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Is America a Christian nation? Some Christians eagerly point to the word "Creator" in the Declaration of Independence (1776) as evidence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Who is this "Creator"? Is it Yahweh, the Christian god? Is it a placeholder into which you can imagine any god so that Muslims can imagine Allah or Hindus can imagine Brahma?
No—the opening sentence clarifies: it's not Yahweh but "Nature's God." At the time, this phrase was understood as the deist god of Enlightenment philosophers like Spinoza and Voltaire. Deism was popular in Revolutionary America, and Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, and other founding fathers were either deists or inspired by the movement. Deism imagines a hands-off god, a creator who, once the clock is built and wound up, leaves it to tick by itself.
The role of this "Creator" is clarified in the Declaration:
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
In other words, the Creator has no role at all in government. We've turned our back on the divine right of kings, where the king was God's representative who served at God's pleasure. God isn't the foundation on which authority rests. No—it's the consent of the governed. The buck stops here, which is very empowering.
Remember that the purpose of the Declaration was to inform Britain that the colonies wanted to become independent. When government becomes abusive, the recourse isn't to appeal to God:
Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Again, we see that the government rules at the pleasure of the people, not God.
While the Declaration of Independence doesn't give Christians what they may imagine it does—an acknowledgement of the existence of the Christian god and his sovereignty over this country—this exercise is largely irrelevant. The Declaration isn't the supreme law of the United States. That is the Constitution, and it's secular. Watch out for Christian revisionist historians bringing up the Declaration. That's the white flag of surrender because they know that they have nothing where it really counts—the Constitution.
Photo credit: Wikimedia
Related posts:


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President Barack Obama was re-elected president Tuesday night, put over the top by the crucial battleground state of Ohio following the most expensive election in U.S. history.
"You made your voice heard, and you made a difference," Obama told supporters.
"I will return to the White House more inspired and more determined than ever," he said. 'We've got more work to do."
Obama and his family walked onto stage at his Chicago headquarters to the strains of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." The crowd welcomed him by chanting, "Four more years!"
A roar of approval thundered through the crowd after NBC reported that Ohio had gone to Obama. The victory in Ohio put Obama at 274 electoral college votes, four more than needed.
"This happened because of you. Thank you," Obama tweeted to supporters. It was retweeted more than more than 318,000 times, a record. A picture posted around 11 p.m. EST on Obama's Facebook page showing him hugging first lady Michelle Obama under the headline "Four more years" was liked by more than a million users.
Mitt Romney was silent for more than an hour after Ohio was projected for Obama. But he then conceded in a phone call to Obama.
"I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory," Romney told disappointed supporters. "I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters. This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation."
Earlier, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire went to Obama, according to NBC News, and Romney took North Carolina. Obama also won Virginia, Ohio and Colorado. Votes were still being counted in Florida.
After the Obama victories in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, U.S. stock futures turned down and stayed lower with the Ohio vote results. (Click here for the latest prices.)

subset: commoncrawl


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Dec. 12, 2012 -- Lottery winners: What separates the ones who live happily ever after from the ones who, five years later, wind up drunk, broke, in jail or hounded by the IRS?
Stephen Danish knows. In fact, the Virginia Commonwealth University professor of psychology is such an expert on the subject that the Virginia Lottery has hired him to counsel winners. Asked by ABC News how many winners he has helped, he puts the number is in the double digits.
He once told the Roanoke Times that he can tell how well (or badly) somebody will handle a lottery windfall when he hears them talk about their future: If they talk only about spending, he says, he knows they're in trouble; if, though, they talk about what they want to accomplish with the money, he knows they're going to be okay.
Winners who go on to lead successful lives, he tells ABC News, are those who had well-defined goals, plans and ambitions long before they ever bought a ticket. They view money not as a plaything to be frittered away, but as a tool with which to gain some practical end. The more specific their ambition, the better.
Jay Vargas, according to the Tampa Tribune, was just 19 when he won a Powerball jackpot of over $35 million in 2008. At first, Vargas told the paper, he partied hardy. What saved him from a life of dissipation? Ambition. He knew what he liked: hot women and professional wrestling. Eventually he found a way to invest himself and his money in these two.
He founded Wrestlicious, a Tampa TV production company whose programming features gorgeous, sweaty women in small costumes grappling with one another. It went into syndication in 2010.
Asked by a Wrestlicious interviewer on the eve of his show's debut if he felt his money had been well spent, Vargas said: "I think it has. Time will tell of course. It certainly has been an awesome learning experience. Best case, we have a huge hit. Worst case, I have a tax write-off." The show did a premiere season but has since gone into hiatus.
Likewise, William Kiefer of Katy, Texas, knew what he liked: nuns.
In 2010, Kiefer, according to the Houston Chronicle, won what was then the largest prize in Texas Lottery history—$144 million. "The greatest gift my parents gave me," he announced in a statement, "was to be raised a Christian. I plan to give 60 percent of all [my] after-tax winnings to charity."
"We are proud to count Mr. Kiefer among our players," said Lottery Executive Director Gary Grief in response. "Many winners plan to give to charity, but I don't think we've ever seen generosity quite like this."
Among the causes Kiefer has supported is the care of retired Catholic nuns. Sister Deenan Hubbard of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, speaking to the Houston Chronicle, described Kiefer as a really good man with a big heart. Kiefer, who has refused to grant interviews to any news organizations except the Texas Catholic Herald, said the other objects of his charity would include abused children and Haitian relief.
Professor Danish notes that no matter what kind of person you are—goal-focused or a sybaritic layabout-- winning the lottery can be tough: "You're bombarded by people asking, threatening, trying to do whatever they can to get money from you. To be able to say 'no' is difficult but important, because otherwise you'll find you have no money left."
It's not bad to give it all away, he clarifies. "That's fine. But that has to be your plan. You have to know how much you have, how much you want to give away, and how much you need to keep."
The holder of the winning ticket is not the only one fate favors when someone wins the lottery: The merchant who sold the ticket also cashes in.
In 2011, a supermarket customer on Long Island won $72 million from the New York State Lottery. The winning ticket was sold him at a ShopRite owned by Mannix Family Supermarkets. Kevin Mannix, owner of the company, tells ABC News that he got $10,000 from lottery officials for having sold the winning ticket.
"Yes, I'm sitting in my office looking at an enlargement of the check right now," Mannix tells ABC. He donated part of his winnings, he says, to the Salvation Army, some to the Food Bank of New York, and some to Project Hospitality, which is providing relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy. "That was the appropriate thing to do," he says. After that, he had exactly $1 left over, which he used to play the lottery.
He didn't win.
Mannix's ShopRite has been lucky once before. Six years ago, a group of 10 bakery employees split a $19 million ticket. Nine of them, says Mannix, decided to keep working and are still on the job. None went wacky or became a drunk or wound up in jail. Some, he says, "bought their dream house." Others salted away the money, to be used later to pay for college for their grandkids. Some paid off mortgages. A few took trips. "They didn't spend foolishly," says their boss. "They're hardworking, blue collar people. It's a great story with a great ending."
There are sad stories as well. On Monday, DeeDee Moore, the Tampa woman accused of swindling and then killing lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare, was found guilty of first degree murder and other charges. Shakespeare had won $30 million in the Florida Lottery but gave it away to people who simply asked for it. His luck ran out when he met Moore.
"Abraham Shakespeare was your prey and victim. Money was the route of evil you brought to Abraham. You are sentenced to life in prison you shall not be elegible for parole," Judge Emmet Battles told Moore. You can read more about this story here.


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Our visit to the homage to the post World War Case Study Houses, with two of them being recreated in Second Life by the talented designer Painter Meriman is now on the web!
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day to design and build inexpensive and efficient model homes for the United States residential housing boom caused by the end of World War II and the return of millions of soldiers. The core idea of a Case Study house was to hypothesize a modern household, elaborate its functional requirements, have an esteemed architect develop a design that met those requirements using modern materials and construction processes, and then to actually build the home. The houses were documented before, during and after construction for publication in Arts & Architecture.
Painter has created homages to two of these houses (both of which still exist in Pacific Palisades), the Entenza House (Case Study House No. 9) and the Eames House (Case Study House No.8). We will be looking at the buildings, and talking about the background to the Case Study Houses project – as well as taking a look at how this has inspired Painter's latest home.
If you wpould like to learn more, you can see a short film made by the Eames family here.


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When I came across the genius team behind @CoupleDumb, Lee and Paul, I have to tell you I kicked myself for not living in South Florida any more! These are the people you want to hang out with. The ones who tell it like it is, have no hidden agendas, love each other, and are smart and sassy!
Sometimes we have problems facing the facts… okay, some of us more than others and how many times do you really need to learn that lesson?? Hmmm. Lee and Paul have been together for 20 years and have things figured out – it's called, recognizing the dumb things people do to ruin their relationships from lovers to friends to work.
Join us each week as we talk about relationships, from a straight-talking couple who bring humor with the bitter reality. You'll be happy you did!!


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Radio, Television and Electrical Works WAEC Schemes and Sample Questions
The West African Examinations Council is West Africa's foremost examining board established by law to determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authorities internationally.
By this mandate, the Council is expected to:
- Assist in the development of sound education
- Ensure that educational standards are maintained
- Give the people of West Africa a vision of the great potentials which lie beyond examinations.
The Board has carefully released the Schemes & Sample Questions for all students wishing to sit for their examinations to download in electronic format.A scheme which is also similar to a syllabus is a specially created guide to a course and what will be expected of candidate in the course.
This compendium on schemes and sample questions has been carefully collated and explicitly designed by subject experts to assist prospective candidates wishing to sit for West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations, WASSCE.Prospective candidates will find the efforts put together in this volume very rewarding.
NOTE: The schemes and sample questions here is for both O-level SSCE and GCE Exams and should be used by candidates sitting for the May/June, Jan/Feb and November/December exams respectively.
Simply follow the links below to download the WAEC Schemes and Sample Questions for all subject in PDF format;
Tous les résultats du concours IDE 2022
Résultats concours MINSANTE -IDE 2022 - 2023
Résultats concours MINSANTE -IDE 2022 - 2023
Résultats concours MINSANTE -IDE 2022 - 2023
Tous les résultats du concours IPOLICE 2022
Résultats concours POLICE 2022 - 2023
Résultats concours POLICE 2022 - 2023


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A would-be "underwear bomber" involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.
The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the clothing of an attacker.
The plot, which the White House said on Monday had involved the seizing of an underwear bomb by authorities in the Middle East sometime in the last 10 days, had caused alarm throughout the US.
It has also been linked to a suspected US drone strike in Yemen where two Yemeni members of al-Qaida were killed by a missile attack on their car on Sunday, one of them a senior militant, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso.
But the news that the individual at the heart of the bomb plot was in fact an informer for US intelligence is likely to raise just as many questions as it answers….
Those who paid attention knew this "news" all along, since the "underwear bomber" had no passport and entered the international plane flight with assistance. Moreover, he looked drugged.
We definitely need protection from the (See Pogo quote) "terrorists."


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LOS ANGELES — LeBron James believes Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey "was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation" regarding the potential consequences of his actions when he tweeted in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests.
In his first public comments since the Los Angeles Lakers returned home from a strange weeklong tour of China immediately after Morey's incendiary tweet, James' lengthy answer to a question about whether Morey should be punished for his tweet didn't appear to specifically address the merits of Morey's support of Hong Kong sovereignty.
The Lakers superstar instead characterized the international incident caused by Morey's tweet as a cautionary tale about the power of social media.
Banners removed, media event canceled amid NBA's rift with ChinaOct. 9, 201901:06
"Yes, we do have freedom of speech," James said. "But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others, when you only think about yourself. I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and what we say and what we do. Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, it can be a lot of negative that comes with it."
When asked to clarify his thoughts, James went further.
"I believe (Morey) was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation, and if he was, then so be it," James said. "But I have no idea. That's just my belief. When you say things or do things, you're doing it and you know the people that can be affected by it, and the families and the individuals and everyone that can be affected by it. Sometimes things can be challenging as well. Also sometimes, social media is not always the proper way to go about things as well. But that's just my belief."
A Rockets spokesperson didn't immediately respond to request for comment Monday night on James' remarks.
James' comments set off swift reaction on social media, with many listeners perceiving his comments as criticism of the democracy movement in Hong Kong. James addressed the issue again in two tweets before the Lakers' preseason game against Golden State at Staples Center.
"Let me clear up the confusion," James tweeted. "I do not believe there was any consideration for the consequences and ramifications of the tweet. I'm not discussing the substance. Others can talk about that. ... My team and this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it."
James didn't play, but watched from the bench when the Lakers hosted the Warriors on Monday night, just two days after they returned home from their bizarre trip to China.
A typical NBA preseason promotional swing through Shanghai and Shenzhen became something else when Morey tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protesters while the Lakers were in the air on their 13-hour flight to China.
The Lakers landed amid outrage in China with Morey's since-deleted tweet and the NBA in general. The league and Chinese authorities decided to hold no media availability or community events with the Lakers or the Brooklyn Nets, their opponents.
The Lakers passed their week in China in public silence. Although the exhibition games weren't canceled, the league claimed it would be unfair to ask players and coaches to speak on the delicate geopolitical argument in which they found themselves involuntarily enmeshed.
So the players spent most of the week in hotels or on the court, with two NBA Cares events, a fan event and other public appearances all canceled by the league or the government. Several companies and state-run offices reportedly severed their ties with the NBA over Morey's tweet and the league's response to it.
The Lakers and Nets also met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. James said he was happy with Silver's handling of the controversy, which led to criticism of the commissioner from supporters on both sides of the Hong Kong movement.
"It was a tough situation for Adam as well, to put out a fire that he didn't start," James said.
When asked about his thoughts on the political side of the events in China, James echoed Warriors coach Steve Kerr's belief that he didn't know enough to comment on the situation.
"When I speak about something, I speak about something I am very knowledgeable about, something that hits home for me, something that I am very passionate about," James said. "I felt like with this particular situation, it was something that not only was I not informed enough about, I just felt like it was something that not only myself and my teammates or our organization had enough information to even talk about it at that point in time, and we still feel the same way."


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OnLive has tried its best to put a positive spin on the "difficult financial decisions" that led to its "heartbreaking transition" to a new holding company with fewer than half the employees of the old company. But the man in charge of handling the transfer of OnLive's assets says the company was in significantly more trouble than it has publicly let on, facing $30 million to $40 million in debt that threatened to shut it down entirely.
Speaking to the San Jose Mercury News, Insolvency Services Group CEO Joel Weinberg said the streaming game service didn't have enough cash on hand to pay its heavy outstanding debts when his company was brought in last week, and that OnLive was scrambling to find a buyer to prevent a complete shutdown.
"It was a company that was in dire straits," Weinberg said. "It only had days to live in terms of cash flow and the like. Something had to be done immediately or there would have been a hard shutdown, which would have been a disaster."
Weinberg estimated that initial investors in OnLive were poised to get only 5 to 10 percent of their money back on the deal. Those investors include Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC, which announced it was writing off a $40 million loss on the company, and British Telecom, which said it was "highly likely" it would have to write off its 2.6 percent ownership stake in OnLive. Employees also reportedly lost millions of dollars of stock equity in the company through the magic of the restructuring.
The good news for users is that the OnLive service will continue to operate while the relevant parties pick at the debt-ridden mess OnLive has become. But with Lauder Partners refusing to say just how much funding it's providing to prop up the company, and further investors seemingly slow to sign on, the company's long-term prospects are looking less and less secure.


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Sometimes ago I wrote a long article for L'Espresso (in Italian) on the amazing and mostly underestimated role of Porn Industry in the development of Internet and its technologies. The same technologies and services we use everyday when we start a videochat , watch a video via streaming or check-in on services like Foursquare.
That piece wouldn't be possible without an enlightening chat with Patchen Barss, a canadian journalist who has written about science, technology and culture for almost 20 years. In the following interview, the author of "The Erotic Engine", describes "the powerful influence of pornography on advances in mass communication".
Mr. Barss, let's start explaining why and how the Porn industry can be defined as the "erotic engine" powering (among others things) the development of internet technologies.
It's easy to forget how terrible Internet technology was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Expensive, unreliable connections, complicated command-line interfaces and weird connection protocols. A million things could go wrong, and even when it all worked, it was painfully slow and glitchy. Looking back, it's difficult to believe anyone stuck with the technology long enough for it to improve.
The people who put in the work to make the Internet go in those early days often did so because the reward was pornography – first text, then images, then video. Pornography created the demand for Internet access, and also created demand for higher speeds, more reliable connections, and better interfaces. Many estimates suggest that sexual content represented as much as 80 percent of traffic on the pre-World-Wide-Web Internet.
Does this apply everywhere or is it just a US phenomenon?
Online pornography usage statistics vary from country to country, but there is no doubt that pornography had a global influence on technological development.
Is this influence still working today, when porn actors are adopting web2.0 technologies to disintermediate porn companies and sell their "products" by themselves?
Pornography has its greatest influence on new technologies – it was more influential over the early internet than today's online sphere. Once a technology becomes fast, familiar and easy to use, the mainstream tends to take over and push pornography to the margins. This, to some degree has happened to the Internet – obviously there is still a huge pornographic presence online, but there's now much more of everything else.
You touch on a good point, though – today's Internet doesn't represent the end of technological evolution. As new communications channels evolve – Web 2.0, haptics, virtual worlds – pornography and sexual content continue to exert their influence. There will always be new forms of communication that are as unfamiliar and weird as the Internet once was, and the early adopters of such technologies will almost certainly use them for sexual purposes.


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A very refreshing summertime drink. I highly recommend giving it an try. This cocktail is an adaptation of a John Collins which is a variation of the Tom Collins.
1 shot of bourbon
Four ounces (half cup) of lemonade concentrate
Seltzer or sparkling water
1. Make lemonade concentrate by combining equal parts lemon juice and honey.
2. In a tall glass mix lemonade concentrate with bourbon.
3. Fill glass to 3/4 full with seltzer water.
4. Add ice.
5. Imbibe.
Goes down easy.


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OCLC Leadership Team
Bruce Crocco
Vice President, Library Services for the Americas
Bruce is OCLC's Vice President for Library Services for the Americas. He joined OCLC in 2002 as Director of Global and Segment Marketing, having come from NetMap Analytics in Columbus, Ohio, as Director of Global Project Management. In all of his roles at OCLC, Bruce has focused on taking a global look at how the cooperative builds services, communicates and works across different segments of the information services industry.
When RLG and OCLC combined services in 2006, Bruce played a critical role in the transition, spending the majority of a year at the RLG office in Mountain View, California. The integration of the RLG partners strengthened the cooperative and WorldCat. Our combined research efforts continue to bring lasting value to our combined membership.
Bruce is active in local technology circles in Columbus, having served in a leadership role on the Chief Sales Officer Forum for TechColumbus. Bruce has a bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering from Lafayette College.
Contact Bruce


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Saint Blane was born on the Isle of Bute and became a Bishop and Confessor in Scotland among the Picts. He died in 590 AD. Christianity was first practiced in Dunblane by followers of Saint Blane around the year 602 AD. The name Dunblane (Fort of Blane) most likely came to be used by monks who fled from the Isle of Bute with the relics of their beloved saint to escape from the Viking raids. There has been a religious center on the site of the Cathedral since at least the ninth century. A Catholic bishopric of Dunblane was founded by the Earl of Stathearn about 1155.
Clement, the first member of the Dominican Order in Britain and Ireland to become a bishop was chosen to lead the ailing diocese of Dunblane in 1233. When he took over there was probably the tower, part of which still exists today, with an unfinished church attached with no roof. Clement faced a mighty struggle to maintain financial sustainability for his small see. He entered into many negotiations with the powerful religious institutions and secular authorities who had secured control of the revenue of the diocese to which he was entitled. He even had to travel to Rome and visit the Pope where he complained that there were no buildings for his see, he had nowhere to sleep and insufficient revenues. He did succeed in avoiding a move of the bishopric to Inchaffray Abbey and the Pope authorized the Bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld to visit Dunblane. They agreed Clement should receive a fourth of the tithes of the churches of the diocese for operating revenue and to build a cathedral.
Before Clement died in 1258, he was able to build a new edifice with a six-bay, aisle-less chancel, a sacristy, chapter house, Lady Chapel and an eight-bay aisled nave. Over the next three hundred years, the church was gradually given more elaborate furnishings. Many of the fifteenth century choir stalls, with their carved misericords still remain intact. Dunblane Cathedral contains the largest surviving collection of medieval Scottish ecclesiastical woodwork after King's College Chapel, Aberdeen. The Tower's height was also increased in the fifteenth century. This can clearly be seen in the change of color in the stonework and in the late Gothic style of the upper story's windows.
After the Protestant Reformation of 1560, the interior was drastically altered and a reformed minister took over the task of public worship. The congregation used the choir only for their services. The nave fell into decay and the roof collapsed in 1622. In 1816, the chancel was restored but by 1886 its capacity was considered insufficient and the entire Cathedral was restored by Sir Rowand Anderson, a leading Scottish architect. The Nave was given a new roof and public worship was reinstated in it in 1893. The choir received new showy stalls between 1912 and 1914. The Cathedral contains the graves of Margaret Drummond of Stobhall, a mistress of King James IV and also her two sisters. It is believed they were all poisoned shortly before James was to marry Margaret Tudor of England. The building is owned by the Crown which is most uncommon and it is looked after by Historic Scotland.


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It's a great time to be poor, tight or miserly because there's lots of free science fiction offerings on the Internet. Heinlein was wrong about that free lunch deal. Just subscribing to two web sites, SF Site and SFF Audio via RSS feeds will keep you informed of more good free SF&F reading and listening than you can handle, even if you're out-of-work or out-of-school. All you've got to do is read the regular posts and these sites will spot the goodies for you.
Hell, a couple months ago Tor let people sign up to get 12 free ebooks novels from them, in PDF, HTML and unprotected Mobi formats, which is good for the new Amazon Kindle. I socked them away for a rainy day when I want to try out some new authors, but I especially appreciated getting a copy of Old Man's War by John Scalzi because I already bought and listened to it on audio. Audio books are the best way to fully experience a book, in my humble opinion, but audio books are not so good for reference and study. eBooks are great for snagging a quote. I wished all paper editions came with ebook editions for reviewing purposes – but I digress from my main topic.
I don't know why there is so much free reading and listening on the Internet. I do know there's a theory that a certain amount of free promotion helps with sales, but currently there's enough free promotion to exist completely without buying.
Some writers like Cory Doctorow even offer their latest novels for free, such as his new book Little Brother. Read the intro in the HTML edition to see just how far his generosity extends. I'm waiting for the audio edition to show up on Audible.com to buy. I've read Cory's stories in anthologies I've bought, but his name has stuck with me because of his free work on the Internet. Finding his brilliant "Anda's Game" made me remember his name as a standout writer. The same thing happened with Charlie Stross, because of free stories on the net, or stories in anthologies, I've gone on to buy his books.
A good way to dip your toe in the free story waters is to read BestScienceFictionStories.com where Rusty reviews standout SF short stories, many of which are on the net to read for free and Rusty provides the links. He even offers a guide to finding free stories, "Nine Secrets For Finding Your Favorite Science Fiction Short Stories Online," as well as "The 10 Best Web Sites for Free Online Science Fiction Short Stories." When I was a kid I had to haunt musty used bookshops all over Miami to find classic SF stories to read. Now story hunting is as easy as a mouse-click away.
And these stories aren't submissions from would-be writers, or trunk stories from published writers, but award winning stories, stories that have appeared in best-of-the-year anthologies, and stories that have appeared on lists like The Top 100 Sci-Fi Short Stories.
For the last decade I've been doing far more listening to fiction than reading. At first audio science fiction was rare, but in the last year there has been a boom in SF&F for your ears, including free productions. At first free audio featured amateur readers no better than the best student you'd hear when we had to take turns reading aloud in class. The best professional readers today act out audio books in performances I often find better than those I see in Oscar winning movies. Free audio productions have a long way to go to compete with professional productions, but surprisingly, they are evolving fast!
The granddaddy of SF audio is probably Escape Pod, currently broadcasting it's 159th episode. You no longer have to mess with podcast software to listen to the shows, so go sample its stories with the on-page sound controls. The production quality is now equal or better to many of the commercial stories I buy at Audible.com. Escape Pod offers a lot of quality for free. Again, these aren't just third-tier stories, but stories that have appeared in professional story magazines like F&SF, Asimov's, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Jim Baen's Universe, and other magazines that SF writers love to sell to.
Also, the above linked magazine sites often offer free stories to read from their for-sale magazines, especially during award times when they want to promote their nominated authors. Just following the links on this page will keep you up-to-date with what's going in with the genre of science fiction. You'll learn who the famous authors are as well as the new and upcoming writers.
Free audio book novels are showing up but most of them are read by amateur readers, something not to my taste, but if you like free and are patient and forgiving, you might find a lot in these offerings. I expect this category to grow in the future as amateur actors discover audio books are a way to audition their talents and get their names known. Digital recording equipment is relatively cheap, but producing a ten-twenty hour novel is quite a commitment, but they are appearing. Keep an eye on SFF Audio.
And if you want to know about classic science fiction, visit Feedbooks, where you can get ebook novels for free. Their Science Fiction page offer books from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to George Orwell's 1984 to Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, the new book mentioned above. And all the books are nicely formatted for a wide range of electronic reading devices. Teachers and professors could offer a class on science fiction and their students could get all their textbooks for free on this site.
I don't understand how all this generosity works. It's a hippie dream – a commie's philosophy come true. Feedbooks doesn't even have ads on their page. It's a mystery, like WordPress, how do they make their money? There are even radio magazine shows like StarShipSofa.com, that appear to be the work of energetic individuals unmotivated by capitalism. It's like the old days of fanzines, creating a new generation of online fandom, fashioning an audio genzine.
Like I said, it doesn't take much to join this community, just add the RSS feeds from SF Signal and SFF Audio. Having online access allows web surfers to join a never ending science fiction convention, again for free, without having to buy a membership or pay for hotels, cabs and airline tickets. If you follow SFF Audio, links to panels and con speeches often show up too. And again, it's all for free.
This makes me wonder about the financial health of the little audio book publishers and small press publishers. Is all this free competition hurting them? SF Signal and SFF Audio also link to these commercial sites, so if you want to see them succeed, patronize their online stores too. The commercial SF&F magazines have been losing paid readership for years – is the Internet partially at fault – either through free offerings, or just a diversion from old fashion pastimes? It's all too hard to know, but we do know there were a lot more short story magazines on sale at newsstands before the advent of television, again a system that offered content for free, usually paid for by ads.
The science fiction short story may go the way of poetry – moving out of the realm of commercial sales to exist and be supported by love of the art form and its fans. I hate to see that, but I sure do love the fact that the art form of the science fiction short story seems to be growing on the Internet.
Learning to adapt to this free medium takes a bit of training and equipment. Listening to audio via on-page controls is the easiest way to join in. Just play a story and kick back. They are nice company for doing the dishes, or pursuing hobbies like modeling or knitting. Next up is learning to subscribe to podcasts in iTunes and take the stories with you when you run or walk. If you like to read on your phone, PDA, notebook computer or ebook reader, find you favorite reading software and learn where the best places that offer that format for free. I've barely touched on the free sites available.
Like I said, I mostly listening to books because I've found so many ways to integrate audio books into my routine. It's quite wonderful to be walking down the street while classic novels are whispered into my ear.


text:
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text:
Hi All,
The next chapter of Return: Dreadknight will drop sometime the 1st of December. Also, check out the new reviews below.
Also I'm looking for Original English Light Novel authors to interview, feature or jab with a sharpened stick when I require amusement. If you're game, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Thanks for waiting and have a great [insert harvest-time holiday here]!


text:
During a 11 month federal operation it was discovered he lived in Querétaro posing as a businessman dedicated to Real Estate the buying and selling of art.
His vehicle was still at the scene on Thursday.
Uncle Sam wants more money from these cartels so he can pay the Chinese. Next...!ReplyDelete
HUGE FISH CAUGHT if trueReplyDelete
Good job, Mexico!!ReplyDelete
Chapo gave him up!ReplyDelete
Chapo is going to give up Mayo Zambada!!Delete
Its was Fernando Arellano Felix who is spitting names out right now!!! Hahaha vato wants the Vicentillo, Osiel Cardenas treatment :)Delete
Who gives a fuck if chapo gave him up. Even though we know that aint true fuck this puto anywayDelete
Zetas and Juarez going down and who ever else is with them lolReplyDelete
Actually juarez and Z are going strong, especially now that cds has been dismantled and templarios are running from avocado & lemon farmers who refuse to be taxed, even cjng left cds to join juarez, Z & beltranes.
Fool are you a cartel member. Dont believe the hype. There all getting shutdownDelete
Everybody is getting retired by the government bringing in new generation or Pena sold all drug trafficking to the u.s just like all the oil.ReplyDelete
So there could be some truth to the alliance of cjng beltran zetas and such so im guessing if he did grt captured chapo isidro will try to take over and there will be more figthing and in fighting between them and zetas to try to be in controlReplyDelete
Wrong.Mario alberto beltran leyva will take over if true. I dont believe he went down without a fight.Delete
Well he is next!Delete
Chapo snitched!!!why do all the top bosses always end up in guanajuato.ReplyDelete
Porque en guanajuato la vida no vale nada compaDelete
Calmate Jose Alfredo Jimenez lolDelete
Hahaha este vato salio chignon
No mames! LmaoDelete
That's stupid if chapo knew where he was he would of sent hit men after him!Delete
Lmao! "Comienza siempre llorando y así llorando se acaba." HahahaDelete
Big dog if so!!!!ReplyDelete
CDS still losing the war tho lmao pinches lagañosos ajajajaReplyDelete
Whos your cartel... Oh let me guess..... juarez. bunch of lady murderers aint worth of shit.thats why chapo went over there to punish the lady murderers. Even if he still lost the war like you say.fuck all rapist lady murderersDelete
As de ser de jalisco tu 8:41pm donde se dan los hombres, pero uno con otro.. Haha saludos desde JuaritozDelete
Juaritoz no mames!!! Juarez es un lugar quemado donde te maten por penny's jajajajaDelete
Neta! Que es lo primero que se te viene a la mente cuando escuchas o lees "juarez"?......desierto, muerte, mujeres asesinadas y violadas, policia narco-corrupta e impunidad absoluta.Delete
Ciudad Juarez, donde todos los vatos se convierten en putos, mama vergas como Juan Gaybriel. De seguro estas igual que el. Ya vez que ese jotolon en donde quiera que va dice, "Arriba Juarez." Lugar mas repleto de gays que Ciudad Juarez, no hay en toda la Republica Mexicana.Delete
Damn huge blow to the beltran leyva!!!ReplyDelete
I guess that's what happens when you miss the meeting.ReplyDelete
They just put chapo isidro exactly wer he wants to b!!!!!!ReplyDelete
Well.. he has to be next!!Delete
There hot on isidro and H is gonna lead them right to him. You will seeDelete
El compa Hector siempre fue buena persona. No merecia terminar asi.Aqui en Sanjas Temeo lo bamos a extrañar.ReplyDelete
Y si es muy buena persona aqui en tepezco agatas lo vamos a extrañarDelete
El mata inocentes putoDelete
Tambien en tepiCo el Chico lo vamos a extrañar compaDelete
He was very much loved in tecojoahorita.Delete
Tambien se le va a extrañar aca en San Goloteas de las Campanas.
Atte: Alma Madero Benitez
En tepico el oyo y te pescoagatas y ankas teabro sinaloa tambien to vamos a extrañarDelete
tambien muy respetado en mi rancho tejeringo el chico.
Attn P@RR@ND3RO
Tan parrandero que cuando desperto, lo llevaba un negro en la carretill. Y panadero pregunta, A donde me llevas? Llevas? Ya te traigo guey. Quedo traumado desde entonces so oye la palabra "negro" abre la boca lo mas ancho que puede. Y si ve a un negro ni te cuento. A que PANDERO chivis load the pictures of all the brothers B.L, same long face as Alfredo. this one looks more like the brother that got caught in Sinaloa.Delete
Ya hase muchisima falta el viejon en Tesankoelelote Sinaloa
Muy respetadoPor aca por el pueblo de mevengoentubocaDelete
Sacameleche sinaloa te va extrañar los mokos sinaloa tambien te va extrñarDelete
Y vas a llorar muchas lagrimas yo pensaba ke eras de tepisko eloyo aya donde se dan los chiles en cajones dice la jente de por ayaDelete
Ainy no respect for none of themDelete
Mucho respeto de los pueblos indigenas pendejo lolDelete
so glad they caught this murderous bastard, like everyone in his sick family. i hope they just put a bullet in his skull. another one bites the dust.ReplyDelete
Im with you on that...Delete
I hope puta tuta is nextDelete
Who b the new leader? Chapo isidro?ReplyDelete
Wrong, chapo isidro is already in charge of mochomos fraction of the BLO. As far es el H's fraction, it will be MarioDelete
What's the role of the son of El Mochomo Tito Beltran, Jr. Is Tito even involved with the family business?Delete
Chapo isidro is not in charge of the mochomera tito beltran is the mochomera work with cds if you actually knew anything about La mochomera.Delete
They need to catch isidro and mario shut these scum downDelete
Expect his brothers Mario and Hamberto to retaliate just how they killed everyone involved in Mochomos capture also Arturo death including that marines family.Delete
I hope they go down next mario and humbertoDelete
So who is going to take over his organization? This affects blo, zetas, juares la linea and el chapo izidros people. And one more thing how fucking dumb are this guys traying to hide as a art dealer, really?ReplyDelete
How irrelevant chapo without a single shot fired now all of a sudden el "h" goes down with out a single shot fired. ???ReplyDelete
People need to understand these guys are very very intelligent men they dont need to do shit they are up there because of their intelligence they know how to talk idiots into doing shit for them there is sicarios and there are business men with leadership
Think about it how can one man take a whole country to war without picking up a single gun and i am not talking bout capos im talking bout presidents of countries
Not much difference between presidents and caposDelete
@8:31PM Cartel capos along with their sicario rats are setting the mexicans on fire just like escobar did with colombia. In case you forgot. escobar didnt like it when he was being hunted down & cause of that he decided to kill every body that got on his way. so stop licking their asses sucka!Delete
If el chapo is "snitching" on em suckas good for him! its about time for him to start helping his country!Delete
Don Hector Beltran LeyvaReplyDelete
Arnoldo villa sanchez snitched on him.he was the security. he just got caught last month. The blo be snitching tooReplyDelete
I would say Isidro would be the new leader. He was the one sent to the alliance and he is smart and proven trustworthy, when he stuck with blo instead of chapoReplyDelete
Does he know what happened to the 45 students still missing in GRO??
El 2 de Octubre - NO SE OLVIDA. Tampoco el 26 de Septiembre!!
Why has nobody commented that this guy looks nothing like the other pic and he looks pretty old for a 49yr old. Hmmm.....ReplyDelete
It does look like a diffrent guy ,but that pic of him in the suit is old. And mexican goverment has confirmed itDelete
Really? You believe it's him because the Mexican govt confirmed it? What world do you live in. That other pic is old, sure, but the new pics of him look like he's 70 not the 49Delete
He is a drug dealer not a drug user. He looks too skinny. His head look really skinny.Delete
Just older and lost weight possibly to drug useDelete
Just like the president of the u.s.a looks like shit after 4 or 8 years in the whitehouse so this gangsters look like shit after years of stress in their job.Delete
HURRAH !!!!ReplyDelete
Chapo isidro to the top unless he goes down. Don't forget Monterey is chapo isidros pipe line and he has 100% full backing of the zetasReplyDelete
Yes, the mugs were sent to me, bad coloring but the same as above. I was reluctant to use them because i could not believe it was him. But I saw Reforma using the same, but better color, so I felt better about using them.
That is probably why they are doing the DNA, because H sure aged badly.
but looking at the features it does look like him, eyes, nose, lips, creased laugh lines, even the eyebrows.
Chivis you are badass..can i take you to dinner? :)Delete
There's an app for that! LOL.Delete
You better be "Mamito".Delete
Scumbag is nothing but a murderer the Beltran Leyva ar known for being pigs and messing with inocent families he's lucky he was captured Beltranes zetas linieros be carefull cause the Federation is not going anywhereReplyDelete
I was recently in guanajuato and saw a heavy presence of military. Its true what they say, Guanajuato suffers from the cockroach effect.ReplyDelete
Thats clearly NOT him damm they need to do a better job of framing people for there circus lolReplyDelete
that's what your face looks like when you can do all the cocaine you want 24/7 for 20 years in a row. Also, no bodyguards.... nothing? suprisingReplyDelete
A lot of big heads in GTO and the Zapopan area. Won't be surprised if they find Tutas monkey ass.ReplyDelete
If these cats can capture n create a sting operation like that n catch a Big Tuna like that, WHY IN THE HELL CANT THEY DO THAT TO CAPTURE LA TUTA? TUTA MAKES VIDEOS N BELTRAN LEYVA WAS "INCOGNITO" o disque??ReplyDelete
Didnt they another brother by the name of carlos ot mario?ReplyDelete
Chap...ito Isidro SNITCHEDReplyDelete
Dear Santa,
Can you please send the federales to capture tuta,even better have him killed by la marina!
Yeah, yeah, yeah...But the real boss that went to war with Chapo, el Viceroy continues to reign...lol. And people think the Mexican Government is trying to clean shop...There just lining up the pieces.ReplyDelete
I think mexican and usa government are the new cartel leaders.. you see the cia is assisting the afaganistan cartel and providing protection.ReplyDelete
You can tell by the level of corruption in mexico when all these old Capos are getting busted just living a normal life, going to public places like its nothingReplyDelete
I'm almost sure that chapo had something to do with Hector's capture, for a long time chapo has been ratting out all his enemy's. I have a lot of respect for Caro Q. The hole time he was in the can not one mutha fuker did he give up interviews in all he kept quiet. This fool chapo fugetabout it.ReplyDelete
So its chapos fault too o yeah chapo snitched and ebola is in texas and soon in mexico damn its always chapo because nobody else in tge world snitches and gives information only chapo!!!Delete
Shut the fuck up.this fool and chapo are enemys how the fuck is chapo gonna know were he was at? This puto bodyguard was caught last month arnoldo villa sanchez if anything he ratted him out. You fools are too much. Chapo is free,he did this he did that, he snitc hed on him and her. He gets busted same shit. You need to stop with that shit already putting false info out thereDelete
I think the meeting in cohualia they decided to give up hector. Chapo isidro is really the muscle and more respected in the blo.ReplyDelete
It aint blo anymore,more like the new cio chapo isidro organization hahaDelete
10:20 chapo isidro is no musculo, the little fat ass is all sebo and puro culo, he and his one gasolinera in sonora...Delete
Cmon guys we are slacking no one has said anything his clothesWTFReplyDelete
Weres the blo cheerleaders...ReplyDelete
My fam is from queretaro, and ive always known all the big dogs families live there, but they blend in perfectly because everyone has money there and its no big deal , plus he prob lived in san juan del rio or tequisquiapan thats where alot of drug dealers liveReplyDelete
What gets me is this pendejo tuta has not been got. His a bunk foo the name of his crew is really wak. He makes us Michoacanos look bad. That vato needs to be slapt with a cuarta in the face tell he no longer has flesh to whip of .ReplyDelete
Tme to reunite!
Dos banderas wants to lead the cartels to the promised land?
--The new leadership will not have blood on their hands or greed in their heart, so there will not be many candidates, salinas de gortaris, pena nietos, or any atracomulcos, they need to go back to supplying the casa de putas their mothers used to run and work at...(whorehouses)
--RT, Rusia Today, the tv chanel focused on propaganda for rusia and putin was just reporting on the capture of el H, i come to BB to check, and voila, it is there with comments and everything, BB on the high horse, thanks!!!
Caro strikes again ....Regulo caro corrido is becoming trueReplyDelete
What corrido are you talking about?Delete
Qual ??.I'd like to listen to it ??Delete
Its El Regalo Caro, BadAass Corrido Chuy Vega sings it....No tengo mucho dinero para regalarle un caro, disculpe me mi señor esos presentes son caros, avar la cajuela jefe este es mi humilde regalo....best lyrics ever!!!Delete
No he meant the corrido from The singer Regulo CaroDelete
And this song is related to this story how??? Because the song its a different story of what happen here so i do not understand your connection!!!Delete
What gets me is this pendejo tuta has not been got. His a bunk foo the name of his crew is really wak. He makes us Michoacanos look bad. That vato needs to be slapt with a cuarta in the face tell he no longer has flesh to whip of .ReplyDelete
Because tuta is a joke he doesnt come out of michoacan because he has no power in other places and he's people is the only ones he could rob the other big capos have huge networks all over something tuta doesn't have, he will fall soon his little thief's cartel is gone he has barley any revenue all the properties he has are stolen from peoleDelete
Damn!!! He looks tore up!! Thats what 20+ years of mafia life on the run will do to you. Dont believe the "corrido hype"... these dudes are under immense pressure from all sides involved in the devils dope game.ReplyDelete
Ya nomas falta que agarren a Memo Herdez el Grande.ReplyDelete
WONDER WHO IS GOING TO STEP INTO HIS SHOES.ReplyDelete
La fiesta a de estar a todo lo que da en culiancan.ReplyDelete
I thought H had Sinaloa under control I bet he ain't even been there in years chapo never left sinaloaReplyDelete
This fool was scared to step foot in sinaloaDelete
Carlos Beltran leyva was captured in culiacan Mochomo was captured in Culiacan Hamberto lives in Sinaloa. Hector half brother Ramiro lives in Culiacan.Delete
Thanks for the info hope they take hamberto and ramiro nextDelete
the Z must be crying. who's going to supply them the coke. This is a big hit for those 2 cartels.ReplyDelete
Damn, in the first picture he looks handsome, now looking all droopy and shit! Kids, this is why you say NO to drugs!ReplyDelete
This guy was the coronel family worse enemy ,he gave the order to kill nachos son, so aguila just got release last week,coincidence?ReplyDelete
Un saludo a los M'S en Durango, le mataron 6 estacas al Isidro en Gomez PalacioReplyDelete
What if when Chapo Isidro went to the meeting on H's behalf he made a deal to take H out of the picture so he could take over and then the authorities wouldn't be so worried about cartel and keep hitting CDS? Anyway this is a massive arrest but strange that Isidro hasn't gone yet because back in april-may it looked like it was over for him.ReplyDelete
Because those that are caught , are caught in the city. Chapito Isidro is hiding in the Sinaloa sierras. Big capos that hide in the sierras hardly ever get caught.Delete
Chapo isidro aint in the sierra hes between sonora and guasave.....la sierra es terre de la gente del chapo everyone knows that broDelete
Damn, this guy looks like he's 60 yrs oldReplyDelete
on wyglada jak FERNANDEL :-)))ReplyDelete
It's definitely him, look at the big puffy wrinkles on each side of his nose in both pictures. Also lets remember most of these government file photos are from a long time ago, in some cases 15 yrs old. People change, especially in that lifestyle. It's him.ReplyDelete
This scum he did not even show up when Nacho Coronel crew kidnapped his wife for the death of his son.ReplyDelete
Are people giving Chapo Isidro too much credit? Why would the Beltran Leyvas leave their operations in the hands of Isidro? It had been rumored that Isidro was already operating independently in some sorts. He was the muscle that el H used from time to time but Isidro taking over BLO organization when there is still one brother out there and several other JR's that could possibly take his place. Definitely a huge blow, didn't think Hector would go down this year.ReplyDelete
All this big fishs have been caught except for el viceroy,, el azul and el mayo. La tuta is no one big... sorry tuta lovers....ReplyDelete
So all beltran brothers dead or in jail is ther any left free or alive?ReplyDelete
Mario beltran leyva. Hes next to go down!Delete
There are two left. Mario and Hamberto.Delete
It looks like him,but definitely aged for a 49 year old.He looks pretty bad for that age,still relatively young?There are a lot more family members,what about DANIEL BELTRAN EL "KITOCHI" there are pictures of him online with guns,wheres monster millie,a post aint right without IT.
The 24/7 monster
El R1 Rafael Quintero taking over todos los carteles bajo " new management " . El Mencho " brazo armado " . El Senor Chapo eating tacos de Caviar y drinking Moet that was the deal with la DEA.ReplyDelete
Thats whats up,but cds is in the show quiet in the backgroundDelete
Simon el numero 1 ahora controla todo junto con El M grande....todo era planeado para aliviar el calor....y si no me creen no hay pedo pero take note we will hear of some circumstance where chapo guzman escapes.....its all planned to take the heat off of the govt and cds....o como dicen en Sinaloya la corporacion!!!Delete
I WANT TO SEE HOW MANY CIRCLES THEY PUT AROUND THIS POOR GUY'S PIC TO TRY TO CONVINCE US THAT IT REALLY IS HIM.....ReplyDelete
I bought a casa from that dude.
I should've known something was wrong when I kept finding bones whenever I dug an area to plant a garden!
Z42 hammered him.ReplyDelete
we might never know for sure if this guy is the same H, but one thing for sure is he is out of bussiness be intentional or from higher orders.ReplyDelete
Also there is lots of artists unemployed in Televisa, any guy can take 100k and set up the theatre...ReplyDelete
Lol trying to blend in with the regular people in gto. All of these cartel leaders days are numbered, all under surveillance just waiting for the right time and place to arrest or attack. Beef up the bodyguards cuz you gonna need it.ReplyDelete
Sure seems like the CDS leaders live the high life while the other cartel leaders live a mediocre or horrid existence.
Look at Z40 living in the back seat of a pickup truck.
Kiki Plancarte living in a $100 a month bungalow.
Chapo had 6 to 15 quality hideouts with easy escape routes. What? 6 of them were interconnected to the city drain system for easy escape.
Chapo lived in the sierra in make shift camp sites, and the homes in the city werent mansions, they were middle class homes with virtually no furniture, the reason 40 and kike lived like that (as well as chapo) is because they were on the run. Cant say their families arent living good right now thoughDelete
Nope u are wrong those dirty zetas don't got style or taste for good stuff u can see in the pictures of people from the zetas and the michoacanos too after they see wat the Sinaloenses do They All Want To Copy ThemDelete
es porke el chapo esta mandando operativos desde la carcel mueve las piesas.ReplyDelete
the zetas do not need back from anyone!!!!! they have there own drug connections...plus hector beltran leyva was more a...stand up guy,like a figure to represent beltran leyva...THIS CAPTURE....OH YEAH,BELTRAN LEYVA ARE BREAKING UP THROWING IN THE TOWEL CAUSE HECTOR GOT CAUGHT!NOT!!!!!ReplyDelete
yo no digo la neta por ke aki en este site ahy de todo. boca cerrada no entran moscas....ReplyDelete
El Chapo sigue Rifando mi compa' no cabe duda no cabe ni una duda perros sarnientos arrastrados por el ejercito mexicano ke se la deja caer a cada Rato con toy huevos y choriso ke asta se cagan putosReplyDelete
Rodilleras de diamantes. Pal compa.Delete
2:19 ya pa que las quiere, ya tiene callos por delante y por detras y ya no tiene por donde nunca se lo han cogido...ya valio..Delete
Saludos Hasta La Palma BadiraguatoReplyDelete
Life on the run doesn't go great for these capos. Most look horrible. Chapo is the only one that looked decentReplyDelete
Hey Chivis ... Can you please
explain the position of a Drug cartel chief financial officer? What are their duties? Are they accountants, book keepers or financial back-up ...
I'll meet you at restaurante la canasta in saltillo :)ReplyDelete
Does anyone remember the rumor of El H killing el Shaka Sergio Vega? Because they were lovers, lol. Old school blog followers and peeps in Mexico will likely remember this one. hahahha, joking aside. El H was a dirty SOB, for what he did to that MARINES family after el BOTAS was caught was the difference MAKER in what the NARCO war has brought to VIOLENCE in one country.ReplyDelete
it kinda doesnt look like him. plastic surgery like a MF!ReplyDelete
no seas pendejo cjng is a renegade cartel that refuse to cooperate with anyone. baboso!ReplyDelete
La verga es la verga!!!ReplyDelete
check it out chivis...The DEA openly is stating that their next target is...get ready all you you cds lovers,this is really going to make you all cry,just like when chapos government help ended and he had to dress up as an old man,in a wheel chair,after running through sewers,just like the rat that he is,before entering the hotel in mazatlan...well,now the dea openly admited that the next capo to go down is...i love this so much! is mayo zambada!!!!!!hahahahahah!!!!karma getting you all!love this soo much!!!!!!!11ReplyDelete
Ok and your point is??? Yes we are all waiting for mayos capture but at least we do not act like little girls that have a cartel crush and cant get over chapo you always repeat the same thing over and over this time you forgot that hes begging for food and a warm jacket. Lol what a looser you should be happy real cartel members are getting arrested it is history except caro quintero getting released but back to you. Guy relax go out get a life!!!!Delete
I am an investor that now resides Los Cabos and Los Angeles due to investing in property overhere and I have dealt many times with German Goyeneche through property investments in Queretaro and Mexico City, I always wondered how in the world he would always outbid my corporation when he never had a big real estate corporation backing him up but now it all makes sence. I talked to him a few times and he did seem like a sketchy dude but it now all makes sence.ReplyDelete
Back in the day, the street slang was 'you can outrun the police car but you can't outrun the radio'. What normies don't really get today is that high speed computing and data; data; data; and more data makes being a 'successful' high level thug, or whatever type of gusano, impossible. Hey, wake-up! The pollination cycle of the jeffe maximos is very, very short. Drugs are here to stay, but the supply chain and distribution systems are going to get flattened .ReplyDelete
Chivas, I respectfully suggest that you check the facebook page of Pescau San Miguel de Allende as they claim he was not arrested there and that anyone passing that info. may be sued by them. Some claim that he was arrested at a restaraunt named Mario´s Mariscos here in San MIguel de Allende. Some say the car belonging to Herman is still parked in front of Mario´s Mariscos. I request that note not be published but you probably should check out their threat of lawsuits. Keep up the wonderful work.ReplyDelete
3:04 actually I was on the FB page before posting it looking for photos, and nothing was written then, that was this morning...
but thank you for the heads up and your concern. Aside from refoma and several others reporting Pescau, a source of mine in SMA said the same thing, although to be fair she said "word here...."
I have changed the sentence to allegedly. It does not reflect badly on the restaurant.
Famous quote from British writer George Orwell:
"At 50, everyone has the face he deserves."
Whoa the comments here are entertaining, el H face look like 75 year old man and he's supposed to be 49 hahaha. What happen no sleep? Worked as a trailero or what? HahahaReplyDelete
Imagine if he wasn't using Just For Men? He'd look 85!ReplyDelete
Does that mean he can't join the lawsuit on just for men?Delete
What?!?!..there's a lawsuit on just for men..I gotta look into it,I use that stuff..but only on my beard.Delete
there all makin deals la mafia nunka se va akavar siempre va aver algen para el remplasoReplyDelete
Asi es sobran beltranes para mucho mas tiempo. they arent going to disapear overnight just el chapos family. Dont keep your fingers crossed.Delete
That's what no one understands just like the Italian mafia they all cut deals.Delete
sinaloenses get style?? HAHAHA. sinaloas are a bunch of nenas that spend half of their life taking selfies and flashing what isn't theirs.. cough cough chino antrax cough cough. no wonder when war comes their way, they end up in pools of blood at the hands of their contras.ReplyDelete
You have no idea what chino was doing go check why chino was actually wanted the u.s gave the green light to capture him for drug trafficking charges. Lol sinaloans took over the drug business in Mexico weather you like it or not they don't call it Jurassic park for no reason get your facts straight.Delete
You just made yourself look like a haterDelete
how did vicente lost the war to chapo? o.o en juarez ya no hay nadie del cds, nadie. all they had was el valle, and since la linea took out valenciano, they're practically done there too. they have a few places left in south chihuas, and they're getting their asses kicked there too, look at guachochi.ReplyDelete
Tu no sabes nada wey! Hay gente nueva por todos lados en chihuas desde juaritos hasta parral pendejo!Delete
Sounds like cdj is desperate for money hitting 2 ton marijuana raids is b.s cds ain't going anywhere.Delete
chapo guzman and hector are enemys so chapo doesnt even know where hector if he knew he would send sicarios to take him out not snitch on him.ReplyDelete
Huge capture... Just goes to show, El Chapo, Z-40 and now Hector Beltran Leyva, no matter how powerful you are you can and most likely will get captured.
It's only a matter of time
7:50 nosotras no somos tan putas de andar gritando "arriba jaaliiscooo!" Por toda la calle como las mariposonas panzas de olla de michoacan en cd juarez...
Aarribaaa juaaareeez! En jalisco somos muchas y muy machas...
Just ask Julio Cesar Chavez to identify him.ReplyDelete
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I sometimes joke that I'm a feelings machine, but that description isn't really so far from the truth. My brain churns out emotional reactions a rate that leaves me breathless, too fast for me to understand the why and how. Everything, everything seems to provoke some kind of intense feeling in me, and they almost always seem to be negative. I'm never just a little sad or anxious or concerned – I feel like the world is ending, over and over again, all day every day. It's like the volume dial on my emotions is constantly cranked to 11. It's exhausting for me, and I know that it's hard for the people around me. I'm too intense, all the time, every day. It's just too much.
The problem is that almost everything feels like an emergency, especially when it comes to interpersonal conflict; I have a seriously hard time distinguishing between an every day, run-of-the-mill argument and a relationship-ending barn-burner. If a friend or family member leaves before the conflict is resolved, I'm certain that they're never coming back. Nothing ever feels solid enough.
I've been thinking about this a lot, trying to figure out why I react with panicked sobbing to stupid differences of opinion that most people would just roll their eyes at. Why do these situations send off deafening alarm bells in my brain when they seem to be just blips on everyone else's personal radar? And why can't I ever stand my ground and assume that I might be right instead of turning into a babbling mess of frantic apologies and promises to do better next time?
I've come to the conclusion that a lot of it has to do with the relationships that I've had with volatile, unpredictable people. And I don't just mean romantic relationships – I mean any kind of relationship, with a parent or a sibling or a teacher or a friend. For whatever reason (I mean, I can think of actual Reasons, but I'm not going to get into them right now), I'm drawn to these people. For one thing, they're exciting, aren't they? You never know what they'll do or say next, and they tend to stir up my otherwise boring, predictable existence. Staying on their good side seems like some kind of a challenge, and I've never backed down from a challenge. And I guess it's a dynamic that I understand and feel comfortable with, even though you can never really feel as if you understand or feel comfortable with these types of people.
The problem with volatile people is that everything has the potential to be an emergency; something that they think is fine and dandy one day could send them into screaming fits of rage the next. You never, ever know how they'll react, so you always have to brace yourself. Anything that you do or say could set them off. Conversely, anything that you do or say could also delight them to no end. There's no way of knowing how things will play out, and so trying to please them is like aiming at a moving target – you'll probably never be able to hit it, and if by some stroke of luck you do, that strike has nothing to do with your skills or capabilities.
If you live with a volatile person for long enough, it's hard to maintain a consistent personal narrative. Every event is re-framed by how they saw it, and no matter how hard you try to hold on to your version of events, the force of their overreactions starts to erode your confidence in your own perspective. Trying to fight against them begins to exhaust you – they're too good at pushing your buttons, know too well exactly what to say to hurt you most deeply, and you can't keep up, can't maintain that level of mean-spiritedness. You start to accept what they tell you, because it's just easier. It's easier to be wrong all the time. It's easier to apologize. It's easier to lie down and let them walk all over you. Of course, you lose yourself in the process, but what does that matter? By that point you believe that that self was worthless anyway.
Once you've experienced that type of relationship, it's hard to know how to interact with other people, non-volatile people. You're constantly looking for hidden meaning in their words and actions, looking for clues that might tell you how to behave. You don't trust them when they say that everything's fine, because you know that nothing is ever fine, not really. Even the smallest thing could escalate into a disaster.
So you overreact. You cry and panic over stupid, petty things, because how can you ever be sure that they're really so stupid and petty? You grovel and apologize before they can get to the point where they demand and apology, because you know that it's so much easier that way. You call yourself every bad name in the book before they can even open their mouths. You try so hard to beat them to the punch, even when there's no punch coming. The new people in your life, these normal, non-volatile people, can't figure out where you're coming from. They chalk it up to low self-esteem, and try to build you up or bully you into feeling better about yourself. They all tell you that you need to care less about what other people think, and you want that, you want it so badly, but you have no idea how to stop caring. You're not certain who you are unless someone else is telling you something about yourself; you feel like a sort of black hole, sucking in everything from the people around you. You're so hungry for a version of yourself that you can love and accept, but nothing that anyone can tell you is ever enough.
You feel more defined by absence than anything else and incapable of emitting any light.


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The era of the heavy schoolbag is almost at an end. That's according to one of my neighbourhood primary schools. In a letter home to parents, the headteacher noted that more and more pupils were bringing kindles and other electronic readers into class. Continue reading
Tag Archives: BBC World
February 6, 2011 · 6:17 pm
The era of the heavy schoolbag is almost at an end
Tagged as BBC, BBC World, blackwater, blackwatertown, book, e-readers, education, fee-paying, Heinemann, kindle, KwaMathanda, KwaZulu, libraries, library, literacy, literature, natal, posh, private school, read, reading, satchel, save our libraries day, school, South Africa, textbooks, township, Umlazi, voices for the library, Xpress


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In the land of IT, the one thing you can count on is a slick vendor presentation and a whole lot of hype. Eras shift, technologies change, but the sales pitch always sounds eerily familiar.
In virtually every decade there's at least one transformational technology that promises to revolutionize the enterprise, slash operational costs, reduce capital expenditures, align your IT initiatives with your core business practices, boost employee productivity, and leave your breath clean and minty fresh.
[ InfoWorld reveals tech's 25 biggest flops of all time, plus the dirty vendor tricks to watch out for. | Snake oil, shenanigans, and snafus -- Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Field blog is your guide to the fun and crazy world of tech. ]
Today, cloud computing, virtualization, and tablet PCs are vying for the hype crown. At this point it's impossible to tell which claims will bear fruit, and which will fall to the earth and rot.
Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, however, it's easy to see how we got sucked into believing claims that simply weren't true -- whether they were about the promise of artificial intelligence or the practicality of ERP.
Here then are six technologies -- five old, one new -- that have earned the dubious distinction of being the hype kings of their respective eras. Think about them the next time a sales team comes knocking on your door.
1. Artificial intelligenceEra: Late 1950s to present
The pitch: "Some day we will build a thinking machine. It will be a truly intelligent machine. One that can see and hear and speak. A machine that will be proud of us." -- Thinking Machines Corp., year unknown
Once upon a time, machines were going to do our thinking for us. And then, of course, they'd grow tired of doing humanity's bidding and exterminate us.
The good news? We haven't been offed by the machines (yet). The bad news is that artificial intelligence has yet to fully deliver on its promises. Like, for example, in 1964, when researchers at the newly created Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab assured the Pentagon that a truly intelligent machine was only about a decade away. Guess what? It's still at least 10 years away.
Several times in the decades since, companies have tried to build an industry around AI computers -- largely supported by government research dollars -- only to run headfirst into an "AI winter" when the funding dried up.
"The longest failing technology has been AI and expert systems," says John Newton, CTO of Alfresco, an open source enterprise content management vendor. Newton began his tech career intent on studying AI, but ended up working with databases instead. "For 40 years, AI has not delivered."
Or maybe it has, but in subtler ways than the so-called thinking machines first envisioned when Stanford computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" in 1956. Technologies that seem mundane to us now would have looked a lot like artificial intelligence 30 or 40 years ago, notes Doug Mow, senior VP of marketing at Virtusa, an IT systems consultancy.
The ability of your bank's financial software to detect potentially fraudulent activity on your accounts or alter your credit score when you miss a mortgage payment are just two of many common examples of AI at work, says Mow. Speech and handwriting recognition, business process management, data mining, and medical diagnostics -- they all owe a debt to AI.
Now AI is going through another resurgence. Backed by Google and NASA, AI research may provide the intelligence behind next-generation search engines and interplanetary travel systems. The next game-changing technologies could emerge not from MIT or Stanford but Ray Kurzweil's Singularity University, an institution dedicated to the convergence of machine and man. The hype continues to flow freely.
Who knows? We may yet earn the respect of our computers -- at least, enough for them to keep us around a little longer.
2. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)Era: Mid-1980s to mid-1990s
The pitch: "The key benefits of CASE are increases in software quality and development productivity. ... The result is better vision and understanding of the business problem and how the system works, and a clearer understanding of the system's design. With their disciplined, highly structured engineering approach and emphasis on rigid design rules, CASE tools verify consistency and completeness at early stages of the development process." -- Douglas Menendez, Internal Auditor, 1991
In the 1980s, computer-aided coding was thought to be the wave of the programming future. According to the sales pitch, software engineers would become largely obsolete, thanks to CASE tools that generated code automatically using intelligent algorithms.
One problem? Automated tools were able to perform basic tasks that saved programmers time, but they did not eliminate significant amounts of coding, let alone the programmers themselves, says Mark Shavlik, CEO of Shavlik Technologies, a provider of automated solutions for critical IT management. Shavlik says he worked on a CASE project for Boeing in the mid-1980s, until it was ultimately abandoned.
The other big problem: CASE did nothing to solve the "garbage in, garbage out" issue, says business blogger and former programmer Philip McLean.
"The idea of CASE was to produce better code faster by having a computer do it," says McLean. "Just feed your specifications into the front end, and it'll spit out flawless code. The vendors counted on customers who did not realize that the biggest problem in these projects is bad specifications, and they found a lot of those customers. So, people fed bad specs in one end and got bad code out of the other."
CASE was also supposed to eliminate an enterprise's applications backlog, so the apps would always be current with what the business needed, says Virtusa's Mow.
"That was a complete fallacy," he says. "Your business needs change so rapidly that there has to be a backlog at all times or your business becomes stagnant."
Where are CASE tools today?
"Today there are some very basic forms of automatic programming in the Microsoft development tools," says Shavlik. "They speed initial development of commonly used tasks, but they're very limited. I believe we found out that creating advanced computer programs is much more difficult than what people thought it was in the early 1980s. Maybe it was a false belief in the upside of AI at the time."
3. Thin clientsEra: Early 1990s to present
The pitch: "The financial case is clear: Thin-client computing can save 30 to 70 percent of your IT costs. Centralizing servers and server support staff leads directly to higher utilization levels. Simplified software deployment radically reduces rollout costs. Longer lifetimes of Windows-based terminals reduces capital expenditure. ... All the benefits of centralised servers and support staff are realized as are most of the benefits of powerful PCs on desks, including popular Windows applications." -- Newburn Consulting, March 2002
By distributing cheap data terminals throughout an enterprise and concentrating computing power at the network hub, thin-client systems were supposed to be easier and cheaper to maintain than a fleet of PCs -- all while being virtually free of malware and user-induced hiccups. In the mid- to late 1990s, they were promoted as a panacea for overtaxed IT departments looking to slash their total cost of ownership.
When you got up close, however, thin clients proved a bit chubbier than anyone realized, says analyst Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group.
"The problem was that the servers that supported the platform weren't designed for the kind of massive I/O that the concept required, and network bandwidth wasn't up to the task, either," he says. "This made the conversion cost very high. For a solution whose primary benefit was economics, it was economically unattractive for most."
Worse, users resented giving up control over their machines, adds Mike Slavin, partner and managing director responsible for leading TPI's Innovation Center. "The technology underestimated the value users place upon having their own 'personal' computer, rather than a device analogous -- stretching to make a point here -- to the days of dumb terminals," he says.
As a result, thin clients had the biggest impact on factory floors, retail operations, call centers, and other environments where PCs did not already have a foothold.
These days thin clients are making a bit of a comeback, says Enderle, but not strictly for enterprises -- and not under the name "thin clients." "The technology is making its way into game systems, set-top boxes, connected TVs, and connected digital picture frames," he says. "Far from dead, it's undergoing a resurgence. But people are being careful not to call them 'thin clients' or even connect it to a PC experience."
4. ERP systemsEra: Mid-1990s to present
The pitch: "Enterprise resource planning systems appear to be a dream come true. ... The latest generation of commercially available software packages promise seamless integration of all information flows -- financial and accounting, human resource, operations, supply chain, and customer information. This provides for a unified view of the business, encompassing all functions and departments by establishing a single enterprise-wide database in which all business transactions are entered, recorded, processed, monitored, and reported." -- Elizabeth and Michael Umble, Baylor University, January 2002
Ah, the promise of ERP. All your essential businesses processes wrapped up into a single package that everyone in the company -- from the boardroom to the mailroom -- can easily access. One enterprise app to rule them all.
Yeah, right.
"Where ERP fails," says Roger Hockenberry, EVP for IT services provider Criterion Systems, "is when you try to apply best-practices business process that are empirically created to an organically grown enterprise. Replacing process that was developed internally, over a long period of time is not an easy thing for any organization."
Your choice? Either change your people and processes to match the software (good luck with that) or customize the software to match your business (hope you brought your checkbook).
As a result, implementing an ERP project is "like teaching an elephant to do the hootchy-kootchy," in the words of CIO magazine senior editor Thomas Wailgum. Millions of dollars later, most massive ERP projects end up half finished or largely ignored by the people they were supposed to help.
A 2006 report by the Cutter Consortium found that application software packages -- predominately ERP -- are fully implemented less than a third of the time. Forty percent of businesses reported that squeezing the promised benefits out of this software ranged from "quite difficult" to "extremely difficult." More than 90 percent of ERP projects take longer than expected to implement, and nearly 60 percent go over budget, according to the Panorama Consulting Group.
But many of ERP's failings lie with enterprises that weren't mature enough to handle the concept of integrated data flow, says Sue Metzger, management information instructor at Villanova University's School of Business. "The Y2K crisis of the late 1990s gave [ERP vendors] a great opportunity to come into enterprises and replace existing technology," she says. "Sure, some of them may have oversold and overcharged. Those were fat and happy times for many ERP providers. Organizations that had the fear of Y2K instilled in them felt ERP was the way to go, even if they weren't mature enough to handle it."
Though they never fully delivered on their promise, ERP systems are now common across large enterprises, as is the concept of data integration. "The challenge today is what to do with all that data," she says. "How do you make decisions based on that information?"
5. B-to-b marketplacesEra: 1999 to 2002
The pitch: "By 2005, 35 percent of the Internet b-to-b trade volume will be conducted via a net market or a consortium of buyers or sellers. ... The value proposition of the Internet is on a grander scale for the b-to-b space; the sheer size of b-to-b trade, coupled with inefficient processes, makes the Internet migration of business strategies very attractive." -- Jupiter Research, June 2000
They were supposed to revolutionize the way organizations did business on the Net -- matching buyers and sellers in a dynamic, interactive bazaar that would dramatically cut procurement costs while boosting efficiency. According to Gartner, by the middle of this decade some $8.5 trillion of trades would occur annually via automated B-to-B exchanges.
Well, not quite. The b-to-b bubble burst shortly after it formed. Covisint -- a massive auto components marketplace jointly owned by the big carmakers -- stalled almost immediately. It was purchased by Compuware in 2004 and now functions as an "on-demand collaboration platform" for a wide range of industries. Dell opened its own exchange for parts suppliers in November 2000. Four months later it was shuttered. Others, such as GlobalNetXchange (GNX) and the WorldWide Retail Exchange (WWRE), survived by pooling their resources.


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Big Numbers: Input And Output
June 14, 2011
We continue our series on implementing a big number library by writing the functions that translate between strings and big numbers. You may recall that we cheated in the first big number exercise by using the native big numbers of Scheme to provide input and output. In today's exercise we overcome that cheating by writing our own functions.
The two functions that convert between strings and big numbers both take an optional argument that represents the radix in which the strings are represented, which can range from 2 to 36 inclusive; if no radix is given, it defaults to 10. The functions are similar to the
digits and
undigits functions of the Standard Prelude.
Your task is to write the two functions that convert between big numbers and strings. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.


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PARIS – The French government, which was among the most vocal critics of U.S. spying practices, is now coming under fire for trying to expand its own digital surveillance capabilities.
A law making its way through parliament would give French intelligence services access to telephone and Internet usage data that would let them locate and follow a target of a terrorism investigation in real time. The law also expands the number of agents allowed to access this information to include those from the finance and budget ministries.
In addition, the law would give agents access not just to meta data about users from website hosts but allow them to seize content stored on websites and in clouds. In at least some cases, agents could request information not just to combat terrorism but also to fight industrial espionage.
Critics say the law expands the government's power without also expanding the checks on that power. They claim it could dissuade digital businesses from setting up in France.
Both houses have already passed the bill but in different versions. The Senate was examining it again Tuesday in an attempt to reconcile the differences.
The law may come as a surprise to some because of France's recent indignation at revelations the U.S. swept up more than 70 million French telephone records. But France is traditionally on the other side of the issue: co-operating with allied governments on anti-terrorism operations.
France has long struggled to walk the line between its image of itself as the country of human rights and its need for tight security laws amid waves of terrorism on French soil. The country has a robust security apparatus, honed during terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s.
In fact, parts of the new law simply make permanent powers that had been temporarily granted and repeatedly renewed since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
The government has defended the bill as necessary to modernize and streamline intelligence-gathering powers in the face of increasingly sophisticated tactics by its enemies. It noted that the National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions, which ensures the legality of communications surveillance, and the French National Commission on Computing and Freedom would provide oversight.
"It seems to me that we're now moving toward a balance between operational efficiency … and the respect of freedoms," French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament.
But groups that represent Internet service providers and defend digital freedoms think the proposed law goes too far.
"Considering the recently uncovered evidence of massive and generalized spying on citizens, the manoeuvrs of the president and of the government deceive no one," said Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net, a lobby that urges governments to protect personal data and Internet freedom. "This bill sets up a generalized surveillance regime and risks to destroy once and for all the limited trust between citizens and agencies responsible for security."
The French business lobby Medef said the law could be particularly harmful to the country's efforts to attract innovative businesses.
"This is a serious infringement of the confidence all actors must have in the Internet," Medef said in a statement.