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LOS ANGELES—The federal government shutdown last year delayed more than 37,000 immigration hearings by months or years for immigrants already waiting in lengthy lines to plead for asylum or green cards.
While the country's immigration courts are now running as usual, immigrants who had hoped to have their cases resolved in October so they could travel abroad to see family or get a job have instead had their lives put on hold. Many had already waited years to get a hearing date in the notoriously backlogged courts, which determine whether immigrants should be deported or allowed to stay in the country.
Now, some hearings have been pushed into later this year, and thousands more have been shelved until 2015 or later, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
"This is a big task, and not one that will be accomplished quickly, especially given our current staffing shortage," Chief Immigration Judge Brian O'Leary wrote in an Oct. 17 email to immigration judges and court administrators obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. A day earlier, O'Leary wrote in a separate email to staff that the tally of deferred hearings had surpassed 37,000 and many immigrants probably wouldn't get their cases heard until at least 2015.
The delays triggered by last year's federal government shutdown that closed national parks and furloughed government workers has further strained an immigration court system already beset with ballooning caseloads, yearslong waits and a shortage of judges. The impact on immigrants has been uneven. Those with strong cases for staying in the U.S. are left in limbo for even longer, while those who face likely deportation have won more time in the United States.
"For some people, it probably was a huge reprieve," said Andres Benach, an immigration attorney in Washington. "Just not my clients."
About 70 percent of all immigration court hearings were put on hold, and all involved immigrants who were not held in detention centers. The rest—immigrants in detention facilities—proceeded with their hearings as scheduled. About half of immigrants in detention have criminal records.
The situation is especially dire for asylum seekers who may have left family behind in dangerous conditions. They cannot apply to bring relatives to the United States unless they win their cases.
For others, the delay means more uncertainty. Gladys Hirayda Shahian said she has been trying to obtain a green card through her American husband for more than a decade. After getting turned away at the airport after a trip back to her native Guatemala in the 1990s, Shahian said she crossed the border illegally to reunite with him and filed her residency application.
Since then, the 42-year-old from Encino, Calif., has been unable to take her U.S.-born children to visit family in Guatemala or accept a job outside her home. After waiting nearly two years to get an immigration court date in Los Angeles in October, she now has to wait until August because of the shutdown.
"Every time I go to that court, I come out broken, in tears," said Shahian, who has been married for two decades and helps run her husband's clothing design business.
Immigration judges can grant asylum, green cards or other forms of relief—or order someone deported for breaking the country's immigration laws. About half of immigrants were given deportation orders in immigration court rulings handed down since October, according to a report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
The courts overseen by the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review nearly always have long wait times for hearings. As of January, more than 360,000 immigration court cases were pending for an average of 573 days, according to TRAC.
Oscar, who came to the country as a 17-year-old last year from El Salvador, has been waiting for a decision on whether he can continue to live with his sister in Los Angeles – or be sent back and face street gangs that killed his mother and threatened to kill him if he didn't join their ranks. His lawyer requested that his last name not be used out of fear for his safety if he is deported.
Oscar is seeking legal status through a program that helps foreign children in the United States who have been abused or abandoned. A hearing on his case was supposed to happen in October, but now has been delayed until June or later, leaving him to worry about his future.
"I'm afraid they're going to send me back," he said.
Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks said she doesn't have two weeks open on her calendar in San Francisco's immigration court for merit hearings until June 2017. And she can't just bump people with court dates this year, because they've also been waiting for their day in court.
"You have this very delicately balanced system. Now we have this added dysfunction to cope with on top of that," she said. "I just think the ripple effect is going to be continuing for a while."
Some immigration lawyers said the shutdown caused heartache for many clients, but is par for the course in an overburdened system. Similar problems occur when a judge is sick or winter weather closes a courthouse.
"The backlog will keep on coming, whether it was shut down or not," said Andrew Johnson, an immigration attorney in New York. "You just got bad luck if you were one of the ones who were hit during that time."


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When you write your CV, what do you count as an invited talk? Does it count if you're invited but not provided funding (this has happened to me several times at AMS special sessions)? What if someone runs into you in the hallway and invites you, but never sends you a 'formal' invitation email? What if you're a PhD student and your advisor asks you to give a talk in the department seminar or in a conference they are organizing?
Also, does it even matter? What if I just put a section in my CV called "talks" and not worry about the distinction?
Thanks in advance!

subset: commoncrawl


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00-03 Nissan Maxima A33 BC Racing Coilovers - BR Type
BC Racing Coilovers 00-03 Nissan Maxima A33Part Number: D-10-BR
The BC Racing Coilovers BR Type is perfect for street driving and occasional road course duty. Designed to give your Maxima improved handling and a aggressive stance. Each Bc Racing Coilovers kit has easily accessible adjustment knobs for fine tuning your compression/rebound and separately adjustable ride height, having a performance coilover system couldn't be any easier. You choose how low or high you want your vehicle, no preset ride height here, and our patented concave lower locking ring keeps it locked in. All of our systems come with pillowball mounts to provide the most feedback possible from your suspension and to sharpen your steering response. BC's available front and rear camber plates also allow you to get the perfect alignment setup without compromise. All this while providing a strong, attractive looking coilover system.
- Mono-tube shock design
- 30 levels of damping force adjustment, adjust compression/rebound
- Pillowball mounts and adjustable camber plates included (where applicable)
- Separate full length height adjustable
- One year warranty
- Rebuildable
Spring Rates: Front Spring Rate = 8k Rear Spring Rate = 6k
Custom spring rates are available. You can request custom spring rates by entering the rates you want in the special instructions box after clicking add to cart. Spring rates up to 18K are available in BC Springs. Rates higher then 18K will require Swift spring upgrade.
All extreme low kits, swift springs, and custom rates are considered custom builds and will have a lead time of 3-4 weeks before shipping.
Customer Reviews
I am very happy with my BC coilovers. The ride is INCREDIBLE and the car handles great. Product came fast even though covid slowed deliveries down. Would do business with them again.
I've just had them put on a couple of days ago really nice & Smoove ride so far...
nice looking coilovers, easy installing, amazing ride and handling and fast shipping !!! I'm so happy to choose you guys over many brands out there !!! I already start recommending you to all my friends !! Thanks BC RACING!!!


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No Products in the Cart
|Operating System:
|Main Camera:
|Front Camera:
|Apple A10X Fusion
|Internal Memory:
|3.5mm jack:
|Li-Ion 8134 mAh, non-removable
|Other Features:
Check out our full range of Tablets. In need of a Tablet repair? zRepair has got you covered!
(Note: "VM" stands for VAT Margin, and is used to denote whether a product falls under the VAT Margin scheme. For products that fall under this scheme, we cannot issue VAT receipts. This does not apply to products not marked "VM". For further information on the VAT Margin scheme, please visit this link: https://tinyurl.com/2t2e92bb)
If you have made a purchase online & would, for some reason, like to return it then you must contact us at either:
We do accept returns however you will be subject to the charges of both the shipping and returning of the product.
You must clearly state the reason that you want to return the product.
In order to request a return you must have a valid order number that will have been e-mailed to you upon your purchase.
If it's a case that you bought a product & would like to exchange it for a similar product (different colour, etc.), this is generally fine if it's done within 30 days of the original purchase.
Used phones that have been deemed by us to be faulty can be exchanged within 7 days.
Fonez take back WEEE on a one-for-one, like-for-like basis in store or at time of delivery. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is taken back free of charge on a one-for-one, like-for-like basis. Waste batteries including rechargeable batteries are taken back free of charge. You are not obliged to make any purchase when returning old batteries. Each local authority must also accept household WEEE and small batteries free of charge at its recycling facilities. All WEEE and waste batteries must be recycled and should not be placed in any of your household wheelie bins. Make sure you always recycle all your old electrical goods and batteries.
Each and every device that is sold has been tested in our warehouse by our team. Each device that we test can be traced back to the team member. This ensures that you the customer receive the device in fully working order as stated by the manufacturer. In turn we ensure that the used device you are buying is in the same working condition as if you were to buy it new!
This grade applies to devices that may have very light signs of cosmetic wear to the frame and screen.
This grade applies to devices that may have light to moderate signs of cosmetic wear to the frame and screen.
This grade applies to devices that may have heavy signs of cosmetic wear to the frame and screen.


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This medication Saved my sons life! When we have a emergency situation this gets his air ways opened up right away! I love this inhaler!
I always had more problems with my breathing after taking albuterol, before things would get better- which was scary sometimes. Xopenex is amazing. I don't have to be afraid of getting worse- it opens my lungs up instantly. I do still feel a bit shaky after- but not much.
good i loved that i didn't get shakey after taking my treatments. albuterol would make me really shakey for awhile.
Excellent This medication does not have the side effects like albuterol. Since I have good insurance price is not an issue.Overall this is excellent
NOW AN INHALER!!! Xopenex is now available in an inhaler- used every 4-6 hours as needed, just as the albuterol is!!! I love it- helps with tremors and palpitations and is MUCH more convenient than the nebulizer. It just came out in this form so ask your doctor!!!
Better I have found this one to be more effective than regular albuterol. The albuterol sometimes doesn't help but this did in a crisis. I now need to find a way to get my dr to get my insurance to cover it.
Xopenex I had read this would cause less side effects than albuterol and read the article to my doctor who prescribed it for me to try. First shock was the cost!!!! The second shock was "Use all this medication before two weeks". Okay, so now that meant I could not open the package and use it for an asthma exacerbation unless I was sure this was going to be a real flare-up. Finally one came, and I was able to use all ten in the first packet. As for side effects, yes. My heart beats increased, though according to some people this isn't supposed to happen. However, it worked fairly well. My main reason to use it is to prevent the build up of left sided isomers which according to the article I read, causes albuterol to stop working. I cannot afford this medication, so I'm back on albuterol and am trying Flovent. I have been asthmatic for over 30 years and have not tried inhaled steroids until a few days ago. It has helped a lot, but I am nervous about side effects longterm as I have osteoporosis and high interoccular pressure. Also I don't want to gain weight. Xopenex is a good medication, but guess what. My insurance considers it a third tier medication, so it costs $57 instead of $15 for albuterol. So you see the choice I have to make.
Xopenex MUCH less side effects than Albuterol! It is not available in generic, so the cost is much more.
Xopenex I have used Xopenex in the nebulizer (which is a pain) for several weeks. I use it in my car on the way to and from work, so I can manage to use it at a time that it doesn't interfere with other things. It does work, and does not have the side-effects of albuterol such as shakiness, etc. I do know that this is very expensive if you don't have health insurance, and may not be worth the additional cost.
Xopenex I have severe persistent asthma. Albuterol (ventolin) causes adverse bronchospasms in my lungs, so we tried Xopenex. I do not shake with Xopenex, nor do I have any other side effects, except once in a while, my face flushes. Because of the severity of my asthma, the Xopenex doesn't last long, but for most, it has the same effectiveness as albuterol. My biggest problem is that it's only in nebulizer form. Though, the inhaler is in it's third phase of approval through the FDA. For some, price may be a problem if you are not insured.


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Harley Quinn's Revenge has had the opposite effect on me than whatever its creators likely intended.
The linear, two-hour $10 PS3/Xbox 360 epilogue to last October's excellent Batman: Arkham City has diminished my desire to return to that game and give me new worries about this Batman series' future.
This add-on is as delicious a dessert as a poison-filled Joker pie to the face.
Harley Quinn's Revenge begins shortly after the conclusion of Arkham City, though completing it adds nothing to our understanding of Batman's world nor does it enticingly forecast the Dark Knight's future. The new adventure is accessible from the game's menu, where a spoiler warning indicates that this new piece will refer to the twist at the end of the main game. Harley is mad about the thing that happened at the end of Arkham City, so she has—this may ring a bell—kidnapped several police officers whom, as Batman, you have to free. This will be an emotionless, inconclusive journey. (There is one story twist/Easter Egg that will probably confuse fans of the main game. I screencapped it—but be forewarned, it's a spoiler.)
Revenge is confined to the game's steelworks, the drab section on the lower-right corner of the glorious Arkham City map. Most of the main game's Gotham is locked off, so you won't be able to fetch the couple hundred Riddler trophies you failed to snag while finishing the main game nor commit to any unfinished sidequests from the generously large Arkham City. You will be on a linear adventure, only playing through Harley's unimaginative revenge.
The displacement of Arkham City's openness for linear adventure could have been an enjoyable ode to the creepier, more focused Arkham Asylum. It's not.
The displacement of Arkham City's openness for linear adventure could have been an enjoyable ode to the creepier, more focused Arkham Asylum. It's not. Harley's is a scraping of late-game concepts from Arkham City: combat against large crowds of thugs, many of whom wield riot shields or shock batons to force you to use special fighting combos; interrogation sequences against susceptible thugs; rudimentary use of several returning Bat-gadgets, etc. There is nothing here that Arkham City storyline completers haven't seen, except perhaps the opportunity to play as Robin.
Robin is your first playable character in the DLC, introducing what could have been a good gameplay dynamic duo that would let you switch from Robin sequences to Batman sequences. In practice, this happens. You'll play Robin for a half hour, then Batman, then Robin, then Batman. Unfortunately, as players of Robin's DLC challenge rooms know, the Boy Wonder does not play much differently from Batman. Sure, he swings a staff and has a shield, but he is essentially the same melee-focused striker and counter-striker that Batman is. He has similar gadgets and gets out of jams with similar panache.
Two hours gone, you'll be done with Harley's and perhaps wonder what the point was. If you've played much single-player DLC these past few years, the comparisons nearly all tilt against what you've just done. Fallout 3's Operation Anchorage similarly funneled its open-world main game into a linear adventure but did better by taking players somewhere new. Mass Effect 2's The Arrival controversially turned the series briefly into a solo Shepard adventure but at least signaled strongly the stakes of its sequel, Mass Effect 3. Grand Theft Auto IV's episodes added new storylines led by interesting new playable protagonists into its excellent open world. Infamous 2's Festival of Blood playfully dabbled with a radically different tonal shift. Harley's does none of the these things, let alone do them well.
Harley Quinn's Revenge sits uncomfortably in the shadow of Arkham City's day-one Catwoman DLC. That October adventure gave us several Catwoman adventures woven into the game's grand city. It gave us a playable Bat-icon who controlled similarly but just differently enough from Batman—a wall-crawler, more like a Spider-Man, really. It was worth buying the game new to play it or worth grabbing later as a downloadable bonus. Harley's is not. Instead, in rummaging through Arkham City's leftovers and coming up with nothing new, Harley's places the Arkham games at an unexpected juncture: were the series creators at Rocksteady holding back here, saving their new ideas for a new game or have we evidence that a lovely two-game formula has run its course?


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In the wake of the Mark Teixeira signing – and as an aside, does anyone else find it remarkable that Mazz is still arguing that the outcome could have been different, in spite of evidence like this? – and, to a lesser extent, the acquisition and signing of Matt Joyce and Pat Burrell by the Rays, many seemed to conclude that the Sox' offense would necessarily compare less than favorably to our divisional rivals. Which of course is entirely possible.
But I thought it would be interesting to look at the projected average OPS of the anticipated lineups for the three AL East clubs to see how they fared relative to one another. For the comparison, I picked the CHONE projections, not least because they're available by team. If anyone has the James or Marcel numbers batched I'd be happy to add them.
Anyway, here's what CHONE sees for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009:
Not bad. Joyce and Burrell are decent additions, and the lineup as a whole should have reasonable on base skills with the exception of the bottom of the lineup (they're not ordered here).
Now how about the big, bad Yankees?
I might quibble with a few of the projections, but basically it shows what you'd expect: substantial on base ability top to bottom, with consistent power through the first six spots.
But what of the good guys? Are we completely outclassed in this winter of media discontent?
Not exactly. What we give up in power, CHONE expects us to make up in OBP. Which is all the more interesting, as one common criticism of OPS is that it undervalues OBP.
Does this mean everything's sunshine and lollipops for '09? Hardly. First, it's just a projection. Two, it doesn't factor in benches. Three, it can't anticipate injuries. And so on.
But it is worth remembering, I think, that the conventional wisdom that we wanted Tex while the Yankees needed him is looking pretty accurate by CHONE's numbers.


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Trapped: Cell-invading piece of virus captured in lab
In recent research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Saint Louis University investigators report catching integrase, the part of retroviruses like HIV that is responsible for insertion of the viral DNA into human cell DNA, in the presence of a drug designed to thwart it.
This achievement sets the stage to use x-ray crystallography to develop complete images of HIV that include integrase, which in turn will help scientists develop new treatments for the illness.
Duane Grandgenett, Ph.D., professor at SLU's Institute of Molecular Virology and senior author of the study, discovered integrase in 1978, little knowing the piece of virus would provide the basis for an entire class of drugs that now treats HIV.
"In 1974, we hadn't heard of HIV yet," Grandgenett said. "We did, however, study retroviruses, the class of viruses that includes HIV. Retroviruses spread by taking over your cell's DNA.
"And the way the virus does this is with integrase. It's responsible for inserting the genetic information of the virus, the DNA, into our chromosomes establishing the viral reservoir. Then, it uses our cells to replicate.
"Integrase is a key component that makes HIV pathogenic."
When a person is infected with HIV, there is an initial burst of virus production. This is when integrase inserts the virus DNA into many human cells, including CD4 T-immune cells, brain cells and other lymph cells. HIV is particularly devastating to the immune system's T-cells, which protect the body from infection.
"Most people do not die from virus replication but from secondary causes," Grandgenett said. "Their immune system collapses and opportunistic infections and cancer are what really kill the person."
Now, scientists have developed drugs that are very successful at managing HIV. Combinational drug therapy is particularly effective. The virus mutates so that it can quickly become resistant to a drug. But when three different drugs aim at three different targets, as in combination drug therapy, the probability of drug resistance is much smaller.
There is one catch, however. Patients must take the drugs every day. If they do not, the virus starts cycling again and within a few weeks the viral levels are back up.
Scientists continue to try to stay a step ahead of the virus, both to combat drug resistance and to develop better treatments.
To develop better drugs, scientists want to use a process called x-ray crystallography to develop a complete picture of how integrase inhibitors – the class of HIV drugs that target integrase— interact with the virus.
"We're aiming to develop newer, better medicines," Grandgenett said. "We want to better understand how the integrase inhibitor drugs interact with integrase.
"So far, everybody has failed to produce HIV integrase-DNA images via high resolution x-ray crystallography," Grandgenett said. "No one has ever captured the mother load."
This is Grandgenett's goal.
"Now, we're going after full length integrase protein with DNA," Grandgenett said. "This is what I've wanted to do since 1978, even before HIV was identified."
To do this, Grandgenett and his team, including investigators Krishan Pandey, Ph.D., and Sibes Bera, Ph.D., needed to develop an integrase-DNA complex and then kinetically stabilize the complex in the presence of the drug.
Researchers used a surrogate virus to take a shortcut. Because integrase structures are similar in all retroviruses, Grandgenett tried his approach in Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), whose integrase is more readily manipulated than HIV integrase.
All current clinical integrase inhibitors work in the same way: They block integrase which prevents HIV from replicating. Specifically, they do this by stopping viral DNA strand transfer with STIs – strand transfer inhibitors.
Those inhibitors work by binding three components together: viral DNA; viral integrase; and the drug itself. Before this study, no one had been able to produce a synaptic complex (SC) in solution, the place where these three elements meet.
The researchers developed conditions where the HIV strand transfer inhibitors (STIs) trapped the SC of the surrogate RSV integrase. Grandgenett reports that this experiment is first time anyone has ever captured an integrase-DNA-inhibitor SC in solution.
"We've isolated it and now we want to do x-ray crystallography on it to get a better image of HIV integrase," Grandgenett said. "That's the next step. Hopefully, that crystal structure will better explain how integrase drugs and DNA interact at the nanometer level.
"This will help us to design new drugs. There will be a lot of uses for this information."
Journal information: Journal of Biological Chemistry
Provided by Saint Louis University


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On golf: Another big win ramps up expectations for Woods
DORAL, Fla. - There is a fascination with numbers when it comes to Tiger Woods, a product of him winning so much over so many years.
He now has 76 wins on the PGA Tour, six short of the record 82 by Sam Snead, and one more than Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh combined. His two-shot victory at Doral was his 17th in the World Golf Championships. No one else has won more than three. The Cadillac Championship was the 22nd time he has taken at least a three-shot lead into the final round on tour, and he has won them all.
But there is only one number that matters.
Woods is measured by majors, and he has not made up any ground on the record 18 won by Jack Nicklaus in five years.
He remains stuck on 14.
Woods stamped himself as the favorite at Augusta National, not so much because he has won twice before the Masters for the first time since 2008, but for the way he built big leads and never gave anyone else much hope. The less excitement about the way he wins, the more intimidating he looks.
Woods had a two-shot lead at the halfway point of Torrey Pines, doubled it going into the final round and stretched it to eight shots before he lost patience and interest in the Monday finish. Despite dropping four shots in the last five holes, he still won by four.
He led by at least three shots from the 11th hole Saturday at Doral until a conservative bogey on the final hole gave him a two-shot win over Steve Stricker.
"That's how I know I can play," Woods said. "That's the thing. To be able to bring it out a couple times so far this year - and then be able to close and get the Ws on top of that - that's nice. Any time I can win prior to Augusta, it always feels good."
The temptation is to declare that Woods is back, though that should come with a note of caution.
It looked like he was back when he won at Bay Hill last year by five shots over Graeme McDowell, and then he tied for 40th in the Masters. It looked like he had that old magic back when he rallied to win the Memorial, and then he went into a weekend fog at The Olympic Club and didn't crack the top 20.
And while he has won twice this year, his record includes a missed cut to start the year at Abu Dhabi, and a tie for 37th at the Honda Classic when he never broke par any of the four rounds because of two lost balls, four shots in the water and four double bogeys. He also lost in the Match Play Championship, which is not a good measure because he was 2-under par (without a bogey on his card) through 17 holes and ran into a guy (Charles Howell III) who played a little bit better that day.
How he fares at Bay Hill in two weeks - he could go back to No. 1 in the world with a win - will determine the degree of expectations going into the Masters.
McDowell might be the best judge of Woods among players.
He now has played in the final group with Woods three times in just over two years. McDowell saw some shockingly bad shots by Woods at the Chevron World Challenge in December 2010 when he made up a four-shot deficit against Woods and beat him in a playoff behind two clutch birdies.
Woods had a one-shot lead over McDowell in the final round at Bay Hill last year and pulled away in conditions so firm, fast and scary that Woods referred to it as a U.S. Open that broke out in Orlando. Woods won by five.
They played the final 36 holes together at Doral, and McDowell gave him a good fight. Turns out it wasn't a fair fight.
Woods had a solid command of his shots, and he putted as well as he has all year, thanks to that tip from Stricker. Woods made 61-of-64 putts inside 10 feet for the week on the Blue Monster. He missed only one putt inside 5 feet out of 52 chances.
The most significant putt by Woods came on the second hole, when McDowell stuffed his approach inside 7 feet and Woods matched him with an 18-foot birdie putt of his own. What won't get as much attention is a stretch of holes early on the back nine, when Woods poured in a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-5 10th hole, and made tricky 5-foot par putts look easy on the 12th and 13th holes to keep his margin.
"I said in the press room last night, 'He doesn't look phenomenal, it just looks really, really good.' And that probably came out wrong because what I mean is the golf courses don't let you be phenomenal," McDowell said, referring to Doral on Sunday and Bay Hill a year ago.
"You've got to be under control," he said. "In this wind the last couple days, his ball flight control is pretty stunning, really. It's pretty cool to watch. I thought his short game and putting the last couple days was very impressive. He cleaned up everything he had to clean up pretty much. It was good stuff."
And how did Woods compare with the World Challenge at the end of 2010?
"He doesn't have those off-the-radar balls anymore," McDowell said. "In '10, '11 when I was playing with him, he would hit the odd shot where you would just of blink twice and go, 'Really, that's wide.' He's got the ball under control now. He knows exactly what his golf swing is going to produce."
Despite the up-and-down results at the start of the year, the big picture indicates an upward trend for Woods.
He went the last six months of 2012 without winning anywhere, and he didn't register consecutive top 10s until the FedEx Cup playoffs in September. Even so, Woods finished off that season with five straight finishes in the top 10.
Woods now has won more than half his PGA Tour events (40) on seven courses - Torrey Pines, Firestone, Bay Hill, Cog Hill, Muirfield Village, Doral and Augusta National. All are considered tough courses, and most of those wins came against some of the strongest fields.
He has won five times in the last year - the most of anyone in the world - and all were on strong golf courses.
"I felt that toward the end of last year that I was heading that direction, where things were becoming better," Woods said. "That gave me so much confidence heading into the offseason that I was heading in the right direction. Just keep going, keep plugging along, keep working with the things that Sean (Foley) wants me to do. And lo and behold, I've had two really good weeks this year."
The question now is where it will lead.
This was the eighth time in his career that Woods has won at least two PGA Tour events before the Masters. In six of the previous seven years, he went on to win a major.


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Sun-Times Lays Off Entire Photo Staff via @cnguild twitter.com/JournalistsLik…
— StuffJournalistsLike (@JournalistsLike) May 30, 2013
This continues a series on advice for new top editors in Digital First Media newsrooms.
Newsroom strategy needs to be bold. But you also need to know what digital audiences value.
On the boldness scale, I give a little credit to the editor (and/or corporate executive) who decided to cut the entire photo staff of the Chicago Sun-Times. While I oppose and mourn every cut in newsroom staff, I have said news organizations need to decide what to stop doing. If you have to cut, I think I'd normally have more respect for leaders with the guts to make a strategic cut — such as cutting an entire department — than those who just helplessly erode the whole newsroom across the board.
As I read the outpouring of outrage, sympathy and support for the Sun-Times photo staff in social media yesterday, the part of me that loves bold leadership and recognizes that sentimentality and affection can't guide business decisions wanted to defend this decision. But I can't get there.
This strategy overlooks what the audience values.
Most top editors come up through the writing and editing ranks, not from the photo staff, so our default settings favor paragraphs over photographs. But our users engage more deeply with visual images. They always have.
The longest story of my career had its roots in a photograph, the famous Homecoming photograph that won a Pulitzer Prize for Buddy Bunker during World War II. I poured every shred of writing skill I had into the stories I wrote from Venezuela in 2000, but I knew that it was Gary Fandel's masterful photos that drew the readers to my words.
Quality photos have huge value with digital audiences. News organizations haven't yet figured out the best ways to generate revenue that fully reflects that value. Newsrooms need to experiment with their approaches to photo coverage. But I can't imagine how the best approach would be to fire your whole photo staff.
When I was editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, my staff covered a horrific flood (beyond the 500-year flood level) on June 12, 2008.* Our reporting staff did a stellar job and drove a ton of traffic. But nothing drove traffic like the spectacular photos taken by our amazing photo staff. The professional photojournalists on our staff — Cliff Jette, Liz Martin, Brian Ray, Courtney Sargent, Jim Slosiarek and Jonathan Woods — took photos that captured the community experience of that catastrophe better than anything else.
Their photos were most of the content of a book, Epic Surge, that sold more than 20,000 copies and their work attracted thousands of visitors to an exhibit at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, beyond the page views and newspaper sales the photos drove.
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayerstirred a controversy with her recent comments, in explaining changes to Flickr, that "there is no such thing really as professional photographers." She clarified, but she also voiced a question that many in the news business have been wondering: If everyone in the community has cameras in their pockets and purses, and they are sharing billions of photos, what's the value of professional photography today?
The cliché about a picture being worth a thousand words is stating an average. The photos I take may be worth a few hundred at best and often just a few dozen. But a stellar photojournalist's picture can be worth several thousand words.
I believe newsrooms need to do a better job of engaging the community to submit photos of community news, life and events for our use. I believe reporters need to shoot more routine photos and videos to accompany their own stories (which the Sun-Times reportedly is planning to do).
But I don't see community engagement or reporter photos replacing the work of professional visual journalists. Those amateur or professional-multi-tasker photographs add to the volume and variety in a medium where visual content engages more effectively than words. We should use that content to free professional photojournalists from doing routine assignments and spend their time heavily, if not exclusively, in chronicling major breaking news stories and producing photo galleries, videos and interactive multimedia projects.
The job of a professional photojournalist is changing dramatically, as it needs to. But the value of professionally produced visual content remains high.
Every journalist needs to continually assess and update skills. Visual journalists should develop their digital skills and their reporting skills (in many instances, if you can assign only one journalist to a story, it would be better to have a photojournalist tell the story visually, with enough reporting to carry the cutlines and/or the audio, than to give a reporter a point-and-shoot camera to embellish the words).
Digital First Media benefits from the video and photo excellence of visual journalists such as Dai Sugano, Craig F. Walker, Joe Amon, Jane Tyska, Rudy Gutierrez, Jason Plotkin, Peter Hvizdak, Leah Hogsten, Tom Kelly IV and many more. We need to develop better ways to make money from their work, but I can't imagine how our future would look brighter by presuming that our visual content would draw as much attention with the photos that reporters shoot.
The Sun-Times can't possibly be better off without publishing any more photos by John H. White, a Pulitzer Prize winner whose stunning dismissal yesterday drew such labels as "legendary" and "iconic."
I don't have all the answers for how the news business is going to return to prosperity. But I do know that in the torrent of visual content online, quality stands out more than ever. I'd rather figure out the future working with a staff of professional photojournalists than without.
How can your newsroom gain more value from professional visual content? Who are the professional journalists who provide value to your audience?
*Cedar Rapids is experiencing another flood now. While the forecast doesn't call for a crest nearly as bad as 2008, I remember how much that flood exceeded forecasts. I hope my old community and old colleagues don't have as severe a flood to cover as we had then.
Twitter responses
@stevebuttry when I think of skilled photojournalists who have adapted to digital, I think of @ricksforza, a master storyteller
— Louis Amestoy (@LouisAmestoy) June 1, 2013
@stevebuttry I'd argue newsrooms need photogs who are mobile, think multiplatform audience, and who identify changes and adapt to them
— Louis Amestoy (@LouisAmestoy) June 1, 2013
@louisamestoy @stevebuttryOur J. Haeger @oneidaphoto started w/B&W film then color, digital, video & now Tout. Good visuals are crucial.
— Kurt Wanfried (@oneidaeditor) June 1, 2013
@stevebuttry I feel like if outlets continue eliminating photojournalist staff positions, we're going to get a lot more photos like this.
— Meryn Fluker (@MissFluker) May 31, 2013
@stevebuttry And I say that as a reporter.
— Meryn Fluker (@MissFluker) May 31, 2013
@stevebuttry I suspect they will end up bringing back in house when outsourcing photogs proves more expensive in reality than on paper
— markwoodward (@markwoodward) May 31, 2013
@stevebuttry expect it won't be long before others follow suit. Going freelance will be inefficient. Wonder what @umairh view would be?
— markwoodward (@markwoodward) May 31, 2013
Photos matter. Great photos matter more. Yes, @stevebuttry, yes yes yes. bit.ly/17bAg9n
— Neil Chase (@chaseneil) May 31, 2013
Want to contribute a guest post?
If you're another Digital First editor (or a leader or former leader in another organization) and would like to propose a guest post as part of the series, email me at sbuttry (at) digitalfirstmedia (dot) com and we'll discuss. Sue Burzynski Bullard provided such a post on organizational tools. Nancy March wrote one on balancing work and personal life. Dan Rowinski wrote about mobile opportunities.
I'm not interested in a post of general leadership tips. I'd rather have a post on a particular leadership topic. Feel free to suggest a post that might address a topic I've already covered, but from a different perspective. I welcome posts that disagree with my advice. I will invite a few editors I respect to write posts.
Earlier posts with advice for editors
Lead your newsroom in pursuing mobile opportunities
Blog about your newsroom's transformation
You're a role model; be a good one, like Dave Witke
Do what you say you'll do — by being organized
Lead and stimulate discussions of ethics
Stand for accuracy and accountability
Deliver criticism with a challenge
How do your daily budgets reflect multi-platform planning needs?
What new beats would help newsrooms cover local news better?
Why editors should be active on Twitter
The Buttry version of social media best practices for editors
How the crowd can save your career
Leading your staff into the Twitterverse
Mentors don't always see their seeds blossom
Upcoming topics
Here are topics I am planning on covering in this series (the order is tentative). The posts probably will run every few days for the next few weeks. What other topics should I cover?
- Time management
- Discipline and addressing problems
- Developing new leaders
- Diversity
- Teamwork
- Hiring
- Interviewing
- Firing
- Fun


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The farm will comprise seven turbines of capacity at least 1.5MW. According to PGE EO this is just the first phase of Resko project, which will eventually have a capacity of 90MW.
Another Polish power group – Tauron also announced the tender for the construction and delivery of wind turbines for 40MW Wicko wind farm. This is the second attempt to begin the Wicko project.
The company cancelled the first tender as no offer was submitted. Wicko wind farm is to comprise 20 2MW units.
It is not the only project being developed in Wicko county. Last week company Szelf also announced a tender for 10MW wind farm in the county.


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This is our first April Blue Monday. Please hurry, drop by and visit with Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com as time is passing much too quickly.
Recently, one of the major departments here had a children style show. They were introducing their spring lines. This was so much fun. It was hilarious what some of the children did or did not do. That is why anything with little ones in it is the very best. They are so unpredictable in their actions.
Some of the cute little participates waiting with their parents. Note a few have on blue.
I have no clue who this precious child is. I thought she was adorable and snapped shot of her. The pictures are not the best. They moved to fast for this slow poke.
Notice the fellow just beginning his walk on the runway. He was, in my opinion, the star of the show.
As some of you know by now, that is my great grandson, Layton.
Each of the participates got to keep the cloths they modeled. He was glad since they dressed him in blue.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Style Show Blue Monday
Posted by LV at 9:00 PM
Labels: Blue Monday
24 comments:
- Bethe77 said...
LV! He is so adorable! I think you are right he is the star. He even looks like one.
- April 3, 2011 at 9:10 PM
- Ruth Hiebert said...
Layton certainly is a star.Children are the best,they have no concern over what others may think.
- April 3, 2011 at 9:56 PM
- Gypsea Nurse said...
Ha! what fun!! I want to go back and be that carefree!
Cricket@ gypseanurse
- April 3, 2011 at 11:52 PM
- Ginny Hartzler said...
Layton looks very stylish indeed with those cool shades and nice outfit. And I love that pose he is striking in the last picture, a true professional!! What a fun event that must have been!!!
- April 3, 2011 at 11:53 PM
- SmilingSally said...
Layton is indeed the star of this show! What a looker! Thanks for sharing your blues.
Happy Blue Monday, La Voice.
- April 4, 2011 at 12:05 AM
- Becky K. said...
He is a natural model! So handsome!!
Have a great day, LaVoice.
- April 4, 2011 at 5:44 AM
- NatureFootstep said...
Layton seems to be a very nice young man. :)
- April 4, 2011 at 6:45 AM
- MinnieRunner said...
The girl in pink is so cute :)
- April 4, 2011 at 9:16 AM
- Anonymous said...
Cute kids!
Happy neew week, kisses:)
- April 4, 2011 at 10:03 AM
- Dias Spot said...
oh my! he's so cute LV....you must be very proud...thanks for sharing and for dropping by my entry.
- April 4, 2011 at 11:08 AM
- Anonymous said...
Layton is such a cutie! Looks like all of the kids had a ton of fun.
- April 4, 2011 at 11:16 AM
- Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy said...
Hi LV, Layton is darling! Such a delightful post; kids are so cute. Thanks for sharing this with us, and Happy Blue Monday!
Kathy M.
- April 4, 2011 at 12:10 PM
- aspiritofsimplicity said...
oh yes the children are very cute in their clothes
- April 4, 2011 at 1:08 PM
- Betsy Banks Adams said...
Hi LV, Of course, that's your Great Grandson.... He is the star of the show. Afterall, look who his Great Grandmother is!!!!!!!
Back from vacation --trying to catch up a little!!!!
- April 4, 2011 at 1:44 PM
- jeanne said...
Hi LV, this is the cutest post for Blue Monday. I had a feeling Layton would be the star in this cute show. He is adorable with sunglasses and a very chic outfit. He looks like he had a grand time. So did you is my bet!!!
Hugs, Jeanne
- April 4, 2011 at 3:23 PM
- Chubskulit Rose said...
Layton is very handsome!
Gorgeous little girl too!
Please come take a look at my entry, thank you!
- April 4, 2011 at 5:36 PM
- Vintagesouthernlife said...
Layton is just adorable!
Happy Blue Monday!
- April 4, 2011 at 6:06 PM
- kat said...
Yeah, he's the star of the show. He is so adorable. Bring him in the Philippines and will be a big child star.
Thanks for the visit LV
- April 4, 2011 at 10:13 PM
- Wanda Metcalf said...
How cool does that lil dude look! love his sunglasses : )
Fun Blue post Thanks for coming by mine on Monday I love how these linky give us a chance to meet others!
- April 5, 2011 at 6:17 AM
- Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita said...
Your little guy really knows how to do the model walk! what a cutie! It sounds like a fun event.
- April 5, 2011 at 10:16 AM
- Mary Bergfeld said...
What a wonderful post for Blue Monday. Your great grandson is a swetheart and very cool :-). I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary
- April 5, 2011 at 10:30 AM
- Icy BC said...
Looks like a fun outing, and such sweet kids!
- April 5, 2011 at 12:41 PM
- Kranky Granny said...
What a delightful post. I also like your new design. Love the blogging to 100.
My mother is your age and I have been trying to teach her the computer but she just doesn't get it. She would rather be out riding her bike and playing bridge at the senior center.
Go figure!
- April 5, 2011 at 11:02 PM
- lina@happy family said...
Layton is so cute :)
Sorry for my late visit, LV...
- April 6, 2011 at 4:44 AM


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Ostend Manifesto
Ostend Manifesto, document drawn up in Oct., 1854, at Ostend, Belgium, by James Buchanan, American minister to Great Britain, John Y. Mason, minister to France, and Pierre Soulé, minister to Spain. William L. Marcy, Secretary of State under President Pierce, instructed Soulé to try to buy Cuba from Spain, but Soulé antagonized the Spanish by his political intrigues and aggressive threats (he issued an unwarranted ultimatum to the Spanish government on the Black Warrior affair). Pierce then ordered a conference of the three diplomats in Europe, all proslavery Democrats, at Ostend. The resulting manifesto strongly suggested that the United States should take Cuba by force if Spain refused to sell. Southerners, who had long feared that Cuba might become an independent black republic, applauded the document, but it was vigorously denounced by the free-soil press as a plot to extend slavery. Marcy immediately repudiated it for the U.S. government.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History


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Gary E. MacDougal (The Wrong Way to Help the Poor, 10/10/12) claims that the Federal government currently spends an average of $87000 a year on the typical family of four living in poverty. MacDougall's calculation is out by a factor of at least four and probably more.
MacDougal's source, Michael Tanner of Cato, treats all means-tested programs as anti-poverty programs. This includes the Earned Income Tax Credit, Family Tax credit and other programs for the middle and working classes. As Tanner admits, these programs have at least 100 million recipients, and probably many more. So, the average payment is less than $10 000, not the $20, 610 Tanner estimates.
It gets worse. The number of recipients doesn't include children or adult dependents, but MacDougal's calculation does. His family of four would include at most two benefit recipients, and would therefore receive less than the poverty line income of $23 050.


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Steelers beat Jets
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers advanced to their third Super Bowl in six years thanks to a big-play defense that returned a fumble for a touchdown and staged a late goal-line stand in a 24-19 victory over the New York Jets.
Pittsburgh, which led 24-0 in the first half and held on, faces the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl in Dallas in two weeks. The Packers beat Chicago 21-14 earlier Sunday.
William Gay went 22 yards after fellow defensive back Ike Taylor sacked Mark Sanchez and the ball came loose. Pittsburgh then stopped New York four times inside the 2 in hanging on.
The Steelers (14-4) have won a record six Super Bowls. New York (13-5) has not been back since winning the most significant Super Bowl in 1969, validating the AFL with a victory over Baltimore.


text: RockAuto Discount Code - Expires 06/08/2013 Mar 8, 2013 13:20:09 GMT -5 Quote Select PostDeselect PostLink to PostMemberGive GiftBack to Top Post by rockauto on Mar 8, 2013 13:20:09 GMT -5 5% Discount Code: CE3E51E8823AExpires: 06/08/2013Please enter this code in the 'How Did You Hear about Us' box to receive discount. Please note that orders using discount codes must be placed online and the discount code must be entered before an order is submitted to receive the discount. Phone orders are not eligible for discounts.RockAuto.com is an online auto parts store founded in Madison, Wisconsin in 1999 by the Taylor family. RockAuto.com now ships thousands of auto parts from over 200 manufacturers to customers worldwide.The www.RockAuto.com catalog is updated daily with mechanical parts like brake pads and shock absorbers, body parts like bumpers and mirrors, interior trim like door handles and carpets, and major assemblies like steering gears, CV axles, and engine long blocks. Service manuals and CDs are available to help customers learn how to perform a repair. The www.RockAuto.com catalog is expanding constantly. Someday it may be possible to build an entire car using parts from RockAuto.com! RockAuto.com prices are low every day! Order online at www.RockAuto.com 24 hours a day. Parts are conveniently delivered to your door. Have parts questions that must be answered accurately? RockAuto.com has excellent customer service agents ready to help you get the parts you need. E-mail email@example.com or call Toll Free, 1-866-762-5288. (Mon - Thur 6 to 10 / Fri 6 to 9 / Sat 7 to 6 / Sun 8 to 4 Central Standard Time).Attachments:


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Where did all the bullets go?
Not long ago, the New York Times carried an article that revealed one of law enforcement's deepest, darkest secrets. Though most agencies are loathe to admit it (and some do not even track it), the vast majority of the bullets police officers fire in the line of duty miss their intended target.
I was not surprised to find striking similarity in the results reported by Los Angeles on the left coast and New York City on the right. I found almost identical numbers ten years ago when analyzing the shooting results of a large mid-western agency. And to prove that the situation is apparently little changed from a hundred years ago, consider this Theodore Roosevelt quote from when he was the New York City Police Commissioner: "It is wonderful, in the event of a street fight, how few bullets seem to hit the men they are aimed at."
How bad is it? Well, both NYPD and LAPD give hit-rates that hover around 30 percent. In the article, New York claimed a 34 percent hit rate, while LA listed a 31 percent hit rate last year. But, upon a closer read, you will find that even these low numbers misstate the real facts. You see, these 30 percent hit rates include shots fired at dogs, cars, and even police suicides, which tragically run about 100 percent hits. During 1999 in New York, only 13 percent of the bullets fired during police gunfights struck home. During 2006, NYPD's gunfight hit rate was a much better 30 percent, but we don't have enough information to know if this was a maintainable improvement or just a statistical variation.
So, even when we take the best "spin" on the best numbers, about 70 percent of the bullets police officers fire strike something they didn't want to shoot. Luckily, there is an awful lot of stuff in our jurisdictions that can catch errant bullets with minimal bad consequences. While NYPD no longer tabulates information on things unintentionally shot, in 1996 five innocent bystanders were wounded there by police gunfire.
Realistically, we cannot expect street officers armed with handguns to approach the sniper's goal of "one shot, one kill." But, when you consider that the average distance of a police gunfight is well under 7 yards, often less than 10 feet, we must ask ourselves what the hell is going on?
I'd be willing to bet most of these officers could easily hit a man-sized target 100 percent of the time at 10 feet on the firing range. The answer is both simple and complex. The difference between the 100 percent hit-rate on the training range and the 13 percent gunfight hit-rate can be boiled down to one easy statement: Nobody's shooting at you on the training range.
From a trainer's point of view, therein lies the problem. For the first several decades of police firearms training, standing still while shooting at a stationary paper target was thought to be good enough. With some agencies, training has changed little since the 1930's.
Adding realism to our training, such as moving targets and movement of the shooters is a distinct improvement, but still isn't enough. In order to truly train an officer to gunfight, we have to, well, put them in a gunfight. I work at a highly militaristic police academy where trainees march in groups, square their corners, and wear you out with their "Good Morning Sir's" in the hallway. But, if we had 'em load up and square off in the parking lot at high noon, the washout rate would be even higher!
Someone once said that experience is something you get ... right after you need it. While we cannot truly put our officers in a gunfight during training, we can trick their mind into thinking we have. The first method of realistic gunfight training is the computer simulator. Most of us have had a run or two against the "on-screen" adversaries. If done correctly, the simulators can generate enough realism to induce "stress inoculation," the training method that produces a pseudo experience real enough to be stored on an officer's hard drive for future reference. The best new simulators allow for weapon malfunctions to teach clearing techniques under stress and even allow the instructor to punish the trainee with hostile paintball fire if they fail to use available cover properly.
The closest we can come to a real gunfight is force-on-force training where both participants use weapons firing non-lethal projectiles. Paint munitions hurt when they hit and leave a paint mark to prevent the "you didn't hit me" response we all remember from playing "war" with cap guns as a kid (at least those of us over 40 remember cap guns!).
A disadvantage to using paint marking cartridges is the high cost of both the weapons and ammunition and the need for full face protection, which hinders both vision and hearing. Some training groups are now using realistic air-soft weapons which are often exact replicas of our duty weapons, much more affordable and don't require the same degree of protective gear - while still stinging the recipient. Whatever type of non-lethal projectile weapon you choose, it is the realism of facing a human target that gives us the huge training benefit. No simulator can ever give the degree of interaction and infinite variables you will face when another human is throwing "lead" in your direction.
When aggravating factors such as darkness, moving targets and real return fire are a part of the gunfight equation, the police hit rate on the street will never approach 100 percent. But, if your agency makes aggressive use of both cutting-edge computer simulators and sensibly designed force-on-force training scenarios, you should see a hit rate far better than the 11-13 percent figure quoted in research papers.
The primary reason we want officers to land more hits in a gunfight is, simply, for them to win the fight and go home safe. The secondary reason for wanting more hits is the "little lawyer" I like to say is attached to each bullet or buckshot pellet. Problem #1 is winning the fight. Problem #2 is winning the legal and administrative aftermath of using deadly force. Make sure you take things in their proper order. Don't let concerns over Problem #2 degrade your effectiveness at handling Problem #1.
First, go home safe!


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Pete O'Gear here, checking in for this weeks adventure. I'll be travelling to Vermont this week with my Losi 3P tent, Losi 3P pawprint, and a couple good friends. We plan to hike the 23 mile Glastenbury Mountain trail. As many of the good folks from Marlboro Vermont know, this covers a small portion of the Appalachian Trail that stretches through Green Mountain National Forest and contains plenty of climbing, with spectral views of the landscape.
I hear it's a pretty strenuous hike, which is good, because I plan on eating a big fat CAB burger at the Chelsea Royal Diner, just outside of Marlboro, afterword. Yum, Yum! Until next week, happy trails!


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Elementary School Barraged With Irate Complaints Over Fake News Report
A fake news article about a San Francisco elementary school suspending a child for saying "Merry Christmas" to an atheist teacher created a lot of real headaches for a similarly-named Bay Area school after the fake report went viral.
The school received "e-mail tirades," more than 75 phone complaints, and veiled threats of violence, according to district Assistant Superintendent Leticia Salinas.
The article appeared on a "satirical" website called the National Report (the same site that tripped up Fox News last month), and purportedly took place at "Argon" elementary school. It was later changed to "Anon," but that didn't protect Argonne elementary school from the internet's wrath.
According to SFGate, the original link was tweeted more than 400 times and liked more than 20,000 times on Facebook. And people took it very seriously.
The school's been doing damage control, dealing with "irate callers," and letting them know the report was a hoax. Argonne's school secretary said most were surprised and just hung up.
"You don't expect to have to deal with this at this time of year," Salinas said. "What was mostly upsetting was some of the references of what people should do to the teacher."


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The AP reports that a convicted sex offender has been charged with sexually battering a Florida woman while holding her captive for at least four days in her apartment. Police report that he met the woman New Year's Eve at her work. Jonathan Aaron Burdette ,33, is a registered sex offender,and a resident of Cocoa […]
Posts Tagged 'Cocoa Beach'
Police: Man Held Fla. Woman Captive 4 Days…He Made Her Lick The Toilet!!!January 6, 2010
Posted in Social Politics |
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Posts Tagged refactor
Terms Software Developers and Project Managers should stop using
Posted by dda in Uncategorized on January 19, 2012
Synopsis: "Developer Speak" has unintended overtones when interpreted by non-developers and may be misperceived. I often hear/read words and phrases in professional business settings that make me cringe a bit. I hear them in internal meetings, client meetings, and even interviews. I read them in emails and resumes. It could just be me, but certain […]


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Symantec reckons the forthcoming Windows 8 release of its Norton security software will actually speed up Microsoft's new OS.
At a briefing attended by TechRadar, Symantec head of development Collin Davis talked up the performance of the company's new code coming later in the year, saying using it in preference to Windows Defender means a faster experience in the Consumer Preview and Release Preview versions of Windows 8.
"Windows, as you know, includes Defender. And that's a big deal. That's great, it's important and it's continued to raise the bar," said Davis.
"But with Defender comes something interesting. You know how often we talk about speed and performance. We have an entire team that work on nothing but performance. Now we get to say, Norton makes Windows faster. Because Defender is slower than Norton."
"If you turn off Defender, your PC will be faster. We always have overhead, we still do. We add less overhead than Defender does. Beginning with our Fall release, you will be updated to the latest technology without reboots."
We were shown several slides with supposed better performance by Norton running on Windows 8, though it must be said these are internal Symantec tests. When questioned about this, Davis said he was sure the results would be replicated by independent testing.
Davis was also firm that, despite the growth in mobile operating systems, Windows will always be a target. "The bad guys will always exploit the operating system with most installs. Windows 8 will be no different."
The new Norton Fall release will also mean the end of the reboot when installing updates. "You won't need to reboot your PC. We've done a lot of new work on our update system without having to bounce the system."
Moving to versionless updates
And the new end of version numbers of Norton products in (though don't bet against boxes still being labelled with the year in shops). "What we're also looking at is the concept of versionless CDs," explained Davis.
"The subscription model hasn't changed, but the process of going from, say, 2011 to 2012 has traditionally been a manual one. So we've shifted away from that."
OEM versions of the software will also automatically be updated.


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This is the first post in The Decline and Fall of Warlocks in Cataclysm series.
Where have all the warlocks gone?
I heard this question more and more often as Cataclysm progressed. Raid leaders struggled to recruit them. Players didn't see them in LFD, or later, in LFR. Battleground appearances became increasingly rare. Leveling warlocks became an elusive beast for me to find on my own leveling tanks and healers.
It's not like warlocks were hugely popular in Wrath of the Lich King, but I didn't recall quite so many people asking me questions like this one. Some of the major kills of that expansion featured warlocks prominently – remember Stars doing Yogg-0 and all those Drain Soul beams? – but Cataclysm had those kinds of moments, too. I remember several Demonology warlocks in the world first Heroic Rag video. DPS was never so lackluster that it couldn't keep up. Warlocks weren't getting benched for playing warlocks … they just became scarce.
At the same time, I went through my own problems playing my warlock main, Cynwise. At first I thought it was due to my dissatisfaction with the PvP endgame at the end of Season 9, but as the months ticked by and I made no effort to pick up a warlock, any warlock, I found myself wondering if it was really the endgame I didn't enjoy in Cataclysm – or warlocks. I had become one of the missing warlocks, and I didn't even really know why.
Was it me? Was it the class? I felt very uncomfortable extrapolating my own experience out to warlocks in general. The specific incident that knocked me off my warlock main was too personal, too isolated. It didn't really have anything to do with warlocks at all – it had much more to do with the gear transition in endgame PvP, a lack of interest in raiding, and a desire to see more of the lower brackets.
Maybe it was just perception that there were fewer warlocks out there. Just because I've fallen out of love with a class doesn't mean that the class is broken, right? People change. I changed. I learned to love healing and tanking, for crying out loud! What kind of a warlock likes to tank things that aren't the floor?
The plural of anecdote isn't data.
I stopped playing a warlock when 4.2 was released. She went from my main to a neglected tailoring alt over the course of Cataclysm.
But the months ticked by, fewer people talked to me about the hexenfreude of playing a warlock, and more asked me what was wrong with the class. I had to wonder:
Was I the only one?
Are warlocks less popular now than they used to be? That's the question we must start with – is the decline one of perception only, or is it based in fact?
Comparing WoW census figures from the end of Wrath (patch 3.3.5) and what is presumably the last patch of Cataclysm (4.3.2) indicate that the answer to this is definitively yes.
Warlocks are less popular now than they were at the end of Wrath.
This data is taken from two sources: Armory Data Mining (fortunately, not updated since 3.3.5) and World of Wargraphs. (Here's the spreadsheet if you want to follow along.) Without knowing the methodology between these two censuses it's difficult to assign a high certainty between comparing between different data sources, but these numbers appear to be consistent across other census sites. Let's go with them as being at least relatively accurate.
- Three classes experienced significant declines in their playerbase: Paladins, Death Knights, and Warlocks. All three of these had substantial changes to their mechanics in Cataclysm.
- Two classes had statistically significant increases: Mages and Hunters. Hunters received substantial changes to their mechanics in Cataclysm; this is somewhat counter evidence to the opinion that the change to Focus from Mana was bad for the class.
- Three classes had small gains in popularity: Shamans, Druids, and Warriors.
- Two classes stayed about the same: Priests and Rogues.
There are several key points I'd like to raise from this data set.
Paladins and Death Knights suffered a larger decline in popularity than Warlocks (2.1% and 1.9% respectively), but because their relative popularity (#1 and #2 in Wrath) was so much higher, the loss was less noticeable.
The Wrath numbers for Death Knights and Paladins may have also been inflated by the Legendary Effect, where more players were playing classes with a current tier legendary (Shadowmourne) available for them. What's interesting is that we don't see a corresponding rise in warlocks competing for their legendary, which is only one raiding teir past current (and still exceptionally good), while we do see a corresponding rise in the popularity of Rogues with their legendary in this tier.
Class popularity concentrated in a few classes in Wrath, with the outliers (Paladins, DKs) skewing high. There's a nice little clump of 6 classes between 7.5% and 9.1%, Warriors are pretty close to even at 10.1%, and then there are the popular classes (Druid, DK, Paladin.) There isn't an absence of Warlocks, Rogues, Hunters and Shaman in this distribution – rather, there's a lot of people playing Paladins! Players notice that there was an abundance of a certain class, not an absence.
In Cataclysm, the popular classes became less popular and – overall – classes were more evenly distributed. There's a nice clump of 4 classes at 10-11%, a clump of 2 at 9.3% and the popular classes (Paladins and Druids) at 12-13%. There's less of a range between those 8 classes than in the previous model.
But notice that the outliers shifted from the high to the low end. Rogues are, relatively speaking, less popular compared to Hunters and Shamans than they used to be, even if their popularity hasn't changed. Warlocks are even worse off – not only did they decline in popularity overall, they've declined relative to the standard set by other classes. No longer do you notice that there are Paladins everywhere; you notice the absence of Warlocks.
The salient feature of Wrath's class popularity distribution was the abundance of Paladins and Death Knights; the salient feature of Cataclysm's class distribution is the dearth of Warlocks.
It's interesting that this is both a decline in fact and in perception.
So why are Warlocks in decline? Are they particularly bad at a particular area of the game? Is this a problem of balance, or power? Is this a case where warlocks are just plain underpowered? Are people making rational choices in raiding by shunning warlocks? Are they just bad in PvP? While I hadn't heard of any of these problems, perhaps there was a rational reason to choose another class.
I first looked at DPS in heroic raids. While heroic raids don't represent the entire universe of PvE, they're a good place to start when looking at DPS. I took a quick look at Raidbot's DPSbot and 25m H encounters:
Huh. Nothing in the last two months, really. Warlocks are solidly middle of the pack performers in hard mode raiding. Unlike some classes, their three specs are pretty well balanced between each other.
Maybe we need to look further back. Let's expand our view for the last year.
Okay, now we've got a lot more data, with more diversity in the data set, so we can see trends over the expansion.
- In 4.1, Affliction is one of the top DPS specs, sharing the lead with Shadow Priests and Arcane Mages. Balance Druids, MM Hunters, and Arms Warriors are also very strong. Demo and Destro are in the second tier of DPS.
- In 4.2, Affliction is no longer top of the DPS, but still competitive. Demonology remains mid-tier, while Destruction drops like a rock to the bottom of the charts.
- In 4.3, Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction are all mid-tier DPS performers. If you zoom in to various displays of the data on the linked site, Affliction is still the top Warlock performer, while Destruction has improved substantially.
So the picture that emerges of Warlock DPS is … it's fine. I know that's a judgement call, but realistically, it hasn't been bad, and it's even been pretty good at times. It hasn't been so awesome that it's an outlier (like Fire Mages an Shadow Priests), but at the same time, it hasn't really struggled. It's a solid performer.
What's interesting is that all three specs have had a pretty good run of it in Cataclysm – more so than any other pure DPS class. Mages have tended to have one superior spec in PvE at any given time, either Arcane or Fire. Hunters have had wildly erratic performance in PvE, with Survival either great or terrible, but Marskmanship and Beast Mastery lagging behind. Rogues have also been forced into Combat or Assassination, mostly Combat. Except for a period in 4.2 with Destruction falling way behind, all three Warlock specs were viable for Cataclysm raiding.
That's pretty remarkable, isn't it? You'd think that having viable choices for your PvE spec would be a benefit, wouldn't it?
Nothing in the DPS rankings says that the class needed to be buffed dramatically. While there are some superior choices at specific times, there were few classes that were consistently better. Shadow Priests, maybe? Mages weren't until they got the Fire buffs of 4.3.
So maybe there's something more going on here than just straight DPS problems. Let's go back to popularity and see if that sheds any light on how warlocks have done in raids.
One of the great things about the World of Wargraphs site is that it allows you to drill down to a specific environment, and compare how a class/spec combo does there, versus its overall popularity. This is important, because it allows you to avoid bias. If you looked at population distribution and said: 15% of everyone who killed 8 HM bosses was a Druid, therefore druids are overpowered in HM PVE content, you'd be making an erroneous statement. You have to compare this to the overall population – if 30% of all players played Druids, but only 15% killed HM bosses, Druids might be underpowered. Or Druids might have a disadvantage in PvE. Or there might be another class which is simply better than Druids at their tasks.
Let's take a real example of this. Here's the current distribution of classes of all characters who have killed at 4+ heroic raid bosses this tier.
Looking at only this data, you might conclude that Paladins, Priests, and Druids are better at heroic raiding, and Death Knights, Hunters, and Warlocks are worse at it. But this would be incorrect. You might have more Priests raiding than Shaman simply because there are more Priests playing the game, not because Priests have some natural advantages in raids.
When we take the data and mash it up against the global popularity percentages, we get numbers like this:
This allows us to see which classes tend to be brought to heroic raids a bit more than average (those with green Popularity Deltas) versus those who are not (those with red scores). Priests and Hunters make up about the same amount of the player base, but one gets brought to the heroic raids more often (Priests).
The remarkable thing about Warlocks? They appear to be properly represented in heroic raids. They're appealing enough to bring at the same rate as the general lock population. No advantages, but no real disadvantages, either.
The hybrid nature of some classes might throw these numbers off, though. We're not really being fair to hybrids by lumping them all together – you might have a great healing spec but an awful DPS spec, which would balance things out.
Okay! Let's look at it by spec, then.
This chart not only shows which specs are currently raiding hard modes successfully, but which ones are disproportionately good (or bad) at it. Survival Hunters make up only 3.1% of the WoW population, yet account for 7.5% of successful hard mode raiders. I think it's safe to say that Survival is a good raiding spec. A Beast Mastery hunter, on the other hand, is scarce in hard mode raiding (only 0.3%), yet is 2.7% of the total population.
In this case, the results we see here match the results we saw looking at DPS. That's good! This shows that for Hunters, at least, if you want to do Heroic Raids, you go for the one that produces the best DPS – which, right now, is Survival. I like it when data matches up like this, and we see it in other specs and classes, too. Fire Mage? Overrepresented. Frost Mage? Under.
Warlocks are a pretty small sample size, but we still see some parallels between the DPS scores and popularity. Each spec is equally represented, 2%-2.6%. Interestingly, Destruction is the most popular spec, and both it and Demonology are slightly more popular than their global populations. Affliction is less so. These don't quite match the DPS figures that we saw earlier, but this might be because the current tier requires more burst, which both Destro and Demo deliver better than Affliction. The perception is that Destro was buffed and Affliction is weak right now. We find statements like the following boilerplate from the Elitist Jerks warlock guides:
With the release of Patch 4.3 the warlock class sees a number of changes, in particular the Destruction spec, along with a few changes to the Demonology spec. Following these changes we see that all 3 specs are quite close, and all have something to bring to the table. For single target DPS, the following should be true at all gear levels:
Demonology > Destruction >= Affliction
While Demonology does pull ahead in single target DPS by ~2k DPS, this is only in close to perfect conditions where there is minimal to no movement and the player is able to stand in melee range. This means that in most situations Destruction and Affliction will perform better than Demonology.
On multi-target fights with strictly 2 DPS targets Affliction and Destruction should be quite even. However once any additional targets are introduced Affliction will perform considerably better than Destruction. Heavy AoE fights are where Demonology really begins to shine, followed respectably by Affliction and then Destruction behind by a considerable margin.
As confusing as they are, I think these observations are pretty accurate. All three specs are quite close, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses is important when deciding which spec to play on which fight.
This leads to an interesting observation about specs. When there's a clearly superior DPS spec for a class in raiding (e.g. Survival, Fire) players will flock to it. When two or three specs are raid viable, other considerations factor into the decision making process and muddy the water. We should not assume that having three viable raiding specs is better than only having one; Warlocks might have choices, but that isn't drawing people to raid with the class more than, say, Survival Hunters or Shadow Priests. It may be more flexible, but it isn't necessarily more appealing.
For Warlocks, there isn't an easy choice of spec in raiding right now. Should you go Demo/Destro on Spine for burst, or stay Affliction? Do you have the gear to switch between Destro and Demo? Will you be multidotting, or just handling a few adds? Which spec is the player more skilled at playing?
Aside from having more spec choices than any other DPS class, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with Warlocks in PvE raids.
Warlocks aren't underpowered in heroic raids, but neither are they overpowered.
If Warlocks are doing okay in PvE, perhaps poor performance in PvP is driving players away from the class.
I dunno. It could happen!
I toss this theory out because if you've leveled a Warlock lately in PvP, you know that battlegrounds can be tough on you. You have to have exceptionally good gear to succeed, and even then you'll probably die a lot. I don't think this theory holds at the endgame – warlocks have traditionally been pretty potent in PvP – but we should test it out.
The following graph presents all classes in all rated PvP environments – Arenas, Rated Battlegrounds – with a rating of 2200+.
This is the first population chart where Warlocks are not on the bottom. Not only are they not at the bottom, Warlocks are disproportionately well represented in highly ranked PvP.
There are classes which do better at rated PvP play than others, and Warlocks are on that list. If you look through the current 3v3 comp ratings, Warlocks are part of the dominant comp (RLS, Rogue Lock Shaman), and integral parts of most of the other comps.
The structure of 3v3 is usually straightforward: healer, controller, burst. Affliction Warlocks have the right tools to apply constant pressure on the healer, they're hard to kill, they have great CC, and they can put out a lot of damage. What they can't do is burst, which is why pairing them with a Rogue works so well. And Shaman healing works really well with Affliction PvP – Spirit Link totem is one of the keys to this synergy.
The PvP data on World of Wargraphs tells this story in a lot of different ways. It doesn't matter what Arena size it is, there are a disproportionate number of ranked Warlocks in it.
- 5v5 they are practically essential (Affliction is top spec, 12.7% of all players).
- 3v3 they are dominant (#4, 8.5%).
- 2v2 they're respectable (#7, 6.1%).
- Even rated battlegrounds, which I thought might have some falloff, sees 10.2% of all players as Warlocks – just behind Rogues.
That pretty much means every rated BG team is going to have a warlock – if they can find one.
The data tells a story about a class which is exceptionally good at ranked PvP, especially when working with several other players. They might be weak on their own, but they are very potent in a group. They are a damage support class, providing pressure everywhere. Other classes keep them alive or burn down the opponents; Afflocks provide the control and damage needed to create those openings.
Rogues are in a similar position; great PvP abilities, great PvE output, relatively low numbers. Both classes have received legendaries in Cataclysm, though Warlocks shared theirs with other caster DPS. Rogues are currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts in Dragon Soul, with their legendaries providing both class interest and top DPS for a class which has deserved some love for some time.
Hunters are in the opposite position. Terrible in ranked PvP, a single PvE spec doing well in raids after struggling for much of the expansion, and a completely reworked resource system. But Hunter popularity is up, and Warlock popularity continue to slip.
There isn't anything wrong with the Warlock numbers. That's what's so frustrating about this problem. The class isn't out of balance, it's not pulling in low DPS, and it's doing really well in PvP.
So why the hell are people not playing warlocks anymore?
The preceding sections tried to establish facts of the case:
- Are Warlocks in decline? Yes.
- Do they have DPS issues in raids? No, they even have some advantages over other pure DPS classes. DPS looks okay.
- Are there problems in rated PvP? No. They're part of the most dominant comp this season. Locks are consistently represented with high rankings.
The two most obvious reasons players would not choose Warlocks at the endgame – that they have performance issues in PvE, PvP, or both – are just not there. Especially when we look at the expansion as the whole, the data simply doesn't support the idea that Locks can't hack it. They can. They can shine.
They just aren't.
So we must look elsewhere for answers.
My first theory about the data we've looked at is that it is very focused on level 85 play – and the upper tier of endgame play at that – which is why it fails to explain the lack of Warlocks. Heroic raiding and 2200+ PvP are not the activities of the majority of the player base, but they are activities which receive a lot of scrutiny from both players and developers. This upper tier endgame bias allows us to focus on the potential maximums of each spec, as well as see how a class is performing in demanding conditions, but it doesn't represent everyone at 85, let alone everyone in the game.
PvP is not balanced around any level other than 85, and arguably it is only balanced for rated PvP play at level 85. Several detrimental changes were made to regular battlegrounds during the course of Cataclysm to solve problems that only existed in rated play. Changes were made to classes based upon their performance in Arenas, not regular battlegrounds. The emphasis of Cataclysm was getting players into Rated Battlegrounds, which meant that they were the (flawed) yardstick by which all PvP was measured.
PvE is a different beast, but the fundamental assumption is that balance still happens at 85. I think that the different buff and nerf cycles experienced in Cataclysm support this. I can't say that they're not looking at performances in 5-man content or daily content, but we don't see a lot of changes aimed at fixing balance in those activities. Raids are where the logs are. Raids drive the nerfs and buffs.
So this theory surmises that the problem with Warlocks is not visible in the endgame data because the data is looking at the wrong activities. It's looking at the endgame. Perhaps there's something wrong with the class at endgame – people rolled warlocks, but end up not playing them at the endgame.
There could be a few things going on here.
- Warlocks attempt to raid/PvP at endgame, but stop for some reason other than their performance. Possible reasons include class mechanics, better buffs from other classes, easier to gear other classes through raid content/5-mans.
- Warlocks get to 85, don't attempt to raid at all, but enjoy other endgame content.
- Warlocks get to 85, but are not played in the endgame at all, and the player rerolls or quits.
- Warlocks never get to 85, and therefore never get to endgame content.
The population popularity comparison is about the only data that we have to go on for the first point, but it's telling that Warlocks are fairly represented in heroic raids compared to the general population (6.7%). If you want to raid, you can, and you can do well. If you are a serious raider leveling to 85, you're about as likely to raid on a Warlock as a different class.
Casual raiders, of course, might have a different story. Warlocks might do well if executed perfectly, but if their rotation has less margin for error, then there could be a problem between the upper tier or raiders and the masses at 85. So we can't rule the first possibility out just yet.
The second possibility is that people level their locks to 85 and choose to not raid on them, but do other things. Hunters and DKs appear to be in this situation – they are underrepresented in their raid popularity compared to their overall population. Warlocks, as break even, don't seem to be here.
Three and four are different but would look the same to most of the data we have, just because the data appears to measure active 85s. We need to look at different data – in this case, realm population data across all levels, not just endgame data.
We have to find out if people are even bothering to level warlocks.
I was talking about this post with Narci from Flavor Text, and she was kind enough (thanks, Narci!) to cull the following data on class populations in different level ranges from Warcraft Realms:
Let's look at these graphed out, too.
The Warlock line is there below everyone else. It doesn't start there, but once it crosses the Shaman line around level 20 it never really recovers.
The introduction of Death Knights at 55 causes a population depression in all the other classes because, without warning, over a quarter of the player base is playing a DK at level 55-60. So we should ignore that anomaly, throw out the 50-69 data, and keep it in mind for the the 70-80 data. It skews comparisons for all the other classes, too, because there are only 9 classes represented at 1-10, and 10 at 85. Mages might be 11% at 1 and 11% at 85, but that's actually an increase in popularity because of the larger number of classes at 85.
Look at Paladins! They start off behind a lot of other classes, but the loyalty shown at 85 is remarkable! There's a 2% gain of total population share between 84 and 85, which means that people level them to 85 and play them there. Paladins like playing at the endgame. It looks like Druids – and Shaman – do this as well.
Hunters are almost the complete opposite – heavily loaded at the low levels, with a constant decline all the way up. Hunters are excellent leveling toons, and are extremely strong at low level PvP. As they get older they get more complex and less dominant, driving people to put down the class for a while.
It's really amazing how popular Hunters are at the character selection screen. I wonder if this is because of the new races available to them? Does adding a class to a popular race increase its popularity? It's something we have to consider when talking about class changes – Hunters got Humans and Forsaken, Warlocks got Dwarves and Trolls.
I like Dwarves, but very few people actually play them.
There are 3228 Dwarf Warlocks and 3867 Troll Warlocks on US and Euro servers versus 34,366 Human and 10,783 Forsaken Hunters (data from Warcraft Realms again). Even if those numbers aren't absolutely correct, they're relatively correct. Hunters benefited more from their new races than Warlocks.
Unlike most classes, Warlocks decline as they level. There's a slight decline from 80-84 to 85, which might represent people leveling to endgame and then dropping the character, but it's not huge. They decline a bit (3%) through the leveling process, but that's nothing like what happens to Rogues (5%). I think you have a stronger case for saying people have started a lot of Rogues but not gotten them to endgame than you do with Warlocks – 3% could be just noise in the system from the DK bump, plus, there's the Rogue Legendary Carrot – but there is still something going on there. The trajectory is never one of growth, unlike Paladins.
I think if I had to break apart this data, I'd summarize it as follows:
- Hunters and Death Knights are initially very attractive at character creation and for early leveling, but are normally represented at endgame. Death Knights are probably skewed because of farming/banking toons.
- Rolling a Rogue is extremely popular right now, likely due to the Legendary Effect, but leveling them to endgame is a challenge.
- Warriors and Warlocks are somewhat more popular at character creation than at endgame. There may be leveling problems with these classes.
- Priests, Shaman, Mages, and Druids all increase their popularity from 1 to 85. The relatively consistent numbers (or slight increases) are subject to the DK effect, making 11% at 85 mean more than 11% at level 10.
- Paladins dramatically increase in popularity at endgame. They may not be the easiest class to level to 85, but once there, people play them.
Warlocks aren't a popular choice at creation. I think it's safe to say that – they're not Hunters or Death Knights or Druids. But they are also not complete pariahs – people are choosing Warlocks at about the same rate as Priests and Shaman.
I had a theory that one of the reasons Rogues and Warlocks aren't popular classes is because they're the "bad guys" of the character creation screen. Both classes have evil flavor and feel to them – Warlocks perhaps even moreso than Rogues. Warlocks aren't paragons of virtue, defenders of nature, or even very heroic – at best they're ruthlessly efficient, at worst they're evil incarnate.
But the data doesn't really support that. People do choose to try out Warlocks, just not a lot of them – and even fewer make it all the way to the 85 with them.
Update: There is a followup post to the data in this section, Leveling Data on Warlocks is Worse than I Thought, based on Jason's comment on this post. I was wrong about some of the data this preceeding section – I was overly optimistic and conservative in my interpretation of the leveling data on Warlocks, and should have been more open about how bad the situation is. Looking at the data in a different way revealed a different situation.
Thanks to Jason for his comment and guidance in building this data model.
Where have the Warlocks gone?
I started this post with some ideas in my head about what caused the decline between Wrath and Cataclysm, and why Warlocks are just not getting played. The problems with the class's unpopularity in Wrath were only exacerbated by Cataclysm.
Fewer players are playing Warlocks. People who are noticing that there aren't as many Warlocks in game are absolutely correct. It's not that there is something wrong with their performance at the endgame – both PvE and PvP performance is adequate at the high end – but something is driving players away.
Leveling data suggests that the character concept is not the problem. People are rolling them, albeit not as many as other classes. Something happens between rolling the character and getting them into endgame content which causes the class to fall into disfavor. It may be questing, it may be dungeons, it may be battlegrounds. It may be class mechanics.
But something happens.
Here's the conclusion I was hoping to avoid: people simply don't like playing warlocks. It's not that they don't try them; they do.
Players simply stop playing them.
Some of them, no doubt, give up on Warcraft entirely. There's plenty of evidence that that has happened. But it's also likely that they look at other classes and switch. It's likely that players are migrating to the classes which they find to be the most fun.
And they aren't finding Warlocks fun enough to stick with them.
Next week, I'll dig into why this is happening to Warlocks, and what Blizzard is doing to address the problem.


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Over the last several years I have put together a series of notes on various Biblical and Theological topics. These notes were designed to be used in classes that I teach. With the aid of this site I can make these notes available to my students and anyone else that might find them helpful. They represent a "work in process" as I am frequently updating their content as I gain more or better understanding.
For those of you who might not know me, I have provided some basic information about myself in a short biographical summary in the 'About' section. The purpose of this site is outlined in a values and vision statement. I also include a doctrinal statement that will indicate some of my basic theological assumptions.
I offer this material with the expectation that it will edify the Christian community, and develop the interest of the non Christian who is exploring the world of ideas in search of truth.


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HCC Releases High Performance Networking and Peripheral Drivers for TI DaVinci and Sitara Controllers
New York, Monday 17th December 2012 – HCC Embedded today announced the release of a suite of networking and high-performance peripheral drivers to accelerate application development for users of Texas Instruments DaVinci and Sitara controllers. The suite includes
– optimized drivers for standard peripherals for Ethernet, USB Device and Host stacks as well as SDIO and NAND flash
– support for all well known tool-chains
– full integration with TI's SYSBIOS and DSPBIOS as well as other well known operating systems
This release provides HCC's entire middleware suite on DaVinci and Sitara using HCC's Advanced Embedded Framework (AEF). AEF provides compatibility with a range of RTOSes, tools and platform specific features and includes full support for TI's SYSBIOS and DSPBIOS. Developers can also benefit from AEFs flexibility that enables engineers to switch RTOS, hardware and tools with ease, providing effective long-term independence from a specific run-time or development environment.
Highlights include:
Flash Storage: HCC's SafeFTL (Flash Translation Layer) enables truly fail-safe management of any NAND or NOR flash device. Support is available for hundreds of flash devices, including internal flash, serial flash and large arrays of NAND flash.
USB Device & Host: With support for all speeds, endpoints and transfer types, HCC's USB offers a broad range of class drivers. This includes support for media interfaces such as printers, cameras and audio and a sophisticated range of interfaces to Ethernet and storage media.
Fail-safe File Systems: HCC offers a range of file systems to allow developers to optimize for high performance or to work efficiently within limited resources. Developers can choose either fully FAT-compatible systems or high performance systems with non-FAT file structures. This versatility means that engineers can cope with any demand with minimum fuss and high confidence.
MISRA-Compliant TCP/IP: HCC offers a compact, high-quality, high-performance stack that reduces the risk and cost of using complex software in critical systems. It is implemented with a strongly typed subset of the 'C' language that complies with the MISRA-C:2004 standard.
About HCC-Embedded
HCC-Embedded is the foremost vendor of Advanced Embedded Middleware for storage and communication. Implementation is based on a strong process that produces robust, target independent software modules. The company offers an extensive family of embedded middleware including file systems, TCP/IP, USB software for host and device and flash translation layers. Products run in most environments, with most OSes or without an OS, and with most processors and peripherals.
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Dr Marie-Paule Kieny was appointed WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation in November 2012. Dr Kieny was WHO Assistant Director-General for Innovation, Information, Evidence and Research from October 2010-November 2012. Prior to this, Dr Kieny directed the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research since its inception in 2001. Major successes under her leadership were the development and licensing of new vaccines against meningitis, and against pandemic influenza in developing countries through pioneering the transfer of technology and know-how. Vaccines against poverty-related diseases and those that disproportionately affect poor and marginalized populations are continuing priorities since her first role in WHO with the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases in 2001.
Before coming to WHO, Dr Kieny held top research positions in the public and private sectors of her home country, France. The positions included Assistant Scientific Director of Transgene S.A. from 1981 to 1988, and Director of Research and Head of the Hepatitis C Virus Molecular Virology Group at the Institute of Virology, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) from 1999 to 2000.
She received her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Montpelier in 1980, where she was also awarded a University Diploma in Economics, and her Diplôme d'Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches from the University of Strasbourg in 1995. Dr Kieny has published over 250 articles and reviews, mainly in the areas of infectious diseases, immunology and vaccinology.
Dr Kieny was awarded the coveted Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, au titre du Ministère de la Recherche (2000); the Prix Génération 2000-Impact Médecin (1994); and the Prix de l'Innovation Rhône-Poulenc (1991).