text:
The Java language's core API includes numerous built-in libraries.
There are certainly many useful classes in it, but they still don't do everything for you!
To get the most out of Java, you will need to work with open-source projects at some point.
Wicked Cool Java describes some of these projects that can help you program faster,
or better, or do interesting and unusual things.
This website is the companion site for the book, and has errata, code samples, and links to projects mentioned in the text. There is a forum here too, for discussing subjects related to the book, and for organizing new open source projects. I hope that the book will encourage you to look at more than just the Java core APIs, to experiment with open source tools, to continue learning new techniques, and explore new ideas for open source projects.
Wicked Cool Java is available from fine booksellers both online and in stores. Try these:


text:
Learning the vi Editor/BusyBox vi
BusyBox is a very popular program on many embedded Linux systems. In fact, someone working on an embedded Linux system is very likely to encounter BusyBox. BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single relatively small executable. One of the included utilities is a vi clone.
The BusyBox vi clone is limited. Among the limits are:
- It does not support all common vi commands.
- It supports the '!' command to execute a child process, but does not capture process output
- It also lacks the normal vi crash recovery feature.
- It always assumes a vt102 type terminal (emulator)
- Only very few settings are configurable via
.exrcconfiguration and configuration via environment variables are not supported
- Line marks are not correctly adjusted if lines are inserted or deleted before the mark.
- Only whole-line undo (uppercase 'U'), no last-change undo (lowercase 'u') is supported.
- Searches ignore case by default, but can be case sensitive using
:set noignorecase
- Command-counts need to prefix a command
- command counts for
yand several other commands are not supported.
- A limited set of ex commands are supported.
In short, a lot of information in this vi tutorial is not applicable to BusyBox vi.
However, BusyBox vi also has some differences (considered by some to be enhancements) over classic vi:
- Cursor navigation in insert and command mode
- <INSERT> key changes to insert mode
- No wrapping of long lines. Long lines are displayed via side-scrolling.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Woman critical after being struck by car on Military Trail
Driver, child in car taken to hospital with glass in their eyes
A woman is in critical condition after she was struck by a car while trying to cross a busy West Palm Beach roadway.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigators said the 23-year-old woman was crossing Military Trail near Cresthaven Boulevard when she was struck by the Nissan Altima on Tuesday morning.
More From WPBF: Email alerts | Mobile | Social
Investigators said the crossing indicator was flashing red while the light was green for oncoming traffic. She was flown to Delray Medical Center in critical condition.
Sherry Lee and her husband were driving by at the time of the crash.
"He watched her cross the street, and as she crossed he was watching the traffic, and he's like, 'She's not going to make it,'" Lee told WPBF 25 News' Randy Gyllenhaal.
The car slammed into the woman at almost 50 mph. The woman's flip-flop could be seen about 10 feet away in the middle of Military Trail.
Investigators said they think there may have been a dump truck blocking the driver's view.
The driver and a child in the car were also hospitalized to be treated for glass in their eyes.
Remember, if you see breaking news and you can safely snap a photo or shoot a short video clip, send it in to u local today.


text:
YYC Calgary Alberta Canvas Print
YYC Calgary Alberta Canvas Print
Colourful Vintage Baggage Tag Design with Airport Code and City Name
Nice find! Canvas print features Calgary, Alberta's YYC airport code with a design evoking a vintage baggage tag and recalling the golden age of jet travel. This collection's colours are inspired by airline liveries past and present associated with each destination.
Get this travel-themed decor for your home or office. Liven up your travel wall with a burst of colour. Or make it a gift for the travel lover, frequent flyer or aviation buff in your life. Celebrate your hometown, favourite city or dream destination. Choice of sizes: 12"x12", 16"x16".
This wall art is printed on textured and fade-resistant canvas. It is acid-free and PH-neutral, with a poly-cotton base.
The finished print is mounted on hand-glued solid wood stretcher bars, and 1.5" (3.81 cm) deep. Mounting brackets are included.
While we strive to accurately reproduce our products' colours, given the settings and equipment used in viewing this website, actual colours may vary.
Brand names, logos and trademarks used herein remain the property of their respective owners. The listing of any firm or its logo is not intended to imply any endorsement or direct affiliation with YHM Designs.
Acid-free, PH-neutral, poly-cotton canvas; 20.5 mil (0.5 mm) thick; textured and fade-resistant (OBA-free)
12"x12", 16"x16"
Shipping Information
Shipping is free to Canada and the United States. Please consult our Shipping page for additional information.
Made to Order
All products are made to order, which means each one is produced just for you. This approach reduces waste, allows for efficient shipping and focuses on quality over quantity. Please consult our Environment & Sustainability page for additional information.


text:
9/11 could be insurance fraud as "trial" of conspiring duo begins in NY today
By Dr. Kevin Barrett
Is this the world's worst case of insurance fraud...ever?
That's what many are saying, as the world's biggest real-estate swindler and the world's most corrupt judge meet in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. At issue: billions of dollars in loot from the demolition of the World Trade Center complex on September 11th, 2001.
World Trade Center owner Larry Silverstein - who confessed on national television to "pulling" World Trade Center Building 7 - will appear in the courtroom of Judge Alvin Hellerstein at 500 Pearl St. in New York City. The non-jury trial, which is expected to last three days, will decide whether Silverstein is entitled to recover $3.5 billion from airlines and airport-related companies, in addition to the $4.9 billion he has already received for his "losses" on September 11th.
The question on everyone's mind is: Why is Silverstein claiming that airliners destroyed his buildings, when he has already confessed to demolishing at least one of them himself? In the 2002 PBS documentary "America Rebuilds," Silverstein admitted to complicity in the controlled demolition of WTC-7, a 47-story skyscraper that dropped into its own footprint in 6.5 seconds.
The mysterious destruction of Building 7 has become the Rosetta Stone of 9/11. Virtually all independent experts who have studied the case, including thousands of architects and engineers, agree that the government's explanation - that a few small office fires somehow destroyed WTC-7 - is a non-starter. Building 7, these experts say, was obviously taken down in a controlled demolition, as Silverstein himself admitted. (A nationwide ad campaign called "Re-Think 9/11" will remind millions of Americans about Building 7 this September.)
Despite his confession to demolishing his own building, Silverstein has already received $861 million from insurers for Building 7 alone, as well as over $4 billion for the rest of the Trade Center complex. That $861 million for WTC-7 was paid on the basis of Silverstein's claim that airplanes were somehow responsible for making Building 7, which was not hit by any plane, disappear at free-fall acceleration.
The insurance companies are not openly accusing Silverstein of insurance fraud, presumably because doing so would threaten to demolish the 9/11 cover-up and bring down the US and Israeli governments at free-fall speed. But they have gone so far as to call Silverstein's demand for more money "absurd," a considerable understatement.
The insurance companies claim that Silverstein's demands amount to "double recovery." They say that Silverstein was already paid $4.9 billion - vastly more than the paltry $115 million or so that he and his backers paid for the complex just weeks before it was demolished - so why is he asking for another $3.5 billion? Silverstein's answer: He needs the money.
And does he ever. He was originally demanding an extra $11 billion, before Hellerstein capped it at $3.5 billion.
The insurers have not mentioned the fact that the World Trade Center Towers were condemned for asbestos in early 2001, just months before Silverstein bought them in July, six weeks prior to their demolition. They have not mentioned that Silverstein doubled the insurance coverage when he purchased the Trade Center. They have not mentioned that Silverstein hardballed his insurers to change the coverage to "cash payout." They have not mentioned that Silverstein engineered his purchase of the Trade Center through fellow Zionist billionaire Lewis Eisenberg, Chair of the Republican National Committee and head of the New York Port Authority.
As Christopher Bollyn wrote in 2002:
"Silverstein and Eisenberg have both held leadership positions with the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), a billion dollar Zionist 'charity' organization. Silverstein is a former chairman of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc. This is an umbrella organization which raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year for its network of hundreds of member Zionist agencies in the United States and Israel."
According to Ha'aretz, Silverstein is a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. They speak on the phone every weekend.
The insurance companies have likewise neglected to mention that after doubling his insurance coverage immediately before 9/11, Silverstein re-doubled his winnings after 9/11 by claiming double indemnity. According to Silverstein's spokesman, "the two hijacked airliners that struck the 110-story twin towers Sept. 11 were separate 'occurrences' for insurance purposes, entitling him to collect twice on $3.6 billion of policies." The bizarre double-indemnity claim was approved in 2004.
Additionally, the insurers have failed to mention that on the morning of 9/11, Silverstein and his daughter both failed to show up for their daily breakfast at Windows on the World restaurant atop the North Tower. Both offered flimsy pretexts - Silverstein claiming that he had suddenly remembered a dermatologist's appointment.
How has Silverstein managed to get away with murder, in the most obvious case of insurance fraud ever?
Thanks to his partner in crime, Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Hellerstein's courtroom is Ground Zero in the cover-up of the crimes of 9/11. Virtually all 9/11 litigation has been funneled through his courtroom, including Ellen Mariani's recent lawsuit against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and others.
Like Silverstein and Eisenberg, Hellerstein is a rabid Zionist with close ties to Israel. The judge's son and sister both emigrated from the US to orthodox Zionist settlements in the Occupied Territories.
Investigative journalist Christopher Bollyn writes: "Hellerstein's son is an Israeli lawyer who emigrated to Israel in 2001 and whose law firm works for and with the Rothschild-funded Mossad company responsible for the 9-11 terror attacks."
Bollyn notes that Hellerstein's son, an Israeli lawyer, represents "the Mossad-controlled airport security firm named International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) N.V., which is the owner of Huntleigh U.S.A., the passenger screening company that checked the passengers that boarded the aircraft at the key airports on 9-11."
Additionally, Bollyn writes, "Both Alvin Hellerstein and his son Joseph worked for the well-known Jewish law firm of Stroock, Stroock & Lavan before moving to the positions they now hold...Stroock, Stroock & Lavan played a key role in the setting up of 9-11...Stroock has a long history of representing the Rothschilds and other high-level Zionists."
Will New York City 9/11 skeptics protest the Silverstein-Hellerstein trial this Monday through Wednesday?
Will truth and justice ever triumph?
In order to triumph, truth and justice will have to defeat the world's wealthiest and most powerful criminal network.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America's best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He is the co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009). His website is www.truthjihad.com.


text:
Anonymous Tips
We love news tips as they're an important part of our news-gathering process. Email us directly at tip [at] electrek.co, or reach us on Twitter at @ElectrekCo, @9to5Mac, @9to5Google, or @9to5Toys.
If you're having issues with the site operations (missing comments, won't scroll, etc), please disable your ad/content blocker. Whitelisting our site will prevent the issue from happening.
If you'd like to send us an anonymous tip, use the Tips form below. *
Click here to unsubscribe from our newsletters and notifications.
You can contact 9to5 authors directly with the contact information available on their individual author pages. You may also email authors at firstname [at] 9to5mac.com.
Please review our tips policy. Submitting a tip constitutes permission to publish and syndicate. Click here to unsubscribe from our newsletters and notifications.
Website Feedback
If you have site feedback or issues to share, email us at webmaster [at] electrek.co.
Learn more about Electrek at our About page.
If you're looking to unsubscribe from our daily newsletters, hit the 'Unsubscribe' link at the bottom of any newsletter, or click here for the direct link.
If your email comes up as not subscribed using the above link, you may be receiving our posts because of WordPress' Follow feature. You can unsubscribe and change your subscriptions over at https://wordpress.com/following/edit.
If you'd like to stop receiving Safari Push Notifications from any of our sites, head over to electrek.co/push/ for instructions.
If you have any other questions, feel free to email us at webmaster [at] electrek.co.
Review Requests
For hardware and software review requests, email us at reviews [at] 9to5mac.com.
App review requests sent to emails are blacklisted.
Visit our advertising page for information, and email us at ads [at] 9to5mac.com with questions.
About Us
Learn more about the 9to5 network over at our About page.
* We never disclose our private source information and will fight any attempts to reveal our sources to the limits of the law. We screenshot images to remove identifiable tags and look to remove any traceable information. However, we are not responsible if we publish information given to us which could get sources in any matter of trouble.


text:
There are two types of Torah in Talmudic Rabbinical Judaism.
Torah Shebeal peh - Oral Torah or The Talmud
Torah SheBiehtav - Written Torah or The Five Books of Moses
How did the Rabbinical Jews come by the Torah Shebeal peh?
Steinsaltz Talmud on types of study
The Steinsaltz Talmud says of religious study there are three types:
Bible - the lowest form
Mishnah - the next best form
The Talmud (Gemara) - the highest form
Torah Shebeal peh or the Talmud nullifies The First Five Books of Moses.
The Tradition of the Elders or what became the Torah Shebeal peh is referred to by Christ in the New Testament several times. One example from the Gospel According to Saint Matthew 15, 1-10:
Then came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee.
The gift: That is, the offering that I shall make to God, shall be instead of that which should be expended for thy profit. This tradition of the Pharisees was calculated to enrich themselves; by exempting children from giving any further assistance to their parents, if they once offered to the temple and the priests, that which should have been the support of their parents. But this was a violation of the law of God, and of nature, which our Saviour here condemns.
And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men. And having called together the multitudes unto him, he said to them: Hear ye and understand.
Commandments of men: The doctrines and commandments here reprehended are such as are either contrary to the law of God, (as that of neglecting parents, under pretence of giving to God,) or at least are frivolous, unprofitable, and no ways conducing to true piety, as that of often washing hands, etc., without regard to the purity of the heart. But as to the rules and ordinances of the holy church, touching fasts, festivals, etc., these are no ways repugnant to, but highly agreeable to God's holy word, and all Christian piety: neither are they to be counted among the doctrines and commandments of men; because they proceed not from mere human authority; but from that which Christ has established in his church; whose pastors he has commanded us to hear and obey, even as himself. St. Luke 10. 16; St. Matt. 18. 17.
The Torah Shebeal peh or the Talmud also mocks Jesus the Christ, blasphemes Him, says He was crucified by the Rabbinical Jews, is in hell, and has been set up as an idol by His followers and worshiped ever since by them.
With these points in mind read Francis' speech. Underlines are ours for emphasis.
Clementine Hall
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am pleased that your meeting is taking place this year in Rome, the city where the Apostles Peter and Paul are buried. For all Christians, both Apostles are an important point of reference: they are like "pillars" of the Church. Here in Rome, we also find the most ancient Jewish community in Western Europe, whose origins can be traced to the time of the Maccabees. Christians and Jews therefore have lived together in Rome for almost two thousand years, even though their relations in the course of history have not been without difficulty.
The development of an authentic fraternal dialogue has been made possible since the Second Vatican Council, following the promulgation of the Declaration Nostra Aetate. This document represents a definitive "yes" to the Jewish roots of Christianity and an irrevocable "no" to anti-Semitism. In celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, we are able to see the rich fruits which it has brought about and to gratefully appraise Jewish-Catholic dialogue. In this way, we can express our thanks to God for all the good which has been realized in terms of friendship and mutual understanding these past fifty years, as his Holy Spirit has accompanied our efforts in dialogue. Our fragmented humanity, mistrust and pride have been overcome thanks to the Spirit of Almighty God, in such a way that trust and fraternity between us have continued to grow. We are strangers no more, but friends, and brothers and sisters. Even with our different perspectives, we confess one God, Creator of the Universe and Lord of history. And he, in his infinite goodness and wisdom, always blesses our commitment to dialogue.
Christians, all Christians, have Jewish roots. Because of this, since its inception, the International Council of Christians and Jews has welcomed the various Christian confessions. Each of them, in its own way, has drawn near to Judaism, which in its time, has been distinguished by diverse trends and sensibilities. The Christian confessions find their unity in Christ; Judaism finds its unity in the Torah. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh in the world; for Jews the Word of God is present above all in the Torah. Both faith traditions find their foundation in the One God, the God of the Covenant, who reveals himself through his Word. In seeking a right attitude towards God, Christians turn to Christ as the fount of new life, and Jews to the teaching of the Torah. This pattern of theological reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity arises precisely from Nostra Aetate (cf. no. 4), and upon this solid basis can be developed yet further.
In its reflection on Judaism, the Second Vatican Council took account of the ten theses of Seelisberg, formulated in that Swiss town in 1947. These theses are closely linked to the founding of the International Council of Christians and Jews. We can say that there was already in embryonic form an initial concept of cooperation between your organization and the Catholic Church. This cooperation was officially inaugurated after the Council, and especially after the establishment of our Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews in 1947. This Commission of the Holy See always follows your organization's activities with great interest, in particular the annual international meetings, which offer a notable contribution to Jewish-Christian dialogue.
Dear friends, I thank all of you for this visit and I wish you well for your meeting. May the Lord bless you and keep you in his peace. I ask you please to pray for me. Thank you.
Jewish roots, Anti-semitism, Nostra Aetate, blah, blah, blah


text:
Dewey-eyed America must repent of its Zinn 1
"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn is not so much a history, more a compendium of complaint. And (therefore) of every Leftist issue you could think of.
(We have written about Zinn before. See our post Zinn writes histories, December 11, 2009.)
The "People" in Zinn's mind are a totally different species from the "fifty-five privileged white males whose class interest required a strong central government" and so wrote the Constitution and founded the Union. Those same fifty-five privileged white males of a species different from the People have continued to pursue their selfish material interests ever since at the expense of downtrodden masses. These masses, this vast victimized majority (he quotes Shelley at them: "Ye are many; they are few!"), consists of subordinated races, females, persons of minority sexual preferences (he doesn't call them that), and people who would like to be rich but do not manage to become so (he doesn't call them that).
Zinn milks pity from his readers (or tries to). He would have you feel bad if you are white, if you are male, if you are "privileged" (ie not poor), and if you are American; but implies over some 700 pages that you can redeem yourself from your badness if you will beat your breast frequently, cry "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!" every day of your life, and join with the complainers in bringing down those fifty-five imperial villains by becoming a violent radical socialist revolutionary or, more comfortably – well, he doesn't say so in the book because it was published before the Occupy Wall Street movement emerged, but he would have said, by joining it.
Thomas Sowell writes at Townhall:
Schools were once thought of as places where a society's knowledge and experience were passed on to the younger generation. But, about a hundred years ago, Professor John Dewey of Columbia University came up with a very different conception of education — one that has spread through American schools of education, and even influenced education in countries overseas.
John Dewey saw the role of the teacher, not as a transmitter of a society's culture to the young, but as an agent of change — someone strategically placed, with an opportunity to condition students to want a different kind of society.
Or to put it another way: indoctrinate students to believe that a much better society – even a perfect one – could be planned and is only not being planned because "corporate interests" (a euphemism for the fifty-five immortals who founded the USA) will not allow it.
A century later, we are seeing schools across America indoctrinating students to believe in all sorts of politically correct notions. The history that is taught in too many of our schools is a history that emphasizes everything that has gone bad, or can be made to look bad, in America — and that gives little, if any, attention to the great achievements of this country.
If you think that is an exaggeration, get a copy of "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn and read it. As someone who used to read translations of official Communist newspapers in the days of the Soviet Union, I know that those papers' attempts to degrade the United States did not sink quite as low as Howard Zinn's book.
That book has sold millions of copies, poisoning the minds of millions of students in schools and colleges against their own country. But this book is one of many things that enable teachers to think of themselves as "agents of change," without having the slightest accountability for whether that change turns out to be for the better or for the worse — or, indeed, utterly catastrophic.
This misuse of schools to undermine one's own society is not something confined to the United States or even to our own time. It is common in Western countries for educators, the media and the intelligentsia in general, to single out Western civilization for special condemnation for sins that have been common to the human race, in all parts of the world, for thousands of years.
Meanwhile, all sorts of fictitious virtues are attributed to non-Western societies, and their worst crimes are often passed over in silence, or at least shrugged off by saying some such thing as "Who are we to judge?"
Even in the face of mortal dangers, political correctness forbids us to use words like "terrorist" when the approved euphemism is "militant." Milder terms such as "illegal alien" likewise cannot pass the political correctness test, so it must be replaced by another euphemism, "undocumented worker."
Some think that we must tiptoe around in our own country, lest some foreigners living here or visiting here be offended by the sight of an American flag or a Christmas tree in some institutions. …
American schools today are … undermining American society as one unworthy of defending, either domestically or internationally.
Which reminds us of what happened to Rome when it took on Christianity, the first Mea Culpa creed in history.


text:
Find an independent bookstore near you:
Purchase online:
Imagine we live on a planet. Not our cozy, taken-for-granted earth, but a planet, a real one, with darkpoles and belching volcanoes and a heaving, corrosive sea, raked by winds, strafed by storms, scorched by heat. An inhospitable place. It's a different place. A different planet. It needs a new name.
A follow-up report by the IPCC released in April 2007 warned that global warming could lead to large-scale food and water shortages and have catastrophic effects on wildlife.
A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued. Good stewards of the land grow cover crops that prevent erosion and replace nutrients used by their crops.
© Bill McKibben


text:
Snap Frames | Wholesale Wall Mount, Hanging & Freestanding Poster Holders For Sale
Snap Frames - Fast Change Poster Enclosures, Hanging Rails & Stands
Did you know that snap frames are one of the most versatile — and affordable — framing options available for photos, posters or signage? The efficient front loading design is intended to make changing graphics a fast, easy process. In addition, plastic and aluminum snap frames are lightweight and lend themselves easily to placement in almost every type of mount. From cheap countertop stands and economical hanging banner rails to basic spring-loaded poster wall mounts to outdoor-rated locking enclosures and freestanding plinth-style sign totems with LED backlighting, fast change enclosures exist to meet display needs in retail, hospitality, commercial and professional environments. Our wholesale snap frame selection, also known as quick clip poster holders, encompasses the full variety of styles, finishes, mounting options and more. Our massive in stock inventory allows almost every order to ship out the same day as it is placed (when ordered before 2pm EST), as well as to allow us to offer cheap wholesaler pricing.What types of quick clip poster holders are available?
- Wall & Countertop Snap Frames:
- Fast change enclosures for wall mounting are one of the most ubiquitous framing styles available. Ranging from simple and cheap clip frames to secure spring-loaded borders with protective polycarbonate lenses for high traffic marketing messaging, this type of fixture can be used on desks, tables or counters and easily mounted on walls or other vertical surfaces. Inexpensive aluminum or plastic construction is ideal for bulk or wholesale purchases. Wall and countertop usage can Include:
- Retail Signage
- Theater and General Advertising Signs
- Corporate Communications Displays
- Decorative Residential or Office Graphics Framing
- Hanging Quick Clip Poster Holders:
- Overhead mounted sign styles vary widely, from simple aluminum banner rails to eye-catching LED-backlit window displays. This type of frame is particularly well-suited to commercial advertising purposes, as even the most inexpensive framing has a sleek, modern look. Fast-change designs are ideal for messaging or graphics that need to be changed often without the need for un-mounting the displays. Economical hanging quick clip poster holders are a superior choice for:
- Wayfinding Signs
- In-Store Merchandise Marketing
- Service or Product Advertisements
- Event Signage
- Freestanding Snap Open Graphics Displays:
- Sturdy floor stands are ideal ways to present customers or passersby with information, advertisements and marketing messaging in high traffic areas. Available for either indoor or outdoor use, freestanding snap open graphics displays are available as simple poster frames, LED-illuminated advertisement holders or as multi-channel marketing fixtures that incorporate enclosures for both artwork and take-away literature. Durable metal framing allows this type of stand to withstand heavy use while presenting contents in a modern, stylish fashion. Floor standing fixtures offer high visibility, making them very well suited to use as:
- Restaurant Menu Holders
- Information or Wayfinding Kiosks
- Concourse or Lobby Advertising Stands
- Secure Exterior Information or Marketing Displays
Fast-change framing styles have one thing in common: flip-open or spring-loaded graphics enclosures are designed to make it easy for users to swap pictures, posters or advertisements with minimal effort. Economical construction materials such as aluminum, polycarbonate plastic and acrylic make even the largest display stands eminently well-suited to wholesale, bulk purchase to create stylish, consistent framing in commercial, hospitality and professional environments ranging from a single location to multi-site national installations. Ranging from simple banner rails to backlit dual-sided LED totems, fast-change framing is designed with ease of use in mind, making this type of advertising display the perfect choice for businesses or organizations in any industry.
Looking for a specific design or model? Use our parametric or text search functions, or browse our handy site directory.


text:
Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
Jane Harman, Dir. of the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Ari Fleischer, CNN contributor, share opposing views on Chuck Hagel.
Part one:
Part two:
You must be logged in to post a comment.


text:
Learn SAP ABAP with our on-demand webinars & customized online training courses. Our training platforms allow you to ask questions in real time and focus on solutions unique to your organization.
Gain critical awareness and learn to predict issues in SAP before they occur with HANA. We'll teach you the basics of this In-Memory technology and show you how to process huge volumes of data in just seconds.
Want to learn more about Scrum and Agile processes? Our experts will show you the basics, functioning software, and how to ensure the ability to adapt to any emerging business situation.
Companies We Have Worked With
Lukas is a very agile person. His strengths are planning, building and running IT-infrastructure, hosting web-application and software-service. He is an engaged and solid person.
Working with Lukas means moving things up to another level. He is a very talented and extremely competent individual. His excellent knowledge helped to produce high quality work. His attitude to work is highly professional and efficient, always focused on the best results for his clients.
Lukas is a very agile and talented person and focuses on the best results for the customer. He has excellent knowledge in technical and strategic areas and knows how to bring his solutions closer to the customer. His work brings every participant to a higher level of professionalism.
I needed to train my team in SAP within an unexpectedly small time frame. Blackvard was able to come in and help me get our guys trained up fast and efficiently. I don't know what we would have done without their expert consultants!
Blackvard helped us completely change our Monday morning meetings from total confusion to a new innovative and successful way to assess exactly where our development teams stand on all of their projects. Thanks Lukas!
I was originally extremely overwhelmed with the thought of our store-wide implementation, but Blackvard made everything super easy and they were there for us throughout the entire process. I'd recommend them to anyone!


text:
A California car dealer is selling a 'brand-new' 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX MR
At the time of writing, bidding on eBay is over $100,000
At the time of writing, bidding on eBay is over $100,000
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ended production for good last year, though new examples can still be found on dealer lots. Including one that isn't quite so "new." On eBay, there's a listing for a brand-new 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX MR, with bidding already crossed the $100,000 mark.
Unlike other ultra-low-mile cars we've seen before, this Evo is actually brand new. As in, never registered. It only has nine miles on its odometer, just from delivery. It appears that this Evo was purchased by California dealer South Coast Mitsubishi and put into storage for 11 years. A Reddit commenter notes that this dealer is known for having bought a surplus of Evo IXs when they were new, only to sell them years later.
At the time of writing, there's six days left on this auction, so a $100,000-plus final sale price seems all but inevitable. That's crazy for a car that carried a $37,000 MSRP in 2006, and wasn't exactly built in limited numbers. Still, collectors love low-mileage cars, and we doubt there are many other Evo IXs in such nice condition.
And if this car is too pricey, the dealer has a regular 2006 Lancer listed for $3000. Seems more reasonable to us.


text:
Tea With Chris is a roundup of recommended links, posted every Thursday. Here are a few of our favourite things from the Internet this week:
Margaux: Uugh. James Cameron, director of faux-moral movies, buys a lot of land in another country. This seems so real-wrong. Are people really still allowed to buy land?
A video of how your environment can affect you!
This is such a weirdly entertaining article on the Occupy Wall Street Summer Camp by Alan Feuer. When there is not an intoxicating swell of action, patience and humour prove nourishing .
The teenagers of the Torontonians and the art company Mammalian Diving Reflex (with Darren O'Donnell in the mix) are having a sleepover at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel on the night of August 10th. The event is called Dare Night: Lockdown, sleepover with one eye open – An all-night horrifying sleepover dare-filled lockdown night. These aren't the boring old-fashioned art days where the artists on stage challenge the bourgeois audience with difficult ideas about how culture should be and send that audience home so they can think about that. These are the new days, when the artists simply change all the rules for one night (or in this case 17 hours) and the audience job is to endure a new world. I can assure you, as someone who sometimes hesitates to "participate" in art, other than probably being completely delighted, you'd also probably be completely safe here. Sort of. Maybe. Begins August 10 at 7 pm, ends August 11, 12:00pm (17 HORRIFYING HOURS!). Free.
"This is the way the world ends" – A thoughtful article from Terrence Rafferty on the new crop of unheroic apocalyptic movies. My favourite: "Humanity is about to expire, but this time it's personal."
Carl: I don't know why but my teacup is overflowing this week.
This account of the "increasingly bizarre and beyond logic" trial of the Pussy Riot art-activists in Moscow is at once entertaining and appalling. Another perspective on the case comes from Natalie Zina Walschots, who writes about other cases of prosecution of heavy-metal musicians who "stand in the sacred heart of things and scream."
Here is Jacob Wren doing his own screaming as he generously blogs his novel in progress, Rich and Poor. The kinds of issues Jacob likes to masticate – class, violence, money, art, complicity – are also the meat of this conversation between art critic Martha Buskirk and Alexis Clements of the "Hyperallergic" website, titled "Art's Corrosive Success." And another angle on the art world's insular economy comes from Allx Rule and David Levine in this satirical attack on "International Art English."
Two great foes of corrosive success (whatever other corrosions they succumbed to) died in the past week or so, Gore Vidal and Alexander Cockburn. Neither produced a masterpiece, except for their lives. Vidal, that terrible-wonderful patrician-queen walking paradox, is being feted everywhere. But Cockburn, who was a columnist for The Nation when I worked there (Vidal also had a long association with the magazine), is less widely remembered today. My favourite comment about him this week came from a friend: "He was the real Christopher Hitchens" – that is, the fearless and unkowtowing political critic and scourge that Hitchens set himself up to be but too often let down (as his former friend Cockburn lamented). Michael Tomasky's appreciation is ambivalent but does get at what was important about Alex; his former editor (and a former mentor of mine) JoAnn Wypijewski's more personal tribute gets at what was beautiful about him:
"Is your hate pure?" he would ask a new Nation intern, one eyebrow raised, in merriment or inquisition the intern was unsure. It was a startling question, but then this was—it still is—a startling time. For what the ancients called avarice and iniquity Alex's hate was pure, and across the years no writer had a deadlier sting against the cruelties and dangerous illusions, the corruptions of empire. But, oh, how much more he was the sum of all he loved.
So let us celebrate our surviving scourges: Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury nailed one of the most neglected scandals of the current U.S. election season, vote-suppression legislation, with his historically acute series this month, "Jimmy Crow's Comeback Tour." And few have been paying heed while Canadian doctors stand up against similarly prejudicial bullshit on our side of the border, the Harper government's cutoff of health care services to refugee applicants.
All right, enough. Now I have to go decide whether to make snack chips out of prosciutto or kale. Maybe I'll mix them up together. Like a pussy riot! Like a pussy galore!
Chris: Terrible-wonderful patrician-queen and a gourmand-vulture too. When news of Vidal's death emerged the first thing I thought of was Suddenly, Last Summer, the gloriously overwrought melodrama he worked on with frenemy Tennessee Williams (who once said of Vidal and Truman Capote, sounded both appalled and impressed, that "you would think they were running neck-and-neck for some fabulous gold prize"). Being a member of the cohort that learned about queerness from John Waters' Simpsons cameo, this was the second thing: "Friends? Ha! These are my only friends: Grown-up nerds like Gore Vidal. And even he's kissed more boys than I ever will."
Dan Bejar explains a fair number of Dan Bejar songs: "I always loved music, but listening to rock seemed kind of gauche. It was not something that a human actually does; it was like some other world. The idea of it seemed very exotic."


text:
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'gift of tongues' tag.
I just wanted to announce that the twice monthly Brainblogging carnival is out and excellent as always, moving beyond the neuroscience into more personal psychosocial side of the brain. It seems I am becoming a something of a regular contributor there, which is both flattering and humbling. Many thanks.
Also this weekend is time for the semiannual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, something of a spiritual feast for myself as we Mormons get to hear from those we hold to be living prophets and apostles proclaim God's message to us today. Any interested are welcome to listen in. I have also found it is sometimes interesting to get other's reactions at the LDS Bloggernaccle various open threads found here, here, here, and here.
Here is the remaining best of the web in what has been a very, very interesting week, especially for you, the reader. Read the rest of this entry »


text:
Jackson commissioner keeps on DOT warpath
Jack Debnam, chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, called on Sylva leaders to join him in his bid for increased scrutiny of local N.C. Department of Transportation projects.
"I'm not here as a representative of the county commission," Debnam said. "This is something I feel as a citizen needs to be addressed."
The county commission chairman has already spoken against the DOT projects to the towns of Dillsboro and the Village of Forest Hills, as well as stumping at one of his own county commissioner meetings. He's scheduled to visit Webster, too, to discuss his self-described "pet project."
At issue in particular are two roads, both of which are destined to benefit Southwestern Community College campuses, that are being built to the tune of about $30 million.
Conrad Burrell, chairman of the SCC Board of Trustees, is also the DOT board member for the state's 10 westernmost counties. Burrell has defended his role in the roads, and defended why he believes they are needed. He's cited safety concerns among other reasons.
Burrell has noted, correctly, that he has not violated state ethics rules in regard to these projects, and he emphasized that he does not stand to benefit personally.
Related Items
Debnam remains unconvinced about the need for the two roads, however, noting that "safety" didn't become a stated goal until well into DOT's planning process.
"Out of 39 projects, these two got moved up to be the most important projects we have in Division 14," Debnam told the Sylva Board of Commissioners last week. One provides a new entrance to SCC in Sylva off N.C. 107. The other makes upgrades, including wider, straighter lanes and better shoulders, on Siler Road leading to SCC's campus in Macon County.
The new SCC entrance road in Jackson County has grown in scope from a regular road "to a boulevard-type road" for an estimated cost of $12.3 million.
It would involve a bridge over N.C. 107, he said, and a round about on Evans Road. This, he said, for an estimated 400 cars a day, when nearby N.C. 107 carries 30,000 cars per day. And N.C. 107, county leaders have been told, can't be fixed anytime soon — at least seven years, Debnam said, while the SCC entrance road will have taken just four years to bring to fruition if construction starts next year as planned.
"If we let this happen to us, we deserve it," he said.
Town Commissioner Harold Hensley commented that the design for SCC's entrance road was conceivably a "grander entry" than even the one built to serve Western Carolina University.
"It depends on whose wish list you're on," Debnam responded.
Hensley said he believes DOT's ostensible desires to include local voices in the planning process is simply an empty gesture "to make you feel involved."
"I think it is time we figure out what's going on," Debnam said. "About why some things can happen, and some can't."
Julia Merchant, spokesperson for DOT, this week declined to comment on behalf of the agency.


text:
Maximizing shareholder value: The goal that changed corporate America
August 27, 2013 Leave a comment
Maximizing shareholder value: The goal that changed corporate America
By Jia Lynn Yang, Tuesday, August 27, 7:36 AM
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — This town in the hills of Upstate New York is best known as the birthplace of IBM, one of the country's most iconic companies. But there remain only hints of that storied past. The main street, once swarming with International Business Machines employees in their signature white shirts and dark suits, is dotted with empty storefronts. During the 1980s, there were 10,000 IBM workers in Endicott. Now, after years of layoffs and jobs shipped overseas, about 700 employees are left.Investors in IBM's shares, by contrast, have fared much better. IBM makes up the biggest portion of the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average and has helped drive that index to record highs. Someone who spent about $16,000 buying 1,000 shares of IBM in 1980 would now be sitting on more than $400,000 worth of stock, a 25-fold return.
It used to be a given that the interests of corporations and communities such as Endicott were closely aligned. But no more. Across the United States, as companies continue posting record profits, workers face high unemployment and stagnant wages.
Driving this change is a deep-seated belief that took hold in corporate America a few decades ago and has come to define today's economy — that a company's primary purpose is to maximize shareholder value.
The belief that shareholders come first is not codified by statute. Rather, it was introduced by a handful of free-market academics in the 1970s and then picked up by business leaders and the media until it became an oft-repeated mantra in the corporate world.
Together with new competition overseas, the pressure to respond to the short-term demands of Wall Street has paved the way for an economy in which companies are increasingly disconnected from the state of the nation, laying off workers in huge waves, keeping average wages low and threatening to move operations abroad in the face of regulations and taxes.
This all presents a quandary for policymakers trying to combat joblessness and raise the fortunes of lower- and middle-class Americans. Proposals by President Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to change corporate tax policy, for instance, are aimed at the margins of company behavior when compared with the overwhelming drive to maximize shareholder wealth.
"The shift in what employers think of as their role not just in the community but [relative] to their workforce is quite radical, and I think it has led to the last two jobless recoveries," said Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The change can be seen in statements from IBM's leaders over the years. When he was IBM's president and chief executive, Thomas J. Watson Jr., son of the company's founder, spoke explicitly about balancing a company's interests with the country's. Current chief executive Virginia Rometty has pledged to follow a plan called the "2015 Road Map" in which the primary goal is to dramatically raise the company's earnings-per-share figure, a metric favored by Wall Street.
Job cuts have come this summer — the biggest wave in years at the company. In Essex Junction, Vt., about 450 workers were axed in June. In Dutchess County, N.Y., 700 jobs were lost. At Endicott, at least 15 workers were told to leave.
Retired software developer Linda Guyer saw the change over her 29-year career. In the beginning, "it was a wonderful place to work — maybe the way Google is today, really innovative," said Guyer, 59, who used to work for IBM in Endicott. But after training her overseas replacements and then being pushed into early retirement, Guyer said, "you end up feeling really cynical."
In 2009, IBM stopped breaking out how many workers it has in the United States vs. other countries. The company, based in Armonk, N.Y., probably began employing more workers in India than in this country around the same time, according to an analysis by Dave Finegold, a professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.
Many things have changed over the years about IBM, which has one of the oldest continuous histories of any company in the world. The firm that pioneered the floppy disk, an early version of the ATM and one of the earliest best-selling PCs now makes nearly as much money selling consulting services as it does software. Defenders argue that the company has had to reinvent itself so many times to stay alive that the values of Watson are no longer as easy to apply as they used to be.
Doug Shelton, a spokesman for IBM, said that globalization and increased competition make it hard to compare the company with its earlier days under Watson and that it still has the biggest and most talented technology workforce in the world. Shelton said that the company's head count has expanded every year since 2002 and that it is hiring for positions across the United States.
"Change is constant in the technology industry," Shelton said in a statement. "IBM is investing in growth areas for the future: big data, cloud computing, social business and the growing mobile computing opportunity. The company has always invested in transformational areas, and as a result, we must remix our skills so IBM can lead in these higher-value segments, in both emerging markets and in more mature economies."
The cultural shifts in corporate America have not changed only IBM. The company is merely a representative of what has happened at most large, globalized U.S. firms. But some experts wonder whether these companies have gone too far, leaving the rest of the country behind.
"We don't build companies to serve Wall Street," said Margaret Blair, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School. "We build corporations to provide goods and services to a society and jobs for people."
'Social responsibility'
In the decades after World War II, as the U.S. economy boomed, the interests of companies, shareholders, society and workers appeared to be in tune. Towns such as Endicott flourished.
Even until 1981, the Business Roundtable trade group understood the need to balance these different stakeholders.
"Corporations have a responsibility, first of all, to make available to the public quality goods and services at fair prices, thereby earning a profit that attracts investment to continue and enhance the enterprise, provide jobs, and build the economy," the group said at the time, in a document cited this year in an article in the publication Daedalus.
It continued: "The long-term viability of the corporation depends upon its responsibility to the society of which it is a part. And the well-being of society depends upon profitable and responsible business enterprises."
But changes were already afoot in the academic world that would reshape the fundamental relationship between this country and its companies.
Lynn Stout, a professor of corporate and business law at Cornell University Law School, traces the transformation to the rise of the "Chicago school" of free-market economists.
In 1970, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman wrote an article in the New York Times Magazine in which he famously argued that the only "social responsibility of business is to increase its profits."
Then in 1976, economists Michael Jensen and William Meckling published a paper saying that shareholders were "principals" who hired executives and board members as "agents." In other words, when you are an executive or corporate director, you work for the shareholders.
Stout said these legal theories appealed to the media — the idea that shareholders were king simplified the confusing debate over the purpose of a corporation.
More powerfully, it helped spawn the rise of executive pay tied to share prices — and thus the huge rise in stock-option pay. As a result, average annual executive pay has quadrupled since the early 1970s.
Part of this was a backlash to the dismal performance of the stock market during the 1970s, a decade that brought negative returns for investors. There was also the perception that companies, including IBM, had become lax in their management. Pressing executives to boost their returns created a new kind of accountability, just as the economy was becoming more globalized and more competitive.
The shift was dramatic. by 1997, the Business Roundtable had a new statement, also unearthed in the Daedalus article. It stated that the principal objective of a business enterprise "is to generate economic returns to its owners" and that if "the CEO and the directors are not focused on shareholder value, it may be less likely the corporation will realize that value."
The mantra that executives and corporate board members have a duty to maximize shareholder value has become so ingrained that many people assume it must be codified somewhere.
But legal experts say there is no statute in state or federal law requiring corporations and executives to maximize shareholder value. Blair, the professor at Vanderbilt, said that courts in fact allow wide latitude for managers and directors when it comes to business decisions.
"Let me be clear that this pressure comes from the media, from shareholder advocates and financial institutions in whose direct interest it is for the company to get its share price to go up," Blair said in testimony before a House hearing in 2008, "and from the self-imposed pressure created by compensation packages that provide enormous potential rewards for directors and managers if stock prices go up."
Some who defend the use of shareholder value as a measuring stick for corporate success argue that with retirees depending on stocks, whether through pension funds or 401(k)s, rising share prices benefit more than just Wall Street.
"If you stick it to the equity holders, you're going to stick it to the retirees," said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
Philosophical changes
Like the Business Roundtable statements that changed over time, the message from companies such as IBM shifted as well.
Watson published a seminal text in 1963 called "A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas that Helped Build IBM." In it, he wrote that IBM's philosophy could be contained in three beliefs: One, the most important, was respect for the individual employee; the second, a commitment to customer service; and third, achieving excellence.
He wrote that balancing profits between the well-being of employees and the nation's interest is a necessary duty for companies. Watson took pride in the fact that his father avoided layoffs, even through the Great Depression.
"We acknowledge our obligation as a business institution to help improve the quality of the society we are part of," read the text of IBM's corporate values.
Under Watson's watch, IBM introduced groundbreaking computers that shot his father's company to the top of the technology world. Even into the 1980s, there was a saying that IBM's products were so reliable, "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM."
But by the time Louis V. Gerstner Jr. took over IBM in the early 1990s, the company was in trouble. Its main advantage in the PC business was eroding, and expenses were high compared with those of competitors.
Months into his tenure, Gerstner cut about 60,000 workers, at the time one of the biggest layoffs at a U.S. corporation.
In 1994, Gerstner outlined his own set of eight principles, a clear break from the old document. Near the top was that the company's primary "measures of success" were shareholder value and customer satisfaction. The last one: "We are sensitive to the needs of all employees and to the communities in which we operate."
Gerstner pulled off a turnaround considered legendary by those who study business history.
The culture at IBM was irrevocably changed, too. The chief executives who followed Gerstner have pushed the company hard to hit ambitious financial targets designed to please analysts on Wall Street. In the process, the iconic IBM charted a path that other companies have followed.
One of the most influential changes took place in 1999, when IBM overhauled its pension plan under Gerstner to help cut costs, shocking longtime employees.
Guyer, the former IBM software developer, said she still remembers the surprise of getting a letter in the mail showing her cash balance for retirement after about two decades at the company: $30,000.
"It was like, 'Oh, my God, we've been totally ripped off,' " she said.
IBM employees later filed a class-action lawsuit over the pension changes. In 2004, the company agreed to pay $320 million to current and former employees in a settlement.
William Lazonick, an expert on industrial competitiveness at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, said the pension-plan change was a watershed moment.
"IBM was a critical company, because everybody after that said, 'If IBM is going in that direction, we'll all go in that direction,' " Lazonick said. "By 2000, really the whole system had changed."
The company has continued tinkering with its retirement benefits. Late last year, it changed its 401(k) contribution policy so that IBM matches employee savings just once a year rather than throughout the year. The company said it was making the change to stay competitive, but the new plan also means that employees who lose their jobs before a set date in December do not see any of the matching funds.
Since Gerstner's time running the company, the pressure to please shareholders has only ratcheted up. Samuel J. Palmisano, chief executive from 2002 to 2011, charted new goals in 2010, calling the plan IBM's "2015 Road Map." The primary objective: nearly doubling earnings per share, to $20.
IBM's current chief executive, Rometty, has picked up where Palmisano left off. The company's 2012 annual report notes that the company's road map "delivers long-term value and performance for all key IBM stakeholders — investors, clients, employees and society."
But as sales flatten, questions have emerged about how the company will hit its ambitious target, aside from slashing jobs.
"This is a horrible business model," said Lee Conrad, a coordinator for Alliance@IBM, a group that advocates for company employees. "It's all about the EPS [earnings per share] and not about growing the business. The customers are being impacted by this when good employees are being cut. It's just a mess."
Guyer said everyone in the office used to have a copy of Watson's manifesto on IBM's principles, the one that says "respect for the individual" came first. The company had its own printing press, so it was easy to get the book.
By the time she left, she did not see the book around as much. She remembers rescuing one from a trash can once. And her copy? It is stored in her garage somewhere, a bittersweet souvenir from her corporate career.


text:
Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern release their next album, The Essex Arms, on October 4. We are mightily looking forward to it. There's now a video for the Emmy The Great-featuring single 'Calling Out Your Name Again' - which comes out physically on October 11 through Fortuna Pop! but is available to download here - which has been made by Darren himself. We've got the video premiere of it - you can have a look below. But first, a few words from Mr Hayman about the whole process:
A few friends who have already seen this video have said that I have too much time on my hands. This isn't true, but I do have a compulsive nature and when I start something, I mean to finish it. No idea is too stupid for me to pursue and time and effort shouldn't be the reason for not doing something. I am currently building a life size model of my dog out of Lego. No, really I am.
This video is made using one sheet of card that is constantly scanned in between me drawing or erasing or painting over parts of it. I had no concious plan or storyboard though I would occasionally draw something that reflected a line from the song. The main thing was put Radio 4 on, make a cup of tea, then draw, scan, draw, scan, draw, scan etc.
It took about 2 months. I won't be doing it again. I hope you like it.
So yes, that's the video. It does look painstaking but also totally worth it. Now comes the track itself, which you can stream via the SoundCloud widget we've got below and download from here. It's pretty simple.
Oh, and since it's completely topical, you can read Emmy's interview with Darren, which was conducted last year, here. Click here to see what shows Darren has coming up, too.


text:
Whenever a large group of Black people happen to come together — and this could be on Facebook, at a BBQ, during a happy hour, or perhaps even while teaching a Kappa how to throw a football — conversations about economic empowerment are not particularly uncommon. They don't always happen — sometimes you just want to talk about baked chicken and Charles Oakley — but they happen enough. And, when they happen, invariably you'll have a few people who'll lament the disproportionate amounts of money we spend on Jordans and weave and car leases and rims and apartment rentals; either implying or explicitly stating that this affinity for the type of depreciating assets that make us look wealthier than we actually are is what's keeping us from actually building wealth. And perhaps, to make their point stick, they'll even cite White people or Jewish people or Koreans as an example of who we need to model ourselves after.
It's an argument that persists because it retains the romantic veneer of pragmatism, logic, and pro-Blackness. It's also attractive. Building wealth — and the flexibility and freedom it often leads to — is a good thing. Also, it does sometimes seem like we (collectively) place too much of a premium on looking financially healthy instead of actually being it. And kids from the hood with $200 sneakers and women with hundreds of dollars of artificial hair in their heads (hair purchased from Koreans!) and men with $50,000-a-year incomes with $60,000 cars do make for convenient and conspicuous examples of the type of backwards and self-defeating thinking holding us back.
But as rational and empowering as it seems, this argument actually exists in an invisible morass of anti-Blackness, as it ignores the multitude of socioeconomic factors contributing to our collective lack of wealth. And it implies that the appreciation for depreciating goods is a uniquely Black pathology. Basically, we're fucked up because y'all niggas love shiny shit more than anyone else does.
It has always been and will always be an argument based on low information and a latent belief that Black culture specifically cultivates an affinity for economic endangerment; one that was recently and thoroughly debunked by a study called "The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap"
From "The Big Reason Whites Are Richer Than Blacks in America"
A new study trashes most of the conventional explanations—and solutions—for the wealth gap. It's called The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap. It's by researchers at Brandeis University and a public policy group called Demos. The table of contents says it all:
Attending college does not close the racial wealth gap.
Raising children in a two-parent household does not close the racial wealth gap.
Working full time does not close the racial wealth gap.
Spending less does not close the racial wealth gap.
So, what about the idea that we (Black people) spend more of our income on useless assets than others?
It's natural to assume that if blacks have less wealth it's because they're doing less saving—i.e., more of each dollar of income is going to consumption. The opposite is the case, according to a Duke University study published last year and cited by the authors. At every income level, blacks spend less than similarly situated whites, the Duke researchers found: "Retail desertification in racially segregated neighborhoods, restricted access to affordable credit for blacks, and consumer racial discrimination, we argue, result in lower overall spending for blacks at all income levels," they said.
CleverMade Collapsible Storage Bins
Lightweight yet heavy duty
Good storage bins are essential for keeping your home or office organized and clutter-free. These are versatile, collapsible containers that come in various shapes and sizes that also stack together.
Shit, so we actually spend less money on sneakers and cars and shit than White people do? Wow. So, if this is all true, where does this humongous discrepancy actually come from?
So what does account for the racial gap in wealth? Traub admits that "we haven't fully penetrated the mystery." One powerful factor seems to be that whites are five times as likely as blacks to receive substantial gifts and inheritances, and the sums they get tend to be much larger. The money "can be used to jump-start further wealth accumulation, for example, by enabling white families to buy homes and begin acquiring equity earlier in their lives," the study says.
The result is that whites' wealth advantage—and blacks' disadvantage—gets passed down from generation to generation. Which means that forms of racial discrimination "that happened in the past, like redlining, continue to show up in bank accounts today," says Traub.
Of course, this truth is much harder to swallow than the notion that the only thing between us and financial freedom is a $300 pair of Black Cement Jordan 3s, so I get why that argument is so seductive. Its also much easier to scapegoat the people around you than the largely invisible factors causing the gulfs in wealth. (And those endless lines and fights for new Js aint the best look at all.)
But this type of dangerous and subtly classist anti-Blackness — rooted in falsehoods and dependent on a notion of specifically Black pathology — is just as racist as the conditions causing the wealth gap.


text:
Professor's Settee With Nailheads
$1795 - $9999 Regular
$1346 - $7499 Member
Small in stature, grand in style, the Professor's Chair provides all the presence and comfort of its larger kin. A 1920s English wing chair by design, its petite proportions and enveloping embrace offer seating on a more intimate scale. Upholstered with a down-feather fill and tailored with refined welting, our chair is at home everywhere a good book resides.


text:
Brant County
The County of Brant is a small, predominantly rural municipality in Southern Ontario. It is encircled by the Region of Waterloo, the City of Hamilton, Haldimand County, Norfolk County, and Oxford County. The County is adjacent to the Greenbelt.
The society focuses in Brant are Paris, St. George and Burford. Smaller communities in the municipality incorporate Bishopsgate, Burtch, Cainsville, Cathcart, East Oakland, Etonia, Fairfield, Falkland, Glen Morris, Gobles, Harley, Harrisburg, Hatchley, Langford, Lockie, Maple Grove, Middleport, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, New Durham, Newport, Northfield, Northfield Centre, Oakland, Onondaga, Osborne Corners, and Scotland.
A sustainable Brant is dedicated to saving the disappearing farmland is supported by raising funds by dint of local organization that promotes service, fellowship, positive values, and national pride.
The County of Brant Public Library has 5 branches located in Paris, Burford, Scotland, St. George, and Glen Morris.


text:
By Eric Butler: CNJ Correspondent
Though not a direct product of Clovis' Norman Petty Studios himself, Bobby Vee has certainly become a favorite of Clovis Music Festival organizers in recent years.
A regular performer at the annual event, Vee has entertained fans with his own top ten hits like "Take Good Care Of My Baby" (No. 1 in 1961), "Run To Him" (No. 2, 1961), "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes" (No. 3, 1962) and "Devil Or Angel" (No. 6, 1960).
Now, Vee is bringing in a little extra star-power for his Friday night show at Marshall Auditorium.
The festival has been centered at the Clovis Civic Center the last two years and, in fact, Vee's show on the final night of the 2007 event drew 900 people. Randy Petty, vice-chairman for the music festival, said that was the largest crowd in the history of the event – which started in 1987.
But Petty is thinking that Vee's show this year could set a new record at Marshall, which seats more than 1,000 people.
"It's an excellent show. Really, a lot of big name folks," Petty said. "Moving the venue back to Marshall is more conducive to visibility and sound — and the artists are pleased with that."
At the Friday night show, Bobby Vee will be the headliner act. But fans are likely to remember hits from the lead-in performers as well.
The Chiffons had a No. 1 hit in 1963 with "He's So Fine" and two additional top tens later in the decade with "One Fine Day" and "Sweet Talkin' Guy."
Chris Montez' first hit in 1962, "Let's Dance," soared all the way to No. 4 on the Billboard pop charts.
And Johnny Preston also had a No. 1 with "Running Bear" in 1960 as well as a Top Ten follow-up ("Cradle Of Love").
All three will be part of the show Friday night.
"Ticket sales already have proven that the acts are going to draw bigger (crowds)," said Ernie Kos, executive director at the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce. "I think it's mostly because of the acts. And the fans – I mean, we've got people coming from all over the world again. I anticipate we're going to sell out Friday and Saturday the way things are going."
The festival includes three nights of performances. Tickets for the shows at Marshall on Thursday, Friday and Saturday cost $20/person.
Vee's show on Friday is sandwiched by tribute shows.
On Thursday, a Ritchie Valens Tribute show features Ray Anthony and the concert also includes a show by Tommy Allsup and Kevin Montgomery.
Valens died in the 1959 plane accident that killed Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
Allsup was supposed to be on the plane originally, but flipped a coin – and "lost" — his seat to Valens.
"That's his legacy, but of course he's done a whole lot of things since then," Petty said.
The show Saturday night features tribute artists playing the roles of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison.
"In my opinion, they're the top tribute guys that can do those artists. The guy (Scot Bruce) who does Elvis, he gives you the chills it's so eerie," Petty said. "There's quite a bit of tribute artists out there, but these are super-neat guys and they just do a fantastic job.
"The likenesses are uncanny," he added.
Petty said that while many of the Thursday and Saturday acts on stage may be replicas for the originals, the enthusiasm in the audience is real. There are no teenage girls, however, portraying screaming fans from the 1950s.
"The ladies from that era are the ones who do the screaming," Petty reassured.


text:
- Devon Banks
- It looks fun, but is it fun enough?
We look forward to the CMJ Music Marathon all year, but then it comes around and we get tired and complain. Three late nights in a row is way too many late nights and despite how much we may love live music the absolute last thing we want to do is go back out for another round of shows this evening. But ugh, it's Friday, and the weekend is when the festival really picks up. Alas, we have no choice but to scrounge up some semblance of a second wind, which is why we're dipping into our iTunes libraries to see what some of our favorites have had to say about the phenomenon that is the live music experience. Recorded music is one thing, but live music is immediate, vibrant and unpredictable. As far as momentous occasions go it really doesn't get much better than a good concert, and we don't want to miss whatever momentous occasions might be out there this weekend just because we didn't get enough beauty sleep. So let's take a listen, pump ourselves up and remind ourselves why a little exhaustion is a small price to pay for a week's worth of this kind of fun.


text:
Barbara Walters Gives Update on Head Injury
Barbara Walters is still recovering from a weekend fall that derailed her plans to cover Monday's presidential inauguration, and her co-host on The View Whoopi Goldberg gave an update on her condition on Tuesday's show.
"Barbara went to Washington to cover the inauguration. She missed a step and had a fall, which cut her upper temple," Goldberg said. "The doctors stitched her up and she is doing fine, but they want her to take it easy."
VIDEO: Stars Send Well-Wishes to Barbara Walters
Goldberg then read a statement from Walters, in which the 83-year-old newswoman said that she wanted to "thank all the people who have called, written and been concerned about me."
"I am running a low-grade fever and the doctors are keeping me in the hospital until my temperature is normal," Walters explained. "I'm pleased to say that it is going in the right direction and I will be home soon."
RELATED: Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating People List Revealed
Walters fell Saturday on a stair while visiting the British Ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. and was taken to the hospital so doctors could examine the cut on her head.


text:
Adding product to your cart
Custom Crafted In Yorkville, New York Please Allow 56 Days
The material is Steel and Ceramic. The finish is White. The shade is White Ceramic.
Under the Meyda Lighting brand, thousands of decorative styles are offered through fine dealers in the U.S. and Canada. Many designs are inspired by the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Dirk Van Erp, Gustav Stickley, and other masters, as well as the Arts and Crafts, Rustic, Gothic, Revival and Contemporary themes. Their extensive line includes table and floor lamps, ceiling pendants, chandeliers, outdoor lighting, wall sconces, stained glass windows, fireplace screens, billiard/kitchen island fixtures, novelty items, and more. Meyda continues to implement one of the industry's most extensive product development programs.
Shop all from Meyda Lighting!
Ships within 2 business days for stocked items.
For made to order items, please allow the displayed time in the description to be built. It ships within 2 business days upon finish. Read more about the full shipping policy.


text:
Ars has brought you lots of coverage of research in superconductivity, including the discovery of a new class of superconductors and a new
theory that attempts to describe the phenomenon. As it's a branch of physics that is
poorly understood, research efforts often lead to new
observations of the phenomenon and new questions, rather than solutions to existing questions. A paper to be published in Nature today falls squarely into the new-observations category. Researchers have observed
superconductivity at the interface of two materials that are not inherently
superconducting at any temperature, suggesting that we can engineer
superconductors at small dimensions.
The generally accepted explanation for superconduction involves Cooper Pairs, where two electrons become weakly coupled at a relatively large distance (several nanometers) through an interaction with phonons (heat's quantum equivalent to the photon) that are vibrating in the crystal lattice. If one electron is impeded by a normal scattering site like an impurity or crystal imperfection, the other electron in the pair can "pull" it along.
The interaction is so weak that temperatures above 30K will break the pair, so this model works to describe pure metals that superconduct at temperatures below 10K. The theory breaks down for high-temperature oxide superconductors, which have achieved superconduction at temperatures as high as 138K (at atmospheric pressure). Clearly there are other mechanisms at work, but we don't currently understand them.
The new research involved a lanthanum copper oxide compound that can be doped over a wide range of compositions, which was used to study a potentially new mechanism of superconduction. A substrate of LaSrCuO4 was used, and an epitaxy technique grew atomically-perfect thin films of three derivative compounds: an insulator and a metal that show no superconductivity, and a superconducting variant with a transition temperature (Tc) of 40K. By growing literally hundreds of combination of interfaces and film thicknesses, the researchers were able to observe superconduction at different temperatures, including superconduction at the metal/insulator interface.
The authors took great lengths to characterize the materials and confirmed that the interface was both atomically perfect and pure, meaning that a third material was not formed from inter-layer mixing. This means that an interface interaction is responsible for the superconduction. By varying the thickness of the films used, the authors found that the superconductivity was occurring in just two unit cells around the interface. Interfaces produced with a superconducting variant boosted its Tc from 40K to 50K, while interfaces with the two nonsuperconducting layers had Tc's as high as 30K.
While there is no definitive explanation available for this interfacial superconduction, it opens the door for further research into engineering superconductors out of non-superconducting materials. The small length scales at which the superconduction occurs may make it appropriate for micro- and nanoscale devices.
Nature, 2008. DOI: 10.1038/nature07293


text:
September 22nd marked the fourth annual Pelikan Hubs event and by all accounts, it looks to have been a tremendous success. Pelikan reports that there were 145 individual Hubs spread across 43 countries with 3600 registered participants. That is over 1000 more people than had registered the year prior which is a 38% increase and shows consistent year over year growth. Sadly, the Mexico City Hub had to be postponed until next month due to the recent earthquake in that region. All of those Hub participants are reported to be safe but obviously the country is mourning their losses and our thoughts and prayers are with them. This is the third consecutive year that I was chosen as the Hub master for the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA location. Our local hub has been held at Sabrina's Cafe, Goat Hollow, and now, for the second straight year, the Philadelphia Hub returned to Cooperage Wine and Whiskey bar located within the historic Curtis Center. The staff could not have been more welcoming or accommodating to our group and really helped to make the evening extra special. I enjoyed a wonderful cask IPA and the food was excellent. They even showed a genuine interest in our gathering and the pens on display so who knows, we may have a few new converts to this
obsession hobby of ours. The good people at Cooperage once again provided us a great venue in which to hold our event and I still can't recommend them highly enough if you're looking for a location for your next function.
I arrived at 6pm to start setting up and by 6:45pm, most of our attendees had gathered in full force. As has been the case each year, our local Hub has grown and this year was our best attended Hub by far. The best that I can tell, we had 28 people turn out for the festivities. That's a far cry from the four or five of us present at that very first Hub event. There were several Hub veterans in attendance as well as many fresh faces eager to share in our common passion. Some turned out with their sole Pelikan while others brought carefully cultivated flocks. In addition to Pelikan fountain pens, many other brands were represented which added a nice bit of diversity to the gathering. Several rare special edition releases were present including my entire collection of over 160 pens. It was great fun for me to engage and share some of my more esoteric knowledge about the nuances found amongst these fine writing instruments. Also, for the second year in a row, we had a family connection to the Minneapolis Hub some 1200 miles away. The parents of one of our local attendees had fun out west at their local Hub while we celebrated on the east coast.
Pelikan provided a set of Edelstein inks which I put out for sampling. Many people brought empty pens and enjoyed the ability to test a new ink and make swabs. Frank, a local collector and proprietor of Federalist Pens and Paper, attended our hub and brought many of his wares for purchase. Up for sale were the M205 Blue Demonstrator, M20o Smoky Quartz, and the Stola III as well as the entire line of Edelstein inks. True to past years, Pelikan again included some nice swag for each of the attendees. Everyone who registered took home a flacon of Edelstein Smoky Quartz ink and a Pelikan cup with a Hubs theme. A new addition this year was the inclusion of a large flag and some markers. Pelikan encouraged all of the attendees to sign the flag and leave a note which was a nice addition and memento of the night.
In an effort to inject some additional excitement into the evening, I was able to gather some prizes which were offered in a drawing that occurred later in the evening. Michael, our runner-up, won a notebook, a pen sleeve, and a flacon of Edelstein Aquamarine ink from last year's Hub event. Marie, our grand prize winner took home a brand new Pelikan Stola III fountain pen thanks to the generosity of Frank and Federalist Pens and Paper.
I think this year's event was awesome and I enjoyed it tremendously. Feedback seemed to overall be very positive. It's always fun to meet with people who share a passion for fountain pens because, if you're like me, that's not an everyday occurrence. I do worry though that the Hubs may become a victim of their own success. While I would like to see them continue indefinitely and not be marred by a cap on attendance, I can see an added strain on the Hub masters as each year passes. As more and more people sign up, finding a venue that will host such a large crowd on a Friday night free of charge in a large city is becoming more and more challenging. I had a lot of outright rejections and many others who wanted hundreds or even thousands of dollars before considering hosting us. Even non-restaurant spaces had a premium which is challenging when organizing an event with no budget. This was not just my experience but one that was shared by many other Hub masters across the country. I know some Hub masters personally put up a significant sum of their own money. Hopefully, Pelikan can ponder this and devise a solution over the next year. The stress of it has led me to consider handing over the Hub master duties to someone else for the next go round. That doesn't mean I won't be there with bells on though.
Thank you to all of the attendees of the Philadelphia Hub for making the night so enjoyable and worth every second of the stress. I can't wait to gather again next year. Make sure you check out all of the photos from the other Hubs around the world on your preferred social media via the hashtag #PelikanHubs or see them aggregated at Walls.IO.
Cooperage Wine and Whiskey Bar | The Curtis Center | 123 South 7th Street | Philadelphia, PA 19106 | 215.226.2667


text:
CHELSEA — That's one way to get a power boost.
Barcade — the popular combination bar and arcade with locations in Williamsburg, Jersey City and Philadelphia — will serve food out of a full kitchen at its upcoming Chelsea location at 148 W. 24th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, its owners revealed.
The gamer bar's new spot got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from members of Community Board 4's Business Permits and Licenses Committee when it reviewed its application for a liquor license on Tuesday night. The player-pub combines classic arcade games like "Donkey Kong," "Galaga" and "Gauntlet" — each only a quarter to play — with plenty of craft beer on tap.
The owners hope to open the roughly 3,500-square-foot spot by June or July. Unlike the original Brooklyn location, which only serves snacks like chips and jerky, the Manhattan outpost will offer customers sandwiches, burgers and more.
But don't expect Donkey Kong banana splits or Super Mario mushroom pizza anytime soon.
"There won't be video game-themed food. We don't do anything like that," co-owner Paul Kermizian told DNAinfo.com New York. "We're aiming to have nice pub food."
The forthcoming location will hold about 150 people, nearly twice as many as its original location, which opened in Williamsburg in 2004.
The new address, a former discount store, will require an extensive overhaul, and the owners plan to build an entire kitchen there from scratch.
Paul Seres, co-chairman of the CB4 committee, was particularly happy about Barcade coming to the neighborhood.
"It's such a good idea," he said. "I'm excited. I love Barcade."


text:
This HOWTO document describes programming hardware I/O ports and waiting for small periods of time in user-mode Linux programs running on the Intel x86 architecture. This document is a descendant of the very small IO-Port mini-HOWTO by the same author.
This document is Copyright 1995-2000 Riku Saikkonen. See the Linux HOWTO copyright for details.
If you have corrections or something to add, feel free to e-mail me


text:
diagrams-lib ought to have a module with some convenient functions for creating arrows pointing from one part of a diagram to another. This page is for gathering ideas and plans for such a module.
There should probably be a collection of "standard" arrowheads for the user to choose from. In addition it ought to be possible for the user to specify any diagram they like for use as an arrowhead.
The idea is for arrowheads to be scale-invariant, just like line width. We now have a
ScaleInv wrapper for accomplishing this. We'll need to make a new type of
Prim for holding
ScaleInv things (note it will need to handle freezing correctly; haven't thought too hard about that yet...).
Drawing arrows
At the most basic level one could imagine an API like
arrow :: Arrowhead -> P2 -> P2 -> Diagram
and we probably should indeed have such a function, but we'll need to also generalize along several axes.
First, the most frequent use case will be drawing an arrow on top of an existing diagram in order to connect two points. So we want something like
arrow :: IsName n => Arrowhead -> n -> n -> (Diagram -> Diagram)
which draws an arrow between the named points on the given diagram. There are several ways this can be generalized:
- Instead of drawing an arrow between the named points one could draw the arrow between the named subdiagrams (using their traces to find the edges).
- There should also be a way to leave gaps, i.e. don't draw the arrow precisely from point to point or edge to edge, but leave a gap of a certain absolute size or a certain percentage of the arrow length on either end of the arrow.
Re: leaving gaps, this will require some generic code to shrink paths. There is already some code to shrink individual segments (and compute the length of segments) XXX finish me
One might also want to have control over the middle of the arrow XXX finish me


text:
HTC One Mini is official, and very beautiful
HTC finally unveils the miniature One. Does the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini have anything to fear?
After leaking countless times over the past few months, the HTC One Mini has finally officially been revealed.
Despite the complete lack of surprise, the One Mini still packs quite a punch despite its more budget status and it brings the fight directly to the door of Samung's Galaxy S4 Mini.
Resembling its older brother the HTC One, the One Mini is made from the same single block of anodized aluminium, albeit with more plastic around the edges.
Still, it retains the One's dual front-facing speakers for the same 'Boomsound' experience, as well as the 4MP Ultrapixel camera for better shots in low-light conditions, though it lacks NFC and the integrated IR blaster.
The HTC One Mini's smaller 4.3in 720p display bests the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini's 960×540 offering, and Android with the new HTC Sense is taken care of by a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM.
A non-removeable 1,800mAh battery with 16GB of storage won't appeal to the microSD supporters, but at "two price tiers below the HTC One", the sting of a permanent battery and lack of hot-swappable storage might not be so bad.
There's no specific pricing or release information (beyond the fact that it'll be out sometime in August), but we'll be sure to keep you updated when we get all the details. For now, read our hands-on review here.


text:
After you establish a connection, the server enters Stage 2 of
access control. For each request that you issue through that
connection, the server determines what operation you want to
perform, then checks whether you have sufficient privileges to do
so. This is where the privilege columns in the grant tables come
into play. These privileges can come from any of the
columns_priv, or
tables. (You may find it helpful to refer to
Section 5.4.2, "Privilege System Grant Tables", which lists the columns
present in each of the grant tables.)
user table grants privileges that are
assigned to you on a global basis and that apply no matter what
the default database is. For example, if the
user table grants you the
DELETE privilege, you can delete
rows from any table in any database on the server host! It is wise
to grant privileges in the
user table only to
people who need them, such as database administrators. For other
users, you should leave all privileges in the
user table set to
'N' and
grant privileges at more specific levels only. You can grant
privileges for particular databases, tables, columns, or routines.
db and
host tables grant
database-specific privileges. Values in the scope columns of these
tables can take the following forms:
A blank
Uservalue in the
dbtable matches the anonymous user. A nonblank value matches literally; there are no wildcards in user names.
The wildcard characters "
%" and "
_" can be used in the
Dbcolumns of either table. These have the same meaning as for pattern-matching operations performed with the
LIKEoperator. If you want to use either character literally when granting privileges, you must escape it with a backslash. For example, to include the underscore character ("
_") as part of a database name, specify it as "
\_" in the
Hostvalue in the
dbtable means "any host." A blank
Hostvalue in the
dbtable means "consult the
hosttable for further information" (a process that is described later in this section).
'%'or blank
Hostvalue in the
hosttable means "any host."
'%'or blank
Dbvalue in either table means "any database."
The server reads the
db and
host tables into memory and sorts them at the
same time that it reads the
user table. The
server sorts the
db table based on the
Db, and
User scope columns, and sorts the
host table based on the
Db scope columns. As with the
user table, sorting puts the most-specific
values first and least-specific values last, and when the server
looks for matching entries, it uses the first match that it finds.
columns_priv, and
tables grant table-specific, column-specific, and routine-specific
privileges. Values in the scope columns of these tables can take
the following forms:
The wildcard characters "
%" and "
_" can be used in the
Hostcolumn. These have the same meaning as for pattern-matching operations performed with the
'%'or blank
Hostvalue means "any host."
Column_name, and
Routine_namecolumns cannot contain wildcards or be blank.
The server sorts the
columns_priv, and
tables based on the
Db, and
User columns. This
is similar to
db table sorting, but simpler
because only the
Host column can contain
The server uses the sorted tables to verify each request that it
receives. For requests that require administrative privileges such
SHUTDOWN or
RELOAD, the server checks only the
user table row because that is the only table
that specifies administrative privileges. The server grants access
if the row permits the requested operation and denies access
otherwise. For example, if you want to execute mysqladmin
shutdown but your
user table row does
not grant the
SHUTDOWN privilege to
you, the server denies access without even checking the
db or
host tables. (They
contain no
Shutdown_priv column, so there is no
need to do so.)
For database-related requests
UPDATE, and so on), the server
first checks the user's global privileges by looking in the
user table row. If the row permits the
requested operation, access is granted. If the global privileges
in the
user table are insufficient, the server
determines the user's database-specific privileges by checking the
db and
host tables:
The server looks in the
dbtable for a match on the
Db, and
Usercolumns. The
Usercolumns are matched to the connecting user's host name and MySQL user name. The
Dbcolumn is matched to the database that the user wants to access. If there is no row for the
User, access is denied.
If there is a matching
dbtable row and its
Hostcolumn is not blank, that row defines the user's database-specific privileges.
If the matching
dbtable row's
Hostcolumn is blank, it signifies that the
hosttable enumerates which hosts should be permitted access to the database. In this case, a further lookup is done in the
hosttable to find a match on the
Dbcolumns. If no
hosttable row matches, access is denied. If there is a match, the user's database-specific privileges are computed as the intersection (not the union!) of the privileges in the
hosttable entries; that is, the privileges that are
'Y'in both entries. (This way you can grant general privileges in the
dbtable row and then selectively restrict them on a host-by-host basis using the
hosttable entries.)
After determining the database-specific privileges granted by the
db and
host table entries,
the server adds them to the global privileges granted by the
user table. If the result permits the requested
operation, access is granted. Otherwise, the server successively
checks the user's table and column privileges in the
tables_priv and
tables, adds those to the user's privileges, and permits or denies
access based on the result. For stored-routine operations, the
server uses the
procs_priv table rather than
tables_priv and
Expressed in boolean terms, the preceding description of how a user's privileges are calculated may be summarized like this:
global privileges OR (database privileges AND host privileges) OR table privileges OR column privileges OR routine privileges
It may not be apparent why, if the global
row privileges are initially found to be insufficient for the
requested operation, the server adds those privileges to the
database, table, and column privileges later. The reason is that a
request might require more than one type of privilege. For
example, if you execute an
SELECT statement, you need both the
INSERT and the
SELECT privileges. Your privileges
might be such that the
user table row grants
one privilege and the
db table row grants the
other. In this case, you have the necessary privileges to perform
the request, but the server cannot tell that from either table by
itself; the privileges granted by the entries in both tables must
be combined.
host table is not affected by the
GRANT or
REVOKE statements, so it is unused
in most MySQL installations. If you modify it directly, you can
use it for some specialized purposes, such as to maintain a list
of secure servers on the local network that are granted all
You can also use the
host table to indicate
hosts that are not secure. Suppose that you
have a machine
public.your.domain that is
located in a public area that you do not consider secure. You can
enable access to all hosts on your network except that machine by
host table entries like this:
+--------------------+----+- | Host | Db | ... +--------------------+----+- | public.your.domain | % | ... (all privileges set to 'N') | %.your.domain | % | ... (all privileges set to 'Y') +--------------------+----+-