managing an existing one with the responsibility of pulling everything together. Sometimes known as editors, these professionals are responsible for everything that goes out. They might develop series ideas, request specific opinion articles for journalists in the area. Send out reporters to get the latest on a particular story.
They are effectively the person that makes sure everything runs smoothly and that everything is being covered.
Whatever area you choose to go down, it will take some time to get your name out there and start getting more exposure. It's always best to keep writing, even if you don't have anyone to publish it yet. Many publications will accept opinion pieces of the latest from people who happen to be in the right place.
Make a list of all publications that will accept pitches and start getting your work in with them. The more you are successful with, the easier you'll find this to do in the future.


text: Successful trading is often a matter of selling at the right time. It is often possible to be a conformist and just follow the crowd. When there is strong interest in what you are trading, you can merely follow the prevailing trend. As prices move up, the media reports on the optimism, and the confidence of the masses rises. Soon, more and more enthusiastic buyers enter the markets. There are times when all you have to do is ride the wave. That said, following the prevailing trend doesn't always work. As we have seen, periods of optimism are often followed by periods of fear and pessimism. You cannot always "buy low," wait patiently, and assume that there will be crowds of naive amateur buyers ready to push the price up higher. If you wait too long, you'll hit so-called resistance, and it will be too late to profit from the move. Obviously, trading is not always easy. You must gauge the phase that the market is in, anticipate what will happen next, and enter and exit a trade at optimal times. You must do your homework, rely on your instincts and make educated guesses as to where the markets will go next. Many traders make the mistake of assuming that they can merely look at the trend and trade on impulse, with little knowledge about what they are trading and what makes it move, but astute traders do their homework. They study the history of a company or a market, the range of prices and the factors that influence the rise and fall of the price. By doing your homework, you can better anticipate how the price will move. For example, you can determine what others see as support and resistance levels. You can determine whether the current price is the result of various market factors, or seemingly for no discernable reason. By knowing all you can know about what you are trading, you will ultimately take less risk. When you buy at typical levels of so-called support, you know that in the long run it is likely that prices will return to that point in a worst-case scenario. When prices go beyond that range, and you know there is no sound reason for the increase in price, you will know to sell while the masses are interested. And when they sell out of fear and prices drop back to their previous levels, you can buy back. It's possible to make money on the way up and on the way down. It's all a matter of knowing as much as possible about what youâre trading to the point of becoming an expert. Trading is much like sales. You have to know what the public thinks they want and when they want it. You need to buy at low prices and sell it to the public when the price is high. Just like in any business, however, you can't make such forecasts without knowing what the price patterns look like when the public is going to come in. Don't trade on impulse. Do your homework and make sound educated speculations. It's less risky and more profitable.


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Our extensive knowledge and experience in the design and methodology of grouting allows us to solve a variety of unique challenges for some of the most difficult site conditions. Grouting systems we use include cement grouting, compaction grouting, jet grouting, chemical grouting, and permeation grouting. In the last two decades, we have become the recognized leader in the science of grouting with the development of IntelliGrout®. This industry-changing technology enables our clients and designers to make sound, real-time, engineering decisions.
Our Expertise
What We Do
What You Can Expect
What You Can Expect
- Extensive Project Experience
Our knowledge and experience with balanced stable high mobility grouts, medium mobility, limited mobility, and low mobility grouts have given us the leading role in the design and methodology of grout mixes on virtually every grouting project we have worked on during the last 10 years.
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Our experienced engineers and geologists have taught short courses and seminars on grouting, seepage, and dam safety for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We have published numerous papers promoting the use of stable grouting, computer assisted grouting, and engineered grouting methods.
- Innovation
IntelliGrout® revolutionized the traditional approach to grouting. It is a comprehensive integration of real-time data collection, display, analyses, and computer control of grouting operations. The system consists of both hardware and software components; all designed and constructed to allow project participants to collect, visualize, and understand vast amounts of complex data in real time. The data integration enables owners and designers to make sound engineering decisions to most effectively accommodate the geologic conditions. IntelliGrout is recognized internationally as the state-of-the-art system for grouting.
Grouting Techniques
- Cement grouting or high mobility grouting
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- Sinkhole prevention/active sinkhole remediation
- Soil densification and improvement
- Void filling.


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ALEPPO –– The United States and Turkey indicated on Saturday they might impose no-fly zones in Syria as battles between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's forces shook Aleppo and fighting erupted in the heart of Damascus.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting her Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul that Washington and Ankara should develop detailed operational planning on ways to assist the rebels fighting to topple Assad.
"Our intelligence services, our military have very important responsibilities and roles to play so we are going to be setting up a working group to do exactly that," she said.
Asked about options such as imposing a no-fly zone over rebel-held territory, Clinton said these were possibilities she and Davutoglu had agreed "need greater in-depth analysis," while indicating that no decisions were necessarily imminent.
"It is one thing to talk about all kinds of potential actions, but you cannot make reasoned decisions without doing intense analysis and operational planning," she said.
Nevertheless, her remarks were the closest Washington has come to suggesting direct military intervention in Syria.
No-fly zones imposed by NATO and Arab allies helped Libyan rebels overthrow Muammar Qadhafi last year. Until recently, the West had shunned the idea of repeating any Libya-style action.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are believed to be arming Syrian rebels, while the United States and Britain have pledged to step up non-lethal assistance to Assad's opponents.
Davutoglu said it was time outside powers took decisive steps to resolve the humanitarian crisis in cities such as Aleppo, where Assad's forces have fought rebels for three weeks.
Jets, tanks in action
In the latest battles, tanks and troops pummeled rebels near the shattered district of Salaheddine, a former opposition stronghold that commands the main southern approach to Aleppo.
Tank fire crashed into the adjacent Saif al-Dawla neighborhood as military jets circled over an abandoned police station held by rebels, firing missiles every few minutes.
Insurgents said they had been forced to retreat in the latest twist in relentless, see-saw battles for Salaheddine, part of a swathe of Aleppo seized by rebels last month.
Some rebels, outgunned and low on ammunition in Aleppo, have pleaded for outside military help, arguing that more weapons and a no-fly zone over areas they control near the Turkish border would give them a secure base against Assad's forces.
"The reason we retreated from Salaheddine this week is a lack of weapons," complained Abu Thadet, a rebel commander in Aleppo who said his fighters would regroup and fight back. "We can handle the bombing. It's the snipers that make it hard."
Ten of the 30 fighters in his brigade have been wounded, mostly by snipers lurking even in areas rebels claim to control. His men have broken holes in walls of buildings to try to create safe passages for them to move around in Salaheddine.
In Damascus, where Assad's forces have regained control of districts overrun by rebels last month, a resident reported an explosion near the Central Bank, followed by gunfire.
"The explosion was huge. There has been fighting for the past half-hour along Pakistan Street. I am very close. Can you hear that?" she told Reuters, a bang audible over the telephone.
Syrian state TV said authorities were hunting "terrorists" who had set off a bomb in Merjeh, an area near the central bank, and who were "shooting at random to spark panic among citizens."
End Game Begins?
Despite their superior firepower, Assad's forces have been stretched by months of warfare against increasingly skilled and organized fighters who have taken them on in every city and in many parts of the countryside at one time or another.
Germany's spy chief said the Syrian army had been depleted by casualties, deserters and defectors.
"There are a lot of indications that the end game for the regime has begun," said Gerhard Schindler, head of the BND intelligence agency, in an interview with Die Welt newspaper.
"The regular army is being confronted by a variety of flexible fighters. The recipe of their success is their guerrilla tactics. They're breaking the army's back."
Syria's torment, however, is far from over and several signs point to how the conflict could spill over into its neighbors.
Jordanian and Syrian forces clashed along the border overnight when Syrian refugees tried to cross into Jordan, a Syrian opposition activist who witnessed the fighting said.
He said armored vehicles were involved in the clash in the Tel Shihab-Turra area, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Jordan's capital, Amman. No deaths were reported on the Jordanian side.
Thousands of Syrians have fled into Jordan, but tensions heightened after Assad's newly installed Prime Minister Riad Hijab, defected and escaped across the border this week.
In Lebanon, Michel Samaha, a former information minister and Assad ally, faces military indictment for his alleged part in "terrorist plots" which included transporting explosives from Syria for use in north Lebanon, a Lebanese security source said.
Lebanon, still scarred by its 1975-90 civil war, is nervous about instability spreading from Syria and shattering its own delicate sectarian power-sharing balance between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, Christians and other minorities.
Assad's main outside allies are Shia Iran and Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement. His ruling system is dominated by members of his Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam.
His foes are mostly from Syria's Sunni majority, who are backed by Sunni-ruled states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, which are also regional rivals of Iran.
Arab foreign ministers will meet on Sunday in Jeddah to discuss the Syria crisis and who should replace Kofi Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy, a League official said.
UN diplomats said veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi could be named next week as the new envoy for Syria.
Annan quit after his peacemaking efforts proved futile in the face of divisions in the UN Security Council, where Russia and China have blocked Western attempts to speed Assad's exit.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Andrew Quinn and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin, Louis Charbonneau in New York and Tamim Elyan in Cairo; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Angus MacSwan)


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Ashley Neuhaus 5-APR-2012 It seems like beautiful vampires are running wild and ruling pop culture these days. Rachel Deering has set to change that with ANATHEMA. The main character, Mercy Barlowe, is a beautiful lesbian who is fighting to save her lover's soul. And oh yeah, she's a werewolf. Deering has created a second Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to have the last five issues produced. If this is a successful campaign, the money will be to pay for her artist and colorist.
I got a chance to send some questions off to Rachel who was more than willing to talk about the project, the comics industry, and herself.
AN: So…lesbian werewolf, eh? Why a werewolf?
RD: Werewolves have long been my favorite monster. It all started with The Howling when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I guess. The whole movie just captivated and scared the crap out of me, and I've been in love with werewolves ever since.
AN: Where did you draw the inspiration for ANATHEMA and the character of Mercy Barlowe?
RD: The inspiration came from watching way too many Hammer horror movies, and reading Warren and Skywald magazines from the 70s. I just wanted to create something that would resurrect that classic horror feel, and bring timeless monsters back to pop culture.
AN: What's the worst thing you've ever done to a character?
RD: I'd say killing Mercy's girlfriend and then forcing her to become a werewolf in order to get revenge is pretty terrible. I've killed a lot of characters, but this is the first time I've ever subjected them to such extreme mental and emotional anguish. I'm sure I'll top myself before long, though.
RD: I'll be doing C2E2 in a few weeks, which is something I've dreamed about for some time, so that's totally rad. I'd really love to do SDCC, Baltimore, and NYCC in addition. We'll see how it all works out!
AN: Do you have anything playing in the background while you work?
RD: Definitely not while I brainstorm, outline, or script. I like to have total silence during those times, as those tasks require every bit of my attention. If I had music on in the background, I'd be tempted to sing along, or tap out the drumbeat on my desk. When I'm lettering, I definitely have something playing. I'm a big fan of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Dio, Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, Gypsyhawk, Royal Thunder, and a ton of other metal bands.
AN: What do you think is the biggest contribution to comics in today's market?
RD: Probably the whole digital revolution. More people are picking up new titles because it's as easy as turning on your computer or e-reader and downloading an issue, or a whole series. I'm not a fan of digital myself, being a collector, but I'm hopeful that the format will bring in a lot of new readers, and will encourage people to try titles they wouldn't have otherwise.
AN: What drew you into comics in the first place? More specifically, what about the horror genre appeals to you?
RD: The first comics I ever read were horror comics, so I was a devoted horror junkie from the start. My uncle gave me an old stack of his comics, which included stuff like Tales From the Crypt, Creepy, Conan, and Heavy Metal. I was so drawn to them because even if I couldn't understand all of the words, I could still look at the art and make out what was going on. That was a big turn on for someone who was just learning how to read.
AN: If you weren't in the comics business, what would you be doing?
RD: Probably the same thing I was doing before comics. Jumping from one job to the next, trying to find my place in the world. I've done everything from working in electronics stores, to computer maintenance, to lawn and garden, credit card debt collection, assisting people with mental and physical disabilities (AKA wiping the asses of grown men), driving forklifts, and everything in between.
AN: What comic related event or thing are you most looking forward to for this year?
RD: Aside from getting four or five issues deep into Anathema and releasing some of my other projects? Uhhh, probably the conclusion of Locke & Key. I've been hooked on that book since the beginning, and I'm dying to know how it ends.
AN: Are there any other projects besides Anathema that you're working on?
RD: Certainly. I'm working on a graphic novel called The Other Side, I've put together a horror anthology with 11 other talented writers, and I'm doing a story for the third installment of the NY Times best selling anthology FUBAR. I'm sure I'll add plenty of other gigs to the list before the year is up.
AN: Where can people learn more about your work and cyber-stalk you?
RD: The best place to keep up with my shenanigans is through Twitter. You can follow me @racheldeering to get all the nitty gritty details on my upcoming projects, and probably learn a thing or two about me that you will never be able to un-learn. It's a good time.
There are some sample pages of the book on the Kickstarter page and with only 25 days left, it's still roughly $14,000 short of its goal of $20,000. There are some pretty cool rewards for backers such as PDF copies of issues, printed AND signed copies of issues, and original artwork. Help keep ANATHEMA alive! Don't you want to see if Mercy saves her love's soul from those pesky cultists?


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Teamster school bus workers recently unanimously ratified a "School Bus Workers' Bill of Rights. The document was announced at the recent Teamsters School Bus Workers Congress held in Chicago.
Among those rights are the right to good faith collective bargaining, freedom of association, due process to resolve workplace issues, dignity and respect on the job, freedom of speech, a safe workplace, fair and honest treatment and protection from discrimination.
We hope you will share this bill of rights with your co-workers and join us in the fight to make these rights a reality.
School Bus Workers' Bill of Rights
School bus workers have the right to:
- Bargain collectively, in good faith, in order to improve their situation;
- Freedom of association, including the right to join a trade union of their own choosing without interference;
- Be treated with dignity and respect at work and a workplace free from prejudice, discrimination, bullying and harassment;
- A fair wage that permits them to live in dignity and medical help when they are ill;
- Fair and honest treatment regardless of race, gender, disability, nationality, religion, philosophical or political belief, age, sexual orientation, family status, trade union activity or any other factor. Protection against discrimination based on any of these factors;
- A safe workplace where the health and safety of workers, students and riders are paramount and where workers can raise health and safety issues without fear of retribution, including the ability to refuse to drive an unsafe bus;
- A workplace free from mental or physical coercion;
- Due process procedures to resolve workplace issues;
- Freedom of speech, including the protection of "whistle blower" activity for workers who attempt to expose illegal or improper activity; and
- The protection of law in an equal and fair manner when rights are violated.


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Made of super soft, organic cotton. Drop shoulder style allows for sleeve lengths to be longer for those surprise growth spurts. Complete the look, wear this top with our jumpsuit overalls.
- 100% Organic Cotton. GOTS Certified
- Lovingly made in India
- Hand screen printed, AZO free, only certified eco-friendly dyes used
- Wash in cold water, inside out - hang to dry
*print placement may vary due to handmade nature of product


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As we predicted, heavy conditions arrived at Lanzarote yesterday to bring a competition that could have well been a wave elimination. Big air moves and jumps were thrown to try to advance on the double elimination.
Like always in the double eliminations, everyone fight to stay alive in the competition, and we could see some sailors making their way through the heats.
Nicolas Akgazciyan started strong from the bottom of the draw, only failing against Tonky Frans, who was on the zone yesterday, making his way back up to the fifth position, only loosing against dry-freestyle master Kiri Thode. Also Andy "Bubble" Chambers manage to climb a few positions in the ranking.
Other who advanced a few heats in the double elimination were Taty Frans, Normen Gunzlein, André Paskowski and Antxón Otaegui.
But come back from the day happened actually in the last heats, when Gollito Estredo first defended his position against Kiri Thode, then beat ex-world Champion Ricardo Campello and finally faced Marcilio Brown. Gollito could not win against the Brazilian even though he made amazing moves like a puneta-culo and a pretty impressive shuvit-spock 900. But Brown was on firm and nailed some impressive funnel cana bravas, one-handed burner, culo, air chachos, and many more.
In the ladies fleet, Junko Nagoshi was the one who came back putting a threat on the top girls. She first won against Yoli de Brendt who wasn't flowing yesterday to show off her potential. After she faced Spaniard Silvia Alba, but despite her sweet spocks, she couldn't do anything to beat the Japanese's punetas.
Junko put pressure on Laure Treboux, who had to work her best to be able to win her heat against Nagoshi. But winning this heat gave her confidence enough to face the Moreno twins, wining first against Iballa and facing Daida afterwards with no fear, managing to knockout the current world Champion
In the final heat of the day, she tried to steal the first position against Sarah-Quita, but the level from the Aruban was above anyone else.
The result after this first double elimination is:
1. Marcilio Browne (Mistral/Gaastra)
2. Gollito Estredo (Fanatic/North Sails)
3. Ricardo Campello (JP/NeilPryde)
4. Kiri Thode (Gaastra/Starboard)
1. Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard/Gaastra)
2. Laure Treboux (Fanatic/NorthSails)
3. Daida Ruano (North Sails)
4. Iballa Ruano (North Sails)
Photo Credit: PWA/J.Carter


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Ticket #5165 (closed defect: obsolete)
eComStation 2.0 guru meditation
|Reported by:
|Owned by:
|VirtualBox 3.0.8
|Guest type:
|Host type:
Description (last modified by aeichner) (diff)
Random guru meditation appears when running eComStation 2.0 VM.
It happens also when system is idle, but starting FireFox 2.x/3.x causes it every time. On same VM, Opera5 works fine.
No ACPI psd installed. Using W4 kernel reduces number of meditations, SMP makes them more frequent.
Change History
Changed 11 years ago by ydario
- attachment ecs-2009-10-07-16-47-38a.log added
comment:2 Changed 11 years ago by ydario
Now the problem is gone: I reverted vbox to 2.2.4 and made a new VM. I modified ECS configuration to match required features.
Now I upgraded to 308 again and the VM is really stable. OS/2 locked a couple of times (probably not related to vbox), but no more guru meditations.
Comparing the two VM, here are the difference (before, now)
RAM 1201, 1024 VIDEoRAM 8, 10 AUDIO disabled, ich ac97 network NAT, bridge USB disabled, enabled
Now ecs is running with acpi driver, smp kernel, 1 processor enabled in vbox.
comment:3 Changed 4 years ago by aeichner
- Status changed from new to closed
- Resolution set to obsolete
- Description modified (diff)
Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.