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Guest Post – Prep for Poker Night
Written and directed by Greg Francis, Poker Night promises to mix the detective and horror genres in a whole new way with a large cast of recognizable names including Ron Perlman, Giancarlo Esposito, and Beau Mirchoff. Francis's other work is dedicated to the detective and horror genres in various tangential projects, but we've seemingly got a lot to expect from his newest venture into a hybrid of the two.
We're all familiar with poker scenes in movies. In the good ol' Wild West, they indefinitely ended in guns blazing and death faces with the iconic tongue-out-of-the-mouth, ultra-cheesy look. But how do you handle a poker game in which the stakes turn out to be life and death? In the case of Poker Night, the protagonist is caught up in a life-or-death situation while matching wits with a sadistic killer who's bent on ruining the protagonist's new occupation to settle an old score with one of the protagonist's colleagues.
In the film, leading man Beau Mirchoff as Stan Jeter has just signed on with Indiana's Warsaw Police. As a rite of passage into the role, Jeter joins a poker game with the highest-ranking cops around and hears about the ups and downs of their careers.
Once the game is over, things do not go well for Jeter. He gets abducted by a psychopath, who locks Jeter in a basement. Escaping proves not to be his first priority, though. It turns out that he finds his girlfriend Amy there. Using the tips he received from poker night, Jeter finds himself tasked with not only saving himself but saving Amy and taking in—or taking out—the serial killer in one fell swoop. Hard first day on the job!
Poker is a popular catalyst in films that follow the trend of a life-or-death gamble. Perhaps we can attribute this trope to the woes of gambling addiction and those Wild West killing sprees linked to the extreme stakes placed on any given game.
However, poker is hardly the only gambling-related game that stars in the movies, and bets come in all sizes. 21 featured counting cards in blackjack, The Gambler (based on a Dostoevsky novel) is really just about a guy who gambles in all games possible, and Vegas Vacation is loaded with more fallout from bets and vested interest.
Poker Night has an interesting take on those topics, in its weaving knowledge and understanding on a darker level into the inner workings of the game. It will be interesting to see if we can match card hands and physical moves by Mirchoff and the killer in the film. For example, will they play per the basics of Texas Hold'em? Or will they throw caution to the wind, so to speak, and take on something like Omaha?
It's likely they'll go the way of Texas Hold'em, if not only for its popularity but also for its action. Betfair's poker site highlights the latter quality by noting here that Hold'em is "one of the simplest, most action-packed and prestigious of all the poker variants." It's also described as being one of the "best poker experiences available," which leads me to believe it could make for some great cinema. Either way, it should please both horror and poker fans alike.
There is no secure distribution for the film just yet, so don't expect to see it on the silver screen just yet. Yet, there seems to be hope with names like Mirchoff, Perlman, and Esposito attached. To that end, you can be sure that even if the film hits as a B-crime flick, the movie will surely be worth your time.
This is a guest post by Ron Johnson, a freelance movie writer with a special place in his heart for old Westerns along with the work of Mel Brooks. As you can probably guess, Blazing Saddles is his favorite film of all time.
Posted on 2014.13.June, in Guest Bloggers, Horror and tagged beau mmirchoff, blazing saddles, giancarlo esposito, go Ron Perlman!, greg francis, horror movies, I <3 Ron Perlman, poker games getting out of hand - what?, poker movies, poker night, ron perlman, Ron Perlman is a rock star, this looks like fun, wild west. Bookmark the permalink. 15 Comments.
Hey – Thanks for the write up about the movie! We finally have a release date. Poker Night is coming out on 12/5 on VOD and in theaters 12/19. Hope you like it!


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Though the years, I have written numerous articles about George Soros. I have called him the most evil man on our planet.
In a mini tantrum, Soros is now whining and saying these words:
"What Could go wrong, has gone wrong." Are we to believe him? Or is it a ploy to catch us off balance? I'm not quite sure.
Soros's dream of the One World Government coming to fruition in his lifetime was interrupted by the election of Donald Trump. Soros counted on a Hillary victory.
I will place my articles about this man for those who have not read them:
George Soros: The EU Must Regulate the Social Media to Crush Populism
ISIS, Antifa, George Soros and Hitler
George Soros, A College Student, A College Professor and Political Correctness Gone Wild
The People of Europe Rise up Against George Soros
The Beginning of the End for George Soros: It's About Time
The Face of Evil: George Soros Should Be on the FBI's Most Wanted List
George Soros: The Most Dangerous Man on the Planet
From dailycaller.com
George Soros recently lamented the rise of President Trump and anti-establishment parties across the globe, saying "everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong."
Soros made the comment in an interview with The Washington Post published Saturday. He also said that he did not expect Trump's election, saying, "Apparently, I was living in my own bubble."
The activist billionaire also made the bizarre claim that President Trump would be "willing to destroy the world."
Soros has become known for using his immense wealth to influence politics in the United States and around the world.
He pushes for liberal values, has supported refugee resettlement, and was a major supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016. – source
"There are many plans in a man's heart,
Nevertheless the Lord's counsel—that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21).
Brethren, make no mistake in thinking that the Globalists are done. The Lord is allowing this time for His own reasons. But we know that a NWO and One World Religion is in the future for our world.
We just don't know the timing of it. Our Lord certainly does.
Share the Gospel with all people you know are lost!
Shalom b'Yeshua

subset: commoncrawl


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It's been a while since I baked bread. I didn't see the need for that. I run out of jams, peanut and cashew butters (and didn't have the time and energy to make new ones), and my husband got tired of open-faced sandwiches for lunch… We just didn't need any bread anymore.
Last week, though, I couldn't stop thinking about warm, crunchy french bread. It felt like I am pregnant again. I just HAD to have a few slices.
So there I was making use of my lovely friend – the bread maker.
I made this bread countless times and when I tried to make those cute cuts on top of each loaf I would always destroy the loaf before it went to the oven.
Normally every single recipe I followed said you make those cuts right before putting the bread to the oven and after the last resting period. Every time I did that my already formed loaves went flat and the bread would coma out as a flat and wet inside bread. Not tasty at all. So finally I stopped trying to make those cuts and always had bread without them.
This time I made those cuts right after I shaped the loaves and before leaving them to rest for 40 (to 60) minutes. IT WORKED!!!
The bread came out not only tasting delicious but finally looking great and just like the store-bought 🙂
1 1/4 cup room temperature water*
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 bread flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast, (1 package)
1/4 cup chia seeds
* this is recipe for bread maker if you don't have one follow the recipe and direction from here.
Put ingredients into a bread maker in order as listed above (except chia seeds). Set the bread maker on "dough". Add chia seeds during the second kneading.
When the dough is ready remove it from the bread maker. On a floured surface split the dough in two. Roll each half into an 7×10 rectangle. Roll the dough into a roll from the long end towards you. Pinch the ends together (it's ok if you skip that part)
Lightly grease (or layer with parchment paper) the baking sheet and place the two loaves on top. The seams should be facing down. With a sharp knife make diagonal slices across the top of the dough. Cover it and let rest for about 40 to 60 minutes.
During the last 10 minutes of resting preheat the oven to 425 F. .
Bake for 30 minutes. When you tap the bread it should sound hollow.
Enjoy! 🙂


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No one seems to know who owns 'Who Dat?'
By ALAN SAYRE
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS Who owns "Who Dat?"
Some T-shirt makers are asking that question after they were hit with cease-and-desist letters from the NFL demanding that they stop selling shirts with the traditional cheer of New Orleans Saints fans.
The National Football League says the shirts infringe on a legal trademark it owns. Separately, two brothers and longtime Saints fans claim they own the phrase, which was around before the long-downtrodden team's inception in 1966.
The league said yesterday it's not trying to exclude all uses of Who Dat and the fleur-de-lis logo just when either is used in combination with other Saints trademarks, like their fleur-de-lis logo and uniform designs.
The chant "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints" is often shortened to "Who Dat" on shirts and signs and has been a mainstay at the Superdome since the 1980s. Saints fans, still jubilant after the Saints' win over the Minnesota Vikings for their first Super Bowl appearance, have voiced their dismay on radio talk shows, blogs and Web site posts. Many say it's something that simply can't be owned.
"How can they put a trademark on something that's been around for 150 years?" said Robert Lauricella, a 50-year-old oil field sales representative. "Just because the Saints have made the Super Bowl, why does everybody have to make a buck?"
Shirts bearing the Saints cheer are big business as the team prepares for the big game against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami.
Lauren Thom, owner of the Fleurty Girl T-shirt shop in New Orleans, said Thursday that she recently received a letter from the NFL demanding that she quit selling "Who Dat" shirts.
"I don't mind paying royalties," Thom said. "I just don't know who owns 'Who Dat' or whether it's in the public domain."
The NFL doesn't cut much slack when it believes it owns a trademark. This case is no exception.
In an e-mail, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said the NFL has sent a handful of letters in the past year asking vendors to stop selling "Who Dat" merchandise. The unlicensed shirts led fans to believe the Saints endorsed the product, he said.
"This helps protect the local businesses that are selling legitimate Saints merchandise and also the local printers that are making the licensed Saints apparel," he said.
Meanwhile, WhoDat Inc., controlled by longtime Saints fans and brothers Sal and Steve Monistere, also claims rights to the phrase.
In 1983, Steve Monistere produced the song "Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Dem Saints" with Aaron Neville and several Saints players.
In a statement Thursday, WhoDat Inc. said that before that recording, there were no branded items with the motto. The brothers said the company has the only federal trademark for "Who Dat." Steve Monistere said he and his brother were at the Saints' first game in 1967 and have been fans through all the ups and downs mostly downs, of course.
Storyville shop co-owner Gabriel Harvey pulled his "Who Dat" shirts after getting letters from the NFL and WhoDat Inc.
"It seems unclear who, if anyone, owns it," Harvey said. "A lot of people believe it belongs to the city and the people."
Two members of Louisiana's congressional delegation Republican Sen. David Vitter and Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon took public umbrage at the NFL.
Vitter wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, urging the league to concede that "Who Dat" is in the public domain. Otherwise, Vitter said he will print and sell T-shirts with "WHO DAT say we can't print Who Dat!" on them.
"Please either drop your present ridiculous position or sue me," Vitter wrote.
Later yesterday, NFL vice president Jeffery Miller told Vitter in a letter that the league is narrowly targeting Who Dat products "only when those products contain or are advertised using other trademarks or identifiers of the Saints.
"This is consistent with steps the NFL has taken in the markets of the NFL's other 31 member clubs when infringements are identified," Miller said.
Melancon provided a link headed "No One Owns WHO DAT" on his Twitter page to a petition encouraging the NFL to back off.
The "Who Dat" chant's origins are somewhat murky. Some historians say it came about in the days of late 19th-century minstrel shows and later showed up in vaudeville routines. In 1937's "A Day at the Races," the Marx Brothers perform a number in blackface called "Who Dat Man."
"Who Dat" also is used in a 1938 MGM cartoon now seldom seen because of its racially offensive nature called "Swing Wedding," which featured frog caricatures of black entertainers such as Ethel Waters, the Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway.
It's been yelled at high school and college games, and fans of the Cincinnati Bengals are known to chant "Who Dey?"
Glenn Lunney, a Tulane University Law School professor specializing in intellectual property, said a trademark is different from a copyright or patent and doesn't necessarily have to be original. For example, computer and iPod manufacturer Apple trademarked the familiar, centuries-old fruit, he said.
"You can take a word and by applying it to goods or services get people to think about your goods or services," and get commercial rights, he said.


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Rumor now confirmed.
Pope John Paul II will be canonized.
VATICAN CITY — The late Pope John Paul II will be made a saint, the Vatican said on Friday, announcing that Pope Francis had approved a second miracle attributed to the Polish pontiff, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.
The Vatican said Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the Second Vatican Council – which enacted sweeping reforms to modernize the Church – would also be made a saint.
No dates for the canonization ceremonies were immediately given but the Vatican said they were expected by the end of the year.
Faithful hold a poster of the late Pope John Paul II as Pope Francis leads a Pentecost vigil mass in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican Photo: Faithful hold a poster of the late Pope John Paul II
John Paul II in Chicago John Paul II in Chicago
Ads by Google
John Paul had already been credited with asking God to cure French nun Marie Simon-Pierre Normand of Parkinson's disease, which helped lead to his beatification in 2011, when he was declared a "blessed" of the Church.
Two confirmed miracles are usually required under Vatican rules for the declaration of a saint.
The second miracle attributed to John Paul's intercession is the inexplicable curing of a woman from Costa Rica who prayed to him for help with her medical condition on the day of his beatification. Details of that miracle were due to be announced in Costa Rica on Friday.
In the case of Pope John XXIII, who was known as the "good pope", Francis waved the customary rules which require a second miracle after beatification, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. John XXIII was beatified in 2000.


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Speaking of WordPress Themes in 2012, the new WordPress default theme for this year is in da hizzous.
For the 3.4 release cycle the core WordPress team is trying something new: assigning small teams to tackle various parts of the release. The Twenty Twelve team is Matt Mullenweg (Holder of the Keys and Grand Master Themengineer), Drew Strojny (Designer and Minimalist), and Lance Willett (Thematurge).
Want to keep tabs on this new default WordPress theme? Follow development updates on WordPress Development Updates and in Trac: Twenty Twelve ticket and Bundled Themes.
We're super excited to see it land in WordPress trunk and start taking shape.


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How To Chiffonade Fresh Basil Leaves
Chiffonade is a very pretty word for the very simple process of slicing basil or any other delicate herb into very thin ribbons. The word sounds as light and airy as the spirals of basil themselves. A chiffonade of basil is also an easy way to add a bright touch of green — and the fresh taste of basil — to your spring and summer dishes. If this is technique is unfamiliar to you, this guide will take you through each step.
Here's all you need to know about making a chiffonade of basil: stack, roll, slice. Stack the leaves on top of each other, gently roll them into a cigar, and then use a sharp knife to slice them into thin ribbons. Nothing more than that!
When working with fresh basil in this manner, there are two things to keep in mind that will make your dishes both beautiful and flavorful:
Use a Sharp Knife
Basil bruises very easily. If your knife is dull, you tend to bruise the basil leaves and crush the edges rather than slice them cleanly. It's also harder to make the very thin ribbons of a chiffonade without a very sharp knife. So for beautiful, bright green ribbons of basil on your plate, definitely make sure your knife is sharp.
Add Fresh Basil to Finished Dishes
The oils that make basil leaves so deliciously aromatic are also very delicate. For this reason, it's almost always best to chiffonade the basil just before using it and then add basil at the very end of cooking — even waiting to sprinkle it over each plate just before serving. Basil is delicious raw and the residual heat from the dish is will wake up that wonderful basil aroma.
How to Chiffonade Fresh Basil Leaves
Nutritional Info
- Fresh basil leaves, any amount
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
Pick basil leaves: Pinch the stem of an individual leaf close to wear it joins to the main stem of the basil plant, which is healthier for the plant. You can trim the long stems off the leaves or leave them attached, as you prefer. Pick as many leaves as you need for your recipe.
Stack the leaves: Stack the basil leaves on top of each other. Stack them so the top of the leaf is down and the underside is facing up, so the leaves cup each other.
Roll the leaves into a cigar: Gently roll the leaves into a cigar. Hold the roll closed against the cutting board with your fingers curved.
Thinly slice the rolled basil leaves: Starting at one end of the roll of basil leaves, thinly slice the roll crosswise to create thin ribbons. If you're using a chef knife, it's easiest to leave the tip of the knife against the cutting board and slice the basil with a rocking motion, moving incrementally down the roll.
Continue slicing the entire roll: Continue slicing until the entire roll has been sliced into thin ribbons. Sprinkle the ribbons over finished dishes just before serving.
Recipe Notes
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My story has some real characters in it. This is them:
Me – Tracy. Thirty-two years old, married for four and a half, TTC for just as long with no luck. Small-town girl (livin' in a lonely world). West Michigan transplant to the Detroit suburbs (and recent transplant to the Toledo, Ohio area). Big fan of TV, books, and 90's alternative rock. And Tina Fey. And sexual innuendo. Christian. Not so great with the segues. Closet pet hoarder. No filter. Terminal case of Foot-in-Mouth Disease. Snark-mistress of my universe. Bow to the Snark!
The Husband – Alllllllmost thirty-three years old, married to me, in perfect reproductive health. It's the oven, folks, not the batter. City boy, born and raised in south (of) Detroit. Heh. Loves sports (well, watching sports…), video games that involve shooting people, and any other activity that requires a serious degree of reclining. Master Griller. Funny guy. Big fan of his alma mater, Michigan State University… so much so, that our wedding took place on the campus. We also had a Super Mario cake, but that's a story for another time…
Dr. McStabby – My acupuncturist-slash-Master of Oriental Medicine who specializes in fertility. He's amazing, and he also has some amazing success rates!
FertilityFriends/TTCBFF's – A group of amazing girls on a journey similar to mine. Met them when I joined a FertilityFriend chat group for women who were starting their first rounds of Clomid. We've remained a small, but close-knit group, and I couldn't imagine going through this journey without their wit and wisdom, patience and compassion. Proud to call them my friends.
The Parentals – My Mom and Dad. The most supportive parents you could ever ask for, no matter what you screw up. Still holding down the fort back in the homeland. Living small-town life every day, three hours away from here. Married thirty-one years, raised my brother and me the right way. Had another baby when I was seventeen, so now they have a teenage girl in the house when they were thisclose to retirement. I find this to be highly amusing, and somewhat comforting because hey–If my mom can have a baby when she's in her 40's, why not me? Although I hope it doesn't get to that point…
The In-Laws – The husband's parents. Fun, generous, and accepting. Everyone should have in-laws like this. Seriously. When they're not at the cottage on the lake, they're having fun being empty-nesters in the Toledo suburbs. The husband's sister, her husband, and their five kiddos live a few miles away, and his Gram lives just a mile or so from them. We relocated to the neighborhood in 2011, and it's been great so far! I miss my hometown, family and friends, but since this is the move we've committed to, I really couldn't ask for a better support system.
The West-Siders – My diverse group of West Michigan family and friends. There are a lot of them, and they've all helped support me on this journey in different ways and at different times… whether they know it or not. Most of them have families of their own now (and those who don't have little ones on the way!), so it's definitely harder to spend time together these days. Moving another hour further from them hasn't made things easier, but hopefully as their families become more portable, they will be able to come visit us once in a while too. I miss them every day.


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I constantly encounter both governments and companies claiming they have policies permitting or even favouring open source software. Yet there's still a huge amount of proprietary software being procured by them.
A policy alone is not enough. To implement it, legacy procurement rules have to be changed, especially in government. While these rules may provide both protection and value for procurement of products and services the enterprise has seen before, they typically discriminate against new approaches. Legacy procurement rules stifle innovation.
A common problem encountered during the procurement process is when the procurement department attempts to use legacy outlooks on copyrights. This can come in two flavours:
- Negotiating the license terms for the software
- Demanding assignment of rights for additions
Let's look at both of these in more detail.
Open Source Licenses Are Not Negotiable
Corporate legal advisers are used to conducting negotiations with others. These negotiations are by their very nature between their employer and another entity – bilateral negotiations, where the outcome is usefully understood as a truce between the two parties. So it's natural that when they encounter open source software as part of a procurement, they will attempt to use the normal approach; propose their standard terms for the software copyright license and then negotiate towards middle ground acceptable to both parties.
But this doesn't work when open source software is involved. The copyrights will typically belong to a diverse set of developers, and the open source license used to make those copyrights available to the community is non-negotiable for two reasons.
- First, because the entity from whom the procurement is sought will rarely own sufficient of the copyright to be entitled to vary the license.
- Second, because open source licenses gain that name by a rigorous process of scrutiny at the Open Source Initiative (OSI) followed by approval by the OSI Board, so changes for a single context will not be acceptable.
While the copyright licenses that a procurement department typically negotiates are bilateral, open source licenses are multilateral. They are best regarded not as a truce but as a constitution for the community, encapsulating the way it views the governance of the source code commons at its heart. If you find open source licenses involved in procurement negotiation activities, there is almost certainly something wrong.
It could be that the supplier is erroneously referring to the software as a deliverable of the contract, in which case it should be removed. It could be that the procurement department has too broad a scope for its rules and has not understood that open source procurement involves the purchase of a subscription to support, development and advice services rather than of a software license. If this is the case, the procurement rules need changing to recognise the new case that open source procurement presents.
Open Source Is Not Work For Hire
When a company buys contract services, it's not unreasonable to expect any copyright arising from the work to be the sole property of the company. As a consequence, standard contract terms usually include language that transfers ownership to the company. In many cases a transfer is not possible, so it's also common to see that language backed up by the grant of an exclusive, world-wide, perpetual license to the copyright.
But when purchasing a subscription for open source, it's a whole lot less reasonable. An open source subscription does involve delivery of a service level agreement, with assumptions of timely application of skills. But when those skills are applied to fix problems, the resulting code needs to be contributed to the free software commons that's at the heart of the open source community involved. If it's not, it won't be maintained and the fix will only be temporary.
It is in no-one's interest for new code that's written as part of a subscription to be assigned exclusively to one party. Demanding copyright assignment is not appropriate; instead, the procurement agreement should require that an open source license (that's one approved by OSI) is applied to all new code and that community rules are followed.
Legacy procurement rules that try to demand custom copyright licenses and the assignment of new copyright to your company could be costing you dearly. They could be preventing you getting the freedoms open source brings, and along with them the flexibility and control that will make you competitive. It's worth fixing the rules and gaining the freedoms.


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SDN (software defined networking) is generating a lot of buzz these days, but the technology will ultimately make itself useful in the enterprise largely because it will save enterprises time in deploying new applications, predicted Martin Casado, chief architect of networking at VMware.
Casado invented the OpenFlow protocol, one of the cornerstone technologies for SDN, and founded SDN company Nicira, which VMware purchased last year for US$1.26 billion. He spoke Wednesday at the Interop 2013 conference in Las Vegas.
[ Also on InfoWorld: Teach your router new tricks with DD-WRT. | Get expert networking how-to advice from InfoWorld's Networking Deep Dive PDF special report. | Subscribe to InfoWorld's Data Center newsletter to stay on top of the latest developments. ]
"We're really seeing a strong adoption in virtual networking. We're moving away from SDN as a science fiction and we're hitting an inflection point in the adoption of virtual networking across all sectors -- finance, large enterprise, telcos, service providers," Casado said, in an interview.
While pundits have predicted a bright future for SDN -- IDC expects the SDN market to swell to $3.7 billion by 2016 -- less has been said about why enterprises will feel it is imperative to deploy the technology. Only in the past year has the case for SDN become apparent, Casado argued.
In order to succeed, a new technology must solve a problem, or relieve a bottleneck of some sort, Casado said. He compared the potential rise of SDN to the core technology that originally made VMware a powerhouse.
VMware built its success on x86 server virtualization, and the killer application for that technology turned out to be server consolidation -- organizations found that they could save significant money by virtualizing their servers and aggregating them on fewer machines.
Casado remembers meeting VMware co-founder Mendel Rosenblum shortly after VMware's launch -- they both taught at Stanford University. Casado recalls that Rosenblum was convinced VMware had a great technology, but wasn't yet sure how it would be used. It would take several years for VMware to understand that server virtualization would best be used for server consolidation.
In a similar manner, VMware has come to believe that SDN's killer application will be "reducing the time to provision IT," Casado said.
"While there are operational savings and capital savings, and they can be significant, the reason that people buy into SDN is that they want to reduce the amount of time it takes to deploy an application," Casado said. "Speed is the key."
Most enterprise IT project managers have, at one time or another, felt the frustration of having to wait days, weeks, or even months for their IT departments to provision the resources necessary to run a new application. Cloud computing offers the potential to reduce the time to wait for computational and storage resources, so the networking remains the sole bottleneck to fast deployment, Casado said.
Some of the networking chores involved in setting up a new application include assigning that application an Internet Protocol number or numbers, configuring the firewalls to recognize legitimate traffic going to that application, and setting up a VLAN that will partition off the application from others on the same network. The organization's access control list may need to be updated and a load balancer may have to be added as well. Lastly, all of these changes to the network must be logged.
The OpenFlow protocol, along with supporting SDN technologies, provides a way to decouple the control software from network switches and routers, setting the stage to automate, or at least expedite, many of these tasks.
In a blog entry posted Wednesday, Casado further expounded on the industry shift to SDN.
"In this architecture, software on the edge ... provides functionality that has typically been found in the network," Casado wrote. "As a result, this software is largely decoupled from the underlying physical network and can be run over any general purpose network hardware that provides IP connectivity."
One big, enthusiastic user of OpenFlow is Google. "We've invested in building our own OpenFlow routers and put them in our data centers," said Vint Cerf, during his keynote at the Usenix LISA (Large Installation System Administration) conference in San Diego last December. Cerf is a Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist, as well as the co-creator of the TCP protocol that is part of the Internet backbone.
With OpenFlow "you can do a very good job of managing where the flows go in your underlying transport system, so we are able to get very high percentage of utilization out of a optical fiber network," Cerf said.
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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The expectation that young women should be "sexy, but not sexual" –- or the Paris Paradox — isn't new. As the annual round of not-entirely-unjustified complaining about girls' Halloween costumes begins once more, the most popular solution seems to be one of the least helpful: urging young women to put their sexuality in temporary cold storage. If you want to be safe, we tell our girls, keep your desires (which we'd rather pretend you don't have in the first place) secret.
Writing in Australia's Daily Life, Clementine Ford laments the refusal to distinguish between the pressure on young girls to perform an inauthentic sexiness for others' benefit and the liberatory development of their own sexual selves. "It's impossible for some people to believe that girls can actually engage with their sexuality, can seek out sexual experiences willingly and responsibly and without risk of permanent psychological damage," she points out. Part of that disbelief comes from the suspicion that those who claim to support young women's sexual discovery are motivated either by the desire to sell them something or (worse still) to exploit teens' exaggerated erotic autonomy. No one wants to be labeled a predator; as Ford notes, "discussing it taps into that fear that others will think we're preoccupied with it." The safest tactic is to say nothing, or to join the chorus that wants young women to avoid being either sexy or sexual until they reach adulthood.
Ford makes a compelling case that we must empower teen girls to discover sexuality for themselves, starting by "encouraging and normalising young female masturbation." It's surely solid advice; even Oprah has famously embraced the vibrator as an ideal gift for a mother to give her adolescent daughter. Yet "encouraging" young girls to masturbate isn't without risk, either –- just not the risk imagined by anxious moralizers. We live in a perfectionist culture where, as Courtney Martin writes, girls tend to hear "you can be anything" as "you have to do everything."
For young perfectionists, opportunity has a nasty way of getting reframed as obligation. That's as true of self-pleasure as anything else; think of the notorious scene in Black Swan where Natalie Portman masturbates on instructions from her ballet director. The fact that she's alone (or thinks she is) as she touches herself in bed doesn't change the fact that she's getting herself off at least in part to please an authority figure. It's as clever an encapsulation of the perfectionist pleasure paradox as one could ask for.
The risk of masturbation becoming still another duty in the lives of anxious teen girls seems admittedly slight. (Though the pressure from boys to perform self-sex on Skype is not an unheard-of-phenomenon in girls' lives.) Orgasms are a hell of a lot more likely to reduce stress than to add to it. The real problem — what makes Ford's wise prescription still just out of reach for so many –- is a culture that still sees women's sexuality as something upon which men have a legitimate claim.
In teaching courses on sexuality, I've heard what's essentially the same anecdote from many female students. They tell stories -– usually from their high school years — of being asked by male friends if they masturbate. If they say "no," they're accused of lying; if they say "yes," they're almost invariably peppered with requests for explicit details of how they get themselves off. Some of these guys may be looking for reassurance that girls really are sexual creatures, but many seem to be trying to feed their own masturbatory fantasies. The assumption that Ford mentions –- that those who ask about young women's pleasure are pruriently preoccupied with it –- may not always be accurate, but it's at least partly grounded in the real experiences of many girls. Pleasure itself may not be dangerous, but talking about it in the wrong company can be.
Another aspect of the problem is the enduring myth that masturbation is a mere substitute for sex with another person. Normalizing self-pleasure as part of healthy adolescent development makes sense, but that entails more than a vibrator for one's 15th birthday. It requires ending the remarkably persistent stigma that masturbation is a sign of desperation, social ineptitude, or sexual insatiability. Reframing pleasure as responsible self-care is part of the answer, but so too is making it clear to men and boys that young women's horniness isn't a proclamation of sexual availability.
In a class discussion recently, one student recounted that when she had admitted to a male high school acquaintance that she had a vibrator, not only did he ask to see it, but he assumed that because she liked to have orgasms she'd automatically be interested in sex with him. "He was upset when I rejected him," my student said, "because he actually couldn't seem to understand how wanting to come in private didn't translate into a willingness to fuck all of my guy friends." For too many guys, women's sexual desire is something fungible, easily transferred from vibrator to dude to dude. This myth is at the heart of slut-shaming: in guy culture, women who don't confine their sexuality to one monogamous relationship with a man have a kind of democratic moral obligation to make their bodies available to every interested male party.
To say "I like sex, I just don't want to have it with you," is challenging for any young person trained to be a people pleaser. Much easier to pretend one isn't interested in sex at all than to explain why –- even though you have an admittedly healthy libido – you don't want to have sexy times with Trevor or Tyler or Timmy. Dealing with young men's sense of wounded, sulky entitlement can be exhausting if not genuinely dangerous. Many parents know this, which is why even the most progressive moms and dads may equate their daughters' sexual self-discovery with frightening vulnerability to pressure or coercion.
The answer, of course, isn't to treat girls' sexuality like the Ring of Doom, something that must be kept secret in order to be kept safe. As Ford writes, "we do our girls no favours by refusing to acknowledge the raw complexities of their own sexual desires." But helping girls own their own pleasure will take more than explicit encouragement to masturbate. It means teaching men of all ages, in no uncertain terms, that women's sexuality belongs to women. Just as we need to reiterate that sexy Halloween costumes and short skirts aren't an invitation to harassment, so too we need to remind our boys -– loudly and clearly -– that girls' interest in sex isn't an open invitation. Until we do that, the grim "policing" of young women's sexuality will continue.
Jezebel columnist Hugo Schwyzer teaches history and gender studies at Pasadena City College and is a nationally-known speaker on sex, masculinity, body image and beauty culture. He also blogs at his eponymous site. Follow him on Twitter: @hugoschwyzer.
Image by Jim Cooke, source photo via Michael Blea/Shutterstock


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Andover autistic boy gets global birthday wishes
By Dustin Luca, Eagle Tribune
Cathy Pearson wanted to make sure this birthday was different for her severely autistic son, Logan.
So after years of Logan's birthday passing without fanfare due to his disability, Pearson put a call out to friends and family to send birthday wishes to her son, who turned 12 on Feb. 24.
In a matter of days, cards and gifts started arriving at an alarming rate.
And not just from friends and family. The world answered the call, sending thousands of cards, as well as gifts and souvenirs, too.
One card contained a crisp $20 bill and a handwritten note, reading, "to be used only for ice cream. Enjoy." Another came with the words "Happy Birthday Logan" punched in braille and then rewritten in ink. Recently, a stranger sent along a card with a $100 gift card to Toys "R'' Us.
The Boston Police Department shipped a police academy shirt. A classroom from Tanzania sent a package of letters. Even Elmo forwarded an autographed picture.
The outpouring has been more than Pearson and her husband, James, could have ever fathomed for their oldest child, who is nonverbal and cognitively at the developmental level of an 18-month or 2-year-old.
James Pearson said due to the nature of Logan's disability, it's been hard to mark Logan's birthday like other children, including his two younger siblings. So over the years, as Logan's disability became more apparent, his family celebrated his birthday less and less.
"The expectation is you go to birthday parties and social events, and kids interact with each other," James Pearson said. "But because of his disability, he can't interact.
"It was just ... kind of a little bit of a bummer. And my wife, every year on his birthday, would feel sad about it. I'd feel sad, too, but not the same way a mom does."
In her initial post to friends and family via Facebook on Jan. 30, Cathy Pearson said she was already "feeling sick about losing another year where autism has my son — has his voice! Every year on his birthday, I close my bedroom door and bury my face into my pillow and cry."
"I guess everyone realizes that he doesn't understand anyways," she wrote. "This year, I want to stop feeling downright upset that my son is aging into a young man under a blanket of autism. I want to CELEBRATE him and ENJOY his day."
The Facebook post came equipped with permission from Cathy Pearson to share and pass it around. From there, "it ended up, really, getting re-posted beyond what she had expected to the point that it went viral."
As the post has made its way around the globe, including to autism support networks everywhere, well wishes by the hundreds from as far away as Japan and Tanzania have flooded the family's Lowell Street home.
"He has received, from one kid in Washington, a Jay Jay the Jet Plane play set. He has gotten a Slinky, Hot Wheels cars," James Pearson said. "Someone sent us an Australian flag — a full-size Australian flag. We also have an Australia magnet on our fridge now."
Bruce O'Connell, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, said he knew something was going on when the family's mail started bulking up beyond reason.
"After the first day, I was getting handfuls of cards," O'Connell said. "I didn't know who Logan was at the time and was curious who he was. I started getting envious. I don't get half these greetings."
Over time, handfuls of cards became totes of mail delivered daily with return addresses from around the country. Then, the mail started displaying international labels and stamps, too, O'Connell said.
James Pearson estimates Logan has received a couple thousand pieces of mail, with more arriving daily.
O'Connell wonders if the senders realize they are part of something global that has united people from all over the world.
"If someone sends something from Great Britain, do they know it's coming from Japan, too?" he said.
In addition to the birthday wishes for Logan, many people have also taken the opportunity to pass a message on to his parents.
"One of the ones that touched us the most was a woman who related to us that she, too, had a son with autism, and she had experienced the same kinds of feelings," James Pearson said. "She said, 'In honor of both my son and yours, I'm going to send Logan a birthday card every year.'"
The woman is not alone, with others pledging to continue sending Logan birthday cards annually, which his father said "will be exciting to see."
The experience has also led to a request from Autism Speaks for Cathy Pearson to start a blog and share "what it is like to raise a child so severely impacted with autism."
While the family recognizes that Logan likely doesn't understand the significance of the response he has sparked, they said they do. And they believe Logan realizes something special is occurring, too.
"We're at the point where we believe he understands more than we give him credit for. I know for sure he responds to us being excited," James Pearson said. "For that reason, we still want to do something for him."
So the family planned out to eat at one of Logan's favorite restaurants — Fuddruckers in North Andover.
But this was not to be like their past trips to the restaurant.
Logan and his family were escorted there by officers from the Andover, North Andover and Cambridge police departments, according to Andover Police Lt. Edward Guy. The police departments footed the bill for the family's meal as well.
That gesture and all the cards have done much to guarantee Logan will have the kind of birthday he deserves, his family says.
"The fact that this many people that we've never met before would take the time, and the energy, and the money for postage, and send a kid they don't know — in some cases across the world — a card for his birthday, to me, that's inspiring," James Pearson said. "It just amazes me that people will do that."


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I sometimes play a certain computer role-playing game (RPG). In this game, my character (whom I might name after myself but who does not otherwise resemble me) fights mythological creatures and collects handy items. In the end, I aim to have my character retrieve a powerful treasure from the place where it is kept.
If I choose, my character can choose to worship one of 18 available "gods". If my character kneels at an altar, prays to it, or sacrifices creatures, then the "god" I choose might give my character special abilities or better items.
I wonder if I may cause my character to worship a "god" while playing this computer game. What do you suspect is the answer?
What if I modify the source code of the game and rename all the "gods" to "Hashem"?
You may answer using logic. But please base your logic on rabbinic sources you've read or heard from. And please cite your sources.


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Memphis is known for its vibrant and colorful history in music and the arts. With this Memphis guide, people will find that there are several places to get away in Memphis without ever having to leave the city limits.
Many of the Memphis things to do are centered around the historical figures and events that took place in the city. Historical figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elvis Presley have strong ties to Memphis. An important part of American history can be learned at the National Civil Rights Museum and Lorraine Motel. The museum offers free admission to Tennessee residents, and documents the struggles, victories, and other significant events in civil and human rights. Celebrate the life and music of Elvis Presley at his home in Graceland, which includes tours of his mansion, garage, and other exhibits with Elvis memorabilia. Both are great Memphis deals because visitors will find free attractions at each destination.
The food in Memphis is as diverse as the people and the culture. One of the best things to do in Memphis is eat. One can never go wrong with a burger, and one of the best in Memphis can be found at Huey's. Year after year, Huey's has won this award for their Grand Daddy burger, which includes two all-beef patties topped with an onion ring and cheese. People can't live in or visit a southern city without tasting the best barbecue in town. Central BBQ has been deemed the best place to get barbecue and ribs by Memphis locals for more than a decade. For those looking for the tavern-type barbecue location, Neely's BBQ is the place to go. While there, try the succulent pulled-pork platter served with amazingly rich beans. Whether someone lives here or is just visiting, this guide to Memphis points people in the direction of a few of the city's locations that can't be missed.


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Here's a neat Instructable for significantly increasing the geek factor in your car's rear windshield, showing how to modify a Wi-Fi-detecting t-shirt into a Wi-Fi-detecting window decal. At some point in some traffic jam, you'll make a fellow nerd's day.
Starting with a novelty t-shirt that displays the strength of Wi-Fi signals in the area, an Instructable user lived up to his matching user name and license plate of "MacGeek" by hacking together this Wi-Fi detecting window decal.
While it may not be entirely useful for finding access points, except maybe to a laptop-wielding driver behind you in a serious bumper to bumper, it will definitely be useful for announcing your geek pride to your fellow drivers. [Instructables]


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If you've got an almost elegant Bluetooth headset that feels as un-silly as the Stone, how do you change it for the inevitable sequel? Make it smarter.
Jabra's Stone2 has more extensive voice controls, commands and features versus the original, like fully voice-powered calling, answering and ignoring. It's still $130, though it's exclusive to AT&T for the time being when it comes out on Nov. 21. [Jabra]


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You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter by Dr. Joe Dispenza is an excellent book!
And please don't be misled by the title term "placebo". This book is much more broad than how we often think of a placebo, i.e. in a medical/health-related context.
It addresses any and all situations you may encounter. Yes, anything! The book's clever subtitle "Making Your Mind Matter" might even be a better title, as it's all about consciousness as your mind being made into matter.
Corresponding to the division of its 2 sections, it's both informative and transformative, with impressive substance on both counts.
The first section (including the author's own story, which is just amazing) contains in-depth yet very well written (i.e. interesting and easy to understand) explanations of his concepts; both what they are and why they work.
It's extremely well researched, includes helpful diagrams, and is one of the best books I've seen on the subject of working at the most subtle levels of consciousness to powerfully effect change in the physical world.
I especially liked his chapter "The Quantum Mind". So often this type of information gets garbled or too complex upon explanation, but he does a beautiful job of describing the concepts, especially the ones that are relevant to his simple yet concentrated suggestion for applying the ideas.
He also does an excellent job of presenting all his ideas and experiences in a factual, believable manner. I so appreciate that it's not presented as some fringe or New Age idea that many would disregard even before investigating, but rather as the proven yet leading edge idea that it actually is. I'm personally eager for mainstream to get with it, and I think this book will be a great help toward that end.
The 2nd section is how to apply it.
It's a concise but powerful part of what he offers, in that it first prepares you for a guided "meditation" process which he then proceeds to provide word for word. I so appreciate that!
From the verbatim text he gives you, you can read it or record your own audio and immediately begin to practice it yourself. (You can purchase audio CDs of the meditations, but I went to his website and instantly downloaded an MP3 version. So much easier than creating it myself and well worth the reasonable price.)
For anyone familiar with what I call "Quantum Consciousness" technology (for lack of a standard term), this book will add a lot to both your understanding and practice. There are many ways to effectively practice QC, and this book adds elements that I hadn't thought of as integral to the practice. However, I've been using his meditation for several weeks now and find that although these elements may not be absolutely necessary, they do make it much more reliably powerful. I'm fully on-board with his suggestions for the time being.
One concept of QC that he repeatedly emphasizes is that your future doesn't need to be your past, so when your old patterns shift, you're beginning anew. You're not even having to heal anything, you're just letting that past go and literally beginning anew in the moment. He expertly guides you to explicitly let it go and open to a brand new future of your choosing.
My own ongoing sense with QC (including the method presented here) is that you are not so much fixing something, but actually replacing an old pattern of disease or disharmony with a new, more desirable pattern. And almost effortlessly!
His guided meditation is also very useful in helping you maneuver more deliberately and skillfully between pure consciousness and what you would like to manifest. I'm not sure this exact aspect is intentional but I find it fascinating and surely worth noticing.
My only quibble is that he sometimes uses the word "thought" for consciousness, and I think this can be confusing if not downright misleading. My experience is that the two are very different. (Are you familiar with Eckhart Tolle?!) Still, his explanations supersede this confusion, so I don't consider this a big problem.
It Works!
Last but not least, I want to report that I already have first-hand experience that what he teaches here works.
And it will amaze you.
I've used it successfully with a few different situations in my life, most recently with a back injury. After my first session with the back injury, I was stunned that it was significantly improved (like 80% better?), just in that one session! It was as if it had healed many days' worth in just that one hour. I felt like a new person, and as you'll learn, I actually was in many ways!
If I'm stunned after effectively practicing QC since 2007, you will be too. It was nothing short of phenomenal.
My husband has started using the meditation along with me for a chronic health issue he's had, and even without reading the book he's also noticed significant improvement.
Highly Recommended!
Get this book. Practice the suggestions he so thoughtfully packaged for you as a meditation at the end, and watch your life situation(s) improve. Spread the word and help humanity move forward. It's time we all embrace what's truly possible.
Many many thanks to you, Dr. Joe Dispenza. Your book is a priceless gift.
And thank you to Hay House for publishing this and offering it to me for review. I may not have even noticed this treasure otherwise.
Note: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for review purposes and this review reflects my honest evaluation.


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The American public knows it's downwardly mobile. What it doesn't know is what it can do to arrest, much less reverse, that trend.
The public's awareness of its plight was evident in the Allstate/National Journal poll released last Thursday. Half of the respondents – 49 percent – said that only the upper class could realistically expect to be able to pay for their children's college education. Another 46 percent said that only the upper class could realistically anticipate having enough money to cope with a health emergency or job loss, while 45 percent said that only the upper class should expect to be able to save enough to retire comfortably. Fully 59 percent said they were concerned about falling out of their current economic class over the next few years.
Clearly, the expectations of economic security and mobility that were widely shared by Americans in the decades after World War II have vanished, replaced by a pervasive economic anxiety. Anxiety, however, won't change anything. Neither will the majority of analyses of how we got into this fix, nor will most of the (relatively few) recommendations as to how we can get out of it.
Consider, for instance, the twin problems of wage stagnation and declining household income. According to former private equity banker and Obama administration official Steven Rattner, writing in the New York Times, "the lack of wage growth owes much to the continuing effects of globalization, a trend that has benefited the United States as a whole while hurting many workers." Good for America, apparently, but bad for Americans. Besides, he implies, who can do anything about globalization? It's as inexorable as the sunrise.
Not much grounds for anything but more anxiety in that kind of analysis. And there is yet another trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that the Obama administration is currently negotiating behind closed doors with nations whose wage rates are lower than ours. We'll surely be told that it's good for us, just as we were told during the selling of every other trade agreement that Congress ratified during the past two decades of wage stagnation.
One way to move from anxiety to action might be to demand that the administration come up with projections of the proposed accord's effect on domestic wages. If, as Rattner suggests and all evidence points to, globalization has led to a "lack of wage growth," just why is our government continuing to promote such agreements? The terms on which we globalize — who benefits, who gets clobbered — aren't as inexorable as the sunrise. The public might just alert Congress that it expects its representatives to look out for its interests.
Most American workers, however, are not in competition with their counterparts in Mexico and China — not if they work at Wal-Mart or McDonald's, on construction sites, at college campuses or behind the wheel of a truck. The downward pressure that globalization exerts on wages spills over to other sectors, but it's no more than a secondary cause for pervasive income stagnation.
The primary cause is that, with collective bargaining nearly as dead as the dodo (just 6.6 percent of private-sector workers belong to unions), there is no pressure on American employers to share their productivity gains with their workers in the form of higher wages. But there's considerable pressure to boost payouts to stockholders. The age of shareholder capitalism, most notably proclaimed by General Electric CEO Jack Welch in the early years of the Reagan presidency (while Welch was furiously off-shoring much of GE's manufacturing), has, like the age of globalization, also coincided with the age of wage stagnation.
But moving from a shareholder capitalism that has diminished most Americans' share of the national pie to a stakeholder capitalism that distributes a greater share of company revenue to the workers who produce it will require major changes to our political economy. It will require our remaining unions to organize millions of workers whom they won't enroll as members but who can nonetheless agitate for better pay and working conditions. It will require Congress, state legislatures and city councils to set the kind of wage standards — and not just minimum-wage standards — that workers once were able to win for themselves before the advent of shareholder capitalism. It will require the rebirth of the kind of economic left in the United States that gave us the New Deal and the four ensuing decades of broadly shared prosperity. Tall orders all, but the alternative is just more anxiety, and all its attendant pathologies.
Read more from Harold Meyerson's archive or follow him on Twitter.


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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nick Bonino and Corey Perry scored in the shootout while Viktor Fasth turned in a strong 32-save performance to give the Ducks a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena.
Bonino and Perry have been shootout aces on the ducks' successful 5-1 road trip as they improved to 11-2-1 with their fourth consecutive win. The two also scored in wins over St. Louis and Chicago.
Fasth allowed a shootout goal to Craig Smith but stopped David Legwand cold. Gabriel Bourque lost the puck on his try, clinching the win for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks.
In improving to 8-0 in his first eight starts, Fasth became the third goalie in NHL history to win his first eight decisions. It is the longest win streak by a netminder since Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury won nine in a row from Feb. 21-March 17, 2012.
The Ducks were whistled for a bench minor with just 27.2 seconds left but they're slowly improving penalty kill erased it. It then led to both teams making end-to-end rushes but unable to put together a point-blank chance.
Ryan Getzlaf appeared to have one after a Nashville turnover but he tried to get a pass to Perry instead and the play was broken up.
Legwand opened the scoring when he beat Fasth to a rebound that landed right in the crease area and put it between his pads before the goalie could secure the puck.
The Ducks continued to show their ability to respond after facing an early deficit. Matt Beleskey answered in the first with a goal for the second straight night as he beat Rinne with a one-timer off a nice feed by Perry from behind the net.
Nashville went up 2-1 when Shea Weber sent a wrist shot from far out over Fasth's outstretched glove and in off the crossbar for his first goal that ended a 14-game drought to open the season.
But Patrick Maroon picked a good time to score his first NHL goal in just his fourth career game. Kyle Palmieri fought through a check by Weber along the boards and threw the puck toward the net, where Maroon redirected the shot by Rinne.


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OogiMe provides unique ready-to-print 3D models for a 3D home printer. OogiMe digital designs are quality assured and have been tested to fit the requirements necessary for 3D home printing technology. All of this is designed to maximize user experience and ensure product satisfaction. With a click of a button, OogiMe enables anyone to become their own culinary merchandise manufacturer. Specializing in 3D printable models, OogiMe provides users with an innovative way to join the new industrial revolution with 3D printable models for private use.

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A few years ago, we predicted that the spread of DVRs was going to change advertising culture, as viewers gained the ability to jump past commercials and free themselves from scheduled broadcasting times. Now a new study from the University of Oregon has found that local news broadcasts are being infiltrated by advertising at around the same rate that DVR users skip ads.
The fact that DVRs allow viewers to skip adverts is seen as one of their biggest benefits by users, but advertisers—and the TV networks that depend on them—are not so happy. Ad buyers don't want to pay full price for slots that viewers will never see, and TV networks are going as far as asking fans not to watch timeshifted programs but instead watch them live, lest the show in question get canceled.
Since the economies we live in depend on consumer spending, those on the selling side of the equation need a way to get the message out regarding their new product, and if viewers aren't prepared to watch the adverts, then some other way of reaching them will be used. The researchers looked at 17 different TV stations in the US over a four-month period in 2004. The study, published in Electronic News, monitored 2 newscasts a month for each station and looked for instances where 'stealth adverts' crept into the news reporting. A stealth advert, according to Jim Upshaw, one of the authors of the report, is when a commercial message promoting a product is "cloaked in some other garment than a normal commercial."
Upshaw and his colleagues found that 90 percent of the newscasts contained at least one instance of stealth advertising, including product placement within stories or on the anchors' desks, and sponsored segments. Small-to-medium sized stations were more susceptible to the trend than those serving larger markets.
We've previously reported on the growing trend for product placement within TV shows, although these are usually at the network level. Since local TV stations make a lot of their revenue from selling ad slots during the nightly news broadcasts, their perceived fear of DVR-using audiences is evidently driving this move from selling advertising between news segments to selling it during those segments.
This isn't the first time that smaller news broadcasts have come under fire for presenting information to viewers under the guise of reporting when, in fact, they're promoting someone else's message. Last year the FCC rapped 77 different broadcasters' knuckles over the widespread use of video news releases, where video press releases were used on air and presented as news without being identified as such.


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[COMPLETED] Server Account Migration for Linux Shared Hosting - xl-banshee 184.108.40.206
Date : 22nd Jan 2017
Time: 08:00 AM MYT +0800
Maintenance Update:
The scheduled task has been completed.
Dear Valued Clients,
*** Only selected clients host under xl-banshee server will be affected and notify privately ***
Date: 16th Jan 2017 - 22nd Jan 2017
Weekday: 8:00PM - 6:00AM MYT (16 Jan - 20 Jan 2017)
Weekend: 12:00PM - 6:00AM MYT (21 Jan & 22 Jan 2017)
Effected Server : xl-banshee 22.214.171.124
Migration Description:
We will migrate selected accounts which is hosted under xl-banshee 18.104.22.168 to following servers :
msv61-sh-mauve 126.96.36.199
msv62-sh-silver 126.96.36.199
Migration Impact:
1. During the migration, your web site and email services might be slightly interrupted.
2. The IP Address of Web/FTP and Mail server will be changed upon the completion of the migration. New server IP shall applied once the account is successfully migrated to the new server.
3. Your cPanel login, FTP accounts and Email logins, and DNS IP will remain unchanged.
4. You are advised to keep a backup of your web site on your local terminal. You may generate the backup from your cPanel.
5. If you are using third party DNS, you are advised to update the A record to IP include in our notification after the migration has been done.
Please do not hesitate to contact us by creating a Helpdesk Ticket at https://support.exabytes.com.my if you have any enquiries regarding this server upgrade exercise. Thank You!
Best Regards,
Support Team
Technical Support Department


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Upon annexation, the City will assume maintenance responsibility for all non‐private roads, where property on both sides of the road are or will be within the City Limits. In the long‐term, Cibolo will assume responsibility for upgrade or reconstruction of your road.
Show All Answers
• Voting rights and representation
• Maintenance of public streets
• Regulation of land use and density through zoning
• Notifications of zoning/land use, density, or variance requests (as determined by distance).
• Code Enforcement
• Building quality standards and enforcement through inspections, especially for new houses and businesses
• Health code enforcement through restaurant inspections and employee food handler training
• Protection of natural resources from uncontrolled growth and development; regulation of development in the floodplain, and the effects of development on downstream flooding.
No, annexation does not affect property value. As improvements are made to properties, there may be a reevaluation and appraisal done at that point. Specific questions about your property valuation may be addressed to the Guadalupe County Appraisal District
When property is annexed into the City, a temporary Agricultural zoning classification is placed upon it until permanent zoning is applied. After annexation, a property owner may request a rezoning of their property. The rezoning process takes about two months and involves a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission and final action by the City Council. Additional information concerning the rezoning process is available from the Planning & Engineering Department.
Being in the city limits, your properties would be subject to land use controls, buffer zones and standards for development with oversight from city staff. Without these protections, anyone can build anything, anyway they like. This typically results in areas adjacent to high volume roadways, and high growth areas (such as most of the target areas for annexation), being targeted for projects that may not be desirable. These undesirable projects could include sexually oriented businesses, heavy industry or low quality housing projects.
Police and fire protection, emergency medical services (Cibolo contracts with the City of Schertz EMS), solid waste disposal (through City franchise provider – Republic Services cost approximately 50% less than other refuse collection providers), water and wastewater (for properties within the Cibolo service area), street maintenance and lighting, code enforcement, animal control, municipal court, parks and recreation, capital improvements, and general administration.
No, as long as your property continues to qualify for an agricultural exemption.
Note: City property taxes assessed will be levied in accordance with the standard process for agricultural exemptions for other jurisdictions property taxes. The City also honors all other county exemptions and tax freezes.
Taxes are calculated on property valuation. The City's current tax rate (FY-2019) is $0.4674 per $100 of property valuation. Based on the City's current tax rate, tax on a sample property valuation of $100,000 would be calculated as follows:
$100,000÷100 = $1,000 x .4674 = $467.40 City tax. It should be noted that the City tax rate is adopted annually and is subject to change.
Note: Properties with an Agricultural exemption will only be taxed on the taxable value – i.e. a property with an exemption may have a market value of $100,000, with a taxable assessed value of $1,500 after the qualifying agricultural exemption. The tax calculation will be as follows: $1,500 ÷ 100 = $15 x .4674 = $7.01 due in your annual taxes.
Property is appraised as of January 1st. Taxes are assessed in October and considered delinquent as of February of the following year. Note: The delay in property tax assessments and collections are related to State taxation laws and property appraisal processes.
State statute only allows tax abatements through a development agreement for economic development purposes or agricultural uses.
All existing exemptions on the property will remain on the property. These include qualifying agricultural exemption, homestead exemption, disabled veterans exemption, and tax freeze for persons over 65. If there is a qualifying exemption that has not been applied to the property, you may contact the Guadalupe County Appraisal District for assistance with the application process.
No. Easements acquired by the county and/or the state will remain in effect. Deed restrictions are not impacted by annexation and would continue to apply in the same manner as they currently apply to property. The city typically does not have the authority to enforce deed restrictions unless the city owns property that is subject to the same deed restrictions.
Yes, under Chapter 43.056 of the Texas Local Government Code, the City is required to provide most city services (police protection, fire protection, solid waste collection, operation and maintenance of roads and streets, and access to city-owned recreation facilities and parks) immediately upon annexation. The City is also required to prepare a service plan to provide for the extension of municipal services to the area being annexed. The City will strive to provide services at a level of service similar to that which the City currently extends to any other similarly situated areas already within the City (based generally on characteristics of topography, land use, and population density).
You are not required to access City water or sewer until such circumstances require you to make improvements to your well or septic system or until a water and/or wastewater connection is within reach of your property. The City of Cibolo is unique in that there are two water service providers in the area, City of Cibolo and Green Valley SUD.
A Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) gives a retail public utility the exclusive right to provide retail water and sewer utility service to an identified geographic area which our rules refer to as the "certificated service area". In Cibolo, both Green Valley SUD and City of Cibolo have CCN boundaries. Once you have located who your provider is, please contact that provider for more information on services available in your area.
City of Cibolo Animal Control Ordinance will apply to all newly annexed properties. The Animal Ordinance in Cibolo identifies livestock as any hoofed animal (solid or cloven). At the time of annexation, land owners have the option to petition City Council for a legal non-conforming use of land to be filed with the City of Cibolo. This would allow the continuation of your current lifestyle and protect those around you. This ordinance is located in the City of Cibolo Unified Development Code in Section 220.127.116.11.
No. Non‐conforming uses are allowed to remain unless they are partially destroyed (> 50% of the value of the building) or abandoned. If non‐conforming uses are destroyed or abandoned, any subsequent uses must conform to all applicable zoning regulations. The current structures and uses are grandfathered into Cibolo zoning regulations, regardless of an ag exemption.
Permits are generally required for all new construction, remodels, renovations or enlargements. Permits are also required for repairs or replacement of the parts of a building related to maintenance of structural integrity and systems related to mechanical, electrical, or plumbing. General maintenance projects such as painting, carpeting, wallpapering, replacing or adding cabinets, and trim work are considered cosmetic and do not require a permit. After annexation, the Building Permits & Inspections team with the City is a good resource for this question as they have FAQ's online.
Yes. If you have obtained a building permit from the County and you start construction prior to the expiration of the permit, you may proceed with your project as long as the permit is still valid.
No. The City does not anticipate address changes at this time.
This is called a "controlled burn" and yes you may as long as the county has not issued a "burn ban". There are control burn rules which is general for everyone (Outdoor Burning Rule, Title 30, Texas Administrative Code, Sections 111.201-221 for the general public.) You may obtain a free of charge permit for the on-site burning of residential and agricultural yard brush and tree limbs, garden debris, and waste plant growth only. You can apply for the permit by calling or stopping by Station #1 204 Loop 539 West 210- 858- 3296 or Fire Station #2 3864 Cibolo Valley Drive 210-858-3290. A site inspection is performed before permits are issued to ensure the proposed burn is in a safe location with a source of water. To check the latest burn ban information, call the Guadalupe County Fire Marshal's office at 830-303-8856.


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Pantry Staples delivery in Clayton
Gopuff has 500+ facilities delivering to 1000+ cities. Plus, we're opening new facilities all the time, and are bringing our on-demand delivery service to an area near you soon.
Pantry Staplesview all results
Daisy Pure & Natural Sour Cream 16oz$4.29
Nongshim Hot & Spicy Bowl Noodle Soup 3.03oz$1.89
Kraft Classic Ranch Dressing 8oz$3.79
Dear ranch dressing, you make eat vegetables actually enjoyable.
3ct Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle soup 3oz$3.48
Delicious and satisfying as is or tossed with your favorite ingredients & sauces, Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor is a reliable quick meal. Keep it in your pantry at home, your dorm, your car or your backpack when you travel, and hunger will never catch you by surprise. Make it your own by adding your favorite protein and some greens! Nissin Top Ramen is made with no added MSG.
Domino Pure Cane Granulated Sugar 1lb$3.49
You're going to bake so hard with this.
Philadelphia Original Cream Cheese Tub 8oz$4.99
Put it on your bagel, dip your veggies in it, glaze your cinnamon buns with it. With its mild, creamy flavor and soft spreadable texture, Philadelphia Cream Cheese is truly versatile. Have we mentioned cheesecake, a.k.a. the food of gods? Yup, you'll need cream cheese for that!
Heinz Original Tomato Ketchup 20oz$4.29
We've all got that one weird thing we add ketchup to... right?
Barilla Spaghetti Pasta 16oz$2.29
There are two different ways to cook this pasta - and how you do it says a lot about you. (A) There are the "break-in-half-ers" who break a bundle of spaghetti in half before they boil it so it's easier to eat. They tend to be more pragmatic, but not necessarily conservative. They like their pasta, but they know that it'll make a mess. Their favorite drink is a gin and tonic they have with their mom. (B) Then there are "full-cookers" - they live life on the edge, but it comes from a place of rebellion, not thrill-seeking. They're idealists who wish the world were different even if it's not. Their parents may have been "break-in-half-ers" but they know as well as anyone that out of respect for Italian tradition you have to eat the spaghetti whole. Which are you? Tell us more at @gopuff #twitterlife.
Van Holten's Big Papa Hearty Dill Pickle 1ct$2.29
Let us pick up your pickles for you.
Newman's Own All Natural Marinara 24oz$3.49
relationship status: pasta
Tostitos Medium Salsa con Queso Dip 15oz$4.66
Made with real Monterey jack cheese, diced tomatoes, red bell pepper, chili pepper and chopped jalapeños, Tostitos Salsa Con Queso is a velvety smooth dip with a little bit of a bite! Perfect for movie nights, family BBQs, study sessions and spontaneous parties. Grab your favorite Tostitos corn chips and snack away!
Nongshim Spicy Chicken Bowl Noodle Soup 3.03oz$1.89
JIF Creamy Peanut Butter 16oz$4.29
FYI: gif is pronounced like Jif Peanut Butter.
Maruchan Instant Lunch Chicken Flavored Ramen Noodle Soup 2.25oz$1.49
Tasty on their own or as part of a stir-fry, salad or soup, Maruchan Ramen Noodles are a great staple to keep at home. Try pairing ramen with chicken, shrimp, beef, tofu or roasted veggies and you'll be surprised by how versatile it can be.
Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup 10.75oz$2.49
Nutella Chocolate Hazelnut Spread 13oz$4.49
"Is it nuuuuutella or NUTella"
– Description submitted by @Jshiz93
Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle soup 3oz$1.29
Delicious and satisfying as is or tossed with your favorite ingredients & sauces, Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor is a reliable quick meal. Keep it in your pantry at home, your dorm, your car or your backpack when you travel, and hunger will never catch you by surprise. Make it your own by adding your favorite protein and some greens! Nissin Top Ramen is made with no added MSG.
Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese Dinner 7.25oz$2.49
Imported from your childhood. Chances are you'll be serving Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese Dinner to your kids but at the same time helping yourself to a spoonful or two. Don't worry, Kraft understands.
It's the same classic cheesy taste you know and love from your own childhood. So go ahead, dig in. Your kids may be the perfect age to enjoy the gooey, cheesy goodness--but remember: you were the first.
7.25 oz.
Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce 12oz$4.99
hot sauce in your bag, swag
General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal 12oz$5.99
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is made with whole grains for a well-rounded breakfast that all members of the family will love. Enjoy Cinnamon Toast Crunch with milk (don't forget to drink the Cinnamilk at the bottom of your bowl!), on its own or in a homemade snack mix.
Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix 18.3oz$1.99
Brownie edges or brownie middles - what's better?
Basically, Amazing Vegetable Oil 24oz$4.29
What makes it great:
- Vegetable oil made from soybeans
- Neutral cooking oil for use in baking, frying and roasting without an overpowering taste
- 0g Trans Fat Per Serving*
Good to know:
- Certified Kosher
Basically, if you're still reading this, it's more-than-ordinary vegetable oil at great value when you need it most. Brought to you by Gopuff.
*See nutrition information for fat and saturated fat content
Wesson Pure Vegetable Oil 24oz$4.99
If you count this towards your daily serving of veggies, we won't tell anyone.
Tostitos Medium Chunky Salsa 15.5oz$3.99
Ripe tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, garlic and just the right amount of heat! You might not want to share Tostitos Chunky Salsa Medium with anyone. Be safe—get a couple of jars!
Tostitos Mild Chunky Salsa 15.5oz$3.49
Pearl Milling Original Pancake Mix 16oz$3.29
Maruchan Instant Lunch Chicken Flavored Ramen Noodle Soup Bundle$3.99
Maruchan Instant Lunch Chicken Flavored Ramen Noodle Soup 2.25oz 3 ct
Post Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted 12oz$5.99
Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda 16oz$1.99
Post Fruity Pebbles Cereal 11oz$4.12
For half a century, Fruity Pebbles has been a family favorite. Naturally gluten-free, Fruity Pebbles is a crispy rice cereal with delicious fruity flavor and enriched with 11 essential vitamins and minerals. Have them with milk or add them to your snack mixes, rice crispy treats and baked goods. Perfect for kids and kids-at-heart alike!
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What is Gopuff?
Gopuff means instant needs – essentials, delivered in minutes right to your door.
Whether you need Tylenol, that one ingredient you didn't realize you were missing until halfway through cooking dinner, your visiting friend's favorite beer, or one of the other 4,000 products we stock across hundreds of locations, we'll get it to you within minutes, all at the press of a button.
That's what we call the magic of Gopuff.
I want to order! How does Gopuff work?
Create an account using the Gopuff app or online at www.gopuff.com, add everything you need to your cart, and check out. We accept credit and debit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Venmo.
Gopuff is free to download for iOS and Android devices through your app store or you can order online at www.gopuff.com.
It's that simple. Your order can be at your door in less time than it takes to finish the next episode of whatever you're binging.
Where does Gopuff deliver?
We operate hundreds of micro-fulfillment centers, delivering to customers in more than 1,000 cities across the U.S., U.K., and France, and we're growing every month. Enter your address at www.gopuff.com to see if we currently deliver to you.
What if you don't deliver in my city?
We're probably coming your way! Tweet us @gopuff where you'd like us to launch next, and chances are, we will.
How late is Gopuff deliver?
As late as you're up. We operate 24/7 in many markets, and are open late everywhere else.
Does Gopuff deliver alcohol?
For customers ages 21 and up in many, but not all markets, Gopuff offers delivery of alcoholic beverages like craft beer, hard seltzer, liquor, and a variety of wines. Check the app or order page and enter your address to confirm what products Gopuff delivers in your area.
Contactless delivery is not available for orders containing alcoholic beverages. Customers ordering alcoholic beverages must provide a valid ID at time of delivery.
How much does Gopuff cost?
Our delivery fee is as low as 3.95, and we don't surge or hike prices. (Yes, you read that right.)
An additional fee up to $2 will be added to all orders containing alcohol; this fee covers costs incurred to ensure compliant delivery of alcohol products and ID verification.
Does Gopuff have an order minimum?
All orders must be at least $10.95 for Gopuff delivery. Check the app or order page and enter your address to confirm your area's minimum.
Can you pay Gopuff with cash?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not currently accepting cash in many markets.
My credit card/payment was rejected. What should I do?
You can reach out to our Customer Service Help Center at help.gopuff.com. Someone will be available 24/7 to assist you.
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Orders processed with a credit card will be posted within 3 to 5 business days, so you should expect a full refund by then.
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Gopuff Fam is our membership service that offers a variety of perks and free delivery on all orders for just $5.95/month. Join Gopuff Fam!
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With Gopuff's reward program, Puff Points, customers earn points with each purchase. Earn enough and you'll unlock Rewards that can be redeemed for use on your next order. To check your Puff Points balance, visit your account page on our site or in the app.
What are some of the earning opportunities available at Gopuff?
Gopuff offers full-time and part-time employment opportunities, as well as independent contractor opportunities for delivery partners, in every market we serve. Both delivery partners and employees have the opportunity for professional advancement within a location as well as the chance to explore other areas within the business.
For those looking for flexible, independent work, delivery partners have the choice to deliver around their schedule, either on demand or by signing up for a pre-arranged delivery block. Do you want to read more? Visit the delivery partner experience page. If you're interested in becoming a delivery partner, visit the onboarding page to get started.
Or, if you're interested in joining the team as an employee in our field or corporate teams, you can learn more and apply on the careers page.
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If you do not see an answer to your question here, please visit our Customer Service Help Center at help.gopuff.com. We're available 24/7 to help out.


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One of the reasons I got involved with charities and volunteering is because it's a choice.
Memories were triggered for me today….
Once upon a time in college I did a lot of work with severe and profoundly handicapped children, affected mentally, physically and developmentally. The forgotten ones in our world, the ones who are often wards of the state, whose families have abandoned them because they can't take the pain or because their medical need for care is too great.
One of the medical facilities I volunteered in had designations on every bedroom door as to whether or not to resuscitate or try to save the young life that lived within. We walked into those rooms each time knowing that the child we worked with today might not be there tomorrow. And though we were officially there to help with physical and educational therapies, most of us knew we were also there to hopefully make a difference and help make the quality of life for one young living being a little better.
I thought for a time that I would go into that profession as a music therapist.
And then I watched nurses and professional after professional working with these kids, their pro hearts grown hard and cold. Because it's too painful to get too close and they had a job to do. They couldn't afford to break down. And so many no longer responded to the cries of the children when they were scared or in pain and there was little comfort from their caretakers. It's not that they were mean or anything, or that they provided less than excellent care. It's just that they had lost their ability to be soft inside. There were only a handful of professionals who seemed to have held on to their compassion. And it was far too few.
After witnessing it again and again, I finally realized that I couldn't do the work I was doing as a means to feed myself in life. I did not want to take a chance of becoming hardened and cold because years of a broken heart made me so and because it was my job. I didn't want to have to make ends meet in life this way.
So I chose a different path, the one of a volunteer.
As a volunteer, I know I can walk away at any time. I generally haven't been paid even when I organize events. But I *choose* to be there. I have no other reason or motivation to be there other than to serve. My next meal does not depend on the volunteer work I do. And though my heart may be broken again and again in service, and I may receive little thanks, my compassion remains intact.
It is often a path of tears, but it is also one of heart.


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The folks at Suzuki called recently and offered popularmechanics.com an opportunity to evaluate their new KingQuad 700 ATV. Not ones to turn down a road test offer--always in the interest of active journalism, of course--we took 'em up on it. As we worked out the details, though, we got the sense that they were a little concerned: "You have ridden a big-bore ATV before, right?" they kept asking. Well, no, we hadn't, only smaller ones with around 300cc of displacement. But we assured them that we would evaluate the KingQuad in the company of a more advanced rider who had been through the training course offered by Discover Today's ATV (a satellite organization of the Motorcycle Industry Council).
Coincidentally, the folks at Kawasaki also invited us around the same time to experience their new Brute Force 750 ATV on a 15,000-acre off-roading guest ranch near Cascade, Mont. But we'll get to that later.
First, we had to find a place to ride the KingQuad. We figured that the police here in New York City wouldn't take kindly to some overzealous magazine editors tearing up the Great Lawn in Central Park. Generosity prevailed, and PM contributing editor Fred Mackerodt allowed us to ride the Suzuki in a wooded area of his 214-acre horse farm about 2 hours north of Manhattan. Getting the KingQuad there required PM's long-term Nissan Titan pickup test truck and a lot of coordination with Rizzon Cycle in Middlesex, N.J., where we picked up and dropped off our ride. Thanks to all for their support.
More From Popular Mechanics
When we finally made it onto one of Mackerodt's private ATV trails, we unleashed the 695cc fuel-injected Single's prodigious torque (it feels powerful enough to be a Twin)--a little at a time. The KingQuad 700 does look intimidating at first, but if you respect it, it'll reward you with lots of fun riding. By the end of our session, we were attempting full-throttle power slides. The first things that became obvious to us were how easy it is for a novice rider to get comfortable with a big-bore ATV, and how convenient these modern mules are. The Quadmatic transmission shifts just like a car's from "R" to "N" to "H" to "L." Four-wheel drive is engaged with a simple button at the righthand grip. The amount of traction produced in 4wd mode is hard to believe. We took the 700 over a 3-ft.-high pile of timber as if it wasn't even there.
To have any kind of fun with throttle steer, though, you have to leave 'er in two-wheel drive. With a good stab of your right thumb and a little steering input, you can hang the tail out a fair amount. But the independent rear suspension is too compliant to toss the KingQuad into full opposite lock without a lot of practice and a place to tear up terrain while you're at it. Because we didn't want to totally trash Mackerodt's trail, we gave up after a few attempts for the camera.
If this Suzuki ever gets seriously stuck in a low-traction situation, the electrically locking front differential will come to the rescue. Of that we're sure. One of the tech's at Rizzon warned us to use it only if absolutely necessary, because "it'll spit you off in a second." Well, we tried it over logs, boulders, stumps and slippery leaves -- obviously all child's play for this diff. We found that the only effect was much harder steering. For 99 percent of the KingQuad's use, we predict that the differential lock will never be used. There's enough traction available in Low-gear 4wd. And talk about engine braking! Going down the steepest slopes, you just let go of the brakes and let the technology do the rest.
The tipsy feeling that all ATVs have on side slopes and in fast or tight turns is a relative thing. On the Suzuki, we simply had to get comfortable with its sport/utility attitude, and we discovered how effective body weight transfer is in a hurry. We never came close to tipping it. But just like everything else, ATVs are subject to the laws of physics. So if you do something stupid enough, you'll get hurt.
The only thing worth nitpicking on this ATV are the plastic foot shields. We call them shields, because they're not strong enough to support your toe or heel. On the KingQuad, you really have to be conscious of keeping the arches of your boots on the serrated foot pegs. This is in sharp contrast to the Kawasaki Brute Force, discussed on the next page. But overall, if you want to save about $400, the Suzuki ($7199 MSRP) matches the Kawasaki ($7599 MSRP) in all respects except outright sportiness. The KingQuad leans slightly more toward the utility side, but it can still cut a rug when it needs to.
SUZUKI LEFTHAND: The tiny gray override switch at the bottom kills the engine rev limiter in Reverse
SUZUKI RIGHTHAND: Swing the lever up to lock the front differential.
SUZUKI STORAGE: One feature of the KingQuad 700 that trumps Kawasaki's Brute Force 750 is the two watertight storage bins. This one's in the right front fender, the other hangs under the left side of the saddle (opposite the hot muffler). Also note the 12-volt power socket for your cell phone or portable coffee maker.
SUZUKI INSTRUMENTS: Everything you need reads out on the LCD.
Having weaned ourselves on the Suzuki for a day, our second opportunity to take on a big-bore ATV came a week later at Joe and Leslie Tripp's Bull Run Outfitting & Guest Ranch about a half-hour southwest of Great Falls, Mont. This is the only working livestock ranch that also offers off-road ATV and dirt bike vacations, as well as horseback riding, fishing, hunting and all the other stuff you might do on a ranch. It's an off-roader's playground with 20 sq. miles of terrain to explore.
The first thing we noticed about the Brute is that it's harder-edged than the Suzuki, much the same way that Kawasaki's street motorcycles are intentionally more raucous than Honda's, for example. And the 750's dual-carbureted 90° V-Twin pulls like a locomotive. The Kawasaki's exhaust note is quite a bit louder than the Suzuki's, as well. That's good because it sounds cool, but bad because most people don't have 20 sq. miles to ride on without disturbing the neighbors. To sum it up, the Brute Force 750 leans more toward sport than utility.
But one area in which the two are similar is their independent rear suspensions. You just can't toss out the tail the way you can with a solid-rear-axle ATV. For comparison, Tripp let us try his Kawasaki Prairie 650. It was way squirrelier at 55 mph on a gravel road than the Brute was. Part of the reason is that he replaced the Prairie's stock tires with superknobby aftermarket rubber. But still, if you're an ATV traditionalist the way Tripp is, you'll probably want to stick with the old tried-and-true technology. For us, the Brute was much more comfortable through his toughest ATV trail, which included 13 stream crossings.
Those stream crossings afforded us the only opportunity to try out the Kawasaki's variable front differential lock. You see, unlike the Suzuki's front diff -- which is either completely locked or open -- the Kawi's can be moderated with a lever on the left handlebar. That way, the rider feeds in only as much locking action as necessary to get unstuck from a nasty situation. We tried it on slippery wet boulders while coming out of the stream. Naturally, it worked like a charm. But frankly, 4wd Low would have done the trick, too. As we said, the amount of traction these ATV quads put down is unbelievable until you experience it for yourself. Then you're a believer.
The other two areas where the Kawasaki differs from the Suzuki are the shifter location and the footboards. On the Suzuki, you shift gears with a lefthand lever, on the Kawasaki a righthander. And unlike the required specific foot placement on the KingQuad, on the Brute Force you can position your boots anywhere on the floorboards, which are well-supported by metal bars in more than one place. That means if your Thor slips off the serrated footpeg in the heat of battle, you don't feel like your whole leg is going to plummet through the floorboard. This comes into play mostly when you land a jump off-balance.
KAWASAKI LEFTHAND: The yellow index-finger lever (slightly out of focus and blending into the background) engages the variable front differential lock.
KAWASAKI RIGHTHAND: Nothing special here, except an easily featherable thumb-controlled throttle.
KAWASAKI STORAGE: There's a matching net bin on the left front fender. We think the Suzuki KingQuad's key placement up on the console makes more sense.
KAWASAKI INSTRUMENTS: The battery in our digital camera was dying so we couldn't get this shot in focus. Still, the readouts are straightforward.