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Dave Brewis described the new School of Language album Old Fears as "my most stratty album". He is, of course, referring to the Dad Axe of choice, the Fender Stratocaster. So, we asked David to compile a playlist with the best uses of this most marmite of instruments...
I used to hate Stratocasters. A meld of cock-rock posturing and brittle twanging, with occasional flashbacks to Eric Clapton's chart-bothering substance abuse years and to Hank Marvin reminding us why it was so great that the Beatles came along. Cool kids used Jaguars and Jazzmasters and Gibson semi-acoustics or, at a push, the no-frills telecaster. Recently however I've learned to love that twangy, brittle sound and its oversized 50s fins. Here are a few reasons why:
Chic - Le Freak
There's no better place to start. Nile Rodger's guitar playing is one of the most recognisable sounds in pop music and it is pure strat.
King Crimson - Elephant Talk
When Robert Fripp reconvened King Crimson in the early-80s he drafted in Adrian Belew as his stratty foil. Belew can make that guitar sound like almost anything. It's worth searching for the video where he explains his guitar effects set-up too. It's amazing.
Richard and Linda Thompson - Calvary Cross
Richard Thompson might have wrestled with a Les Paul on the early Fairport albums but his sound and his choice of notes and what he does to them is a perfect match for the Stratocaster.
David Bowie - Let's Dance
A second appearance by Nile Rodgers. This time backing Bowie and backed up by another strat-wielder, Stevie Ray Vaughan. This gives you an idea of the variety you can get out of the instrument by flicking between those three pickups and, in Stevie Ray's case, by using massive, finger-shredding strings.
Stealing Sheep - Tangled Up In Stars
I'm not sure if this clip quite does Emily Lansley justice but go see the Sheepies live for proof that Emily's stratocasting is up there with the best.
Big Star - You Get What You Deserve
One of my favourite songs on one of my favourite albums and stratty as owt.
Shalamar - A Night To Remember
I have no idea whether this is actually a strat but if I was going to try and replicate this sound, you know which guitar I'd reach for.
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches
Back to Adrian Belew, this time with Talking Heads, who were a very stratty band - wiry and brittle and funky. The recorded version is probably more stray-centric but this is definitely worth watching.
Old Fears is released this week on Memphis Industries.
School Of Language have the following shows booked:
April 7th – Newcastle, The Cluny
April 10th – Paris, Point Ephemere
April 22th – Bristol, Exchange
April 23th – London, The Lexington
April 25th – Glasgow, Broadcast
April 26th – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
April 28th – Manchester, Deaf Institute


text: 8000 Series 48″ (121.9 cm) 23 HP Kohler® Command Pro EFI 747cc Engine.The rear-discharge deck lets you trim on either side while keeping flower beds and walkways clipping-free. And the high-capacity collection system helps extend mowing time. With ground speeds up to 7 mph, the 8000 Series is the answer for a perfect cut in less time.

subset: commoncrawl


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First Look: 'NCIS' Says Good-bye to Ziva
Cote de Pablo announced in July that she would be leaving NCIS after eight years and now you can get the first look at Ziva's swan song, the eleventh season premiere, titled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
RELATED - Why Cote de Pablo Left NCIS
"I've had 8 great years with NCIS and Ziva David. I have huge respect and affection for Mark, Gary, Michael, David, Rocky, Pauley, Brian, Sean, all of the team and CBS," Pablo told ET in a statement. "I look forward to finishing Ziva's story."
Although from the look of things, it might not be a happy ending for Tony and Ziva...
NCIS premieres September 24 on CBS.


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Yesterday Marlboro Man and I ran to the big city to shop for his mom and grandma, to pick up a couple of last-minute things for the kids, and to be alone together and have one-on-one conversation without our four precious children, our hungry, demanding cattle herd, or our two malodorous Basset Hounds needing something. And we didn't "run" to the big city, we drove, which brings me to my point: part of the topic of conversation in Marlboro Man's pickup was our new wintertime plan—which is to start today—of getting out of bed at 5:00 am so that we can spend an hour working out together before the kids get up and before Marlboro Man needs to go feed cattle. This conversation began after I spent ten minutes lamenting how jiggly I am after a summer and fall of cooking constantly for my cookbook, filming two seasons of a cooking show, and discovering the joys of semi-soft unripened cheeses.
"My jeans are tight, my back fat is violent…" I said. "And I'm at the point where I either need to buy bigger jeans or do something drastic." So Marlboro Man calmly and without agreeing with my back fat lamentations, which is why I'll keep him, laid out his prescription of early morning exercise, and committed to joining me in my new fitness regimen so I wouldn't have to go it alone. Of course, he didn't empathize much. He is chiseled out of granite and weighs the same as he did when he was seventeen. Not that I'm complaining. Granite's my favorite.
Two-thirds of the way to the big city, I asked Marlboro Man to pull off the highway and stop at a very busy convenience store so that I could get some coffee. I'm nursing an upper respiratory infection and had been feeling a little draggy, plus the conversation about my getting up at five to work out for an hour really wore me out. So we both went into the convenience store: Marlboro Man headed to the refrigerated case to get a can (not a bottle, as bottles don't taste right) of Dr Pepper and I headed to the coffee area to fill a large cup with the nectar of life.
It took me awhile to fill my cup because this particular convenience store has a beautiful run of coffee options. You can get French Roast, Columbia Roast, Breakfast Blend, Kona Blend…not to mention all sorts of little squirts of flavor and shots of different forms of cream. I want this coffee area in my house, is what I'm saying. So I stood there and decanted, squirted and decanted some more until I had a great big ol' cup of beautiful convenience store coffee that was likely extremely caloric but I only had one more day before my new exercise program so I figured I'd go out with a bang.
I headed toward the register. I could see Marlboro Man standing there waiting for me so he could pay for his Dr Pepper and my coffee together because he's chivalrous that way, and because he has never known me to have a single dollar of cash on my person. The store was packed with other patrons, because it's a choice location on a busy highway and because it's an incredibly nice convenience store that offers many coffee choices, many wiener/hot dog choices…and doughnuts. Along my journey to the front of the store, I passed the very large, very impressive and beautiful glass doughnut case and was accosted by a very large, very crisp-and-sweet-looking apple fritter on the top shelf. It tapped me on the shoulder, then it reached out its long, evil fingers and said "Come…come to me."
Without thinking, I removed an individual square of paper from the dispenser and reached for the knob of the window that was separating me from the apple fritter. I say without thinking because I somehow had completely pushed the entire conversation I'd just had with Marlboro Man about my back fat out of my consciousness. Or if it was at all in my consciousness, I must have rationalized it by reminding myself that I only had one more day to party before my 5 a.m. boot camp began, or even that apple fritters are actually a healthy doughnut option. They have fruit in them, after all.
I pulled the knob to the right, thinking the door would slide to open, but it met with a tiny bit of resistance. I had Christmas shopping on my mind—what size top I should get Edna Mae and how I wanted to find a perfume counter and sniff all the men's cologne—so I inexplicably pulled backward on the knob, possibly thinking that the door opened by flipping up rather than sliding over. Then, suddenly, a horrible sound crashed through the heavily trafficked convenience store when the entire tempered glass front of the beautiful doughnut case shattered into thirteen million tiny, sparkly pieces. The sound was deafening and seemed to happen in slow motion, as if a house of glass sitting on a frozen lake had fallen down wall by wall. I stood there in shock, not knowing what to do. Glass was everywhere: in the doughnuts, on the floor, in the adjacent sandwich case, in my boots, into which I'd tucked my jeans. And the small stainless knob was still in my hand.
Customers ran over to see what had happened, my husband among them. And when he saw me standing there in the middle of a sea of tempered glass, a small knob in my hand, the now-exposed array of doughnuts right in front of me, and a look of horror and confusion on my face, he had but two questions for me:
"Are you okay?
"What happened?"
"I wanted a doughnut."
By now the manager, assistant manager, cashier, assistant cashier, and probably all their friends and relatives had rushed over to the scene. The manager wanted to first make sure I was okay.
"Ma'am, are you okay?" the nice gentleman said. "You're not hurt, are you?"
Still holding the knob, I answered, "Yes. My pride is hurt. It is badly, badly injured."
But other than that, I told him, I was totally fine, and may I please borrow a broom and a shop vac so I can whisk all this away and pretend it never happened? I noticed a woman out of the corner of my eye. She had her hand over her mouth.
"Oh, we'll take care of it," the manager said. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay."
"I'm absolutely fine," I insisted. "I am so, so sorry. I don't know what happened. One minute I was reaching for an apple fritter…the next minute…" I shook my head in disbelief.
"It's perfectly okay, ma'am," he reassured me. "This has actually happened once before."
I immediately felt better. I'm not the only person who'd shattered the doughnut case at this convenience store. All was suddenly better now. But then I did something I can't explain. I instinctively began reaching for the apple fritter. I don't think I actually had any control over this action. I didn't logically believe I should get the apple fritter; I think it was a desperate attempt to just carry on and pretend the whole thing hadn't happened. Or maybe I really just wanted a doughnut.
That's when the assistant manager stepped in. "Oh, ma'am…you can't have a doughnut now," she said.
I know she was just trying to protect my gastrointestinal tract from glass shards, but at the time she said it I felt like a little girl who had just been grounded from round, delightful yeast treats. It took me a minute to realize she was just gently reminding me not to hurt myself. My face felt hot.
After several minutes of offering to help clean up and insisting on paying for the broken glass and trying to figure out what country I was going to move to once I left the store, I finally made my way to the counter so that Marlboro Man could finally pay for my coffee. But when we got there, the cashier held up his hand and said, "Don't worry about it—no charge." I think he wanted me to leave as soon as humanly possible.
When we got in Marlboro Man's pickup and continued on our trip to the big city, I looked at Marlboro Man, who had a look on his face that I'll never be able to describe. It was the look of a husband who is married to a complete klutz who complains about her tight jeans then stops at a convenience store and shatters a doughnut case while trying to retrieve an apple fritter. It was the look of a husband who has seen his wife fall down, run into doors, use the wrong remote control to change channels on the TV, and wear her black leggings inside out for an entire day without knowing. It was the look of a husband who had just filed another incident into his vault of similar moments…and who couldn't wait to remind me of it the next time we're driving together and I say I want to pull over and get coffee.
"You're…funny," he said, reaching over and squeezing my knee, which made me squeal.
Then we continued to the city and went Christmas shopping.
As for lessons I learned from this incident, I took away two:
1. That's what I get for trying to eat a doughnut.
2. I'm never leaving the house again.
I hope you all have a joyful day. Merry Christmas Eve Eve!
Pioneer Woman


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Transition ScheduleToday we are announcing more details on the transition of Application Insights from the VSO portal to the Azure portal. On October 15, 2015 Application Insights in the VSO portal will move to a read-only mode. It will not accept new data from the MMA agent or our telemetry SDKs and no longer execute webtests configured in the VSO portal. You will still be able to use Application Insights in the VSO portal to view data collected prior to October 15. Application Insights in the VSO portal will be retired on November 30, 2015. NOTE: If you have not already done so, now is the time to move your applications from Application Insights in the VSO portal to Application Insights in the Azure portal.
How do I transition my applications to use Application Insights in the Azure portal?The process of transitioning your application is documented here in detail. The primary steps for an ASP.NET app are:
- Get a subscription to Microsoft Azure, so you can login to https://portal.azure.com.
- Remove the old SDK from your application. Delete the NuGet packages, delete ApplicationInsights.config, and delete our scripts from your web pages.
- Add the new SDK. In Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 or later, right-click your web app project and choose Add Application Insights. Build your app. If your code used the old API, you'll need to update to the new API.
- Run in debug mode and view data on the new portal: right-click your project and choose Open Application Insights Portal.
- In the portal, click Usage and follow the instructions to add scripts to your web pages. Click Availability to set up web tests:
Understanding Application Insights in the Azure portalTo further ease the transition, we have created a series of short videos to explain how you can use the Application Insights experience in the Azure portal to achieve the same tasks you did using the VSO portal. The specific videos are:
- How to monitor your application's usage?
- How to understand your application's performance?
- How to monitor your application's availability?
- How to use alerting?
- How to search your app's diagnostic log data?
- What do we have in the Azure portal for dashboards?
- How do SDKs change in moving to the Azure Portal version of Application Insights?


text: Most children have carefree, uneventful childhoods. They are doing not experience daily life altering activities. Sadly though, you can find those youngsters who have got unfavorable emotionally charged encounters that can keep them emotionally damaged for life. These are the children who get help from kid psychologists. Little one psychologists have the practice and power… Continue reading Child Psychologist


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HI and thanks for reading,
I'm fairly new to c programming and I'm hung up.
I have a c program written in Red Hat 7.2 and I would like that program to open a new terminal window and run a program in that new terminal window.
Does anybody have an idea how I could do this?


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Obama supporters leaving an Obama event at Ohio State University, were asked by Revealing Politics' Caleb Bonham what they thought of the so-called "obstructionist" politics of the Republicans.
Many of the Obama supporters blamed Republicans and denounced obstructionist tactics. The most ardent activists called for Republicans to cross the isle and help enact Obama's economic and social policies.
However, when the tables were turned, the interviewees were not so quick to advocate bipartisanship if it meant Democrats helping Republicans enact Mitt Romney's economic and social policies. In fact, many of those interviewed advocated for obstructionism. Go figure.
The mind-blowing hypocrisy that is caught on tape is just too delicious for words….


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As an Army officer, Maj. Stephen D. Carey has served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. In his spare time, he fights a different kind of battle, one that rages in the apocalyptic 41st millennium. The distant future would be a terrifying realm for a mere mortal, what with all the Necrons, Tyranids, and Tau on the loose. To survive the war-torn galaxy, Carey enlists the help of marauding, green-skinned Orks. He also presides over an Imperial Guard army, because some days, defending mankind is more fun than trying to destroy it.
This is the intricate, intense world of Warhammer 40,000, a tabletop war game played with hand-painted, miniature figurines. Warhammer 40,000, which its devotees call 40K, first hit shelves in 1987 and is the product of Games Workshop, a British corporation whose influence extends far beyond the United Kingdom. Around 70 percent of the company's sales come from abroad, and the retailer has 86 official stores in North America alone.
What kind of people stage make-believe wars with armloads of Space Marines? A lot of the time, it's real Marines. Games Workshop's U.S.-based outreach manager estimates that 20 to 25 percent of Games Workshop's American customers are active members of the military. If you include veterans, she says, that number jumps to about 40 percent. "The bottom line is, there are nerds everywhere," Carey explains. "I've been an infantryman for 20 years. I'm no stranger to fighting. But I'm a total nerd."
Warhammer 40,000's geeky shell hides a militaristic soul. I spent a recent afternoon watching 40K at the Northern Virginia home of Mike Brandt, an attorney who runs one of the country's biggest annual Warhammer conventions, the NOVA Open. The atmosphere at Brandt's place was like an Ork-themed poker night—guys smoked cigars, drank beer, and instead of talking trash, gossiped about 40K's new edition. The fast-paced, one-on-one matchups were contested on 6-by-4-foot pieces of wood. Each player served as his own general, controlling model soldiers, tanks, and futuristic aircraft with dice rolls. (Since there are no defined spaces, tape measures—like this skull-shaped one—were used to determine how far pieces moved.)
The game is essentially Risk but with Dark Eldar and Chaos Daemons. "It's like playing chess with toy soldiers and using a textbook for rules," says former Marine Samuel Corum, a combat photographer who served two tours of duty in Iraq.
Corum isn't exaggerating. The 40K Rulebook is 452 pages long. Each set of characters has a 100-page manual that explains its back story, abilities, and point values. The 40K wiki describes the Orks as being "dominated by the WAAAGH!, a gestalt psychic field they generate that affects the Ork psyche, which allows Orks to instinctively recognize who is 'bigga', and therefore who is in charge, since might makes right in Ork society."
In 40K, though, mythology is less important than victory. "My whole goal is to kill you," explains Charles Pope, a former Army sergeant. "I don't want prisoners." And when you're playing with another service member, that kill-or-be-killed attitude is A-OK. "It's a lot more fun to play games with servicemen because they have an ingrained sense of rules; they don't complain about them," says Neil Gilstrap, who co-hosts the 40K-centric podcast The 11th Company. They also enjoy flexing their strategic muscles. "How the mechanics of the game work, how to put together the best army, what units function the best," Carey says, ticking off military skills that translate to 40K. "[The game] satisfies the inner tactician in a lot of soldiers."
40K may not be a true simulation of armed conflict, but it's part of a centuries-long tradition of war games. After World War II, U.S. Navy Adm. Chester W. Nimitz credited gaming for helping the Allies prepare. "The war with Japan had been re-enacted in the game rooms here by so many people and in so many different ways," he said, "that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise—absolutely nothing except the kamikaze tactics towards the end of the war; we had not visualized those."
Elements of gaming are still present in modern warfare. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Carey served as an operations officer (an S3, to be exact) for an infantry battalion. His responsibilities included developing battle plans from the tactical operations center. "In the movies when you see the room/tent with all the maps, projection screens, and radios with guys moving icons around on a map board—that's the TOC," he said in an email. "In a way, running a TOC is as close to hobby war gaming as it gets in the military."
The hobby side of war gaming didn't really begin until 1913, with H.G. Wells' publication of Little Wars, a plan for "a game for boys from 12 years of age to 150 and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books." In it, the English author lays out rules for a strategic version of toy soldiers—the number of moves required "to pass a fordable river," "to embark into boats," and "to unlimber guns." Over the course of the last century, more tabletop war games sprouted. In January 1965, Sports Illustrated devoted a lengthy feature to men who waged war with historically accurate miniature troops. "We think the war game is superior to chess," one of the dedicated hobbyists explained. "After all, chess is played on a board that never varies, with the same amount of men every time. But the variations on war games are limited only by your imagination."
The iconic Dungeons & Dragons entered the fray in 1974 and shifted traditional war games in the direction of role playing. D&D players choose characters and go on adventures together. Games are open-ended and participants gain experience points that carry over to future sessions. Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which came out in 1983, borrowed from D&D's Tolkien-esque imagery but focused more on one-off, army-against-army clashes. Warhammer 40,000 built on its still-popular predecessor's aggressiveness but added a darker futuristic setting, advanced weaponry, and more violence. Consider Games Workshop's description of "the tabletop battlegame of the far future":
The 41st Millennium is a savage future age where Mankind must battle for survival in a galaxy riven by bloodshed and destruction. Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, assailed on all sides by aliens, traitors and Daemons, and only the superhuman strength of the Space Marines and the uncountable numbers of the Imperial Guard stand between the slavering alien hordes and total annihilation.
For service members, the game's appeal goes beyond basic competition. Corum spent a chunk of the last decade living in a meticulously regimented world. Everything, including his uniform and hairline, was heavily scrutinized. "There's an inherent attention to detail that a lot of good soldiers and Marines have," he says. That also applies to 40K. The majority of playable pieces are 1-inch models that must be painstakingly assembled and hand-painted. (The figurines can cost upward of $20 a pop and are sometimes called "plastic crack.") A particularly dedicated artist can spend 30 hours working on a single figurine, making sure to dab a perfectly round black dot in the middle of a white eyeball.
"I'm not fast at [painting]," Army Sgt. Steffan McBee, who's currently deployed in Afghanistan, said in an email, "But it's calming"—and more intellectually stimulating than what he could be doing. "Everyone knows guys need stress relief. And as I tell my wife, [Warhammer] keeps me off the streets and out of the bars."
McBee doesn't often struggle to find a game—his 600-plus person unit includes 13 regular 40K players. He's also managed to come up with a system to play without miniatures, on grid paper, in case he's stuck without his figurines. To him, the game's appeal is pretty simple. "It's partly that it's a battle that we actually have control over," McBee said. "Part of it is imagining the battle as it plays out as the dice decide the fate of your models. I have a very vivid imagination."


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I am very sad to report that my cousin Pete passed away on July 11, 2017. Regular readers of this blog may recognize Pete's name—his full name was Arthur George Scott, but he was born Arthur George Seligman. Pete was my father's second cousin, and I found him several years back when I was researching my Seligman(n) family line.
Connecting with Pete was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had while researching my family history. Pete was fascinated by history and was extremely knowledgeable about the history of his hometown, Santa Fe, and about our family's contribution to the history of that city. Because of Pete's extensive background and incredible generosity, I was able to learn a great deal about our American Seligman history. And I was able to share with him my delight in learning about our German ancestors and relatives. He quickly became a friend as well as a cousin.
Pete was the great-grandson of Bernard Seligman, who, along with his brothers Sigmund and Adolf, traveled the Santa Fe Trail in the 1850s and helped to establish Santa Fe as an important trading post. Their store Seligman Brothers was on the main plaza in Santa Fe for close to eighty years.
Pete's grandfather was Arthur Seligman, the governor of New Mexico from 1931 until his death in office in 1933. I wrote extensively about Arthur Seligman on the blog, as well as about Pete's father Otis Seligman; without Pete's help, I would not have been able to learn and share as much as I did about the contributions the Seligmans made to American history.
Pete and his dear friend Mike Lord along with several others also created and contributed to a historical website called Voces de Santa Fe. If you enter Arthur Scott or Pete Scott into the search box there, you can see some of the incredible work Pete did, researching and writing about not only his family's history, but also the general history of Santa Fe and the region. I relied on Voces for many of my stories about the Seligmans and early Santa Fe.
Pete was very proud of his family history, as well he should have been. Pete inherited the pioneer spirit of his great-grandfather Bernard and the commitment to public service of both his great-grandfather and his grandfather and namesake Arthur Seligman. Rather than try and write a biography of Pete myself, I am including in this post the beautiful obituary written by Pete's daughter, Terri. Thank you, Terri, for allowing me to share this.
A Life Well Lived, Loved, and Learned
Arthur George Scott (Seligman), also known as Pete and Art, aged 79, last residing in Bradenton, FL, died on July 11, 2017 at home, in his sleep due to many complications from a lifetime of Type I Diabetes.
He was born on January 27, 1938 to Doris Seligman (Gardiner) and Otis Seligman in Santa Fe, NM. He was given his stepfather's last name of Scott in 1943 after his father passed away when Pete was just starting public school in Santa Fe.
While obtaining his BS in Civil Engineering from New Mexico State University, he married his first wife Marilyn Bicksler. After participating in ROTC and graduating from NM State University, he provided service to the US Army as a Lieutenant, giving education to many younger recruits during the late 1950's Cold War. After providing his service to the United States, he grew his hair long and never cut it short again; he added a beard and mustache for good measure.
He acquired Type I Diabetes just out of the US Army, while beginning a lifetime career in the United States Geological Survey. Lucky to survive the diabetic coma that announced a new path in his life, Pete moved forward and never gave up.
He loved his career and work friends at USGS in Santa Fe, NM, surveying rivers and dealing with Diamondback Rattle Snakes in the desert. And at USGS in Reston, VA, he travelled and wrote hydrologic journal papers on rivers and lakes from the Clinch River Valley to Canada/US Great Lakes, and to Brazil educating on water resources. He called it "The best job in the world". Part of that "best job" involved a lot of travel, which he relished and he learned from the people in every society, city, or country he visited.
Pete inspired all of his creativity, scientific knowledge and self-sufficiency to his children, Terri and Janice. They remember his paintings, remodeling of the house, and collecting NM historical artifacts. Terri and Janice closely followed in his footsteps of science and creativity.
In 1980, while living in Reston, VA he met and married his current, devoted, and loving wife, Bonnie Sharpless Scott. Their marriage was 37 years strong. They spent many exciting and tumultuous times, helping to raise two teenagers, travelling, working, playing, and loving. Bonnie, a professional hairdresser, always took care of trimming Pete's hair and beard to ultimate perfection. Now, that's true love. Their travels were magical from the Galapagos Islands seeing Darwin's creatures, to Africa viewing Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro, and hanging in Jamaica getting dreadlocks, and onto Thailand appreciating the majesty of nature, then sailing in the Caribbean, as well as a Brazilian cruise up the Amazon River.
Pete leaves behind many people, including his two daughters, Terri and Janice; Janice and husband Matthew's children, Alexander and Wesley; Terri and husband Jeffrey's children, Joshua and Nicholas; his niece, Jhette Diamond; and most significantly, his wife, Bonnie. In addition, Pete leaves behind very favored pets, including dogs: Koda II, Sunny, and Tipper, plus birds: Bubba, Tico, and Cisco. And very importantly, he leaves behind a legacy and brilliant history with many extended family and friends.
Type I Diabetes was a major obstacle in Pete's life, as well as his family's lives. He kept all his limbs, but lost most of his eyesight, most of the use of his hands, and his legs were very painful and eventually lost function, at which point he had to accept a wheel chair, all due to Diabetic peripheral neuropathy. However, he never gave up hope and learning. His last days were spent with Bonnie making cigar box guitars, and learning to play slide guitar blues.
If you would like to help his family heal from the loss of Pete, please learn everything you can about Type I Diabetes and feel free to make a donation to the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) or your local chapter of The Lighthouse for the Blind. We only ask this, in Pete's name and memory, so that young people who have no choice and acquire this disease can live better and longer lives than Pete was allowed.
I will miss Pete very much; although we had long ago finished our collaboration on the family history, we had stayed in touch. In March, 2016, while in Florida, Harvey and I traveled to Bradenton, Florida, and had a very enjoyable and interesting evening with Pete and his beloved wife Bonnie. We met their dogs and parrots and shared stories about our lives and our history. I feel so very fortunate that we were able to spend that time together. Here is a photo I took when we were together.
My heart goes out to Pete's family—his wife Bonnie, his daughters Terri and Janice, and his grandchildren. May his memory be a blessing for his family and for all of us who knew him.


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Virginia is poised to change its law to require that women who seek an abortion have to have an ultrasound. Sound harmless? Well, it's a transvaginal ultrasound. Which means penetration. Here's how it works. (WARNING: Extremely NSFW image to follow.)
Virginia is poised to change its laws to require any woman who seeks an abortion to have something called a transvaginal ultrasound. That's an ultrasound probe that takes place by having a wand inserted into the vagina. Because a woman's consent is not required, and doctors would not be able to opt-out, some are labeling this rape.
To some extent, this is a gadget story. Because the procedure in question is, very much, dependent on a very specific type of device, a transvaginal ultrasound probe. And the thing is, when you see one of these devices, or even a rendering of how it works, it all seems a little abstract.
So, it's useful to see the device being used as it would be in a clinical setting. As you can with the image below, which shows it in use on a mannequin designed to train technicians how to use a transvaginal ultrasound.
Is this invasive? You tell me.
[BluePhantom via Tim Dicknson]


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Salinas' Chinatown braces for homeless sweep
At 8 a.m. Thursday, Salinas public works crews and police officers will do a sweep of Chinatown and all homeless residents will be forced to leave.
Several dozen homeless men and women who live on colorful Soledad Street must take their belongings and clear out. Whatever is left behind will be thrown away.
PHOTOS: What Chinatown looked like Wednesday
Sweeps are conducted three times a year in Chinatown because, according to city officials, homeless residents create a public health hazard in Salinas' version of Skid Row. While some Central Coast residents described the drug-plagued and blighted area as "horrific," others call it home.
On Wednesday morning, homeless residents said they will shift to a new neighborhood because the city has not provided a shelter.
"When you have nothing to begin with, losing everything is really depressing. It sucks the wind out of your sails," homeless resident Danny Olf said. "It really just seems they don't care. They don't even consider us as people."
City Public Works Director Gary Petersen said he realizes people will return to Chinatown after the sweep, however, the streets must be cleaned up.
"We know this is not a problem that goes away, but we do have responsibility to manage it to the best of our ability and public health and safety is our top goal," he said.
Petersen said everyone in the neighborhood was alerted ahead of time and any homeless person seen using a shopping cart to move their belongings will be cited.
PHOTOS: What Chinatown looked like Wednesday


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Here's an awesomely creative example of being resourceful: a Star Wars fan built a Stormtrooper helmet out of two milk jugs. Yes, that helmet in the picture was made with those plastic milk gallons in your fridge right now.
The full instructions are available over on his site but the gist of it was rather simple. He used an exacto knife to cut out specific pieces of the milk jug and a hot glue gun to put it all together. Some spray paint and a sharpie finished up the project, leaving him with the best bang for your buck Star Wars helmet available. I wonder how he would make Darth Vader. [Filth Wizardry]


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Everyday we Make Compromises in the Face of Privacy, and None of us Have as Much Privacy as we Want.
As soon as I woke up this morning my privacy was compromised. My Android phone has GPS enabled so that the phone, and any widget on it, can determine my geolocation. I am pretty careful about checking the permissions on the widgets I install, but not everyone is, and even I am capable of making errors. My daughter was once checking permissions on a screen saver and found that the "coarse location" was one of the permissions requested. Can you imagine a single valid reason that a screen saver would need your location?
Neither could I.
Go Google "TaintDroid" for all the gory details, but a joint study by Intel Labs, Penn State, and Duke University reviewed 30 "popular" widgets. 15 of those widgets were found to gather and send users' geolocation information to remote advertising servers, and seven sent phone identifier information, including the phone number and SIM card serial numbers to developers. A small sample size, but the percentages are staggering.
After breakfast, it was time for me to travel so I got in my car and drove downtown. Simple enough, right? Except for my car's OnStar system. Although I let the free subscription run out after my first year, according to OnStar they are working out details to monitor the system even if I am no longer a subscriber. As it is, OnStar has the ability to track geolocation of my car at any time, as well as gather diagnostic information, including the speeds at which I have been driving my vehicle. According to OnStar they can share that information with law enforcement, credit card processors, and others – apparently I agreed to this when I signed my initial OnStar agreement. Hmm. I must have missed that paragraph. You can opt out of all data collection, but you have to contact OnStar directly yourself.
As I got downtown, I drove through an intersection that was monitored by a red-light camera. I am not sure that I like the idea of automated systems taking my picture, but since the light was green it theoretically did not take any pictures of me. But, these are the same types of cameras that reported a photograph of a friend running a red light, while that friend was actually out of town and his car was parked at the airport parking garage. Just sayin'…
I got downtown way easier than I had thought – thinking "better 30 minutes early than a minute late" had gotten me there 45 minutes before my meeting, so I stopped for coffee first. I opened my iPad at the coffee shop, and checked up on email and local news. I chuckled about the fact that the coffee shop had four wireless networks available. Although I knew that the one labeled "free internet access" was not the shop's wireless network, I wondered how many of the other 20 or so people in the coffee shop had picked that one since it was the first one in the list of available networks. I connected to email via https session. If you have not read anything about wireshark (or fireshark for Firefox) you should. A person with malevolent intent can use wireshark to sniff your wireless packets, and grab cookies and other information from out of the air. You could, for instance, be logged onto Facebook, and they can sniff your authentication cookies, and use your Facebook account, effectively impersonating you, and Facebook would have no idea. That is, unless you have enabled "secure browsing," so you can connect to Facebook through an https connection. Did you know, the "s" means that it is encrypted, and thus protected from sniffing? Enable this at account settings/security/secure browsing after you log onto Facebook.
I then drove into the parking garage, and found it interesting that they had a camera mounted above the ticket dispenser. From that angle and distance they could get clear images of both my license plate and my face as I took the ticket. Deep down I know this shouldn't mean anything, but it made me feel like I should be covering my license and face.
The company I met with was using facial recognition for authentication to access their high security areas. I thought it was pretty cool, but it made me think of other facial recognition tools like Recognizr or AugmentedID by the Astonishing Tribe, or the MORIS system used by law enforcement. MORIS (Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System) uses fingerprint and facial recognition software on an iPhone in conjunction with a fingerprint reader and the iPhone's camera to identify someone in law enforcement databases. AugmentedID will let you take a picture of someone with your phone, and the app will search its database for a matching face. It seems like this is only a small step away from being able to search Facebook and other Social Media for matching photos, potentially matching a stranger to their social accounts, identifying the person by name, all based on a picture. This is coming—it's only a matter of time. Stalker heaven is on its way.
After my meeting, I stopped at the store and picked up the newest X-Men movie that had just come out on blu-ray. During the purchase, the clerk asked for my zip code. Ostensibly, the purpose of the zip code would be to help authorize my credit card, but in reality, the zip code is most likely used in combination with my identifying information from my credit card, and matched with my name/address and my purchase. Maybe they are not using my credit card details, but that doesn't mean they aren't pulling my name off the card. The retailer then has this information available for additional marketing efforts, including targeted ads, as well as selling the information to other retailers. Now, if the consumer's name is "Bill Smith" the retailer may have a hard time finding that address, but with a name like mine it is a piece of cake. Personally, I politely declined to give up my zip code – all three times I was asked for it. For reference, in California it is now illegal for a retailer to ask for your zip code with most credit card purchases.
Then I stopped for groceries since we did not have everything for supper (coffee blackened steak with Cabernet reduction and rosemary-thyme roasted potatoes). I paid for everything on the fingerprint reader at the register that is tied to my credit card information on file at the store. So, yes, the grocery store has my credit card information and records of all my grocery purchases, along with my name and address.
Now, if I had an iPhone, I might worry about the detailed geolocation data that Apple is storing on my device – for as long as a year originally, but limited to a week in an update. The issue is that the device still gathers and stores the information locally. By all appearances, the information never leaves the phone, and is only used by your phone, on your phone. But that assumes we don't have any Apple Apps looking for this information and passing it on like we already know is done by some Android widgets.
After groceries, I stopped for a drink, and my friend checked us in with Foursquare. Easy enough, he updated his location with his own phone. The good news about Foursquare is that it does not actively track your location. You have to explicitly "check-in". Now, that didn't stop him from checking in with me. It made me wonder if law enforcement officials watch things like Foursquare to help identify parties that may include considerable consumption of alcoholic beverages. I think I would. Since I was behind the wheel, I enjoyed my soda and drove home – drinking and driving is not my thing:
Jon H. in Minneapolis
Not enjoying my stay @ Hennepin County lockup
Facebook did away with "Places" but they still support location services with features that let you share "Where you've been," "Where you are now," and "Where you're going." By default, Facebook locations are turned on for all posts, but you can turn them off at any time. Using geolocation features like those from Foursquare and Facebook are completely voluntary, and you have control over whether you share anything at all. You are in control, but you have to exercise that control, since you can also define who has access to see your location information. If you leave your viewable information as "Public", be aware that anyone who has access to your posts can see where you are, as in "not home." At this point you should go check out PleaseRobMe.com, if you have not done so already.
My friend also checked me in with Facebook. Note that, by default, your Facebook account is configured to allow someone else to post your location. You can limit this by turning on "Profile (Timeline) Review." This will let you approve or reject posts in which you have been tagged before they go on your timeline. Unfortunately, I had not changed my settings since Facebook's latest update, so, yes, I also had my location posted up on Facebook as well, that I was at a pub with a senior employee of my one of my company's competitors – like I really wanted that obvious. While, technically, sharing my geolocation information is voluntary, the only reason I really shared it was because I had not yet changed the default settings.
Some of my privacy concerns are small, and some are larger. Some are personal preference. My point is that everyday, all day, we make compromises in the face of privacy, and that, in reality, probably none of us have as much privacy as we want.
And, by the way, the coffee-blackened steak was delicious.
Related Reading: Facebook vs. Privacy – What You Can do to Protect Your Privacy
Related Reading: Got Android? Some Considerations on Permissions and Security
Related Reading: Data Collection Debate: FTC Privacy Measures Could Impact IT Security


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I have a dream of knowing the names of all the people in the photos in my pink velvet DeFries album. Every so often I pull out the photos and go hunting for more clues. Such was the case this weekend.
According to my great aunt Bertha McDonald nee Brown this album belonged to her maternal grandmother, Maria (Mary) Brown nee DeFries. Sadly very few of them are identified.
One of the photo's handwritten note says "Mae McNeal my sister". There are two other photos that seem to have been taken at the same time and in similar handwriting one of them says "James B. Yohe my brother in law". The photo of the young boy has no notes on it and he appears to have the same tie and pin as James Yohe. [Update January 2, 2014: a McNeal researcher has the same photo of the young boy and on the back of her picture someone wrote in pencil – "Brother Trumie" and in ink "Truman McNeal Dad's Brother."]
My database doesn't show that Mary Brown nee DeFries had a sister named Mae McNeal nor is there anyone with the surname of McNeal or Yohe. My first question was if these three photos are connected then did Mae McNeal marry James Yohe?
In fact Clara May McNeal (b. in Illinois in 1862) married James B Yohe (b. 1857 in Ohio) probably near Marengo, Iowa about 1880. According to the 1885 Iowa census Truman McNeal was living with his sister and her husband.
Marengo County, Iowa is a location where the DeFries/Brown family lived so that matches many of the photos in the album.
Now my next question, was McNeal May's maiden name? After some searching I did find that May's parents were Charles McNeal and Mary Percival. So, it was her maiden name.
In what ways could May McNeal be a sister to Mary DeFries? Or could she be the sister of Mary's spouse or siblings? The various options seemed endless but I began the search for May and James Yohe.
May's father, Charles was a teamster. James' father, Jacob, was a shoemaker. James had a variety of jobs through the years including photographer as well as a laborer at a stone quarry while in Nebraska. It seemed mostly he was a laborer except in 1920 when James was not working. At that time May was a landlady "running H". There were several people near them that worked at a hotel so perhaps H stands for hotel.
In my research journey I found lots of interesting stories of May's relatives such as a really fascinating podcast about May's cousin Olive May Graves Percival, who was an author, collector and bibliophile. The podcast is by Ingrid Johnson and includes biographical information as well as readings from Olive's works. (I highly recommend clicking that link for a 30 minute diversion.)
Additionally on this quest, I discovered that the Percival line goes back to Richard Bourne (d. 1685) who were some of the first inhabitants of Sandwich, Massachusetts and descendants of the Mayflower. All of this is really fascinating information that would be even more pertinent if I could figure out how May Yohe nee McNeal ties into the DeFries/Brown line.
I suppose the person who wrote the notes on these photos could have been a friend rather than a family member. I made a chart of the families' migration to see if that helped give me any insight on another direction to go in my hunt.
I also noted that of the 56 photos in the album 36 have location identifiers and here is the breakdown by locations:
- 1 San Diego, California
- 1 Chicago, Illinois
- 2 Sterling, Illinois
- 2 Albia, Iowa
- 1 Carson, Iowa
- 17 Council Bluffs, Iowa
- 1 Oskaloosa, Iowa
- 1 Council Grove, Kansas
- 7 Omaha, Nebraska
- 1 Wilsonville, Nebraska
- 1 Enid, Oklahoma
As you can see the migration pattern and the locations of the photos has some overlap. I'm just not sure what my next steps are to determine how the McNeal/Yohe family ties in with the DeFries/Brown family. If you have information to assist me I would love to hear from you. For now, my dream is still a dream.


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ERBIL, Iraq, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Turkey, its eyes on becoming the pivotal energy hub between East and West, is set to increase its presence in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish enclave by taking a majority stake with a British partner in a block containing an estimated 10.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
That's likely to have considerable political ramifications that are certain to strain already awkward relations between Ankara and Baghdad, and intensify the deterioration of relations between Iraq's central government and the independence-minded Kurds.
The Middle East Economic Digest reports that Genel Energy, a British-Turkish joint venture, will acquire the majority stake in Kurdistan's Miran block from the London-listed Heritage Oil which is selling off its 49 percent holding in a production-sharing deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Once the sale is approved by the KRG and Heritage's shareholders, Genel will have complete ownership of the block and be its only operator.
The joint venture also has nine exploration blocks across Kurdistan, one of 40-plus companies which have signed production-sharing deals with the KRG in the Kurdish capital, Erbil, since 2007.
The Turkish involvement will be particularly galling to Baghdad because Ankara has in recent months made a high-profile move into the KRG's energy sector in defiance of Baghdad's insistence such deals are illegal as constitutionally only Baghdad can sanction such agreements.
Ankara recently offered land-locked Kurdistan, which borders southern Turkey, to build oil and gas pipelines from the enclave, which spans three provinces in northern Iraq, to Turkey's Mediterranean export terminals.
At present, the Kurds have to pump the oil they produce through the state pipeline network controlled by Baghdad.
That export route would free the Kurds from reliance on the Baghdad government, and undoubtedly heighten their aspirations to establish an independent state in northern Iraq.
They've already risked Baghdad's wrath by signing exploration deals with major international companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron of the United States and Total of France.
All these companies had secured production-sharing contracts from Baghdad to develop major fields and their defection to the Kurds and the more lucrative contracts they are offering was a major political humiliation for the trouble-plagued government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Baghdad needs the companies to make massive investments in southern fields to boost production from the current 3 million barrels per day to 10 million-12 million bpd to challenge Saudi Arabia as the world's leading producer.
Baghdad's stiff contract conditions, low financial returns, governmental ineptitude and delays in building the required infrastructure have alienated Big Oil.
But Iraq's entire reconstruction and economic plans depend on the large-scale -- many say overly ambitious -- expansion of oil production.
Kurdistan sits on 45 billion barrels of oil. That's a fraction of Iraq's known reserves but it's enough to establish a firm economic base for an independent state.
The KRG's current crude output is 240,000 barrels per day but it is aiming for 1 million bpd in a couple of years. Some 90 percent of Kurdish oil sales flow from the Tawke and Taq Taq fields where Genel has major interests.
So there's a lot riding on all this for both Baghdad and the KRG and the Kurds seem to be making all the running.
Maliki cannot afford to let them get away with that and thumb their noses at his government's authority. So he'll have to take some unequivocal action on this soon, if only to stamp on the Kurds' long-held dream of independence and to convince other regions, including the south, that have been talking of gaining more autonomy to back off.
He may have already started.
Earlier this month, Baghdad, in a reprisal against Ankara, booted out Turkey's state-owned TPAO oil company from a Kuwaiti-led consortium which was about to sign a 20-year, production-sharing agreement with the Oil Ministry for Block 9 in southern Iraq. TPAO had a 30 percent interest in that contract.
Some two-thirds of Iraq's proven oil reserves of 143.1 billion barrels lie in the south.
"TPAO also has stakes in the developments of another four fields in Iraq: the Badra and Missan oil fields, and the Mansouriya and Siba gas fields," MEED reported.
"There has been no indication whether TPAO will be removed from these."


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My Patient, My Teacher
I thought I knew a thing or two about treating illness. Then a young woman opened my eyes
En español l Every doctor goes through a transformation from physician to healer. In medical school, we memorize and regurgitate information; as interns and residents, we strain to learn every new procedure. As young doctors, we keep patients at arm's length and try simply to cure them.
We can't know then what we will come to realize later in life — that our professors are just laying the brickwork, and that our real teachers are our patients.
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One such patient, Lindsay Nohr, will always stand out in my mind, not only because of her circumstances, but because she forever changed the way I practice medicine.
The year was 1999, and I was well into my career as a head and neck surgeon in San Francisco. When Lindsay first walked into my medical practice, I was immediately struck by her beauty — she was athletic, with porcelain skin and fierce, bright eyes. She also had a lump on the right side of her tongue, and unlike a canker sore or an accidental bite, it wasn't going away. This is never a good sign, but in a young person — Lindsay was 22 at the time — a cancer of the tongue can be a death sentence.
As it turned out, Lindsay indeed had tongue cancer, and I knew she was going to need surgery, radiation treatments and most likely chemotherapy. None comes without a significant downside. Take out too little of the tongue and the cancer recurs. Take out too much and a person will never speak normally again.
Radiation kills cancer cells, but it kills normal cells, too, and that meant Lindsay's flawless skin was going to become fire-poker red and be painful to the touch. Most likely, chemotherapy would bring on nausea and vomiting, cause her hair to fall out and make her feel like hell.
Lindsay sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, then turned and asked me a question I wasn't expecting: "Will any of this interfere with my chances of having a family later?"
Having a family? Had she been listening?
She was unmarried, was facing a formidable challenge, and she didn't know what I knew. The week before we met, a report in a medical journal had addressed the dismal survival rates for young people with mouth and tongue cancer who didn't have any other cancer risks. The journal could just as well have had Lindsay's picture on the cover.
I looked directly into her eyes and said firmly: "Lindsay, I'm not concerned about the fact that you might want to have a baby in five years. I'm worried that you might not be here in five years."
She didn't even blink.
After helping her get a second opinion at one of the country's most respected cancer centers, I thought I'd never see Lindsay again. But she called several days later, crying, wanting to come home and begin the first step on her journey: aggressive radiation therapy. Although the treatment worked for a while, the cancer returned in her neck, requiring surgery, more radiation and, then, the dreaded chemotherapy.
Next page: Learning to listen to patients. »
What happened in the many weeks that followed turned my attitude about my patients — and this patient in particular — on its head.
Lindsay refused the chemotherapy until she had answers about its impact on her ability to have children. And those answers were hard to get. She met with a medical oncologist, but he knew little beyond the fact that chemo can damage ovaries. She also met with fertility experts but found they knew little about cancer treatment. The gulf between the academic towers was broad and deep, and Lindsay realized she was not the first patient to fall through the cracks.
In that moment Lindsay began her one-woman crusade to get doctors and researchers to talk to one another, with a single-minded focus on addressing the fertility concerns of cancer patients. As her doctor, all I could do was watch in amazement as this young woman began to take on the medical establishment, and to teach all of us that a cancer diagnosis can sometimes be just a speed bump in life — that it should not define a person or her future.
Lindsay decided to freeze her eggs, and only then did she proceed with the chemotherapy. That was more than 10 years, one husband and three stunningly beautiful children ago. She was a crusader who listened to those around her, decided what she would and would not accept as scientific dogma, and literally revolutionized two fields — oncology and infertility.
Her nonprofit, Fertile Hope, is dedicated to helping cancer patients at risk of infertility. (Fertile Hope's programs were recently acquired by the Livestrong Foundation.)
For me, the lessons were profound and humbling. Lindsay changed who I am as a doctor. She taught me to listen to my patients and that no matter how young or old, every patient has a voice and deserves to be heard. And sometimes the patient — whether on the cusp of life or in its twilight — sees a future that the doctor hasn't even contemplated.
I'm thinking now of Martha, a 50-something attorney who lived for the courtroom. She also had cancer of the tongue and told me that if I couldn't preserve her speech and get her arguing cases again, she wouldn't have a life. She forced me to do one of the most creative surgeries I've ever done, and still get the cancer out. At that point I realized that my patients had the power to stretch not just my thinking, but the very way I work.
To this day, Lindsay and I stay in touch. And I get to see her every day in a gorgeous black-and-white photo that sits on my desk. People who look at the picture, taken on her wedding day in 2004, always ask, "Is this your daughter?" And I always smile and say yes ... and more.
Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D., is a head and neck surgeon, and chief medical editor for NBC News. She has written four books, including Dr. Nancy Snyderman's Guide to Good Health for Women Over Forty.
Also of Interest
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- Eat to prevent colon cancer
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Home Depot and Lennar are big market movers
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market:
Home Depot Inc., up $4.64 to $88.23
The home improvement retailer reported a 14 percent jump in quarterly profit and raised its annual guidance, topping expectations.
Lennar Corp., up $1.25 to $38.80
The home construction industry experienced a rebound in July, rising to its fastest pace in eight months.
Aeropostale Inc., up 63 cents to $3.87
The casual clothing and apparel retailer said its former CEO, Julian Geiger, will immediately move back into the position.
TJX Cos., up $4.66 to $58.56
The discount retailer reported better-than-expected quarterly financial results and raised its full-year earnings forecast.
Dicks Sporting Goods Inc., up 70 cents to $44.21
The sporting goods company reported a 17 percent drop in quarterly profit, but the results still beat Wall Street expectations.
Elizabeth Arden Inc., down $4.56 to $15.05
The beauty products company reported worse-than-expected quarterly financial results and set cautious guidance for 2015.
American Woodmark Corp., up $5.55 to $36.88
The cabinet maker reported a boost in first-quarter profit and revenue, with the results beating Wall Street expectations.
Urban Outfitters Inc., up $1.67 to $38.59
The clothing and apparel retailer reported a drop in quarterly profit, but the financial results met Wall Street expectations.


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With yesterday's acquisition of Brawn GP, Mercedes-Benz will return to Formula One after a 55-year hiatus. Judging by their earlier attempts to build race cars, every team has reason to be very, very afraid.
Mercedes-Benz have been racing cars for over a century now, but since 1955, they have been doing it in disguise: as AMG, as Sauber, as McLaren.
This is set to chance in 2010: Brawn GP will become Mercedes-Benz's factory team as Mercedes Grand Prix.
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The new team, headed by Ross Brawn, will have quite a history to match. The most famous Mercedes-Benz racing cars are the Silver Arrows, named for their unpainted aluminum bodies: two groups of cars which competed in the 30s and the 50s and won most of the races they were entered in.
Here they are.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W25
Year: 1934–1936
Engine: 3.3-liter straight-8
Power: 354 HP
Claim to fame: The first Silver Arrow
The rise of Mercedes-Benz's grand prix team paralleled the Nazis' ascent to power in Germany. After Adolf Hitler became Germany's chancellor, he was approached by a Daimler-Benz executive and they agreed to a deal where the German state would sponsor the Mercedes-Benz racing team, which was then in deep financial trouble. There is dispute about the precise amount of sponsorship, with various sources pegging it between 10% and 40% of expenses.
The W25 was created for the 750-kilo formula: cars could weigh no more than 1650 pounds. It is not precisely clear how they lost their German racing white to became silver, but the most widely quoted story is that team manager Alfred Neubauer and driver Manfred von Brauchitsch devised the scheme to strip the car of its paint to squeeze it below weight regulations.
In any case, after early teething problems were overcome, it was a very successful car, winning many races in 1934 and taking the 1935 European Grand Prix Championship for Rudolf Caracciola. In its last year, it was eclipsed by Auto Union's Type C, driven by Bernd Rosemeyer.
Like every Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow which would follow, the W25 had a supercharged engine which emitted a characteristic whistle under acceleration. If you're interested, Jenson Button drove it at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, where I captured the whistling on video.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W125
Year: 1937
Engine: 5.6-liter straight-8
Power: 646 HP (← not a typo)
Claim to fame: Most powerful Grand Prix for decades
The W125 was supposed to be a stopgap for the 1937 season, before new rules for 1938 would come into effect, but what a stopgap it's turned out to be! Developed by young engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, who could drive it on the Nürburgring at race speeds, it rectified the W25's handling problems and received an engine which would not be matched for power until Can-Am cars became truly mad, a good three decades later.
Rudolf Caracciola used the W125 to retake his European Grand Prix Championship title from Bernd Rosemeyer. As displacement rules changed for 1938, the car was retired after its single successful season.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W125 Streamliner
Year: 1937
Engine: 5.6-liter straight-8
Power: 646 HP
Claim to fame: Won fastest ever Grand Prix race
This was a version of the W125 entered for the ludicrous AVUS race, held on two straight stretches of Autobahn with banked corners to connect them. The cars reached speeds of 240 MPH on the straights. Hermann Lang, who won the race in the car pictured, described the sensation as more akin to airplane acrobatics than auto racing.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W125 Rekordwagen
Year: 1938
Engine: 5.5-liter V12
Power: 736 HP
Claim to fame: Holds land speed record on public road
Mercedes-Benz also used the W125 to run speed records attempts on Germany's newly built Autobahns. On a January morning in 1938, Rudolf Caracciola drove this W125 at 268 MPH on a measured mile between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. To this day, it remains the highest speed ever achieved on a public road. Caracciola would describe the experience of running under overpasses at such speeds as trying very hard to stick a piece of thread through an eye of a needle.
This image is also testament to the troubled relationship Mercedes-Benz has with its past, where great racing success happened to coincide with Nazi power. Look close and you'll see a swastika airbrushed into moderate oblivion on the driver's headrest.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W154
Year: 1938–1939
Engine: 3-liter V12
Power: 425 HP
Claim to fame: Beat Auto Union
For 1938, Mercedes-Benz designed a brand-new car, in keeping with the new regulations, which limited displacement to three liters. The resulting W154 was a low-slung technological marvel, running on a mixture of methyl alcohol, nitrobenzene, acetone and sulfuric ether, a gallon of which would propel it for a mere 2.8 miles. Auto Union's rival Type D was no match for it, and Rudolf Caracciola used the car to take his third and last European grand prix crown.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W165
Year: 1939
Engine: 1.5-liter V8
Power: 254 HP
Claim to fame: Took revenge on sneaky Italians
In the 1920s and 1930s, Tripoli—the Libyan capital, then part of an Italian colony—was host to a glamorous grand prix with high prices. By colonial tradition, it was an Italian home race. Following Hermann Lang's back-to-back wins in 1937 and 1938 for Mercedes-Benz, the Italians suddenly changed the rules to allow only 1.5-liter cars for the 1939 years—cars which Alfa Romeo and Maserati, as opposed to Mercedes-Benz, happened to possess.
With only 8 months to go, Mercedes-Benz had their work cut out for them. A skunk works was formed, which took the 3-liter W154 and downsized it for Tripoli, finishing the car just in time. Hermann Lang didn't waste the opportunity and rounded out his hat trick of Tripoli titles to the Italians' great irritation.
Four months later, Europe was at war and motor racing came to a halt.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: W196 Type Monza
Year: 1954
Engine: 2.5-liter straight-8
Power: 257 HP
Claim to fame: Returned Mercedes-Benz to Grand Prix racing in high style
Barely a decade after World War Two, the Mercedes-Benz team was back in action. Team manager Alfred Neubauer and engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut returned to lead a new team, luring Maserati's world champion Juan Manuel Fangio to drive their new car, the W196. The team debuted at the 1954 French Grand Prix, where they proceeded to take a 1–2 win.
The streamlined body was good for high-speed tracks like Rheims and Monza but unsuitable for most other circuits. After two races, Mercedes-Benz dropped the streamliner and introduced an open wheel version of the W196 which was used for the rest of their time in Formula One.
Photo Credit: Mercedes–Benz
Name: W196
Year: 1954–1955
Engine: 2.5-liter straight-8
Power: 257–290 HP
Claim to fame: Won back-to-back Formula One World Championships
The W196 was one of the most successful cars ever constructed for Formula One. It debuted and exited with a victory and won a total of 9 races between the 1954 French Grand Prix and the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. During that period, it was only beaten three times.
Of those nine wins, eight went to Juan Manuel Fangio and one to Stirling Moss.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: 300SLR
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Won World Sportscar Championship
You probably know this car already! The 300SLR was a two-seater version of the W196, with the engine enlarged to three liters. In 1955, Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson drove it to an incredible victory at the Mille Miglia, averaging 100 MPH over one thousand miles of Italian public road, a record which still stands.
The 300SLR also won the RAC Tourist Trophy and the Targa Florio, which was enough to beat Ferrari for the 1955 World Sportscar Championship title.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: 300SLR, Le Mans version
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Killed 85 people, caused Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from motorsports
On June 11, 1955, it went all wrong for Mercedes-Benz. Running a customized high speed version of the 300SLR in Le Mans against the Jaguar D-Types, Pierre Levegh's 300SLR catapulted into the air and slammed headfirst into a wall of spectators, killing scores. The car was made of a highly flammable magnesium alloy called Elektron, which did not help things. The burned-out husk you see on the picture is what remained of Levegh's car.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz
Name: 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Fastest road car of the 1950s
Had Mercedes-Benz not retired at the end of the 1955 season, this is the car they would have raced at Le Mans. A coupé version of the 300SLR race car, it was instead used by Rudolf Uhlenhaut as his daily driver. The car could run at 170 MPH on the public road, which Uhlenhaut, a driver of almost Formula One quality, exploited to the last drop.
As the 300SLR itself was based on the W196 Formula One car, a way to imagine its devastating speed would be to install a canopy on Jenson Button's championship-winning BGP–001 and use it as a daily driver.
New Formula One cars are usually introduced in January, so expect the next Silver Arrow to crop up sometime in January 2010. We'll be here to tell you all about it.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz


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Dry hair can seem impossible to manage, but treatment is simple. You've come to the right place for all our best dry hair remedies and hair nourishment, tips and tricks.
The first step towards a dry hair treatment plan is distinguishing it from damaged hair (they're easy to confuse). If your hair's lacking smoothness and shine, is unmanageable, frizzy and feels dried out, or if it's thick and curly, then it's likely to be dry. But not for long. Like a delicate plant, if you give it the right hair nourishment, it'll flourish, so take a look at these dry hair remedies.
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Find them all and much more below.
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Our friend Kurt emailed his definition of "work" this AM, particularly number 3.
WORK, eng~ noun ,adjective, verb:
1. exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil. 2. something on which exertion or labor is expended; a task or undertaking: The students finished their work in class. 3. a thing which consists of being a giant fucking cock block on my world series watching, preventing me from arriving before about 6:30 well into the 4th inning.


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There were 796 press releases posted in the last 24 hours and 394,100 in the last 365 days.
Newly-crowned world champion Sebastian Vettel has won his 10th grand prix of the season, after claiming the lead on the opening lap from his grid position of second place and using the correct pit stop strategy to maintain his advantage. He now has the chance to equal Michael Schumacher's record of 13 wins in one season. With Vettel's team mate Mark Webber finishing third, Red Bull Racing has sealed the manufacturers' championship for the second year in a row – taking its 25th win at the same time.
The Korean Grand Prix weekend got off to a wet start on Friday, meaning that the teams only had one hour of dry running on Saturday morning to assess the performance of the Pirelli P Zero slick tyres on different fuel loads before qualifying and the race. This meant that the teams still had many unanswered questions as they lined up on the grid for the very first start in Korea under dry conditions: the inaugural race last year started behind the safety car.
The Red Bull Racing duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber adopted an unusual strategy during qualifying by running exclusively on the P Zero Red supersoft tyres in order to save the P Zero Yellow soft tyres for the race. By contrast, McLaren and Ferrari opted to save as many sets of the P Zero Red supersoft tyres as possible. All the drivers who finished the race stopped twice, with the exception of the Sauber duo of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, as well as HRT's Vitantonio Liuzzi, who all stopped three times.
Vettel however used the supersoft tyre for his first two stints before taking the soft tyre for the final stint, meaning that he did not need to use his full allocation of tyres to win the race by 12.0s. Webber finished third after a race-long battle with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who qualified on pole for the first time this year and finished second: his first podium since winning the German Grand Prix this year. Positions two to five in Korea were covered by just four seconds at the end, with Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari equalling his best career result of seventh place. The Spaniard used two stints on the supersoft tyre and a final longer stint on the softs: a similar strategy to Vettel.
Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: "Although we deliberately opted for a bold tyre choice at this race, and the teams had little data to go on due to the weather on Friday, we immediately saw the supersoft tyre lasting for more than 10 laps at the beginning of the race on full fuel and the soft tyre for more than 20 laps. It was clear that the track had evolved a lot in a short space of time, and we knew straight from the first round of stops that we were now looking at a two-stop strategy, which was certainly at the lower end of our expectations. There were a number of different tyre strategies at work, but in the end the drivers kept up a very good pace on both compounds – with Vettel setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap with the soft tyres – despite some people predicting four stops or more and significant degradation before the grand prix started. Finally, I'd like to congratulate Red Bull Racing for taking the constructors' championship once more in what has been a remarkable season for them."
The Korean Grand Prix marked the final appearance for Pirelli's P Zero Red supersoft tyres this year, having also been used in Monaco, Canada, Hungary and Singapore. The remaining three races will all use a combination of the soft and medium P Zero compounds.
Follow us on Twitter @ Pirelli_Media or Facebook on www.facebook.com/Pirelli
For further information please contact:
Alexandra Schieren +33 607 03 69 03 firstname.lastname@example.com
Anthony Peacock +44 7765 896 930 firstname.lastname@example.com
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(Head of Product and Motorsport Media Relations)


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — A powerful U.S. stock rally Wednesday lifted indexes to their best session since Jan. 2, as a positive report on housing and the Federal Reserve chief's commitment to stimulus overrode concerns that had battered stocks earlier in the week.
The advance brought indexes closer to their record highs, levels that should only prolong the ongoing rally by luring retail investors back to the market, said strategists.
"Investor psyche at the retail level still seems fragile, so this is an important juncture for the stock market. The next week or two could tell the story for the coming months," said Brad Sorensen, Schwab director of market and sector research. Read more on stocks nearing their pre-crisis records.
After fluctuating early on, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
"Did the market forget who the chief cook and bottle washer is? If they did, Ben has set them straight and the market loves it," Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. said of the market reaction to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Read more on Bernanke's second day of testimony.
The S&P 500 index
Setting a positive tone for the day's trading, the National Realtors Association reported contracts to purchase previously owned homes rose 4.5% in January. Read more on pending home sales.
"Psychologically, it's a big help," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at RW Baird & Co., of the latest indication of a strengthening housing market.
"'Did the market forget who the chief cook and bottle washer is? If they did, Ben has set them straight and the market loves it.'"
"The market is showing really good resilience right around 1,495 on S&P 500, that's been really good support," said Bittles.
The Nasdaq Composite
The CBOE Volatility Index
For every stock sliding, about three gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 673 million shares traded. Composite volume topped 3.5 billion.
The past two days of gains wiped out Monday's drop, when concerns that political gridlock in Italy would cause a reprise of the euro-zone crisis, plus worries about U.S. budget cuts, sent stocks to their worst day since November.
Federal Chair Ben Bernanke on Wednesday testified for a second day on Capitol Hill, telling House members that the central bank has the necessary tools to reduce stimulus and avoid a spike in inflation, but that the Fed's ultra-low-rate policy is still needed "to help support housing, automobiles and other parts of the economy.". Read: Bernanke defends low rates in House hearing.
"Last week, there was some fear in the market that the Fed was nearing an end to its quantitative easing program, but he [Bernanke] came in this week and said 'that's not the case,' and quantitative easing has been a major support for the stock market the last four years," Bittles added. See blog coverage of Bernanke testimony.
On Tuesday, the Fed chief had reiterated his support for continuing the central bank's $85 billion-per-month bond buying program, a sentiment that helped power the Dow average to a triple-digit gain. He also told a Senate panel that automatic federal budget reductions slated to start on Friday would put a "significant" weight on the economy if lawmakers can't reach an agreement to avoid the cuts. Read more on Bernanke's support for bond-buying program.
Bittles, however, said the market is coming to the realization that the consequences of sequestration aren't as dire as first thought.
"We've been increasing spending at a 14% clip each year, and now we cut back 2% and that's supposed to be Armageddon? The Academy Awards were given to the wrong people this weekend. The Oscars should have been given to the people in D.C.," he said.
Ahead of Wednesday's open, stock-index futures climbed modestly after the government reported that total orders for goods meant to last more than three years slid 5.2%. Taking out bookings for transport items such as airplanes, bookings for goods made to last more than three years climbed 1.9%. Read more on durable goods.
Among moving issues, Target Corp.
Apple Inc.


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A new year brings new hopes for music in Chicago. Here are key resolutions for 2013:
Create a concise Cultural Plan. After months of town hall meetings, the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events last fall came up with a 48-page wish list called a Cultural Plan, including a 20-page executive summary and 24 pages of supplemental materials. Unfortunately, the contents were merely "suggestions for how to accomplish the recommendations, not a final to-do list of cultural planning in Chicago." Not a final to-do list? Why not? How about a one-page Cultural Plan that says simply and directly what will happen — and when?
Nurture music at Columbia College. Last year, Columbia College Chicago underwent a "prioritization" belt-tightening process with serious implications for two of its most revered organizations, the Center for Black Music Research and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. The Center for Black Music Research "continues to have significant questions about the nature of its future," the institution says on its website, and that's an untenable situation. Columbia needs to build the center, not restrict the mission of an institution that remains unique in the world. Meanwhile, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, founded by the great composer William Russo in 1965, has been put on hiatus this season. It must not fade away. Instead, its indelible legacy of performances led by such major figures as Russo, Jon Faddis and Dana Hall should set the stage for concerts yet to come.
Expand the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. After six years, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival stands as a model of what a top-flight Chicago music festival can be. No Chicago jazz fest embraces its environment more ingeniously than Hyde Park's, and none presents the music with greater respect and understanding. But what has been mostly a volunteer effort that draws large audiences needs to move up to the next level. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, in other words, must build an administrative structure to satisfy ever-rising audience demand. It's not difficult to envision the fest evolving into a year-round arts organization, presenting concerts in the ancestral home of this music: the South Side of Chicago.
Give Joe Segal a Jazz Masters Fellowship. Outside of icons such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Von Freeman and Fred Anderson, few individuals have done as much for Chicago jazz as impresario Joe Segal. Presenting music here since 1947, Segal has weathered lost leases, fickle audiences, changing tastes and other challenges. Yet the Jazz Showcase, which Segal runs with his son Wayne, remains a widely admired jazz nexus. For his remarkable contributions, Segal should be awarded the nation's most prestigious jazz honor, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, which comes with $25,000 and a national tribute Segal earned long ago.
Reinvent cabaret at Ravinia. The Ravinia Festival, in Highland Park, tried valiantly last summer to present cabaret-style performances on the massive pavilion stage, with soloists such as Barbara Cook, Ann Hampton Callaway and John Pizzarelli, backed by no less than the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But all of these singers struggled to be heard over the majestic CSO, which was ill-used in this context. If cabaret is going to be presented at Ravinia, and it certainly should be, the festival ought to return this music to the Martin Theatre, a smaller and more felicitous venue for this idiom. Even if the festival continues featuring cabaret at the pavilion, the CSO should be given the night off.
Save the South Shore JazzFest. Impresario Geraldine de Haas' great creation has drawn audiences to the South Shore Cultural Center one weekend each summer for decades, but in recent years the event has struggled. Last summer, with de Haas stepping back from producing the event, the festival was rescued at the last minute by the heroic last-ditch efforts Dr. Carol Adams, president of the DuSable Museum, Chicago cultural Commissioner Michelle Boone and many others. But this important civic event requires and deserves much more planning and support. Will anyone step up to rebuild it?
Make "Blues and the Spirit" an annual event. Every other year, Dominican University in River Forest presents a "Blues and the Spirit" symposium that examines the art form in unforgettable ways. In May, the event dared to broach the hot-button themes of "Race, Gender & the Blues," inspiring frank commentary that generated international attention. This event, which also includes musical performances, should become an annual rite, helping us better understand the value and context of blues in Chicago and around the world. Easier said than done, for sure, but big dreams and decent funding could make this happen.
Give Ramsey Lewis a Kennedy Center Honor. The Kennedy Center has been stingy in saluting jazz musicians, with Sonny Rollins (2011) and Dave Brubeck (2009) the only jazz winners since 1996, when Benny Carter took the prize. Chicago pianist-composer Lewis has been championing the music for more than half a century, his stature as a leading voice for jazz easily qualifying him for one of the nation's most prominent arts prizes. Not everyone appreciates his forays into more commercial musical forms (I certainly don't), but from his hit recordings of the 1960s to his evening-length compositions of more recent vintage, he has been a singular force in jazz and merits the unique national spotlight of a Kennedy Center Honor.
Reawaken the Chicago Jazz Festival. After 34 years, the event looks, sounds and feels about as fresh as John Travolta's polyester suits in "Saturday Night Fever." The concept of featuring dozens of musicians at the ramshackle Petrillo Music Shell and even worse stages nearby has been rendered obsolete by events such as Chicago's World Music Festival, which presents artists in top-notch venues, each suited to the nature of their work. Perhaps the Chicago Jazz Festival's ancient formula helps explain why its budget steadily declines. Somebody save this festival.
Bulldoze the Petrillo Music Shell. Never intended as a permanent facility, the weather-beaten stage and its attendant amplification offer mediocre sound at best, an unacceptable din at worst and a miserable concert experience overall. Certainly jazz, the most intimate of the musical languages presented here, is poorly served by the Petrillo. The emergence of the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in 2004 only magnified the flaws of the Petrillo, which long ago outlived its usefulness. Give this venue the Meigs Field treatment.
To read more from Howard Reich on jazz, go to chicagotribune.com/reich.
Twitter @howardreich


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
fixed the include on the language fileCouldn't find why you were getting the error message. This error message is flagged when no results are returned from the SQL query. Make sure that the /operations/mediaBrowser/playlists.php and operations/mediaBrowser/editPlaylist.php files have been copied over. Also, if you get the error message again, look at the address bar in the popup window and paste it here.. It should be something like index.php?section=exportPlaylist&playlistID=# where # is the ID of the playlist.
3) Copy the following files from ~/charon-merge/web/pluto-admin/ to /var/www/pluto-admin/: index.php languages/en/exportPlaylist.php operations/mediaBrowser/exportPlaylist.php operations/mediaBrowser/playlists.php operations/mediaBrowser/editPlaylist.php operations/mediaBrowser/images/*


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Product Description
Trekline Motorsport's Rear Coil Lift Spacers provide a quick and easy way to lift the rear end of your vehicle. These Lift Spacers are are composite material designed to be light weight but extremely strong. These parts have been fully tested to ensure we offer only the highest quality spacers. During development these spacers were force tested on a hydaulic press at levels way above what is seen on an actual vehicle. These composite spacers have passed the rigourous testing requirements.
These spacers can be used together with 1 spacer for each side for an even rear lift or you can run one single spacer on a side to even out an unlevel vehicle (leaning more on one side than the other). These leans are common, especially on lowered vehicles. We recommend measuring both sides to verify exactly what size spacer you need to make it sit level.
Vehicle Fitment:
- 1987 - 1991 Mercury Colony Park
Fitment Notes:
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- Fits models with Rear Coil Spring Suspension ONLY
1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991
87, 88, 89, 90, 91