text:
What is Additive Manufacturing?
When people think of printing, they often think of ink and paper. But, as more manufacturers look to add flexibility, resiliency, and responsiveness to their supply chains, 3D printing is poised to disrupt an entire industry.
But what exactly is 3D printing? It's the process of printing by adding multiple layers upon each other, rather than printing a single layer of ink.
What is Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing?
Additive manufacturing is the process of joining materials to create objects based on digital models. Many engineers might say "additive manufacturing" is a more accurate term, and it is in industrial applications, but people commonly refer to the process as "3D printing."
As the term suggests, the joining occurs layer by layer, with one layer of material added to another in a continuous process. This additive process distinguishes 3D printing from subtractive and formative manufacturing technologies such as machining, casting, and molding. The objects are the 3D printer's physical output, created using digital models, typically computer-aided design (CAD) files.
What materials are used by Xerox in this process? And how long does it take?
To meet business needs for on-demand products, Xerox 3D printing technology uses liquid metal printing to produce production-grade parts in hours versus weeks or more required with traditional supply chains. The Xerox® ElemX 3D printer uses cost-effective aluminum wire instead of powder, delivering a quicker cycle time while eliminating costly safety modifications required for powder-based technologies. For manufacturers, this reduces Total Cost of Ownership and carbon footprint compared with traditional production methods.
ElemX 3D Liquid Metal printed drive hub
ElemX 3D Liquid Metal printed docking socket
How old is Additive Manufacturing?
Additive Manufacturing has been around since the 1980s, used for rapid prototyping, modeling, and in education. So what's new? "The costs have plummeted; the capabilities of the hardware and software are advancing exponentially; and innovations in materials science now enable manufacturers to print end-use components at scale with the quality standards they demand," writes Carlton Doty, Forrester Vice President, Emerging Technology Research, in Emerging Technology Spotlight: Additive Manufacturing.
What kind of companies can benefit from additive manufacturing?
Any company that manufactures industrial-grade products at scale can benefit from additive manufacturing. This includes companies that build cars and planes as well as the military and energy companies that rely on extensive supply chains.
How does additive manufacturing benefit the automobile and aerospace Industries?
In the auto industry, the technology can allow carmakers to replace traditional parts with lighter-weight versions and shave weight off vehicles. That can substantially lower fuel costs and carbon emissions over the lifetime of a car. Using 3D printing to make unusual geometric parts out of lightweight materials, like high performance polymers, or composite materials, means you can offer an improved product.
Or if you order an airplane that lasts for 30 years, you also need to purchase hundreds, if not thousands, of spare parts upfront. You would have to pay to store these spare parts. This leads to a waste of time, money, and effort. Thanks to on-demand printing, companies no longer need to buy parts on a decades-long timeline. Additive Manufacturing significantly reduces inventory and storage costs, while allowing companies to design new parts for their evolving business needs.
On-Demand Manufacturing. Simpler. Safer. Stronger.
We're leading the way in additive manufacturing innovation using polymer and metal 3D printing technologies to introduce new equipment, materials and tools that enable production of complex parts fast.
Related Articles
The Perfect Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Platform
In recent years, we've seen an evolution of IIoT capabilities, with advances in data science and more accurate and cost-effective sensors leading to broader adoption of IIoT solutions.
Derwent Top 100
What does it take to be one of the top global innovators? A commitment to never stop asking questions.
3D Printing in Your Supply Chain
3D printing reduces logistical costs and shortens delivery times, reinforcing 3D printing's strategic role in the supply chain.
Additive or Conventional Manufacturing? That is the Question
3D printing investment decisions require quantitative and qualitative assessments of manufacturing options. Decision-makers need comprehensive and unbiased tools.
Smart Manufacturing: Orchestrating Your Response To Changing Conditions
Today more than ever, manufacturers must produce short-run and custom goods, on-demand, and in uncertain conditions.


text:
It's the fall season where holidays rule the last quarter of the year. While there are a ton of things to plan, gifts to buy, events to attend and meals to cook don't let these next few months overwhelm you to the point you lose readers. This is the precise time to dig into your blogging and allow this season to be a springboard to 2014.
If you're doing the following six things, you'll probably lose a reader here or there over the holidays, or goodness forbid, a slew of them.
1. Stop Writing: This is a given, but oh so easy to do. When you're in the throes of the holidays it is tempting to neglect your blog. Nothing drives readers away faster than not updating your blog. I always maintain that if all else fails in your online world you'll always have your blog. Don't take it for granted and assume that you're so great your readers will return when you've abandoned your blog for a spell. It just doesn't happen that way. If you're serious about your blog, treat it like your job and don't fade away this holiday season.
2. Going Too Commercial: If you are personal, first-person blogger who doesn't work with many brands and then all of a sudden you start running a lot of giveaways and writing sponsored posts your readership will resent you. There is great value in striking a balance between paid and editorial work. Even though it's the fall season and opportunities to work with brands are rife don't go overboard if your readers aren't used to branded conversations on your blog. Dip your toes in the brand stream. Don't belly flop in.
3. Flipping the Script: If your readers are used to you espousing the virtues about indie companies, for example, and you start writing about all the money you're going to save at big box retailers you'll definitely lose readers. Have convictions and stick to them.
It is easy to justify a post even though it doesn't fall in line with your core principles. Stay true to yourself and your readers in the face of opportunities no matter how big or lucrative.
4. Publishing Too Many Guest Posts: Yes, it's the fall season and you have a ton of things to do, but don't hand over your voice to a slew of guest contributors, especially the ones who "offer" you a post and fill it with follow links. Beware of those! A guest writer here and there this season is fine, but remember your readers come to your blog to read you, not them!
5. Repeating Old Content: As with guest posts, rekindling old posts is not an effective way to keep the attention of your readers stoked. How sad, right?
Blogging is a hard job. Coming up with new content is not easy! Always think about the next post and the next opportunity to share in a more creative way. You can do this!
6. Get Boring: Bring as much flair to your blog this season as you do the rest of the year. In fact, this is the time to get most creative.
One thing readers love is getting a glimpse into the lives of others. It's intriguing and fun to follow along. Take your readers along with you this fall season. Blogging is all about storytelling. Set goals and tell compelling stories. Your readers will appreciate you for your efforts.
Remember your readers are just as busy as you are. Respect them this fall season with great writing and they will be with you for the long haul.
Views: 669
What a fantastic post! I didn't plan on stopping during the holidays, but this hammers home how important it is keep my content fresh! Thank you!
It helps me very much, thanks to share ! I'm not going to stop writing.
Thanks! This inspires me to not get too lazy. It's true. I want to go all commercial and not put the work in.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Technics Digital Ensemble: The wide range of Technics Instruments are renowned for sound quality and reliability. Welcome to our NEW Technics digital ensemble information website, we're preparing all of the specifications, downloads and manuals for your instrument. There are many instruments in the range so if you would like us to prioritise yours please use the 'contact us' form. We'll move your instrument to the top of the list and email you when the page is completed. If you have questions for other owners of the same digital ensemble, join in the discussion below and you will get a quick response to your query either from us or from other members. Admin, July 2014.


text:
Cars 2 has the body of burnished Pixar purdiness, a chassis built of the bleached bones of Geoffrey the Giraffe, and an engine kissed by the Cylon god. In Cars 2, God isn't the cosmic clockmaker; he's the cosmic carburetor.
Thus far, critics have mostly been preoccupied with the mediocrity of Cars 2 (vis-à-vis, oh, every other Pixar film) and the fact that this flick was rolled off the lot to sell a shit-ton of racecar beds. But that's not why Cars 2 makes me feel like I've been mainlining Armor All.
Let's start with a bare-bones synopsis of Cars 2. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a fast car who's friends with Larry The Cable Guy The Car. While Lightning is off racing at fanciful international locales, Delta Farcemobile discovers a nefarious international conspiracy with Michael Caine The Car. Also, Lightning wants to have sex with the mom from Beethoven. She too is a car.
Cars 2 forces the audience to make some nutty assumptions and — weirdly enough — I didn't have a problem with most of these. For example, I could swallow the embellishment that these anthropomorphic cars have organized themselves into nation-states that parallel our own. There's Car Italy, Car Japan, and presumably Car Burkina Faso.
I could also understand that these gas-guzzling golems have carnal urges. I blame Battlestar Galactica and the Vision and Scarlet Witch's doomed nuptials for my casual acceptance of sultry, 4-wheel-drive-on-2-wheel-drive rear-ending.
Additionally, "You Might Think" by The Cars plays at one point. This implies that a Station Wagon Ric Ocasek exists and — by extension — there's a Coupe Phoebe Cates who once exposed her headlights to an autoerotically-inclined Hatchback Judge Reinhold. (NSFW if I have to spell this shit out).
I could even tolerate the cars' disturbingly realistic human pupils which follow you around the multiplex, as if some astigmatic albino cave yetis were hiding behind the movie screen and watching their own blockbuster: The Shadowy Room Full Of Happy Children And Their Pet Somnolescent Adults.
No, what blew my brains out was that Cars 2 had brief scenes with a Car Pope. With his own Popemobile.
Did Pixar toss in a glimpse of the auto-papacy as a throwaway joke? Absolutely not. In a $200-million film about Gremlins and Yugos who run mafioso dynasties and a deranged Tonka-Truck-Tokyo filled with Geisha Sedans and squat bidets built for pooping automobiles, nothing is off-the-cuff.
No, Pixar bigwig John Lasseter and company are making some very pointed statements about the theology of Cars. Let's unpack the significance of the Pope Car.
1.) Existence of Pope Car = Existence of Christmobile
Unless Pixar is playing it extremely fast and loose with the history of Christianity, let's assume that there's a Jesus Christmobile central to Roman Cartholicism. But automobiles are a modern contrivance — who or what is the Christ figure of the Cars universe? I have a couple ideas:
1.) An immaculately conceived olive cart
2.) The Michelin Man (his taste in food is divine)
3.) Fred Flintstone's car
4.) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Christ walked on water, Chitty drove on air. (Ditto goes for the car from the end of Grease.)
It's safe to say Pixar will never tell us who Car Jesus was. Just know that two millennia ago, Herbie the Love Bug may have been crucified.
2.) Pope Car = Car God
Again, assuming that Pixar's left the bare bones of Christianity intact, a Car Pope means that there's a Car God out there. Let's also presume that the Kelley Blue Book of Revelation is surfeit with scenes of Gravedigger and Robosaurus ravaging the Earth.
(Digression: I have a theory that Cars 2 is an unofficial epilogue to Battlestar Galactica. See, after the Cylon Centurions and Raiders zipped away on the Rebel Basestar during the series finale, they settled down on a nice hunk of rock with their monotheistic faith and penchant for emulating the skinjobs. Try to prove me wrong.)
Anyway, in the world of Cars 2, sentience is conferred to those conveyances who don't rely on human elbow grease for locomotion. It's like a G-rated Maximum Overdrive — planes, boats, train and automobiles are aware, not unicycles, gondolas, or velocipedes. Therefore, we can assume that the Carden of Eden was populated by stray slabs of rock rolling downhill on logs and/or coconuts.
3.) Car Pope = Car Celibacy
Cars can't sexually reproduce in Cars 2 — maybe some underground morlocks off-screen build them, remember the Maximum Overdrive paradigm — but some cars have sworn off sexual intercourse. WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THAT.
4.) Car Buddha?
Cars 2 features a scene in which a Piaggio Ape maintains a Zen garden. Does this mean that an automotive form of Zen Buddhism exists? What is the sound of one mudflap flapping?
FINAL VERDICT: Sneak into Cars 2 to see the charming Toy Story 3 short and then go home and watch the YouTube trailer for Video Brinquedo's The Little Cars 2. You'll save two hours and spare yourself a lifetime of wondering if God is a Peugeot.


text:
June – the Serenity edition.
June – you cast your spell
dappled greys through sunlit days
frost upon your breath
chill winds bring the winter solstice
earth tilts, turns
a ballerina in slow motion.
We rug up. It is a time of cold feet and cold houses. But in the car, we turn the heater up high as the fog wraps us in its embrace.
I have an urge to take black and white photos. I hurry. The mist is dissipating rapidly.
I am fast, but the town is still half asleep. The mood is gentle. Liquid amber.
Heaven is a sunny spot, friendship and good coffee.
The river nestles in a valley, protected from the chill winds.
At peace. Deserted, not desolate.
Except for the white-faced heron who glides serenely through the shallow waters.
As day drifts into night, there is warmth in companionship.
This is my response to The Changing Seasons monthly photo challenge hosted by Su Leslie of Zimmerbitch and the Lens-Artists Challenge — Serenity.
Kind Regards.


text:
Homefix: Condensate leaks can cause major damage
Q: I have a combination furnace/air conditioner in a utility room of my finished basement. The air conditioner has a pump near the bottom of the furnace that collects the condensate water from the air conditioner and pumps it across the basement to the laundry drain.
I failed to notice that the pump had stopped working and the condensate water flooded to the finished basement, causing a lot of damage. The repairman said he can install an alarm that will let us know if the pump fails again, but that wouldn't help if we were not home to hear the alarm. Any ideas would be appreciated.
A: The air conditioner not only cools the home, it also dehumidifies, removing moisture from the air. Most units drain to a dedicated sewer or drain, but in some cases, such as yours, the furnace is below the sewer and the water has to be pumped to a higher level.
Most condensate lift pumps have a float inside the water reservoir that turns the pump on as the water rises. Depending on the size of the air conditioner and the amount of humidity in the air, the lift pump will have to handle anywhere from 5 to 20 gallons of water a day.
That much water can do a lot of damage trapped inside a basement, but in homes with a furnace/AC on the second floor, you cannot imagine the amount of damage that much water can do.
When a furnace/AC is located above a finished area of a home, it is necessary to place a catch pan under the furnace in case of a condensate leak.
A number of the homes I have inspected do have catch pans, but there are either no drainpipes connected to the pans or the pipes are draining to a sewer somewhere out of sight and the homeowner is unaware if a leak occurs in the furnace/AC.
There are float switches available that can be installed inside a catch pan that will shut the AC off if water collects in the pan. There also are float switch sensors for a condensate lift pump that will sound an alarm, and if too much water collects, the switch will turn your AC off.
When the AC is off and the house gets hot, you'll know you have a problem.
A simple Web search turned up www.floodmaster.com/home-water-leak-detection-shutoff.php with photos of damage that can be caused by a water leak and information on alarms and AC shutoff switches.
You could make your own system by having the repairman set the basement condensate pump in any type of catch pan and then add a float switch to shut off the air conditioner if flooding occurs.
Dwight Barnett is a certified master inspector with the American Society of Home Inspectors. Write to him with home improvement questions at C. Dwight Barnett, Evansville Courier & Press, P.O. Box 268, Evansville, Ind. 47702 or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
It's on … Rik and Joe have delivered a pair of short stories that have rattled the cage in a big way. Congratulations, and best of luck to both combatants.
Please read the following pair of stories then cast a vote for your favorite. The stories are shown without writer attribution to keep this competition as fair and unbiased as possible. The poll will be open until 6 PM on Wednesday, February 29th; a winner will be announced at that time. The winner will be featured in an interview on this blog, Monday, March 5th.
I've included the prompt below, with the stories to follow. The poll is located at the end of the second story. Thank you in advance for reading and voting for your favorite.
* * * * *
~The prompt~
Lincoln Towers, a steel-framed, residential high-rise development under construction along the lakefront of Chicago's North Side, has a growing problem. Built atop land once occupied by a relocated, nineteenth century burial ground, the project has recently been fraught with danger. A total of three night watchmen have fallen to their deaths within a six week time frame, strongly suggesting that these incidents were more than just accidental in nature.
* * * * *
It was two in the morning and they were almost out of eggs.
The back alley of Lincoln Towers was just as clean and sterile as the inside. There were recycling bins, and dumpsters neatly packed with trash. The walls of the complex were washed three times a week, and an outside company had been hired to sweep up any leaves or refuse near the parking garage.
No graffiti.
No winos living in cardboard boxes.
No urine stains on the walls.
Josh and Eddie were about to change that.
"I told you we should have bought another dozen." Josh said as he cranked his arm back.
Eddie opened the plastic bag from the grocery store, and shoved his hand inside.
"You sure man? Because I could have sworn we picked up enough." He replied.
A car was heading in their direction, they both quickly hid behind a dumpster. The last thing either one of them needed was someone calling the cops. Eddie had just gotten out of Juvie Hall last summer, and was on probation for at least six more months.
Eddie's dad left shortly after that.
When the trouble with Eddie had first surfaced his mom tried a soft touch. She assumed all of the bad behavior had been Eddie dealing with all the arguing and abuse.
His dad had been a military man, strict, no bullshit.
During a routine patrol he was shot in the back. Somehow, during the firefight that had taken place afterwards—he managed to save three of his fellow soldiers. Coming home to Chicago decorated made him a legend.
So did the black eyes on his wife's face.
Eddie started small at first. He lit alley cats on fire, stole comic books and candy from grocery stores. It wasn't long before he was getting into fist fights at school and pocketing money out of his mom's purse. He had gone from being a straight laced seventh grader with a promising athletic career to a teenager that just did not give a shit anymore.
His mom had problems coping and turned to the bottle, his dad who held a very lucrative job with a private security firm started missing work. His dad disciplined Eddie the only way he knew how; and when Eddie would go swimming inside their apartment complex his back would often be decorated with a patchwork of bruises. Everyone on their floor knew what a monster his dad could be, and once someone had even called Child Protective Services. Afterwards, nothing happened. His dad simply explained Eddie's injuries as "rough-housing" and made sure that Eddie's mom put on her best Donna Reed smile.
"I really wish this was Clancy's door. Gawd damn does that old man give me the creeps." Eddie threw his egg against the cement wall of the high rise.
Edgar Clancy was one of the first tenants of Lincoln Towers.
Confined to a wheel chair and his age hovering right around ninety he ruled their floor with fear. Anything that happened inside Lincoln Towers he didn't approve of was consistently reported, and there had been instances of the watchmen on duty having to call the police per his request. Nobody on Josh and Eddie's floor liked the guy, and avoided contact with Clancy at all costs. When Josh and his family first moved into the Towers, he had had the misfortune of riding down in the elevator with Clancy.
Clancy had looked him over as entered the elevator, his wrinkled forehead almost consumed by some of the whitest and out of control eyebrows he had ever seen. The electric motor on his wheel chair had been humming slightly as Josh slinked inside, and the blanket covering his legs had been faded and covered in pet hair.
The stench surrounding Clancy was an odd mix of medicated gels and full adult diapers. Josh had to breathe through his mouth the whole way down.
The only verbal exchange that took place was Clancy asking in a very hoarse voice,
"How old are you?"
And Josh replying,
"I'm sixteen."
Luckily Clancy exited before the lobby.
"Clancy's only pissed off because he can't get it up anymore." Josh threw his egg against the wall.
"Hey man, aren't there cameras?" He asked.
"Who gives a shit? I'm sure Clancy has the new watchman running all over the place. We've been out here for the last hour pasting the wall—and not a peep." Eddie replied.
Of course there were cameras.
Using the cameras, they kept a very close eye on all activities that occurred within Lincoln Towers. Portions of the Towers were still under construction, and the owners wanted to make sure that their tenants felt secure. The watchmen were hired through the same company that Eddie's dad had worked for, and became a constant reminder for Eddie's mom of what once was.
Too bad the cameras had malfunctioned during the "accidents".
Over the last few months three night watchmen had plummeted to their deaths. All had apparently leapt through windows on the twenty-third floor, which was still under construction—and collided with the pavement below. When the security company went back to look over what they had digitally recorded, the only thing they knew for sure was that all three employees could be seen getting off the elevator—but then anything after that was lost.
"My dad said that all three of those guys that jumped out of the window were high." Josh said as he grabbed the last of the eggs.
"Bullshit man, they were suicidal. I mean have you seen these guys? They are overweight, balding, and can barely walk around this place without dying of a heart attack. They probably had a huge life insurance policy and figured this way it'll pay double if they died on the job."
Another car made its way up the alley, and they ducked behind the dumpster again.
"You know what I think?" Eddie said.
The headlights of the car skated past them and bounced off the side of the Tower building.
"I say we go mess with Clancy anyways."
Sure enough as they walked back inside the complex they watched the new night watchmen scramble in their direction. He was talking on his phone and had a very frantic look on his face.
"See? I told you. Clancy has this guy running. We could have pissed all over the recycle bins and nobody would have been the wiser." Eddie said.
"Plus, with the Gawd damn cameras malfunctioning, we could have really done some damage."
Eddie reached inside his pocket for the card to the elevator.
"So what I'm thinking is this, you and I are going to break into Clancy's apartment and scare the shit out of him. I know for a fact that old bastard leaves later on tonight and heads for the track. We get in, mess his place up, maybe shit in his sink—and then for the topper? We head down to the basement. The exterminators haven't emptied the rat traps yet."
"Sounds like a plan." Josh was a little concerned. If for any reason this could be traced back to himself or Eddie?
They would be screwed.
Josh's mom thought Eddie was a bad influence to begin with. This little adventure would probably cause them to move.
"So how in the hell do you plan on getting into Clancy's apartment anyways? Everything is electronically locked." He said, his voice cracking from being nervous.
"Let's worry about that after we pick-up a few friends. I think it's about time somebody gave that sumbitch a message."
The elevator opened and they stepped inside.
The basement of the Towers held tenant personal possessions that were tightly locked away in separate rooms. The majority of the holiday decor that would be used for the building and lobby were also stored here. As clean as the majority of the building was, for some reason the basement would always be an issue.
Rats had made their home in the basement and the last thing the owners of Lincoln Towers needed was a tenant getting bit, and there were small children everywhere.
"Hey Eddie, did you ever hear the rumor that this place was built on top of some cemetery?"
Eddie looked over at Josh, a grin spread across his face.
"Give me a fucking break man." He replied.
"No seriously! I heard my parents talking about it when we first moved in here."
"I never heard anything like that. Your parents were jerking your chain."
The elevator finally stopped and the doors slid open.
As soon as they stepped out the automatic lights clicked on to reveal storage rooms and plastic reindeer. Josh noticed that the path they were standing on seemed to stretch a considerable distance before finally veering off to the left. There were no windows to the outside, and the lack of any real natural light made Josh a little uncomfortable.
"I would think that the traps would be near the back. Let's do this shit, Clancy is about to leave soon, and I want as much time as possible in that assholes apartment."
They walked the length of the path and then turned.
"Clancy was the reason my dad hit me the first time, did I ever tell you that?"
"Get out of here! What did you do?" Josh replied.
"He said I was playing my music to loud. My dad didn't even bother to take a moment and consider who was doing the bitching—just started swinging."
They came to the first trap. Eddie reached down and shook it.
"Thing's empty." He said puzzled.
Josh looked to his right towards the wall and noticed something hanging. It was a very large piece of tarp and it covered what looked like a hole in the wall.
"Eddie." He pointed over in the tarp's direction.
"Maybe that's where their coming in from."
Eddie shrugged his shoulders and replied,
"Let's check it out."
They pulled the tarp back and disappeared inside.
What they witnessed next was a surprise to everyone.
Edgar Clancy was standing in an open grave.
Edgar Clancy was walking.
Edgar Clancy was also eating what looked like a corpse.
"What…the…fuck?" Was all Eddie managed to get out before two hands grabbed both of their shoulders. They were spun around, and came face to face with the new night watchman.
"Good, good." Edgar said as he wiped his blood soaked mouth with the sleeve of his coat.
"I wasn't sure if I needed to send another idiot out tonight or not."
"Let go asshole!" Josh tried to free himself, it was no use.
They noticed that the night watchmen had a very vacant look in his eyes, and his grip was incredibly strong. They were spun back in Edgar's direction, and both could see him waving his arms and signing with his hands. Then he spoke in a language that either Eddie or Josh could understand.
"There. Now, that takes care of our friend. The incantation also binds you in place so I won't have to worry about you moving."
The night watchman released his grip and started the long walk back towards the elevator.
"Good, good. He's on his way." Edgar said.
"I don't mind digging up all these graves, aged meat is divine." He licked his lips.
"Clancy I'm not buying this shit for a minute!" Eddie screamed.
Josh tried to move but for some reason was anchored in place. He noticed Eddie was struggling.
"Josh, do you remember what I asked you the first time we met?" He watched as Edgar's fingernails stretched, became elongated—changing his hands into claws.
"How old I was?" Josh looked around the room and counted twenty open graves. He noticed a very large wet spot on the crotch of his jeans.
"Sixteen is a very good year."
* * * * *
The chipboard hoarding of the building site keeps the worst of the wind off you, in exchange for leaving you in the harsh-edged shadow of the February twilight. Above, the sky is shading past royal blue to purple, the blinking lights of distant planes shepherding a half-moon already bright and clear. Not the best time to find your phone battery dead when you need a lift home.
A sharp bang and rattle of wood on wood jerks your head up, thoughts of muggers and street gangs tightening your chest. The reality is less dramatic; an elderly man is leaning against the boards ahead of you, short of breath and patting his pockets. He's wearing an actual bowler hat to match his absurdly old-fashioned suit – complete with waistcoat and cravat! – and the tails of his coat are worn ragged.
Nothing to worry about. Just a weird hobo having an episode. You hunch forward, trying not to make eye contact in case he wants to tell you about whatever it is the 'Guv'mint' have been putting in all our food or beaming into our minds. It's too damn cold to stop and listen, and the old guy will probably follow you down the street shouting if you don't.
He really does sound like he's struggling, though. His breath rasps too loud to ignore as you walk past, so you stop on reflex when he says, "Excuse me, kid. Could you lend me a hand?" He doesn't sound like a hobo so much as a kindly grandpa. His voice is a little unsteady, but a far cry from the tobacco-ravaged croak of the average street crazy.
You turn to face him, because walking on now would just be rude. Actually, you might have overestimated his age a bit; his face is lined, certainly not young, but his eyebrows are dark, his eyes piercing and alert despite the fading panic. You ask what the matter is.
"I was just cutting through the site," he nods towards the panel beside him; a gate, you realise, "but there was a dog. Probably a stray, I suppose. Went right for me. Gave me quite a fright, I'll tell you!"
There's cheer in the old guy's eyes now, some colour in his cheeks. More out of politeness than concern, you ask if he's alright.
"Apart from being old, you mean?" He laughs, a wheezing, irresistible chuckle. "I'll live. But I think my wallet must have fallen out of my pocket while I was running away."
Ah, here it comes. You get ready to tell him sorry, you've no cash on you-
He holds up a hand, "Don't worry, I'm not asking for money. I can get back home well enough. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind going to speak to the security guard for me."
Confused, you ask what he means.
"You know, to ask him to let the builders know to look out for it. How to get in touch with me, and so forth. I'd do it myself, but I'm not sure my heart's up to another fright like that, not with the weather so cold." He smiles, "Some brave veteran I make, huh? Do you mind?"
You eye the door warily. There's enough daylight left to see by, but not for much longer. Still, it doesn't look like a big site. At most, you're only a few hundred feet from the lakeshore. You agree. He tells you where the site office is, fumbles a pen and a scrap of paper out of a hidden coat pocket and writes down his address. As you step from the sidewalk into the churned-up dirt round the edges of the scaffold, you hear him whistling an old jazz tune.
The steel frame of the building welcomes you with silence, its shapes too regular to be really spooky. A little part of you is secretly sort of disappointed. The rickety site office is right on the far side, almost hidden by the jungle of girders poking up from the flat concrete of the floor. You hop over the low first courses of bricks, wondering if the dog is still around.
There's a light in the poky, plexiglass window of the office shed. You knock on the door, only to have it spring open under the contact. Somehow, the wind manages to catch it, and you get a sharp rap across the back of your hand. Cold makes it sting like a salted wound, and you curse, but there's no response from inside.
There's no-one inside at all. A thermos stands on the table next to its cup, empty but for coffee dregs. There's a paper on the floor, flopped half-open as if dropped in a hurry. A mostly-empty pin-board opposite the window stares down at the old-school landline phone. Maybe the guard went out to chase off the dog?
You scribble 'Lost wallet on-site, please contact:' above the address on the old man's piece of paper and pin it to the board. Turning, you walk out of the office, careful to push the flimsy door shut behind you, and that's when you see the body. It lies close to the beginnings of the outer wall, a beer-bellied man in a brown shirt, dark thermal vest and pants; it has to be the security guard. Even at this distance, the way he's lying tells you he's not in a good way.
Something uncomfortable shifts in your gut as you walk over to the guy. Your coat doesn't feel terribly warm anymore. The guard looks as if he's fallen from somewhere up in the scaffold nearby, his limbs splayed at all kinds of uncomfortable angles, his neck obviously broken. Your throat tightens with a hint of nausea at the sight.
There's no blood. While your shoulders tense and a prickle runs down your spine, your brain seems to detach from the physical sensations, unable to turn away from the unsettling logic. The ground here is concrete. Any fall high enough to break a man's neck should also have smashed his skull. But there's no blood to be seen. The Guard's clothes aren't even scuffed.
And there was that story, half-remembered from a paper last week, about an apartment block they were building where there'd been a bunch of deaths.
The wind chooses that moment to slam the gate that you were just about to run for. The blood pounding in your ears drowns out the thought that this has to be a prank or something. There's nothing fake about the corpse at your feet. You turn to make for the phone in the office, and stop dead.
There's a girl in the middle of the site, tall and willowy, wearing gauzy hippie clothes that flutter in the wind and will probably leave her hypothermic in under an hour. If she's been there all along, then you walked past her twice without noticing, and given the gruesome clash between her violet shirt and yellow pants, that seems unlikely. Her eyes are closed, her face peaceful, but she's facing straight at you and the crawling sensation between your shoulder-blades tells you she knows exactly where you are.
"This is our land. You don't belong here." Her face doesn't move, but the air itself seems to whisper to you. The last gold of daylight bathes her skin, showing off an enviable set of high, wide cheekbones. There'd been something in the news story about Native Americans, and the girl more or less fits the bill.
You swallow, opening your mouth to reply. A rattle from the gate distracts you; someone banging on the other side, as if it's locked. The old man's frail shout carries to you, too weak for you to make out the words. You understand all too well, though. Angry Indian ghost. Way out locked. It's unlikely a 911 call is going to help.
The girl still hasn't moved, but you can see a shadow over her shoulder, floating in mid-air. A shadow with glaring red eyes, the kind of thing that only escapes looking hokey because it's not on a movie screen. You swallow again, and a shudder runs through you. Would it help to put on a brave face? Or is it better to act scared?
You realise you're shuffling backwards. Your foot bumps against something that moves and for a moment your heart leaps into your throat. No, hang on, it's just the guard's body. Trying not to take your eyes off the ghost, you kneel down, scrabbling backwards towards the dead man's belt. He must be carrying something you can use as a weapon. A gun's too much to hope for – maybe a taser?
Maybe it's a bad idea to reach for a taser without looking. If it would even hurt the girl. She looks solid enough, but… Your hand finds what feels like a nightstick. No, one of those long, heavy torches that are pretty much just as good. Reflexively, you glance down at it, and realise that you're kneeling right over the guard's hand.
There's a small mark in the middle of his palm. It looks like a stylised animal, high pointed ears and round, staring cartoon eyes. You glance up and see the same face, rendered in shadow and fire, behind the girl's shoulder. The fox-like shape goes some way to explaining the dog that the old guy saw. The torch feels thick and heavy in your grip, but there's no way it's going to hurt the spirit guide. Or whatever the hell it is.
Still, you've got to do something, before you go the way of the guard. It takes all the desperate strength you can muster to push to your feet, transfixed by the shadow's glare. Walking towards it is like pushing against a gale blowing four centuries of hatred. You grit your teeth, eyes squeezed narrow and watering until you can barely see.
It takes a long time to reach the girl, but besides the vicious sting of the wind – your scraped hand throbs – she does nothing. Nor does the shadow behind her, but there's only one way you're getting out of here alive. Her hair, long and black and fine, floats in the air, flicking out almost close enough to brush your jaw and throat.
You lift the torch, bring it down hard across her face. There's a sickly crunch as one of those perfect cheekbones gives way. She crumples to the floor. The wind dies, and the shadow behind her vanishes. As you sink to your knees, dropping the torch in relief, the gate bangs open. The old man steps into the site.
The girl's face is a mess, bleeding blood that looks entirely human. With a trembling hand, you push sticky strands of black hair back behind her ear. She's wearing a feather earring, its white down now flecked red.
"Fucking squaw." The old man's voice is richer and deeper than it sounded before. "I finally get this place away from the redskins, and they find her to keep me out." His shoe, polished to a high shine, slides into your field of vision, poking the girl in the shoulder. Then a rough hand grabs your hair, pulls your head round to look at him. His face looks darker, somehow, as if it's fading from reality now he doesn't need it anymore.
Still, you can make out the surprise in his raised eyebrow. "What's this? Might be you do have some use left in you." He releases you. "Kill her."
As your hands reach out to encircle the girl's throat, you realise there's a mark on the back of your hand, where you scraped it on the office door. Triangles for ears, circles for eyes, just like on the guard's palm. The girl doesn't struggle, makes no sound as you finish your new master's bidding.


text:
MARCH BOOK MADNESS is something where people share their thoughts on writing and books and we've had two awesome posts already (see the links below).
Fun stuff. Great people. I'm totally lovin' this!
Today JoLynne Lyon is talking about marketing and social media for authors. I must say, I really appreciate JoLynne's sense of humor. Her post made me laugh which is always a good thing. So here it is:
JoLynne: Using social media to build a bestseller in 10 easy steps
Bio: JoLynne Lyon is the public relations specialist in a unit in a college in a university on a hill in a mountain town. (Utah State University wants you to know that her opinions don't represent her employer.) She's never sold a book, but she's observed all the strategies presented here. You can find her at www.mountainlyon.blogspot.com and on Twitter, @jensenborger6.
Rebecca: The first time I read JoLynne's post I laughed. It's awesome! I think we've all been there, seen that. The annoying self-promoter. They're everywhere with an in-your-face kind of approach. But I have to say the second time I read it, I thought, "Oh shoot! Have I done those things?" If so, I'm very, very sorry to all of you. It's hard to remember that other people aren't as excited about my book as I am. (By the way it's called Sadie, and it's about this girl who . . . just kidding.)
Like everything else in life, I think it all comes back to balance. You want to get your name and product out there because you believe in it. Otherwise you wouldn't have created it. And the reality is that in today's publishing world, most of marketing falls to the author. So how do you do it without bugging the snot out of people? I love the suggestions JoLynne gave of what not to do. If I had to add one thing to do, I would say: Be nice. That's it. Everything you ever needed to know you learned in kindergarten, or something like that. Just be nice.
I've become a people watcher of late, especially an author watcher. My favorite ones, the ones I look up to, are genuinely nice, classy people. (Classy. That's a word I'd love to be some day.) These authors mention their product, sure, but they also mention others they love and believe in. They're always grateful for their readers and supporters. When praised, they're humble and acknowledge that they didn't get to where they are solely because of themselves. I love that! When they talk to people they're appreciative. They're real. They're nice. That goes a long way in my book. In fact, I've met some authors who impressed me so much I'll buy anything they write for the rest of their lives. How's that for reader loyalty?
So that's my marketing tip. Be nice. And please don't do the things JoLynne mentioned. It really bugs people. :)
What do you think? What marketing strategies have you seen that you like? That you hate? What authors do you respect and why? What are you having for dessert? (Sorry that last one crept in there. Craving chocolate right now.)


text:
Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 17, 2020
Protecting Your Privacy
Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information has always been fundamental to the way we do business with you at Nature's Path Foods, Inc [Nature's Path]. We developed the Nature's Path Privacy Policy to inform you of our commitment to and policy on privacy, to tell you about the ways we ensure your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information are protected as well as what personal information we collect when you visit our website and how we use it.
Privacy Policy Table of Contents
- Meaning Of Personal Information
- Collecting and Using Personal Information
- Releasing Personal Information
- Protecting Personal Information
- Providing Personal Information Access and Accuracy
- Consent
- Why We Ask For Your Personal Information
- How We Obtain Your Consent
- When We Release Your Personal Information
- Withdrawal Of Consent
- Visiting Our Information Sites
- Cookies
- Flash – Local Shared Object
- Email Comments, Questions Or Responses
- Responding To Contest Or Surveys
- Addressing Your Concerns
- Changes To This Privacy Policy
Our Commitment to Privacy
Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information has always been fundamental to the way we do business within Nature's Path. We strive to provide you with the best customer service. To us, that includes treating you fairly and with respect. The Nature's Path Privacy Policy informs you of our policy on privacy, and tells you about the ways we help ensure that your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information are protected.
1. Meaning of Personal Information
Our Privacy Policy informs you of the policies and practices we have in place relating to the management of personal information at Nature's Path. The words "personal information" means information about you as an identifiable individual. It does not apply to businesses or business information but may apply to you as a personal customer, including individuals carrying on business alone or in partnership with other individuals and signing officers of our business customers. It consists of five key principles:
2. Collecting and Using Personal Information
Either before or when we collect personal information about you, we will explain how we intend to use it. We will limit the personal information we collect to what we need for those purposes, and we will use it only for those purposes. We will obtain your consent if we wish to use your personal information for any other purpose.
3. Releasing Personal Information
We may provide your personal information to other persons in situations where:
- We have your consent;
- The other parties are our suppliers or agents who assist us in serving you, for the same purpose for which we collected it;
- We are required or permitted to do so by law or applicable regulators and self-regulatory organizations; and
- Transfers of a business are involved.
4. Protecting Personal Information
We will protect your personal information with appropriate safeguards and security measures. We will retain your personal information only for the time it is required for the purposes we explain.
We will protect your personal information with appropriate safeguards and security measures. We have thorough security standards to protect our systems and your personal information against unauthorized access and use. When we provide personal information in response to a legal inquiry or order, we ensure that the order is valid and we disclose only the personal information that is legally required. All employees of Nature's Path are familiar with the procedures that must be taken to safeguard customer personal information. And to us, protecting the confidentiality of your personal information is more than a procedure – it's part of our job. It is specified in our employment agreements and regularly confirmed in writing. We audit our procedures and security measures regularly to ensure that they are being properly administered and that they remain effective and appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information. We retain your personal information only as long as it is required for the reasons it was collected. The length of time we retain personal information varies depending on the product or service and the nature of the personal information. This period may extend beyond the end of your relationship with us but only for so long as it is necessary for us to have sufficient personal information to respond to any issue that may arise at a later date. When your personal information is no longer needed for the purposes explained to you, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert it to an anonymous form. We ensure that your personal information is stored securely. [From time to time we may store personal information outside of Canada where it may be subject to lawful access requests in the jurisdiction in question.]
5. Providing Personal Information Access and Accuracy
We will give you access to the personal information we retain about you subject to certain statutory limitations. We will respond to your requests within the timelines prescribed by the applicable privacy legislation. We will make every reasonable effort to keep your personal information accurate and up-to-date.
Having accurate personal information about you enables us to give you the best possible service and minimize the possibility that out of date personal information may be used to make a decision which impacts you. We have policies and procedures to help us maintain the accuracy of your personal information. For most updates, we rely on you for personal information. You can help by keeping us informed of any changes, such as if you move or change telephone numbers. If you find any errors in our personal information about you, let us know and we will make the corrections immediately, and make sure they are conveyed to anyone we may have misinformed. For personal information that remains in dispute, we will note your opinion in the file.
6. Consent
Why We Ask For Your Personal Information:
We ask you for personal information to establish and serve you as our customer. At the time you begin a relationship with us and during the course of our relationship, we may collect personal information about you. We obtain most of our personal information about you directly from you. The personal information we ask for depends on which product or service you want.
The purposes for which we collect, use and disclose your personal information include:
- Providing services to you;
- Communicating with you by e-mail as described below;
- For administration of contests or surveys as described below; and
How We Obtain Your Consent:
It is important to understand the different ways that we may obtain your consent to collect, use, disclose and share your personal information. Depending on the situation and the sensitivity of the personal information, we may obtain your consent in different ways. Express consent may be obtained verbally, online or in writing. Implied consent may be obtained through your use of a product, or when you approach us to obtain products or services from us. We will not make your consent a condition of obtaining a product or service, unless it is reasonably or legally required, and we will clearly indicate when this is the case.
When We Release Your Personal Information:
We do not sell or rent customer lists or personal information to others. However, we may release your personal information to parties outside Nature's Path in certain circumstances, which include:
- With your consent;
- For servicing purposes;
- When required or permitted to do so by law or applicable regulators and self-regulatory organizations; and
- Transfers of a business.
Withdrawal Of Consent:
We will explain your options of refusing or withdrawing consent to the collection, use or release of your personal information, and, given reasonable notice, we will record and respect your choices. In most cases you are free to refuse or withdraw your consent at any time. You may do so by contacting us at +1 (866) 880-7284. Our staff will be pleased to explain your options and any consequences of refusing or withdrawing your consent, and record your choices.
7. Visiting Our Information Sites
When you go directly to the information portion of our websites and move from page to page, read pages or download content onto your computer, we learn which pages are visited, what content is downloaded, and the address of websites that you visited immediately before coming to our websites. However, none of this is associated with you as an individual. It is measured only in aggregate.
We use this information to find out how many people visit our websites and which sections of the sites are visited most frequently. This helps us to know what type of personal information is most useful to our website visitors so that we can improve our websites and make it easier for our website visitors to access personal information. We record the statistical information on the numbers of visitors to our websites, but no personal information about you in particular will be kept or used.
8. Cookies
A cookie is a small file containing certain pieces of personal information that a website creates when you visit the site. It can track how and when you use a site, which site you visited immediately before, and it can store that personal information about you.
There are two common types of cookies, "session cookies" and "persistent cookies". Session cookies store personal information only for the length of time that you are connected to a website – they are not written onto your hard drive. Once you leave the website, the originator of the cookie no longer has the personal information that was contained on it.
Nature's Path uses session cookies as an additional security feature for its online services. For example, when you login to any web service and are authenticated through your login ID and password, a cookie will store the identification number of your browser. Throughout your session, the cookie acts as a type of digital signature to identify your current session to the web server.
We also use session cookies to track your visits within our site. We use that information to determine the type of personal information that you are looking for in our site and to improve our site. We may use this data for system administration and to report aggregate information to our stakeholders. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual. This means that your session may be tracked, but you will not be identified.
We use information about the site you visited immediately prior to our site to assess the viability of links to our site that we have created on third party sites.
The personal information stored in "persistent cookies" is written onto your hard drive and remains there until the expiry date of the cookie. Nature's Path uses persistent cookies to store non-sensitive personal information that you are aware of and have agreed to. We may link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our website. For example, if you choose the option on our login screen to remember your Nature's Path account, the system will remember and automatically input your user name each time you use the service from that personal computer.
We also employ persistent cookies, in order to provide you with a more comfortable online experience. A persistent cookie is placed on your computer's hard drive to remember your language preference and ensure you are always presented with the appropriate language. We also employ a persistent cookie to ensure that any online targeted offer which you have already responded to is not presented again each time you login to our Internet banking site. When you submit an application online for a product or service, we may also collect non-personal information, such as city, province and postal code in order to better serve our customers.
We use personal information about your computer, such as IP Address and Browser type. The primary method of collecting this personal information is through a persistent cookie which is added to your computer. The personal information is collected to assist us in authenticating you and your computer. All persistent cookies used by Nature's Path are encrypted for additional security.
Currently, most browsers do not distinguish between session cookies and persistent cookies. For certain of our web services to operate, your browser must be set to accept cookies. If you are concerned about having your browser enabled to accept cookies while you are surfing other websites, we recommend that you enable your browser to notify you when it is receiving a cookie. This gives you the ability of accepting or rejecting any cookie presented by the web server you are visiting. Most Internet browsers will allow you to delete cookies from your computer hard drive. You should refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.
Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon you visit the website. If you continue to use the website, you agree to our use of cookies.
9. Flash – Local Shared Object
Local shared objects, sometimes referred to as "Flash cookies", are data files that a website creates when you visit the site. Shared objects are most often used to enhance your web-browsing experience.
A local shared object is like a browser cookie, except that it can also store data more complex than simple text. Shared objects, by themselves, can't do anything to or with the data on your computer. More importantly, shared objects cannot access or remember your email address or other personal information unless you willingly provide such personal information. For more information about Flash, please visit www.adobe.com.
10. Email Comments, Questions or Responses
When you send us an email or when you ask us to respond to you by email, we learn your exact email address and any personal information you have included in the email.
We use your email address to acknowledge your comments and/or reply to your questions, and we will store your communication and our reply in case we correspond further. We will not sell your email address to anyone outside Nature's Path. We may use your email address to send you information about offers on products and services that we believe may be of interest to you. If you don't want us to contact you by email with offers on products and services, you may tell us so at any time.
If you have asked us to put you on an email mailing list to provide you with certain information on a regular basis, or if we send you information about our offers on products and services by email, you may ask us to remove you from the list at any time (using the unsubscribe instructions provided with each email and on the site where you signed up).
Remember that email sent over the Internet is generally unencrypted. If Nature's Path requests that you transmit confidential personal information to us over the Internet when filling out an application online, we ensure that such transmission is encrypted. We recommend that you use caution when forwarding free-format email messages to us and that you do not include confidential personal information in those messages, as they are not encrypted.
We will never send email messages to customers requesting confidential personal information such as passwords or account numbers. Please do not act on any such emails as you may compromise your banking personal information by following links to a counterfeit Internet site(s).
11. Responding to Contests or Surveys
When you submit your response to a survey question or enter one of our contests, we learn your answer or any opinions or personal information that you volunteer. In a contest we will use your personal information for the purpose of awarding a prize. For a survey, we may use your submission to come up with the survey results, and we may publish those results in aggregate on our websites. We may also use your response to improve our products or services. Based on your participation in either, we may forward information about our offers on products and services that we believe may be of interest to you.
12. Addressing Your Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns about privacy, confidentiality or how a request for personal information was handled, let us know. Contact us in one of the following ways and please include your full name, address and telephone number:
Telephone: +1 (866) 880-7284
Nature's Path Foods, Inc.
9100 Van Horne Way
Richmond, BC V6X 1W3
We'll work hard to provide an acceptable solution but if you are not satisfied, a Manager will become involved in the resolution of your problem or concern.
13. Changes to This Privacy Policy
Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent, and we expect most such changes will be minor. Regardless, we will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes). Each version of this Privacy Policy will be identified at the top of the page by its effective date.


text:
Already well respected from his work with Menschdefekt and with his band Project Rotten let alone numerous other collaborations and projects, Fredrik Croona brought another absorbing, impactful, and stirring release to incite our hearts from his new project Cynical Existence in the shape of its debut album A Familiar Kind of Pain. A release of harsh EBM and dark electro might and infection the new album continues the impressive contribution and creativity of Fredrik that has installed him as one of the more inspirational and notable people in the genres and subgenres his projects easily envelope. We had the pleasure of Fredrik agreeing to answer our questions so we could find out more about him and his music.
Hi Fredrik, many thanks for taking time to talk with us.
Firstly tell us not about the musician but about the man Fredrik Croona.
Well, what can I say? I am a normal guy who has a day time job trying to earn enough to make a living. When I don't do that I prefer to play video games and go to the gym and pretend to be a strong muscular dude. I am pretty much a nerd.
The first introduction to you for many of us was when you joined Menschdefekt in 2009, is there a musical history before that point for you?
I started out as a vocalist in a heavy metal/new metal band back in 2003 and after that I was a vocalist in a death metal band and some minor short lived dark electro/darkwave projects. I doubt that anyone heard about these bands besides my close friends, cause we never got past the demo stages and only performed live in my home town of Gothenburg.
How did your union with Dominik R. in the band come about?
I think those who know me well enough know that I have a passion to start side projects or collaborations with other artists and I was actually surfing around Myspace and found Menschdefekt and Dominik was holding some kind of competition for a vocalist who wanted to try to write lyrics and do vocals for a track (I forgot the name of it). I wasn't into it at first but I thought hell why not? And Dominik loved my vocals and lyrics and wanted me to join as full time vocalist.
Next you formed Project Rotten alongside Menschdefekt for your solo work, what did you want to experiment with and create that was different to Menschdefekt?
First off I wanted to make something myself, or at least try but I failed. I made two tracks myself which were pretty terrible in all aspects of both music and vocals and so I got a guy called Jan to join me, cause I needed help. And after that Kettil joined and helped improve the music drastically. In the end I wanted something more raw and sinister than Menschdefekt.
I would say that everything but the vocals is different. In CE everything is created and produced by me and this in return makes me create anything I want to create. I have total control and nobody can tell me what to do and not to do (not saying that is the case with Project Rotten). But still there is more freedom this way.
You are no longer involved with Menschdefekt, was this because of the demands of working two bands or that Project Rotten was naturally pulling in all your creative energy into itself to leave less than you wished for Menschdefekt?
My biggest problem with Menschdefekt was that it was stealing too much attention from Project Rotten and the sound didn't evolve too much in my ears. I always strive to evolve and so does Kettil and we want the same things. It's easier to work this way and I still make the final mixes in Project Rotten so I can make it sound the way I want it to. Dominik is a great musician and I had lots of fun in Menschdefekt but it got to a point where I couldn't evolve with it anymore so I had to cut it off.
What have and do the three bands differ in and offer distinctly differently to your creative ideas and craft
Menschdefekt was focused on catchy hook lines and themes about war, corruption and human decay.
Project Rotten was based on fiction and horror with heavy beats and dark aggressive music (which has evolved into a more club oriented sound).
Cynical Existence is a personal project with a lot of feelings and lyrics about past experiences etc and it's whatever I want it to be. One track can be a bit future pop-ish and one can be really dark and aggressive. I have no boundaries to what I create.
With Project Rotten and Cynical Existence is there sometimes a battle within you over which gets priority over a new idea you have?
Nah, Kettil is the musical drive behind PR so if there would be a battle it would be for the lyrics. Both bands are equal for me and I don't see a problem or a battle amongst them. If there comes a time when I have to choose *I would probably merge both bands into one instead.
How do you create your music generally?
I boot up cubase and start a VST and just write and move around and try different things. I never know what to do until I do it.
How many times have you thought of something that you think will work in a track but not been near anything to record it and then for it ultimately to disappear from memory by the time you are haha?
Oh shit, well that is a hard question. I would probably say one too many ;). Worst part is when you are at work and you think of something and when you get home it's just gone.
With Cynical Existence the band bio states the goal for the band was to create a form of 'old school' harsh EBM and industrial " with a more personal touch and emotions infused into it." Could you expand on the personal and emotional elements and how these differs from what you have brought through with Project Rotten?
Like I stated before, Project Rotten was mostly about fiction and horror and the new songs are more sarcastic and with a lot of dark humour. Cynical Existence is more personal because I write things that are close to me and the music probably reflects that also. I hate the terms Cyber and Hellectro. I call it harsh ebm or dark electro cause that is what it is. It has nothing to do with cyberspace or dystopia or hell, this is what makes it special to me.
A Familiar Kind Of Pain is the debut Cynical Existence album and one we loved. How long was it in the making and has the sounds and idea behind it been around longer than the project?
Should I really spill my beans about this ;)? The EP is actually a mini CD. But it took me about 3 months to make, maybe even less. When I have my creative drive I can write A LOT. Mind you a lot has been thrown away.
Did A Familiar Kind Of Pain change and evolve by the finished album much from your original ideas and vision?
I didn't really have an idea. I just wanted to try and create music. As I stated before I did two songs back in 2009 but they were just arpeggios and sequencers so they don't count. This time around I just wanted to create and see what I could do. I want to create varied tracks with different feelings for the EP and I think I managed to do it.
Is there a theme or continuing essence behind the EP, or is this the personal part of you that we feel linking the songs?
Hmm not really, I just wanted every track to sound a bit different to see what I could make; I wanted variation and see how far I could go without going too far.
Is Cynical Existence something you see becoming an active live band like Project Rotten or remain a recording vehicle for your dark electro and harsh EBM ideas?
Hell yes! I already played live once and will be standing on stage again in about 2 months. So I will be playing live for sure.
In a genre where it seems that fans and some artists are almost intolerant of certain sounds, and sub styles within the vast industrial world, what were you expecting response wise from your fans to something openly different to Project Rotten?
I wasn't expecting anything to be honest. I mean I didn't even think I could make a album and release it but I did. I create music for myself and if people like it that is awesome but in the end as long as I like it it's ok. This is for me in the end. It might sound egoistic but if not for me, then who else?
How do you view industrial right now, it almost seems a volatile environment to be making music within?
A lot of people are whiny bitches to be honest, both artists and people alike. I don't really listen to industrial music myself and don't keep up with the scene. But I still love the scene who likes and appreciates what you do, why waste energy on the others?
What inspires your music and ideas, and does it differ from the different bands you have been and are involved in?
Everyday life and my personal feelings. I think it does because this is on a very personal level and I am there from start to finish.
What are the biggest influences that have crossed into all your work?
I have no idea, there are some bands I really got influenced by in my early electro years, but before that it was metal. Now I don't really know. It's a very hard question.
Apart from the bands we have mentioned what else are you involved with? We know you also collaborate with other artists like one of our favourites Scream Machine.
Well as of right now I am working on the vocals for the Mexican dark electro band Anamadim, besides that it's kind of quiet. I don't really have time or energy to waste on other things at the moment because of PR and CE. Got two album in the works to finish this year.
With the internet collaborations are much easier to engineer and do, but do you think it also from the fact that people do not even need to be in the same country to create music together that it can lose the naturally instinctive essences one finds from all being together side by side working?
I don't think it's matter if you are there or not. As long as you have a connection with the other part and you both have the same drive and passion I don't see a reason why it should differ from working next to each other in real life. Internet creates huge possibilities that we couldn't even dream about 15 years ago.
What is next for you?
To get my albums ready and prepare to release them onto the world so stay tuned!
A big thank you for taking time to talk with us, it is very much appreciated.
Would you like to end with any last thoughts about anything?
Even if it seems that I don't have much love for the industrial scene I actually do. The fans and people who support us bands those are the people I give my love to. The others can fuck off and die! Thank you!
Read the A Familiar Kind Of Pain review @ https://ringmasterreviewintroduces.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/cynical-existence-a-familiar-kind-of-pain/
The RingMaster Review 30/04/2012
The best and easiest way to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and lots more. Click below for details.
Categories: Interviews, Music


text:
The problem with current piezoelectric systems is that they're typically made from toxic materials. But boffins at the Berkeley Lab have devised an ingeniously green alternative—current-creating bacteriophages.
The M13 bacteriophage virus normally spends its time infecting and replicating within E. coli bacteria. However, it also has a couple of handy perks including the ability to generate electric current when compressed, readily replicate, and also a habit of aligning itself into orderly rows.
Berkeley Lab scientists shoehorned this virus into battery form by stacking 20 layers of a genetically-modified version of M13 atop a gold substrate and attaching leads. The result—a tiny battery able to output six nanoamperes at 400 millivolts. Granted, that's a very small amount of current—like, snail generator-levels of charge—but still.
If the technology can be scaled up commercial levels, the possible applications are nearly endless. They could be implanted in roads to generate power as cars travel over them, implanted in the soles of your shoes to recharge your mobile devices as you walk, or power an office's lighting simply from the foot traffic in the lobby. [Nature - Berkeley Lab via ExtremeTech]


text:
I ordered two Surface tablets last week and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. I purchased a 32G with Touch Cover, and another with the Type cover. In the meantime, I decided to update one of my home PCs to Windows 8.
The days of optical media are fading, and a 2G download now seems acceptable, so I popped "buy Windows 8" into Bing and went to the Microsoft Australia site.
However, Microsoft is not in a hurry to grab your money as, sensibly, it first runs a compatibility check with your installed OS and software. After a few minutes, it presented me with a list of programs that would fare well in Win 8 and a few that might require updates. Nothing really serious, as all my major tools, even my video-editing suite, were fine. I was then asked what type of upgrade I wanted and elected to preserve all my documents, settings and applications, and then finally I gave them $39.99 — a great price for a full OS upgrade.
The download took around 2 hours, a lot longer than I expected, but I was on my Wi-Fi and I suspect that the download servers may have quite a large load on them. Once it was downloaded, the installation took around an hour on my computer, but I'm sure that this will vary from computer to computer. I used my Windows account for sign-in, and when Windows finally came to the new Start screen, it was reassuring to see the same tiles that I'm used to on my phone, populated with the same data and pictures.
The only minor problem in the installation was Windows believing that I had a European keyboard, and I had to find the @ symbol on the double quote key when putting in my email address.
I've had the Windows 8 preview for some time, but I still had the momentary confusion when I went to the desktop and didn't have a Start button. However, moving the mouse to the upper right corner brought up the Charms menu and I was back at the now familiar Start screen.
Desktop habits die hard, and I was still trying to figure out how to close the new RT apps since they lack a close button. There are of course multiple methods, but the real answer is that you don't have to. indows 8 will suspend apps and remove them later, if needed. However, if you really need to, you can swipe from the top edge to the bottom with mouse or finger, or use the upper left corner to display all apps and right click to get the Close menu. You can also use Task Manager as well.
I had a quick tour of the installed apps, and everything looked clean and wonderful. The typography and the use of large photos presents a new standard in desktop OS design, and one can only hope that Apple and Google take note.
It was now quite late, so I decided to shut the computer down, only to realise that I had no Shut Down button available. I knew it would be somewhere in the Charms menu, but since I was tired, I just used the other method of pressing the power button on the PC and everything closed down normally. Next morning, I did a quick look up on the internet and I was right; Charms Menu –> Settings –> Power –> Shut down.
I haven't run any definitive benchmarks, but my computer does shut down, boot up, and return from sleep faster, and I'll examine my main applications and games next week.
All in all, this was one of the smoothest OS upgrades I've ever done and, in my opinion, well worth the price.
You will have the occasional confusion, as you need to unlearn some old desktop habits. Your apps will still work and your desktop is still there, but everything is a little faster and slicker.


text:
Happy Birthday
Keith Olbermann turns 50 today. Designer Narciso Rodriguez is celebrating his 48th. Actor Alan Cumming is turning 44. Mikhail Baryshnikov is 61. Hedge fund mogul Dan Och turns 48. Model Lily Donaldson is turning 21. Tom Cruise's first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, turns 53. Actor James Cromwell turns 69. Tricky is 41. The rapper Lil Jon is 38. Bridget Fonda is 45. And Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who so spectacularly mangled Barack Obama's oath of office a week ago, turns 54 today.


text:
Two of the three most infamous Supreme Court decisions were erased by events. The Civil War and postwar constitutional amendments effectively overturned Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which held that blacks could never have rights that whites must respect. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which upheld legally enforced segregation, was undone by court decisions and legislation.
The third, Korematsu v. United States (1944), which affirmed the president's wartime power to sweep Americans of disfavored racial groups into concentration camps, elicited a 1988 congressional apology. Now Peter Irons, founder of the Earl Warren Bill of Rights Project at the University of California at San Diego, is campaigning for a Supreme Court "repudiation" of the Korematsu decision and other Japanese internment rulings. Such repudiation, if it occurred, would be unprecedented.
An essay Irons is circulating among constitutional law professors whose support he seeks is timely reading in today's context of anti-constitutional presidencies, particularly regarding war powers.
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the military to "prescribe military areas . . . from which any or all persons may be excluded." So some 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them born here, were sent to camps in desolate Western locations. Supposedly, this was a precaution against espionage and sabotage. Actually, it rested entirely on the racial animus of Gen. John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command.
Using government records, Irons has demonstrated that because senior officials, including Solicitor General Charles Fahy, committed "numerous and knowing acts of governmental misconduct," the Supreme Court based its decision on "records and arguments that were fabricated and fraudulent." Officials altered and destroyed evidence that would have revealed the racist motives for the internments. And to preserve the pretext of a "military necessity" for the concentration camps, officials suppressed reports on the lack of evidence of disloyalty or espionage by Japanese Americans.
The 1943 "Final Report" on Japanese "evacuation," prepared under DeWitt's direction and signed by him, said a Japanese invasion was probable, that "racial characteristics" of Japanese Americans predisposed them to assist the invasion, and that it was "impossible" to distinguish loyal from disloyal Japanese American citizens, if there were any. "The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second- and third-generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become 'Americanized,' the racial strains are undiluted."
When War Department officials objected to such assertions and demanded revisions, DeWitt ordered all copies and records of the original report destroyed, though one copy escaped DeWitt's cover-up. The court, however, never saw it, remaining unaware of the racist basis of the theory of internment's "military necessity."
Also kept from the court was a report, prepared for the Chief of Naval Operations and made available to DeWitt, estimating potentially disloyal Japanese as just 3 percent of the Japanese American population and declaring that these were "already fairly well known to naval intelligence" and could be quickly apprehended, if necessary. The suppressed report's conclusion: "The entire Japanese problem has been magnified out of its true proportion, largely because of the physical characteristics of the people (and) should be handled on the basis of the individual. . . and not on a racial basis."
Fahy ignored an assistant attorney general's warning that not advising the court of this report would constitute "suppression of evidence." Furthermore, DeWitt justified internment because "the interception of unauthorized radio communications" emanating from along the coast "conclusively" accounted for Japanese submarine attacks on U.S. ships.
The FBI, however, reported "no information" of "any espionage activity ashore or . . . illicit shore-to-ship signaling." The Federal Communications Commission investigated "hundreds" of reports of suspicious radio communications but found nothing to confirm DeWitt's accusations. Yet Fahy in his oral argument assured the court he could guarantee the veracity of "every line, every word, and every syllable" of DeWitt's report, and that "no person in any responsible position has ever taken a contrary position."
The Korematsu decision reflected perennial dangers: panic and excessive deference, judicial and other, to presidents or others who would suspend constitutional protections in the name of wartime exigencies.
It is less important that the decision be repudiated than that it be remembered. Especially by those currently clamoring, since Boston, for a U.S. citizen — arrested in America and concerning whom there is no evidence of a connection with al-Qaeda, the Taliban or other terror network — to be detained by the military as an "enemy combatant." The Korematsu case is a reminder that waiving constitutional rights is rarely necessary and rarely ends well.
Read more from George F. Will's archive or follow him on Facebook.


text:
Erik Eckel explores the benefits of deploying Mac's Snow Leopard Server in the areas of cost, maintenance, ease of use, and rich applications.
Think Different isn't just a slogan. Apple's Mac development team simply approaches computer challenges differently. The new Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server is a perfect example. For Windows professionals, the process of centralizing user administration and administering critical services (on Windows servers) is fraught with peril and expense. However, technology professionals accustomed to administering Windows server-powered networks will find Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server easy to configure, inexpensive to deploy, simple to maintain, and packed full of rich applications.
Before casting aspersions, consider the evidence.
Macs are often celebrated for their ease of use. But let's review just what makes Mac OS X Server easier to us than, say, Windows Server 2008.
For starters, there's the Mac Server Assistant. Following initial installation, the Server Assistant guides users through the process of setting up and configuring the server, whether being deployed as a standalone server or as part of a larger, preexisting network. Language is simplified, making it easier to understand the processes that are being implemented and completed.
When the Server Assistant completes, server preferences (user creation, group administration, service installation and configuration, etc.) are set. Mac OS X Server uses an easy-to-understand Server Preferences application to assist users in configuring the server.
The Mac OS X Server's Server Status Dashboard makes it easy to monitor server status. Complicated reporting configurations, third-party monitoring utilities and other complex mechanisms are not required to monitor the server's health. Instead, users need only check the dashboard widget to learn the real-time status of critical services. And the Mac server includes its own monitoring features that enable it to react automatically to issues. For example, the Mac server can proactively delete noncritical log files and other utilities when disk space becomes short.
Cost efficiency
Windows administrators often chide Macs, blaming the supposed high cost of Apple technology. Total cost of ownership requires that IT professionals calculate more than just hardware costs, however. Mac OS X Snow Leopard costs only $499. That's it. And, there are no client access licenses to purchase. An unlimited number of clients are supported. The cost savings versus Windows servers are phenomenal.
"Well, the required hardware's expensive," many Windows administrators object. But the statement's untrue. Small Mac server networks can be run on a Mac Mini, while iMacs and Mac Pros, too, can be used to run Apple's server OS.
Larger enterprises, of course, will require Xservers to power their infrastructure. Xservers start at just $2,999, which is in the same ballpark as a similarly configured (server OS, 2.2GHz Quad-Core Xeon CPU, 3GB RAM, DVD burner, 750-watt PSU, rack-mount hardware) Dell PowerEdge R710, for example.
Simple maintenance
Using Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, client management and server maintenance is easy.
The server's Workgroup Manager provides Active Directory-type configuration. Workgroup Manager eases typical systems administration tasks by providing directory-based, centralized management of users, groups, and computers.
The Workgroup Manager also enables implementing group policy-like security restrictions (prevent mounting external hard disks, block unauthorized programs, etc.), but without the hassle associated with complex GPO objects and policies.
The Mac's System Image Utility makes it easy to deploy new systems, including those with customized application configuration (even over a network using NetRestore). The Mac's Netboot service makes it easy to deploy hard disk images over a network whenever a targeted client restarts. Software update services, meanwhile, permit administrators to easily specify how and when client machines receive updates.
Rich applications
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server comes packed, too, with numerous applications. The platform includes iCal Server 2 for sharing and coordinating calendars, meetings and other events; Podcast Producer 2 for creating, producing, and distributing podcasts; Wiki Server 2 for creating and editing wiki collaboration sites; Address Book Server for sharing and synchronizing contacts across networks and devices; and Mobile Access Server for securely sharing files and services with devices and computers outside the network.
Just like the infamous Ginsu knife commercial — wait. There's more.
The newest Mac OS Server platform also includes traditional server-based services such as iChat server (for powering secure instant messaging), file sharing, email, Web hosting, and VPN capabilities.
Spotlight Server is yet another server-based program. The integrated index search software makes it possible to locate files and information across the entire network.
Worth a look
There are certainly numerous legitimate business reasons (Windows OS-required to power legacy or proprietary applications, sunken costs, etc.) that justify deploying Windows servers in the enterprise. But many organizations could be better served deploying more approachable, more cost-efficient Mac OS X servers. If nothing else, Windows administrators owe it to themselves to discover what Mac server professionals already know: Mac OS X Server is an incredibly powerful, feature-rich OS that can lower costs, simplify maintenance and increase productivity.


text:
An Illinois man has accused Bose, the audio equipment manufacturer, of illegally wiretapping him via his Bose headphones.
According to a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago on Tuesday, Kyle Zak bought a $350 (£330) pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless Bluetooth headphones in March 2017. Those headphones use an app, known as "Bose Connect," to skip, pause, and perform other controls on them.
The civil complaint alleges that Bose collects "the names of any music and audio tracks" played through the headphones, along with the customer's personally identifiable serial number. It also says the information gets sent to third parties, including "data miner Segment.io."
Lawyers for Zak argue that this constitutes wiretapping. They further allege that this type of interception could have revealed a lot of personal information about consumers, depending on their music or podcasting listening habits. For example, someone listening to "The Greatest Generation," like its hosts, might be a little bit embarrassed to admit to the world that they listen to a Star Trek podcast.
Neither Bose nor Segment.io, which is not a party to the lawsuit, immediately responded to Ars' request for comment.
The lawsuit claims that several other headphone models send out this data, including the SoundSport Wireless, Sound Sport Pulse Wireless, QuietControl 30, SoundLink Around-Ear Wireless Headphones II, and SoundLink Color II.
Metadata vs. contentZak and his lawyers from Edelson, a Chicago-based law firm that specializes in technology and privacy cases, will have to show that the interception of the audio metadata is the same thing as the content contemplated by federal wiretap law.
"We discovered the issue, as we do in many of our cases, through an investigation conducted by our in-house computer forensics lab," Christopher Dore, one of the Edelson lawyers involved in the case, e-mailed Ars.
Bose lawyers likely will argue that while it may be sending out copies of the metadata (artist, song title, etc.), its actions do not constitute "contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication" as defined under the relevant wiretap law. Therefore, it could argue, the company isn't liable.
Edelson seems to have anticipated this line of argument and points out that the Bose products interact with consumer smartphones, which transmit "operational instructions regarding skipping and rewinding audio tracks and their corresponding titles."


text:
Product Information
If you suffer from sore and achy feet, we've might just have the solution to help soothe and re-energize them. The sole purpose of these compression socks is to revive your tired feet and legs using advanced compression technology.
As well as aiming to reduce swelling and increase blood circulation, they carry anti-microbial properties that are designed to naturally banish nasty smells and fungus. So go on, pull your socks up and grab your pairs.
- Help revive achy feet with a pair of pain-relieving compression socks.
- Compression technology aims to reduce swelling and enhances blood circulation.
- Anti-microbial properties designed to eliminate bad odors and fungal infections.
- Breathable material reduces moisture to help keep feet cool and comfortable.
- Compression level: 15-20mmHg
- Perfect for those on their feet all day!
Care Instructions
- Machine wash warm with like colors
- Tumble dry medium
- Small–Medium (6–9.5)
- Large–X-Large (10–13.5)


text:
Filter By:
- Show More Brands
- Show Fewer Brands
$349.99 - $350.00
Specialized's Command Post IRCC, offers Cruiser Control technology. With ten micro-adjust positions, you'll always be able to find just the right saddle height for descending like Gwin or climbing like Sauser. - Patented mechanical locking system with the addition of Cruiser Control Technology. - Cruiser Control technology features added positions in the cruiser control range. - Bonded lightweight aluminum micro-adjustable "alien" style head. - Dual-keyway system eliminates saddle wiggle. - Energized triple-lip wiper prevents contamination. - Durable zero-gap, dual-lip x-ring internal seal ensures long-term durability. - Ships with SRL and grip mounted lever.
The Specialized CG-R seatpost extends the concept that "Smoother is Faster." This revolutionary post features 18mm of vertical compliance, Zertz vibration damping, and FACT carbon construction. The CG-R delivers unsurpassed comfort, control, and efficiency without adding weight or complication to the frame. No matter what surface your ride takes you on, the CG-R will make it better. - Revolutionary design allows 18mm of vertical compliance. - FACT carbon construction blends durability and comfort. - Vibration-damping Zertz for increased comfort. - Cylindrical aluminum head assembly adjusts fore-aft and tilt with an easy-access single bolt. - Diameter: 27.2mm
Specialized's Shiv Carbon Seatpost is crafted from Specialized's FACT carbon for a premium blend of ultra lightness, outstanding power transfer and vibration damping. And, its single-bolt clamp holds fast and makes seat adjustments easy. The Shiv Carbon Seatpost only fits Specialized Shiv bicycles.
$179.99 - $180.00
Light, high-tech and comfortable, Specialized's S-Works Carbon Seatpost will improve your ride. It's built of Specialized's FACT carbon for a feathery weight and impressive strength and durability. Plus, the post features a cylindrical head assembly that's simple to adjust fore/aft and tilt with a single bolt. The S-Works seatpost comes in a 400mm length with zero or 20mm setback, as well as a 350mm length with 20mm setback.
Page 1 of 1


text:
Traditionally, servant or 'son' of Amzamiviram, the bell-maker (and designer). Each temple has its own Bellmunty. Being Bellmunty of a temple is a very high honour and there are usually long waiting lists. A Bellmunty is required to make his (or her, if she is a Bellimentinu) own costume. The Bellmunty's Bell-hat (the Brove) is made from a mixture of gold, silver, pewter, tin, bronze, brass, nickel, aluminium, iron, copper and bismuth.
A medieaval Bellmunty.


text: Back Medications to Treat ADHD in Children Children who have ADHD are often given medication as part of their treatment plan. The type of medication most often chosen is a psychostimulant, such as methylphenidate (Ritalin, Metadate and Concerta). Psychostimulant drugs help balance chemicals in the child's brain that help to control behavior and focus attention. Other psychostimulants prescribed for ADHD in children include dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), a mixture of amphetamine salts (Adderall), and atomoxetine (Strattera). Psychostimulants act quickly—doing their job over the course of one to four hours—and then are quickly flushed from the body. Newer psychostimulants on the market are designed to be longer acting, continuing to work for up to nine hours, so that they only need to be taken once a day. Occasionally, nonstimulant medications may be used to treat ADHD in children. These include the antidepressants bupropion (Wellbutrin), desipramine (Norpramin), and imipramine (Tofranil). Your health care provider will determine the need for medication and select the appropriate drug after evaluating your child's symptoms, his age and health, and your preference. Possible side effects Psychostimulant medications can cause side effects, but most are mild and ease with time. Side effects include insomnia, decreased appetite, stomach ache, headache, and nervousness. In addition, when the medication's effects wear off, some children's hyperactive behaviors may increase for a short while. The FDA has ordered that medication guides for parents be included with prescriptions for psychostimulants. That's because of recent reports of sudden death in children and teens with heart abnormalities who were taking these medications for ADHD. There is a slight increased risk for paranoia, mania, or hearing voices in youngsters who take these medications. The FDA also has warned that children and teens who take antidepressants may be more likely to become suicidal. When to take The best time for your child to take a long-acting, once-a-day medication is just before breakfast. Shorter-acting medications are best taken 30 to 45 minutes before a meal—before breakfast and before lunch, the AAFP says. Medication is usually taken during the week, with a drug "vacation" on the weekends. Medication also is often stopped during the summer months, when school is out. Your health care provider can discuss the appropriate schedule for your child. Some children need medication for several years; others need longer treatment. Other therapies Although some experts (and parents) criticize what they see as an overuse of psychostimulants, these medications have proven to be effective and safe for the treatment of ADHD. Other treatment options may be harder to follow, less effective, and sometimes not easily available to families. Alternatives to Ritalin and other stimulants include ongoing counseling for the child, educational support in the form of smaller classes and individualized attention, tutoring, and training in social skills. Psychostimulants often are used in conjunction with other therapy, such as psychological treatment. Some parents have turned to such different treatments as biofeedback, megavitamins, and blue-green algae. Any alternative treatments should be discussed with your health care provider before trying them. Whatever the treatment, a child with ADHD may find that he has trouble concentrating even as he grows up. Most children outgrow the hyperactivity and impulsiveness of their younger years, but as adults still have difficulty getting organized or completing long-term projects. They often do best with careers that draw on their strengths and make the most of their behavior style—they become entrepreneurs or artists and entertainers.