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.NET 3.5 has a lot of great new features that can significantly enhance developer productivity. I've been spending some time lately working on a little sample application that demonstrates how an N-Layer ASP.NET 3.5 application can be built using LINQ, lambdas and LINQ with stored procedures. The application is for a talk I'll be giving at DevConnections in April discussing how LINQ technologies can be used in an N-Layer architecture. In a blog post comparing different LINQ options I mentioned that I'd be posting the code download as soon as it was ready.
The application provides a presentation layer, business layer, data layer and model layer through separate projects as shown next:
It also demonstrates how the new ListView control can be used to display data, perform insert, update and delete operations and nest other controls such as the GridView. Databinding on the presentation layer is mainly done using the ObjectDataSource control.
All of the queries performed in the application go against an object model created using the Visual Studio 2008 LINQ to SQL Designer. Note: The included Northwind SQL Express database has been modified slightly to add a TimeStamp field into the Customer and Orders tables and contains several custom stored procedures (sprocs aren't required unless using that portion of the application). Adding TimeStamp fields simplifies updates so be aware that if you change the connection string to point to a standard Northwind database you'll get an error since the TimeStamp fields will be missing.
Rather than focusing solely on LINQ, I wanted to show different options for data access that .NET 3.5 offers so that developers can get a feel for what's available in addition to standard LINQ queries that seem to get most of the attention these days. I ended up creating six main data layer classes as shown next: Customer Query Classes:
Order Query Classes:
I still lean toward using stored procedures due to the security and maintenance benefits they offer in more enterprise environments, but for small queries I actually prefer lambda expressions over LINQ (not sure why...just feels more object oriented I guess). If you currently use stored procedures in your applications and haven't checked out the new LINQ to SQL Designer you'll be impressed with how easy it is to call stored procedures and pass parameters. You never have to see or create another SqlCommand or SqlParameter object again (well...in many cases anyway).
By changing a value in web.config you can switch between the different data layer classes and see which option you prefer (LINQ, lambdas or LINQ with sprocs). All of the data access classes perform the same overall tasks, they just use different techniques to do it.
Used to define which DB layer class should be loaded and used.
Valid customer values include: Data.CustomerDBSprocs, Data.CustomerLINQ, Data.CustomerLambda
Valid order values include: Data.OrderDBSprocs, Data.OrderLINQ, Data.OrderLambda
<add key="CustomerDBType" value="Data.CustomerDBLINQ" />
<add key="OrderDBType" value="Data.OrderDBLINQ" />
<!-- When the following key is set to "true" ensure that EnablePartialRendering is set to false on the Default.aspx ScriptManager control -->
<add key="EnableDataContextLogging" value="false" />


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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) >> State agencies have begun adding gender identity to their data collection, part of an effort Gov. Andrew Cuomo says will help the state better meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender New Yorkers.
A new report Wednesday identifies eight agencies, including the Department of Health, collecting or updating their data systems to gather those demographics.
New York's Office of Mental Health in 2011 began including sexual orientation and gender identity questions on admission forms at state mental health facilities, using it in a training curriculum for clinicians intended to improve treatment for LGBT people.
In 2012, the state Office for the Aging updated its system to ensure including LGBT seniors, whom research indicates are likelier to live alone and lack some vital support systems.

subset: commoncrawl


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A new Web site designed to give plastic containers and pallets a second life, www.UsedContainersAndPallets.com is a green initiative-based site that allows anyone who has containers or pallets that are no longer needed to easily list their items on the site. Buyers looking for used or overstock product can easily navigate the site to find the container or pallet that meets their needs. The concept of creating value for the seller and a great deal for the buyer also helps the environment by reusing instead of making new product.
Used Container/Pallet Web Site Offers Green Value
Check out Powder & Bulk Solids Industry Master directory.


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Record number of women over 40 having babies
More Australian women over the age of 40 are having babies than ever before, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The ABS' Births, Australia, 2011 publication shows that in 2011 a record 12,800 babies were born to women over 40, up from 7,100 in 2001.
Director of ABS Demography Bjorn Jarvis said the fertility rate for mothers in the 40–44 year old age group has increased to 15.1 babies per 1000 women in 2011 from 9.2 in 2001.
"We have also seen the total number of births in Australia pass the 300,000 mark for the first-time," Mr Jarvis said.
"The total fertility rate in Australia for 2011 was 1.88 babies per woman; this is higher than the record low of 1.73 in 2001 but a decline from the recent peak of 1.96 in 2008.
"Tasmania had the highest fertility rate at 2.17 babies per woman, while Victoria had the lowest at 1.75.
"The median age of all mothers was 30.6 years in 2011, whereas the median age of all fathers was 33 years,' Mr Jarvis added.
More details can be found in Births, Australia, 2011 (cat. no. 3301.0). State, territory and sub-state information is also available for download from the ABS website (www.abs.gov.au).
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Defense official: Several killed, up to 10 wounded
Navy: 'Active shooter' still in DC building
Two officials say police are looking into the possibility of a second shooter at the Washington Navy Yard where several people were killed.
A Defense Department official and a law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
At least one gunman opened fire inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning killing four and wounding 10 others. The conditions of those wounded were not immediately known.
Images: Naval Yard shooting in Washington
A shooter was "contained" but not yet in custody, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Helicopters swarmed overhead, schools were on lockdown and airplanes at nearby Reagan National Airport were grounded as authorities swarmed the area in southeast D.C., just miles from the Capitol.
About 3,000 people work at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters.
Rick Mason, a program management analyst who is a civilian with the U.S. Navy, said a gunman was shooting from a fourth floor overlook in the hallway outside his office. He said the gunman was aiming down at people in the building's cafeteria on the first floor. Mason said he could hear the shots but could not see a gunman.
Shortly after the gunfire, Mason said overhead speakers told workers to seek shelter and later to head for the gates at the complex.
Patricia Ward, a logistics management specialist, said she was in the cafeteria and heard shots. They sounded like "pop, pop, pop," she said. After a few seconds, there were more shots, she said.
"Everybody just panicked at first," she said. "It was just people running, running, running."
Ward said security officers started directing people out of the building with guns drawn.
Police and federal agents from multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the scene. Ambulances were parked outside, streets in the area were closed and departures from Reagan National Airport were temporarily halted for security reasons.
Among the wounded was a D.C. police officer, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A U.S. Park Police helicopter hovered over the building and appeared to drop a basket or a stretcher with a person onto the roof.
Naval Sea Systems Command is the largest of the Navy's five system commands and accounts for a quarter of the Navy's entire budget. It builds, buys and maintains the Navy's ships and submarines and their combat systems.


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After a year of uncertainty, we now know who will be governing the nation over the next four years. Unfortunately, it is not the guy that Wall Street was hoping would win. Investors took out their disappointment by selling. That is a mistake.
Consider: over the past 14 presidential election weeks, the markets declined six times and rallied eight. During that post-election week, markets continued to follow the trend. However, two weeks later there was no correlation between what the markets did election week and how they performed 14 days later. In 2008, for example, the market was up 4% the day before Obama's election and down 5% the day after. Yet, we have had one of the best rallies in stock market history during the last four years.
But wherever you looked this week, the words "Fiscal Cliff" were plastered on every front page right next to the election results. The financial markets, despite their awareness of the looming January 1 deadline, decided it was time to panic. Since Wednesday, the stock market experienced a wave of selling that drove the averages down by over 3.5%.
I believe a good deal of this new-found pessimism can be traced to many investors' disappointment that Romney lost the election and the GOP, despite spending billions, failed to win a mandate on the economy. Sure, if one simply focuses on what will happen to this country if nothing is done to extend the Bush tax cuts and avoid automatic spending cuts, then the panic we see in the markets this week may be justified.
However, I doubt that neither the President nor Congress will allow that to happen. The economy is only beginning to find its footing. A double whammy of tax increases and spending cuts at this juncture could easily drive the economy back into recession. Clearly, John Boehner wants a deal. Obama does as well. So why the market believes Romney could find a solution but Obama can't seems a bit fishy to me.
Democrats and Republicans, evidently in the mood for compromise, are already discussing ways to solve or delay those tax increases and spending cuts for at least another quarter. That will give both sides of the aisle the breathing room to work out a compromise. In the end, I believe no one will be happy with whatever compromise the politicians devise, but it will provide a solution to the country's immediate fiscal problems.
Americans can expect some tax increases in the coming year as well as a reduction in spending, but I suspect it will be phased-in and fairly moderate, at least at first. The trick will be to gradually apply austerity, but only after the economy is healthy enough to absorb the medicine. Clearly, the nation needs to reduce the deficit. The debt limit is also out of control. But the process of tackling those problems will take another four years to solve, in my opinion. It won't be perfect. There will be mistakes along the way and it won't be accomplished without a new willingness to work together in Washington.
President Obama is barely behind the wheel, but his first task this week was to meet on Friday in an effort to avoid the precipice of this Fiscal Cliff. That's a good beginning from someone I predicted will become "The Great Pragmatist" in the years ahead. In the meantime, the markets may go lower until an outcome is in place, although I suspect the bulk, if not all, of this decline is behind us. Take a deep breath. If you were disappointed with the election outcome, recognize that wanting to sell now may just be an emotional reaction and not the wisest choice you could make.


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Apple's iOS 5 boosts Twitter signups 25%, Wolfram Alpha searches by 20x
AppleInsider may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through links on our site.
Apple added single-sign on Twitter integration as a top feature in iOS 5, allowing users to provide their Twitter credentials to the system once, and then use Twitter services throughout bundled apps (including Safari, Maps and Photos) and within third party apps after giving them permission.
As a result, Twitter announced today in a new event debuting its new web site that following Apple's introduction of iOS 5, monthly signups for the free service are up 25 percent, reaching 100 million monthly active users in September, according to reports by TechCrunch.
Dick Costolo, Twitter's chief executive, noted in October that daily signups had tripled following the release of iOS 5, and called Apple and "corporate mentor."
In November, a report stated that 40 percent of photos shared via Twitter were coming from iOS users, noting that built-in Twitter integration in iOS 5 Photos had already made it a top ten photo sharing client for the service.
Just prior to the release, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey wrote to third party developers, "Very soon, anywhere thereâs an iPhone or an iPad, youâll always find Twitter."
He added, "With Appleâs upcoming deep integration of Twitter into iOS 5, there is an opportunity for us, together, to take the ecosystem to a new level."
Integration vs intimidation
In November of 2010, Apple worked with Twitter to integrate its service into iTunes Ping as a way to share reviews of and links to content within the iTunes Store.
Apple's ongoing partnership with Twitter has progressed much more smoothly than its halting relationship with Facebook, which Apple says demanded unreasonable terms for iTunes Ping integration and refused to allow Apple to integrate native support for Facebook on the iPad, despite working with HP to build in Facebook support in webOS for that company's failed TouchPad.
Apple's partnerships with Twitter and similar services (including Yelp integration within Siri) are also markedly different than Google's approach, which has attempted to copy and displace startups with its own imitative services. Google tried to launch Buzz as a Twitter killer, has tried to squash Facebook with its own Google+ clone, and has plagiarized Yelp's content to populate its own rival Places service.
Using this partnership strategy, Apple has been able to add new search functionality for its iOS 5 users via Siri without increasing its reliance upon Google, and without having to build, operate and maintain vast search services of its own.
The latter strategy has cost Microsoft billions even as its unprofitable Bing investments in web, local and maps search services have had limited impact on taking search revenue share from Google. Microsoft is spending millions in attempts to pay carriers to subvert Android phones to default to using Bing, and recently partnered with CNET to add a Bing malware installer to Download.com Windows software distribution of free and open software projects.
Siri having an serious impact on search
Rather than building its own services, Apple has hooked up with Yelp for local reviews and Wolfram Alpha to deliver direct, authoritative answers to users' Siri queries. Rather than paying for its services via ads like Google, Wolfram Research sells apps and collects partnership fees.
After integrating with Apple's Siri on the new iPhone 4S, Wolfram reported a 20 fold increase in query traffic in the first week. Wolfram Research executive director Luc Barthelet told MIT's Technology Review that Siri enables Apple to provide direct answers in a way that Google can't match for Android users, because "what would happen to Google's business model if they just provided answers? They want users to look at the results. That's what makes their ad space valuable."
The same report cited Michael Thompson, senior vice president of the mobile division of Nuance Communications, (the speech-recognition software that Apple licenses in Siri), as noting that Siri is "taking away the toll-booth functionality of the search portals."


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RS232 serial communication is an ancient, low speed, reliable standard. Each of about 100 characters (a, b, c, 1, 2, 3...) has a one-byte ASCII code. These are transmitted as 8 consecutive low and high logic levels, with a few framing bits as well. Baud rate refers to the number of bits/second. A typical baud rate is 19200, which is about 10000 times slower than USB. The original teletype machines were 110 baud. Read more about RS232 on wikipedia.
All desktop and laptop computers used to have a serial or "COM" port, available through a male DB-9 connector. These are getting less common on newer computers. However you can get an inexpensive "USB to Serial Adapter" cable which makes a COM port available, once you install some driver software to support the adapter cable.
The 18F4520 PIC has a built-in UART for transmitting and receiving characters on RS232 standard. After you make the hardware connection -- the PIC's transmit pin sends to the PC/laptop's receive pin and vice versa -- you can open a text window on the PC/laptop and see whatever your PIC program prints, and type characters that will be transmitted to your PIC. The CCS IDE has a built-in text window for this purpose, shown at the bottom of this page. You can also use Hyperterminal, which actually works somewhat better. It is a Windows ap usually found at Programs/Accessories/Communications/Hyperterminal. You can also set up your PIC to communicate with a Matlab program on a host PC.
We have two different kinds of cables for PC to PIC RS232 communication: the FTDIChip TTL-232R (preferred) and a cheaper USB to RS232 cable. The TTL-232R is preferred because you can easily plug it into a protoboard and you don't need any other components to interface with your PIC. It also provides +5V output from the PC which you can use to power other devices, such as an xbee radio (just need a 3.3V regulator). The cheaper cable requires you to solder a DB-9 connector and use an external level-shifter chip, to shift between the high voltages used by the PC and the lower TTL voltages used by the PIC. These two solutions are discussed below.
FTDIChip TTL-232R USB to RS232 Cable
The FTDIChip TTL-232R USB to RS232 cable (pictured at right), when used with the driver software, allows you to use your USB port as an RS232 port. You can find a manual for the cable here. You connect the cable's Tx (transmit data) pin with your PIC's Rx (receive data, pin 26), the cable's Rx pin with your PIC's Tx (pin 25), and the cable's ground with the PIC's ground, and you're all set. The circuitry inside the cable takes care of the USB to RS232 as well as voltage-level shifting. This cable also provides a 5V output which you can use to power an xbee wireless modem, for example (the xbee needs a 3.3V regulator).
The only drawback of this cable is that it costs a bit more than the cheaper, less convenient option below. Also, please check to make sure that the USB-RS232 driver software does not interfere with your PIC's ICD driver software.
Wiring to your PIC
The TTL-232R cable has six wires, color coded and in this sequence on the SIP connector:
BLACK GROUND Connect to PIC ground. BROWN CTS# Unused. "Clear to send" (flow control). RED Vcc +5V from PC. !! DO NOT CONNECT TO PIC +5 !! ORANGE Tx "PC Transmit." Data from PC, to PIC Rx (pin 26). YELLOW Rx "PC Receive." Data from PIC Tx (pin 25), to PC. GREEN RTS# Unused. "Request to send" (flow control).
Note that the TTL-232R cable gives you access to the PC's +5 supply (Red wire), which is limited in current (probably to 500mA) by the USB port which is designed to protect from short circuits. If you wish, you can probably power your PIC from the PC, using USB as a power source. If you do that, get rid of any other +5 source. Don't connect two +5 sources at once. In contrast, be sure that you do connect the PIC's ground to the PC's ground (Black wire).
The HL-340 USB to RS232 Cable
Cables such as the HL-340 pictured at right can be bought for as low as a few dollars, on ebay for example. This cable serves the same purpose as the cable above, but it is a bit less convenient for a few reasons: (1) the RS232 voltages are high level (+12V and -7V) and must be level-shifted before interfacing with the PIC; (2) the cable breaks out into a DB-9 connector, so you have to have (or solder) your own connector; and (3) it doesn't provide +5V to power external devices, as the cable above does. Nonetheless, it works just fine; just install the driver at http://18.104.22.168/pic/usb_drivers/HL-340_USB_serial_drivers_WinXP/ and make sure you follow the instructions below.
Do I need to hook up all 9 pins?
No, you only need three: transmit, receive, and ground. The rest have purposes but are seldom used any more. You do have to get the baud rate and a few other parameters matched, between whatever your two communicating partners are.
On a standard male DB-9 COM connector on a computer, 2=input to computer, 3=output from computer, 5=ground.
The connector you build will be female with the same pin numbers for the same purposes. Photo at right shows the pin numbering on the female DB-9.
Voltage problems: important!
PC/laptops use +12 volt and -7 volt signals The official RS232 standard uses +12V and -7V for logic 1 and 0 (or maybe the other way around). The PIC can only produce 5V logic levels, and it can be damaged by voltages above 5V. So although the PIC and your PC/laptop agree about the code for transmitting characters, they don't agree about the voltage levels.
Some devices use "5 volt RS232" Quite a lot of devices use 0 and 5V logic levels instead of the higher voltages that the RS232 standard specifies. The PIC does this, and so do Serial 2-line LCD Displays, which are very handy. So these can be connected directly.
Shifting voltage levels
For interfacing a PIC to a PC/laptop or to a Serial-to-USB Adapter, you need a level converter. The MAX232N is a lovely chip that serves this function, in both directions (PC to PIC and PIC to PC). In fact it has two channels in each direction, should you ever want that many. You would think that in order to produce 12V signals it would need a +12V power supply, and maybe a negative supply as well, but it doesn't, it produces the needed +12V and -7V internally from a single convenient 5V supply.
Using the MAX232N
The chip needs five 1uF capacitors around it, which is not a lot to ask for sparing you two extra supply voltages. Connect MAX232N pins 13 & 14 (and ground) to a female DB-9 connector as shown, and plug into your PC/laptop's serial port. Connect MAX232N pins 11 & 12 to your PIC. If you only want PIC output, you don't need to hook up the PIC input.
- PIC to PC: PIN pin 25 (RC6/TX) --> MAX232N pin 11 --> MAX232N pin 14 --> DB-9 pin 2
- PC to PIC: DB-9 pin 3 --> MAX232N pin 13 --> MAX232N pin 12 --> PIC pin 26 (RC7/RX)
Code on the PIC
The essential line is #use rs232(baud=19200, UART1). This sets up the PIC's hardware UART. The PIC can also can do software RS232, but that is susceptible to mistiming caused by interrupts.
Once the UART is set up, you can use most of the usual C serial i/o functions, such as printf(). There's no scanf() in PIC C, and be sure to read about the formatting codes (%d and so on.)
Note - Characters transmitted to the PIC faster than your program reads them cause the UART to choke. After that happens, kbhit() never returns TRUE again, and no characters can be read. So use PIC RS232 input with care. If you want reliable input you have to set up an interrupt on incoming characters.
#include <18f4520.h> #fuses HS,NOLVP,NOWDT,NOPROTECT #use delay(clock=20000000) // 20 MHz crystal on PCB #use rs232(baud=19200, UART1) // hardware UART; uses RC6/TX and RC7/RX int16 i; int j; void main() { while (TRUE) { for (i=1; i<10000; i++) { printf("Hello world. %Lu %u\r\n", i, j); // \r is carriage return, \n is scroll up delay_ms(100); if (kbhit()) j = getc(); // type slowly so kbhit() doesn't choke } } }
Configuring your COM port and the Loopback Test
Shown at right are the usual configuration options for the COM port on your computer. Baud rate must match that of the PIC. There is the problem of which COM port to select, and whether the one you have made electrical connection to (through a DB-9 connector) is that one.
To check your COM port, try the Loopback Test. With the DB-9 disconnected, if you type "hello" into the text window ("serial port monitor") you will not see "hello" appear in the window, because your characters went out on pin 3 of the DB-9. The window shows only characters arriving on pin 2 of the DB-9; there is no Local Echo. If you connect pin 2 to pin 3 temporarily and type again, you will now see your words. Thus you have identified electrical signals that correspond to your COM port and text window.
Typical other problems are:
- Different baud rates (sometimes resulting is garbled transmission, sometimes no transmission)
- DB-9 pins 2 & 3 (computer receive and transmit) not going to partner's transmit & receive, respectively
- You didn't level shift appropriately and now things are burned out.
- Partner (e.g. PIC) is not transmitting anything. Look with a scope and see if there's anything happening on partner's transmit line.


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Lyons: For government contracts, lowest bid not always best
Using a commercial pressure cleaner doesn't require an engineering degree, but operating one efficiently for hours every day is hard work.
So, a challenge in running a pressure cleaning business is keeping reliable employees who can get predictable amounts of work done.
But it ain't rocket science.
John Cloud, who runs Gorilla Kleen, says it usually isn't too hard to estimate costs on a job. And I think that is especially so on a gig as straightforward as cleaning major Sarasota sidewalks, which otherwise get more and more grimy with spilled drinks and ice-cream-cone drippings and the like, mixed with ground-in dirt. Not to mention some grosser stuff.
"I bid about $73,000," Cloud said.
After walking the sidewalks himself, Cloud figured his bid might not win but said it was about right for all City Hall wanted done. The tasks included twice-a-year cleanings of certain well-traveled miles of downtown sidewalks along Main Street, and at St. Armands Circle, and on Martin Luther King Drive and a few other spots. The specifications called for night-shift work at most sites, and some areas were supposed to get three cleanings a year.
Cloud's bid missed by a mile. A company he had never heard of offered to do the job for less than a sixth of his price.
That's the beauty of the bidding process. Cloud lost out to a young and hungry company, and so, it is the taxpayer's gain. Right?
Except it wasn't.
Remember when Sarasota County signed with a very low-ball bidder to get its grass mowed, and the bidder on this ordinary job was soon hundreds of acres behind and couldn't afford to hire crews to catch up?
Grass in median strips got so high it became a traffic hazard. The bidder eventually threw in the towel.
In the city, the sidewalk cleaner apparently had little idea what it would cost to do that job. The result wasn't as obvious as foot-high grass and weeds. A city spokeswoman says the job got done, but that the small contractor took a hit and wanted nothing to do with the renewal.
When she bid this year, as Cloud just told me, their bids were close and both were over $70,000.
Neither got the job. There were other lower bids — and one higher one for $238,000 — but one came from some new hungry bidder who more or less matched the previous year's ridiculously low price.
Obvious red flag? Surely some savvy city purchaser said, "We can't make a deal with you when we know from experience the job can't be done for that!"
Nope. That was thought and discussed, but I'm told the new bidder had good references and seemed well qualified. So, despite qualms, city purchasers decided they could not legally refuse the good offer.
The result? It went worse. A few months in, the city decided the job was not getting done and yanked the contract.
Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin agrees the lesson has to be learned. There is always pressure to take the lowest bid, Barwin said, because otherwise someone always claims there was a dirty deal based on cronyism or worse. In Florida, he says, that pressure seems even stronger than other places he has worked.
But bidders need to be qualified for the work, and a bid has to make sense.
"It has to be realistic," Barwin said.
It was just sidewalk cleaning, this time. No engineering firm was involved, and no disaster resulted. I don't think dirty sidewalks scared away many tourists. But it shows how taking a really low bid is sometimes a mistake.
The next sidewalk contract will be assigned based on a "Request For Proposal," so cleaners can make price offers that include detailed plans on what they would do and how. That can make for problems, too, but it lets purchasers compare much more than price tags.
In the meantime, everyone please wipe your feet before stepping on the sidewalk.


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Sunset in the Lonelands. It's always been a very pretty game …
I have been spending time with LOTRO recently; I can't really explain why but it is my go-to game when I just want to chill out. Everything in this game seems to happen at a slower pace, questing is slower, crafting is slower, people wave as they ride past you … If WoW is a busy anonymous metropolis, then LOTRO is a country town where people just live at a slower pace.
My Warden is the first alt I've gotten up to level 30. I feel as though I'm on a roll, temporarily at least. It can't be fair that my Warden gets to jet around the world (several teleport-like abilities that aren't on a timer) where everyone else has to take the long way round, but it is fun. The class also has a very fun core combat mechanic which is based on using combinations of base skills to make combos that produce different results (ie. self HoT, heavy strike, buff to defensive abilities, etc). And because she's a hobbit, she also gets a toned down version of burglar stealth as a racial, which is handy for sneaking past nasties if you are careful.
LOTRO itself is not really very alt friendly. There's nothing stopping you from creating alts, but there are mechanics which encourage you to go deep into your characters, rather than rattle them up to max level via PUGs and have them outfitted in under a week. If you are a perfectionist, you can work on multiple different virtues which are levelled via a variety of exploration, quest, and killing grinds in every different zone in the game. Or you can spend more time on your crafting skills. Or work on those skirmish points. Or settle into a purely questing mindset, or focus on the epic storyline quests. Or grind a level appropriate rep, if the reputation based recipes or mount catches your eye. You probably get the picture: it's a game which offers a lot of options, especially to levelling players. All of them are based on core MMO gameplay (so it's not the game for anyone looking for something revolutionary) but to my mind it's probably the strongest old school/ classic MMO on the market, beating out EQ2 due to having such a strong and consistent gameworld.
Levelling has been interesting because since this really is the first alt I've had at this level, many of the zones and quests I'm checking out are ones I literally haven't seen for years (I levelled my burglar when the game came out.) Plus of course newer zones such as Evendim, and Forochel (which is one of my goals in the future.)
I have a permanent sub so I'm not able to really comment on the F2P side of things. Occasionally it intrudes into gameplay, "You have reached your task limit for the day, click here to buy more tasks in the cash shop," but mostly it's become background noise. Some of the integration works especially well. If you look at the cosmetic clothing screen, next to each item is a button for the cash shop for that clothing slot. If you click, it will bring up the selection of cosmetic items for that slot which are available to buy for cash (which is a small subset of all the cosmetics that are available via play.) It looks and feels very much like shopping for clothes in an online shop and makes it very easy to 'try on' the cosmetic gear to see whether it matches what you already have.
As part of the permanent membership, I get some free cash shop points every month and since I haven't used these, that all adds up to a large wodge of spare points to spend. Turbine really do need to encourage permies to use up some of these points, otherwise they won't be able to get any more actual cash out of us, and I think there is a lot of curiosity as to how much they will charge in points for the next expansion.
Tasks: Or what to do with your trash drops
Tasks are new since I last levelled an alt. All the main towns now have a bulletin board which offers tasks to level-appropriate characters. The tasks involve gathering trash drops from the local mobs, which you will probably be killing anyway if you do the local quests.
But intriguingly, it doesn't matter whether you pick up the task before or after killing the mob. So if you roll into town with your bags full of slimy ooze, sharp claws, and patches of leathery skin and find a task that matches the trash, you can pick it up and hand it in immediately. If you still have any of your trash drops left, you can even repeat the task until you run into your daily task limit.
This is very close to the Bears Bears Bears offer in WAR, in which players were promised that if a quest giver wanted you to kill some mobs and you'd just killed them before accepting the quest, the quest giver would recognise that fact.
The main downside is that bag space in LOTRO is a precious commodity and so you can't really wander around with unlimited amounts of goo, ooze, skin, feathers, etc just on the offchance you run into a relevant task board at your level. But it does feel a bit like a wandering game of snap where you roll into town and see if the contents of your bags match up to any of the task offers before selling up.


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On Thursday, President Barack Obama gathered amongst leaders for the National Prayer Breakfast, and tied an interesting proposal to his ever-vigilant faith. "The rich should pay more," he remarked at the annual event that every president has attended since Dwight D. Eisenhower. "Not only because I actually think that it is going to make economic sense, but for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that 'for unto whom much is given, much shall be required." Speaking at the Washington Hilton, President Obama's address was full of religious rhetoric that comes from a genuine place when given the opportunity to be shared.
The 44th Commander-in-Chief infused his remarks on spirituality with a populist message of economic fairness, echoing statements he unveiled in December in Osawatomie, Kansas, and returned to in his recent State of The Union address—all without countering his GOP opponents head on.
The separation of church and state has allowed for some strange bedfellows to influence the lawmakers in this country. While Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have had colorful remarks to make about the poor, will Christians be able to act as commanded in Hebrews 13:1 ("Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters")? Or will Washington continue with politics as usual in 2012?


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Welcome to our the third course in the School Health specialization: Providing Social, Emotional, Behavioral, and Special Education Services in School. In this course, you will learn about how social-emotional skills, mental health, and learning are related. We will focus on how schools can support social-emotional learning and promote mental health for all students.
We will walk through the reasons that schools should promote student mental health. Next, we'll review school wide activities to support skill development and prevent social, emotional, and behavioral challenges. Then, we'll identify strategies for students at risk of developing problems. Finally, we'll highlight interventions that can be used for students who have significant mental health needs. We will emphasize the ways that schools think about mental health problems and provide services for students with disabilities, which is different than in medical or mental health settings.
As part of the course, we will introduce two students to help all of this information come alive. Prepare yourself to learn about an essential piece of student wellness—social-emotional health.


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Pencil/Oblong Pouch Pink Geometry
Regular price $20.00
While it's perfect for pencils and school supplies, this pencil-ISH pouch is also great for lots of other uses. Perfect for art supplies, school supplies, makeup brushes - anything that needs just a bit more length. It opens wide for easy access and it's made of sturdy canvas outer and lining (all organic, of course!). The best part is it's machine washable - just throw it in the wash on a gentle cycle and let air dry, and it will be as good as new!
Approximate dimensions: 3.25″ tall x 10.5″ wide x 1.5″ deep
All fabrics used are certified organic cotton dyed with low impact dyes (interfacing used is 100% cotton)
Handmade in Savannah, GA
Pouch will ship 5-7 days after purchase.
Original pattern is by Anna Graham of noodlehead.


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3 Ways to Baste Your Quilt Sandwich
Assemble a Quilt Sandwich
Quilters call the process of assembling the three layers (quilt top, batting, and backing) as making a quilt "sandwich." It is best to assemble the layers on a large, flat surface where the entire quilt can be spread out. If you don't have space at your home, see if your local quilt shop will allow you to use their large tables. If you are sending your quilt to a professional machine quilter, follow their instructions on how to prepare your quilt. Most machine quilters want you to have the backing pieced and all three layers separate.
1. If the quilt backing is pieced, press all the seam allowances open. This will prevent bulk when quilting.
2. Place the quilt backing wrong side up on a large, flat surface. Tape, clip, or otherwise secure the quilt backing to the work surface.
3. Center and smooth the batting in place atop the quilt backing. If desired, baste the batting and backing together with a single, large cross-stitch in the center to prevent the layers from shifting.
4. Center the quilt top right side up on top of the batting. To be sure that it is centered, fold it in half with right sides together. Align the center fold of the quilt with the center of the batting, then unfold the quilt top and smooth out any wrinkles.
5. To check that you have not stretched or pulled the quilt top out of alignment during the layering process, place a large square ruler in one corner. The edges of the ruler should be flush with the quilt top's edges. Take care not to stretch the quilt top out of shape.
Try the Pool Noodle Technique
3 Methods for Basting
Baste all the layers together, beginning in the center. Be careful not to shift the layers, and work toward the edges, smoothing fabric as you go.
Machine quilters generally pin-baste because it is easier to remove pins than basting threads.
Pin the three layers together with rustproof safety pins, making horizontal and vertical lines through the center of the quilt sandwich to form quadrants on the quilt top. Add pins over the entire surface of the quilt top at 3 to 4" intervals.
Basting sprays are best for small quilt projects such as table runners or wall hangings. Follow the manufacturer's directions to adhere the layers to one another. Take care not to overspray, which can lead to a gummy buildup over your work surface and quilting needle.
This method is the most common for hand quilters because it works better in a hoop than pins do.
With stitches about 2" long, baste the three layers together by stitching horizontal, then vertical lines through the center of the quilt sandwich to form quadrants on the quilt top. Next, baste diagonally in both directions. Add basting stitches 3 to 4" apart over the entire surface of the quilt top.


text: Multinational corporations are under siege in China. In recent months, the government has levelled a series of allegations of corporate misconduct - ranging from food-product contamination to price rigging, bribery and environmental shortfalls - against foreign-owned companies, with important implications for the development of China's business environment. Does the government's behaviour reflect a commitment to strengthening business ethics, marking the start of a long-overdue regulatory catch-up process? Is it intended merely to create a convenient populist distraction from China's current economic woes? Or are these revelations of often long-known corporate misdemeanours part of a complex power play involving competing Chinese interests? The answer is probably a combination of these factors. But whatever the motivation, the message is clear: the age of irresponsible business in China is over. The authorities' new regulatory activism is late in coming, but it will ultimately benefit Chinese consumers and firms. The targeting of multinationals - which have long received preferential treatment, including subsidies and regulatory incentives, while profiteering from Chinese consumers' distrust of locally made products' quality and safety - portends the creation of a more level playing field. China's 'corporate responsibility' agenda is shaped more by national interests than by public good Given that booming sales of imported baby-food products have exemplified the problem of profiteering, the 668.7 million yuan (HK$841 million) in fines recently incurred by half a dozen international baby-formula producers over anti-competitive behaviour and price fixing sent a particularly strong message. Hardly a day goes by without China's government thrusting another global brand into the limelight. Last month, China's environment ministry rejected an application from BMW Brilliance, the German carmaker's Chinese joint venture, to expand one of its plants, citing inadequate waste-water analysis and failure to meet official pollution-reduction targets. Less than a week later, an electrical fault forced the company to recall more than 140,000 vehicles, further undermining BMW's reputation for high production standards and sterling environmental credentials. Similarly, Apple - a company famed for its customer-oriented approach - recently came under fire from state-backed media for offering substandard iPhone warranty services in China. And the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, long positioned as a beacon of virtue in a sector known for its ethically dubious behaviour, has been accused of bribery, price fixing and improper research practices. To be sure, not only multinationals are being caught out; Chinese business leaders often face far more serious punishments. Li Peiying, the head of a state-owned firm that controlled several airports, and Zeng Chengjie , a prominent real-estate developer, were just two of the Chinese executives executed in recent years for white-collar crimes such as fraud and embezzlement. But, considering that Transparency International ranked China 80th out of 176 countries and territories in its 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index, the conviction rate among Chinese businesspeople and public officials remains disproportionately low. Multinationals are certainly not blameless victims: many of the accusations levelled against them have proved to be true. But the timing and type of allegations against multinationals have so effectively damaged their brands that one might ask whether there is a deeper logic to the government's actions. Exposing foreigners' ethical failings and ruthless business practices sends the message that China must remain vigilant, while reinforcing the legitimacy of a powerful, interventionist state, including state-owned enterprises, which have come under increasing fire in recent years. Multinationals are enmeshed in China's complex political economy - and entangled in the patronage system that underpins it. Credible, responsible business practices are becoming increasingly important rules of the game, as citizens use tools like social media to challenge their leaders to take action against hazardous products. This shift is reflected in the proliferation of rankings, indexes and high-profile awards. Following international practice, companies are responding with advertising campaigns, strategic philanthropy, public sustainability reporting and even stakeholder dialogues. But China's "corporate responsibility" agenda is shaped more by national interests than by principled notions of the public good. In this environment, adopting business practices that advance China's interests is essential for companies to secure official support, public trust and, ultimately, continued access to the world's largest consumer market. Today, high-profile philanthropy counts for little, while demonstrable environmental compliance, previously less important, is essential. Technology-rich companies are expected to pursue continuous technology transfer and, increasingly, to localise their research and development capacity. At the same time, firms must work diligently to uphold ethical practices in a corruption-riddled system in which state actors are often would-be partners in crime. A new era of corporate responsibility has begun in China, and not a moment too soon. As with other aspects of China's transformation, it draws pragmatically on international practice, but is defined by its Chinese characteristics. Global business leaders should take note. Simon Zadek, currently visiting scholar at the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, is senior fellow of the Global Green Growth Institute and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Copyright: Project Syndicate


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You can put out a fire with nothing more than sound—and it doesn't even have to be eardrum-deadening, Marty McFly-flattening loud sound. This is Darpa's sonic fire extinguisher, and it sounds kinda like a foghorn.
The extinguisher was developer to fight fires in small spaces, like plane cockpits or ship holds. It uses speakers on either side of a liquid fuel flame. (It's not clear the decibel level or frequency of sound required.) Here's how Wired explains the demonstration:
The team arranged two speakers either side of a liquid fuel flame to demonstrate how fire can be controlled by amping up an acoustic field. The sound increases air velocity, which then thins the area of the flame where combustion occurs, known as the flame boundary. Once the boundary area is thinned, the flame is easier to extinguish. At the same time, the acoustics are disturbing the pool of fuel and creating higher fuel vaporisation - this widens the flame, thinning it out so it is less concentrated and cool enough to extinguish.
Pretty awesome. Here's looking forward to the day your surround sound system doubles as your fire extinguisher. [Wired]


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UPDATE: Hello folks. As always, the Siren, Marilyn Ferdinand and the fine people at the National Film Preservation Foundation are happy with the outpouring from the blogosphere. The number of bloggers participating is higher than ever, and the quality of writing is tremendous, some of the best stuff the Siren has seen during any of the preservation blogathons.
But. And it's a big but.
We're behind, y'all. Way behind. Behind the first year, behind last year.
Now of course it's no coincidence that one could say precisely the same thing about the economy--GDP, schm-DP, it's tough out there. But (did I say that already?) there's no lower limit on what you can toss into the hat, and most of us can spare the cost of a movie ticket or a DVD. It isn't just the amount; it's the number of donors that has us a bit downcast, considering the kind of traffic and posting we've been seeing.
The Siren's got a tip jar on the sidebar that she threw up one day in an "oh what the hell" kind of mood and then never mentioned on the blog itself, not once. To her amazed delight and immense gratitude, some people have actually hit that tip jar, and it's all going to the NFPF by the end of the week. So you could also think of this as cutting out the middleman, or middlesiren. It's all gonna wind up in the same place.
So, once more, and at the risk of sounding like a donation-soliciting version of Jessie Royce Landis ("Roger, pay the two dollars"), the Siren asks you to click below, and throw a little dough at Hitchcock, and Graham Cutts, and Betty Compson, and the people like us who want to see The White Shadow.
Greetings, writers and friends to film preservation. The Siren's corner of the Web continues today as home page for our blogathon to benefit the National Film Preservation Foundation, For the Love of Film.
This year, as we've been trumpeting for a good long while, our blogathon is raising money for the NFPF's efforts to stream online three reels of the once-lost, now-found 1923 silent movie, The White Shadow. This U.K. melodrama was directed by one Graham Cutts, but it has another hook: It is the first film we have that featured a major contribution from one Alfred Hitchcock. The young Hitchcock, according to his biographers, was assistant director, wrote the title cards, edited, designed the sets, decorated the sets, and just generally worked like crazy learning everything he could about how to make a film. And this training-to-make-films wheeze worked out pretty well, as you know.
The White Shadow has already been preserved and restored, and was screened by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles last fall. The Siren wasn't there, and most of you probably weren't, either. Given the level of historic interest (and artistic interest, too--the good folks at the NFPF say this one's an eyeful), that's a shame. We are in a position to do something about it, though. Our goal: to raise $15,000 so the NFPF can put The White Shadow online for three months, with a recorded score by Michael Mortilla, a man with a long history of composing splendid music for silent films.
This blogathon is about raising dough, so if you have not done so, please click the button below and DONATE NOW.
Or click on this link. The Siren is not fussy. All roads lead to the NFPF. We've been doing this for two days, and the pattern we set in the first two blogathons is holding; so far the pace is slow. But it always picks up, and that's what the Siren, Marilyn Ferdinand and Rod Heath are hoping happens now.
The first blogathon raised a gratifying amount of cash, enough to help the National Film Preservation Foundation repatriate and restore two silent films, The Sergeant and The Better Man. Those films were part of the more than 100 silent-era American films found in New Zealand Film Archive; so was The White Shadow. It was quite a cache. Both films are included on the NFPF Treasures 5: The West box set--with our blogathon cited in the booklet as having helped to save them, and doesn't that warm your heart. Treasures 5 is among the prizes that will be raffled at random to 10 lucky donors.
Last year, our second go-round raised money to help the Film Noir Foundation restore Cy Endfield's 1950 film The Sound of Fury, which has a powerhouse performance by Lloyd Bridges and its own historic significance: Endfield was blacklisted, and his filmography is short. The Film Noir Foundation tells us that restoration will begin in January 2013, and the film will repremiere at NOIR CITY 12 in San Francisco in 2014. We can be proud of that one, too.
Let's do it again. As always, the Siren is delighted with the number of bloggers participating, and the very high quality of their posts. We are raising awareness in a big way, and creating an Internet resource on film preservation that will stick around for a long time.
But of course, the point is to raise money. And while donations have been present, and steady, and the good folks at the National Film Preservation Foundation are grateful for every dime, the Siren asks you to urge your readers to give, if they haven't already.
Check this post throughout the day to keep track of the blogathon posts. The Siren will be here today and tomorrow, linking away. The first two days of posts--and they're awesome--can be found over at Marilyn's place. Remember, Thursday and Friday, your affable host is Rod Heath at This Island Rod.
The Siren kicks things off with her own post, about Lifeboat. A movie about being lost and rescued seemed awfully fitting to her. You can take a look at that one, and then keep track of the many, many more.
Kevyn Knox, at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World, rises to the poetic occasion with a composition that works in every Alfred Hitchcock title.
"My problem is that dullard Frank. He's unethical, overbearing, and, worst of all, boring." "Yes, but since he's entirely too dull to be a villain, I believe we are stuck with Frank as our hero." Lee Price at 21 Essays riffs on the collaboration between Michael Powell and Hitch during the filming of Blackmail.
Ed Howard at the wonderful Only the Cinema blog also has Blackmail on his mind: "Hitchcock is saying goodbye to the silents that nurtured his talent, and saying it with panache..."
What happens when a brilliant director films something by a playwright famed for his dialogue--and has to do it as a silent movie? Chris Edwards at Silent Volume explores what worked and didn't work when Hitchcock met Noel Coward, in Easy Virtue.
Duke Mantee at Picture Spoilers knows the Siren's heart can be reached by train, and he's attacking the silent-film angle of this year's blogathon with a lovely essay on Buster Keaton's deep love of all things railroad-related.
Two sinisterly clever. posts at Limerwrecks, the blog hosted by old Siren pal Hilary Barta, aka Surlyh (but Hilary isn't the least bit surly and never has been--there, the Siren's wanted to say that for years). The first is a lament for a bout of Vertigo, a rare non-limerick from Norm Knott/Jim Siergey. The second is our limerick of the day from Hilary, about the same film.
This is epic, and so appropriate: Chef du Cinema offers a post that links, if you click through, to not one or two, but THREE recipes suitable to eat while watching Hitchcock films. The first, in honor of The Lady Vanishes, is one that Alma Reville Hitchcock cooked for her food-loving husband: Crêpes Elizabeth. The others are Coq au Vin (no prizes for guessing the related film) and the trouty-but-good trout, in case you're traveling North by Northwest.
High-Def Digest offers an appreciation of the great Henry Fonda's one Hitch collaboration, The Wrong Man, and of the film's "stripped-down aesthetic."
"Each of the courtyard's individual apartments are a physical manifestation of Jefferies' fears of seriously committing to Fremont": Siren pal Tony Dayoub writes up his own cogent thoughts on Rear Window, at the always-good Cinema Viewfinder.
Another old friend, Operator 99 from the completely fabulous Allure, has a set of posters from the foreign release of Alfred Hitchcock films. Allure always has things you won't see anywhere else.
At Cinema Sight, contributors Wesley Lovell, Peter J. Patrick and Tripp Burton are counting down their favorite Hitchcock films. To see which films were picked as Numbers Six and Seven, click right here.
All the way from Dubai, Hind Mezaina is on her third year of doing her bit for preservation at her blog, the Culturist. Today, she's back with embedded episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with the aim of showcasing the jaw-dropping kind of people who worked on that TV show: Bette Davis, Roger Moore, Steve McQueen, Walter Matthau, William Shaner, Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Redford and Rober Duvall.
"You can also understand how one actor might take "Just do what you always do" as a compliment and sign of respect, or as an insult": The mighty Glenn Kenny deals, as only Glenn can, with the idea that Hitchcock was not a friend to actors.
Darren Mooney at the M0vie Blog is midway through a string of posts that also deal with Alfred Hitchcock Presents, here paying tribute to the episode that gained the series its first Emmy nomination: "The Case of Mr. Pelham," with Tom Ewell as an accountant convinced someone is trying to steal his identity.
At The End of Cinema, Sean Gillman goes deep into The Lodger, Hitchcock's third film as director and the one most people cite as "the first "true" Hitchcock film."
"I would be lying if I said that this post wasn't going to be mostly hot pictures of Jo Cotten." And if that doesn't prompt you to visit Marya at Cinema Fanatic and her post on Shadow of a Doubt, nothing will.
"Family Plot is a film that seems to get tossed off with barely a nod": Donna Hill begs to differ, in a lovingly detailed post at Strictly Vintage Hollywood.
Brooksie (love that nom de blog!) at Brooksie's Silent Film Collection has a wonderful post that uses The White Shadow as a starting point to look at the theme of twins, doubles and doppelgangers in Hitchcock, and in other silent films.
A photo array of The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, which may not be what you think it's going to be. From Larry Aydlette, sui generis as ever.
At Press Play, the Indiewire site devoted to video essays, Peter Labuza has an essay up demonstrating the world-wide impact of Hitchcock: Another titan, Akira Kurosawa, shows Hitch's influence in his film High and Low.
We all know about Hitchcock's love/hate relationship with special effects--but Gareth at Gareth's Movie Diary has a post about an effect that the master never used, because it was so real it might have panicked the audience. Completely fascinating, and absolutely new to the Siren.
A glimpse of the Siren's mysterious Twitter pal, The Futurist, and his Hitchcock-loving psyche.
Awesome--Andrew Hartman at the U.S. Intellectual History blog has a brief, elegant post about Hitchcock, horror and the theories of Slavoj Zizek. What's a blogathon without Zizek, I ask you?
David Cairns, whose wonderful post on Lifeboat the Siren linked in her own, offers a recap of the Hitchcock Year he ran on the indispensable Shadowplay.
Hedwig from As Cool as a Fruitstand talks about a key element of the magnificent Vertigo: the radical change in perspective that Hitch pulls off midway through.
The Siren loves this one: Eric at Dr. Film's Blog posts a list of The Top 13 Films in Need of Preservation. Just see if you don't to get hold of them somehow, too...
Scenes from the Morgue is back, with W.B. Kelso posting vintage newspaper ads for Hitchcock movies: "Gosh! No wonder they tell you to see it from the beginning! That ending is !!! Gosh!"
And, also from Mr. Kelso: What do Tom Hanks and Rear Window have in common?
At Home and Amateur, notes from Dwight Swanson on Alfred Hitchcock's home movies--yes, he took them--and how they were preserved.
Doug Bonner at Boiling Sand has an elegantly written, carefully researched analysis of "Poison," an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode made just after Vertigo. The Siren has never seen it, but she now intends to search out, pronto.
Long before the Internet, the Kinematograph Year Books helped people in the British film industry check out whether someone was padding their resume. At the Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion, Joe Thompson looks at three of the yearbooks and picks out some fascinating Hitchcock-related entries.
Another great piece of research, from Sean Axmaker at MSN movies, this one on the long and convoluted saga of restoring Metropolis, that celebrated masterwork from Fritz Lang.
A nine-minute champagne commercial from Martin Scorsese--with a film-preservation angle, yet? Larry Aydlette's Tumblr has it, and as Larry reminds us, giving to film preservation would make Marty--I mean Mr. Scorsese happy.
Noel Vera of Critic After Dark has a nifty theory about why Scottie should have twigged to the plot shenanigans in Vertigo earlier than he actually did.
The Siren tweeted this link, and got more retweets than she'd ever imagined: Rhett Bartlett at Dial M for Movies collected the final frame of every Hitchcock film extant. Not content to rest on his laurels, Rhett has added an interview regarding the BFI's "Rescue the Hitchcock 9" project--their effort to restore nine of the master's silent films.
At Film Noir Blonde, Jacqueline Fitzgerald lifts a glass to the champagne cocktail that is Notorious, "one of the most beautiful films Hitch ever made."
"What is to be made of Hitchcock's first film? It's hard to see the director Hitchcock would become without squinting. It's there, but it's not fully formed": Vulnavia Morbius of Krell Laboratories squints at The Pleasure Garden (1925) and detects Hitchcock just beginning to work out his vocabulary.
David Cairns gives us a video essay, on the use of hands in The 39 Steps, intended to be a companion to his essay on that great film to be included in the Criterion Blu-Ray. (The Siren plans to pounced on that one.)
At Scenes from the Morgue, W.B. Kelso favors us with newspaper ads for The Birds, featuring a decidedly non-glamourous shot of Tippi Hedren and Hitchcock looking even more impish than usual. And at Micobrew Reviews, he goes into the justly celebrated trailer for that film.
Ed Howard of Only the Cinema traces Hitchcock's "budding visual imagination and subtle sense of humor" in a typically astute post on the director's third sound film, Murder!.
"If you have a favorite actress and you want to see her stockinged legs and feet and never have and she's in a Hitchcock movie, you're in luck!" Greg Ferrara of Cinema Styles says he has nothing new to say about Hitchcock, but he says that nothing with great humor and panache.
Guest blogger Joan Myers is hot on the Case of the Actress Who Is Not Nita Naldi, as she discusses The Pleasure Garden over at Strictly Vintage Hollywood.
Hilary Barta, for his part, is dissecting the master's imitators and his childhood neuroses, in witty five-anapestic form at Limerwrecks.
A master and his dogs: Alfred Hitchcock poses adorably with his terriers, both on and off-screen at Spellbound by Movies.
Peter Nelhaus comes up with an Asian thriller that makes some good use of Hitchcock's interest in how long it takes someone to die: Lady in Black.
Hind Mezaina is back, with a clip of Alfred Hitchcock on What's My Line, disguising his voice and even trotting a word or two of French, no doubt in preparation for chatting with M. Truffaut.
Also returning: Lee Price at 21 Essays, musing on the role of paintings in both Michael Powell's Age of Consent and Hitchcock's Blackmail. All this, plus more fantasy dialogue: "Your hero sounds like a very sick man to me." No kidding!
The Trouble With Harry is probably that it's a dark comedy, but Angela Petteys admits that she does, too, at Hollywood Revue.
The Futurist warms the Siren's heart by posting the trailer to probably the least heart-warming Hitchcock movie ever made.
Still counting down the Hitchcock Ten at Cinema Sight, with Numbers Five and Four from Messrs. Lovell, Patrick and Burton. A special shout-out to Mr. Burton for his No. 5!
Now this is different: KC of Classic Movies reviews The Testament of Judy Barton, a novel for all those who watched Vertigo, looked at red-headed Kim Novak and saw a hard-luck dame if ever there was one.
A film Hitchcock himself disliked, but one that prefigured Under Capricorn: Sean Gillman looks at what's worthwhile in The Manxman, at The End of Cinema.
Hooray! Rachel of The Girl With the White Parasol loves Tallulah Bankhead in general, and Lifeboat in particular, as much as the Siren does. An absolutely wonderful tribute to Bankhead's talent, beauty, and just how good she was in the movie, with oodles of screencaps.
Alfred Hitchcock, eternal bridesmaid--at least, in competition at the Oscars. Wesley Lovell looks at the whys and wherefores, at Cinema Sight.
Catching up with High-Def Digest: Josh Zyber takes advantage of a stay in San Francisco to take us on a Vertigo-inspired tour. And Aaron Peck offers a Top 10 list of Hitchcock posters. A must-click for the Marnie poster alone--all the Siren can say to that one is whoa.
Both Marilyn and the Siren love them some Tinky Weisblat, and here you can see why: a lovely meditation on the domestic longings in Shadow of a Doubt, AND a recipe for butterscotch pound cake with maple icing. At Our Grandmother's Kitchen.
Darren Mooney continues his series on Alfred Hitchcock Presents with "Back for Christmas." Includes Hitchcock's not-to-be-missed intro, which begins, as one always does for a Christmas special, "Shrunken heads are a hobby of mine."
"It's one of Hitchcock's best and most chilling films, and the first in which he denies his audience the cleansing catharsis of his heroine's redemption." The fine film critic and writer Carrie Rickey joins us with a post on her favorite Hitchcock: Shadow of a Doubt. (It's the Siren's favorite too--and Hitchcock's.)
At The Frame, Jandy Stone Hardesty recounts the experience of seeing The White Shadow at AMPAS--the very experience we're blogging to bring to everybody. And she asks: " If we can still locate treasure troves like this in 2011, what else might still be out there, waiting for intrepid archivists to find it, figure out what it is, and restore it so the world can rediscover it?"
The Hitlist at MSN chips in again with a new contributor, Kate Erbland, writing about the appointment of Carl Beauchamp as Resident Scholar at the Mary Pickford Foundation, a group that itself has done good work on behalf of film history.
Former VH1 host Bobby Rivers, a lover of classic film, a very funny man and one of the best Twitter-following decisions the Siren ever made (he's @BobbyRiversTV) comes through with a loving tribute to Doris Day and her evolution in The Man Who Knew Too Much.
At Garbo Laughs, Caroline traces Alfred Hitchcock getting "comfortable in the director's chair" in his 1928 silent comedy, The Farmer's Wife. She also gives a shout-out to the awesome Screening Room at the NFPF, where movies are streamed, free.
Another glimpse of Hitchcock entries in the production annuals that film professionals used back in the day, this time from The Hollywood Reporter Production Encyclopedia; at Joe Thompson's Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion.
At Cry of the City, cherished Siren commenter Trish has a post about why she's always loved the decidedly odd Marnie, with attention paid to Sean Connery as Mark, "required to be love interest, zoologist, detective and psychiatrist."
Oh look, even Smithsonian.com is on board! Daniel Eagan has a really wonderful post about film preservation, The White Shadow and the nature of streaming films online, with some thoughts from the NFPF's Annette Melville, who has been the guardian angel for the blogathon. There's even information about Alfred Hitchcock's canny moves with regard to the rights to his films.


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By Robert Preidt
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- Drug company salespeople provide family doctors with little or no information about the harmful effects of medicines they are promoting, a new study says.
Despite this lack of knowledge, doctors are likely to start prescribing these drugs after visits from company representatives, according to the findings from questionnaires completed by American, Canadian and French doctors.
The study revealed that salespeople failed to provide any information about common or serious side effects or warn doctors about types of patients who should not use the medicine in 59 percent of the promotions.
"Laws in all three countries require sales representatives to provide information on harm as well as benefits," lead author Barbara Mintzes, of the University of British Columbia, said in a university news release. "But no one is monitoring these visits and there are next to no sanctions for misleading or inaccurate promotion."
Serious risks were mentioned in only 6 percent of the promotions, even though 57 percent of the medicines involved in these visits came with U.S. Food and Drug Administration "black box" or Health Canada boxed warnings, which are the strongest types of drug warnings in the two countries.
"We are very concerned that doctors and patients are left in the dark and patient safety may be compromised," Mintzes said.
Doctors in France were more likely to be told about the potential harmful effects of drugs during promotional visits than their counterparts in Canada and the United States. This may be due to tighter regulations for promotion of medicines in France, the researchers said.
The study was published online April 10 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.


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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court oversees surveillance requests from the nation's intelligence agencies. The requests, made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), typically come with a gag order. In April, as revealed two weeks ago by The Guardian, the court approved a request by the National Security Agency for ongoing daily access to the phone records of Verizon Business Services.
In reports based on information provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden earlier this month about the extent of U.S. government surveillance operations, The Guardian and The Washington Post said that Google and other technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, provided the NSA with direct access to company servers through as system called Prism, to sift through customer data in pursuit of national security.
[ Google cooperates with the government in other ways. Read Google Defends Efforts Against Rogue Pharmacies. ]
Google CEO Larry Page and chief legal officer David Drummond promptly rebutted the claim that their company provides U.S. authorities with direct access to customer data. And a week ago, Drummond published an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller seeking permission to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA orders in its Transparency Report.
Despite this, Google says that the Department of Justice and the FBI maintain that publishing the number of FISA requests the company receives is unlawful. Thus it has asked the FISC for a summary judgment declaring that it has the right to publish two numbers.
The company's legal motion states, "Google seeks a declaratory judgment that Google has the right under the First Amendment to publish, and that no applicable law or regulation prohibits Google from publishing, two aggregate unclassified numbers: (1) the total number of FISA requests it receives, if any; and (2) the total number of users or accounts encompassed within such requests."
In an emailed statement, a Google spokeswoman said that Google has long pushed for transparency so that users can understand the extent of government demands for data, noting that the company was the first to release data on the number of National Security Letters it receives.
"However, greater transparency is needed, so today we have petitioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow us to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately," Google's spokeswoman said. "Lumping national security requests together with criminal requests would be a backward step for Google and our users."
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo have all taken such a step, publishing statistics on government demands for user data that combine national security requests with requests related to criminal investigations.
As if to underscore the difficulties that Google faces in dealing with supposedly inaccurate claims about its cooperation with U.S. authorities while under a gag order, Google's legal filing notes, "Nothing in this Motion is intended to confirm or deny that Google has received any order or orders issued by this Court."


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Layla One Shoulder Top
Unique, sexy, effortless - the epitome of the Layla top. Turn heads dressing it up or dressing it down. Either way, you'll be one of a kind in the Layla top.
Product Details
- Asymmetrical neckline with shoulder cut-out
- Loose, boxy fit
- Side slit detail at the hem
- 100% Cotton
Follow care label instructions. Machine wash cold and hang to dry.
Orders & Shipping
Q: When will my order ship?
A: All orders will be shipped within 1-3 business days.
Q: How much does shipping cost & when will it arrive?
A: We offer the following shipping rates:
- Free Priority Mail Shipping with orders over $100!
- USPS First Class: 2-5 business days transit $6 *US Orders
- Priority Mail: 1-3 transit $12 *US Orders
- Priority 1 Day: 1-2 day transit $30 *US Orders
Q: Do you ship internationally?
A: We do! However, international shipping varies depending on location. Note shipping costs at checkout.
Q: Where can I find my tracking number?
A: As soon as we dispatch your order, you will receive an email with a tracking number. USPS is our designated shipper. USPS will also send you a dispatch notification via email. If you still haven't received one within 48 hours of placing your order, please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com quoting your order reference number which can be found on your order confirmation email.
Q: What if I am not there when my order is delivered?
A: Please make sure you are shipping to a secure location. We are not responsible for stolen packages.
Q: How do I change the shipping address?
A: Within an hour of placing your order, please contact us at email@example.com.
If your order has been dispatched already, please arrange with USPS directly.
Returns & Exchanges
Q: What is your returns & exchanges policy?
A: Return Policy:
- Returns on full priced items are FREE!
- Request a return here or by emailing email@example.com, with the subject line "Return: and your order number". Please give your reason for return/exchange and we will send you a USPS pre-paid return label via email. All returns will be sent through USPS.
- We must receive your return within 30 days of your order date to be eligible for a refund.
- Returns must be scent free, unworn, unwashed, with all tags attached. Please include your package slip with the return.
- Return requests must be received within 25 calendar days of receiving your order (unless otherwise noted at purchase), at our warehouse. The 25 days starts from the day the order was received by the customer. Returns older than 30 days will be rejected, and you will be contacted to have them shipped back to you at your expense.
- Sale items are final and cannot be returned or exchanged.
Exchange Policy
All exchanges are subject to stock availability. If an item is out of stock at the time of the exchange being processed, a full refund will be issued.
If you would like to exchange your purchase for a completely different style, we ask that you return the original purchase and place a new order for the new style.
Discounts & Promo Codes
Q: Can I apply a discount code after I place my order?
A: Unfortunately, no discount codes can be applied after an order is placed.
Q: Can customers use multiple discount codes on a single order?
A: Discount codes don't stack. If you have a 10% off discount, you can't also use a "free shipping" coupon. Only one discount at a time can apply to a single order. We would suggest using the coupon with the deepest discount :)
Gift Cards
Q: How do I use my gift card online?
A: At checkout, input the gift card in the box labeled "promo" code and available funds on your gift card will be applied to the subtotal of your purchase
Q: How do I check my balance?
A: Please call us at 253-470-6940 to check your remaining balance


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A combined smallpox and anthrax vaccine has been developed which is faster and more efficient than either individual version, and could prove to be invaluable during a bioterrorism attack. The researchers took the protective part of an anthrax vaccine, and inserted it into an existing smallpox vaccine along with an immune chemical called interleukin-15. The new vaccine was faster and more effective than current anthrax vaccine Biothrax in protecting mice and rabbits; safer in immune-deficient mice; more effective than the licensed smallpox vaccine in mice and monkeys; and can be freeze-dried and stockpiled for use in an emergency.
Research published in PNAS


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Why I Flunked Kindergarten
- Susan Lemons Home School Enrichment
- 2008 3 Dec
Yep, I have to admit it: I flunked kindergarten. It's embarrassing, but true. After all, I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person. I hold two college degrees and write a column for a wonderful magazine, I keep up on current events, and I love to learn. But I flunked kindergarten.
This wasn't some type of experimental, accelerated kindergarten, either. It was an average, public school kindergarten. And this was way back in (dare I say it?) 1967, when kindergarten was kindergarten. Back then, all that was expected of kindergarteners was that they learn how to be away from their mothers for a few hours; name their colors, shapes, numbers, and letters; cut and paste; stand in line; and sit quietly for story time. But I still flunked.
Why? Why did my school career get off to such a lousy start?
I'll tell you why: Because I was just a normal little girl who wanted to play. I had no interest in school. I wasn't developmentally ready for kindergarten. I was a young kindergartener, having barely passed my fifth birthday. I was young and immature. The teacher said I was very social, talking and playing instead of listening to my lessons.
I remember what followed: My mom, with the best of intentions, spent her entire summer drilling me on the "facts." Every morning she would call me into the kitchen, stand me by our chalkboard, and make me recite my numbers, letters, basic math facts, and letter sounds till I was in tears. I felt like a failure—and I'm sure my mom did, too.
The following year I was put into an experimental program called "Pre-First." It was not an exact repeat of kindergarten, but close to it. I don't remember much else about the situation, except to say that I never flunked a grade or a class again. Now I was an older and more mature student—older than most of my peers. This never bothered me. School came easily for me from then on; I loved to learn, and I always got good grades. My experience taught me that not all 5-year-olds are ready for kindergarten. It would have been better for me if my parents had kept me at home one more year. Some children are 5 years old chronologically, but not developmentally. Developmentally, they are not ready for kindergarten . . . and that fact does not make them dumb. Even mature 5-year-olds are usually not ready for the new, "modern" idea of kindergarten, which includes intensive formal academics. Instead, give your child a more traditional, play-based kindergarten experience that is appropriate for your child's abilities.
Things You Should Know About Kindergarten
• In many states, kindergarten is not mandatory, but optional. If this is the law in your state, you don't have to worry about reporting to anyone or enrolling in any programs. Different states have different requirements and different compulsory attendance laws. Make sure you find out about the law in your state, and do some research about your options. A good place to start is www.hslda.org. You can find out about your state's laws and support networks there.
• Even if kindergarten is optional in your state, you should give your child that "kindergarten experience." Give yourself a year with a light schedule of reading, art, music, and learning games in preparation for first grade—and start when your child is 5 or even 6.
• Even though the traditional age to start kindergarten is 5, many children, especially boys, benefit from an extra year of "preschool"—even if you are planning to implement a traditional, developmentally appropriate kindergarten program. As a general rule, later is always better. Children who are given an extra year or two of play will benefit from the extra maturity, knowledge, and attention span they develop during those years.
• If you choose to forego kindergarten till your child is older, you'll probably have the option of starting him in either kindergarten or first grade the next year. Even if my child was doing first grade work, I would officially call him a kindergartener. That way, if anything happens in the future (such as a family emergency, extended illness, or learning problems), your child will be ahead of the game, not behind. This takes a lot of pressure off you and your child. You can always skip him ahead later.
• Kindergarten is the time to develop consistency and regularity in your daily routines, if you haven't already. Develop habits in yourself and your children that will help you keep your house in order, and establish a daily "school time" with your children, with a regular starting time.
• The word "kindergarten" literally means "children's garden." Kindergarten was meant to be exactly that: a wonderful year full of beauty, wonder, and play. Kindergarten has traditionally been a year of transition, a time of preparation for entry into more formal education. In most countries, "kindergarten" is a part of the preschool or "nursery school" system, and not a part of the elementary school system. Kindergarten is an entity all its own—a special, separated time. It was never intended to be just another part of the traditional school system—another year of elementary school. Kindergarten is somewhere north of preschool, somewhere south of first grade.
• Kindergarten is a time to concentrate, now more than ever, on the development of your child's character. Work out any discipline problems as best you can. See to it that your child obeys quickly and cheerfully. Train your child to be a cheerful helper. Practice table manners and field trip manners.
• Kindergarten is the time to relish those Bible stories—reading longer Bible storybooks and talking about the lessons in the stories.
• Kindergarten is the time to begin daily memory work, if you haven't already: not only Bible verses, but simple poems and nursery rhymes, tongue twisters, etc.
• Kindergarten is the time to have fun with educational games, using them to make sure your child knows all his facts: colors, shapes, opposites, letters, and numbers.
• Kindergarten is the time to extend your child's attention span to 20-30 minutes or more.
• Kindergarten is the time to begin reading chapter books aloud to your children, if you haven't already: Winnie the Pooh, The Velveteen Rabbit, My Father's Dragon, Catwings, Stuart Little, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
• Kindergarten is the time when imaginative play really blossoms. You'll hear your children assign roles: "You be the mommy, and I'll be the daddy; let's pretend we live on a boat" or "Pretend he doesn't see you, and he says, 'Oh my, where did he go?'" This is the time of life when play is as believable as real life to children. Don't make the mistake of thinking your child has outgrown the need for imaginative play.
• Some children are ready for short, game-based lessons in phonics and math. It is your job, as parent, to decide when your child is ready to go on to the next step. (You can always try a few lessons and see how your child responds.)
• Short "lessons" in the form of fun and games are appropriate; five to ten minutes of lessons in letter identification, phonics (initial sounds) or beginning writing; five to ten minutes of math games or learning how to write numbers, if, and only if, your child shows readiness and interest.
Signs Your Child is Not Ready for Kindergarten
• Your child seems immature in attention span, self-control, or speech.
• Your child won't sit still for a story that lasts longer than five minutes.
• Your child resists all your efforts to establish a "preschool" routine and only wants to play all day.
• Your child complains when you spend one or two hours on a preschool routine; he says he "has no time to play" or asks, "How much longer till we're done?"
• Your child shows no interest in learning his letters, numbers, and so on.
Remember: Even though your child is "of "kindergarten age," he still may not be ready for kindergarten, especially if you plan on implementing a more rigorous, academic program. In fact, most kindergarteners are not ready for formal academic pursuits. A traditional kindergarten program, minus the academic emphasis, is most appropriate. Make your child's kindergarten a "child's garden"—somewhere north of preschool, somewhere south of first grade—a traditional and non-pressured program. Save most of the sit-down, formal academics for first grade and beyond.
Children who are homeschooled should never be put in the position of feeling academically pressured or feeling that they are failures. They should never be drilled to tears. We can make our curriculum ready for our children, instead of trying to make our children ready for the curriculum. I flunked kindergarten simply because I wasn't ready for it. Your child doesn't have to do the same.
Susan Lemons and her husband have been married for 23 years, and have homeschooled their four children (ages 19, 15, 6 and 4) "from birth." Susan has earned both Associate and Bachelor Degrees in Child Development, and serves the homeschooling community as a mentor, "first contact" for new homeschoolers, and conference speaker. You may contact her at email@example.com if you have any questions about her column, or about preschool at home. Visit her blog at www.HSEBlogs.com/susan
This article was originally published in the Nov/Dec '08 issue of Home School Enrichment Magazine. Get more great homeschooling help by downloading our FREE report entitled "The Secret to Homeschooling Freedom" by visiting http://HomeSchoolEnrichment.com/resources/report.htm


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A simple test, called the ankle-brachial index, or ABI, can quickly and painlessly determine if you likely have peripheral artery disease (PAD), which means blockages in the blood vessels leading to your legs. PAD, also referred to as peripheral vascular disease (PVD), can cause discomfort or weakness while walking and, if severe and left untreated, can potentially lead to amputation of the leg or foot.
An ABI test is among the simplest available methods of identifying blockages in arteries. Your physician will use a specialized "Doppler" stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.
The ABI takes 10 to 15 minutes. It involves simply measuring the blood pressure in each of your ankles and in each of your arms. Your doctor then compares the two readings. A normal ABI reading is 1.0 (with a range of 0.9 to 1.3), which means that your legs are receiving just as much blood flow as your arms. If your blood pressure is lower in the ankle than the arm, a blockage is likely present in an artery somewhere between your heart and ankle - and, if so, you may have PAD. Because it is a simple test, the ABI can be done yearly if needed to determine if blockages are getting worse.
ABI does not pose any safety risks.
The following questions can help you talk to your physician about an ankle-brachial index test. Consider printing out or writing down these questions and taking them with you to your appointment. Taking notes can help you remember your physician's response when you get home.
Please print this list of questions here. Take them with you to the doctor and share them with friends and loved ones when you are encouraging them to see their doctors.
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