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So Apparently Joss Whedon Went to a Graduation and Didn't turn into a giant Snake
Isn't that surprising? I guess he wasn't the master.. or whatever the fuck it was that the Principal was. I can't remember since it has been so long since I last viewed all of the Buffy seasons. In any event, the now famous Avengers director went and made a commencement speech. One that wasn't god awful and it was pretty good. Even though he did say that everyone there is going to die.
On the plus side, they didn't die on this day when Joss Whedon didn't turn into a giant snake and consumed them. But in any event, here it is;
it's going well, it's going well. Thank you, Jeanine, for…making me do this. This is going to be great. This is going to be a good one. It's gonna go really well. Two roads diverged in a wood, and… no. I'm not that lazy.
I actually sat through many graduations. When I was siting where you guys were sitting, the speaker was Bill Cosby—funny man Bill Cosby, he was very funny and he was very brief, and I thanked him for that. He gave us a message that I really took with me, that a lot of us never forgot, about changing the world. He said, "you're not going to change the world, so don't try."
That was it. He didn't buy that back at all. And then he complained about buying his daughter a car and we left. I remember thinking, "I think I can do better. I think I can be a little more inspiring than that."
And so, what I'd like to say to all of you is that you are all going to die.
This is a good commencement speech because I'm figuring it's only going to go up from here. It can only get better, so this is good. It can't get more depressing. You have, in fact, already begun to die. You look great. Don't get me wrong. And you are youth and beauty. You are at the physical peak. Your bodies have just gotten off the ski slope on the peak of growth, potential, and now comes the black diamond mogul run to the grave. And the weird thing is your body wants to die. On a cellular level, that's what it wants. And that's probably not what you want.
I'm confronted by a great deal of grand and worthy ambition from this student body. You want to be a politician, a social worker. You want to be an artist. Your body's ambition: Mulch. Your body wants to make some babies and then go in the ground and fertilize things. That's it. And that seems like a bit of a contradiction. It doesn't seem fair. For one thing, we're telling you, "Go out into the world!" exactly when your body is saying, "Hey, let's bring it down a notch. Let's take it down."
And it is a contradiction. And that's actually what I'd like to talk to you about. The contradiction between your body and your mind, between your mind and itself. I believe these contradictions and these tensions are the greatest gift that we have, and hopefully, I can explain that.
But first let me say when I talk about contradiction, I'm talking about something that is a constant in your life and in your identity, not just in your body but in your own mind, in ways that you may recognize or you may not.
Let's just say, hypothetically, that two roads diverged in the woods and you took the path less traveled. Part of you is just going, "Look at that path! Over there, it's much better. Everyone is traveling on it. It's paved, and there's like a Starbucks every 40 yards. This is wrong. In this one, there's nettles and Robert Frost's body—somebody should have moved that—it just feels weird. And not only does your mind tell you this, it is on that other path, it is behaving as though it is on that path. It is doing the opposite of what you are doing. And for your entire life, you will be doing, on some level, the opposite—not only of what you were doing—but of what you think you are. That is just going to go on. What you do with all your heart, you will do the opposite of. And what you need to do is to honor that, to understand it, to unearth it, to listen to this other voice.
You have, which is a rare thing, that ability and the responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself, to at least give it the floor, because it is the key—not only to consciousness-but to real growth. To accept duality is to earn identity. And identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is not just who you are. It is a process that you must be active in. It's not just parroting your parents or the thoughts of your learned teachers. It is now more than ever about understanding yourself so you can become yourself.
I talk about this contradiction, and this tension, there's two things I want to say about it. One, it never goes away. And if you think that achieving something, if you think that solving something, if you think a career or a relationship will quiet that voice, it will not. If you think that happiness means total peace, you will never be happy. Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace. It will always be in conflict. If you accept that, everything gets a lot better.
The other reason is because you are establishing your identities and your beliefs, you need to argue yourself down, because somebody else will. Somebody's going to come at you, and whatever your belief, your idea, your ambition, somebody's going to question it. And unless you have first, you won't be able to answer back, you won't be able to hold your ground. You don't believe me, try taking a stand on just one leg. You need to see both sides.
Now, if you do, does this mean that you get to change the world? Well, I'm getting to that, so just chill. All I can say to this point is I think we can all agree that the world could use a little changing. I don't know if your parents have explained this to you about the world but… we broke it. I'm sorry… it's a bit of a mess. It's a hard time to go out there. And it's a weird time in our country.
The thing about our country is—oh, it's nice, I like it—it's not long on contradiction or ambiguity. It's not long on these kinds of things. It likes things to be simple, it likes things to be pigeonholed—good or bad, black or white, blue or red. And we're not that. We're more interesting than that. And the way that we go into the world understanding is to have these contradictions in ourselves and see them in other people and not judge them for it. To know that, in a world where debate has kind of fallen away and given way to shouting and bullying, that the best thing is not just the idea of honest debate, the best thing is losing the debate, because it means that you learn something and you changed your position. The only way really to understand your position and its worth is to understand the opposite. That doesn't mean the crazy guy on the radio who is spewing hate, it means the decent human truths of all the people who feel the need to listen to that guy. You are connected to those people. They're connected to him. You can't get away from it.
This connection is part of contradiction. It is the tension I was talking about. This tension isn't about two opposite points, it's about the line in between them, and it's being stretched by them. We need to acknowledge and honor that tension, and the connection that that tension is a part of. Our connection not just to the people we love, but to everybody, including people we can't stand and wish weren't around. The connection we have is part of what defines us on such a basic level.
Freedom is not freedom from connection. Serial killing is freedom from connection. Certain large investment firms have established freedom from connection. But we as people never do, and we're not supposed to, and we shouldn't want to. We are individuals, obviously, but we are more than that.
So here's the thing about changing the world. It turns out that's not even the question, because you don't have a choice. You are going to change the world, because that is actually what the world is. You do not pass through this life, it passes through you. You experience it, you interpret it, you act, and then it is different. That happens constantly. You are changing the world. You always have been, and now, it becomes real on a level that it hasn't been before.
And that's why I've been talking only about you and the tension within you, because you are—not in a clichéd sense, but in a weirdly literal sense—the future. After you walk up here and walk back down, you're going to be the present. You will be the broken world and the act of changing it, in a way that you haven't been before. You will be so many things, and the one thing that I wish I'd known and want to say is, don't just be yourself. Be all of yourselves. Don't just live. Be that other thing connected to death. Be life. Live all of your life. Understand it, see it, appreciate it. And have fun.
Now that's some good stuff.
It Has Been Zero Days since DC has Done Something Stupid
I use to really enjoy reading DC comics. They were fun. They reminded me of a time when I was a kid and life was simple and superheroes were, you know, super. They did good things and stopped bad guys. It was different than what Marvel was doing. Which is nice in its own regard. What with the whole tying current events such as racial violence together with mutant kind and what not.
Recently DC has been going the darker route. I say recently, but it has seriously been a good decade now in that they have just said fuck it and went hard core on it. Killing Ted Kord in Countdown to whatever Crisis was going on. Just yesterday DC continued the death march in a very stupid fashion by killing a pretty popular character out of fucking left field.
What the fuck was that? And in the same fashion as Ted Kord. What a fucking despicable company DC has turned into. Just killing off Catwoman in such a throw away manner. I mean, doesn't she still have her own comic book? Oh, fuck it. I'm sure they'll explain it away that the New 52 Catwoman actually has 9 lives like that bad Batman movie.
Well, with this action a lot of people were saying that this is essentially Fridging Catwoman. A term used to describe how most comic books treat their female characters as nothing more than an object to be toyed with and killed off to get a rise out of our hero. It first came about when Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's girlfriend was killed by a villain and put into a fridge. She served no purpose but to fuck with the hero.
In this instance, she's totally getting Ted Korded far more than she is getting Fridged. Let me explain. Ted Kord was the Blue Beetle and in a run up to a massive cross over event, Ted Kord was shot in the head in the same exact manner as Selina Kyle here. Their death is to serve as nothing more than to show that shit is getting real with this upcoming event.
How the fuck can any company even do this to their characters - let alone their strong female character like Catwoman;
But even if she's not dead and this is a fake out - which clearly has to be the case since she has her own book and her annual did start off a new story, that just highlights this and makes it even worse and more stupid. Why even do this in the first place if it isn't going to stick. You simply diminish the whole act of character deaths by this action. Imagine if Game of Thrones just retconned the dead back to life without any issue or repercussion.
Having her killed and then immediately making it a fake out is just terrible in itself. Why yes, murder a woman, bring her back asap. Who gives a shit, right? Buy more comics and watch out big blue boy scout in theaters in June!
Yeah, I don't think Catwoman is going to stay dead but "here is a horrible brutal image of her bound and tied and then shot in the head, you better believe we're going to pretend she's dead and milk this until the inevitable reveal she's alive" is not really fundamentally different at this point. At best they're trying to get all the emotional investment/uncomfortable imagery without any of the long-term ramifications.
Just look at these death poses. It's not that they killed her off, it's her face is all wide-eyed and her lips pouting. In fact she mentioned to Ivo that he couldn't kill her because he would have Batman to deal with and his reaction is that's what he wanted - then blam! I get that the bad guys are bad guys, but those are really distressing panels there and probably shouldn't be drawn for a comic book reading audience.
It's also pretty comical that you know a major death of a comic book character isn't going to stick because it wasn't leaked out to the media like every other major super hero death has been in the past year or two. In fact, why do they even do that anymore. Comic book characters dying just seem trivial at best. We all know that they're not going to stick and when someone dies and you waste a book on their funeral, the characters themselves mourning are even saying that they fully expect the fallen hero to come back relatively soon.
So why even bother killing off characters in such a manner anymore? Just don't do it. To you DC, I simply say this;
A Memorial Day to Drink About
Wait a minute, I mean THINK. Yes, THINK. Not drink, even though that seems to be what everyone happens to do on those three day weekend celebrations. The next one being 4th of July. Apparently it seems like the police are on to you. So much so that over the memorial day weekend over 500 DUI arrest happened. 529, to be exact.
From 12:01 a.m. on Friday all the way through midnight on Sunday, 529 folks were arrested in L.A. County for driving drunk or on drugs. The CHP took in 35 DUI's between 6:01 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. Sunday in Orange County. And all along California was the same sort of thing as 1,133 arrest happened in the same time period.
Is it worth all the police force? Yeah, within that time 15 fatalities happened along the Golden State freeway. So if those arrest prevented any more, then that's a good thing in and of itself. But hey, let's talk money. California earns about 12k for every DUI in legal cost and court fees and what not. Now you multiple that by 530 and you have yourself a nice $6.9 Million take in for the state in that time. With all the money raised by these arrest, California may very well be able to balance its budget if this keeps up.
The lesson to learn from all this - Don't drink and drive. If you're going to be drinking, try to be a bit responsible because it may very well keep you saving a lot of money as well as saving lives.
No, seriously. Go out and take a hike. We're now officially in Summer since Memorial day is past us. But before you go out into the wild unknown, perhaps you should take some precautionary safety measures.
In Memory of a Meme
It's memorial day. A day to celebrate the fallen troops before us. Or is it the one where we celebrate all those who served? I can't recall. Kind of ironic since, you know, it's memorial day and all. Anyway. It's also a solid 10 years since the meme was born. Yeah, that's right. What you take for granted on the internet seemed to have been spawned by these here G.I. Joe clips that have been redubbed. They're funny as fuck and well, take a look for yourself.
It was back in 2003 that Eric Fensler was a bored editor who put these together and let them loose on the internet where they spanwed a life on to themselves and the meme was sort of born. Sure, there was a lot more before then. But this is the point that many will mention that the meme was born.
Of Bathsalt Zombie Survival
Remember about a year ago when some Miami homeless dude become a "Zombie" victim? In that the other hopped up homeless dude, who originally it was assumed that Bathsalts caused him to literally chew the flesh off Ronald Poppo survived ? Yeah... well, I bet you're kind of curious, at least morbidly, about how he's doing these days.
He was blinded and permanently disfigured by the attack, but the Doctors say that he is happy, healthy and is not interested in undergoing additional reconstructive operations.
So it goes to show that while the act may have been very violent and tragic, there's a bit of an uplifting ending to this in that he is doing better these days.
A History Lesson in Game of Thrones
One more week closer to the end of this third season of Game of Thrones. So how about we put that motto of a Lannister always paying their debt and teaching you a bit about the house of the lion.
Test, Test, 1... 2....3
Now that the summer season of blockbuster films are out and in full form, let's take a moment to see some test shots to see how Indiana Jones would have been like with Tom Selleck;
Now how about seeing an earlier work of Toby as Spider-man
It really has a different feeling towards both of those. Sure, Tom carries that uncaring Indiana Jones attitude, but it just comes across far less as well as how Harrison Ford delivers it.
Here's a bonus one with Wonder Woman
Daft Punk'd
So with Daft Punk's latest album dropping and making sweet sweet love to your ears right now, how about taking a moment, or perhaps an hour and a half of ALIVE to help put into perspective how awesome this robotic duo is.
That Reminder That You're In L.A.
For all of you who are home sick of your native land of Los Angeles, here's a little piece of home for you. Nothing says Los Angeles more than Car Chases.
What's Your Disney Sign?
So someone made a astrological symbol disney-ized layout.
Daft Playlist
Over the internet there was a lot of unsettling remarks about Daft Punk's newest album upon its release. Mainly due to not digging the sort of 70's jazz/electronic sound, but I have to believe that it was simply a matter that the play list for the album was a little off. It started out way too chill. And while it wasn't something you could pop in, jump on the dance floor and get groovy to, it did have a lot of great songs and if you simply play around with the order you play it, oh man how it makes a lot of difference in how it is taken in.
I present you the track layout that I find most benefits this album;
Give Life Back To Music (minus first 17 seconds)
Fragments of Time (the weakest track IMO)
Giorgio By Morodor
Lose Yourself To Dance
Instant Crush
The Game of Love
Doin It Right
Try playing it in that order and you'll be blown away.
I Play Synth
We all play Synth!
in my mind the llama and the sloth are some kind of weird electronic duo
Game of Thrones - I've Read Thy Books
I have nothing really of importance to say tonight. So here, have this GoT related video.
How About You Build A Tardis
Unlike some people, I don't have the luxury of a timey whmy space time little blue box and I'm actually very busy today. You hear that? I got shit to do. So I can't really chit chat, I have some tiki thang to be at as well as drinking beer and seeing planes fly and what not. So instead of writing about Doctor Who's season closer that is airing today, I'll just leave you with this message in how to build your own fucking Tardis so you can pretend you're some two hearted time lord.
Enjoy;
You Also Could Be A Lucky Loser - The Lotto System
Every now and then I see the California Lotto ad and it makes me fucking cringe down to my very center.
That ad is just atrocious in every possible way. I mean, first off, they're polluting the hell out of California. Way to go. But it's not limited to dumping on just California. State Lotteries are popular all over the place and they're just straight up fucking the poor in every possible way. But what many people don't know about lotteries is that they prey on those who can least afford it. Most people never win anything big. And 11 states raise more money from lotteries than from corporate taxes. Beyond the moral, mental health and religious debates over gambling, lotteries are another example on how society preys on the poor and the working class in the worst possible way. How, you ask?
The Poor is the hardest hit by this predatory practice. Simply put, the lotteries take the most from those who can least afford it. Instead of taking those most able to pay, which is the principle of the federal income tax in the U.S., the state leaders use lotteries to disguise a regressive tax that falls on the middle and even more on the poor. A 2010 study showed that household with take home incomes of less than $13,000 spent an average of $645 a year on lottery tickets. Which is a solid 9% of their income. The reason people play varies a lot, but it mixes hopes and dreams with desperation. Poorer people see it as a slim chance to radically improve their standard of living.
So it should come as no surprise that communities of color and less educated background spend the most on them. Numerous academic studies showed that non-whites spend much more on lotteries than whites, with one study putting the figure at around $998 for African Americans and $210 for whites. Households with income under $25,00 spend an average of about $600 a year while $100,000+ earning families spend around $300. People who never graduated from college spent the most at around $700 a year, while graduates spent under $200.
They are the opposite in terms of trickle down effect economics. Mainly because they redistribute money up the economic ladder opposed to down it. Most people buy tickets and win very little or nothing. This taking more money from the poor, working and lower middle-classes than from those most able to pay those taxes. These billions are diverted away from local businesses, with the exception of the stores where tickets are sold. It's frankly the opposite of the kind of economic stimulus a depressed economy needs.
Even the tax rates on this gamble shows how it's a 'fuck the poor' compared to other investment tax rates. Just look at the hypocrisy surrounding state lotteries in how taxes are collected on it. Just compare the tax rates on this form of investment with tax rates on other types of investments, such as stocks. State lotteries impose a 38% tax rate on buying tickets. No taxes are paid when a person buys a stock or bond, a more preferred investment vehicle for wealthier households. Moreover, the current federal tax rate for earnings from short-term investments ranges from 10 to 35%.
The Hypocrisy behind the lotto compared to any sort of addictive vice; One of the rationales for criminalizing drugs is that the abuse of which leads to an addiction and potentially drags down the community in theft to feed the addiction and as a whole is a negative to society. But then you realize that state-sponsored gambling also feeds this very same addictive behavior. People who are addicted to gaming, including lotteries treat the lotto in the same fashion. Just spend some time in your local bodega and you'll see people come in jonsing for that lotto ticket or that scratcher card. Finger tips covered with silver shavings from where they couldn't bother to find that quarter to use on it. The whole thing is pretty much fucking the poor in every way possible.
And even if you do win, what happens next is the sickest joke. For you see,
Big winners more than often have their lives turned upside down and ruined. Say you win the lotto and you're suddenly feeling happy. Don't hold on to that feeling for too long so ignorantly, because of the most surprising things that comes with winning the lotto is how a fast infusion of money can completely destroy the shitty life you currently have. It disrupts friendships and destroys families and even invites violent crimes into your home. Con-men begin to target you and there's the situation of jealous family members showing their true color. Some winners end up spending all their winnings in no time at all. Others just use it to fuel more gambling binges.
It's a situation that most revenue strapped state legislatures may find that state lotteries are an easy way to bring in a few hundreds of millions that they need for basic government services such as schools, police, roads and social safety nets, but state lotteries have become an easy way to take from the least wealthy and avoid the harder task of making everyone pay their fair share of things. It should by all means be considered an economic exploitation of the lower class.
Awkward Footballer
So this Greek footballer celebrated a goal;
Well now.. that's a bit awkward. His excuse? "I didn't know what it meant" and "I was pointing at someone in the stands" and basically "I'm not a fascist, that's what's so insane about it!"
Well then... I mean, at least the dumb fuck got banned for life from the national team.
Steam Punking it up for Dinner
Take a look at these interior images of a remodeled New Delhi restaurant that was redesigned by Abhishek Majumder, who is clearly into Steampunk.
I mean, it's no Chinese pot sticker spot, which I think about when I think about Steam and restaurants. But hey, it's pretty cool looking if you ask me. A shame that it's in New Delhi - you know, a place I don't plan on going to any time soon.
Daft Punk Jonsing
With Daft Punk's Random Access Memories coming out in just one week, I know you're chomping at the bits here trying to get your fix. Well, here's a very much guitar filled disc rift to tide you over till next week when R.A.M. comes out
Yeah, I can't wait for next week either.
Art is in The Eye of the Bush
A few weeks ago our former two term Iraq war starting President George Bush Jr. had his computer hacked and one of the gems found there was these paintings... Which, well. You can see how wild they are.
Boy, this guy sure has a lot of time to just sit around and paint, I guess. I mean. I know he sat in a school reading a children's book during 9/11, but this just makes more sense as to why he did that.
While we're reaching the end of this season of Game of Thrones, it's well worth it to you to get a little history lesson to the background of the houses. Here's the first one for the good ol' family of dragons.
Losing Your Marbles
Ah, another low content day is upon us. But don't fear, dear reader. You won't lose your marbles if you just keep them in a perpetual marble machine!
Well now, that is something rather interesting, would you say? I'll get back to work tomorrow.
Don't Bogart That Joint, My Friend
Pass it over to me. Check out this two pound joint that was confiscated on 4/20 over in UCSC.
Man, that is a mighty big shame because of how long it must have taken to roll it. I mean, just look at it!
Oh for shame
I'll Make You Eat Your Beard
Yes, that's what happened. As Two men force a third to eat his fucking beard at knife point.
Troy Holt, 47, and James Hill, 51, were each charged with first-degree unlawful imprisonment, third-degree terroristic threatening and two counts each of fourth-degree assault for allegedly holding two brothers at knifepoint May 8 at Holt's Willisburg Road residence.
Holt allegedly used a pocketknife to cut shirts worn by Harvey and Joseph Westmoreland, held the knife to their throats and threatened to kill them if they called the police. Hill allegedly wielded a sickle blade at the men.
It was unclear what started the altercation. One statement on file in Anderson County Circuit Court said an argument ensued over a woman. Another claimed it started over a lawnmower.
Joseph Westmoreland was apparently working at Holt's residence, cleaning out stalls, when the incident began.
"Everyone was drinking then all hell broke loose," he said in a statement to police.
.... Two witnesses told the officers what happened, though including one who said that the last thing he saw was Holt cutting off Harvey Westmoreland's beard and making him eat it
Yeah, that's right. A MAN ATE HIS FUCKING BEARD!
Asked what it was like to eat his beard, Harvey Westmoreland said, "Well, did you ever chew on a sponge? That'd be about what it would be like."
Westmoreland, who declined to be photographed, now sports a full brown beard tinged with gray on the chin.
"It's all water under the bridge," he said. "I wished it had never happened, to tell you the truth. But I don't wish neither one of them ill will. I don't wish them no harm. I hope they both have a good Thanksgiving and a good Christmas and a Happy New Year."
I really don't know what to say about this situation other than it is beyond strange. I mean... it's not even the guy eating the beard that's funny to me. It's that absurdity of having a disagreement with someone and your first thought being "I'll make you eat your fucking beard!"
Like.... um, why?
But, like, why?! Maybe the guy was really proud of being so beardy and stroked it all the time in such a show-boat manner. To the point that the other guy was all like, "You know, motherfucker, I'm going to m ake you eat it one of these days!"
So what does this guy look like?
I have to say, I do enjoy the hat that says "Southern Style". Like, what, did they BBQ the beard? Slather some sauce all over it? Is that what southern style means or something? Why yes. Dude, take a look at that beardy dude's hat! I have just the right idea from this.
I really can't get over this story. It's nagging at me like an infected tooth. Bugging at me all day. I guess if you take any argument from the deep south to the gay community and it becomes both grimmer and more hilarious. Eating beards.. HA!
In any case, I bet eating your own facial hair would be a lot like going down enthusiastically on Robin Williams, but only less hairy. So clearly the gay community must be all up on this.
The Aphex of the Hidden
It's time to look back at some really strange music pieces of years past. First off, Aphex Twin. Which if you know anything about that band, they have a lot of strange imagery in their music videos, but did you know that they have strange imagery IN the music. Take a look at this video;
You see that encoding is what the sound looks like. Wait till the end and you'll see some pretty scary shit right there on your screen.
Marge's Breaking Bad
If you're going through some Breaking Bad withdraw waiting for the final eight episodes of the series, how about this tides you over a little;
Oh Simpsons, your production schedule sure makes you seem outdated.
Welcome to the World of Tomorrow From Yesteryear
The 50's were a strange time. We had all the spoils and vigor of winning WW2 and it seemed like things were going up up and only up. It was a sort of TV dinner and Leave it to Beaver wholesome fun. So it's fun to see what they thought the future... which is now our present, was going to turn out to be like. Just take a look at this Tex Avery and MGM crystal ball prediction.
The Wold of Tomorrow! (According to Tex Avery and MGM in the 1950s) from Kyle McArdle on Vimeo.
Five Cocktails Some Douchebag Moronic Internet Journalist Believes are overrated
Title says it all. I realize that in this modern day and age, any aggregating simpleton can just write a bunch of dribble on the internet and slap the name journalism on it to call it an article, hell, I take full use of that. Though I know the difference between putting out an opinion and just trolling the internet and bar going community.
A difference that internet writer of words, Jenn Wohletz, seems to have either successfully trolled drinkers with, or is just bitter about not getting their drinks fast enough. But with this sort of start to their article, it's hard not to think they're off their fucking rocker;
There is a thin line between self-indulgence and being a dickhead, a line that any bartender could draw for you. On especially busy nights at any watering hole, there is always at least one person who decides to order some outdated or ridiculous beverage that takes up valuable bartender time, makes everyone else wait for their drinks, and earns the irritating imbiber the unofficial -- or official, if you are at some bars -- title of dickhead.
First off, if you're going to a bar on a Friday or Saturday night and are not prepared to have a long wait or be elbow's deep in people, not to sound like a dick, but stay the fuck home. You should know better. Or at least you would if you actually went out enough. Bars get slammed on that day. There's no two ways about it. And if you can't handle a slow battle of getting your drink done whichever way you want it for the amount that they'll charge you, then sit and fucking spin.
The rationale they are using is that it's a dickheaded move to order a slow to make drink in a fast-paced bar. I'm sorry, but now a days in the era of the term mixologist getting tossed around, most drinks take a long time and have complicated ingredients like egg whites and various forms of bitters and garnishes.
What's the first drink on her hit list and why?
This cocktail is called an old-fashioned because that's pretty much what it is, and ordering it at any bar at any time is something only special sorts of dickheads do, because they know it's a pain in the ass to prepare -- there is a sugar cube and muddling involved.
I'm sorry, has this chick actually been to a bar or ever made a mixed drink? Old-fashioned is probably one of the easiest drinks to make. Perhaps if you find the task of muddling sugar, fruit and bitters together before pouring bourbon into it, you shouldn't be a fucking bartender. It's really one of the most easiest drinks to make and my assumption here is that she's trying to be edgy and anti-hipsters who seem to have taken a liking to this classic mixed drink after Mad Men gave it new life
She also mentions that bartenders will roll their eyes at you if you order it. Which to me, if I'm somewhere that rolls their eyes at anything I order, I'm out the fucking door. You're a bartender, not a judge. So you really can't place judgement on what the patron orders. They are your tippers and anyone who does so will probably be out of a bartending gig sooner rather than later.
Only dickheads order strawberry daiquiris (exceptions given to people who ordered them between the years of 1980 and 1989) -- and this means you, too, ladies. This frozen, blended drink should really be made at home, by parents disguising low-grade rum they're serving to friends, and secretly pilfered by teenagers -- because it would take an industrial waste tanker filled with these daiquiris to get anyone drunk enough to do anything really cool or really stupid.
As someone who loves Tiki drinks, I am not going to say this is a bad drink. Yes, it requires a blender to make, but more than anything, what sort of bar really can cater to this request anyway? Ones that can will probably have no problem in giving it to you because they can easily make money hand over fist considering how little actual alcohol they would need to give to you, given how easy it is to mask under the sugar filled stuff.
Top-shelf dry Martini
Dickheads usually order these because they don't know any better, they've seen people order them in movies (shaken, not stirred), and they are convinced that having this particular cocktail in front of them will get them laid all Mad Men-style. Here's the rub -- most bars don't even bother carrying dry vermouth, and the ones that do usually keep it somewhere out of easy reach and will just say "bucket-fuck-it!" and make the drink without it, anyway. Dry Vermouth was used back in the Prohibition era to take the edge off when homemade vodka was distilled in bathtubs and could strip the paint off fire engines.
What fucking place DOESNT' have vermouth? That bar shouldn't call itself a fucking bar and again, if you are a bartender and don't like to take two steps in making a drink, perhaps you should find a new job since making a Martini is extremely easy.
I don't know how to even consider taking any writer seriously if they feel like vermouth isn't a very common item used in any place that would make martinis on any common level. Even to give misinformation on the history of an item, considering that vermouth had been used in martini's long before prohibition. But hey, this moron wants to keep sounding like they actually know anything about bars...
Lime Flavored Beer
Bartenders cringe when they get in cases of bad beer adulterated with lime flavoring, because this stuff is like a dickhead magnet. Dickheads love this crap because it saves them the huge hassle of having to squeeze a fucking lime into their beers; adding an actual lime to a pint of cheap lager takes too much time away from pretending to be a med student with a high GPA. And what if that pesky lime pulp soils the aesthetic integrity of your knock-off polo shirt? This boner-brew is cheap because it tastes like a winning combination of aluminum siding and crack sweat, making your bar tab low and your rep even lower, because paying a dollar a bottle for beer if you aren't homeless or in high school is something dickheads do to avoid a big bar tab -- or a decent tip to the bartenders.
Now given that I love me some good craft beer, I shouldn't defend this one. But let's face it, not every bar can get a keg from Russian River or Firestone Walker. So it's pretty common for them to offer something for those who don't want a mixed drink. I'm also very confused on why the writer is hating on this because it means the patron doesn't have to squeeze a lime into a cheap lager. In fact, the majority of the bitching this fake ass journalist does has little to nothing to do with the actual beer itself or why it's a dick thing to do. I don't care if someone pretends to be a career they aren't. And at worst, what does this do for the bartender in ordering it? It's not very difficult to pop a bottle cap with a bottle opener and be done with it.
You don't have to wait long for the bartender to finish this order up, if anything, order whatever fucking beer you want. Not on tap means it's less time to work on yours and it's a given that you tip a buck a beer. How is doing so considered cheap? I don't even know what to say other than this bitch is stupid.
Which leads us to the last drink item.
Virgin Drinks of Any Kind.
One of the most dickheaded things you can do is order a slow drink in a fast-paced bar, and when you ask for a cocktail that requires a blender and you aren't even ordering alcohol in it, you are wasting the bartender's time, acting like a panty-princess, and holding up the line for people who ordered real drinks.
Forget wanting to hang out with your social group on a Friday night. Don't you know, if you're in a bar and not getting completely shit faced, then perhaps you need to go. Well according to this gal at least. I'm not sure I get it. I'm a pretty big alcoholic, but if someone wants a non-alcoholic drink, more power to them. I'm not one to force it upon them if they don't want to drink. Most of all, their money is still good here, so why the hell not allow them to drink whatever the fuck they want to drink?
How about pregnant women or folks who aren't drinking anymore but want to socialize with friends? I'm sorry, but this women writer is probably everything wrong with blog journalism. It's not based on anything besides some editorial opinion pieces of an uneducated woman who has an axe to grind with her own hangups.
This is a prime example as to why no one will ever take online journalist seriously and it's a rather shame that writers like this give the rest of us a bad name.
Oh yeah, happy fake Americanized Mexican Holiday. Enjoy your taco bell or whatever you're going to try to eat in honor of your gardeners or whomever you feel is Spanish enough for your St. Paddy's day like festivities.
May The 4th Be With You....
May The 4th Be With You.
Today is all sorts of nerd festivities day. We have free comic book day. A day when you can go to your comic shop and pick up a free copy or two of various funny books. It's a great way to see how DC has fucked with your favorite characters in order to generate new sales with those who don't usually buy comics anyway.
But what other nerd festivities today holds is May the 4th. A day when Star Wars fans everywhere use the play on words to celebrate a franchise that people hate three of the six films. Which will soon be hating 4 of the 7 films once Disney cranks out the next one in a couple of years.
What else is the truth behind May 4th? I'll let this political ad tell you;
Disney World's Tron Fast Track
No fucking fair. When Tron 2 came out, sure Disneyland got its own Tron inspired event in ElecTRONica, but that rave like atmosphere was only so cool for so long. I'm very much lamenting the fact that Florida got a way better Tron inspired Fast Track conversion.
Just look at this, how much better is it than anything we got in Sunny California.
I'll just be over here pouting some, User.
Iron Man, Iron Man, Banging Whatever Tony Stark Can
Sure that's the bastardization of the Spider-man song of the 70's, I know. But I sort of was out of ideas and this was just too much of a good jab at this next little clip. It's for the Iron Man Parody Porn. Yeah, I mean, it was only a matter of time.
The only real question is how long it'll take Disney to sue the ever living shit out of them for everything they are worth. I mean, parody aside, it's Disney here and that trailer was a shit ton of Iron Man knock off visual effects and very little porn stars 'gettin it on', you hear. But hey Lexi Bell, so maybe I'll check out it... you know, for the articles...er.. um.. hmmm.. to see if it's faithful to the comic books.
Cats Through History
Cats, my friends, are one of the most cutest things around. But don't let that cuteness fool you, they're evil. They already took over the internet and kill any productivity that you could possibly have. It's a given that it will happen like that. I mean, just look at history.
Which just gives you that warm feeling knowing that cats have always been set upon disrupting human comunicaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakfjdjljfkldnlkd.lslkjslkgsglflsglksffjlfggff
So Apparently Joss Whedon Went to a Graduation and...
It Has Been Zero Days since DC has Done Something ...
Five Cocktails Some Douchebag Moronic Internet Jou...


text:
Q: Facebook integration using parse framework I done Facebook integration using parse framework with my application so how can i add logout button as well as permission to the user below mentioned image is my application screen-short as well how can i obtain okay button pressed event in my code..?

A: Login
In your app delegate, these lines should be present:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
[Parse setApplicationId:@"YOUR_APPLICATION_ID"
              clientKey:@"YOUR_CLIENT_KEY"];
[PFFacebookUtils initializeWithApplicationId:@"YOUR_FB_APP_ID"];

// Override point for customization after application launch.
return YES;
}

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application handleOpenURL:(NSURL *)url {
return [PFFacebookUtils handleOpenURL:url];
}

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation {
return [PFFacebookUtils handleOpenURL:url];
}

This will ensure that parse is initialized and connected with your facebook app on startup. The two methods at the bottom are what enables your app to launch the screen to sign in to facebook and request permissions. In order to actually present that screen to the user, all that's necessary is a button that calls a method similar to this one:
-(IBAction)facebookLoginButtonPressed:(id)sender {
    [self loginWithFacebook];
}

-(void)loginWithFacebook {
    NSArray *permissionsArray = @[@"publish_actions", @"email", @"user_location"];

    // Login PFUser using Facebook
    [PFFacebookUtils logInWithPermissions:permissionsArray block:^(PFUser *user, NSError *error) {

        if (!user) {
            if (!error) {
                NSLog(@"Uh oh. The user cancelled the Facebook login.");
            } else {
                NSLog(@"Uh oh. An error occurred: %@", error);
            }
        } else {
            [self performSegueWithIdentifier:@"loginToFeed" sender:self];
        }
    }];
}

You shouldn't need an event callback for the ok, when the [PFFacebookUtils logInWithPermissions:block:] comes back, it will perform the block that you provide, enabling you to segue to different ViewControllers or show different features.
Log Out
Add a button to whatever view you want to have control logging out. Then add an IBAction method for that button:
-(IBAction)logOutButtonPressed:(id)sender {
    [PFUser logOut];
    NSLog(@"User logged out!");
    [self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:^{}];
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Cannot find AwesomeNotifications().actionStream I would like to add a button to my flutter notification. The button is shown but I can't catch the action.
AwesomeNotifications().createNotification(
    content: NotificationContent(
        id: 888,
        channelKey: 'NetVideo',
        title: 'NetVideo',
        body: 'Server in ascolto'),
    actionButtons: <NotificationActionButton>[
      NotificationActionButton(key: 'yes', label: 'Yes'),
    ],
  );

AwesomeNotifications().actionStream still exists?

A: According to documentation:

All streams (createdStream, displayedStream, actionStream and dismissedStream) was replaced by global static methods. You must replace your old stream methods by static and global methods, in other words, they must be static Future and use async/await and you MUST use @pragma("vm:entry-point") to preserve dart addressing.

In other words you should create a notification listener
class NotificationController {

  /// Use this method to detect when a new notification or a schedule is created
  @pragma("vm:entry-point")
  static Future <void> onNotificationCreatedMethod(ReceivedNotification receivedNotification) async {
    // Your code goes here
  }

  /// Use this method to detect every time that a new notification is displayed
  @pragma("vm:entry-point")
  static Future <void> onNotificationDisplayedMethod(ReceivedNotification receivedNotification) async {
    // Your code goes here
  }

  /// Use this method to detect if the user dismissed a notification
  @pragma("vm:entry-point")
  static Future <void> onDismissActionReceivedMethod(ReceivedAction receivedAction) async {
    // Your code goes here
  }

  /// Use this method to detect when the user taps on a notification or action button
  @pragma("vm:entry-point")
  static Future <void> onActionReceivedMethod(ReceivedAction receivedAction) async {
    // Your code goes here

    // Navigate into pages, avoiding to open the notification details page over another details page already opened
    MyApp.navigatorKey.currentState?.pushNamedAndRemoveUntil('/notification-page',
            (route) => (route.settings.name != '/notification-page') || route.isFirst,
        arguments: receivedAction);
  }
}

And register it inside the library
AwesomeNotifications().setListeners(
    onActionReceivedMethod: (ReceivedAction receivedAction){
        NotificationController.onActionReceivedMethod(context, receivedAction);
    },
    onNotificationCreatedMethod: (ReceivedNotification receivedNotification){
        NotificationController.onNotificationCreatedMethod(context, receivedNotification);
    },
    onNotificationDisplayedMethod: (ReceivedNotification receivedNotification){
        NotificationController.onNotificationDisplayedMethod(context, receivedNotification);
    },
    onDismissActionReceivedMethod: (ReceivedAction receivedAction){
        NotificationController.onDismissActionReceivedMethod(context, receivedAction);
    },
);


text:
Monster Hunter Tri - Is The Third Time The Charm?
Games: Started playing Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) today. I won a free copy in a contest via Twitter (Thanks GameZone!) so I had it on hand, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten around to it until summer, or even later.
Why not? Well, if You've been keeping an eye on retail shelves, you might have noticed that there are an absurd amount of games coming out lately. I'm not talking about off-season shovelware stuff, I'm talking big-name, big-recognition titles. With all of these things to play and review, the usual slow period enabling me to go through the backlog and catch up on older things just hasn't materialized. I really hope things cool off over the next few months, though. If this pace keeps up and my backlog keeps growing at its current rate, I'll be able to sustain my gameplay habits until sometime in 2024 without ever buying another game.
Anyway, Monster Hunter Tri.
Back when Monster Hunter first appeared on the PS2, I can remember seeing one of the first trailers for it a few months before the game hit. At the time, it was utterly mindblowing and promised potential that players had only dreamed of. Even today, the trailer still looks extremely exciting and full of action.
Check it out, if you've got a minute or two.
Unfortunately, the reality did not match up to the level of action in that trailer. Stiff controls, a very steep difficulty curve and heavy emphasis on grinding for resources flew in the face of the tone set in that trailer, and I quit the game in disappointment pretty quickly. That said, the trailer never left my mind and I would often wonder when developers would tackle something like it.
Many have come close, or at least skirted it. Shadow of the Colossus is one that shares the scale, although not quite the same level of balls-out-ish-ness that's implied. (And don't get me wrong, I loves me some SotC. This isn't a criticism.) Closer to what I was craving was Lost Planet, oddly enough, also from Capcom. The scale was great, it added mecha to the mix, and in general I was pretty satisfied with it, although it did not have the same fantasy- medieval tone. Despite these titles and a few others that have similar themes, none quite scratched the itch that the idea of Monster Hunter instilled in me. It's kind of absurd when you think about it, since the game that inspired this desire didn't even live up to the promise itself.
Now we come to Tri, the most recent (third) game in the series.
Despite having a deep suspicion that it was going to be more of the same, I was thrilled when I won the Twitter contest. I immediately began hoping against hope that Capcom had revamped the formula enough to win me over and finally provide the monster hunting experience I've been after. After putting in a few hours today I can say that it definitely feels better than it was, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm headed towards disappointment again.
Putting all issues about the Wii's hardware aside, the game still relies heavily on menus and resource procurement/management. For something seemingly all about giant swords and enormous reptiles, there's an awful lot of emphasis put on collecting things and leveling up equipment. Don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to this stuff, but this all strikes me as a bizarrely disparate relationship between the reality of the game and its image. My eyes are telling me that this should be a high-octane, intense and action-packed title, but my hands are telling me that I'm mining for iron ore, farming small monsters for their pelts, and searching for rare mushrooms.
I certainly haven't given up yet and I will say that it was an enormous relief to get past the extended tutorial phase and start doing quests proper… tackling groups of large lizards and finally getting knee-deep in some combat was extremely welcome even if the action still feels completely stilted and slow. However, I'm starting to wonder how long it'll be before I hit a wall and need to straight-up grind in order to progress. I desperately want to like this game and finally be able to enjoy the kind of adventure Monster Hunter eternally promises, but I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, I'm headed for another heartbreak again.
3 comments: to " Monster Hunter Tri - Is The Third Time The Charm? "
Have you read Michael Abbott's piece on Monster Hunter Tri? http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2010/05/preparation-h.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+brainygamer+(The+Brainy+Gamer)
I can understand your frustration that it's not as much crazy giant monster slaying action as you'd like, but he argues that spending so much time putting in the grunt work for a big quest makes it that much more gratifying when they occur. I've not yet played it myself, so I can't comment on how it effects me, but I could understand the grind making the epic encounters feel that much more so.
You bring up a good point, and I actually hadn't read that post before.
I definitely think there is something to what Michael is saying, but for my taste, the game leans too far towards the grind/prep side of things and too little towards the actual hunting.
(Before going any further, let me just preface these comments by saying that I did not finish the first Monster Hunter, I did not play the PSP version at all, and I am extremely early in Tri.)
Basically, the way the game presents itself to me is that of an extremely explicit and overt 'system', meaning that there is no attempt made towards immersion or believability.
For example, the areas I've seen so far are open and essentially blank with the exception of a few renewable resources that the player must go back and collect as needed. Mushrooms, iron ore, etc.
It's made extremely clear that in order to build a weapon or upgrade armor, the player will need XYZ items in XYZ amounts, so it's up to them to go out and collect those things. These are specific transactions that must be completed in order to progress, and doing the actions in order to harvest these resources (to me) is extremely tedious.
Simply looking at how much needs to be done can be disheartening, and a disincentive towards pushing on.
(Granted, I'm not far enough in Tri to see how the developers have reportedly eased back on the grind or incorporated in-game systems that reduce the player's olbigation towards these tedious activities. I have heard from other players that there have been tweaks, but I'm just not that far yet.)
The game's reliance on menus and stats is a little overdone as well. It all feels very structured and artificial.
For example, I had been through a particular area several times with nothing noteworthy occurring. After selecting a specific quest (from a contrived job board) I went back to the same areas I had previously traversed and all of a sudden there were entirely new creatures that had never been there before. It was a very transparent, mechanical way of getting me to do this quest and to hunt these creatures, and it didn't feel organic or convincing at all.
I certainly enjoyed cutting them down and getting my great sword a little messy, but I didn't feel like a hunter or even a virtual character in this make-believe world. I felt like a stat-grinder going out to do a very specific task in order to fulfill another task, which would in turn enable me to create a piece of armor which would let me survive a later encounter.
Rather than being on an adventure, I feel as though I'm at the bottom of a very tall mountain, and my path to the top is completely laid out in very clear terms. Seeing how much there is to do and potentially how long it might take me to do it strips away my urge to discover and explore.
I have a great desire to kill big monsters and wield a giant sword with urgency, but (so far, anyway) I feel completely mired in the grinding systems which I do not glean much enjoyment from.
With all that said, I do want to reiterate that I am extremely early in Tri and I have somewhat committed to pushing on and actually getting through the game. My opinion could completely change another five or ten hours, or it might well be reinforced… it's hard to say, but with all my years of reviewing and my great experience with video games, I have to admit that the writing on the wall seems pretty clear. I'd be willing to bet that my initial impressions will hold true for the length of the game, but at the same time, I am trying to keep an open mind and let the game unfold as it will.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Gov. Abbott Vetoes Bill That Would Have Reduced Overdose Deaths
Michael Barajas
One of those life-saving naloxone syringes
VCU CNS via Flickr creative commons
Michael Barajas | June 3, 2015 | 11:45am
It's not hard to figure out why House Bill 225 passed both the state House and Senate with overwhelming support (140-4 and 30-1, respectively). The non-controversial law would have done two very simple things in order to reduce overdose deaths across the state.
First, a so-called Good Samaritan provision would have shielded people who call 911 to report an overdose from being charged with small-time drug possession – one of the main reasons more overdoses aren't called in until it's too late. Secondly, the bill would have expanded access to an opioid antagonist called naloxone, medicine that can save the life of an overdosing drug user if administered quickly.
And, as soon as the 84th legislative session wrapped Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the bill.
The "debate" over the provisions of HB 225 go something like this. Supporters say such policies save lives, while not condoning or encouraging drug abuse. The Good Samaritan protection would only have extended to the first person who called 911 for a possible overdose, and would only apply if he or she stuck around to help emergency medical responders and law enforcement. And, under the bill, dealers or anyone holding anything more than a small amount of drugs wouldn't be shielded from prosecution. Expanding access to medicine that could literally save the life of an overdosing person seems like a no brainer – especially when you consider that it's not a controlled substance.
Opponents essentially say this: how are people supposed to know that drugs are bad if we make it less likely that people will die when they do drugs? Seriously, go read the House Research Organization's report on the arguments for and against the bill.
Here's what Abbott said in his veto statement Tuesday:
"HB 225 has an admirable goal, but it does not include adequate protections to prevent its misuse by habitual drug abusers and drug dealers. Although my office suggested amendments to this legislation that would have eliminated the bill's protections for habitual drug abusers and drug dealers — while maintaining protections for minors and first-time offenders — those amendments were not adopted during the legislative process. Consequently, it was necessary to veto this bill."
The bill's author, Rio Grande City state Rep. Ryan Guillen, disputes Abbott's version of things, telling the Texas Tribune that the governor's office had assured him that the bill was fine as is before heading to Abbott's desk. "It was an opportunity to save lives," Guillen told the Tribune. "This comes as a surprise."
Good Samaritan laws are already on the books in 24 states and in Washington D.C. Just last month, a report from the Network for Public Health Law said there's reason to believe such laws do in fact reduce overdose deaths; for instance, the report pointed to a survey in Washington State in which 88 percent of drug users reported they'd be more likely to call 911 during an overdose because of a Good Samaritan law that passed there in 2010.
The state legislature's own research arm says that drug related overdoses in Texas have increased 78 percent since 1999. And the overdose problem looks even more harrowing when you consider this stunning joint investigation by the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle earlier this year showing Texas has for years dramatically under-counted overdose deaths, particularly those related to opiates.
Despite Abbott's veto, the provision expanding access to life-saving naloxone may still survive. That provision was wrapped into a separate bill, SB 1462, which is sitting on Abbott's desk.


text:
Komnzo (also Kómnzo, Kómnjo, Kamundjo) is a Yam language of Papua New Guinea spoken by 150–250 people in the village of Rouku () and the town of Morehead.

Phonology

Consonants
The consonant inventory comprises 18 phonemes (ᵐb, t, ⁿd, k, ᵑɡ, kʷ, ᵑɡʷ, m, n, ŋ, ɸ, ʦ, ⁿʣ, ð, s, r, w, j). The system consists of a series of obstruents (oral and prenasalized plosives and affricates), fricatives, nasals and semivowels. Consonants occurring only in loanwords are: b, g, d, l.

Vowels
The vowel inventory consists of eight phonemes (i, e, æ, a, ʏ, ø, u, o) and one epenthetic vowel (ə̯).

Epenthesis
Komnzo phonology exhibits widespread vowel epenthesis. The epenthetic vowel is usually a short schwa (ə̯), sometimes a short high front or high back vowel. Many syllables and many words in Komnzo lack a specified vowel, e.g. mnz 'house' [mə̯nts] or gwth 'nest' [ᵑɡʷə̯θ].

Orthography

In the tables above, graphemes are indicated by <angle brackets>. The current orthography of Komnzo does not represent the epenthetic vowel because it can be predicted by the rules of syllabification. This leads to orthographic representations which untrained users might find hard to pronounce, for example: zfth 'reason' is pronounced [tsə̯ɸə̯θ] or fta '36' is pronounced [ɸə̯ta].

Numeral system
Komnzo number words use a seximal (senary) numeral system, with the following numerals: nibo (61), fta (62), taruba (63), damno (64), wärämäkä (65) and wi (66). Counting in larger quantities is restricted to a ritualized counting procedure, whereby yam tubers are counted publicly for exchange feasts. For everyday counting above six, English numerals are borrowed.

Notes

References
Döhler, Christian (2013) "Don't talk to him! His family speaks a bit mixed." Multilingualism from the perspective of the documenter. presentation at the 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC).  Accessed on 2019-11-12.

Evans, Nicholas, I Wayan Arka, Matthew Carroll, Christian Döhler, Eri Kashima, Emil Mittag, Kyla Quinn, Jeff Siegel, Philip Tama & Charlotte van Tongeren. (2017) The languages of Southern New Guinea. In Bill Palmer (ed.), The languages and linguistics of the New Guinea area, 641–774. Berlin; Boston: Walter de Gruyter. . Accessed on 2019-11-12.

External links
 Nen and Kómnzo: Two languages of Southern New Guinea (2017) DOBES language documentation project. Accessed on 2019-11-12.
 Komnzo language (2018) Zenodo data repository. Accessed on 2019-11-12.
 Komnzo DoReCo corpus compiled by Christian Döhler. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.

Tonda languages
Languages of Western Province (Papua New Guinea)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Warner Bros. started production on the fifth movie in the A Cinderella Story franchise and the first holiday-themed movie in the series. A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish is now in front of cameras in Vancouver.
The new film will star Laura Marano, the star of the Disney Channel's Austin & Ally, as Katherine "Kat" Decker, who dreams of becoming a famous singer-songwriter. However, her cruel stepfamily put her in a demoralizing job as a singing elf for billionaire Terrence Wintergarden's Santa Land.
Kat later falls in love with Dominic "Nick" Wintergarden, who is playing the Santa Claus at the park. Kat thought her life was looking up, and was even invited to the Wintergarden Christmas Gala. Unfortunately, her stepsisters try to do everything to stop her from attending in their own quest to be invited. With the help of her dog, a best friend and some magic, Kat will hopefully get to the gala and learn the true meaning of Christmas.
The rest of the cast includes Gregg Sulkin (Marvel's Runaways, Faking It, Wizards of Waverly Place) as Dominic and Johannah Newmarch (Pretty Little Dead Girl, Garage Sale Mystery) as Kat's stepmother, Deirdra Decker.
Isabella Gomez (One Day At A Time) plays Kat's best friend, Isla. The stepsisters Joy and Grace are played by Lillian Doucet-Roche (The Miracle Season) and Chanelle Poeloso (Deadly Class). Riverdale actor Barclay Hope plays Terrence Wintergarden.
Michelle Johnston, who worked on Nickelodeon's Blurt, wrote and directed Christmas Wish. Johnston was a producer on the previous Cinderella Story film. Longtime Cinderella Story producer Dylan Sellers (St. Vincent, Agent Cody Banks) is back as producer, while Trygge Toven and Toko Nagata are the music supervisors.
The film is a Fort Street Pictures Inc. production with Blue Ribbon Content for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
The A Cinderella Story franchise kicked off in 2004 with the Hilary Duff romantic comedy. Although the film was not a hit with critics, it still made over $70 million at the international box office. Warner Bros. produced three more direct-to-video movies, 2008's Another Cinderella Story with Selina Gomez, the Lucy Hale-starring A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song in 2011 and A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits with Sofia Carson in 2016.
A release date for A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish has not been announced.


text:
NRC refuses PG&E request to resume review of Diablo Canyon extension
Today, January 24, 2023, the technical staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) refused a request by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to resume reviewing a 2009 license renewal application the company formally withdrew from NRC consideration in 2018.
The Staff's decision affirmed recent arguments in the petition by San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (SLOMFP), Friends of the Earth (FoE), and Environmental Working Group (EWG) that resuming review of PG&E's withdrawn license renewal application would be unlawful. The organizations demanded that the five Commissioners at the top of the NRC deny PG&E's October 31, 2022, request to resume review of the application.
The decision is important because it prevents PG&E from making an end-run around NRC regulations that requires the company to file a new and up-to-date license renewal application. PG&E had admitted that the application was severely outdated and could not be updated or completed until late 2023 – a year before the Unit 1 license term expires. It now appears that PG&E may have to close Diablo Canyon when its licenses expire in the fall 2024 (Unit 1) and spring 2025 (Unit 2) and keep them closed unless and until the NRC approves a new license renewal application.
The NRC also acknowledged that PG&E had requested an exemption from regulations that would require the reactors to shut down in 2024 and 2025 unless the licenses had been renewed by then. But the NRC postponed a decision on the exemptions until March.
Diane Curran, an attorney for SLOMFP, said that "PG&E does not have any legal options for keeping the Diablo Canyon reactors running continuously past their license expiration dates." Curran praised the NRC Staff decision as "a correct and faithful application of NRC regulations and policy for fair, efficient and transparent decision-making." Further, she said it was reasonable to expect that the Staff would also deny PG&E's exemption requests. "The NRC has no authority to grant an exemption that would extend the license terms past their 40-year limit, other than to renew those licenses. And the renewal process is likely to take years."
Hallie Templeton, Legal Director at Friends of the Earth, said: "We are pleased to see the NRC using common sense and following the law when it comes to extending operations at Diablo Canyon. Requiring PG&E to submit an updated and complete relicensing application will help ensure that the NRC has sufficient information to reach a determination. We will continue to watch this issue closely and make certain that government officials as well as PG&E fulfill all their legal mandates and obligations. When it comes to deadly and dangerous nuclear power, cutting corners is simply not an option."
Caroline Leary, an attorney for EWG, said that "It's not too late for the California Legislature to re-direct the billion dollars slated for revival of these unsafe and uneconomical reactors to the support of safe and renewable alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power, energy efficiency and load management. PG&E may not be familiar with hearing 'no' from its captive regulators in California, but it's clear the professional staff at the NRC takes its oversight role and the safety of the communities surrounding Diablo Canyon seriously."


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Election, Featured, Politics
Green Party's Stein Seeks Collaboration with Sanders, Calls Clinton 'Warmonger'
Mar 29, 2016 Barry Donegan Leave a comment
Physician and 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said that her party has been trying unsuccessfully to make inroads with Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders.
"Many of my supporters are also his supporters. I'm asked all the time if there could be a Bernie Sanders collaboration and my answer to that has always been yes. The Green Party has long sought to establish a collaboration with Bernie Sanders," she said.
However, she told NBC News in an interview published Saturday, "That phone call has not been returned, and I don't expect that this will happen."
[RELATED: Green Party's Stein Predicts DNC Will Sabotage Sanders, Try to Reabsorb Supporters]
Speaking on the Democratic Party's presidential frontrunner, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, Stein said, "I think we're polar opposites. Hillary talks the talk, but in my view she is as big a corporatist, as big a warmonger, as big an imperialist as any of the Republican presidential candidates. Her rhetoric is less offensive."
In a mid-March interview with The Huffington Post, Stein expressed worries that Sen. Sanders' campaign would ultimately end in his supporters being co-opted by Hillary Clinton.
[RELATED: Judge Opens the Door for Third Party Candidates in Georgia]
"There are many things about Sanders that are great. We agree on a lot domestically. But to allow yourself to be lulled into compliance with the Democratic Party means you're allowing yourself to be reined in from establishing a real progressive message," she said.
"Sanders has taken the right domestic positions in the wrong party. They will seek to destroy his campaign if he gets close to securing the nomination. … The DNC installed a kill switch to prevent a true progressive nominee after McGovern got the nomination in 1972," added Stein.
Stein claimed that the Democratic primary "is over" and that "the party machinery is behind [Clinton]."
Stein said that she entered politics as a Green Party candidate "when the Democratic Party killed campaign finance reform in my state."
"The Democrats won't do it for us. We have to establish a political vehicle [for progressives]," added Stein.
She acknowledged that her presidential candidacy is a long shot, but suggested that a Green Party victory is within the realm of possibility.
"We have far more recognition than we did four years ago. And we are in the age of unpredictable events, this presidential election being one of them," she argued.
Commenting on the unexpected political rise of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, Stein said, "People have been savaged by a predatory economic and political system, and some are turning to Trump. Unfortunately, Trump is just more of the same."
For more election coverage, click here.
Follow Barry Donegan on Facebook and Twitter.
Bernie SandersDemocratic PartyGreen PartyHillary ClintonJill Stein
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Intimidation, lies and 'street deceit': the struggle for the hearts and minds of Glaswegians.
Buchanan Street has become the political heart of advocacy in Glasgow, two groups have turned this bustling consumer street into a political battleground. On one side the 'Friends of Israel' on the other the 'Palestinian Human Right' group.
Since this year marks the 100th year anniversary of the Balfour declaration, we went down to talk to the two groups and compare their messages.
"The reason there hasn't been peace is the Arabs don't want to accept an Israeli state. If they were willing to accept an Israeli state there could also be a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian group claim that the 'Friends of Israel' are perpetrating 'street deceit' and say they have no interest in peace, the group also claims that Simon, one of its Jewish members has been intimidated by the group.
"Simon's grandfather was born in Palestine in 1899, he was cornered in a shop by them. They really don't like Jewish people speaking out against Israel.
"They use the words 'pro-Palestinian' to disguise their true agenda of protecting Israel. They claim to be pro peace but they say nothing about Israel's refusal to engage in meaningful negotiations, end the occupation, cease settlement expansion, or stop the assault on Gaza. Every single piece of the land [Israel] was stolen, yard by yard they just keep taking.
"The Scottish Government continues to believe that a two state solution based on the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as a shared capital is the best solution for a peaceful resolution. We stand with international partners to condemn any expansion of settlements which we view as illegal and an obstacle to peace, furthermore we call on the blockade of Gaza to be lifted immediately", from the Scottish Parliament report dated March 2014.
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The Nike Blazer Mid 77 Vintage Sail is one of the next colorways arriving on the silhouette this spring. Covered in a clean combo of sail/white, the sail hue is used for its textile canvas uppers with tonal suede overlays on the toe box and along the forefoot. Finally, the pristine design is contrasted with orange Swoosh branding on the tongue labels and insoles, while a white rubber sole tops off the style.
Look for the Nike Blazer Mid 77 Vintage Sail at select Nike stores and online on April 12 for $100. The KicksOnFire Shop will have it in stock soon. Always keep it locked to KicksOnFire for the latest in sneaker news, release dates and where to purchase your favorite kicks.
The post Nike Blazer Mid 77 Vintage Sail Dropping Tomorrow appeared first on KicksOnFire.com.


There's no question that digital maps and smartphones have completely changed the world of navigation for everyone, whether tech enthusiast or someone less savvy with gadgets. Heck, our smartphones have remarkably precise geolocation capabilities and when coupled with sophisticated mapping systems like Apple Maps or Google Maps, it's hard to imagine getting lost nowadays.
If you know where you're going, at least. If you don't have a specific address as a destination, knowing where you are doesn't really help that much. Which is why my standard habit now is to send a specific street address to colleagues pre-meetings, not just say "The Starbucks near Target". Remove ambiguity and things should be easier. Sounds like you're of the same mind but even then, having an address in an email message might not be enough for your sister to be able to get it into a map program.
We've been talking about how hot it is in Southern California right now – 118F! – which is where his response came from. But look at the reply options on the watch face: nothing that suggests you can share your location.
"Send Location" is the one you seek, so tap on it.
Note: Can't get this display? Remember that a "Force Touch" is a harder push of the Watch face. Don't worry about breaking it, it's pretty darn strong, just push a bit harder than a normal tap or touch.
Where this gets super useful, however, is that if she simply taps on the map, it'll open up in Apple Maps (or Google Maps if she's on an Android phone, I'm pretty sure) and she's then one additional tap away from getting driving directions to your exact location.
That's pretty easy, eh? Hope this helps you two out!
Pro Tip: Check out all our other Apple Watch help while you're here too. We have quite a bit.


Brush PU Small Diamonds Casual Peep Toe Flat Sandals always can be changed by your favorite.
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2. We have a professional development team for Brush PU Small Diamonds Casual Peep Toe Flat Sandals and a strong QC team.


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Canadian Radio Amateurs Will Join Special Event This Fall on 630 Meters
TAGS: 40 meters, amateur radio operators, british columbia, canadian radio amateurs, Coordinator Fritz Raab, khz, khz band, listener reports, Maritime Radio Historical, marker beacons, new experimental licenses, special messages, utc, west coast
Canadian radio amateurs will take part in the previously announced CW-only special event operation on 600/630 meters this fall. The Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS), which maintains the KPH/KSM commercial coast stations, also will participate in the event. ARRL 600 Meter Experimental Group Coordinator Fritz Raab, W1FR said the MRHS participants will conduct a mini "Night of Nights" operation, with special attention to MF operation.
"This will give listeners the best chance of copying their MF signals by operating during the fall and extending our operating hours well into the evening hours Pacific time," he said. Coast station KPH will keep 500 kHz and 426 kHz active, as well as HF, with special messages, press and weather and will verify listener reports. Raab pointed out that the event will coincide with the 106th anniversary of the Berlin Treaty that created the international distress frequency at 500 kHz.
Amateur Radio operators in Canada gained access to the 472-479 kHz band on May 1. Three Canadian radio amateurs will conduct cross-band communication tests with amateurs operating on 80 and 40 meters. Joe Craig, VO1NA, in Torbay, Newfoundland, will transmit on 477.7 kHz starting at 2130 UTC on October 31 and continuing until 0130 UTC on November 1, and listen on 3562 and 7062 kHz. On the West Coast, Steve McDonald, VE7SL, on Mayne Island, British Columbia, will be active November 1, 0200-0600 UTC, transmitting on 473.0 kHz and listening on 3566 and 7066 kHz. John Gibbs, VE7BDQ, in Delta, British Columbia, will be on the air 0100 until 1000 UTC on November 1, transmitting on 474.0 kHz and listening on 3536 kHz.
All stations will either call CQ or run "VVV" marker beacons while listening on their respective receive (QSX) frequencies, which will be included in the CQ or marker beacon.
"The official time period is 0000 UTC on November 1 through 2359 UTC on November 2," Raab said. "These include Friday and Saturday evenings in North America. Stations on the East Coast may start a little earlier if they like."
All activity will occur between 465 and 480 kHz and between 495 and 510 kHz. "Different licensees have different frequency authorizations," Raab noted. "The designated calling frequencies are 475 kHz for the lower band, and 500 kHz for the upper band."
Raab noted that this may be the last such event that includes operations on 500 kHz itself. "This band is not being included on new experimental licenses, as it is supposedly reserved for a new maritime-data service," he explained.
News & Features >> News
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Q: Driver memory not getting cleaned up in Spark Structured Streaming I am using my Spark Structured Streaming job to perform my ETL in AWS platform
My Driver memory is not getting cleared-up. The job is reading the events from Kinesis and writing to S3
Below are the my Spark configurations. Also attaching screenshot containing Driver JVM heap usage graph for reference (1 means 100%)
spark.cleaner.periodicGC.interval=1min
spark.driver.extraJavaOptions=-XX:+UseG1GC
spark.cleaner.referenceTracking.blocking=false

A: We had seen this when Spark UI in yarn had lots of jobs being listed. We limited the no.of jobs (for ex. to 100 etc), tasks and stages shown in UI. This helped decrease driver memory usage. You can give a try
spark.ui.retainedJobs, spark.ui.retainedStages,spark.ui.retainedTasks, spark.worker.ui.retainedExecutors,spark.worker.ui.retainedDrivers, spark.sql.ui.retainedExecutions,spark.streaming.ui.retainedBatches


The festival features a full program of competitions and entertainment for the whole family. In addition to the kite flying, Aspire Park will also host Qatar's favorite food trucks with sweet and savory options to wake up your taste buds at any time of day.
This year we're welcoming 100 International kite flyers from 21 different countries across the globe, and for the first time Qatar's team will join to color Qatar's Skies into a masterpiece.
Want to learn more about Kite flying? The workshops are made for beginners who want to know the basics and for those who want to learn cool tricks! You can even build your own kite or decorate one! Then take it outside and show everyone the tricks you learnt.
We want to see what you see! Take photos of the kites in the sky or the atmosphere of the festival and upload them on Instagram and use the hashtag #aspirekitefest for a chance to win amazing prizes! The 4x winning photos will be chosen by a panel of expert judges and the winners will be announced on the 18th of March.
If the little ones are feeling extra creative, let them take part in the poster competition or just some simple colouring fun!
Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Spain, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America.


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Monster Contest: Vampires
By Chitin Proctor Published January 10, 2021
Hello Readers! Last year, we had a lot of fun seeing all the variations on a classic Mythos horror that you came up with for September is for Shoggoths! as well as your original monstrosities during Octobernomicon. We liked it so much, in fact, that we want to do it again, only better. So we reached out to Golden Goblin Press, Sentinel Hill Press, and Stygian Fox Publishing for help.
For the month of February, 2021, we're looking for your original/variant takes on vampires! Now I know we all know what the Oxford English Dictionary* says about them, but vampires have been around for far longer than the term itself (even if you count a precursor to the term popping up in the Liber Prophetarum (1074). Potsherds from ancient Persia, the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1800 BCE), and even the Great Isaiah Scroll (356-100 BCE) and the Tanakh (800-701 BCE) have instances of blood-drinking or flesh-eating demons!
The point I'm trying to make with the above is, don't feel limited by common beliefs of vampires or Bram Stoker's modern version…we're talking the Cthulhu Mythos here, which has fire vampires and star vampires, for example, as well as Lurkers if one want's a Mythos-variant from folklore.
Entries must be 2000 words or less, not including the title or the stat block.
Word Count starts after the title and ends before the stat block.
Submissions may be for any game system in which the author has permission to write/publish for (Chaosium's Fan Use Policy, D&D's SRD, Apocthulhu's SRD, etc). Voters are encouraged to take the work into consideration, not the system.
You may submit as many monsters as you want.
Your work will be anonymous until after the contest has ended.
To submit an entry:
Email submissions to [email protected].
Submissions may be sent as an attachment (doc, txt, etc.) or in the body of the email.
Submissions must include:
Title of your Work
How you'd like to be credited
Elevator Pitch (this will be shared on Social Media links back to your work and will also help readers remember what monster is what when it comes time to vote)
The RPG Editor for Shoggoth.net will respond within 1 business day to each sender, acknowledging receipt of their submission and providing the date in February on which the submission will be live on the site.
Submissions will be accepted until February 24, 2021, at noon.
Submit early. Submit often. 🙂
March 1 until March 15, 2021, at 11:59 pm EST.
We'll use a Google Poll.
Authors may vote for their own submission(s).
Each Publisher is offering $20 in "store credit," either at their DTRPG Publisher Page or at their business' web store (not including base printing and shipping costs, if a physical copy is desired). The first place prize recipient selects which publisher's store credit they like, followed by the second place prize winner selecting from the remaining two publishers, and the third place prize winner receiving $20 credit from the remaining publisher.
Good luck everyone! We can't wait to see you take on "vampires" this month!
*vampire, n.
1. A preternatural being of a malignant nature (in the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons; a man or woman abnormally endowed with similar habits.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989)
Posted in Vampires Tagged: monster, Monster Contest, vampire | Leave a comment


Rare Marblehead Pottery tile decorated with a large turkey. Good color and design. EXCELLENT CONDITION. There are a couple of minute nicks to the edge. No other chips, cracks, damage or repair of any kind. Back stamped with Marblehead logo. Tile is 5 3/4" square. Great arts and crafts piece!


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Home Business Websites Video Production Millionaires Secrets Revealed History Seminars A/V
RobertKothe.com InternetMadeEZ.com Facebook Page Community
Factxback Home
Why the Internet?
HIA-LI Videos
Millionaire's S. R. Book
Community Service / Giving Back
Factxback Blog
Partners and Links
ResultsMinded.com Homepage
RobertKothe.com
Long Island To Do
LIBRA Networkin
WCT Training
Factxback History - Robert Kothe Biography
To review the history of Factxback is practically the same as reviewing the background of Robert Kothe. The Late 80's and early 90's when Robert was in high school and the University gave birth to widespread personal computers.
At the age of 12 Robert Kothe was programming video games on his Commodore 64. He tells about one strategy game that he wrote. The game became so quickly adapted by some of his friends who were better at the game that there was no way he was able to win the game that he personally wrote himself. As a 12-year old, If you can't beat them, re-write the game. He went home and re-programmed the game that with a special sequence by Robert's joystick his game piece turned to a PAC-Man like character and gobbled up his opponent's game pieces.
At the University of New Your New Paltz campus Robert started with a degree called "Computer Science with an Emphasis in Business".
Computers were useful but Business was more exciting to Robert Kothe. He was elected the President of the Business Students Association three years in a row. Robert was also active with dozens of Student Association's comities and organizations.
Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Minor in Computer Science.
How Factxback Came About
Around 1994 Factxback started as a fax-on-demand and Fax-Broadcasting company. We had some limited success but quickly realized that the Internet was far better than any fax technology available at the time. Fax technology was becoming unfashionable. Laws were proposed that discouraged fax broadcasting. Although the law was not passed it was clear that Internet and computer technology was the future.
Robert Kothe, the Owner of Factxback, remembers when "Bulletin Boards" preceded the Internet. He would dial in with a 300-baud modem (considered blazing fast at the time) to another personal computer and download shared files provided on the server.
At the time the Internet was new and commercialization of the Internet was frowned upon by seemingly militant technical people. The earlier users somehow believed that businesses should not be on-line. They believed that it would be the demise of the Internet. Slowly, over time, it became apparent that the Internet belonged to everyone educational as well commercial entities.
The militants are gone. Today businesses more and more are shunned by society if they do not have a decent website.
The Birth of the book Millionaires' Secrets Revealed
Robert Kothe never intended to write a book. His own personal quest and journey to be successful led to Robert reading the success classics such as "Think and Grow Rich" and "7 Habits of Highly Effective People".
The reading quickly turned to the interviewing of any self-made successful person who would talk with him. He met with Presidents of companies and successful investors. Informally and formally he would ask, "How did they do it?" and, "What did they do?" More importantly, he asked, "What can others do to be successful?"
"It always amazed me that un-successful people either wanted a loan or a job from successful people. The smart ones only get advice from successful people." - Robert Kothe
Robert Kothe's private notes turned into his book Millionaires' Secrets Revealed.
Soon after the release of Millionaires' Secrets Revealed certain networking organizations associations asked Robert Kothe to speak and do book signings for their membership. Robert always loved and was comfortable with public speaking and seminars ever since college when he was President of the Business Student Organization. In fact Robert Kothe was so comfortable with public speaking that he was one of the only people exempt from his high school Public Speaking class final exam. In a way it was rather ironic since Robert loves public speaking so much that he would rather have taken the exam since it was yet another public speech to be given.
Be sure to check out the seminars page for more information about speaking engagements.
Factxback Today - The Inception of InternetMadeEZ.com
For years Factxback would build websites using the traditional methods. They would build, host and maintain website for clients. This was the way everyone did it.
In 2002 Factxback integrated a unique tool that allows businesses to create, maintain, and update their own websites themselves. The advantage is the ability to constantly update and improve their websites without hemorrhaging money in updates and changes to their web developers.
Realizing that many businesses need a leg-up and would want their web development company to be responsible for original graphics, initial design, and content creation, Factxback also can provide full-service design and hosting.
Click here or on our "Business websites" link to learn more about this unbelievable business building resource.


Ruby Shoo's new lightweight sports style SUZIE proves that you can be active and stylish. Printed velvet, metallics and faux leather combine in this sporty style, embellished with velvet laces for that undeniably Ruby Shoo look. Ruby Shoo SUZIE matches perfectly to bag style DENVER and purse style COMO.


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Q: connecting spagobi to cosmos I'm trying to connect SpagoBI to Cosmos via Hive JDBC driver.
The connection works but I need to add jar (json-serde-1.3.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar) to be able to execute map reduce when querying.
The problem is that spago bi doesn't support multiple queries for the definition of a dataset and therefore I cannot add the jar before executing the actual select (the semicolon is interpreted as part of the path of the jar)
How can I do?
Is there a way to definitely add the jar so I don't have to add it again every time I query hive?
Is this the recommended way to access cosmos data from spagobi or is there a different one i'm not aware of?
Thanks!

A: You can try this approach: configuring the ADD JAR statement within the connection to the datasource. Have a look at
https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/jndi-resources-howto.html
Look at connectionInitSqls: you can put the ADD JAR statement there.
Of course this means that you have to configure the connection as a JNDI resource (that is the recommended configuration indeed).
Hope this helps


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Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us?
Army Blimp on the Loose Has Landed
Huge Army Blimp on the Loose Has Been Safely Brought Down
It's part of nuclear war detection network.
By Kyle Mizokami Published: Oct 28, 2015
Update, 3:30 Eastern: We're hearing the blimp is down. WCVB is now confirming that NORAD has lassoed the JLENS and brought it to the ground.
Stand down, people. #JLENS has gone to ground. It was a good run while it lasted. https://t.co/NQhyYdrVOy
— Andrew Clevenger (@andclev) October 28, 2015
Update: Things could be going better. According to the AP, about 20,000 people in the area were left without power because of the aerostat's spree.
More From Popular Mechanics
MSNBC reports #JLENS is dragging its 1.5 mile tether behind it, taking out power lines!
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) October 28, 2015
Drag line on property near Bloomsburg, PA. Witness says he saw blimp cable dragging near his home. pic.twitter.com/g30HY5iclC
— Andy Mehalshick (@AndyWBRE_WYOU) October 28, 2015
Earlier today a U.S. Army aerostat became untethered and, as of this writing, is floating out of control over Pennsylvania. Reports indicate the aerostat is being trailed by fighter jets—two F-16s from the New Jersey Air National Guard—and could be shot down if it poses an imminent hazard.
Says the AP:
The North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado said the blimp detached from its station at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, at about 12:20 p.m., and initially traveled north at an altitude of about 16,000 feet.
The aerostat is part of the JLENS surveillance system, designed detect low-flying Russian cruise missiles fired from submarines against the Eastern Seaboard. According to manufacturer Raytheon, each JLENS aerostat is helium-filled, "almost the size of a football field," and can carry a payload of up to 3,500 pounds as well as a sophisticated radar system. Each one costs $175 million.
Why the Pentagon Wants to Use Blimps for Missile Defense
JLENS is normally stationed at an altitude of 10,000 feet, where it looks upon the surrounding area to detect low-flying missiles. The Pentagon deployed the system after it was discovered Russia had placed nuclear-capable cruise missiles on its submarines. The fear was that such missiles could be used to inflict a so-called "decapitation strike" against the U.S. government in the Washington D.C. area.
Even if it is attacked by fighters, JLENS could be difficult to shoot down. Raytheon says the aerostat is "neutrally buoyant", meaning the air pressure on the inside is almost the same as on the outside. If shot at, it won't pop like a balloon—just slowly hiss out helium for a long, long time.
On its website, Raytheon notes (now with a bit of irony): "It's anchored to the ground by a 1/8-inch thick super-strong cable. The tether is strong enough to withstand 100-mph winds… and during testing, it accidentally was exposed to a 106 mph storm and did just fine."
It seems pretty clear that at some point today JLENS was exposed to 107 mph winds. Or, someone let go of the rope.
Kyle Mizokami
Writer on Defense and Security issues, lives in San Francisco.
Germany, U.S. Agree to Send Tanks to Ukraine
War Thunder Players (Again) Leak Secrets Online
Can High-Powered Lasers Save the Navy?
How Cheap Drones Replaced Fighter Jets in Ukraine
U.K., Poland To Donate Modern Tanks to Ukraine
U.S. Will Send Sea Sparrow Missiles to Ukraine
Is the AMX-10RC a Tank or ... Something Else?
U.S. to Send Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine
Russian Navy Deploys Hypersonic Missiles at Sea
Ukraine Could Get New HIMARS-Launched Rocket Bomb
The Army Once Planned to Put Soldiers on the Moon
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I'm in love with buffalo plaid, and I shared a post yesterday with some buffalo plaid printables, but then I thought I'd make a quick little round up of all of the buffalo plaid free printables I've seen recently, in case you love it as much as I do. I've got a handful of creative friends that have shared some fabulous designs, so I thought it was my buffalo-plaid-loving-duty to consolidate them into one spot, right here. Did you know this pattern was called buffalo plaid/check?
Just scrolling down this page, makes my eyeballs go ga-ga, I'm in love!
We took our family pictures at a Christmas tree farm last year, with our clothes organized around buffalo plaid. Click on that link to check them out! If you want to stock up on a few buffalo plaid accessories, one can always enjoy a plaid scarf or a lumber jack shirt!
Click on the links below each image to be taken to the post to download and print!
Don't you just love these projects? They are all available for a free download on each of the links, then print, and BAM! cuteness overload in your home. Which is your favorite???