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How powerful is OpenAI's Gym and Universe in board games area?
I'm a big fan of computer board games and would like to make Python chess/go/shogi/mancala programs. Having heard of reinforcement learning, I decided to look at OpenAI Gym.
But first of all, I would like to know, is it possible using OpenAI Gym/Universe to create a chess bot that will be nearly as strong as Stockfish and create a go bot that will play as good as AlphaGo?
Is it worth learning OpenAI?
reinforcement-learning open-ai chess gym go
TaissaTaissa
OpenAI's Gym is a standardised API, useful for reinforcement learning, applied to a range of interesting environments many of which you can then access for free with little effort. It is very simple to use, and IMO worth learning if you want to practice RL using Python to any depth at all. You could use it to ensure you have good understanding of basic algorithms such as Q learning, independently of and before you look at using RL in a board game context.
There are limitations for Gym and Universe when dealing with multiple agents. The API is not really designed with that in mind. For instance, there is no simple way to add two agents to an environment, you would have to write a new environment and attach an opposing agent inside of it. This is still possible, and not necessarily a terrible idea (it depends on the training setup you want to investigate).
If you want to look into classic two-player games, and write bots like AlphaGo and Stockfish, then I would point out that:
Game-playing bots often make extensive use of planning that can interrogate potential future game states. OpenAI's Gym doesn't prevent you doing that, but it doesn't help in any way.
Algorithms for AlphaGo are public, with many nice tutorials. It would be quicker to follow one of these and develop your own bot training code in most cases, than to try and adapt an OpenAI solution for single agent play.
Probably the biggest time-saver you could find for any game is a rules engine that implements the board, pieces and game rules for you. If Gym already has a game environment for the game you want your bot to play, it might be worth checking the Gym code to see what it is integrating, then try to use the same library yourself, but not the Gym environment directly.
Many decent game-playing algorithms don't use RL at all. You can frame most of them as search (finding best moves) plus heuristics (rating moves or positions), and can usually make independent choices for algorithms that perform each sub-task. You can apply RL so that a bot learns game heuristics, then use a more traditional search e.g. negamax in order to make decisions during play. Or you can use any analysis of the game you like in order to generate heuristics. Very simple games usch as tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses in UK) can just have heuristic of +1 if X has won, -1 if O has won and 0 otherwise, and still be quickly solved with a minimax search for perfect play.
DeepMind's AlphaGo uses a variant of MCTS for the search algorithm, which can be considered a RL technique, but the lines are a bit blurry around definitions there - it is safer to say that AlphaGo incorporates MCTS as the chosen search technique for both self-play training and active play against any other opponent.
Neil SlaterNeil Slater
$\begingroup$ Thank you Neil. I would like to know, does the success of a strong bot creation depend mostly on hardware? Is a home laptop enough for this task? $\endgroup$ – Taissa Jan 26 '20 at 16:05
$\begingroup$ @Taissa: I think that would be a completely different question. Feel free to ask on the site. However, in short if you intend to train your bot through self-learning approach similar to DeepMind's approach, then yes you will need significant hardware budget in order to compete with them. Cutting edge reinforcement learning as practiced today uses a lot of CPU/GPU processing $\endgroup$ – Neil Slater Jan 26 '20 at 16:09
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged reinforcement-learning open-ai chess gym go or ask your own question.
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Spot and fade-in images from scenes in varying sizes to be determined in areas to be determined, as if randomly revealing the location, characters, relationships and context and complete summary of the story to follow.
SOUND: Effects, dialogue and wild sound consistent with images.
Expand images containing dialogue or key action to full and partial screens.
FLEUR, 25, attractive brunette, on a chair mounting her client, GLENN, 52, greying hair, a lawyer without his suit; behind them, a window frames Shelter Island Marina.
SATYA SAI BABA rides a bicycle across panels that illuminate as he enters them and disappear as he leaves.
There's always a question of free will or free wheel.
SAI BABA rides a bicycle across the stage.
What would have to happen to resolve all upsets to everyone's satisfaction?
Can innocence in a relationship be restored after a breach of trust?
Innocence of Fleur's profession is proforma but what about her damaged mate's.


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4 Ze'evi killers set to be indicted
Charges to be pressed against PFLP members for murder of cabinet minister.
By DAN IZENBERG
rehavam zeevi 298.88. (photo credit: Rehavam Ze'evi memorial site)
The state is due on Friday to submit an indictment against four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine suspected of involvement in the assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi, the Justice Ministry announced on Thursday. The suspects are Ihad Alma, head of the PFLP military wing; Majdi Rimawi, who allegedly recruited the cell that killed Ze'evi; Hamdi Kura'an, who allegedly pulled the trigger; and Basel al-Asmar, who allegedly helped Kura'an. The state decided not to indict PFLP secretary-general Ahmed Sa'adat for the murder because it did not believe it had enough evidence that would stand up in court. Sa'adat will instead be tried in a West Bank military court for alleged security violations. The five, plus Fuad Shubeiki, Yasser Arafat's financial adviser, were seized from a Jericho jail in March after their British and American guards were recalled home following the Hamas victory in the Palestinian general election. Ze'evi was shot and killed in 2001 as he was about to enter the Jerusalem hotel room where he stayed during the work week. He was reportedly killed to avenge the killing of Sa'adat's predecessor by a guided missile while working in his Ramallah office.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a svatého Karla Velikého na pražském Karlově je původně gotický, barokně přestavěný a doplněný kostel. Je součástí areálu bývalého kláštera augustiniánů kanovníků v Praze na Karlově.

Historie

Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a svatého Karla Velikého v Praze na Karlově založil jako součást kanonie augustiniánů kanovníků v rámci velkorysé výstavby Nového Města císař Karel IV., který chtěl těmito svými zakladatelskými počiny pozvednout význam Prahy na úroveň odpovídající hlavnímu městu Římské říše. Odpovídá tomu i značně nezvyklá podoba kostela související s jeho patrociniem. Osmiboký půdorys lodi kostela přímo odkazuje na hlavní stavbu cášské falce Karla Velikého, kostel Panny Marie, který byl postaven na šestnáctiúhelníkovém půdoryse s vnitřním oktogonem. Centrální půdorys kostela je pro gotickou architekturu velmi nezvyklý a zřídka používaný. Dnes ovšem není jasná původní podoba zaklenutí. V úvahu přichází buďto zaklenutí na jednu střední podporu nebo zaklenutí pomocí čtveřice sloupů.

Významu kostela odpovídá i jeho zasvěcení Panně Marii jako matce Boží a Karlu Velikému jako obnoviteli Římské říše. Karel IV. rovněž věnoval kostelu vzácnou relikvii, tři zuby Karla Velikého.

Výstavba kostela probíhala od roku 1351. Podílela se na ní dvorská stavební huť Matyáše z Arrasu. Kostel vysvětil roku 1377 arcibiskup Jan Očko z Vlašimi za přítomnosti Karla IV. a jeho syna Václava IV. Kostelní budova však při svěcení patrně nebyla ještě zcela dokončena. Výstavba samotného kláštera trvala zřejmě ještě výrazně déle. Za husitských bouří byl klášter i kostel poškozen a opuštěn. Roku 1498 byl kostel po opravě znovu vysvěcen. V té době byl zřejmě také znovu zaklenut Hansem Spiessem. Z let 1502–1505 pochází také dvě pozoruhodné vitraje.

Stávající gotizující klenba však pochází až z roku 1575, kdy byl kostel znovu zaklenut odvážně řešenou kupolí s podvlečenou sítí gotizujících žeber, opatřen novým krovem a krytinou. Klenba bývá, patrně oprávněně, připisována Bonifáci Wolmutovi.

Roku 1603 budovy kanonie poškodil blesk. Kostel byl poté opět opraven a zastřešen. Roku 1676 byla uprostřed lodi chrámu vybudována nedochovaná mariazellská kaple na náklady Bernarda Ignáce z Martinic, patrně dle Orsiho projektu.

Starý úmysl vybudovat při chrámu svaté schody po vzoru Lateránské baziliky v Římě byl uskutečněn po roce 1704 odkazem hraběte ze Schönnfeldu. Probošt Luňák získal povolení ke stavbě roku 1708. S veškerou výzdobou byla stavba hotova roku 1711. Projekt byl ve třicátých letech 20. století připsán Janu Blažeji Santinimu. Tato teorie byla později podložena dalšími rozbory, přestože dodnes není doložena archivně.

Roku 1735–1740 proběhly úpravy interiéru kostela. Vznikla nová kruchta, umožňující instalaci nových varhan od Bedřicha Semeráda, byla zrušena mariazellská kaple, vznikly nové oratoře, kazatelna a oltáře.

22. dubna 1755 postihl kostel i konvent požár. Zničené střechy byly roku 1756 obnoveny. Roku 1785 byl klášter Josefem II. zrušen a změněn na nemocnici, jejímž účelům dále sloužil. V letech 1871–1873 byla připravovaná výrazná regotizace kostela, která však byla uskutečněna pouze z malé části.

Popis
Osmiboká centrální loď gotického kostela je zaklenutá pozdně gotickou cihlovou klenbou s kamennými žebry tvořícími složitější hvězdicový obrazec. Polygonální presbytář je uzavřen šesti stranami desetiúhelníka a zaklenut gotickou žebrovou klenbou. Klenba má šířku 22,8 metrů. Na opačné straně přiléhá k lodi zvonice, která svou výškou výrazně nepřevyšuje výšku lodi. Loď i presbytář jsou zevně zpevněny gotickými opěráky. Celek obíhá výrazná barokní korunní římsa nad níž vystupuje atika z téhož období. Loď, presbytář i věž jsou zastřešeny trojicí barokních kupolovitých střech s lucernami, a vytváří tak charakteristickou malebnou siluetu Karlova.

Barokní je též předsíň a především budova svatých schodů na jižní straně kostela. Okna v prvním patře jsou tvarována gotizujícím způsobem po vzoru tzv. záclonových oken pozdní gotiky. Strukturálních gotismů, ale také prvků je však v této drobné stavbě více a dosti jednoznačně dokládají Santiniho autorství, stejně jako použití dalších, pro tohoto autora typických prvků, jakými jsou výrazně tvarované římsy, pásované pilastry při nároží, konkávně probrané oblouky ambitu vytvářející houpavý rytmus či nezvykle tvarovaná střecha.

Interiér kostela je vyzdoben barokním štukem a vybaven barokním mobiliářem. Nachází se zde též několik oltářních pláten Jana Jiřího Heinsche. Hlavní oltář je však neogotický z roku 1872. Novogotické jsou též kružby v oknech.

Zajímavost

Pět novoměstských kostelů, založených Karlem IV. tvoří pravidelný kříž. Severo-jižní rameno tvoří spojnice kostelů sv. Kateřiny a Kostel Zvěstování Panny Marie Na slupi, západo-východní rameno Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a svatého Karla Velikého a kostel Panny Marie na Slovanech, ramena se protínají v kostele sv. Apolináře.

Legenda
Ke stavbě klenby se vztahuje pověst, podle které stavitel klenby uzavřel k její stavbě smlouvu s ďáblem, aby ji dokončil. Když pak uviděl klenbu, zhrozil se její velikosti. Ve strachu, že se klenba zřítí, podpůrné lešení zapálil a sám se oběsil. Klenba vydržela - ďábel smlouvu dodržel, ale získal stavitelovu duši. Literárně zpracoval tuto legendu např. Alois Jirásek ve Starých pověstech českých. Zfilmována byla v roce 1919 pod názvem Stavitel chrámu s Rudolfem Deylem st. v roli stavitele.

Galerie

Odkazy

Reference

Literatura

Externí odkazy

Panna Marie a svatý Karel Veliký
Panna Marie a svatý Karel Veliký
Kulturní památky na Novém Městě (Praha 2)
Panna Marie a svatý Karel Veliký
Panna Marie a svatý Karel Veliký
Založeno Karlem IV.
Chrámové krypty v Praze
Kostely pražské arcidiecéze
Polygonální stavby v Česku
Nové Město

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Tomatoville® Gardening Forums Index > Regional Group Tomato Tastings > CHOPTAG™ XV - 2017 > 2018 events?
With almost all the local seed swaps over(Pikeville still looms on 7 April) I wanted to see if there was any talk of a plant swap this spring which of course leads into the tasting late summer.
I'll be a bit heavy on the Wild Boar tomatoes, hearts and Kentucky heirlooms this year with DTP plants at the house.
Hopefully we can get some more local interaction here and/or the Facebook page.
I'm up for a late-summer tasting!
Plant swap is scheduled for May 6th, all the info is on the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1899...0551967680234/. If you haven't been approved for the FB group, let me know and I can approve you. Theres a backlog of people who requested to join so if you've already sent a request, let me know.
our tasting is Aug. 26th. I can get you the info. or go to facebook CHOPTAG. I got restricted from messaging last year so we have commucating thru there.
Just today I got the message about the tasting... next year I guess.
hi anybody thinking tomatoes for trading?
hi are you starting seed yet?


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Home > Comparison of Airborne Reactive Nitrogen Measurements During WINTER
Comparison of Airborne Reactive Nitrogen Measurements During WINTER
Sparks, T., C. Ebben, P. J. Wooldridge, F. D. Lopez‐Hilfiker, B. H. Lee, J. Thornton, E. McDuffie, D. Fibiger, S. Brown, D. D. Montzka, A. Weinheimer, J. C. Schroder, P. Campuzano-Jost, J. Jimenez-Palacios, and R. C. Cohen (2019), Comparison of Airborne Reactive Nitrogen Measurements During WINTER, J. Geophys. Res., 124, 10,483-10,502, doi:10.1029/2019JD030700.
We present a comparison of instruments measuring nitrogen oxide species from an aircraft during the 2015 Wintertime INvestigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER) campaign over the northeast United States. Instrument techniques compared here include chemiluminescence (CL), thermal dissociation laser‐induced fluorescence (TD‐LIF), cavity ring‐down spectroscopy (CRDS), high‐resolution time of flight, iodide‐adduct chemical ionization mass spectrometry (I‐CIMS), and aerosol mass spectrometry. Species investigated include NO2, NO, total nitrogen oxides (NOy), N2O5, ClNO2, and HNO3. Particulate‐phase nitrate is also included for comparisons of HNO3 and NOy. Instruments generally agreed within reported uncertainties, with individual flights sometimes showing much better agreement than the data set taken as a whole, due to flight‐to‐flight slope changes. NO measured by CRDS and CL showed an average relative slope of 1.16 ± 0.01 across all flights, which is outside of combined uncertainties. The source of the error was not identified. For NO2 measured by CRDS and TD‐LIF the average was 1.02 ± 0.00; for NOy measured by CRDS and CL the average was 1.01 ± 0.00; and for N2O5 measured by CRDS and I‐CIMS the average was 0.89 ± 0.01. NOy budget closure to within 20% is demonstrated. We observe nonlinearity in NO2 and NOy correlations at concentrations above ~30 ppbv that may be related to the NO discrepancy noted above. For ClNO2 there were significant differences between I‐CIMS and TD‐LIF, potentially due in part to the temperature used for thermal dissociation. Although the fraction of particulate nitrate measured by the TD‐LIF is not well characterized, it improves comparisons to include particulate measurements.
Page Last Updated: December 5, 2019
Page Editor: Jose-Luis Jimenez


1933 Industries Inc (CSE:TGIF) (OTCMKTS:TGIF) is teaming up with Hip Hop legend Kurupt to develop a brand of cannabis products set to launch on April 20.
The product line, known as Gotti's Gold, will debut at the NuWu Cannabis Marketplace celebration in Las Vegas, sponsored by the British Columbia cannabis producer's brand Canna Hemp.
Products include flower, pre-rolled cigarettes, THC and cannabidiol cartridges and Gold Nuggets, a variation of the cannabis moon rocks that Kurupt helped make famous.
"We've teamed-up once again with the legendary Kurupt and we are proud to continue to build on our relationship with the launch of Gotti's Gold in the active Las Vegas market," Chief Operating Officer Joe Bleackley said.
Kurupt, the former Executive Vice President of Death Row Records, joined the cannabis sectors in 2014, when he created Kurupt's Moon Rocks. Moon rocks, including the Gold Nuggets of Gotti's Gold, are made by rolling a bud of cannabis flower in hash oil and coating it with kief, a THC-packed cannabis resin.
The licensing agreement is a partnership between Gotti's Gold Ex LLC and Alternative Medicine Association, the second time 1933 has partnered with AMA. Kurupt has also worked with the association, launching The Real Kurupt's Moonrocks in 2017.
Shares slipped 2% to C$0.48 on the CSE and 2.4% to US$0.36 on OTC markets.


Ooh look. There's another one of those desktop wallpaper calendar things available over at Al-oholics Anonymous. This month it's a wonderful moment from the film UHF. These calendars are hand picked each month from entries in the create-a-calendar contest. However, there have been no entires for the past few months. It's fun and easy to do. You don't need to be a great artist or anything. Just scan a picture you have, add the calendar and logo and you're ready to go! Look at the past winners to get some ideas. Of course, to submit, you'll need to follow a few simple rules. And if you don't have any software to create such works of art, then go download GIMP. It's free for everyone! Good luck!
UPDATE: The calendar has been corrected with the right days. Thanks for catching that April Fools prank that was completely unintentional!
This entry was posted in Others, Site News. Bookmark the permalink.
Anyone notice that the days don't match up to reality.
Yes, the days are messed up.
I assume that tomorrow they will release the proper version after they have their (April) Fool-ish fun at our expense.
Oh yeah, April Fool's day was on the first, I forgot. Now all my good pranks went to waste.


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NBC's newest fall sitcom, The New Normal, marks a television milestone for LGBT families. The show tells the story of a gay couple who pursue their dreams of parenthood through surrogacy. And it has everyone talking.
In advance of its premiere on September 11th, The Advocate magazine turned to a Circle Surrogacy couple for insight into what surrogacy really looks like for gay couples:
"Rich Palermo, 39, and Steve Mazza, 40, of New York City, consider themselves lucky. 'Our egg donor was the first woman we looked at on Circle Surrogacy's site, and we loved her from the first minute we Skyped with her,' said Palermo. The egg donor passed all her tests and produced a ton of eggs. Same thing happened with the surrogate — 'she's the first woman presented to us by Circle, and there have been absolutely no problems, medical or otherwise,"'said Palermo."


On screen loveteam, James Reid and Nadine Lustre will spread the 'kilig' mode on Valentines Day as they portray a couple in Maalaala Mo Kaya to be aired on February 14, 2015.
James Reid will play the character of Marrion 'Yong' Gopez, the dubbed 'Boy Breadwinner' from Pampanga in Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash on 2010. Nadine Lustre's character will be Carmina, Yong's fan who became his girlfriend.
While the story is to be revealed on Saturday, the teaser showed that Carmina believed in sign towards her 'Mr. Right'. She had met Gopez in certain circumstances and realized his kindness and humility. Hashtagged with #MMKSignsofLove, the story will revolve around the signs of love prayed by Carmina to God to lead her to a love life she had been wishing for. Will the signs of love save Yong and Carmina from struggles and heartaches?
On November 8, 2014, Yong Gopez surprised Carmina in SM Clark Pampanga to celebrate their anniversary. In the video's description Carmina shared their love story where in they started as strangers not knowing that they will be lovers. She said that their story was merely a fairytale between a famous guy and an ordinary girl. She relayed the story of how they met and how she thought that she will just see him only once in her life grabbing the chance to take a photo with him. She expressed her happiness being in a relationship with him and considers him as the perfect person to make her fall in love over and over again.
Together with JaDine are Sharmaine Arnaiz , Hyasmin Neri, Andre Garcia, Aina Solano, Kyra Custodio, Erin Ocampo ,Nicole Barranda , Myrtle Sarosa, Axel Torres, Noel Colet, Eleven, and Marites Samson. The story was written by Arah Jane Bayados and Benson Logronio under the direction of Frasco Mortiz. Fans expressed their excitement as once again JaDine are paired up on screen.


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Q: How to extend PDO class with a new method and use that method in another class? I once used to have my database connection in a file and included it on the pages that I needed it. Inside of this file, I also extended the PDO class with a new method, run(), which allows me to write shorthand PDO queries and worked fine:
class MyPDO extends PDO {
    public function run($sql, $bind = NULL) {
        $stmt = $this->prepare($sql);
        $stmt->execute($bind);
        return $stmt;
    }
}

$conn = new MyPDO("mysql:charset=utf8;host=$host;dbname=$name", $user, $pass);

I'm now trying to neaten up my files and the code within them, by using classes. So, this database connection file became two classes:
class MyPDO extends PDO {

    public function run($sql, $bind = NULL) {
        $stmt = $this->prepare($sql);
        $stmt->execute($bind);
        return $stmt;
    }

}

class Connection {

    private $_config = NULL;
    public $conn = NULL;
    public $error = NULL;

    public function __construct(array $config) {
        $this->_config = $config;
        $this->getPDOConnection();
    }

    private function getPDOConnection() {
        if ($this->conn == NULL) {
            $this->conn = new MyPDO("mysql:charset=utf8; host=".$this->_config['host']."; dbname=".$this->_config['name']."", $this->_config['user'], $this->_config['pass']);
            [...]
        }
    }

    [...]
}

At this point in time, I'm not using an autoload function to load the classes. There are only two classes needed for this particular file, so I'm requiring them manually. I'm also led to believe that including the connection class manually, allows the PDO class to be extended with MyPDO.
require API_ROOT . 'core/database/connection.class.php';
require API_ROOT . 'core/users/user.class.php';

I've tested the connection and it has indeed connected.
The problem I'm having, is using the new MyPDO method named run() inside of another class, in this case user.class.
Inside of user.class, I'm simply trying to authenticate a user and therefore need to use the run() method.
I call the user class like this:
$db = new Connection($config['database']);
$user = new User($db, $config);

And inside of the user.class, I want to use run() and do so by calling $this->db->run:
class User {

    private $db = NULL;
    private $config = NULL;

    public function __construct($db = NULL, $config = NULL) {
        $this->db = $db;
        $this->config = $config;
    }

    public function login($email = '', $password = '', $remember_me = '') {
        $user_profile = $this->db->run("     <--------------
            [...]
        ", [$email])->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
    }

}

But I receive the following error when I run this:

Uncaught Error: Call to undefined method Connection::run()

I understand what the error means, that there is no method called run() inside of my connection class but why does it think that method is in there? What am I doing wrong here?

A: @Quasimodo'sclone is correct, you need to fetch it from the conn variable as they demonstrated. If it's not working, you are doing something wrong on the implementation elsewhere because run() is a method of conn because conn is the class MyPDO which defines the run() method:
$this->db equals class Connection which creates instance of MyPDO in the __construct() and assigns it to $this->conn in the getPDOConnection() method – therefore $this->db->conn->run() is what you are looking for.
Your getPDOConnection() should maybe be renamed to setPDOConnection() then have the getPDOConnection() retrieve $this->conn:
public function getPDOConnection()
{
    return $this->conn;
}

Then your User class would actually use:
$this->db->getPDOConnection()->run(...etc);

It would make it a little clearer.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Sophomore: I like that Clarkson College is a small private school. The professors know you by name and are very helpful! I've made great relationships with my professors enough that they said I can use them as a reference.
Freshman: Nebraska Christian College is an amazing setting for all those who are looking for support both in faith and relationships while wanting to continue their education! They provide amazing connections to religious leaders and offer experiences that will change you for the better. The classes are difficult at times, but the experience and knowledge to receive from them are actually usable for your future. The people and environment are so kind and compassionate and there are faults but everyone knows about them and they want the change to occur and because of the want, the change will happen in time to come!
Freshman: Summit Christian College is a unique learning environment. I call it a family. It is a regional college that is also open to international students like me. Summit has been ranked in 2016 and 2017 as among the top 5 most affordable private colleges in America and has an awesome team of professors that has challenged my thinking. Summit has all programs rooted in the bible. Summit maintains a high quality, bible centered academic programs that prepare students academically and spiritually for service. Fantastic! This is like killing two birds with one stone. I have had a great semester at summit Christian college this fall. This school revived my love for kingdom service and the need to be of selfless service to humanity and above all I am now closer to achieving my scholarly ambition through this college.


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Kyle Palmieri: The Man Who Launched the Devils' Rebuild
When searching for a point where the Devils fortunes started to rebound after hitting bottom in 2015, look no further than the trade for the guy wearing #21 in Newark these days.
By Mike Stromberg@ColdSportsTakes Mar 30, 2018, 1:10pm EDT
Share All sharing options for: Kyle Palmieri: The Man Who Launched the Devils' Rebuild
Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images
Things looked grim for the New Jersey Devils in 2015. After clinging to the fringes of relevance the couple seasons following their 2012 Cup Final run, the team had finally bottomed out in 2014-15. After years of free agent departures, stopgap solutions, and neglect of the prospect pipeline, the end of an era in Devils hockey had been reached. The head coach was shown the door halfway through the season, the legendary GM was kicked upstairs, and the franchise felt adrift with a daunting task ahead of it. There was a lot of work to be done to get the franchise back to being a factor in the playoff race, let alone a legitimate contender again.
Now, with the team just starting to emerge from that rebuild, there is one transaction that I think one can point to where the trajectory of the organization started to trend upward again. I think that transaction was the Kyle Palmieri trade at the NHL Draft in June of 2015.
The Devils were a team in decline for several years up to that point. They had their two biggest stars, Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuck, leave in back to back summers, each in uniquely gut-wrenching fashion. They had a prospect pipeline that was paper thin and only so-so at the top, a result of years of trading away picks to help teams in the hunt as well as generally poor player evaluation with the picks they did have. Years of a win-now philosophy, ill-fated contracts, and the loss of various players to free agency and "retirement" finally had come home to roost.
That bottoming-out of the team in 2015 meant Devils fans had to adjust to something completely foreign to the organization up to that point: a rebuild. The team would have the 6th overall pick in a draft where the consensus top-two tiers were really only five players deep and they would have to figure out how to improve the team without the benefit of much in the way of prospects to start with. They would select Pavel Zacha with that 6th pick, a selection that certainly engenders some debate in these parts, but it was perhaps a start. Then, at the end of that first round when everyone figure the Devils were done for the night, word came through that the team had traded two picks, a 2015 second and a 2016 third, for Anaheim Ducks winger Kyle Palmieri. It was unexpected, it was out of left field, and, most importantly, it was an extremely savvy move that netted the Devils a solid building block for the present and future for not a whole lot in return.
Palmieri was seen in a lot of the hockey community as a guy who just needed more opportunity, as circumstances in Anaheim prevented him from ever seeing much more than third-line minutes. His rate stats all pointed to a player who was worthy of a bigger role, and Ray Shero made that bet and chose to take advantage of a cap-strapped Ducks team to land himself a bargain. The deal was certainly well-liked at the time, but in retrospect, it has become an absolute steal. If the rebuild we are currently in is ultimately considered a success, this is the point where it think one will be able to say the tide started to turn for New Jersey.
Since his arrival in New Jersey, Palmieri has done nothing but produce. He has averaged an 82-game pace of 30 goals and 56 points since his arrival in Newark on a team that had struggled tremendously to score in the years prior. His 30-goal, 57-point campaign in 2015-16 helped lead a team that was putrid on paper to a surprisingly competitive season. One can argue whether that was really helpful for a team in a major rebuild, but the point was that the Devils had a hugely important piece on their roster who had been acquired for relative peanuts and it was a harbinger of the types of trades Shero would be making to try to better his team.
Obviously, these days in New Jersey, the big stories are the seasons of Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier (rightfully so) at the head of a resurgent Devils team. But somewhat under the radar, Kyle Palmieri is a major driver of this team's success in his own right. He'd be on pace for a career-best 34-goal, 60-point season without his early-season injuries and has had a big month of March when the Devils have absolutely needed it. Pure goal-scorers are something the Devils continue to lack a lot of the time, but Palmieri is a big time talent on that front. Short of having one of the league's truly elite players, it's tough to find guys who can put the puck in the net like the man from Montvale can.
Palmieri is a good enough scorer that he has been able to (obviously along with Hall) make a power play that struggles to even get set up in the zone a lot of the time into a unit with a solid conversion rate. Palmieri is consistently among the top Devils in goals/60 with the extra attacker since his arrival, but this season he has been on another level as a producer on the power play where his 3.9 goals/60 put him at 8th in the entire league among players with at least 50 5v4 minutes. His synergy with Hall on the top unit has helped power an otherwise haphazard power play to having the 11th-best conversion rate in the NHL.
To go along with the way he produces, Palmieri is a player who is easy to root for as well. He comes off as a smart player and a capable leader for this team and his intensity is often on display on the ice, where he can get under his opponents' skin from time to time. He's also a hometown guy, being raised in North Jersey, and seems to really connect with fans. These things on their own do not make a player, but they are certainly great things for a player to have on top of producing tangible results on the ice. Palmieri is a great player, but he's also a fun guy to cheer for as well, which is nice to have when you're trying to reinvigorate a fanbase.
So, when considering the players most important to this team right now, be sure not to leave out Palmeiri. And when you juxtapose this point against the fact that he was acquired from Anaheim for not much more than a song (hell, the Devils almost gave up as much for Mirco Mueller), you can see why I consider him the real kickoff point of the rebuild the Devils are currently engaged in (and trying to emerge from). Without his contributions, it's hard to say where the Devils would be right now, but if it were possible to bet on such things, I'd say "quite a bit lower in the standings." So tip your cap to Montvale Native Kyle Palmieri, the man who launched the rebuild in New Jersey.


Safe Kit offers the following specific safety training for management and employees.
Safety First! Or so the saying goes. Thanks to OSHA standards, workplace injuries have dropped dramatically in more recent years. However, even with OSHA and other safety regulations, the main burden of responsibility still lies in the hands of employers and individual workers when it comes to staying safe on the job. Taking appropriate safety measures can save workers from unnecessary injuries.
Safe Kit has an extensive catalog of online work safety training classes. We can prepare your employees for anything from back injury prevention, confined space safety, ergonomics training, fall protection, power tool safety and much more!


Paul is a PhD student and has been running Liquid Galaxy on his university display wall for some time now. This project will initially target Microsoft's Kinect as an input device for Liquid Galaxy, and may also leverage ClusterGL for distributed GL Rendering of Google Earth and other OpenGL applications.
Google Earth is certainly a "killer app" for the Liquid Galaxy platform, but there are many other applications that could be easily enhanced, coordinating multiple instances rendering portions of a panoramic view. This project will modify the 3D Open-Source graphics engine Irrlicht, enabling many 3D applications using this platform.
Currently, the most popular method of controlling Liquid Galaxy setups is through the use of a 3D Connexion Space Navigator and a touchscreen. This project aims to improve Liquid Galaxy's accessibility by adding Android phones to the list of input devices. Since many people own Android phones already, this project would effectively eliminate the need to purchase additional peripherals in order to control a Liquid Galaxy setup, while enabling innovative ways of interacting with the system.
The GSoC 2011 coding period officially begins May 24th and wraps up in August. Follow these projects and other development on the project's mailing list.
Google's Summer of Code program makes an enormous contribution to the Open Source community and provides great (paid!) experience with Open Source development for many talented students. At End Point we are thrilled that The Liquid Galaxy Project will benefit from this great program.


British Tomato Week is the perfect excuse to celebrate one of our favourite ingredients. Tangy and sweet, they are packed with healthy nutrition and add flavour to all kinds of dishes. These are some of our favourite ways to use this fab fruit (yes, it's a fruit!).
Look for ripe tomatoes with a lovely sweet fragrance. Sprinkle cut tomatoes with salt and leave for 30 minutes before serving – this draws out water and concentrates flavour, making a huge difference to your final dish.
If there's a better way to eat fresh, ripe tomatoes than with buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil and flakes of sea salt, we're yet to find it.
One of the few ingredients that actually improves after being tinned, these tomatoes make rich, savoury sauces and are great when you can't get some lovely fresh tomatoes.
Make one of the most delicious pasta sauces ever – simmer two tins of tomatoes with a whole red onion (peel and halve before adding) and a big knob of butter or coconut oil for about 45 minutes. Season to taste and toss through hearty whole grain pasta or drizzle over roasted veg.
Blend one tin of tomatoes with a clove of garlic, handful of basil and a little salt to make a super easy, extremely delicious pizza sauce – no need to cook before topping!
Dried tomatoes are a store cupboard essential. The best ones come vacuum-packed (not stored in oil) and they are should be soaked for 30 minutes before using to soften and rehydrate.
Soak a few dried tomatoes with lots of water and blend to make a quick, flavourful vegetable stock.
Purée soaked tomatoes with a little garlic, lemon and oil to make a healthy tomato pesto.
Chop soaked tomatoes into small pieces and stir through salads, pasta, risotto and polenta.


prelovedluxurygoods Great buyer to deal with! Punctual! Pleasant transaction! Speedy replies. Thank you!
mgte02 Very accommodating seller! Responds to inquiries prompty and very nice to transact with.
Size XS-S but can also fit to semi M | Still in good condition | Length: 46.5 inches - FLAW: Yung isang flower design natanggal but I still have it. Pwede pang itahi. - Used once during our Year End Party PM me for more photos.
Brand: Meg Color: Navy Blue Used once during Christmas Party at Shangri-La The Fort. Pina-alter ko kaya naging 3 yung layers din yung tela and may belt. Removable din yung belt.
MONOBLOC TABLE RFS: Bawas gamit ‼Please see last photo for the small damage. Nasa amin pa yung piece na nagtanggal and pwede pang idikit. Aside from that, wala nang ibang damage yung table. PM me for inquiries!
Size: M to Semi L body frames FLAW: Please see second photo for reference. May maliliit na butas malapit sa design.
CHECK OUT MY LISTINGS NOW! ❤ ALL ITEMS ARE REPRICED!!!


No one who works with the unclassified data on Afghanistan can fail to be aware of how poor and contradictory much of that data now are. In general, no NATO/ISDAF government – including the United States – has yet provided an honest or meaningful picture of the war. Far too often, official reporting has been tailored to report success when the Taliban, Hekmatyer, and Haqqani were actually scoring major gains. In other cases, key problems in the Afghan government, the NATO/ISAF effort, and the economic aid effort were ignored or disguised as successes.
In other cases, governments have simply reported metrics designed for bureaucratic purposes in other contexts, and which simply are not relevant to war fighting. Far too much economic reporting, for example, has ignored the real world poverty and needs of the Afghan people and reported classic econometric data. The bulk of reporting on aid has ignored the realities of warfighting except to excuse focusing aid on areas where it has little or no impact on areas with significant risk or outside the immediate perimeter of military protection. Most aid reporting has focused on funding and money spent and projects started, not on whether they meet the requirements of either broad national development or war fighting, or whether they have any meaningful or enduring effectiveness in actually serving the Afghan people.
Virtually all NATO/ISAF and member country combat reporting has focused on military clashes between NATO/ISAF and insurgent forces. Until recently, almost all of this data has been tied to analyses that grossly minimize insurgent success by focusing on the limited number of districts (13 out of 364 in a recent US report) where there have been major clashes.
Yet, between 2004 and 2009, the insurgents generally avoided engaging NATO/ISAF forces unless they had a strong political motive to fight and concentrated on expanding their political and security control over the countryside. NATO/ISAF was winning largely meaningless tactical clashes without securing or "holding" population centers while the insurgents succeeded in locking NATO/ISAF and Afghan government efforts into steadily smaller areas. They took over much of southern Afghanistan; expanded their influence in the east, center, north, and west; steadily reduced the areas in which aid and PRTs could operate; and steadily won the war of political control that really counted.
For years, NATO/ISAF, the US, and other NATO/ISAF countries failed to provide unclassified data and maps showing this progress. They talked about victory measured solely in terms of the outcome of tactical clashes with insurgent forces from 2002 through much of 2008. Even today, government spokesmen talk about stalemates at a time the insurgency has scored more than half a decade of steady gains in winning the war it is seeking to fight: a battle of ideology, political influence and control in Afghanistan, and political attrition in undermining NATO/ISAF support for the war.
The only reporting that began to show what was actually happening was a series of UN maps that showed the massive expansion of insurgent influence in terms of risk to aid works. The UN reporting showed entire districts at risk when insurgent influence was often more limited, and this tended to exaggerate Taliban and other insurgent influence. It has generally been correct, however, in showing that it expanded from some kind of active presence somewhere close to 30 districts in 2003 to around 150 today – some 40% of the country and more than ten times the figures where NATO/ISAF reported on major attack incidents.
■Build: Exploiting the security space to deliver humanitarian relief and implement reconstruction and development initiatives that will connect the Afghan population to its government and build and sustain the Afghanistan envisioned in the strategic goals.


Saturday, February 6, 2016, 12:00 p.m.
The Museum offers a purrfect afternoon of free drop-in studio sessions for visitors of all ages every Saturday. Working with Museum educators, visitors will make their own media projects inspired by the exhibition How Cats Took Over the Internet. Activities include making a cat in space animation, designing your own cat celebrity, and more.


iManage solves the administrative problems every service business faces: assigning and tracking jobs; keeping track of field-based staff and engineers; keeping an eye on the financials and dealing with the essential paperwork, stock and accounting. In one, easy to use application. No payment needed, 14-day free trial – Download the Job Sheet app for iOS | iPhone, iPad via the apple store.
iManage the company comprises a small, Midlands team of acknowledged industry experts with a rich heritage of software design and coding. We hold multiple accreditations that confirm our industry-leading position in graphic design, web design, mobile app development (for both iOS and Android devices) and e-commerce software solutions.
Based in the heart of England we are well placed to meet with clients to discuss their particular needs. And for those further afield we're very well connected to provide web conferences and remote software demonstrations. Each of us at iManage has pride in the close relationships that we have developed and continue to maintain with our customers.


Looking for Hotpoint at Abbotsford Appliance in Abbotsford, WI?
Abbotsford Appliance in Abbotsford, WI is an authorized dealer of Hotpoint Products. Hotpoint has been around since 1918 and has launched many appliance industry firsts such as the first all-white, fully enameled electric range, electric "moistureless" clothes dryer, refrigerator on wheels. They also introduced the first 90 Day Replacement Guarantee of Satisfaction that allows any customer who is not satisfied with the performance of a Hotpoint appliance to replace it with a comparable model. They also brought in the first low-speed agitation clothes washer making it possible to machine wash clothing such as delicate lingerie, synthetics and cashmere sweaters which previously had to be washed by hand.
So if you are looking for Hotpoint products in Abbotsford, or if you have any questions about Hotpoint products, please feel free to call us at (715) 223-3334 or simply stop by Abbotsford Appliance at any time and we would be glad to help you.


We provide internet marketing services for Owensboro businesses. By leveraging our years of expertise we can show you how to take advantage of the latest in internet marking opportunities.
Anyone can do their own marketing. It comes down to how much time do you have to learn what works, what doesn't, and can you afford to take time to learn a new profession and not focus on your business and customers. By reviewing these strategies, deciding which are important for your site and prioritizing their execution you can build a successful internet marketing campaign. It takes a multitude of skills and a deep understanding of the following for an internet marketing campaign to be successful.
Also referred to as pay per click, SEM campaigns can be set up to quickly target and drive traffic to your website. There are several options for PPC, with the largest being Google Ads. In addition there are other options for pay per click such as Facebook, Bing and Yahoo. There are tools that offer do-it-yourself paid advertising but the stats are clear, people generally do not see the results they want. The only sure fire way to see a clear return on your investment is to hire a professional pay per click agency. We are experts in the space with Google certified campaign managers that you can actually talk to! Call now to learn more!
Ready to take your online marketing campaigns to the next level? We can help with internet marketing services in Owensboro, KY . Call us to discuss today!


At the Tuesday evening, a shocking news came on the social media that Ajay Devgn's Helicopter got crashed near Mahabaleshwar. Ever since the news hit the social media it made a huge buzz and it got viral in seconds. But to let you know this news is totally fake and he is all healthy-wealthy.
Not only the news but his photos in which he can be seen injured also went viral on the social media that made his fans went crazy. However, these photos are also fake. Ajay is fit and fine and doing well with his life.


text:
Upcoming tax credits will disproportionately benefit high-income residents, experts say
High-income taxpayers could receive credits of more than $20,000 while a new estimate suggests low-income residents could see credits of just $9.
Piles of tax returns in a Department of Revenue facility in Chelsea. Kayana Szymczak / Boston Globe
By Ross Cristantiello
Nearly $3 billion in excess tax revenue is set to be returned to Massachusetts residents this fall, but there's a catch. Under a formula laid out in a 1980s tax cap law that has only been triggered once before, the amount of money residents receive could vary dramatically, perhaps by as much as $20,000. Now, experts are voicing concern that the payout would disproportionately favor the state's wealthiest residents.
In general, eligible taxpayers are expected to receive a credit amounting to approximately 13% of their Massachusetts personal income tax liability for Tax Year 2021. The state created an online tool for residents to calculate how much they can expect to receive.
The distribution of these rebates was triggered by historically-high levels of tax revenue collected by the state last fiscal year. Over the summer, officials announced a nearly $5 billion surplus, bolstered by the collection of nearly 21% more in tax revenue than the previous year.
This revenue exceeded the tax cap as laid out in a law known officially as Chapter 62F, leading State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump to determine in mid-September that this $2.9 Billion must be returned to taxpayers.
The question of how this money will be returned is causing concern. The tax cap law sets an artificial limit on how much tax revenue the state can collect, without taking into account the current needs of the state, according to a recent analysis from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. The law "in effect transfers to higher income households tax revenue paid by lower income households," Senior Policy Analyst Jason Wright said in the report, titled "62F Credits Benefit the Rich."
This declaration is based on the fact that 62F gives tax credits back to residents according to how much income tax they paid the year before.
But, according to Wright, non-income taxes like sales and gas taxes make up a higher share of the overall taxes paid by lower income residents. If a low-income family paid sales and gas taxes, but did not earn enough to avoid a "no-tax status," they would not receive a 62F credit. Low-income residents might also not receive a 62F credit if other low-income credits reduced the amount of income tax they owed to $0, according to Wright.
Through an analysis of data from the Department of Revenue, Wright determined that the 62F credits would disproportionately benefit higher income households.
His breakdown shows that households in the bottom 20% of earners would receive a credit of just $9 under 62F. Households falling into the top 0.57% of the state's income distribution, those earning more than $1 million per year, would receive 62F credits of more than $22,000, according to the analysis.
"We are giving millionaires the equivalent of a Rolex or more than a semester at UMass!" Wright said in the post.
Almost three quarters of the total credits that would be distributed would go to households in the top 20% of Massachusetts' income distribution, but less than 1% of the total credits would go to the bottom 20% of earners, Wright said. The average 62F credit would be $529, according to the report. Wright used data from 2018, the most recent available.
For residents to be eligible for these credits, they must have filed a 2021 state tax return on or before Oct. 17, 2022. Those that are eligible will receive their payments automatically, either as a check sent through the mail or in a direct deposit.
Taxpayers can calculate their credit by multiplying their previous year's income tax liability by a certain excess revenue percentage determined by Bump's office. State officials expect this to be 13%, but the percentage will be finalized in late October, after the tax return filing deadline.
The refunds are expected to be sent beginning in November, according to the Baker administration.
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text:
Floribama Shore renewed for Season 3: Everything you need to know
Tue Jun 11, 2019 at 4:26pm ET
By Tiffany Bailey
Season 3 of Floribama Shore is headed to MTV in the fall. Pic credit: MTV
Floribama Shore is headed back to MTV. The show was renewed for a third season and the news was just announced today.
At the end of Season 2, there were worries that Gus Smyrnios would not be open to returning for another season. He addressed the impact the show had on him and his family, leading to speculation that even if a renewal happened, he would not take part in it again.
However, it has been confirmed that all the houseguests will return to film Floribama Shore. This is exciting news because keeping the original cast is important, especially after viewers become invested in the reality stars' lives.
A post shared by MTV Floribama Shore (@floribamashore)
There is one big change though. Despite the name being Floribama Shore, the location will change. It will no longer be filmed in Panama City Beach, Florida. It was revealed that St. Petersburg, Florida will be the next place the roommates will turn up.
While the reason behind the location change hasn't been revealed, there are several plausible explanations. With Kortni's nightmare ex-boyfriend being in the vicinity and the trouble Aimee Hall found herself in last year, it is likely a new location will provide a fresh start.
A brand new season of Floribama Shore has viewers excited, especially given that some of the cast members have found significant others since Season 2 ended. In fact, Gus Smyrnios debuted his girlfriend around Easter and Aimee Hall has been flashing her man all over Instagram.
Kirk Medas also has someone he is seeing, which means at least three of the houseguests won't be set on hooking up with people they meet in bars — or, will they?
Floribama Shore is expected to return to MTV this fall.
More: Floribama Shore


Piping Systems | J.I. Landis | Welding & Mechanical, Inc.
Specialty Piping focuses on the design, fabrication, and installation of authenticate sanitary and high-purity process piping systems.
We deliver the highest level of quality and project efficiency through careful project planning, design and management.
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Now reading: Want to Be. in the Next Be. video?
To participate you need 4 things.
4. Be tech savvy enough to send us your video before the Monday 22nd October at 6pm (AEST) (all the instructions are below).
We don't want to give away too much, but in short, it's a video for any woman who has been abused, bullied, assaulted and overcome by any insane circumstances life has thrown at her. It will form a part of the release of our next bangle.
We want to show that there are SO MANY WOMEN out there who are standing for something more. And standing for the belief they THEY ARE ENOUGH - no matter what they've been through.
Well, if you're seeing this page - it means you've written to us because you're interested! So now we just need two short video clips from you with two different faces.
Please watch through each of these videos before you start filming! The timing of each video is listed. If your video doesn't follow these guidelines, we may not be able to use it!
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As I say in the video - morning, afternoon or early evening is the best time to film. You'll get the best natural light and look your best!
3. Avoid this 1 mistake people often make when filming (29 sec instructional video).
4. Film the TWO faces that we need. A stern / serious face and a happy / empowered face (2 min 15 sec instructional video).
Please remember we need you to shoot in Landscape format, making eye contact with the lens, from the shoulders up, with at least 2 - 4 seconds of each shot). 1 x stern / serious / sad shot and 1 x happy / empowered / smiling shot.
That email again is cb@bebangles.co. Thank you so much for participating!


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Where's the money?
Started by frantique , Dec 14 2006 12:13 AM
frantique
Member 2k
So, what are your thoughts about this?
This CBS news segment shows the Pentagon is unable to keep track of 25 percent of the money it spends, or about $2.3 trillion a year. No one knows what this money has been spent on; there are no records of it.
Despite this, defense spending has continually increased over the past few years, and few attempts have been made to ascertain where the "missing" money is, and accurate accounting alone could be used to reduce the military budget.
In all, $2.3 trillion comes to about $8,000 for every man, woman and child living in America.
YouTube.com - June 14, 2006
Edited by frantique, 14 December 2006 - 12:14 AM.
Malware Staff
It's the easiest way to fund the Illuminati
warriorscot
To me the obvious answer would be that the extra 25% goes to classified research and procurement projects as well as financing anything they want to keep "off the books" which is rather allot considering the blatant disregard of basic international laws like the Geneva convention.
Yes, that would be the most obvious answer. Most likely research, projects, and operations not disclosed to an oversight committee, or that some would consider not in the general publics interest to know of.
When you think of incidents like Iran-Contra, this would be an easy option to do under the table business.
Edited by sarahw, 15 December 2006 - 09:34 PM.
olderwhiskeynandfasterhorses
This isn't really relevent by why does the army need to use a missle that costs several million dollars do destroy an enemy tank that costs a few hundred thousand dollars?
To prevent loss of life, in order to destroy the tank more cheaply you would have to engage it with infantry or another tank which puts lives and equipment at risk and you would be surprised how much a infantryman costs to train let alone a squad of them and a tank and crew also cost allot more than you think a US tank that costs 4.3 million not to mention crew costs can just as easily be destroyed by a mine, or a cheap soviet tank or artillery gun, the missile starts to become cheaper. Missiles are expensive but they arent usually in the millions unless its a long range missile, the most advanced the RAF uses is only something like £400,000 a unit and they are brand new stealth cruise missiles they dont use them on tanks usually(at least not one).
You're normal anti tank weapon costs allot less than that, LAW,MILAN and TOW missiles are pretty cheap and aircraft mounted anti-tank weapons haven't changed much since the cold war and cost in the thousands or tens of thousands. You could maybe do cheaper with a warthog or apache their main guns are enough to kill a dozen tanks in a short order but they again cost allot of cash and personally they are very dangerous units to use as they rely on pilots who seemed to be trained in bulk in the US as fast as possible.
War aint cheap if you want to save lives and if you can engage an enemy from as far away as possible the better US forces rely heavily on technology and sheer numbers, and usually you want to destroy the enemy with the former rather than the latter.
luck4mike
the U.S is on the way to being the new roman empire
Nah, the romans had there good points too they brought large scale transport networks, sanitation and of course knowledge all across the world, they had bad points but nothing that wasnt normal at the time and they did allot more good for the world before they fell, Britian wouldn't be the country it is today without the roman influence which we really used after they left.
The US is an Empire(which i dont know how some of its citizens don't understand) but its nothing like the romans it has its own character like every empire does, its nothing like the British empire which was more like the roman one. The US empire differs in that A its so young and B its empire was handed to it on a plate unlike European and Asia empires the Americas were sparsely populated and there was very little organized resistance to the expansion of said empire and of course it was an entirely immigrant empire there really were almost no natives in the empire even now your average American is not of native descent which really gives it an entirely different character from other empires that were always built on existing bases of culture and history the people having been there already and often drew influence from a father nation that they based themselves on or were forced into. Rome was formed with a heavily Greek influence, which was forced into empire by the Persian empire. Although there is one thing for certain every empire is to varying degrees fatal to it predecessor.
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Shopping at the airport is an essential part of any international fashion week checklist.
Preparing for fashion week is not a one-step process. It begins at the open wardrobe and the empty suitcase, and it ends after indecision, trying coat after coat in a Sydney summer and imagining wearing them when you're not wilting, all the while running the phone battery low with unending weather checks of New York (forecast: -2, snow. When was I last that cold? Is a single pair of merino socks enough to stave off numb toes? Can I wear lace-up boots to a cocktail event? Are furry Gucci sling-backs okay in wet weather?). Happily, it ends at the sleek end of things: the airport.
Case zipped, enormous coats (and thermals) packed, there's time to mull the contents of my suitcase and mentally check it all off at Sydney Airport. Sliding up to departures and saying goodbyes, there's no better time to decompress and stretch the legs before boarding for JFK in one of my favourite places. Light-filled, it's a reminder of the sunny weather I'm leaving, but thankfully returning to in a week when fashion week is over. This is why I go straight to HEINEMANN Tax & Duty Free to stock up on gin and essentials like Penfolds, as well as Moët and Chandon to save for special occasions. They will hold it for your return, so when the jet lag kicks in on the home stretch, all you have to do is breeze by the collection point.
The same goes for Gucci and Burberry where, when shopping pre-flight and you hear the boarding call, you can place pieces on hold for a whole week before your flight and the only thing left to do is sleep on it, in-flight. The stores are an essential part of the checklist: if I've forgotten a scarf, coat or jumper for the New York snow, I can pick up elegant insulation at Max Mara, though usually, I'll be wearing one of their wool coats to save precious baggage space, or Hermès if you were in a particular mood to treat yourself.
Next, though I'm not a beauty expert, there are two essentials I'll add to a duty-free visit: Clarins HydraQuench and Kiehl's for the Ultra Facial Overnight Hydrating Masque that's a perfect fit for the night flight back from New York.
Lastly, is my book thick enough to last until LAX and beyond, during and – perhaps it's wishful thinking – the moments of downtime between shows, appointments and interviews in New York? There are so many newsagents with the top tier titles, an essential for a fashion writer, so I'll stock up with magazines and newspapers so I'm as up to date as you can be before crossing the International Date Line and leaving Wi-Fi behind for 24 hours. Then I've checked-in, checked-off and I'm ready. Lucky they prescribe three hours pre-departure for international flights, its worth arriving early for.


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Q: If I update to Mavericks, will I be able to boot from USB? running a late 2009 (5,5) Macbook Pro. I am currently unable to boot from liveUSB disks, but would really like to. I know that newer macs can do this (Macbook Air, new MBPs), but is it a hardware or a software thing? If I update to Mavericks, would I be able to do this on my machine?

A: It has nothing to do with the operating system. The update will not change your ability or inability to boot in any particular way.
The stage of the boot process you're talking about is handled by the firmware, not by the operating system.


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Short Reviews
November 08, 2007 Film | Movie Review
All the Pretty Carnage
Remorseless murder isn't all there is to No Country for Old Men, but it's all anyone seems to care about.
By Jonathan Rosenbaum @JonathanRosenba
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN s WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ETHAN AND JOEL COEN WITH TOMMY LEE JONES, JAVIER BARDEM, JOSH BROLIN, WOODY HARRELSON, KELLY MACDONALD, GARRET DILLAHUNT, AND TESS HARPER
The first thing we demand of a wall is that it shall stand up. If it stands up, it is a good wall, and the question of what purpose it serves is separable from that. And yet even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp. —George Orwell
I tend to get flustered when people ask me what I look for in movies, so I'm wary of theorizing too much about what other people want from them. Moviegoers generally seem to fall into one of two categories: those looking for experiences similar to ones they've already had and those looking for experiences that are new. Though I'm usually among the latter, I'm sometimes curious about why people return to certain pleasures, especially when I don't share their taste.
One reason I tend to dislike movies about psycho killers is that I can't respond to them with the devotion I feel is expected of me. I'm too distracted by the abundance of these characters on-screen when they rarely appear in real life, and by how popular they seem to become whenever we're fighting a war. What is it about them that people find so exciting? Reviewing The Silence of the Lambs over 16 years ago, I was troubled by the way the thriller tapped into "irrational, mythical impulses that ultimately seem more theological than psychological," and how critics who loved it seemed "better equipped to regurgitate the myth than to analyze it."
I was especially bemused by the ready acceptance of Hannibal Lecter's supernatural powers—his ability to convince a hostile prisoner in an adjoining cell to swallow his own tongue, for instance, or to know precisely when and where to reach Clarice, the movie's heroine, on the phone. Anthony Hopkins's Oscar-winning performance may be stark and commanding, but it wouldn't have counted for beans if the audience hadn't already been predisposed to accept this murderer as some sort of divine presence.
The waves of love that went out to Lecter, epitomized by the five top Oscars the movie received in 1992, were a mix of giggly fascination, twisted affection, and outright awe for his absolute lack of remorse. This was during the first gulf war, a time when we were grappling with our own feelings about killing masses of people on a daily basis. I suspect Lecter represented a savior of sorts, a saintlike holy psycho who made us feel less uneasy about wanton slaughter.
We may not feel the same kind of affection for the real psycho killers in our midst, but they do inspire similar fear, fascination, and mythologizing. Seung-Hui Cho was clearly crazy when he slaughtered 32 people at Virginia Tech last April, but he was also smart enough to know there was no question that if he sent a media kit off to the national press they'd use it. He might have had more power to get himself onto the cover of Newsweek than the editors would have had if they'd wanted to keep him off.
No Country for Old Men premiered at Cannes in May and was widely heralded as the festival's most sensational entry. When I saw it for the first time at the Toronto film festival in September, the only movie that gave it any competition in the popularity contest was Lars and the Real Girl. Adapted from what is generally considered a minor Cormac McCarthy novel, No Country for Old Men is a very well-made genre exercise, but I can't understand why it's been accorded so much importance, unless it's because it strokes some ideological impulse.
Much the same could be said of Lars and the Real Girl, a fantasy about communal life in a small town that the Reader's J.R. Jones has aptly described as "Capraesque," not to mention an evasive (and no less endearing) glossing over of disturbed sexuality (astutely unpacked in the New York Times by Manohla Dargis). As someone who grew up in a small town, I could certainly detect the falsity of the film's premise—that everybody cares about everybody else, fuckups included—while at the same time admiring the skill of the actors in putting it across. As for its popularity, I can only guess that it must be rooted in the rosy, highly sentimentalized picture it offers of human nature.
The picture of human nature in No Country for Old Men is by contrast so bleak I wonder if it must provide for some a reassuring explanation for our defeatism and apathy in the face of atrocity. I admire the creativity and storytelling craft of the Coen brothers, but I can't for the life of me figure out what use they think they're putting that creativity and craft to. As I left the screening in Toronto, all I could think was, "America sure loves its mass murderers." That conclusion was ratified by a line in the New York film festival's blurb for the movie: "Wearing an unforgettably frightening pageboy and toting a cattle stun gun that'll haunt your nightmares, Javier Bardem is Anton Chigurh, a psychopathic assassin of the highest order whose detachment is as shocking as the carnage photographed so gorgeously by DP Roger Deakins."
I hasten to add there's more to this grim, ambitious movie than a psychopathic assassin of the highest order whose carnage is gorgeously shot, though I seriously doubt it would be garnering so much enthusiasm without such perks. The intricate plot, set in rural Texas, involves three characters chasing after Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a lovable salt-of-the-earth type who stumbles upon $2 million and a mess of dead bodies in the wake of a blown drug deal in the desert. There's the narrator, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a melancholy sheriff nearing retirement who investigates the murders. There's Chigurh, an associate of the drug dealers who's bent on recovering the money and totally unconcerned with how many innocent people he wipes out in the process. (Recalling some of the stylish moves that made Pulp Fiction such a hit, he idly tortures some of his victims with arcane mind games before shooting them.) And finally there's Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), a hired gun who offers some comic relief.
This grisly thriller qualifies in some ways as a remake of the Coens' Fargo, with Bell and Moss jointly taking over the role of Frances McDormand's pregnant sheriff. Bell is the film's moral center, the law in the midst of greed and senseless death. Moss, already marked by his relative indifference to the suffering of a dying Mexican in the opening sequence, becomes lovable only during his affectionate banter with his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald). He's the character we're supposed to identify with, especially when he's trying to match wits with the psycho killer.
In the past, the Coens have gotten a lot of mileage out of ridiculing most country folk for their stupidity while singling out a chosen few for admiration. But here, in deference to the source material, the condescension is toned down considerably. They show off their narrative expertise by converting some of the sheriff's plaintive monologues into terse dialogue and even more in the way they juxtapose the separate movements of Moss and Chigurh, sketching out a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game with some of the primal impact of silent pictures.
What gives all of this a special kick is the way the killer commits murder without so much as a twitch, behavior we're clearly expected to regard with a certain amount of awe. Chigurh isn't an intellectual like Hannibal Lecter, and he lacks his cosmopolitan sense of humor, but he slays many more innocent people. And except for a stray line toward the end of the film, when he briefly alludes to his own birth being occasioned by blind chance, there isn't a trace of psychological speculation about what makes him tick—only a passing remark by Carson Wells that he operates according to a twisted moral code of his own.
Early in the film (and in the novel), Sheriff Bell recalls arresting a boy who killed a 14-year-old girl. Some people described it as a crime of passion, but Bell says the boy had wanted to kill someone for as long as he could remember, that he knew he was going to hell, and that he would kill again if he could. The story brings to mind the Misfit, a character in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" who randomly wipes out an entire family in a comparable act of nihilistic desperation.
In O'Connor's vision, perfectly captured in a mere 16 pages, the Misfit is an emblem of religious despair, but in the less considered genre mechanics of Cormac McCarthy and the Coens, religious despair is nothing more than an alibi for violence. It's invoked as a way of covering all the bases, tapping into fundamentalist fatalism without really buying into it. Bell's wounded sense of morality in the face of so much bloodshed frames the action, but one reason why I suspect some critics reject this device while embracing everything else is that they intuit how little conviction the Coens bring to it.
There's a certain cleverness in the way the Coens, after piling on the corpses in the opening sequences, elide some of Chigurh's actual murders toward the end, flattering the audience by suggesting they're sophisticated enough to imagine the gorgeous carnage all by themselves. They even manage to acknowledge briefly the relevance of all this mayhem to the present occupation of Iraq (albeit somewhat anachronistically, as the action is set in 1980). At one point, Bell ruefully reflects to a colleague, "It's just all-out war—there isn't any other word for it," and goes on to comment about the sad times we're living in, when some people even resort to senseless torture, making particular allusion to Abu Ghraib by mentioning a torturer placing a dog collar around the neck of one of his victims.
But just because the Coens are hip enough to know the contemporary audience they're addressing doesn't mean they have anything to say we don't already know, about Abu Ghraib or anything else. What I suspect they're really offering us is a convenient cop-out: we can allow dog collars to be used even while we hypocritically shake our heads at the sadness of it all.v
For more on movies, see our blog On Film at chicagoreader.com.
More Movie Review »
Tags: Movie Review
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The article that helped implement my long-standing desire to deconstruct the movie industry's received wisdom
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The country's filmmaking history is nearly as old and as varied as that of cinema itself.
Frank Zappa was so left, he was right 4
A documentary profile of the avant-garage musician reveals his political conservatism.
By J.R. Jones | 07.07.16
Movie Critic's Choice
The Turin Horse 4
Hungarian master Bela Tarr goes riding off into the sunset
By Ignatiy Vishnevetsky | 12.01.11