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KDE has had something of a rough time over the last couple of years. The transition from version 3.5 to 4.x hasn't been easy, and over this period many distributions have decided to use either Gnome or stick with KDE 3.5 as their default desktop.
But we feel KDE 4 has now matured to a point where most KDE users can safely dump their old desktop and move on to the new one. There are very few stability issues, and most of the functionality found in 3.5 has been migrated to 4.3.
If you're an ardent KDE user this means switching to a KDE-centric distribution, for the simple reason that distros based on KDE best understand what KDE users need.
Rather than providing simple packages for KDE, a KDE distro is likely to include GUI refinements, usability tweaks, custom themes, artwork and a good selection of KDE applications. It's also nice when Gnome and GTK applications play happily with their KDE counterparts, especially if a compatible theme has been chosen from them both.
KDE based distros should be able to do this better than simple Gnome desktops. But regardless of how optimistic we'd like to be about KDE version 4, it's still a desktop that's in development freefall. Any KDE 4 distribution worth its salt will need to be recent, up-to-date, and ideally, open to a constant stream of new packages as the KDE developers patch and add features.
We need a distribution that's going to blend the latest features and fixes into either a rolling update, or a new, updatable distribution you don't have to wait too long for. Only then can KDE get back on-top as the desktop of choice for Linux users.
Slackware 13
We're starting with Slackware for two reasons. The first is that it's a no-fuss distribution that makes very few concessions to 'enhancing the user experience', and the second is that it typically installs the most unmodified packages of any Linux distribution.
This is obvious from the first launch after the text-based Slackware installation routine. KDE's default blurry blue background greets you, complete with the default panel, the default selection of icons, and the default theme. This is KDE back to basics.
Unlike most other distributions, this includes an icon that most packages would rather ignore – the purple and blue globule of the Nepomuk Strigi module secreted between the clock and the alarm. This is the front-end to KDE's pervasive search engine, and if you click on this icon followed by the 'Configure' button in the window that appears, you can ask it to start creating an index of your files.
We couldn't get it to work without messing around with the command line, which is probably why most other distributions hide it. On the positive side, Slackware includes the full complement of KDE plasmoids, which means esoterica like the Blue Marble and Conway's Game of Life.
Slackware has a problem with getting fonts to display correctly. We've seen this behaviour before when we've compiled our own version of KDE, so it's not surprising that Slackware suffers similar problem. It's easy to solve with the System Settings font selector, but it's a sign that very little has been done to make the average user's experience any better.
But then, what can you expect from a distribution that still requires you to type startx to launch the graphical desktop?
Verdict: Slackware
Version: 13
Website: www.slackware.com
The equivalent of the value range in a supermarket: it's the same food, just without the nice packaging.
Rating: 5/10
Chakra Alpha 3: Arch-based KDE that attempts to keep it simple, keep it safe
Chakra is a version of Arch Linux customised for live use with the KDE environment. It's also the most experimental of the distributions we're looking at, but that also means it has some rather advanced features.
The first thing you notice is that the default live desktop is fairly close to the KDE default, with the exception of the desktop folder. This contains links to some common desktop tasks, including documentation, installation, and a few KDE applications.
This is where Chakra makes its mark, because it links to a preview release of K3b 2.0, Kaffeine 1.0 and Arora. The WebKit-based Arora browser in particular feels completely at home on the KDE desktop, and is a great replacement for Konqueror's increasingly clunky web surfing. We wish other distros did the same.
Click on the Install button and you'll see a custom installation app called Tribe, which is written in Qt. This really helps with the feel of the desktop, and while Tribe still has a way to go when it comes to user management, we had no problems partitioning the drive and installing a permanent version of Chakra on our hard drive. The highlight was the use of the Marble 3D globe as a location selector.
When we finally got to the desktop, however, we were disappointed that the application links of the live version were no where to be seen. This default desktop is a plain old KDE installation. It doesn't even include the handful of helpful home directories you might expect to find, such as one for the desktop, photos or documents.
It's rare that the live version of a distro is more functional than the installed version, but that seems to be the case here.
Verdict: Chakra Alpha 3
Version: Alpha 3
Website: http://chakra-project.org
Tons of potential and an exciting rate of development mean Chakra is a distribution to watch.
Rating: 6/10


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The Appropriations Committee of the US House of Representatives has set May 8 as the date they will begin debating an election year budget that pares NASA back to its lowest level as a percentage of the Federal budget since 1959, surpassing last year's record low of 0.48%. In absolute terms, it will roughly match the 2006 Bush levels, cutting money from the Space Technology and Commercial Crew program requests for a third year and adding money to the Space Launch System and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, two House favorites.
The Congressional Space Program
The House budget contrasts with the Senate budget, which also cuts money from the $830M Commercial Crew budget request but decreases NASA's budget somewhat less in absolute terms. The House also conflicts with the Senate in oversight of the Commercial Crew program, in that the House attempts to direct NASA to narrow the current field of four manned spacecraft to a single "competitor." The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is already contracted to Lockheed-Martin, and many on the Hill would like to see NASA hand the Commercial Crew vehicle for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station to Boeing.
The report accompanying the new budget bill from the House's Commerce, Justice and Science committee calls NASA's estimated development costs on the four vehicles competing to ferry crew to the Space Station ($4.86B) "too high". After the Space Station's life was shortened by the Bush administration, which would have had it re-enter the atmosphere in 2015, one of the first acts of the Obama administration was to extend the Station to at least 2020. The report points out that the vehicles might only service the Space Station a few years before the Station is forced to re-enter the atmosphere.
The report also raises the concern that the Federal Government is not protecting its own intellectual and physical property, should one or more competitors leave the competition and strike out on its own. It is difficult to discern which one of the companies might be the target of this concern, given that all four, Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, and Blue Origin, have designed and developed their own vehicles.
Pick a winner now to avoid picking the wrong winner later
After raising the intellectual property issue, the report compares the Commercial Crew program to the failure last year of solar energy firm Solyndra, which failed in part due to the drastic recent decrease in the cost of natural gas. Solyndra's capital loans were guaranteed by the Federal Government, but no such loans or guarantees have been made in the case of the four Commercial Crew competitors, which are mostly self-funding—NASA contributes as a partner. Funding to the four vehicles in the Commercial Crew program for the last three years to date has been $830M. In contrast, the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle is funded this year at $1.5B.
The solution, according to the report, is to abandon the competition and pick a winner. "The Committee believes that many of these concerns would be addressed by an immediate downselect to a single competitor or, at most, the execution of a leader-follower paradigm in which NASA makes one large award to a main commercial partner and a second small award to a back-up partner."
Boeing has been mentioned in hearings as the preferred company by many in the House despite that it is at least one year behind SpaceX in vehicle development. The weakest competitor is Sierra Nevada, with a vehicle that is a reincarnation of the NASA HL-20 vehicle designed for servicing the Station, so it seems likely that NASA would choose Sierra Nevada for the small award in a leader-follower paradigm. But that vehicle is also being produced by Boeing as Sierra Nevada's largest subcontractor, leading to an interesting position wherein Boeing would be both the leader and the follower.
Desperate times lead to Space Act Agreements
Last year, because of Congressional underfunding, NASA was forced to use Space Act Agreements instead of the traditional, and more stringent, Federal Acquisition Regulation system to fund its Commercial Crew efforts. According to a statement Administrator Charlie Boldeny, NASA would have only been able to fund one company with the $406M it received last year in lieu of its $829M request. By using Space Act Agreements, which are also far less costly, it was able to stretch that budget to four companies.
The admission was curious in that it gave proof that Space Act Agreements allow NASA to get far more for its taxpayer dollars. Despite the resourcefulness, however, domestic U.S. access to the Station was delayed by another year to 2017.
In this year's budget request, NASA stated that it would again be using Space Act Agreements to manage the 2013 Commercial Crew Program. The House budget report strongly encourages NASA to move away from SAA's, but stops short of attempting to make it law.
Heavy lifting
The biggest curiosity in the space business is currently the Space Launch System, labeled by many as the "Senate Launch System" because NASA seems to have been forced to take a rocket they didn't specify and don't want. Both the House and the Senate require the Space Launch System by law to have the capability to lift 130 metric tons to orbit, even though no mission exists yet for the giant rocket and no one is sure that one will exist for the forseeable future.
The SLS is so expensive that NASA will only be able to afford to launch it every two years at best, giving rise to a strong suspicion that the rocket will be cancelled before completion. In attempt to spare all parties from further embarassment, the new House bill orders NASA to come up with a list of possible missions and destinations for SLS.
All the currently proposed missions could be accomplished with existing (and much cheaper) rockets, provided that NASA is able to start its planned use of orbital fuel depots for refueling. The SLS retains strong support in Congress, where it originated, and so the House bill this year requires quarterly reports on the state of the Space Launch System to make sure that it is making proper progress.
The last curiosity in the House budget is that it could potentially force NASA to explore Europa, Jupiter's watery moon and potentially the best place other than Earth to find new life. After withdrawing its support for the joint U.S.-European ExoMars program earlier this year amidst a hail of criticism, NASA proposed a new integrated (and putatively lower-cost) strategy entitled "Mars Next Decade."
The House bill increases the funding for Mars Next Decade by $88M, and mandates that the National Research Council must certify that Mars Next Decade will return a sample of Martian soil to the Earth. If the NRC is unable to make this guarantee, NASA must "(1) notify the Committees; (2) reallocate the funds provided for Mars Next Decade to the Outer Planets Flagship program in order to begin substantive work on the second priority mission, a descoped Europa orbiter (considered in the 2011 Planetary Decadal Survey; and (3) submit the Mars Next Decade mission concept, or any substitute Mars mission concept, for competition in the Discovery or New Frontiers programs."
Congress will begin debating the new bill shortly before SpaceX hopes to launch its first attempt to berth a Dragon spacecraft with the International Space Station. That launch has now slipped to May 10. Still, next week will be an exciting one for space exploration advocates, as will the entire year.

subset: commoncrawl


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KIEV — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich called for an emergency session of parliament to end political crisis and violent unrest, in a sign he might be ready to soften his hardline stance and strike a compromise.
Yanukovich was due to hold talks on Thursday with opposition leaders including heavyweight boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko, and anti-government demonstrators in the capital agreed to a truce with police until 8:00pm (1800 GMT) pending the outcome.
The parliamentary website said the special session would be held on Tuesday.
Underlining the level of mistrust between the government and opposition, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov accused protesters of trying to stage a coup d'etat, and dismissed the possibility of an early presidential election to resolve the standoff.
"All those who support this coup should say clearly, 'Yes, we are for the overthrow of the legitimate authorities in Ukraine', and not hide behind peaceful protesters," Azarov said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"A genuine attempt at a coup d'etat is being carried out," Russian news agency Interfax quoted him as saying.
Azarov told Reuters the government had no plans to introduce a state of emergency: "We don't see the need for tough and extreme measures at the moment... But don't put the government into an impasse," he said.
"People should not think that the government lacks available resources to put an end to this. It is our constitutional right and obligation to restore order in the country."
The protests against Yanukovich began in November, when he pulled out of signing a free trade deal with the European Union in favour of closer economic ties with former Soviet overlord Russia.
The unrest has swollen in recent weeks, and turned violent on Sunday when hard-core radicals broke away from the main protest area in the capital Kiev and clashed violently with riot police.
Three people have been killed on the side of protesters — two of them from gunshot wounds — and more than 150 police have been injured.
Outside the capital, thousands stormed the regional administration headquarters in Rivne in western Ukraine on Thursday, breaking down doors and demanding the release of people detained in the unrest there, UNIAN news agency reported.
Alarm abroad
The turmoil has caused alarm abroad, and on Thursday German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed anger over the Ukraine government's crackdown on protesters.
"We are greatly worried and not only worried, but also outraged at the way laws have been pushed through that call these freedoms into question," she told a news conference.
But Merkel added that it would be wrong for Europe to respond to the violence with sanctions at this stage.
French President Francois Hollande called on Ukrainian authorities to "rapidly seek dialogue".
A European Commission spokesman said Yanukovich had spoken to President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday and assured him he was ready to maintain political dialogue and saw no need to impose a state of emergency in Ukraine.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev urged the presidents of Russia and the United States to help broker negotiations, and said Ukraine was facing a possible "catastrophe".
In what could constitute the first signs of a willingness to compromise, Yanukovich told parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Rybak that the "situation must be settled immediately".
Rybak said the proposed emergency session of parliament could consider the opposition's call for Azarov's government to step down.
Rybak added that "questions linked to laws passed by parliament" could be discussed - apparently a reference to sweeping anti-protest laws rammed through parliament last week by Yanukovich loyalists.
Those laws served to boost mass demonstrations on the streets of Kiev at the weekend, and the opposition is demanding they be repealed.
The new round of talks between Yanukovich and Klitschko, former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok had been due to begin at 3:00pm, but were delayed at the last minute.
In an initial round of talks on Wednesday, Yanukovich refused to make any real concessions to opposition leaders' demands for the dismissal of his government and repeal of the anti-protest laws.


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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Three Penn State engineering teams are among the entries for the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) Engineering for You (E4U) video contest commemorating the NAE's 50th anniversary.
Entrants include: Conrad Tucker, assistant professor of engineering design and industrial engineering; Lauren Murphy, senior in mechanical engineering and film and video; and a group of students from the Engineering Leadership Development Minor (ELDM).
The contest aims to highlight how engineering creations serve the welfare of humanity and the needs of society and offers a top prize of $25,000.
Individuals and teams were invited to enter in one of six categories: middle school students and younger (kindergarten to eighth grade), high school students (grades nine to 12), tertiary education students (two-year college through graduate school, full or part time), NAE Frontiers of Engineering and Frontiers of Engineering Education participants/alumni, NAE members and foreign associates and the general public.
Tucker's video highlights notable past, present and future engineering achievements, starting with the inception of the NAE and finishing with a look beyond our cosmos, as humanity ponders the new frontier of design, engineering and innovation. It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohcw-Bxx6es.
Murphy's submission portrays the empowerment of women in the engineering field and predicts that women will become equal forces on engineering teams, playing a greater role to enhance the health, happiness and safety of our world. It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6tm1Pbgg48.
The ELDM video showcases a recent trip to The Gambia during which students delivered two baobab processing machines they built at Penn State. It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHinmawArLU&feature=youtu.be.
Tucker said he's been conceptualizing his video since he attended the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium last October. He explained, "I started to think of the best way to communicate the impact that engineering has had on humanity. I wanted to do it in a way that would be easy to understand in order to maximize the breadth of the audience, beyond the typical engineering crowd."
He enlisted help from Jessie Wang, a 2013 College of Information Sciences and Technology graduate, to find the best available software to render the animations and create the initial character representations, based on a script that he provided. Tucker noted, "Overall, it was a very rewarding experience and showcased the exciting results that can be attained with modern day technology."
Murphy had a little less time to complete her video. With two weeks left in the contest submission period, she recruited her sister Brittany Murphy, a 2013 industrial engineering graduate, as a cartoonist, and her friend Will Batchelor, a senior in film and video, to serve as the animator. Meanwhile, Murphy wrote the script, shot video footage of Penn State students in a variety of disciplines and completed the voiceover.
She said she felt it would be difficult to hone in on one particular type of technology in a two-minute video, so she chose to deliver a message that would appeal to the tech-minded as well as the general population. "I really care about increasing the number of women in the engineering field. The Women in Engineering Program and the Engineering Ambassadors work hard to recruit more female engineering students and my involvement with those groups made me more passionate about it."
Mike Erdman, Walter L. Robb Director of Engineering Leadership Development and the group's adviser, explained, "Our reception in The Gambia was extraordinary, with a dozen dancers and musicians greeting us as we got off the ferry. During a reception at the governor's office and a formal ceremony with representatives from the Gambian government, students explained and demonstrated their machine." Students included aerospace engineering's Gretchen Buttorff; chemical engineering's Sarah Torhan; and mechanical engineering's Heather Pieszala, Cara Suni and Kyle Walker.
Submissions will be judged by a panel of professionals from various engineering fields and the film and media industries. They will make their decisions based on the following criteria: creativity in the content selection and presentation, anticipated breadth of public appeal and interest and effectiveness in highlighting engineering achievements serving advancement in human welfare and the needs of society in an engaging and entertaining way. The Best Video Overall will receive $25,000.
E4U judges will also select a subset of videos to be considered for a People's Choice Award. Entrants will be notified by May 1 whether or not their video is eligible. Public voting commences June 1 and concludes July 31. Each People's Choice winner will receive $5,000.
Winning videos also will be featured on the NAE website and the NAE contest website and will be shown at the NAE 50th anniversary celebration during the academy's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in September.


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The annals of rock guitar history are filled with tales of resourceful players getting killer sounds with crusty, busted, decrepit, funky off-brand equipment from the dustiest corners of the junk shop. Some such legends have become so, well, legendary, that these castoff gear artifacts have become Excaliburs and Holy Grails in their own right—and a cottage industry of electronic alchemists keen to capture the mojo of everything from Jimmy Page's Supro Thunderbolt to Dan Auerbach's Companion Fuzz has arisen in the wake of these tales.
Despite their status as an industry vanguard and giant, Fender has built their share of gear that fit this bill. And though their offerings have been, on the whole, a bit out of reach for truly destitute players for a while now, the company's early overachievers—like the Champion series and White amplifiers—were among the first to rise from trash to treasure status. Fender's new Pawn Shop series amplifiers, the Excelsior and Greta, are a nod to the style and sonic potential of those amplifiers and their contemporaries—many built by makers long since relegated to history's dustbin. And though the Excelsior and Greta differ significantly in terms of look and function, each is a ticket to funky realms that can prompt inspiration and fresh thinking about tone, recording, and performance possibilities.
In not displaying the Fender name anywhere prominently, Fender has playfully created a cool brand that never was. Indeed, the 13-watt Excelsior looks and sounds like it could have been conceived as some electronics division of Montgomery Ward or a radio manufacturer with grand designs on diversification in the '50s. To that end, the Excelsior gets a lot of the details from that period in amplifier amplification right.
The back of the amp is wide open, with the transformer and tube section of the chassis mounted on the bottom section of the amp, and the control section placed in an enclosed section at the top—a common approach to amp layout in the '50s. The two 6V6 power tubes are enclosed in a metal cage that keeps them cool and out of harm's way. You'll also notice the considerable bulk of the 15" speaker, a nod to 15-equipped accordion amps from the Eisenhower era, given how many amps from the period had smaller 8" and 10" speakers—and one that pays big sonic dividends.
The control panel, which is part of the upper-chassis enclosure, is finished in the gray finish you see on old toolboxes, and the control set is refreshingly simple: a volume knob, a knob for the tremolo rate, and a slider for moving between dark and bright settings. To the right of the volume knob, there are three inputs—a standard guitar input, a mic input that has a pad for handling high-output instruments, and an accordion input that gives you a little low-end roll off and a little more presence in the highs and midrange.
In Excelsis Play-O
If you have experience with playing little Fenders, Silvertones, Gibsons, Magnatones, and other small amps from the period that inspired this amp, you'll be struck by how well the Excelsior nails the compressed and explosive-to-mellow character of those amplifiers. With the single-coil output of a Danelectro 3021 reissue and a Stratocaster driving the Excelsior, I could run through a range of tones from sparkling to filthy, though the amp naturally gravitates toward dirty tones at any substantial volume.
'50s-cool looks. Well-built. Interesting range of tones. Great overdrive.
Not much clean headroom.
Ease of Use:
Clean tones really are only available in the lower third of the amp's volume range, and they're best accessed with the help of single-coils—or humbuckers whose volume controls are rolled back a touch. This limitation makes the Excelsior a tough proposition for players who need clean tones at performance levels, though it records beautifully at these settings. The 15" speaker lends a little extra low-end color and headroom that give the amp a unique clean voice, and that definitely complements the amp's somewhat bright voicing.
With the volume up past a third of full, things get gritty fast. At around noon, tones from the bridge pickup take on a cool, Tweed Deluxe-like combination of compression and bite, though it lacks the balance and airiness of a Deluxe—or a Champ for that matter. What it does share with the Deluxe is a penchant for cool, honking midrange that rules for rhythm parts and slurry, percussive, Chuck Berry-/Keith Richards-style leads. When the Excelsior is wide open, it's all attitude. It growls with an authority worthy of early James Gang or ZZ Top—especially with the bright switch on. A hanging, first-position A chord sustains as if it were coming from an amp twice its size—thanks, again, in no small part to the larger speaker—and leads are all fangs and beautiful high-mid wail. Throw a primitive fuzz, like a Tone Bender or a Fuzz Rite, in front of the cranked Excelsior, and you'll be awash in glorious, fried, busted, and screaming lead tones that teeter between gloriously singing and chaotic.
The tremolo is a beautifully contoured pulse—neither too choppy nor too flat—that can move from a sexy, noir-ish rate to a fast, sci-fi-wave undulation. It works beautifully with the amp's clean tones in particular, but it will stay defined through most of the amp's volume range. It's only when you really push overdriven chords through the slower reaches of the tremolo's range that you start to significantly lose detail.
The Verdict
If you're used to contemporary clean and/or high-gain flavors, the Excelsior will take some getting used to—or it might just prove entirely outside your vocabulary. But if you need an amp that can record with personality, from clean to filthy, or a little amp that can get bellicose enough to hang with a small, rockin' combo without pedal assistance, the Exclesior has the goods to deliver.


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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush will veto a defense appropriations bill being debated in the Senate if it includes an amendment setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, the White House said Tuesday.
President Bush said Tuesday military commanders, not politicians, will lead a "new way" forward in Iraq.
Senate Democratic leaders have said they plan to bring forward an amendment from Sens. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, and Carl Levin, D-Michigan, that calls for beginning a redeployment of U.S. troops in as little as four months, to be completed by next spring. House Democratic leaders announced late Tuesday that they would bring a similar proposal to a vote by the end of the week.
But in a policy statement issued Tuesday by the Office of Management and Budget, the White House said the proposed Reed-Levin amendment infringed on Bush's authority as commander-in-chief and was "equivalent to setting a date for failure."
Republicans voting for cloture:
Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine
Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
Sen. Gordon Smith, Oregon
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine
Sen. John Sununu, New Hampshire
Sen. John Warner, Virginia
Indepdents voting against cloture:
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut
Senators not voting:
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas
Sen. Tim Johnson, D-South Dakota
Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana
"If the president were presented a bill that includes such provisions, he would veto the bill," the statement said.
Senate Democrats are trying to attach the withdrawal timetable to the bill that funds the Defense Department for fiscal year 2008.
To overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate, the Reed-Levin amendment would likely need backing from at least 10 Republicans, and -- despite recent cracks in GOP solidarity on the Iraq war -- it is unclear whether the proposal would draw enough GOP votes.
An aide to GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said Wednesday she would co-sponsor the Reed-Levin amendment. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, also backs the amendment, but other Republicans would need to join in to get it through the Senate.
Earlier this year, congressional Democrats tried a similar tactic, attaching a timetable proposal to an emergency war funding bill. Bush vetoed the bill, and Democratic leaders eventually backed down and removed the language in May to move the measure forward.
Senators on Wednesday refused to bring to a vote a Democrat-sponsored amendment that would set time limits between U.S. troop rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to give troops more time at home.
The tally was 56 to 41, failing to receive the 60 votes required to cut off debate on the amendment so a vote could be held.
Under the proposal by Jim Webb, D-Virginia, military personnel who return from deployments would have remained stateside for at least as long as they spent overseas, before they could be sent back.
Bush said Tuesday that military commanders, not politicians, should determine the course of the war in Iraq.
"Congress ought to wait for Gen. Petraeus to come back and give us his assessment before they make any decisions," Bush told a town hall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.
In a brief statement earlier there, Bush said, "Troop levels will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington D.C."
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has had the full number of troops requested under the so-called "surge" for only a few weeks, Bush said, and Congress should give Petraeus and his forces time to show results.
Petraeus is due to report to Congress in September about progress in Iraq.
An interim report coming this week will emphasize signs of hope in Iraq, including a drop in sectarian killings in Baghdad, the decision by tribal chiefs in Anbar province to move against al Qaeda terrorists and successful local elections, sources said Tuesday.
But it will also note the Iraqi government's failure to pass major political changes, including sharing oil revenues, power-sharing among the country's various ethnic and religious groups and letting supporters of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party return to Iraq's political life, the sources said. E-mail to a friend
All About U.S. Department of Defense • David Petraeus


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Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
I would to like to know, if there are no signs for stopping within a verse and the verse is quite long, how would you know where it is permissible to stop, if at all.
In Surah Toubah (Chapter 9, verse 34) - starts with Yaa aiyu halla thee na aamanoe - where in this verse can you stop within this verse before it comes to the end of the verse?
I have heard many famous reciters stop in places where there are no signs.
What are the rules regarding this issue.
Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
We can always stop on , or a good stop in which there is completeness in meaning in a statement, but what comes next is linked grammatically to the previous phrase. What we cannot do, is start on the next word once we have taken a breath. Instead we need to go back a word or two and repeat once we start to pick up the grammar, in the best possible way, although sometimes we have to go back a few words without being able to start on the verb of the phrase because the aayah is long and the verb is at the beginning.
In the aayah in question:
There are several places that make good stops, and then we need to start by repeating a word or few words after we breathe. The words: , , are all places we can stop and take a breath. We can start after the breath by repeating the word or . If you can't make it to the word from the beginning of the aayah in once breath, you can stop on the word or , but you need to start after the breath on: . This is not as good as the previous examples, but if you have shortness of breath that forces you to stop, it is still acceptable.
Please see the lessons on stopping and starting at the links below:
'Afwan. Wa assalaam alaikum.


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Today's culinary scene is rife with inaccessible restaurants — this one's too expensive, that one's booked for a solid year — but at least those challenges are predictable. If you want to try dining at Ajiyoshi, a Japanese mom-and-pop café in Tsukuba, you better have a couple days available. The laid-back owner only shows up when he feels like it.
The café doesn't seem to have lost its customer base, though. Perhaps this is due to the owner's Twitter updates — they announce when he's closing up shop — that are always polite and frequently hilarious.
Rocket News 24 shared some of the best reasons he's posted:
"A witch attacked us out of the blue. We're in bed with magic attack-related back pain."
"We're feeling kind of sad today. So, we're closed."
"We ate too many grilled chicken skewers yesterday. Sorry, we're gonna have to take the day off."
"Hungover. Try again tomorrow."
"I'm fighting with my husband. Sorry, we're closed for the day."
"We drank too much to shake off the summer heat last night. Gonna call service off today!"
[Via Food Beast, Rocket News 24
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First Released: NES (1985)
Now Available On: Virtual Console (500 Nintendo Points)
We as gamers will forever be in Nintendo's debt. The Japanese powerhouse is responsible for some of the most important innovations in the medium and continues to push the boundaries with its hardware and software creations. There are many factors behind the company's success, one of them being the strength of its flagship Super Mario brand.
The portly plumber hit the big time in 1985 when the original Super Mario Bros debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment system. Released as a pseudo-sequel to the 1983 arcade title Mario Bros, the game was originally intended as a swansong for the cartridge format ahead of the release of the Famicom Disk Drive, but instead helped proliferate the storage method and reinvent the platform genre.
Super Mario Bros was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, two men who would go on to great things in the gaming industry, to put it lightly. This is the part where we'd usually describe the backstory and core gameplay of the title in question, but if you aren't aware what the Super Mario series entails, you probably have no business browsing a gaming blog.
However, what you might not be aware of is that Super Mario Bros was almost an entirely different game. Miyamoto and Tezuka were originally working on a project built around shooting mechanics with radically different controls - a far cry from the koopa-stomping formula that has since become iconic.
Somewhere along the development cycle, this concept was dropped in favour of a focus on jumping mechanics, and the shoot-em-up gameplay was relegated to a mere bonus level before being ditched entirely. We can but wonder what the Super Mario series would have gone on to become had the original been released as a shooter title.
So many of the iconic franchise's hallmarks can be traced back to this very game. Powers-ups including the mushroom, fire flower and starman were popularised by Super Mario Bros, as were gameplay staples such as block-breaking, enemy-stomping and coin-collecting and characters like Bowser and Princess Peach.
To put it simply, Nintendo hit the bullseye with Super Mario Bros. Gamers back in 1985 had never seen a platformer done so well. Not only was it more colourful and vibrant than most other games on the market, the controls were inch-perfect, and the gameplay instantly infectious. Many believe the NES began to fulfil its true potential some years later with the release of Super Mario Bros 3, but the original's influence cannot be overstated.
The game was littered with memorable moments. Who can forget discovering those Warp Zones hidden beyond the underworld level exits? Or how about the brutal difficulty of world eight? Then there was Koji Kondo's original score, which has never grown tiresome to this day.
Super Mario Bros went on to shift 40.24 million copies worldwide, a figure that makes it the second bestselling video game of all time behind Wii Sports. Its success has influenced Nintendo to reissue the game at virtually every opportunity, from early rehashes such as Super Mario Bros Special for NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 machines to the Super Mario All-Stars collection on SNES, and Super Mario Bros Deluxe for Game Boy Color.
The game went on to spawn some of the most innovative and important platformers ever released. Its third sequel, Super Mario World for SNES, defined the genre in the 16-bit era while N64 launch title Super Mario 64 helped establish it in 3D. Then there came highly influential spinoffs such as Super Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros.
The Super Mario series remains one of the biggest guns in Nintendo's arsenal, and the fact that the firm has reverted to the basic 2D formula for recent instalments is testament to just how effective the blueprint laid down by the original was. Did 2D platformers ever get any better than Super Mario Bros? Not much!
> Nintendo retrospective: Nearly three decades of consoles
Do you have any fond memories of Super Mario Bros? Post a comment below.


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This site holds the news articles
Few people grasp the importance of good nutrition as well as Olympic Athletes. No matter how talented, they can't give their best without it. Here are four renowned Olympic athletes who say nutrition is just as important to children, especially those who risk not getting enough.
Athletes heading to the Olympic Games in London have more in common than talent and hard work. Whether they're sprinting the 100 metres or diving off a springboard, they know that without eating the right foods, they can't give their best. Nutrition is just as important to children. They need it so that their minds and bodies can grow, and so that they can learn in school and reach their full potential.
As excitement builds around the Olympic Games in London, here are four renowned athletes who've seen first-hand the difference nutrition can make in the lives of hungry children.
Dayron Robles - Hurdler. As a child, Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles suffered from anaemia, a form of malnutrition that left him tired and weak. Thanks in part to meals provided to him at school, he overcame the problem and became one of the fastest hurdlers in the world. Robles won a gold medal in the 100-metre hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then another at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
Paul Tergat - Marathon Runner. WFP Ambassador Paul Tergat says he came to school as much for the meals as for the lessons. Growing up in impoverished rural Kenya, he remembers what it was like to go to bed hungry. But with help from those meals, he was able to become one of the greatest long-distance runners of all time, winning two silver medals at the Olympics and breaking the world record for fastest marathon in 2003.
Li Ning - Gymnast. "As an athlete, I know how important good nutrition is for healthy growth," said Chinese gymnast Li Ning, who was dubbed The Prince of Gymnastics after winning 6 medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Li Ning says living in a country where hunger was once widespread, but that now contributes to WFP's work around the world helped him understand the long-term impact nutrition can have.
Robert Korzeniowski - Racewalker. One of the most successful racewalkers of all time, Robert Korzeniowski won three consecutive Olympic gold medals for the 50 km walk between 1996 and 2004, and a fourth gold medal in the 20 km walk in 2000. He said that his memories of receiving international aid as a child in Communist Poland were behind his decision to support WFP school meals programmes.
Original Article Adapted from the World Food Programme News Page.


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Payne's Bar-B-Q in Memphis for One of the Best Chopped Pork Sandwiches
Guides, reviews, histories, and travel tales from the barbecue trail.
"While the Flyer's description of Payne's sandwich as 'distinctive' and 'bold' is spot-on, I'd like to add another adjective to the list: 'perfect.'"
Payne's Bar-B-Q
1762 Lamar Avenue, Memphis TN 38114 (map); 901-272-1523 Closed Sundays and Mondays
Payne's Bar-B-Q, a family operation that has been in business since 1972, serves some of the best pork barbecue in Memphis, if not the country. The fact that the first thing on my mind whenever I enter Memphis is a Payne's sandwich is no minor detail. When most people I know think of Memphis barbecue, images of ribs come to mind. From the infamous, charcoal-cooked, dry-rubbed rack at Rendezvous to the smoked, sauce-slathered racks at Corky's, the pork rib figures prominently in this barbecue capital's delicious mission statement.
The barbecue sandwich, however, is just as important to the Memphis barbecue experience. Slow-smoked pork shoulder, pulled, sliced, or chopped, topped with red barbecue sauce and stuffed into a bun with a scoop of slaw, is always an option in this town. In fact, the broad range of eats available at Memphis barbecue joints is one of its strengths.
While a tour through North Carolina's sacred barbecue counties would bring you to some of the best pulled pork in the world, you'd be hard pressed to turn down the next cross street in Lexington and pull up to a similarly great rack of ribs. That Memphis shows love for both icons is a barbecue blessing.
Payne's stands near the corner of Lamar Avenue and S. McLean Blvd. Despite being just a few blocks away from the historic and hip Cooper-Young district, this is not a happening location. Recommendations to check out Payne's often come with some kind of hushed warning against showing up after sundown; during the day, though, cars of all types are constantly rounding this lonely corner for a taste. It's a motif of the barbecue world.
In its recent ranking of Memphis barbecue sandwiches, The Memphis Flyer awards Payne's chopped pork rendition the second place title. While the Flyer's description of Payne's sandwich as "distinctive" and "bold" is spot-on, I'd like to add another adjective to their list: "perfect."
The Paynes' smoked pork shoulder makes its own case for my exaggeration. Chopped into a coarse mixture of moist meat and crisp, chewy outside brown, the barbecue in this sandwich has a more adventurous texture than most. Payne's hot barbecue sauce—a thin, tangy, and spicy red—fleshes out the savory taste of the meat without masking its hint of smoke. The neon yellow, mustard-based slaw that sits atop ups the ante on the sauce with a great sweet-and-sour crunch, and the nondescript hamburger bun that's mainly there to sop up sandwich innards is simply classic.
Flora Payne and her son, Ron, who now run the business founded by Horton Payne and his mother, Emily, also smoke pork ribs, sausage links and bologna. I have yet to try any of those dishes because every bite of their sandwich, plopping bits of pork and slaw all over the plate to the sound of cleavers on the kitchen counter, is too good for me to order anything else when I walk back up to the counter for seconds.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Kings Dominion Announces Attraction Closure for 2020 + Hint of What's to Come
|© Kings Dominion
The park uploaded a short video to their social feeds today announcing the attraction's departure, telling fans to "wave goodbye to Big Wave Bay" as they are "making waves" for something new.
|© Kings Dominion
The Big Wave Bay wave pool has only operated on some very busy days in the past few years, so no one is really surprised to see it go. It is still listed as closed until further notice on the park's website, and its individual attraction page has been pulled down.
|© Google Maps
|© Google Maps
What if next year's addition was the start of creating a more condensed park in the far side? With another slide tower and a new lazy river (plus items like changing rooms, lockers etc) in an expansion to the far area the park could gain a lot of valuable real estate right by the theme park.
Then again that's a really big change for one season, so perhaps 2020 is the start of a bigger process? All pure speculation on my part!


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Regulators of kinesin involved in polarized trafficking and axon outgrowth
Journal of Biology volume 5, Article number: 8 (2006)
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Proteins such as UNC-76 that associate with kinesin motors are important in directing neurite extension. A small Caenorhabditis elegans coiled-coil protein, UNC-69, has now been shown to interact with UNC-76 and to be involved in axonal (but not dendritic) transport and outgrowth, as well as synapse formation.
Vesicle trafficking and neurite outgrowth
Neurons adopt a unique morphology that is different from other cell types in that they extend dendrites and axons from their cell bodies. The dendrites and axons serve two main purposes: to connect distant cells by extending projections between the pre- and postsynaptic targets, and to direct electric signal flow within neurons. Both functions require the proper outgrowth and polarization of neurites, which develop into dendrites and axons.
One of the common mechanisms underlying the outgrowth and polarization of developing neurites is the targeted trafficking of vesicles to the growing neurite tips [1]. One source of materials needed for this growth is thought to be exocytic vesicles derived from the trans-Golgi network. These vesicles are transported to sites of growth, where they fuse with the plasma membrane to deliver polarized membrane proteins to the growing neurite. In support of this idea, live imaging of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and synaptophysin, two axonal targeted proteins, tagged with fluorescent proteins in cultured hippocampal neurons, revealed fluorescence on vesicles moving in an anterograde direction (away from the cell body) in extending axons [2]. Interestingly, whereas synaptophysin was seen more on vesicular structures, APP was found in elongated tubules [2], suggesting that different components are shuttled to the growing neurites on distinct types of transport containers.
How do neurons control all these transport events? If the directional trafficking of vesicular cargos is essential for neurite extension and polarization, what are the molecules regulating the trafficking and fusion processes? Extensive work in the past decade suggests that at least three cellular processes are likely to contribute to neurite polarization and development: microtubule reorientation, motor-dependent cargo transport, and membrane fusion mediated by soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) [1]. The mechanism underlying microtubule reorientation is not yet fully understood, but evidence suggests that the eight-subunit exocyst complex Sec6/8 might have a role in directing microtubule extension and vesicle targeting [3]. The involvement of SNAREs (SNAP-25, syntaxin, and TI-VAMP) in neurite outgrowth is well documented and nicely reviewed [1, 4–11]. Here, we focus mainly on the motor-dependent transport in developing neurites and address how this process affects neurite polarization and extension. New work by Su and Tharin et al. in this issue of Journal of Biology [12] has identified a new potential regulator of the process.
Kinesins in neurite polarization and outgrowth
The kinesins are a large family of microtubule-associated motor proteins that have crucial roles in intracellular trafficking, cell division and signal transduction [13, 14]. Similar to other motors, kinesins contain a conserved 'head' motor domain that hydrolyzes ATP and walks along microtubules, and a divergent 'tail' domain that is thought to bind cargos [15] (Figure 1). Recent work has highlighted the important roles of kinesin in neurite polarization and outgrowth. First, in hippocampal cultures, kinesin-1 specifically accumulates at the tip of neurites that are fated to become axons, and the initiation of an axon extension stabilizes the axonal localization of kinesin-1 [16]. Second, during the extension of dendrites and axons, localization of dendritic proteins (such as the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxa-zolepropionic acid (AMPA) and N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor complexes [17, 18]) and axonal proteins (such as growth associated protein 43 (GAP-43) and presynaptic components [18]) is dependent on specific kinesin motors. Knockdown of the kinesin motors using antisense oligonucleotides not only disrupts dendritic or axonal localization of these proteins, but also suppresses neurite outgrowth, presumably by blocking kinesin-dependent vesicle transport [19, 20]. This strongly indicates that as molecular motors, kinesins are essential for the trafficking of cargos necessary for both neurite polarization and extension.
One key question that remains unanswered is how kinesins achieve trafficking specificity in developing neurons, as this forms the basis for neurite polarization and differential outgrowth. In principle, two possible mechanisms could be used by the cell to solve the problem. First, kinesins could be selectively trafficked to dendritic and axonal domains and cargos could be transported to these domains by interacting with the motors. Alternatively, motors could have no inherent preference for dendritic or axonal trafficking; instead, the binding of dendritic or axonal cargos to motors would direct them to specific domains. Currently, there is evidence in support of both these possibilities [17, 18], indicating that the actual situation in vivo could be complicated. Therefore, defining cargo-kinesin motor interactions and establishing their roles in domain-specific trafficking will be critical to elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the establishment of mature neuronal structure. The recent work by Su and Tharin et al. [12] on the C. elegans protein UNC-69 provides new insights into both the molecular mechanisms and the complexity of axonal trafficking.
UNC-69, a coiled-coil protein important for polarized trafficking and axonal outgrowth
Using a genetic approach in C. elegans, Su and Tharin et al. [12] have not only identified a novel component of a protein complex that has crucial roles in axonal targeting, but have also uncovered potential roles for the complex in synapse assembly. UNC-69 is a small, evolutionarily conserved coiled-coil protein [12]. In unc-69 mutants several outgrowth defects are observed, including premature termination of axonal processes, ectopic extension of branches, and de-fasciculation of axon bundles [12]. This spectrum of phenotypes resembles the disruption of UNC-76 [21, 22], a protein whose Drosophila homolog binds to the carboxyl terminus of the kinesin heavy chain [23]. Loss of unc-76 function phenocopies the defects of Drosophila kinesin mutants in axonal transport, suggesting that UNC-76 coordinates with kinesin to regulate cargo trafficking in axons [23].
The similarity of the unc-69 and unc-76 mutant phenotypes suggests that UNC-69 and UNC-76 could function together to regulate normal axon development. Indeed, UNC-69 and UNC-76 interact through a conserved coiled-coil domain, which is at least partly required for the function of UNC-76 in vivo [12]. Through extensive analysis of double mutant combinations among unc-69, unc-76 and other classes of outgrowth mutants (such as unc-6, which is defective in a netrin, unc-119, which lacks human retina gene 4 (HRG4), and so on), Su and Tharin et al. [12] showed that UNC-69 and UNC-76 act in a single pathway to regulate axon development. Interestingly, UNC-69 and UNC-76 proteins colocalize to puncta distributed in both the axon and the soma, consistent with the model that they form a protein complex in vivo [12]. Taking these results together, Su and Tharin et al. [12] have provided strong evidence that UNC-69 is involved in normal axon development. By interacting with UNC-76, UNC-69 is likely to be tethered to kinesin complexes, and it may coordinate with UNC-76 and kinesins to guide the vesicle trafficking in the growing axon that is necessary for axon extension and development.
In addition, the authors [12] also found that the UNC-69-UNC-76 complex might be involved in regulating synaptogenesis. Deciphering whether an axonal-outgrowth protein participates in synaptogenesis is complicated by the fact that axonal outgrowth precedes synapse assembly and thus has an effect on synapse formation. Using hypomorphic alleles of unc-69, however, Su and Tharin et al. [12] found that these mild alleles exhibited defects only in synaptogenesis (specifically, in clustering of puncta marked by the synaptic-vesicle marker synaptobrevin) but not defects in axonal outgrowth, suggesting a direct involvement of UNC-69 in synapse formation. One possibility is that UNC-69 directs the axonal trafficking of a type of cargo vesicle used in the assembly of synapses. Further characterization of the synaptic defects in unc-69 mutants and the identification of interactions between UNC-69 and synaptic proteins should refine our understanding of the role of UNC-69 in synaptogenesis.
Several interesting questions remain. Firstly, what is the exact role of UNC-69 in the UNC-76 protein complex? Unlike motor mutants that cause general transport defects, loss of unc-69 function leads to defects only in growth and synaptic-protein localization in axons, but not in dendrites, suggesting that its function is axon-specific [12]. One possibility is that UNC-69 is a cargo-associated protein and that its binding to a kinesin complex directs the cargo to axons in a similar manner to that of other known cargo-associated proteins [14]. Alternatively, UNC-69 might act as an adaptor and recruit other proteins to the UNC-76 complex, which then specify the destination of cargos. Consistent with a role for UNC-69 in cargo selection, SCOCO, its vertebrate homolog, interacts in yeast two-hybrid assays with ADP-ribosylation factor-like protein 1 (ARL1), a membrane-associated small GTPase involved in post-Golgi transport [24].
Secondly, how is formation of the UNC-69-UNC-76 complex regulated in vivo? Under normal conditions, UNC-69 and UNC-76 are seen on the same cargo-like, axonal and perinuclear puncta, whereas in unc-116 (kinesin) mutants they mislocalize to non-overlapping regions [12]. This indicates that the interaction between the two proteins is probably dynamic, and other proteins whose localization is dependent on UNC-116 kinesin might help to regulate the interaction and localization of the two proteins.
In summary, Su and Tharin et al.'s work [12] has provided evidence for an evolutionarily conserved function of UNC-69 in axon development in both the nematode and vertebrates. Further characterization of the proteins and/or vesicular cargos associated with UNC-69 and UNC-76 is likely to unravel the complexities of protein trafficking and targeting in developing axons.
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Luo, S., Nonet, M.L. Regulators of kinesin involved in polarized trafficking and axon outgrowth. J Biol 5, 8 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/jbiol41
- Neurite Outgrowth
- Kinesin Motor
- Netrin
- Axon Extension
- Axonal Localization


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The 15 in. Electrolux laundry pedestal offers the industry's largest usable capacity and tallest storage.*
The Electrolux pedestal drawers take your appliances to new heights and help you organize the entire laundry room. They are perfect for storing laundry supplies and extra towels.
- Store laundry supplies, your iron and other cleaning supplies that may currently be stored in a cabinet
- Elevate your washer and dryer up to waist level
- Raises your washer or dryer 15 in.
- Holds 300 oz. detergent bottles and paper towels standing upright
- Supports your laundry basket with a flat-top design, which helps you conveniently load and unload laundry and prevent clothes from falling on the floor
- Holds your largest detergent products, so they're available when you need them
- Platinum Star® limited warranty includes a 3-year coverage on parts and one year on labor without charge (Eligibility based on product registration with Electrolux North America within 60 days of purchase. Products must have been purchased on or after July 1, 2013. Coverage includes material parts for 3 years and labor for 1 year)
* Based on manufacturer specifications


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Per Gateway Pundit, sounds like the bombings are starting to blur together:
A report of a bomb killing 18 people, mostly children, on Tuesday in the Iraqi city of Ramadi was wrong and stemmed from confusion over a similar attack the day before, police officials and residents said on Wednesday.
The reported killing of so many children drew swift condemnation from the president and the prime minister, but Colonel Tariq al Theibani, security adviser for Anbar province, said the report of the bombing on Tuesday was wrong.
"It happened the day before yesterday," he told Reuters.
He said 18 people, many of them children, were killed on Monday by a suicide car bomb, as previously reported…
Theibani said the confusion may have arisen partly because the victims of Monday's car bomb were buried on Tuesday.
The loud blast from Tuesday's controlled explosion near a soccer field may have also contributed to the confusion.
More from WaPo:
"It's a tragedy that the kids are targeted," [Col. Tariq al-Alwani] said. "The kids we consider as a message to the world." He said news of the bombing had emerged a day late because most reporters have left Ramadi out of concern for their safety.
It's tempting to draw grand truths about the state of Iraq reporting from the fact that the AP, Reuters, AFP, and UPI all reported the bombing as having happened on Tuesday, but their sources were solid — local police and state TV — and blame was laid squarely at the feet of AQ, not the U.S. There's no lesson here, I think, except maybe not to trust everything you see on al-Iraqiya.
Consider this a formal clarification of yesterday's item.


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Astros president Ryan driven by love for the game
In exclusive Q&A, Reid Ryan offers insight on state of Astros for 2014
HOUSTON -- Entering his first full season as president of business operations for the Astros, Reid Ryan has packed enough work into nine months to last a few years.
Ryan, hired in May by owner Jim Crane to replace George Postolos, has given the Astros a friendly public face, while he works around the clock behind the scenes to make sure the team's front office, sponsors and fans are content and understand the direction the club is heading while it rebuilds.
Of course, much of Ryan's time since being hired has revolved around the team's messy television situation in which Comcast SportsNet Houston -- the regional network partnership started prior to last season with the NBA's Houston Rockets and NBC -- is available to only about 40 percent of the Houston television market. That remains tied up in court.
During the season, Ryan wasn't shy about sitting in the stands with fans, engaging them on Twitter and having focus groups to hear what they want. As a result, the team moved the Community Leaders billboards that blocked the downtown view for some at Minute Maid Park, opened the gates earlier so fans could attend batting practice and expanded its winter caravan, among other initiatives.
And now, the former Astros batboy who grew up just south of Houston is working alongside his legendary father, Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, who last week was hired by the Astros as an executive adviser.
Reid Ryan spent some time with MLB.com prior to the start of Spring Training for a Presidents Day question-and-answer session.
MLB.com: You've been on the job now for nine months. What have been some of your biggest challenges outside of trying to get the games on TV?
Ryan: I think when I look at the big picture, and that's really how I tend to look at stuff, is kind of from a 30,000-foot view. The biggest challenge has been trying to engage the fans and make sure they know this is their team. What I mean by their team, that we're listening to them and we hear their concerns and their concerns are being addressed. And so, I think it manifests itself from the plan that [general manager] Jeff [Luhnow] has in place to put a winner back on the field. It gets down to things, whether it's [relocating] the Community Leaders sign or whether it was opening up early so people could watch batting practice or tweaks with FanFest. We've really tried to be as inclusive and as open and transparent as we can with our fan base. I feel like we've won credibility, and that's really been, I think, over the last nine months.
My goal has been create trust and credibility with our fan base. What happened last year with the Minor Leagues [having the best overall record in baseball] was real big for us. We were saying, 'Hey, look, this is the plan,' and we had some tangible things to hang our hats on. So I think the step for us as a challenge is, one, the big league club is going to be better this year. We're tempering expectations ... 'Look, we doubled the payroll and we all expect a significant improvement.' But does that equal .500, does that equal making the playoffs? Those are probably more of a challenge than picking up 15-20 wins. I think there's credibility issues we're going to have to address with that.
I think the TV situation, we've continued to say, 'Look, we're doing what's in the best interest of the Astros long term and we really have to run that out.' I think fans are starting to see that the things that we're talking about when I first got here and over the last nine months, we've pretty much done them all, and the ones that we haven't finished yet, I think there's evidence that we're moving in the right direction.
Thank you #Astros fans for coming out to Fan Fest. Fans taking BP. #longball pic.twitter.com/lnhCWLZHCe- Reid Ryan (@robertreidryan) January 25, 2014
MLB.com: You've made it a point to really listen to the fans and sit down with them when you can. What are the most frequent messages you hear from them?
Ryan: I think people want to have a quality organization. When I say that, I think this community holds its sports team to a high standard. And so, it starts with being competitive on the field. Folks are realistic and they understand you've got to get a little lucky to win a World Series. But I think they expect the standard that was set, sort of in the Craig Biggio-Jeff Bagwell era, of how many times we went to the playoffs -- Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt. That is what they want. I think they want a consistent team that has an opportunity to win. What else they desire is having an in-stadium product and a front office, game employees, an experience at Minute Maid Park that is of a first-class nature and one of quality. That's what we're working on giving them.
MLB.com: The demands of your job have kept you busy around the clock, but what have you found to be the most enjoyable parts of being Astros president?
Ryan: I just enjoy the game of baseball. For me, the part I probably enjoy the most is when the games are going on, or that I'm out in the community talking about the Astros, or when I'm around the players and taking about the game. I like setting a vision for people and then trying to drive the ship in that direction.
And so, I'm a firm believer that this game serves a higher purpose than having nine guys on the field playing against another nine guys. This game, you become part of the fabric of your community, and you can really carry the hopes and dreams of a lot of people on what you do every single day. There's few jobs in which what you do every day affects so many people's lives and has an opportunity to bring joy to people's lives. [When the team is winning,] kids can't wait to see the highlights of the game, people can't wait to come out. They get up every day and get online ... and see what everybody's been doing. So, there's a responsibility that not just the city of Houston, but those in the Gulf Coast and across the state of Texas expect us to uphold. That's very enjoyable to me. I like the responsibility of knowing that what I'm doing matters to people.
MLB.com: Your dad, Nolan Ryan, was recently hired as an executive adviser. How much do you plan to rely on him, and how much will he be around the ballpark?
Ryan: Obviously, I've had the luxury, because he is my father, of calling on him and talking to him since I got this job. That won't really change, but I think what this will do is it will free him to really sort of get involved with our organization beyond the periphery and beyond just talking to me on the phone. I think what you're going to end up seeing is that he'll be at pretty much most of the home games. He wants to keep the flexibility of the schedule because he's at the point in his life where there's things he wants to do, understandably.
I think you'll see him be involved with the plan that Jeff's executing, as well as the plan Jim's executing. What that means is he'll be in Spring Training for a week to two weeks. You'll see him go down to the Minor Leagues some and be involved with some of our players down there. I think you'll see Jeff use him on some special assignments, whether it's to go look at somebody possibly in the Draft or to look at somebody with another organization, as well as probably meet with the players here at the big league level and help [manager] Bo [Porter] out in whatever capacity that he can. In a lot of ways, he's sort of what we have with Enos Cabell or Craig [Biggio] or Roger [Clemens] in the fact that he'll be bonding with the players, and when he talks to those guys, they listen because of his experience.
But he also brings with him the experience of being in the front office, both with the Astros here and when [former GMs] Gerry [Hunsicker] and Tim [Purpura] were here, being over the Rangers as the CEO and president and seeing them through bankruptcy, the signing of a Japanese player, the trading of players. He brings a lot of front-office experience that all of us will be able to draw upon. So I think he'll be a phone call away from all of us, whenever we need him.
MLB.com: Considering how busy you are, how much are you still able just to enjoy watching a ballgame these days?
Ryan: That's really the best part of the job. That's why you do what you do. I've never understood people who work in this business and then don't go to the ballgames. That's the enjoyment of why you do what you do. For me, that's the time where the fruits of your labor, you're able to enjoy. But really I think when I look at how busy I am, I think it's a compliment to where our organization is going. Because there's so many people that care about the Astros that have felt excluded from the last couple of years or that, because of the performance on the field with the team, maybe didn't want to raise their hand and say, "Hey, I'm an Astro fan."
We're seeing a reawakening of a lot of folks. The amount of former players that have reached out to me over the last 120 days -- guys from Glenn Davis to the guys like Roy [Oswalt] and Lance [Berkman], to Jeff Bagwell or Phil Garner or whoever it is -- Terry Puhl, Billy Dawley. I've had so many players reach out to me and say, "Hey, I want to do something, I want to help, I want to be a part of this." We've recently had a lot of partners and long-time people in the community say, "Hey, we want to help the Astros get back on top." Not just here, but with our extensive caravan and all around the state and Louisiana. I think we're on the verge of something great. It's a fun busy. It's not, "I hate going to work" busy. It's not that at all. It's, "Man, I wish I had more than 24 hours in my day because there's just so much excitement around this team." We've got to do it with these young guys and these first-round Draft picks and all that other stuff, but people can see that there's light at the end of the tunnel and they're getting excited about it.
MLB.com: Is this the year the Astros begin getting people's attention on the field again?
Ryan: In some ways yes and in some ways no. I think that people have heard -- and I've been here nine months and Jeff's been here a couple of years -- people have heard, 'Hey, this is what we're doing,' and they've seen the Minor League teams have responded with rankings and titles and playoff appearances. I think they really, before they're all in, before they're 100 percent committed to being back with the Astros, they want to see the play at the big league level improve.
So, when you ask, 'Is this the year we begin to get people's attention?' I think yes, it is the year, because you're going to see George Springer at some point during this year. You're more than likely going to see [Jonathan] Singleton at some point during this year. Is this the year [Michael] Foltynewicz, [Asher] Wojciechowski or [Mark] Appel come up? I don't know. But there's talent that will be emerging, and I think that talent is going to get people excited, and I think the guys that made their freshman debuts last year, I think you're going to see some of those guys -- and it's not all of them because we had so many -- but you're going to see some of them take another big step forward.
The attention we're going to get, whether we can hold it or not, will depend on how many games we win. I think '14 is going to be a big year, but I really look to '15 to sort of being the year that we're really starting to make a run.


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General UAS Links
The following links are all for the Juneau Campus. Most of these services are also available for students at the Ketchikan and Sitka campuses. Students taking mathematics or statistics courses through Ketchikan or Sitka are encouraged to browse the Ketchikan Campus Homepage or Sitka Campus Homepage, as appropriate, for student support services offered on these campuses.
- The Juneau Campus Learning Center Homepage contains information on resources available to students. This is a great place to study and work on homework in a group setting. Math majors and students with strong communication skills and abilities in mathematics and statistics are encouraged to obtain part-time tutoring positions at the Learning Center.
- The Information Technology Helpdesk Homepage contains information on Computer Lab schedules. It is the place to go if you are looking for experts at accessing university IT resources, such as academic technology, email, and network access. The Helpdesk also assists Juneau campus users with desktop and network technical problems by providing initial troubleshooting and coordination with technicians.
- The Egan Library Student Resources Page has useful information on conducting searches of sources. It also has email addresses of library staff who can help in various ways.
Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Links
- Each year, for the past several years, the mathematics community has observed April as Math Awareness Month. The Mathematics Awareness Website is designed for this very purpose with the goal to increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. This site also has links to math awareness pages from earlier years.
- The ASA public relations campaign—designed to increase interest in the field of statistics and recruit the next generation of statisticians—launched August 19. The This is Statistics campaign will educate students, parents, teachers, and counselors about the abundant and well-paying career opportunities in statistics. The informational website features videos of "cool" statisticians doing interesting work, career and salary information, sectors that employ statisticians, and an interactive map of select organizations across the world at which statisticians work.
Graduate School
Aside from Peterson's Guides and other such publications, here are some resources specifically for students with an interest in pursuing graduate studies (or research) in the mathematical sciences.
- Information on opportunities for current undergraduate mathematics majors are available on the Undergraduate Mathematics Majors Page of the AMS website. This page provides information on graduate programs in mathematics and the various ways in which graduate students of mathematics may fund their graduate studies. The information also includes various summer opportunities available through NSF and REU sponsored programs, internships and jobs,career options/profiles for mathematics majors, etc.
- Tips on choosing graduate schools in the mathematical sciences can be found on the MAA Students Page.
- To search for a graduate school of your liking (in Canada or the US) try the site www.ams.org/FindGradPrograms.
- If Data Science is an area that might interest you, check out the Discover Data Science website. This site provides answers to many, if not all, questions you might have about data science. Another potentially useful website is the Master's in Data Science website.
- Here are a couple of sites from The DataScience Explorer: https://www.datascienceprograms.org/ and https://cybersecuritydegrees.org/. These sites focus extensively on helping students research higher education and labor trends in the instructional education & learning sectors.
Careers in General
- The UAS Career Services is there to help you find employment opportunities, guide you through the application process, and get you ready for interviews. Be sure to stop by and get to know the very helpful staff in this office.
- A nice general website on careers is the What Can I Do With This Major website. Check out information on mathematics and statistics.
- Some more sources and tips on career options/profiles for careers and tips for choosing graduate schools in the mathematical sciences can be found on the MAA Career Profiles Page, the AWM Career Resources Page, the SIAM Students' Page and the NSF publication on Opportunities for the Mathematical Sciences.
- Another resource is the https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/careers-in-mathematics/ page on the Learn How to Become website. This website contains information about careers in a wide range of fields, as well as information about possible internships at https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/career-resource-center/internship-resources/.
Careers in Teaching
- Math for America (MfA)is a non-profit organization that invests in teachers of mathematics at the K-12 levels. Information on opportunities available through MfA can be found at www.mathforamerica.org.
- Project SEED, a national mathematics program, offers challenging and fulfilling careers in teaching at a variety of grade levels. More on this organization and opportunities can be found at Project Seed
- The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has an attractive program for individuals interested in pursuing (or switching mid-career to) a career in secondary school teaching in the STEM disciplines. In addition to a range of valuable specialized training, Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows receive a $30,000 stipend in the first year, and salary during a 3-year teaching commitment in qualifying schools (high-need urban and rural secondary schools)
- Math Teacher Edu was created to give aspiring mathematics teachers the tools they need to prepare for a career dedicated to preparing America's youth for the global job market of the 21st century. This free and independent resource draws from state Departments of Education to provide step-by-step guides that detail the requirements to become a certified mathematics teacher.
- American Mathematical Society
- Mathematical Association of America
- National Association for Mathematics
- Association for Women in Mathematics
- Pi Mu Epsilon, the Honorary National Mathematics Society
- The International Mathematical Union
Applied Mathematics
- Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics
- International Association of Mathematical Physics
- Society for Mathematical Biology
Mathematics Education
TI - Graphing Calculators
- The Education Portal of the Texas Instruments Homepage.
- Finding your way around the TI-83+/84+ Graphing Calculator on MathBits.com. This web site is a useful source for help on using your TI-Graphing calculator.
Maple can be accessed on the UAS Network in the Math & Science Folder.
- The Maple Application Center: Maintained by Maplesoft, a division of Waterloo Maple Inc. This site also has a link to the Maplesoft homepage which has information on obtaining downloads of Maple.
- The Stat/Math Center of Indiana University at http://rt.uits.iu.edu/visualization/analytics/papers-tutorials.php - see the Tutorials and Working Papers section.
Geometer's Sketchpad
Geometer's Sketchpad can be accessed on the UAS Network in the Math & Science Folder.
- The Geometer's Sketchpad Homepage has software related information, classroom resources and other information related to the Geometer's Sketchpad..
- The Math Forum's Corner for interactive Geometry Software contains additional classroom resources for Geometer's Sketchpad.
Scientific Word-processing with LaTeXShareware LaTeX and TeX Sources:
TeX, LaTeX and other versions of TeX are powerful typesetting systems that are very widely used in scientific word processing, in particular by mathematicians. UAS math majors are encouraged to become familiar with at least one of these shareware products when preparing papers for class projects.
The WinEdt front-end and MiKTeX typesetting system are installed on the UAS network and are available on all computer lab machines, the Learning center machines and some laptops. This program can accessed in the Math & Science Folder.
- The WinEdt Homepage is the place to go if you wish to obtain a copy of WinEdt, a widely used (shareware) front-end for compilers and typesetting systems, such as TeX or HTML. WinEdt's highlighting schemes can be customized for different modes and its spell checking functionality supports multi-lingual setups, with dictionaries (word-lists) for many languages available for downloading from WinEdt's Community Site.
- A quick guide to using LaTeX (PDF | 1.7 Mb)
- You may download AMS-LaTeX from the AMS Author Resource Center, look at the various resources under the section on Author Tools.
- Other TeX related links can be found by performing a web search using the key words TeX or LaTeX.
A more recent product, the LaTeX version of RStudio, is TeXstudio. This product is open source (free), is available for all major operating systems, and has many useful features. Among the features are interactive grammar and spelling checkers!
Another LaTeX platform, free for individual users, is Overleaf. This online (cloud-based) LaTex editor has everything a new user might need, including extensive help resources, and can be used in much the same manner as Google Docs for purposes of collaborative writing.
Non-shareware Scientific Word Processing Packages:
- Various levels of scientific word processing software can be obtained from the MacKichan Software Inc. homepage. This site also has some user-help links for the software.
SPSS can be accessed on the UAS Network in the Business Management Folder.
- The SPSS Homepage has some helpful information on using SPSS
- The Stat/Math Center of Indiana University at http://rt.uits.iu.edu/visualization/analytics/papers-tutorials.php.
R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and Mac OS.
- All information that you will need on R, including downloading and user help, is located on the homepage of The R Project for Statistical Computing at http://www.r-project.org/
- Tinn-R is an alternative script editor that has the capability of highlighting, formatting and checking R syntax as it is entered. This script editor is free and can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/tinn-r/.
- The R-Commander: A Basic-Statistics GUI for R along with relevant instructions may be downloaded from http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/. This was written for courses equivalent to UAS STAT 273 and is public domain software (i.e., free). This would serve as a great introduction to those interested in developing their skills in using R.
- R Studio is "is a free and open source integrated development environment for R," and provides another environment in which to work with R. This website contains other R-related packages as well.
Sage is a mathematics software system that provides a viable, free, open source alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica and Matlab. All information that you will need on Sage is available at http://sagemath.org/.
Note to viewers
Your help in improving this page is greatly appreciated. If you know of a link which you believe should be included in (or deleted from) this page please email this link to the mathematics program webmaster with a brief description of why this link is useful (or should be removed).
Note to viewers
Your help in improving this page is greatly appreciated. If you know of a link which you believe should be included in (or deleted from) this page please email this link to the mathematics program webmaster with a brief description of why this link is useful (or should be removed).


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Nearly 30 years after Robin Durrer was killed, the folks in her old neighborhood still recall that, if they were outside when she rode past on her bicycle, they better have had plenty of time to talk.
Story originally published January 31, 2010
Nearly 30 years after Robin Durrer was killed, the folks in her old neighborhood still recall that, if they were outside when she rode past on her bicycle, they better have had plenty of time to talk.
Robin wasn't about to just wave and go on by. She would always stop. She loved to visit, and she wanted to make everybody happy.
She had no fear of strangers and would never imagine that anyone would wish her harm.
Her developmental disabilities meant that she was by all accounts an adult on paper but a child at heart and of mind. So whoever raped her, whoever beat her to death and left her in the weeds just a few hundred yards from her backyard, was the worst kind of killer, said Chuck Clark of the Franklin County sheriff's office.
"Someone took advantage of her friendliness," said Clark, the office's cold-case detective. "Their intent all along could have been to kill her, and she would have thought they were just a regular friend."
Ron Durrer Sr. found his 19-year-old daughter's body near a railroad track not far from their Hamilton Township property on Sept. 10, 1981, while searching for her after she had failed to come home the night before.
Robin's Huffy Santa Fe 10-speed was propped against a nearby tree; authorities say it appeared that she went into the woods voluntarily. What they don't know is why and with whom.
What the authorities and Robin's family do say for certain is this:
On Sept. 9, a Wednesday, Robin's mother was at a tax-preparation class, and her father was visiting the homes of Rohr Road Baptist Church members.
Robin was supposed to be baby-sitting. But she sneaked out, leaving her opened school books scattered across the living-room floor. She left her 5-year-old brother with the next-door neighbor and took off for the B&C Market, the neighborhood store less than a half mile away.
The clerk says she was there and bought a soda and a candy bar. Someone last saw her riding her bike on Rathmell Road near the railroad trestle between the store and her home. That was about 7:40 p.m.
Robin had an innocent zest for life.
She loved the outdoors and would sneak out of her parents' Reese Road home to spend the night digging for earthworms that she would sell for spending money.
She and her older sister danced in the living room and roller-skated in the basement. They fought, too. Robin always won.
She got angry at her mother and ran away from home once. She threw some clothes in a little cloth bag and took off out the front door. She made it as far as the big boulder in the front yard.
Her dad pulled into the driveway a while later and found her sitting there. She told him she was leaving home. He asked her where she was going.
"I haven't made up my mind yet on which way I want to go," she told him. Then, she marched back inside. She was 8.
"She was strong-willed, defiant, independent," said Rhonda Durrer, the older sister by 19 months.
"She thought no matter what the situation was, she could handle it," Rachel Durrer said of her daughter. "She wasn't afraid of anything."
Rachel always blamed the chemicals she worked with in a charcoal-factory laboratory for Robin's premature birth. Her early arrival contributed to her small stature -- she was always at least a head shorter than everyone else in class and the church choir -- and her lack of focus.
When Robin died, she was a senior at Hamilton Township High School and was already planning her graduation party.
"She hated it that people thought she was stupid," said Rhonda, now a 49-year-old mother of two and the owner of a hair salon in Obetz. "She wasn't stupid. Her problem was that she wanted everybody to like her ... and people take advantage of people who are willing to give."
The family and detectives all believe that Robin knew her attacker.
Maybe she followed some teenage boys into the woods because they promised her a cigarette. She had taken to sneaking a smoke.
Maybe someone told her they needed help back there, that a dog was lost or a cat was injured. Her love for animals was well-known.
Maybe she just wanted to look cool, not babyish or afraid, in front of someone she thought was a friend.
At first, authorities zeroed in on a much older, married man who made deliveries for the store. Depending on which story is believed, he either had a thing for Robin or endured her crush on him.
He denied involvement. During a review of the case 16 years later, he was asked to voluntarily submit a sample to see if it matched the DNA evidence. Detective Clark says it cleared him.
Detectives checked out a neighborhood homeless man and a couple of teenagers who were causing trouble in the store the night Robin was there.
They also, for a time, pointed the finger at Robin's father. They were suspicious because he had found her body. He, too, eventually was cleared.
These days, Ron doesn't like to talk about any of it much. Sitting in their modest living room, he is more comfortable talking about the race cars he builds, the moose he hunts, the 30 years he spent running a Columbus water-treatment plant on the graveyard shift.
He is a man who, at 71, is comfortable in his rolled-up blue jeans and his muddied steel-toed boots. He says he is "just a Virginia hillbilly with nothing to hide."
He won't say he is bitter about being accused. He won't say he is still angry. But he cuts the conversation short, cracks a joke or two and heads out soon afterward to tinker in his shop.
"It still hurts," his wife of 50 years said after he was gone. "It will always hurt."
Ron and Rachel still live on their 3 1/4 acres. But no one, not a single Durrer since that night, has ventured beyond the back of the property line to that ground near the railroad track.
They talk about Robin every day; they speak of her murder rarely.
Rachel has always believed that Robin was killed because of whatever sexual assault took place in the woods that night, that the man didn't want her to tell what he had done.
The pain of losing a child is indescribable, the pain of losing one to murder unimaginable. But the Durrers endured another blow when the autopsy report came in.
Robin, not long before she was killed, had begun complaining about frequent backaches. The doctor who did the autopsy found a tumor in her right kidney. It was large and cancerous, and the cancer had metastasized.
The news was crushing. Even after all these years, Rachel cannot rein in her anger as she speaks of it.
"So I want to say to the person who killed her, 'You son of a bitch, you killed her for nothing,'" Rachel said. "She would have died anyway."
And that alone, she said, is almost too much for a mother to bear.


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SANDY, Utah – Five Real Salt Lake players have received international call-ups for the next round of FIFA World Cup Qualifying matches.
RSL captain Kyle Beckerman (U.S.), DF Tony Beltran (U.S.), DF Abdoulie Mansally (The Gambia), GK Nick Rimando (U.S.) and FW Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica) have all departed Salt Lake City to be with their respective national sides ahead of this weekend's qualifiers.
All five players will miss Real Salt Lake's league match at FC Dallas on Saturday. The quintet will return to RSL following their international stints, with all five players expected to be available for the Claret-and-Cobalt's March 30 home match against Seattle Sounders FC.
Beckerman, Beltran, Rimando and Saborio all played 90 minutes in RSL's 1-1 draw against the Colorado Rapids on March 16. Mansally was suspended for the first-team match but played 90 minutes in RSL's 2-1 Reserve League win over Colorado at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday.
Beckerman, Beltran and Rimando will join the U.S. team in Denver for Friday's Hexagonal match against Costa Rica at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The Stars-and-Stripes will play Mexico at Estadio Azteca on March 26.
Beltran received his first senior cap on Jan. 29, starting and playing 45 minutes in the U.S.'s friendly match against Canada. Rimando and Beckerman were not in the U.S. squad for its Feb. 6 qualifier at Honduras, but were in the team for last October's WCQ's at Antigua & Barbuda and against Guatemala. Beckerman has one goal in 24 senior caps, Rimando has six senior caps and Beltran has one senior cap.
Tied for the MLS scoring lead, Saborio will also head to Denver, where he will join the Costa Rican national team ahead of Friday's match against the U.S. Los Ticos will head home to Costa Rica following Friday's game ahead of its March 26 home match against Jamaica. Saborio – who has all three of RSL's goals this season – had a goal and an assist in Costa Rica's Hexagonal opener at Panama on Feb. 6. The 30-year-old striker has 30 goals in 72 senior caps for Costa Rica.
Mansally and The Gambian national team will take on the Ivory Coast in the opening match of CAF Group C play on Saturday. The match is the first in the second round of CAF qualifying, which puts 40 teams into 10 groups of four, with the top team from each group advancing to the third and final round of qualifying. Mansally has 10 senior caps.