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By Walter Shawlee 2 | March 1, 2013 Send Feedback
Backlit panels and controls are a critical part of cockpit design because they enable equipment settings and control positions to be easily determined at night. The idea of projecting light through a panel or knob to make markings visible in the dark is an amazingly clever and simple concept, but it has a very complex physics package and rich history behind it.
Instruments and legends were initially illuminated in aircraft via post lights (tiny masked lights often fed through instrument mounting holes), or via small spot illuminators around the pilot's head or panel corners. Many tricks were employed; some quite ingenious, such as small UV floods and fluorescent paint markings, to get panel items to illuminate at night. Many of the pioneering early techniques were created and manufactured by Grimes in the 1930s, who also made external strobes, navigation lights and similar illumination inside and outside the aircraft. Grimes is now part of Honeywell, and these lighting products still live on, especially post and map lights.
Panel lamps and indicators, including the earliest "through-panel illuminators" and press-to-test types were mainly provided by Dialco, now called Dialight, and generally were built using ruggedized miniature T-1 ¾ midget flanged lamps like the ubiquitous 327 lamps from GE or Chicago Miniature Lamp (now CML Innovative Technologies). Many of these designs are incredibly sophisticated mechanically, such as dimmable press-to-test indicators, and remain in significant use in military and civil aircraft today. These individual cockpit indicators were eventually consolidated into warning panels and legend light assemblies by makers such as Korry (now Esterline), Master Specialties' Roto-Tellite (now Eaton) and Aerospace Optics, which pioneered the transition of these indicators to true sunlight readable and light emitting diode (LED) status indicators in very small spaces.
These indicators were complimented by the co-development of two important technologies, trans-illuminated knobs (knobs that light up to show their position), and backlit panels to allow the letting of the legends themselves to illuminate. Lighted panel technology has become very mature and is covered in detail in MIL-P-7788, later MIL-DTL-7788, along with a special standard for Night Vision Compliant panels, MIL-STD-3009. These two standards provide a wealth of useful information for the design and fabrication of lighted panels and general illumination.
Colors have changed considerably over the years. Initial night panel lighting was mainly red (which has the lowest impact on the eye's night vision externally). There is a famous story about red cockpit lighting that goes as follows: During World War II, British pilots had red cockpit lighting, and German pilots had white lighting. Because the red lighting had no impact on the British pilot's night vision, their accuracy during night bombing was very good, while the Germans had difficulty resolving landmarks in the dark. This simple design item had a major impact on crew effectiveness. If captured, British pilots were advised to say they ate a lot of carrots to account for their better night vision. Red illumination remains a favorite of infantry, maritime and vehicular designers today, when night vision goggle (NVG) compatibility is not required.
The red illumination eventually lead to "aviation blue-white" to allow all instrument colors to be correctly seen, and to emphasize red as a warning only in the cockpit area. ANVIS/Night Vision compatible green (A or B) is the most recent trend to permit compatibility with Night Vision Goggles to improve the external night vision of the flight crew. In the interim, manufacturers have used many lamp and LED techniques, often covering the entire range of red-yellow-green-white for backlighting and panel indicators as the mood suited them, and as LED technology advanced. The use of yellow and red has been strongly disapproved by FAA and Transport Canada for anything other than warning indications, so the general trend has now moved firmly to white (blue-white) and green for most cockpit and legend illumination.
It is worth noting that colors have specific cockpit meanings, and all designers should be aware of them. Red is for serious danger only (or as one Eurocopter staffer commented during a design meeting I attended, "land now, even if in a schoolyard") and yellow/amber is for alerts or cautions (land soon, but not in a schoolyard). Green is for normal status indication, blue or white for informational messages. Backlighting should be either aviation blue-white, (some special military tasks are still done in red to protect the eye's natural night vision), or genuinely compatible night-vision-system green. (Red and IR emission must be suppressed there, not a simple task, even with LEDs). There are no standards for any other colors of backlighting, and equipment with other methods will certainly not blend in well with other instruments and systems in the cockpit.
How do you know if your lighting is even close to being correct, either too bright or too dim or even working over the correct range? As luck would have it, there is a very inexpensive way to quickly test this. Common lighting busses are 28V, 14V and 5V. The full lighting bus (maximum intensity) is that full value, and typical night flying is 50 percent of that value. If you use the ubiquitous 327 lamp as a reference for 28V lighting (330 lamps for 14V and 328 for 5V), and slip a aviation blue white or other AMP/Hexseal Silikrome cover on it, you now have a highly reliable "standard" for illumination, and its intensity should track your system over the bus range.
Light intensity tracking is also a critical element, and on a 28V dimmer bus, full control and illumination is required below 9V, which is a common NVG setting. Care is required in the design of lighting, especially when LEDs are series-connected, to make certain that series LED strings do not abruptly cut off visually before this threshold. This is a very common design error in LED illuminated backlighting, when driven right from the dimmer bus.
Many companies offer turn-key panel backlighting services to design and fabricate lighted panels, such as Canada-based Anodyne Electronics Manufacturing (AEM); Astronics, of East Aurora, N.Y.; Korry (Esterline), of Everett, Wash.; IDD Aerospace, of Redmond, Wash.; and others, and they can provide full capability for you. They can also include illuminated keys and keypads, switches and displays as part of the complete design.
Many cockpit lighting applications do not require full blown mil-spec panel fabrication, and often the task you have is to simply make a few buttons, knobs or legends illuminate on a piece of avionics equipment, this is what we are going to examine here. In our test case, we want to make some panel indicators and legends light up, and perhaps the position of a level control.
Should we use lamps or LEDs? This is not a trivial question, and both techniques have their own perils and benefits. The origin of all cockpit lighting is incandescent lighting, so "standards" all mimic this performance, and it is useful to understand the implications of this method. "Aviation blue-white" lamp illumination is typically the same as the 6500-8000 K white LED range, slightly blue in tint, or cold-white.
First, lamps have one enormous advantage, they are SPHERICAL emitters, meaning light is emitted essentially in every direction. This makes flooding the back of a lighted panel very simple, and reflected light reaches all areas easily, especially if the panel is coated white on the inside surface for reflection. In contrast, all LEDs are CONICAL emitters, outputting a relatively small cone of light, all basically forward, with almost no side pattern emission at all. This distinction means LEDs usually must directly flood the specific legend to be lit, and very little light can be counted on to reflect and fill in any other areas. This is a major mechanical issue in the panel design. LEDs emit near-coherent light, with all radiation forward, and even special concave lens designs provide mediocre fill results when compared to lamps. LED light is also very difficult to diffuse, and optical surface techniques that work well with lamps, usually fail with LEDs when trying to make even legend illumination with a single source.
In addition, the LED's cone diameter of emission is directly proportional to the distance from the front surface (the farther away, the bigger the illuminated disk), so this means very little front area will be lit if panels with the standard 0.25 inch total thickness are made. Retracting the LED behind the front panel can offer a much wider lit area with the same number of LEDs, as even 0.1-inch of additional depth has a major impact on the flood diameter. In addition, many 3mm and 5mm conventional LEDs often have a black spot in the center when projected to a flat surface at short distances. This often shocks first time users, and has given rise to the term "dark-emitting diodes" in some circles.
Here's a great tool that is almost free for checking your planned backlight scheme:
1. Position a piece of common printer paper at the font surface height above your LED pcb array (about 0.2 inch), the exact (and usually very disappointing) flood illumination pattern will appear on the paper.
2. Move the paper up or down to see the immediate impact on height. Note that small wide angle chip LEDs can actually illuminate a bigger area than larger Topled cavity reflector style parts, simply because their thinner size puts them farther away from the projection surface.
LED intensity is often a mathematical game for device makers, they can provide very high intensity (>5,000 millicandela), but often over a very tiny angle, sometimes as narrow as 10 degrees. For backlighting you want the highest possible angle (>140 degrees), and good intensity (>400 millicandela) to allow operation at reasonable currents (<20mA). Nothing beats physical testing however, and be aware that LEDs are "binned" in groups, and you need to be sure both color and intensity work out for you in the bin value you select. White is especially problematic in this regard, and even with careful device selection, you will probably have to re-work any large arrays to remove the odd outlier part that is too dim or is the wrong tint in a finished array. It is not uncommon for a panel array to contain a hundred LEDs for full illumination, which can be done just as well with only 2-4 lamps.
Lamps have their own failings, for example, they shift orange and red as voltage is reduced, which is why color-correcting pale blue filters are often used to keep the cool white appearance. They also have limited shock resistance and operating life, so unless you have carefully selected your lamps, and de-rated them a bit, you can get very brief lifetime, some types as little as 1,000 hours. The ubiquitous 327 lamp is only rated for 4,000 hours at 28VDC. Here is where de-rating is critical, reducing the lamp voltage to just 94 percent of full rated voltage can double operating life, with only a 16 percent loss of intensity according to the Standard Handbook of Electronic Engineering. A small amount of protective circuitry (even just a series diode or two) can yield important lifespan benefits in the cockpit.
The 387 is the long-life version of the 327, offering 10,000 hours at the same voltage and current. There is a slight drop in brightness, 0.30mscp versus 0.34mscp (mean spherical candle power). One of my personal favorites for panel lighting design is the (CM)7387 lamp, basically the same 28V bulb in an easy to attach bi-pin base, but with an amazing 25,000 hours of life. And the price is almost identical. Highly recommended by me if you wish to use lamps in your design.
Lamps can be a nuisance for NVG operation, as they are massive red and infra-red emitter. Use of some type of (costly) ANVIS filter is usually required such as those from WAMCO or Korry, to block the unwanted emission, and change to color to green. Unfortunately, military ANVIS filters are ITAR restricted items, which can be a big logistical and legal problem for many manufacturers to control. Only dual use or civil designated materials used for the lamp conversion are easily used.
LEDs are often used to create "NVG Compatible" green backlighting, and usually fail miserably during acceptance testing. Why? It is not well understood, but almost all green LEDs (other than InGaN based designs) are still significant IR emitters, thus causing the LEDs to instantly fail ANVIS testing. Don't forget, NVG goggles amplify red-IR emission about 30-50,000 times, so what seems minor to you on the spec sheet is often catastrophic in final test. Supplemental IR and ANVIS filters can eliminate this easily if the correct emitters are selected.
Lighting those panel knobs is the final task. Only a few makers still offer them, and they are often hard to search for and locate, such as Korry (Esterline), and Electronic Hardware Corp. (EHC), of Farmingdale, N.Y. EHC has an especially wide range of small trans-illuminated control types that I often need.
Generally, the traditional way knobs (with a clear bottom) are backlit is to have a white island under the knob that is backlit from the lamp/led system below. This can be quite effective, and coupling efficiency into the knob bottom can be high as long as enough light can be projected to the white island. This can be hard to achieve with LEDs if the knob shaft is surrounded by mounting hardware at the chassis side, which precludes any LEDs from being fitted close to the shaft. Lamps can easily project into this area from far away, but not LEDs. Also, stacked or concentric knobs usually suffer from high coupling loss into the top knob because of physical obstructions. Beware of over-sized attachment hardware and set screws, as they can severely interfere with light propagation. I have been unpleasantly surprised to see how many serious optical errors exist in stock trans-illuminated designs. Always TEST any potential parts with the shaft present. Sometimes, you are just going to be very unhappy with the results.
Some knobs (slim pencil types), which may be pushed or pulled on and off, may pass right through the lighted panel, and are actually lighted by 90 degree reflected side light (horizontal light) from the panel. This works reasonably well with lamps, but is not especially good with forward facing LEDs. The use of special side LED or bottom flood knob designs may be required to get satisfactory lighting of this type of knob.
All of this technology lives behind the front panel surface itself, which is typically matte black, tan or gray, generally painted on top of a white underlay, and all made from a plexiglass/acrylic core. Don't forget that any white area intended to be illuminated must be translucent, not opaque. This is a common error made with polycarbonate overlay techniques, most overlay vendors will naturally use opaque inks, but it must be translucent white, or nothing will actually light up. It is also very important to insure that black areas are truly opaque black, and free of pinholes or thin areas. Double striking the black is a good practice to insure this. Painted panels are then laser etched, chemically etched or engraved to reveal the white illuminated surface below.
So, a few key things to keep in mind to get you to the result you want in your design:
1. Even "green" LEDs emit IR and red light, so be careful in NVG designs.
2. Series LED strings need to still work down to 9V (at 28V).
3. Use a suitable range incandescent lamp as a quick reference to check any LED designs.
4. Always check a design with a paper test sheet at the intended height first to see if your areas are correctly flooded.
These lighted designs are complicated to implement well, and some experimentation and adjustment will usually be needed to give the even and well-lit appearance you want. Don't be afraid to work with large series-parallel LED strings (which also have series resistors, and possibly diodes), they can work very well, and can give attractive illumination at low current if the parts are selected and spaced correctly. The panel of your equipment is all anyone usually sees, so it's worth that extra effort to make it memorable in the best possible way.
Walter Shawlee 2 is the president of Sphere Research Corp. in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, and a senior designer at Technisonic Industries. He can be reached at [email protected].
To see a complete archive of Walter Shawlee 2's System Design columns, visit www.aviationtoday.com/shawlee.


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There is a famous theological argument known as Pascal's Wager which, rather than making the usual appeals to morality and intuition, instead tries to show that believing in God and the afterlife is the logical, rational thing to do. While Pascal admitted that it is not always possible to "make yourself" believe in God (the Christian God, that is–what, you thought we were talking about some other God?), you should at least act as though you do until you are convinced. The core argument frames the question of whether one should be religious as a "wager" that you can't opt out of: even if God isn't likely to actually exist, the possibility of an infinite win (eternity in Heaven) justifies the merely finite cost of devoting yourself to religion–even if that cost is a lifetime of self-denial and asceticism. (This was back in the 1600s, when most folks thought getting into Heaven was really difficult and unpleasant, but the argument applies equally to anything a religion requires you to do that costs you time, effort, or money.) Sounds pretty impressive, huh? Let's go over the argument in a bit more detail–this time, with a few superficial modifications.
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Pascal's Wager
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This feature-length documentary is a portrait of eclipse chasers, people for whom solar eclipses - among nature's more spectacular phenomena – are a veritable obsession. The film follows 4 of them as they travel incredible distances to witness the last total eclipse of the millennium as it sweeps eastward across Europe to India. At various points along the way enthusiasts Alain Cirou in France, Paul Houde in Austria, Olivier Staiger in Germany and Debasis Sarkar in India offer their impressions of the historic event.
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Shadow Chasers, Jean Marc Larivière, Carlos Ferrand, Fadel Saleh & Eileen Thalenberg, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
This is a fantastic film, which describes all the technical aspects behind a solar eclipse. It is a must see for every person who loves sky watching. I am sure that this film shall take you to a new dimension, and teach you a lot about the beautiful natural phenomenon, the Total Solar Eclipse.Janmejoyslg, 9 Jul 2011


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Microsoft has taken the wraps off its new homegrown search engine, offering a search page with a Google-inspired, minimalist interface. Development of the new engine, begun after Microsoft decided not to buy or license other search technologies, seems to have taken place at a rather brisk pace, although its index is not yet on par with its competitors. You will recall that last Fall, rumors of negotiations between Microsoft and Google began to surface.
Along with the Search Technology Preview, as Microsoft is calling it, comes a revamped MSN web search tool. MSN's search is currently powered by Yahoo, but will no longer utilize Yahoo's paid inclusion program, where sites pay to be included in search results. In addition, paid-search results will be limited to three per page, giving noncommercial results a higher priority than they previously had. MSN plans to continue licensing Yahoo's search engine until its own search technology is ready for release.
The ability to search your hard drive, network, and the Internet has become a major area of focus for developers. Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have been locked in a search-engine rivalry for some time, which has Microsoft in the curious position of using one of their competitor's technology and paid listings at the present. For its part, Google is moving its search engine from the Internet to your Windows desktop with the development of a local computer search utility. Microsoft would rather have its users both on the desktop and World Wide Web use their own solution rather than Google's (or anyone else's) as the web search market is immensely valuable in its own right, and improved search capability will be a focal point of Longhorn once it ships.


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American Weathermakers is the top source for HVAC services in Itasca, Chicago
American Weathermakers has been a local business which services the homes of Itasca, a diverse neighborhood on Chicago's Northside, and they've continued to trust us to service their air conditioning and heating systems for over 60 years. American Weathermakers is not just a business; we are also a part of the local community. Our goal is to help homeowners make Itasca one of the best communities to live in the city.
With upwards of 10,000 people calling Itasca home, many residents know us by name since we've been the number one HVAC provider for their homes since 1949. In addition to air conditioning and heating repairs, we also assist homeowners with more advanced services for numerous other HVAC-related products, including:
Home Comfort Checkups – This is our most popular service we offer to our Itasca home owners. Getting regular Comfort Checkups ensures that your home's HVAC system is in good repair and is receiving regular, priority visits so you don't have surprising system failures or enormous repair bills.
Air Quality Control - Itasca homeowners can expect to get unsurpassed advice and highest-rated product brands for air filter replacements, upgrades and repairs and humidity control.
Sump Pump Maintenance - There is an increased potential for floods in homes that have basements. Since many Itasca homes do have a lower floor, steps should be taken in order to prevent against this common risk to your home. American Weathermakers can install, or if you already have a sump pump, improve upon your current system.
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Your heating and air cooling system is complex and is made up of many moving parts that all need to work in unison to adequately maintain your comfort, safety and health. When your HVAC system needs attention, not only for these featured products and services, call us. We promise to send a professional HVAC technician to your Itasca home that will pay attention to your concerns, evaluate your unique issues and provide you the most knowledgeable recommendations on how to solve the problem. Call us at (847) 509-7777 or contact us here to get service to your home in Itasca today!
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Review: Baahubali 2 is a spectacular achievement!
When S S Rajamouli's multilingual Baahubali came out in 2015, it generated a euphoria that surpassed conventional applause. Not only did its Amar Chitra Katha meets Middle-earth aesthetics give us a whopping, unbridled blockbuster, its cliffhanger climax regarding Katappa's motives … Continue reading
Posted in Columns & Reviews Tagged anushka shetty, baahubali, baahubali 2, baahubali: the conclusion, costume drama, epic, nassar, prabhas, ramya, rana daggubati, sathyaraj, ss rajamouli Leave a comment


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Time to Eat the Dogs logged its 100,000th view yesterday. It's only a matter of time now before TBS offers me a late-night show on exploration, but I want you to know that I'm not going to let it go to my head.
Let's face it: the biggest blogs rack up 100,000 views in a few hours. And the 100,000 number doesn't say anything about the viewers who found their way here through some horrible accident (such as searching for "naked men at sea" or "cooking squirrel").
Still, I'm happy. I started this blog because I was frustrated with the way people talk about exploration, or more precisely, the way they weren't talking about it.
While scholars from many fields study exploration, most of their discussions tend to be tightly confined. Debates unfold in the pages of poorly subscribed, peer-reviewed journals. And while academic communities talk past each other, they are also talking past the public: the thousands of people who are fascinated by exploration, who read articles and buy books on the Apollo missions, Christopher Columbus, Ernest Shackleton, and Lewis and Clark.
Blogging here has put me in touch with people from all of these different communities. And their feedback has influenced my work. It has changed scope of my projects and the way that I think about them.
So thanks for stopping by, offering suggestions, leaving comments.
Thanks too to the other bloggers who have given guidance and support: Ting & Tankar, Deep Sea News, Ether Wave Propaganda, World's Fair, Dispersal of Darwin, The Beagle Project, The Renaissance Mathematicus, and others.
You've made me a better scholar in the process.


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To date we have saved 1331 people from having to telephone or come to the surgery.
18% of patients are accessing services through our website. Thank you to our patients who are using the website to access information as this increases access for those patient groups that may not have access to the internet.
Please view all of the online requests you can send to the surgery.


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Iran appears to have recently published a Persian-language "Request for Information" (RFI) for an even-more filtered and monitored version of the Internet than what presently exists in the Islamic Republic. The RFI calls for "proper conditions for domestic experts in order to build a healthy Web and organize the current filtering situation," and lists a deadline of April 19, 2012.
The document, which was discovered on Monday by a Washington, DC-based Internet surveillance researcher, was posted to the website of the Research Institute for ICT in Tehran. The institute describes itself in English as the "mother consultant to the Ministry of ICT."
The document appears to be the latest step in what Iranian government officials have previously called the "halal Internet." The government has not yet explained precisely what they mean, nor what its technical capabilities are, nor when it would launch.
"Currently the matter of Internet cleanup is being done via filtering at the Internet gateways of our country, which has had its own set of problems," the RFI states, according to an English translation of the document.
Iran not likely cutting off Internet entirely
Collin Anderson, the researcher who found the document, said this RFI shows an unexpected shortcoming of the Iranian government to capitalize on its own domestic ability and recent deals with Chinese telecom companies such as Huawei and ZTE.
Huawai said late last year it was pulling out of Iran. ZTE, meanwhile, has previously sold millions of dollars of telecom and surveillance equipment to the Islamic Republic.
"I believe this clearly demonstrates that the Iranian government does not intend on cutting off access to the external Internet time soon," Anderson told Ars on Tuesday, explaining that the acquisition of a censorship system would not be necessary if Iran was trying to create a highly restricted whitelist or completely cut itself off from the Internet.
"This might suggest that the government has not been able to acquire the services of foreign companies for planning and optimizing an infrastructure," he added.
"This is surprising for those, including me, who believe that much of the censorship software and hardware was being developed internally. The RFI seems to imply the desire to move beyond blacklisting sites and keywords, to a more intelligent system of detecting and blocking 'immoral' content, such as pornographic or culturally offensive material."
The document requests bids between April 11 and April 19 to be sent directly to a "Mr. Farzin" at the Research Institute.
"The creation of a comprehensive Internet purifying system that works based on analysis of Web content is considered among the most important activities in this area and efforts must be made to cultivate domestic technologies," the RFI continues. "In addition to creating a domestic industry, among other goals of the institute are the purchase and acquisition of foreign technical knowledge and leveraging of the latest technology alongside domestic ones."
Revolution Guard network
Recently, the Islamic Republic has stepped up its rhetoric concerning the "clean" or "halal" Internet, while also recently launching a separate, closed, communications network for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's premier paramilitary force that deals with internal security.
"We are not in an imaginary state of threats or sanctions," said Revolutionary Guard Deputy Cmdr. Hossein Salami, in late March, according to a Monday article by the Associated Press.
The news agency also reported that the new closed communications system is called "Basir," or Perspective.
"Threats and sanctions are practically being enforced against us. Communications have changed the picture of the world including threats and wars," Salami said.
Defeating the "Electronic Curtain"
Other Iranian experts have suggested that this apparent ramping up of the halal Internet has come as a direct result of American efforts to pierce what President Barack Obama recently called an "electronic curtain" over Iran. Since 2010, the State Department has been heavily involved in funding "Internet freedom" efforts to bring unrestricted access to various parts of the world, including Iran.
"If you read some of the explanations that are given in various websites that are close to intelligence agencies, [and the Revolutionary Guard], the thing that comes up is that they emphasize the fact that the US has become a lot more active in Internet in communicating with various sectors of the Iranian society, and there is a need to respond to that now," Nader Entessar, the chair of the political science department at the University of South Alabama, told Ars on Tuesday.
Others, like Ehsan Norouzi, an Iranian tech journalist based in Germany, note that previous efforts to control the Iranian Internet have "never been successful," citing other pending projects that are unlikely to take off, like a national operating system, e-mail system, and search engine.
"They don't have enough logistics, talents, or experts to implement these ideas," he told Ars on Tuesday.
"It's not the only plan they've had," he added. "These kinds of ideas, after mentioning soft war and cyberwar, particularly in the Supreme Leader's speeches, have grown explosively [in recent years.] There were dozens of plans for cleansing or purifying, and increasing their control on cyberspace significantly. But the government has been successful in reducing the possibility of access in Iran, as few people have broadband access and that bandwidth is often restricted."
Listing image by Photograph by Jeremy Brooks


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Los Angeles County Launches Update to 'The Works' Mobile Application
Are you tired of seeing vehicles illegally parked on front lawns in your neighborhood? Frustrated by graffiti on public buildings, in local parks and at other landmarks? The County of Los Angeles has a solution for you. Today, the Department of Public Works launched an update to 'The Works' iPhone app to provide more solutions and expand functionality to three other County departments.
Initially launched in 2012, 'The Works' app enables constituents to connect with the County to request services and report possible violations. Residents can now interact with the Departments of Parks and Recreation, Public Health, and Regional Planning by:
- Requesting facility and trail maintenance at County parks, as well as reporting potential health and safety concerns
- Reporting potential public health violations at hotels, motels and apartments — such as unclear or cloudy pool water, broken pool gates or fences, and missing pool lights or drain covers
- Reporting possible property violations, including excessive vegetation, junk or trash; illegal parking; inoperable vehicles; occupied RVs; and improper signs or banners
Users can submit a detailed description of an issue and attach related site photos. While not required, users may provide contact information for additional follow-up. They are also able to see status updates to their request in real time when they subsequently access the app.The app targets users in the County unincorporated areas, as well as incorporated cities that contract with the County. The app is able to determine the appropriate agency based on the address or GPS coordinates. If a user requests a service that is handled by a local city they will be provided with a phone number at that city for further investigation.
For more information and to download the app, visit: http://dpw.lacounty.gov/theworks/


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In fact, How to Paint a Dead Man is about four artists, their stories told separately in alternating chapters and distinct voices. The chronology, while not linear in the book, spans a half-century; the range of age of the four as their stories are told is about the same. In addition to all four being artists (still-life, landscape, early impressionism and photography would be their respective styles), the stories are tenuously linked through correspondence, instruction and family relation. Perhaps more important, they are also linked by an overwhelming sense of impending or realized loss. For close to 80 per cent of this novel, I thought that Hall did an admirable job of both constructing these narrative streams and, in her own way, holding them together. She very effectively establishes and maintains a tension faced by individuals who devote their lives to creating works of art but now face an inescapable loss.
Translated from the Bottle Journals. My favorite of the four story lines, an elderly Italian painter who knows his own life is approaching its end contemplates his past and tries to make the best of his last days. It is the 1960s, he is a commercial success — he is the still-life artist and all his recent work has consisted of groupings of ancient bottles. That wasn't always the case, as he remembers creating art as a younger man during the Mussolini era and the war years:
And finding the most unusual strong-boned girl to make love to and use as a model — if she had distinguished flesh between her hip and navel, if her eyes were like marble and her hair auburn, if she would wear it down across her breasts or up off her neck, if she sets jealousy among the young men like a songbird among cats, if she brought her temper or her sexuality to the canvas. Her heels in the summer storms made careful steps across the cobbled stones of each courtyard she visited. She was immortalised by whichever artist she came to with her modern love.
We were all emaciated and our hearts and livers were inflamed. We measured our passions like weights on empty scales. And the only cure, for conventionalists and Futurists alike, was the fresh colour squeezed on to the palate. And then another, compatible, deposited by its side.
The artist's journal does explore some of the trauma of those Fascist years. In its present tense, it also explores the dilemma that, despite his commercial success, neither the artist nor the critics can explain what it is he actually does. A one-way correspondence with a young British artist, Peter, (one-way because Peter's letters have no return address) comes as close as anything to doing that and the Italian artist eagerly awaits the arrival of those letters.
The Fool on the Hill. This is the story of that Peter, set about 40 years later, he too now an international success — and equally famous as an offbeat international character — for his semi-abstract landscape work. A child of the Sixties, he left Britain for the U.S., found his art but not his life there and returned to Cumbria where this story is set. Despite his continuing fondness for alcohol and wandering, he has a devoted (second) wife and twin children, both artists in their own way. Again, much of his story comes in the form of reminiscence after a sketching trip into a ravine turns into a disaster. Like the Italian artist, his impending loss may mean the end of his life.
The Divine Vision of Annette Tambroni. Annette is an adolescent Italian girl whose sight is fading — total blindness is only a matter of time. Her family grows flowers, which she sells in the marketplace; her divine vision is that the Bestia is pursuing her. Offsetting that is her artwork at school, which has attracted the attention of the established painter who teaches the class one day a week:
He told Annette he liked her paintings of the flowers she had brought from Castrabecco (her home) best of all. He told her the flowers in her paintings contained exactly the purple substance of the flowers on the desk in front of her. He said he could even detect the fragrance of the paintings from the other side of the room. 'Such a remarkable waft of begonias,' he would say, 'I felt we must have been overtaken by them while my back was turned talking to Sandro. Let us open the window and see if your paintings can entice the butterflies.'
For anyone who has seen Monet's Water Lilies, painted as his blindness became complete, Annette's experience cannot help but spark memories.
The Mirror Crisis. Susan is Peter's daughter, a photographer who has also attracted significant critical attention, although even she wonders if her parentage isn't the main reason for the attention. Her twin, Danny, has just been killed in an accident, provoking her identity crisis. While Hall does keep this narrative going, it is the weakest stream of the book — we learn little about her photography and much of this story heads off into territory that is not even echoed in the other parts of the book.
As stated earlier, for 80 per cent of the book the author — at least for this reader — nurtured and balanced these stories in a most satisfying way. Alas, in the final 20 per cent, it all falls apart. The creative tension established in the first part of the book doesn't so much dwindle as it is abandoned. While the two mature artist sections maintain some momentum, both Annette's and Susan's wander into unsatisfying and distracting conclusions that bear no relation to the rest of the book. A resolution that would have kept the streams together and perhaps even resolved the creative tension (allowed the written pictures to set, as it were) was entirely possible, but not realized.
I confessed my personal conflict of interest in this book at the start. I am fairly sure that I will be able to forget that last 20 per cent and remember the real strengths of this book, and they were considerable. Having said that, I have to admit that readers who say the ending ruined the novel for them will get no argument from me. It is frustrating that a novel that could have been so, so good ends up falling short of the mark.


text: If you have small children, you've probably observed them plead with for taking these to an amusement park. If you've ever tried it, you realize that it might be an incredible working day full of ponder to your children, and a massive head ache-filled nightmare for you. Even so, this is by no means the… Continue reading Amusement Ride Supplier


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In 1999, the IAI launched a major initiative entitled Assessment of Present, Past and Future Climate Variability in the Americas from Treeline Environments . They state: "The overarching scientific goal of this project was to reconstruct climate variability over a major global transect from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego." While Mann has told us that he had to use chronologies ending by about 1980 because it was too expensive and time consuming for dendrochronologists to collect new data, the report on this initiative stated:
The project has produced considerable data in the form of new tree-ring chronologies, climate reconstructions and related materials. Extensive collections have taken place at over 400 sites, resulting in over 200 chronologies from more than 20 different species.
In Canada alone, they report the collection of 145 new chronologies:
In total, since the inception of the Yukon work in 1999 we have collected approximately 145 new chronologies (Table 2) including over 110 spruce sites (mainly P. glauca).
They include the following attractive diagram showing the range and scope of this collection:
It sounds like this should be just what the doctor ordered in terms of providing temperature-limited chronologies which can be used to verify the hypothesis of a linear relationship between ring widths and temperature at treeline sites. Even better, it turns out that the collectors were explicitly mandated to create a public archive of their results as follows:
4. To produce a database of tree-ring chronologies and environmental reconstructions that will be freely and permanently accessible to the scientific community for climatic analyses and human impact assessments. This will include a central website for our proposed project, and contributions to the International Tree-Ring Databank (ITRDB) and the paleoclimatic database maintained by the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado (USA).
They published lengthy annual reports on their operations url with the final report here by Brian Luckman entitled: Assessment of Present, Past and Future Climate Variability in the Americas from Treeline Environments: IAI CRN03 FINAL REPORT 2005. The final report is very self-congratulatory on how the objectives were fulfilled, with accomplishments estimated at 150% and even 300% of objectives. However, despite the self-congratulation and despite the explicit policy from the funders, it appear to me that measurement data for less than 10% of the sites of the 400 sites (and probably less than 5%) have been archived.
I cross-checked ITRDB for the archiving of this seemingly ideal collection of chronologies, as any program archives would reach into the 2000s or at a minimum into the late 1990s. However, when I checked, I found no chronologies with measurements more recent than 1995 from either Chile or Argentina; I found no archives whatever from Bolivia, Ecuador or Peru. I located only 7 sites from Mexico (although many more sites were referenced in the Annual Report), but the text in the 2005 Annual Report described them as precipitation proxies. Hughes discusses the development of new bristlecone chronologies but nothing's been archived. Biondi has archived one site from Mexico. Connie Woodhouse has archived many precipitation sites; I wrote to Connie Woodhouse and inquired about temperature-sensitive sites and she identified criteria from which I identified 5 archived sites (which I will post on.) I found only one qualifying site from the Yukon (archived by Jacoby who was not funded by IAI) and only a few recent archived sites from B.C., which do not appear to be associated with this program. 8 of 9 archived sites in Alberta with values more recent than 1995 were from Meko's supposedly precipitation proxies. A number of Luckman chronologies were the source for Rob Wilson publications, but none of these measurement data sets have been archived (other than the chronology without measurement data for Athabaska/Icefields). I wrote to Luckman who said that "as I knew", the Athabaska data was archived, although they have not archived any measurement data and this is only one site. The report says of the Canadian data:
Several PIs have deposited their chronologies and some reconstructions with the International Tree-Ring Data Bank housed at the NOAA Paleoclimate Facility in Boulder, Colorado. This is the appropriate archive for this material and is used by a global network of international scientists (see (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pdsi.html). Other PIs have or are developing their own databases (those of the two Canadian CoPIs consist of over 200 each collected in the last 10-15 years) that will also be submitted to ITRDB once chronology development and/or climate reconstructions have been completed.
However, this has obviously not taken place yet. So it appears that the administrators and funders of this program have made no effort whatever to ensure compliance with the explicit IAI objective of creating archives in pblic databases.
If you browse through the 2005 Annual Report, which I'm not going to summarize further, you will find many references to precipitation as a limiting factor, even in the southern Canadian Cordillera. So just because a site is a treeline site doesn't appear to mean that it's a "temperature proxy". It seems that only some treeline sites are now viewed as temperature proxies. One statement (in the Argentina section) says:
It is generally assumed, based mainly on studies from extra-tropical mountains, that tree growth at upper treelines is primarily controlled by summer temperatures. In the subtropical mountains of Northwestern Argentina (c. 23°S), annual precipitation decreases with elevation from more than 1500 mm at 1200-1500 m, to less than 200 mm above 4000 m. Studies based on Juglans australis (ca. 1800 m); Alnus acuminata (ca. 2700m) Prosopis ferox (at 3500 m) and Polylepis tarapacana (ca. 4750m) show that radial growth of the four species is largely controlled by precipitation (Morales et al., 2004). Therefore the generalized idea of upper-treeline growth limited by summer temperatures should be carefully evaluated in low-latitude environments and does not apply to subtropical areas with severe water deficits or strong moisture seasonality.
This statement is explicitly limited to subtropical sites. However, similar statements are made about Mexico. To date, every U.S. treeline site discussed by Woodhouse in a publication has been for a drought/precipitation reconstruction; chronologies as far north as British Columbia were used for precipitation reconstructions:
Ongoing work from collections in the Canadian Rockies and southern BC has also developed the first regional precipitation reconstructions, drought histories and some initial streamflow reconstructions (Watson and Luckman 2004, 2005, in press).
The review also notes that:
Luckman and Wilson (2005) have also developed a millennial length (950-1994) maximum summer temperature reconstruction from the Columbia Icefield area in the Canadian Rockies that appears to reflect broad Northern Hemisphere trends.
Although the reconstruction and chronology are archived, the underlying measurement data is not archived, nor is the data for other treeline sites reported in Wilson and Luckman 2003, a reconstruction of maximum summer temperature from upper treeline sites.
The environment of the White Mountains bristlecones and the Dulan junipers is obviously moisture stressed. Their latitude 37-38N is bracketed to the north and south by precipitation rather than temperature reconstructions; in the Dulan case, any relationship with temperature is actually thought to be negative. So if a treeline site is not necessarily a temperature proxy, how does one actually provide an objective ex ante criterion for a site to be a "temperature" proxy. The search continues.


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Raining down a new bunch of J-Rock videos. Just FYI, this is the time of year my part-time job becomes a full-time crap fest so don't be too worried if I disappear for a while!
Shugo Tokumaru- "Decorate"
Finally! P-Vine has been region blocking this video for months, but now we have a viewable upload thanks to Polyvinyl announcing they'll be releasing Shugo Tokumaru's new album In Focus? in the states in January. "Decorate" continues what Tokumaru does best, bedroom pop with a mix of childlike wonder.
Magdala- "Memories"
If you've been missing mutyumu, hatis noit has a new project with Aureole frontman Daichi Mori. She drops the operatic voice for Magdala, substituting her universally beautiful voice. Sure I miss the random screaming in the background but this is pretty too.
LOST- "Christmas Eve (English Version)"
It's Christmas time, again, and LOST recorded a non screamy cover of Tatsuro Yamashita's "Christmas Eve." You can find it on Santa Causes: It's A Pop Rock Christmas, which I can only hope is a continuation of this awesome CD, with a bunch of other mostly Japanese artists.


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Celebrate the City!
November 14, 2013
Join Nick at the Moda Center tonight beginning at 6pm for Venture Portland's second annual Celebrate the City event.
Learn more about Portland's 50 unique neighborhood business districts, and bid on exclusive experiences around Portland – including Alberta, the Pearl, Midway, and more.
Local businesses have donated some of their best wines for the event, too. Pick a bottle and take it home to unwrap and enjoy for only $10 per bottle. You can also buy raffle tickets online and win 52 or 12 "meal for two" gift certificates, and discover your new favorite restaurant! Winners will be announced at tonight's event.
Tickets for Celebrate the City are $50, and are available online or at the door.
Small businesses drive our local economy. Nick was proud to present an Ordinance at Council this week to increase the Business Owners Compensation Deduction to $100,000 – putting more money back in to our neighborhood small businesses.
November 30 marks "Small Business Saturday" - the day after Black Friday - where Americans show their support for our local small businesses. After learning more about our local business districts at Celebrate the City, we encourage you to "shop small" this holiday season!
Portland OKs $100K tax deduction for business owners
Malia Spencer in the Business Journal


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|United States
In 1936, the Republican Party nominated Alfred M. Landon, the relatively liberal governor of Kansas, to oppose Roosevelt. Despite all the complaints leveled at the New Deal, Roosevelt won an even more decisive victory than in 1932. He took 60 percent of the population and carried all states except Maine and Vermont. In this election, a broad new coalition aligned with the Democratic Party emerged, consisting of labor, most farmers, immigrants and urban ethnic groups from East and Southern Europe, African Americans and the South. The Republican Party received the support of business as well as middle-class members of small towns and suburbs. This political alliance, with some variation and shifting, remained intact for several decades.
From 1932 to 1938 there was widespread public debate on the meaning of New Deal policies to the nation's political and economic life. It became obvious that Americans wanted the government to take greater responsibility for the welfare of the nation. Indeed, historians generally credit the New Deal with establishing the foundations of the modern welfare state in the United States. Some New Deal critics argued that the indefinite extension of government functions would eventually undermine the liberties of the people. But President Roosevelt insisted that measures fostering economic well-being would strengthen liberty and democracy.
In a radio address in 1938, Roosevelt reminded the American people that:
Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness through lack of leadership....Finally, in desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat. We in America know that our democratic institutions can be preserved and made to work. But in order to preserve them we need...to prove that the practical operation of democratic government is equal to the task of protecting the security of the people....The people of America are in agreement in defending their liberties at any cost, and the first line of the defense lies in the protection of economic security.
Custom Search
Source: U.S. Department of State


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HARREY PODDER: Say the Magic Word
This is totally how the Harry Potter series should have ended. [Cartoon Brew]
Trust Me, I'm an Engineer!
And you thought that impromptu binger you made from an avocado pit, tennis ball tube, and four AA batteries was impressive? These guys know how to BS a construction project.
The Math Behind M.C. Escher's Art
Tessellation, the creation of an image through repeated geometric patterns, didn't originate with the Dutch artist—in fact he was heavily influenced by Moorish art—but he did it perhaps better than anyone. The BBC takes a quick look at the art and life of [M.C. Escher. [OpenCulture]
In Chicago, Holding Is Not a Crime
As generally expected (though with crossed fingers) the Chicago city Council voted today to decriminalize possession of small quantities of Marijuana. The Windy City's 46 district Aldermen voted 43-3 to reduce the penalty for holding less than 15 grams of weed from a misdemeanor to a citation, running $250-500.
The plan was put forth my mayor Rahm Emannuel and strongly supported by Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy who is dealing with a 50 percent jump in homicides over the past year and clearly more important things to do. Those are still some pretty stiff penalties but, all in all, a fantastic first step towards rational drug regulation. This bud's for you Chicago. [NPR]
British National Sitting on Saudi Death Row for Selling Less than an Ounce
The United Arab Emirates do not fuck around when it comes to drug enforcement. An unnamed British citizen, along with a Syrian accomplice, was caught selling just 20 grams of weed to an undercover officer in Abu Dhabi. He now faces the death penalty. Shit, and you thought NYC's stop and search policies were draconian. [Daily Telegraph]


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It's that dreaded time of year, when you face your greatest challenge: Finding presents for all your friends and loved ones. But don't worry! We've got your back — with our indispensable guide to the best gifts for science fiction fans and science nerds.
Including everything from the best DVD box sets to the most awesome science books!
Top image: Ron Miller.
Gift Ideas For 10 Major Species Of Science Fiction Fan
Knowing what to buy your favorite science fiction or fantasy genre junkie can be a taxing chore. You're posed with some important questions, like Dalek or Vulcan? Cthulhu or rainbow-vomiting dinosaurs? We empathize. Here are several dozen nifty, covetable gifts that will cater to the genre junkie in your life, no matter what they fancy. More »
Fun Presents for Geeky Kids of All Ages
Need something for your offspring post haste? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Check out our amazing collection of toys, books, sheets, rugs and giant plushies for the little nerdlings in your life. More »
The Weirdest Gift Ideas On The Internet
What do you get the person who has everything? Something insanely freaky. We have scoured the internet for the most insane gifts to give your friends who are impossible to find presents for. And what we found was simply amazing. More »
Celebrate the season with t-shirts that make your friends' chests fun to look at
T-shirts always make the best presents, plus they're a way of gift-wrapping yourself and your friends in cool images and slogans. We've put together a collection of classic, seasonal, and downright insane tees for you to bestow upon your loved ones - and yourself. More »
A Brilliant List of Science Books for People Who Want Their Minds Blown
While everybody is getting stoned on turkey and starch this holiday season, you're hoping to join a secret collective of super-intelligent scientists who will invent faster-than-light travel and cure cancer. We understand. That's why we've put together this list of great science books that came out in the past year - they're the perfect gifts for people with inquiring minds (including you!). More »
DVD Box Sets That Make Thrilling Holiday Gifts
When you really want to show people you care about them, the best present is one that they can spend hours exploring. And nothing sucks people in quite like a really feature-heavy DVD or Blu-ray box set, full of special features, alternate versions and commentary tracks. More »
Awesome graphic novels that even non-comics readers will love
Giving graphic novels as gifts to non-comics readers can be hard - after all, there are only so many copies of Watchmen one can give before they stop being books and start becoming the construction materials for an Alan Moore-themed play fort. More »
Recent Science Fiction and Fantasy Books that Make Perfect Gifts
One of the most common types of holiday gifts is the Coffee Table Book - big, expensive, and usually something people flip through instead of actually reading. But what if you could give a book that would fascinate your friends as well as looking like a status item? More »
Gifts for the mad scientist in us all
Whether they run their own lab or they're just entering kindergarten, the mad scientist in your life will love these presents. More »
The Only Toy Gift Guide You'll Need This Holiday Season
What do you get the geek who has every awesome collectable? something extraordinary. That's why we've gathered together a collection of all the best toys to give your friends and loved ones. And yes, that is the floating guard eyeball from Big Trouble Little China. More »
Your guide to holiday lightsaber shopping
Recently I was invited to, and attended, a lightsaber fight in a park. The organizer supplied the entire battle with lightsabers from her own collection. I took the opportunity to ask her opinion on the best online saber sources. More »


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Ratchet-Brace Support
Instrument for Measuring Distances and Heights of Mountains
File-Holding Appliances
Amateur Wood-Workers
Alluvial Basin of the Mississippi River
Keview of Tile Report of the U. S. Levee Commission
Direct-Acting Pumping Engine
Stand-Pipe for Bloomington. Ill., Water Works
Blake's Vertical Steam-Boiler
Ventilation of Railway Tunnels
Institution Of Civil Engineers
Novel Rotary Engine
Screwing and Tapping Machine
The St. Gothard Tunnel
Tin-Foil Decoration
Proceedings of Societies
British and American Archologicalsc Society, Rome
Remarkable Wind Storm
New-Jersey at the Centennial
A Single Hair
Prospects of Architecture in the United States
The Japanese Government Building at the Centennial Grounds in Fairmount Park
On the Blue Color sometimes Produced in the Incineration of Bread
The Architect and Civil Engineer
A Remarkable Discovery in Florida
Cost of Cast Iron Water-Pipe, in Place
Climate of the Poles, Past and Present
Military Instruction by Machinery
On the Relative Power of Large Telescopes
A New Brick-Making Machine
Cost and Durability of Steel Rails
The Fryer Process
British Pedestrianism
Boring, Turning, and Fitting Car-Wheels and Axles
On Diminution of Friction between Tires and Rails
An Old Engine for the Centennial
New Pilot Snow-Car
London underground Railway
Railroad-Train Accidents
Midland (Eng.) Railway Rolling Stock
Railway Resistance
Interesting Experiments With The Dynagraph


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Not offhand, sorry. Arkane might be willing to help. It couldn't hurt to ask, anyhow.
What were you planning to do? (if you don't mind me asking.)
I have looked everywhere for it. Not even searches for "arxpak506.zip" turn up anything. The original site that hosted this file seems to be long dead, too. Any ideas about where else I can find this mystical thing?
Not offhand, sorry. Arkane might be willing to help. It couldn't hurt to ask, anyhow.
What were you planning to do? (if you don't mind me asking.)
I want to extract all the textures and sounds from the game.
archive.org is your friend:
edit: seems like the file on archive.org is broken.
I still have a working arxpack on my machine which I could email you.
Just PM me.
There is also an ArxPakDll.zip that goes with it, and it also needs another DLL to run. All three files are together in ArxPakFull.zip
Mostly works, but on my current machine (Core2) this will error out when trying to load one of the levels. Works fine on my old legacy rig (circa 2001).
Edit: This is obviously still a popular search result for locating ArxPak, especially now that the source has been released. Note that there is another version of this utility at http://www.mediafire.com/?95gmm5rbsjaugq4, with older versions of the app and DLLs, and includes unicows.dll. I've not used that version, so I cannot comment on how well it works (or for that matter, whether it's a safe link, but I've seen a few references to it and no complaints so far, for whatever that's worth).
I'm not responsible for any version of ArxPak, I've just given it a place to live for several years. Considering it takes a third of my site's bandwidth, I'd say it's still a quite popular tool.
Last edited by IndieInIndy; 8th May 2012 at 10:51.
Huh, so you can still edit posts four years after the fact.
Anyhoo, since this thread is a popular search result for arxpak, I added a mediafire link above since that may be a better version of the utility for running on some systems.
Thanks for adding an additional link to this.


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ITV 4's recent decision to screen all 7 of Roger Moore's Bond movies in prime time from Monday to Sunday as a dementedly late in the year tribute has been a fascinating exercise in nostalgia and re-evaluation.
The great paradox is that while Moore is remembered as the supremely nonchalant Bond, the films in which he appeared were themselves supremely lacking in confidence. Live and Let Die tries to cash in on blaxploitation, The Man with the Golden Gun tries to cash in on kung fu, The Spy Who Loved Me desperately tries to remake You Only Live Twice with added megalomania, Moonraker tries to cash in on Star Wars, and A View to a Kill shamelessly recycles the 'criminal mastermind uses explosion in San Andreas fault line to contrive earthquake' plot of Superman. And then there's the music. Coming across Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me on the same Sunday that A View to a Kill aired it was very noticeable that Jay Roach and Mike Myers were plundering John Barry's 1960s Bond scores for their parodic purposes. Barry sat out a number of Moore's films, and even when he was there he seems to have been on autopilot.
Watching The Avengers on ITV 4 recently it was hard to miss their plundering of Barry's 1960s Bond sound to a point where you expected Steed and Mrs Peel to have start fending off Eon process servers. Yet the Moore era witness a weird degeneration from being so confident that other peopled copied you to being so insecure all you do is copy instead. Marvin Hamlisch quoted Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia theme in The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker sees John Williams' Close Encounters of the Third Kind five tone melody appropriated, and 'California Girls' takes over the soundtrack for comedic purposes in A View to a Kill, while the 1970s scores are awash with funky wah-wah music and then disco beats in a desperate attempt to sound like the hit parade. The SPECTRE themes of the 1960s are entirely absent, Barry's dashing secondary Bond theme only appears in Moonraker, and there is no readily identifiable Moore signature music whereas Connery's body of work has at least five recognisable suites of music. Indeed when the music improves in Moore's final outing, it is because Barry has wheeled out a reworking of a 1960s idea with brassier instrumentation than his string-drenched Octopussy compositions.
My mother's contention that action sequences could be transposed from Moore movie to Moore movie without affecting coherence overly is strengthened when you realise that not only do Moore's film bring back characters between films simply to observe mayhem and be gobsmacked by it, and begin a tradition of random hopping about the globe compared to the more located Connery films, but also Moonraker is a remake of The Spy Who Loved Me; simply switching out start a nuclear war, kill everyone, and live underwater for bomb the earth from space, kill everyone, and live in space. This becomes funnier and ever more meta when you consider that their shared ur-text You Only Live Twice was itself a self-confessed rehash of Dr No by a desperate Roald Dahl who had little to fill his blank screenplay pages other than the setting of Japan and an instruction to have three Bond girls: a bad one who dies, a good one who dies, and a good one who lives.


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Suddenly, all the giant Hollywood franchises are being driven by alternative filmmakers. The latest news is that Rian Johnson, director of indies Looper and Brick, will direct Star Wars VIII. Can a quirky visionary really change a pop culture behemoth? Here's what happened to other indies in the franchise machine.
Johnson joins a host of other indie directors making the jump. The forthcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie comes from director James Gunn, best known for the ultraviolent, intensely weird indies Slither and Super. Meanwhile, Duncan Jones has gone from the character-driven arthouse flick Moon to directing Warcraft. Josh Trank, best known for the scrappy superhero flick Chronicle, will be helming a Star Wars movie as well as directing the next Fantastic Four outing.
Obviously this is cause for some rejoicing, for a variety of reasons. Franchise empires are known for trotting out cliched, repetition-prone sequels that feel like they came out of some scary studio echo chamber, where coke-snorting producers congratulate each other for inventing chest armor with nipples. Maybe indie directors will come in with an outside perspective and reinvent these franchises. It's possible that they'll even have ideas that are more original than using lens flare to make our old heroes feel vital again.
A New Perspective
Sometimes this has actually happened. Before Peter Jackson took on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, do you know what he was best-known for? A seriously deranged zombie movie called Dead Alive, which features death-by-lawnmower and a giant zombie vagina dentata (sorry — I guess that was a spoiler). He'd also directed a gross alien invasion flick called Bad Taste and a dreamy, beautiful teen lesbian psychological thriller called Heavenly Creatures. The guy was brilliantly demented, but not exactly mainstream. And then his otherworldly, monster-saturated imagination gave us one of the most profound, well-realized adaptations of a franchise the world has ever seen.
I could make the same point about bringing Christopher Nolan in to direct Batman Begins, which was his first big movie after brainy suspense cult hits Memento and Insomnia. What that franchise needed was a smart, paranoid, meticulously shot reboot — and I think there's little chance that could have come from someone deep inside Hollywood. Similarly, director Jon Favreau brought a much-needed new sensibility to superheroes with Iron Man, which had a lot of the sarcastic humor that made his indie flick Swingers such a critical hit.
And let's not forget that Gareth Edwards, director of hit indie Monsters, brought his outside-the-box love of giant monster mating rituals to Godzilla. When I saw the MUTOs smooching around a nuclear warhead, I knew I was watching an Edwards movie. That was definitely a first for the kaiju franchise.
Oops — Maybe That Was Too Weird
But sometimes the indie touch creates something that's just too bizarre for the mainstream movie-goer.
David Fincher's Alien 3 was a radical departure from the action fest that James Cameron dished out in Aliens — maybe too radical. You could tell that Alien 3 came from a very different place than the rest of the series had; Fincher left his mark. But bald Sigourney Weaver in a testosterone-pumped prison boiling with racial and class politics was just a little too much for people who just wanted big guns and chase scenes.
Michel Gondry's Green Hornet was another franchise flick that felt like it came out of left field — I thought in a good way, but most audiences disagreed. It's probably the only franchise movie Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, will ever do. But I will always love him for giving us the scene where Seth Rogen yells, "Where's my LEAF?" when Cato stops making perfect latte art on his coffee every morning.
Wait, Who Directed That?
Then there are the franchise flicks that are so bland and typical that you would never guess they'd been directed by award-winning directors known for their nuanced characters. For example, Alfonso Cuarón, director of Children of Men and Gravity, directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Did you notice? Was there a startling new intensity to the characters in that movie, or action that made you feel like your heart was being ripped out through your throat? Not really. It wasn't a bad movie — I quite liked it — but it didn't feel like anything special.
The same thing happened when Bill Condon, director of Dreamgirls, Kinsey, and Gods and Monsters, took on both parts of Twilight: Breaking Dawn. I was hoping he'd throw in some subversive bits, or little knowing winks, but nothing. Again, the movies delivered what you'd expect. Sure, there was a seriously fucked up vampire pregnancy, and perhaps the most lurid wedding and home decor porn I've ever seen. But those were in the books, too. It wasn't like I could see Condon's hand at work in the scene where Bella tours her new home and touches every throw pillow.
Oh, and did you know that Gavin Hood, best known for his Academy Award-winning movie Tsotsi, directed X-Men Origins: Wolverine? I saw no traces of the guy who created an intense story of outsiders struggling to survive in a politically and economically destroyed country. Was this version of Wolverine grittier or more realistic? Were you emotionally ravaged by this tale of love and skeleton replacement? Nope. It was a fairly meh franchise flick, and the "edgy" parts were embarrassingly bad.
The Bold Future of Planet Franchise
So what can we expect from this latest crop of indie directors who have been sucked into the franchise factory? I'm especially curious about Star Wars, which will feature an all-indie crew after JJ Abrams finishes with episode VII. In some ways, I think the worst outcome would be if we couldn't even tell that Rian Johnson and Gareth Edwards (who is signed up to direct a standalone episode) had been there. I'd rather watch a weird, uneven Alien 3-ish Star Wars movie than something bland or mildly interesting.
And maybe these indie filmmakers won't just make better movies, but bring in a more diverse group to make them. You'll notice that these indie directors are all white guys. If outsider perspectives made Lord of the Rings and Dark Knight into fantastic franchises, imagine what would happen if you brought in the perspectives of women and people of color. It's possible they'd give us the same old bland pablum the white guys have been delivering for decades. But maybe they'd give us a fantasy epic that actually feels epic — or a superhero whose emotions have more than one dimension. Or something so blisteringly awesome we can't even imagine it.
That's a future worth fighting for.


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My husband's first job out of college was working as a supervisor of the boneless loin line at JBS-Swift in Worthington, MN. His job was to oversee 80 people on the line, most of whom came from foreign countries. The communication gap made his job interesting, as many of his workers came from places like Somalia, Mongolia, Mexico and Guatemala.
Over time, he befriended some of his co-workers. When I visited Tyler on the weekends (we were engaged at the time), we would go out with some of his Hispanic colleagues. I was excited to practice the Spanish I had learned in school and while studying abroad in Argentina in college, and the women were always patient with my choppy language skills. It was during these Friday-night conversations that these women shared their recipes for authentic dishes like tacos, fajitas and real corn tortillas, and I gained a greater appreciation for their culture. I couldn't wait to try my hand at recreating some of their recipes.
Without a doubt, the Hispanic population is rapidly growing in the U.S. They number 44.3 million people, and it's the fastest growing enthic group in the U.S. What's more, this is a population segment that loves beef, and one the beef industry needs to really pay attention to.
I recently ran across an interesting study that shed light on Hispanics' shopping behavior. According to a study conducted by Hispanic Business, "Hispanic women represent the most passionate and proactive shopper segment searching for the best deals across all retail channels."
The research findings indicate that:
- 60% of Hispanic women use apps to search for the lowest price, while 53% make it a point to search online before going shopping.
- 53% are using their mobile devices in the store to find electronic coupons, sales and discount codes.
- 75% are using traditional coupons to get the lowest sale price.
- 54% only buy items that are on sale.
- 63% will travel further to shop at a store where they can save money.
Knowing that Hispanic women are smart, savvy shoppers and represent a huge segment of consumers here in the U.S., the beef checkoff has developed a Hispanic Toolkit to help supermarkets better serve the Hispanic customer base, providing the right beef cuts to prepare Latino dishes.
The Hispanic Toolkit includes a bilingual Beef Cuts & Dishes Dictionary, bilingual peel-off recipe labels, bilingual signs and bilingual recipes. These resources were placed in a separate section in the meat case of cuts preferred by Hispanic shoppers, according to Beef Checkoff News.
Read about the entire study here.
What Hispanic women choose to purchase in stores may be a far cry from your current worries about getting the hay put up before the next rain hits, but boosting beef demand is critical for maintaining high cattle prices. Addressing the specific needs and shopping behaviors of such an important and growing demographic as Hispanics, who utilize a lot of protein in their traditional ethnic dishes, can be a big boost to beef demand.


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Google Broadens Its Security Insight With Acquisition of VirusTotal
Google has acquired VirusTotal, the popular service that lets users analyze suspicious files and URLs to help facilitate the detection of malware.
VirusTotal lets users submit a file that may be suspect and scans it using the engines of dozens of antivirus products to see if the file in question has been marked as malicious by any of the vendors.
They provide a similar service with URL scanning services, and let a user check a URL to see if it is flagged as malicious by any of many Website scanning solutions.
In addition to the file and URL analysis services, VirusTotal maintains an online community that lets users interact with each other and comment on and discuss various files and URLs.
"We're delighted that Google, a long-time partner, has acquired VirusTotal," the company said in an online statement. "This is great news for you, and bad news for malware generators, because: The quality and power of our malware research tools will keep improving, most likely faster; and Google's infrastructure will ensure that our tools are always ready, right when you need them."
VirusTotal will operate independently, and maintain its partnerships with anti-virus firms and security researchers, the company said.
"Google has a long track record working to keep people safe online and we look forward to fighting the good fight together with them," they added.
While many researchers use the free scanning service, VirusTotal does offer a premium file detection monitoring service (VirusTotal Monitor) that acts as an early warning system about false positives.
"We are constantly tweaking our solutions to protect Google users even better, and even the solutions described here may change," Michal Zalewski, from Google's Security Team wrote in a blog post late last month. "Our commitment to making the Internet a safer place, however, will never waver."
The acquisition of VirusTotal will help Google on that front.
"Security is incredibly important to our users and we've invested many millions of dollars to help keep them safe online," a Goolgle spokesperson wrote in an email to SecurityWeek. "VirusTotal also has a strong track record in web security, and we're delighted to be able to provide them with the infrastructure they need to ensure that their service continues to improve."
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.


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Limited Time Magic! It sounds so, so . . . so much like legalese! So entirely unmagical, in fact, that I have a hard time believing it came out of Disney. But despite the lackluster name, I do like the concept. From this week's Jentasmic! at StudiosCentral:
But now that I've got my bitterness out of the way. . . Oh man, I am loving the concept of this new promotion, which I'll just refer to as LTM to contain my annoyance. As a regular Guest at Disney Parks, I like to plan my trips around special events, whether Disney-hosted (like Star Wars Weekends) or fan gatherings (like Reunion 2012 – be there or be square). I enjoy seeing special decorations, going to talks or shows that just aren't offered every day, and yes even buying special merchandise that you can only get at a certain time. As much as I hate the phrase "limited time," there is something special about things that are only available, well, for a very limited time.


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'Mad Men' season 5 pushed back to 2012, AMC says
Associated Press
NEW YORK - AMC says "Mad Men" is definitely coming back, but the new season won't be on the air until 2012.
The network's announcement on Tuesday came amid reports of ongoing negotiations between Lionsgate, the studio that produces the series, and its creator-executive producer, Matthew Weiner.
The announcement took note of the delayed start in shooting the new season, which will be the series' fifth. In the past, "Mad Men" has aired in the summer or early fall.
The much-acclaimed drama stars Jon Hamm as an advertising executive and divorced family man working in Manhattan in the 1960s.


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The Coast Institute of Technology (CIT) has open Application for Admission for the 2023/2024 Academic year. See the few step-by-step guide on how to Apply below.
The CIT has diversified academic programmes and specializations in sciences, applied sciences, technology, humanities, social sciences and the arts. Through self-sponsored programmes, invaluable opportunity has been opened to Kenyans and non-Kenyans, who meet university admission requirements.
Application Requirements
- A minimum of Grade C+ at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE)
- Grades earned in core subjects depending on the specific programs in which you are interested
- Additional information is provided in support of your application.
- An application should be accompanied by;
- copies of ID/Passport
- Relevant academic and professional certificates.
How to Apply Online at CIT
Follow the steps provided below to Apply;
- Go to the Online Application Page – https://www.cit.ac.ke/
- Upload the needed documents.
- Read the instructions provided in the above link carefully.
- Then, Follow the next steps till completion.
Please note that Application for admission does not guarantee admission into the University for the course applied for, this will be subject to fulfilment of all requirements and class size as approved by the University Senate.


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_If you dig the mix then please feel free to pass & post it along; if you dig a particular artist then please support them and go out and pick up some of their stuff.
— – ————-______________ ->
_ _________________ _ ___ _ _________ __________->
Each snug within the confines of their own category—altogether most pop music seems to intimate an insular fear of an anonymous other. What is it but another manifestation of man's ludicrous grasp for total control? Yes, as a teenager—and in all the turmoil that that entails—it was Locust Mirror's seeming open seriousness that initially allured Mireille's taste towards that band's music. She was sure they mattered and cared.
About what?
She was never sure enough to put into words. Their music felt mysterious and smart, dangerous and true, romantic and sexy…creative. Weird—It hinted at opportunities.
But at seventeen and seated in a public library—Mireille felt bored.
She shoveled the books aside with a swipe of her forearm. With its dust jacket wrapped and protected by a clear film of Polyethylene Terephthalate, she slid the hardbound copy of Peter Bennet's Last Against The Wall (Berlin 1961-1989) towards her. From between its pages she pulled out the latest issue of Turn-Turn Magazine, which she had taken from a crowded rack as she entered the library and had been using as an oversized bookmark. There on the cover was Locust Mirror lead singer, Christian Heath.
Perhaps categorized as a "black & white" photograph, the image captured by Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn and partly produced through a thin coat of emulsion and a high contrast truly resides somewhere between mercury and the brown of mineral rich dirt. The picture had been additionally lightly hand-painted in places to mimic the Technicolor palate of old Hollywood. Such was the case with the scarlet backdrop pocked with pinpricks of blue starlight. His tousled blonde hair spilled from a battered fedora as strips of bleach and greased shadows. The one eye not obscured by that mess was a hazel glint—a warm gloss of amber resin on a fractured green stone with a dark core. Through the black metallic smudge of mascara—that eye was aimed directly at Mireille.
Heath had been seized in an obvious, somewhat sorority cover-girl affected pose made all the more effeminate as he had one hand positioned upon his own popped hip. White with a stitched print of little blue flowers along its lengths, he wore his shirt unbuttoned and loose about his waist. This epicene stance was accentuated by Heath's slight frame, boyish facial features, and the chipped lacquer along the nails of his right hand, which clutched the smoldering stub of a cigarette. Despite these evidently queer feminine put-ons, the image truthfully conveyed that old rock & roll communiqué of "Oh me, I don't give a fuck." Pitch-colored stubble on his chin and upper lip, his teeth white with a slight crook—his mouth was presented in an open smile as if he had been caught mid-sentence.
Probing this photo with her blue eyes wide, Mireille felt the press of a little heat. No, not quite a burn that fans the knees open; but, yes, a press of a little heat. There was a small swell to all of her systems. The snapshot revealed the slim muscles of Heath's abdomen right up to his small pectorals. She had a private impulse to lick the cover there.
She of course would not do this. Instead—thoughtlessly—her tongue curled, pressed between a little nibble of her teeth and planted itself into the corner of her open mouth. There from that perch it would loll along to wet her lips. She found him so handsome and odd.
Abruptly aware of her fat tongue; her mouth agape; her eyes agog; and all the grotesque rest—Mireille felt herself shrink as she chewed at her lower lip. Feeling fully like some pudgy blot of inane skin lumped around wilted guts, with a toad in mud for a hypothalamus, Mireille let a pinched groan loose from her throat. She then sent up a silent appreciation that there were no mirrors or other reflective surfaces about for her to witness the origin point for what must have been such a gross countenance: her face.
Mireille wrestled a smile from the grip of anxiety and brought it to her lips.
"God, I'm such a goon."
Mireille steepled her fingers before her mouth at the thought: God, I'm such a goon. Opening the magazine she flipped past articles concerning what innovative gadgets would soon change our day-to-day; what bands were going back out on tour; what senior rocker was soon releasing a country-tinged comeback record; what winter-fashion inspirations could be taken from famous peoples' red-carpet ensembles; and a feature titled, Real Jeanius! 30 Denim Lifestyles for #Authentic Men & Women. Arriving at page 74 she found another full page photo of Heath. This one had been composed with a much more conservative sense, as the subject here captured in full color was seated cross-legged on a wooden folding chair in a near-empty room, dressed in a grey suit with a blue shirt buttoned under a black tie. Atop the wooden barstool before him was the teal-painted, cold-rolled steel colossus of an antique typewriter. From this distance its white keys of molded plastic resembled orderly rows of button mushrooms. Tethered to the silver fin of the typewriter's carriage release lever was a lavender string of curling ribbon, which ran crimped, up, to hold in place overhead a solitary purple balloon. Hair combed, Heath's face here was plain, clean, and straight ahead like a passport photo. The slivers and shards of green, amber, golden brown, and blue hues that comprised his eyes seemed to whisper out to her: save me.
Cute, she thought, little, something to keep and carry in your pocket, only to be taken out when wanting a cuddle or something to alter the mood of your blue stupor.
The interview with Heath began on the opposite page. However, Mireille could not get herself to concentrate. She could only skim and skip across the paragraphs; if momentarily of a similar mental bent, you should of course feel free to do the same:
___ – – _________________ _- _ _________________ ___


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Today's storylines: UF vs. Toledo
The return of RoPo
For the veteran players, running out of the tunnel is still a cool experience, but it's nothing like the first time. For one older player today, junior outside linebacker Ronald Powell, it's going to feel like the first time again. Powell is making his return to The Swamp after missing last season following two ACL surgeries. His comeback story has inspired many of his teammates. Now, it's time for Powell to run out of the tunnel and play for the Gators again. "I'm kinda just excited right now. You know I walk in here on Monday and it's like it's close, it's here. It's like my dream is about to come true again. To run out there again. So I'm just kind of excited and ready for what God's got in store for me," Powell said.
Driskel in the comfort zone
At this time a year ago, Jeff Driskel wasn't even the starter at quarterback yet for the Gators. He was still competing with Jacoby Brissett, and still in the early stages of his development in a new offense. Now, Driskel has no competition at his position and he's going into his second year in Brent Pease's offense. As a result, he's found a comfort zone he never really experienced last season. He's more comfortable leading, more comfortable reading defenses and getting the offensive front in the right protections, more comfortable going through his progressions and finding his second and third receivers. The coaches (and Driskel) are expecting him to be a much more poised and proficient quarterback in his second year as the starter.
Defending the rapid Rockets
Florida's defense, which is replacing its strong middle from a year ago — tackle Sharrif Floyd, middle linebacker Jon Bostic and safety Matt Elam — is going to get a potential breathtaking test from the Toledo offense today. Not only do the Rockets have experience at quarterback and the skill positions, but they run the kind of up-tempo, fast-break offense that is growing in popularity in college football. Florida's summer conditioning will receive a big-time test on what promises to be a hot, muggy day in The Swamp. The Rockets don't just go fast, they go behind quarterback Terrance Owens (2,707 yards passing in 2012) and tailback David Fluellen (1,498 yards rushing last season).
Freshmen of influence
Florida's freshman class is lining up to make a significant contribution this season. There are six true freshmen on the depth chart for today's game — wide receivers Demarcus Robinson, Ahmad Fulwood and Chris Thompson, linebacker Daniel McMillian, cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and safety Keanu Neal. All six freshmen are expected to see playing time today (and for the rest of the season). There are others that are not on the depth chart who very well could see the field today, including tailbacks Kelvin Taylor and Adam Lane, defensive linemen Caleb Brantley and Jay-nard Bostwick, linebacker Alex Anzalone and linebacker Jarrad Davis.
Return of the Gators
Andre Debose was one of the SEC's top kickoff returners coming back for 2013, but after tearing his ACL in the preseason, the Gators find themselves in need of a proven returner. Today, with Loucheiz Purifoy suspended, it could be Solomon Patton or Valdez Showers. Florida will need to find a consistent threat among them, or perhaps go further down the depth chart.
Holy Toledo
If the Gators want to get their passing game going, they might have found the perfect opponent in the Rockets. Toledo returns only four starters from a unit that ranked 109th in total defense and 116th in passing defense last season. Florida offensive coordinator Brent Pease faced Toledo two years ago while with Boise State and his offense was able to rack up 500 total yards in a 57-14 rout.
What can Brown do for UF?
With Matt Jones sidelined, redshirt junior Mack Brown makes his first start at running back for the Gators. With the Gators still looking to run the ball and grind down opponents' defenses, Brown should definitely be in for a career day. His best effort as a Gator so far was a 31-yard day against Kentucky last season. He rushed for 102 total yards in 2012, and could surpass that today.
Safety school
With both of Florida's starting safeties from a year ago (Josh Evans and Matt Elam) in the NFL, Marcus Maye and Cody Riggs will open this season as starters today. Toledo may want to test the Gators deep early to see if the position is a strength or a weakness. Riggs and Maye will definitely want to keep track of Rockets receiver Bernard Reedy, who had 1,113 receiving yards last year.
Today's game questions
1.The Gators won the fourth quarter last season, but were notoriously slow starters. Will UF get off to a quick start today or will it be more of the same?
2.There has been an emphasis on trying to make more big plays in the passing game. Will we see some today?
3.The UF defense is anticipating having a stronger pass rush with Ronald Powell and Dante Fowler Jr. coming off the edges. Will the Gators get to the quarterback today?
4. What will the Florida running game look like minus No. 1 tailback Matt Jones and two starters on the offensive line (Jon Halapio and Chaz Green)?
5. On what should be a hot, muggy day in The Swamp, who wins the fourth quarter?
Click back to Gatorsports.com for Andreu's Answers