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Eyeing the Unfriendly Skies
The nightmare scenario of an ICBM launched from the Korean peninsula, bound for California, may never become a reality. But the Missile Defense Agency is deploying the enormous, $900 million Sea-Based X-Band Radar, or SBX, just in case. The 2000-ton, 103-ft.-high radar system sits atop a repurposed, self-propelled oil rig that will operate out of Adak, Alaska. In the event of a launch, the SBX would differentiate between the incoming nuke and the gaggle of decoy projectiles flying alongside it, employing the same X-band frequency range that some police radars use. Though the current mission will park the SBX in the Pacific, its radar range is limited only by the curvature of the Earth. And as a mobile platform, it can be redeployed to wherever the winds of geopolitics may blow.
More From Popular Mechanics
Height: 282 ft.; from waterline to top of the dome is 250 ft.
Weight: The radar array is 2000 tons; the entire rig weighs 50,000 tons.
Platform length: 390 ft.
Deck area: 270 x 230 ft.
Cruising speed: Approximately 6 knots
On-board crew: 50 to 100
Assembly: The Kiewit Heavy Lift Device, a crane that can lift 13,000 tons, loaded the radar array onto the Moss-5 semi-submersible platform.
The SBX won't detect a missile launch, but it can zero in on targets in flight. The phased array inside the inflated radar dome uses thousands of antennas to track multiple flight paths, distinguishing between objects flying less than a foot from each other.
Muscle Machine
A new theory could make robotic muscles stronger, more flexible and a thousand times faster than their organic counterparts.
Current robots use electrical motors to walk, run and leap. But a new generation of robots may soon be flexing lifelike muscles made of plastic. These artificial muscles are composed of a polymer grown in a vat of liquid solution. Newly created robo-muscles are cut into strips that actuate (i.e., move) when exposed to electrical pulses called solitons. With previous robotic muscles, "the real bottleneck was the slow speed of actuation," says Xi Lin, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lin developed a theory to boost the speed of actuation to a thousand times faster than a human can blink. Lin's key breakthrough was to use light to generate the electrical pulses, instead of bathing the muscles in conductive ions. The resulting robo-muscle has strength and flexibility "very similar to, or even better than, real human muscles," Lin says. Muscle-bound robots of the future will likely "bleed," since artificial muscles are encased in a clear liquid. So far, there are no robot prototypes imbued with lightning-fast muscles. Instead, researchers are experimenting with the improved muscle technology to address the difficulties inherent in building tiny actuators for nanoscale robots. For now, fleshy strips of artificial muscle remain disembodied, thrashing about blindly in an MIT laboratory. For now.
Number Theory
HITACHI PLANS TO DELIVER A ONE-TERABYTE (1TB)--or 1024GB--hard drive in 2007. Storage capacity has increased exponentially since IBM built the world's first hard drive, the RAMAC, in 1956. The massive RAMAC could store up to 5MB, less than 1 percent of the data that fits on a standard 700MB CD-R. It would take 1498 CD-Rs to store as much data as the proposed 1TB drive.
Get Your Kicks on Route 360
The realism of hi-def auto-racing video games is impressive, but for driving enthusiasts, nothing replaces the feel of a real car cockpit. But what if your video game actually was a car-and vice versa? Nissan's Urge concept car is a fully driveable automobile that has an Xbox 360 hard-wired into its structure. The game system plays Project Gotham 3 through a flip-down screen in the rearview mirror and is controlled using the car's actual steering wheel and pedals. "We took all the potentiometers off Xbox controls and piggybacked them onto the controls of the car," says Peter Wong, group program manager for Microsoft Xbox. "But you can only play in Park. We didn't want anybody getting killed."--Glenn Derene
Quantum Lighting
The light bulb as we know it will one day be replaced by solid-state, light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Found in everything from digital clocks to traffic lights, filament-free LEDs--made from layers of semiconductors coated in resin--can last up to 50,000 hours before burning out. But LEDs are unable to cast purely white light, making them a tough sell to replace incandescent or halogen bulbs used in the home. When researchers at Vanderbilt University accidentally discovered that quantum dots--reflective nanocrystals less than one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair--glow white when hit with a blue laser, they started experimenting with LEDs. They found that quantum dots also emit warm white or slightly yellow light when excited by a blue or ultraviolet LED. There are no commercial applications currently planned, but the future of quantum-dot lighting is looking, well, bright.
ASK THE SURGEON / Dr. Ken Kamler
Can a doctor diagnose a heart attack over the phone?
In 1998, I field-tested a remote heart-monitoring system on the slopes of Mount Everest. Data collected by the bulky apparatus was transmitted to a base camp, and then relayed via satellite to doctors at Yale University. The NASA-sponsored research was aimed at monitoring astronauts in space. Now the EKGuard, a 6.5-ounce device that can send an electrocardiogram directly to a cardiologist, purports to do nearly the same thing for heart patients. The EKGuard is not a real-time monitor, but it takes less than a minute to attach the electrodes and maneuver the device over your chest. The EKGuard sends a series of audible beeps over a phone, which is then displayed as an EKG on the receiving end. By consulting a previously stored EKG, the doctor can render advice ranging from "go back to sleep" to "get to an ER now." The EKGuard makes sense for anyone with a cardiac history. It's easy to assume that the always-on monitors we used on Everest would be far more useful. But the truth is, if the victim of a heart attack is unable to make a call and use the EKGuard, then even a real-time heart monitor would be too little, too late.
Dr. Ken Kamler is a microsurgeon and the author of surviving the extremes.
Next-Generation Small Arms
The long and troubled program to replace the M16 has yielded unexpected results--a versatile new assault rifle and a laser-guided grenade launcher.
The Army's plan to replace the M16 as the general-issue rifle for the U.S. armed forces was set in motion in the late '80s. But the ambitious result--a hulking assault rifle and integrated grenade launcher called the XM-29--could not meet the Army's 14-pound weight target. And so the XM-29 was split into two separate weapons: the XM-8, a lightweight assault rifle, and the XM-25, a precision-guided grenade launcher. The saga doesn't end there. The XM-8 is currently being "re-evaluated"--another term for shelved--based on lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq. But the XM-25 marches on. And while most troops will continue using the venerable M16, the U.S. Special Operation Forces Command (SOCOM) is about to unveil its own new rifle, the SCAR.
SCAR: Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle
In 2004, SOCOM, which oversees the Navy SEALs, Green Berets and other special operations forces, put out an open call for a weapon to replace the M16 and its compact variant, the M4 carbine. The winning design for the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR, is a reliable and accurate modular rifle that can be rapidly reconfigured in the field. A compact, close-quarters barrel can be swapped for a long-range sniper barrel in just 2 minutes with minimal tools. The gun's maker, FNH, expects both the 5.56mm SCAR-Light (pictured above) and the more powerful 7.62mm SCAR-Heavy to be delivered to units by late spring.
XM-25: Air Burst Assault Rifle
The XM-25 semi-automatic grenade launcher puts precision-guided munitions in the hands of the infantry. Using a laser designator, a ballistic computer and 25mm smart rounds with embedded microchips, the firer can set the range at which each round will detonate. This allows for a devastating "air burst" effect, with rounds exploding directly over targets that are hiding behind cover (i.e., a car or wall). Select members of each squad would be issued the launcher instead of a rifle. The Army currently has six working XM-25 prototypes; the weapon is expected to be ready for deployment in 2008.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Simple OLAP Output Parameterization
This procedure requires a Pentaho Analysis (Mondrian) data source type. Establish this data source and a query before continuing with the instructions below.
You can add dynamic interactivity to a published report such that when a user executes or views it, he can specify how to constrain certain parts of the query data. This is called parameterization. Follow the procedure below to parameterize an OLAP-based report.
- Open the report you want to parameterize.
- Right-click the Parameters item in the Data pane, then select Add Parameter... from the context menu. The Add Parameter dialogue will appear.
- Select or change the options according to the definitions specified in Simple SQL Output Parameterization.
- Edit your MDX query and add parameter functions and a where statement, as in the example below.
with set [TopSelection] as 'TopCount(FILTER([Customers].[All Customers].Children,[Measures].[Sales]>0), Parameter("TopCount", NUMERIC, 10, "Number of Customers to show"), [Measures].[Sales])' Member [Customers].[All Customers].[Total] as 'Sum([TopSelection])' Member [Customers].[All Customers].[Other Customers] as '[Customers].[All Customers] - [Customers].[Total]' select NON EMPTY {[Measures].[Sales],[Measures].[Quantity] } ON COLUMNS, { [TopSelection], [Customers].[All Customers].[Other Customers]} ON ROWS from [SteelWheelsSales] where ( strToMember(Parameter("sLine", STRING, "[Product].[All Products].[Classic Cars]")), strToMember(Parameter("sMarket", STRING, "[Markets].[All Markets].[Japan]")), strToMember(Parameter("sYear", STRING, "[Time].[All Years].[2003]")) )
- Click OK to save the query.
Each parameter must have its own query or data table.
- Include the parameterized fields in your report by dragging them onto the canvas.
- Publish or preview the report.
When a user runs this report, he will be presented with an interactive field that specifies an adjustable constraint for the column or columns you specified.


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Oct. 6, 2009— -- Across the South, there's a weed that man can no longer kill. It's called the pig weed, and for decades farmers controlled it by spraying their fields with herbicides.
"I've never seen anything that had this major an impact on our agriculture in a short period of time," said Ken Smith, a weed scientist at the University of Arkansas.
This past summer, Pace Hindsely of Coffee Creek Farms and other farmers started noticing the chemicals they routinely used were no longer working.
"The last three years it's really just exploded. There is no rhyme or reason as to how we can control it," Hindsely said. "I am worried about the future or what these fields will look like next year and the year after if we don't control this weed."
The weeds have adapted, and this year they're choking more than a million acres of cotton and soybeans.
In the last three months, Jim Hubbard of Double H Farms has spent more than $500,000 fighting the pig weeds, and they still won't die.
"Technology is great, but it can only go so far," said Hubbard. "As technology goes forward, so does mother-nature. As far as the weeds and everything, they adapt and overcome."
"Some of the causes related to the issue are the use of a single crop year after year. There are issues around using the herbicide without any other herbicides, and quite frankly, trying to control weeds that were too big," said Rick Cole, technology development manager at chemical maker Monsanto.
Pig weed is one formidable weed. It grows up to three inches a day, and at its base it's as thick as a baseball bat. It kills crops and destroys heavy machinery, keeping farmers from bringing their combines and cotton pickers into the fields.
"They get so big that sometimes you can't pull them up, so it's getting to be an extremely, extremely bad problem," Hubbard said.
Farmers are on the attack, hiring laborers to walk through their crops and chop the plants down before they spread. The scientists who created the herbicide blame their customers -- the farmers -- for over-use. They say it was only a matter of time before Mother Nature came up with a way to work around the chemicals.
Scientists are engineering a solution, but it won't be ready for another seven years.
"Herbicide resistance is not a new issue to us," Smith said. "We've always known we'd have herbicide resistance. But we always had new technology coming into the marketplace. We have no new technology coming in now."
In the meantime, farmers will continue to lose their fields to the enemy, and in the coming weeks some of them may be forced to harvest their crops -- by hand.


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Guj CM Anandi announces 33% reservation for women in police
Gujarat's first woman chief minister Anandi Patel on Tuesday announced a 33 per cent reservation for women in the state police force.
'It is necessary to empower women for their upliftment in society. Thus, my government has decided to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the police recruitments,' announced Patel without elaborating.
She was interacting with media after attending the passing out parade of 97 armed Police Sub Inspectors (PSIs) and 39 Intelligence Officers (IOs) having PSI cadre, at Gujarat Police Academy in Karai, Gandhinagar on Tuesday.
These officers will now be inducted in police force after completing their 9-month training at the Karai based academy.
Among these 136 officers, 25 were women, including 10 PSIs and 15 IOs.
During her speech as the chief guest, Patel claimed that Gujarat is has the lowest crime rate in the country.
'Peace and communal harmony is essential to bring development. Gujarat never saw any major communal clash in last 10 years, which helped us to bring development here. Gujarat is the safest state in India having lowest crime rate' said Patel, who thanked Gujarat police for such environment.
'Gujarat police force is the most educated force in India having more than 26,000 educated policemen serving people. I thank the police force for having maintained law and order for these many years and contributing to the development process of the state,' said Patel, who also remembered Narendra Modi for showing the path.
'Our prime minister Narendra Modi stressed on strengthening 'Raksha Shakti'(defence power) of the state. Thus, we are now having three dedicated universities working in that direction, including Raksha Shakti University, Forensic Science University and Law university,' said Patel.
This academy also proved crucial in providing training to policemen. Till now, 952 policemen, from constables to IPS officers, took training from here. Recently, Goa government has sent 87 of their newly recruited PSIs to take training here,' added Patel.
Next Story


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The Scottish Prisoner
By Diana Gabaldon
Delacourt Press
4 stars
I have a soft spot, a very soft spot, for Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Jamie and Claire Fraser are among my favorite fictional characters. When I heard the latest John Grey novel would feature Jamie (the character has made appearances in the books but never as a major character), I made the decision that this would be my introduction into the Lord John Grey Outlander spinoff.
Jamie Fraser is now a paroled prisoner of war working as a stable hand on a remote farm called Helwater in the Lake District of England. While he wouldn't say his life is satisfying without his wife and family, he is thankful for life's small diversions. He's no longer in prison, he spends his days working with horses, and is close to the son no one knows is his; affording him a small reprieve from his grief over losing his wife, Claire, and their child he never met. When Tobias Quinn, a friend of his from the Jacobite Rising, shows up at the farm, he tells him he wants nothing to do with the failed rebellion or with Tobias himself. He's lost too much, namely his wife and child, and fears losing what little freedom he has gained at Helwater. When Lord John Grey summons him to London too many memories come flooding back to Jamie and he wants absolutely nothing to do with any of them.
Lord John Grey is almost as unhappy as Jamie is about the situation they find themselves in. A former warden of the jail where Jamie was held after the Jacobite Rising, he has no interest in seeing him especially since their last parting, which was on awkward terms. Lord John is in possession of documents that may contain information about a new possible uprising and he believes Jamie may be the only person who can help him figure out what the documents say. It's an unhappy and uncomfortable match from the beginning.
One of the nice things about the Lord John Grey series is that the books are meant as standalone novels. Having the Outlander background and understanding the complicated relationship between Lord John Grey and Jamie Fraser will add more for fans of the series, but if you have a love of historical fiction, this book could be a good entrance point into the Outlander world if you're looking to try it out. It gives you a taste of Jamie's life, what he's lost, and while not a full background on him, it provides enough to make you want to know more about him and the wife he lost. Although, as fair warning to fans, the Jamie you meet in The Scottish Prisoner is slightly more hardened than the more good-humored Scotsman many have grown to love. Claire is alluded to numerous times and if you're a fan of the series, this particular book is set after the battle of Culloden when Claire has returned to her own time and Jamie has been released from prison, essentially in the 20 year time period the couple spent apart in the series.
The Scottish Prisoner is set in Ireland but the slightly mystical feeling you get from the series is still present as there is a plot in the works to steal an ancient relic that the supporters of the Rising hope will inspire their Cause and rally supporters in Ireland. While I could have done without this little twist — I personally didn't think it added much — it did evoke the supernatural feeling of the series without the time travel element. This is my only quibble with the book though. As always, Gabaldon goes above and beyond in the entertainment department and this book will probably be a fast read for fans of the series.
In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.


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The Rarest Domains Can Help Create the Most Perfect Branding Emotions
Introducing Ethereal.com
One of the single most distinctive names ever registered for use online.
This is one of the rarest opportunities to own a name with this degree of attraction strength and market power. We anticipate it will be acquired very quickly given the opportunity for new commercial ownership, and the tactical possibilities it opens within the consumer sectors it can serve.
This is an unprecedented opportunity to own one of the most exquisite domain names ever registered. If you are interested in making an offer, or in discussing escrow procedures for purchase and transfer, please email firstname.lastname@example.com or call at your convenience at US +1 (815) 429-3254.
Ethereal : Extremely delicate, refined and light in a way that seems not to be of this world. Heavenly, Spiritual, Celestial. Upper, pure, bright, to burn and shine. Relationship factors include : Exquisite, Elegant, Graceful, Beautiful, Lovely, Other-worldly, Divine, Holy, Sublime, Aerial, Vapory, Unearthly, Vaporous.


text:
Share your love with friends and family in a sustainable way by offering them a sustainable gift card. In order to do this, please follow these easy steps:
If you need any help throughout the process, send us a message to email@example.com.
Goparity is an impact investment platform that connects companies looking to finance their sustainable projects, with individuals and entities who want to invest sustainably. We are growing, both in terms of size and impact generated. We were born in Portugal in 2017, but have since then financed projects and grown a large community of investors all around the world.
Casa do ImpactoTv. de São Pedro 8
© 2021 Goparity
Part or all of your original invested capital may be at risk and the return on your investment depends on the success of the project invested in. Consider all risks before investing and read the Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS) for each investment, available at www.goparity.com. Power Parity, SA is a crowdlending platform authorized and supervised by CMVM (Portuguese Securities Commission). All payments, transfers and funds collection are assured by MangoPay SA, an electronic payments institution authorized and supervised by CSFF (Luxembourg Financial Authority) under the nº 8711.


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80s models return in Galante's natural couture
PARIS (AP) — Maurizio Galante is inspired by nature.
To the sound of birdsong, the Italian-born designer presented a textural and organic haute couture spring-summer show 2013.
As if these were dryads or spirits that had emerged from a forest, the models' hair was twisted into moist organic locks and bonded with feathers.
The looping, shredding and draping of diaphanous fabrics such as crepe, chiffon, organza and taffeta — often with cutouts and glistening crystal beads — were aimed at evoking the delicate layers of foliage.
In some of the less busy ensembles this worked.
A shredded, flowing white silk look that included flared chiffon pants flowed beautifully with the natural movement of the model — a Galante signature.
A great lemon-colored sheath lightly hugged one model's silhouette and added a welcome hint of sexiness.
However, at times the contrasting shredded and processed fabrics were overworked and came across plain busy in their myriad cutouts and floppy loops.
Galante was simply trying to say too much and somewhat drowned out a collection that did have some beautiful moments.
The show's greatest merit was Galante's all-inclusive attitude to women.
Top couture models from the eighties and nineties — now middle-aged, and, dare it be said, not all stick-thin — were used, such as Simonetta Gianfelici and Yves Saint Laurent's Amalia Vairelli.
"I remember them, I remember them all!" said veteran fashion journalist Marie-Christiane Marek from the front row. "They're still beautiful."
And they were.
Follow Thomas Adamson at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP


text:
Infrared Wall mounted Picture Heater. Far Infrared Heating Panel 420W "Holy Spirit"
Save £-59.00
Rollable Picture Heater. Far Infrared Heating Panel 420W "Holy Spirit"
Convenient and Portable...Simply roll it up and go!! This is a brand-new technology!
It's the healthiest way to heat your surroundings and comes in different designs. Technical data:
- Supply voltage, V 220 - 240
- Power consumption W - 420
- The surface temperature degrees Celsius - 60-65C
- Overall dimensions-570x980
- Technical resource hour. - 50000
- Weight, kg. - 0.5
- 2-year Warranty
-Heating area 8-12m2.
-Wall mountable.


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Story highlights
It's been 45 years since the Tate-LaBianca murders
Charles Manson's next parole hearing is in 2027
At 79, Manson still draws attention -- and even supporters
He has received more mail than any other inmate in California
Inside the Charles Manson room at the Museum of Death in Hollywood, Anne Forde looks at crime scene photos from the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
"I was a kid when he was involved in these crimes," says Forde, who grew up in County Cork, Ireland. "It's just been a fascination for me ever since."
"His eyes just stand out and look crazy," says Debbie Roberts, who was visiting the museum from Kentucky. "I can see how people followed him."
A few miles away on Saturday mornings, Scott Michaels is hosting the "Helter Skelter Tragical History Tour." For $65, you can buy a bus seat to see where the murders took place, as Michaels tells the story of Helter Skelter.
"We have people from around the world that sign up," says Michaels. "We added an additional anniversary tour, which is sold out."
August 9 marks the 45th anniversary of the murders of Sharon Tate and four others on Cielo Drive in the Benedict Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. Tate, who was 8½ months pregnant and married to movie director Roman Polanski, was stabbed 16 times as she pleaded for the life of her unborn child. The next night, supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca were tortured and killed inside their home near Hollywood.
Fast facts: Manson family murders
Since then, Charles Manson, who was convicted of orchestrating the murders, has been the focus of continued fascination.
"People seem to be fascinated by things that are strange and bizarre," says Vincent Bugliosi, sitting in his Los Angeles-area living room.
Bugliosi is the man who prosecuted Manson and his "family" and co-wrote the book "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders." With more than 7 million copies sold, it is still the best-selling true crime book.
Bugliosi believes people are still fascinated by the Tate-LaBianca murders for two reasons: the gruesome nature of the murders and the lasting image people have of Charles Manson, with the maniacal stare and the swastika on his forehead.
"The name Manson has become a metaphor for evil, and there's a side of human nature that's fascinated by pure unalloyed evil," says Bugliosi.
There are, however, people who continue to support Manson. He has received more mail than any other inmate in state history. According to California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Manson still gets about 35 letters a week.
Online, there are multiple Charles Manson websites, including mansondirect.com, which features audio messages from Manson in prison. Manson's Facebook page has 70,000 "likes."
"This is an unusual case. It's not a whodunnit. This is a why dunnit," says Brian Davis, the host of the Internet radio channel TLB, which stands for Tate La Bianca. Davis operates the channel, which has an irregular schedule and averages a few hundred listeners, from his home in Roanoke, Virginia.
Davis says he has been studying the Manson case off and on for 10 years and labels himself as "down the middle." He thinks a lot of the Manson image was created by Bugliosi and the media, and he wonders if Manson really brainwashed the killers.
"I don't think Manson ordered those murders," he says.
Manson, who turns 80 in November, has been denied parole 12 times. His next parole hearing isn't scheduled until 2027, when, if he's still alive, he'll be 92 years old.


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Lars Iyer's début novel Spurious is about two would-be intellectuals, W., the book's comic hero, and his closest friend, our narrator Lars. They bitch and moan and despair: it's the end of the world, it's the apocalypse; they find themselves incapable of original thought, of producing any good writing. The shadow of Kafka paralyzes them. They travel about Europe, seeking out knowledge and inspiration — or at least a glimpse of some beautiful first editions of Rosenzweig. They attend dreadful academic conferences; they write letters. They flounder and fail. In the meantime, a fungus of seemingly metaphysical proportions infects Lars's apartment, soaking it through, compounding his desperation, as no one can figure out how to get rid of it—
No one understands the damp. It's Talmudic. The damp is the enigma at the heart of everything. It draws into it the light of all explanation, all hope. The damp says: I exist, and that is all. I am that I am: so the damp. I will outlast you and outlast everything: so the damp.
The passage is a lovely example of Iyer's humor, which pervades the book just as the damp creeps through his narrator's home, absurd and bewildering. Iyer is willing to play with tropes of theology and philosophy in ways that are simultaneously absurd, hyperbolic, and deadly serious. "These are the End Times, but who knows it but us?" his hapless heroes wonder. W. is not without solutions though—-
Every conversation must be driven through the apocalyptic towards the messianic, that's W.'s principle; the shared sense that it's all at an end, it's all finished. He loves nothing better than conversations of this kind, W. says, when everything's at stake, when everything that could be said is said.
That's when messianism begins, W. says, You have to wear out speech, to run it down. And then? And then, W. says, inanity begins, reckless inanity. The whole night opens up. You have to drink a great deal to get there. It's an art.
The dialogue (or monologue pretending to be dialogue, more accurately) highlights the verbal slapstick of Spurious, its willingness to shift direction while retaining tone. "Both characters are mesmerised by a real disaster," Iyer told me in a recent interview (the interview, by the way, makes a better case for reading Spurious than I can hope to here) . "And both — particularly W. — are mesmerised by their partial responsibility for this disaster. The 'strained and unreasoning' laughter of Spurious is a response to the grimness of the world that is of our making."
W.'s response to our grim, apocalyptic world is a mix of absurd humor and real cruelty toward his friend Lars. And if W. is willing to mock and laugh at his friend, he also mocks and laughs at the world, and himself—only his laughter never absolves or forgives or otherwise deflects the cruelty and grimness of the world (or his own cruelty, in turn). When W. calls Lars fat or chastises his laziness or derides his intellect, there's a recursive angle to his jabs, a sense that they will return to rest on his own brow. It's all in good fun except when it's not.
W. and Lars face the same trial that all thinking people face during the End Times, the inescapable, all-devouring nightmare of history, art, philosophy. Perhaps a passage will explicate better than I—
Kafka was always our model, we agree. How is it possible that a human being could write like that?, W. says, again and again. It's always at the end of the night when he says this, after we've drunk a great deal and the sky opens above us, and it is possible to think of what is most important.
At the same time, we have Kafka to blame for everything. Our lives each took a wrong turn when we opened The Castle. It was quite fatal: there was literature itself! We were finished. What could we do, simple apes, but exhaust ourselves in imitation? We had been struck by something we could not understand. It was above us, beyond us, and we were not of its order.
If our heroes are disciples of literature (or the purity of "literature itself"), they are also its prisoners, its slaves, the tormented. W. attempts to find ways out through mathematics and Talmudic theology, but these disciplines entail their own weight and chains—and ultimately, W.'s own shortcomings in these areas only point back to his own reliance on literature (and, in turn, his own shortcomings there again). Still, W. (or Lars, or Iyer, I guess), is willing to share his citations with us, quoting or paraphrasing from a rich intellectual diet.
Although in some ways Spurious is fragmentary and elliptical, a series of riffs, vignettes, and skits, it is also in many ways a traditional novel, with emotionally drawn characters in Lars and W., whose friendship resounds with a deep reality and psychological honesty with which most readers will identify. W. suggests that companionship and friendship are reasons enough to continue existence in the face of despair and absurdity; he then turns around and accuses Lars of being a terrible friend. Iyer offers the kind of truth that has become a cliché, offers it perhaps without cynicism or irony, and then immediately punctures it, even as he reinforces its original truth. Spurious is full of such vacillations, reeling like its often-drunk heroes at times, but always unified by a consistent tone and tight prose. Funny and lively, even when it's erudite and depressive, Spurious is a lovely little book for drinking and thinking. Read it and pass it on to a dear friend.
Spurious is available now from Melville House; I encourage you again, dear reader, to read my interview with Lars Iyer.


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Natural & Cultural History
Algonquin Provincial Park lies in a transition zone between deciduous forests typical of areas to the south of the Park, and coniferous forests, more typical of areas to the north. The result is that both forest types are found, and five major habitat types are found within Park boundaries supporting a diversity in plant and animal life.
- Astronomy
- Geology
- Plants and Fungi
- Insects
- Fish
- Amphibians and Reptiles
- Birds
- Mammals
- Cultural History
Much of what we know about Algonquin's plants, animals and people has been learned through scientific research. A tremendous amount of scientific research has taken place in Algonquin Park over the years, and the Park continues to provide an important area for biologists and ecologists.
Reserve your developed or backcountry campsite for your next visit.
Share your passion for Algonquin Park by becoming a member or donor.
Special regulations for Algonquin's special fishery.


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TUESDAY, July 9, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- Statins -- the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs -- have few serious side effects, although they do slightly raise the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a large new evidence review.
In the analysis of 135 previous studies, which included nearly 250,000 people combined, researchers found that the drugs simvastatin (Zocor) and pravastatin (Pravachol) had the fewest side effects in this class of medications. They also found that lower doses produced fewer side effects in general.
"As with any drugs, statins have both benefits and harms," said study lead author Huseyin Naci, a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
"We show that harmful side effects of statins are not common, and they are greatly outweighed by their benefits," said Naci, also a research fellow in the department of population medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Results of the study, which received no drug company funding, were released online July 9 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Statins are medications used to lower the amount of LDL cholesterol or "bad" cholesterol -- in your blood. LDL levels can be lowered through dietary changes and exercise, but many people find it difficult to maintain these lifestyle changes.
Moreover, statins may be useful for stabilizing plaque in the blood vessels (plaque can break off and cause a heart attack or a stroke) and reducing inflammation, according to Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist and director of Women and Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She was not involved with the new study.
In the analysis, the researchers reviewed data from randomized clinical trials, some of which compared statins to each other, while some compared statins to an inactive placebo pill. The average follow-up time for the studies included in the analysis was 1.3 years.
The review included data from the seven statins currently on the market. Atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvastatin and pravastatin were the most commonly used statins among participants.
Simvastatin and pravastatin had the best safety profile, according to this review.
Overall, the researchers found a 9 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes in people taking statins. Naci said it's possible that statins may impair the secretion of insulin, although this study didn't examine potential mechanisms for why statins might increase diabetes risk.
"The slight increase in diabetes risk is greatly outweighed by the cardiovascular benefits of statins," he said.
Statins were not linked to any increase in the risk of cancer, according to the review. "There is conclusive evidence that statins do not raise cancer risk," Naci said.
The use of statins, particularly atorvastatin, was linked to an increase in liver enzyme irregularities. Naci said these blood test changes don't cause any symptoms, and are reversible when the drug is stopped. "If monitored closely, there is no cause for concern, and no specific precautions are warranted based on our study," he said. "Switching to a statin associated with fewer elevations may be appropriate."
The researchers also found that the higher the dose, the more likely people were to stop participating in a trial due to side effects.
"Side effects do tend to go up with higher doses," cardiologist Steinbaum said. "You want to use as little medication as possible, and combine the use of statins with lifestyle management. There's no medication that's a quick fix and a cure, but it's worth taking statins if you can manage the side effects."
She added that while simvastatin and pravastatin may have the most favorable side effect profiles, "they tend to be the least potent statins. The statins with the greatest effects tend to have the most side effects," Steinbaum said.
"Not all statins are the same," noted study author Naci. "Our study provides evidence that the side effect profiles of individual statins vary, which should be considered when making prescribing decisions."
More information
Learn more about statins and cholesterol from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.


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By Rusty Dornin, Special to CNN
(CNN) - Roberto and Amanda Melecio share many of the same nightmares.
They don't like crowds, rarely trust anyone and both suffer serious bouts of depression. Married since 2005, they are both Iraq War veterans, and each has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
When Amanda Melecio came back from Iraq in 2005, she struggled to be the person she once was. "When I came home I couldn't socialize," Melicio says. "I have a lot of anxiety."
Her husband Roberto served as a scout and an Army combat engineer and disarmed bombs. "I was a human bulletproof vest," he jokes. He rarely sleeps and suffers from horrific nightmares. He struggles with his temper.
"We're not the normal couple. My wife and I are a rare breed." he says. "We happened to meet in the war."
While studies show women in the general population are twice as likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress as men, the rates for returning veterans are about the same - 20% for both men and women.
"We're definitely seeing more duel PTSD cases with returning vets," says Candice Monson, a clinical expert on how post-traumatic stress disorder affects couples. "It's largely a product of the changing policy of women in the military. While women are not supposed to be in combat, the reality is they are."


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Chambers Bay Golf Course set new fiscal records in 2014, even as it reduced the number of rounds played to prepare for the 2015 U.S. Open Championship this June.
The golf course, owned by Pierce County, set all-time annual records for average greens fee, food and beverage sales, merchandise sales, green and cart fees, and total revenue, according to the fourth quarter financial report released this week.
"Chambers Bay is just the third publicly-owned golf course to host a U.S. Open, and that is generating lots of interest," said County Executive Pat McCarthy. "Golfers are coming from other parts of the state and beyond to play our course. Chambers Bay is now one of the top draws for our regional tourism industry."
Here's a look at all-time records in the financial report:
"Our tee time utilization reached an all-time high of 85 percent last year as demand increased," Executive McCarthy said. "Thanks to the preparations by our team at KemperSports, everyday players are experiencing the best golf Chambers Bay has ever offered."
Chambers Bay, designed by architect Robert Trent Jones II, offers Scottish links-style golf amid windswept dunes and the ruins of a century-old gravel mine on the shores of Puget Sound.
More information about the golf course is available at www.chambersbaygolf.com.
April 29 update: Here is a PCTV video about the fiscal report.
MEDIA CONTACT:Hunter George, Pierce County Communications director253-798-6606[email protected]
Pierce County wants to hear from you. Please select one of the following to talk to elected officials and staff, or to report problems in our community.


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Tag Archive for: sales
About Us
Cognitive Films is an Austin video production company specializing in story-driven films for businesses and nonprofits.
Cognitive Blog
Contact Us
Call or email us to discuss your project. We are located in Austin, Texas.
- 321 W Ben White Blvd Suite 106B
- Austin, Texas. 78704
- Phone: (512) 766-FILM (3456)
- Email: [email protected]


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March 15 (Bloomberg) — A little is all right. That's the message Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has been giving out recently when asked about the evidence of inflation in the U.S. recovery.
Sometimes Bernanke doesn't even go that far. He simply says he doesn't see inflation. The Fed chairman recently described the prospects for price increases across the board as "subdued."
"Sudden" is more like it. The thing about inflation is that it comes out of nowhere and hits you. Monetary policy is like sailing. You're gliding along, passing the peninsula, and you come about. Nothing. Then the wind fills the sail so fast it knocks you into the sea. Right now, the U.S. is a sailboat that has just made open water, and has already come about. That wind is coming. The sailor just doesn't know it.
"Sudden" has happened to us before. In World War I, an early version of what we would call the CPI-U, the consumer price index for urban areas, went from 1 percent for 1915 to 7 percent in 1916 to 17 percent in 1917. To returning vets, that felt awful sudden.
How did it happen? The Treasury spent like crazy on the war, creating money to pay for it, then pretended that its spending was offset by complex Liberty Bond sales and admonishments to citizens that they save more.
Country in Denial
In other words, the Woodrow Wilson administration was in denial, inflating in all but name. Commenting on one complex plan to make more money available, Representative L.T. McFadden, a Pennsylvania Republican, said, "I would suggest that if the administration believes that inflation of this character is necessary to finance the war the more direct way would be to issue the notes direct."
Or, to return to sailing terms, the Treasury and Fed had tilted the U.S. monetary craft so far one way that it needed to lean back the other way before it could right. That leaning was the true tight money policy of subsequent years, including deflation of 10 percent and wrenching unemployment.
History has other examples. In 1945, all seemed well: Inflation was 2 percent, at least officially. Within two years that level hit 14 percent.
All appeared calm in 1972, too, before inflation jumped to 11 percent by 1974, and stayed high for the rest of the decade, diminishing the quality of life for whole cohorts. They paid the higher interest rates needed to reduce the inflation, and got a house with one less bedroom. Or no pool.
The thing about inflation is that it accelerates. The acceleration hit storybook levels in the most sudden case of all, that of Germany in 1922. Many financial analysts thought the Weimar authorities weren't producing enough money.
"Tight Money in German Market: Causes of the Abnormally Rapid Currency Deflation at Year-End," read a New York Times headline. The Germans didn't know it, but they had already turned their money into wallpaper; the next year would see hyperinflation, when inflation races ahead at more than 50 percent a month. It moved so fast that prices changed in a single hour. Yet even as it did so, the country's financial authorities failed to see inflation. They thought they were witnessing increased demand for money.
The greater the denial before, the faster the inflation accelerates after. Author Daniel Yergin tells the story of a student in Freiburg who ordered a cup of coffee in a cafe; the price was 5,000 marks. Then he had another. When the bill came, it was 14,000. "If you want to save money and you want two cups of coffee, you should order them both at the same time," he was told.
Extreme Example
Germany in the 1920s is always the extreme example. But one form of denial then warrants comparison to the U.S. today.
Bernanke talks about prices in one area - energy, for example — as different from those in the rest of the economy. The Germans, in their denial, thought their problem was limited to exchange rates, and that their domestic economy had hope. Risibly, Chancellor Joseph Wirth tried to tie down prices by regulating foreign currency. The equivalent, and equivalently risible, move today is the Ralph Nader effort to get the administration to push down oil prices.
The reason a little inflation is not all right, and the reason inflation comes suddenly, is expectations.
The phrase "perception is reality" is overused generally. But perception can be reality in monetary policy. The bond market doesn't act merely on what it sees. It acts on what it expects of the Fed or the government. And our own Fed has let us know it's capable of just about everything, which includes inflationary monetary policy. Disillusionment can come as fast as a gust, but building faith that the government won't inflate again is like building a new sailboat, a project of years. Another way to put this is how the central banker Henry Wallich did. Inflation is like a banana, Jerry Jordan of the Cleveland Fed quoted him as saying. Once you see one brown spot, it's too late.
The reason that markets haven't jumped yet is that the last great inflation and correction happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s, just long enough ago that most adults in the financial markets don't remember it.
We can debate whether today's challenge resembles that faced in the early 1980s, or something worse. But one thing is clear: pretty soon, we'll all be in deep water.
(Amity Shlaes is a Bloomberg View columnist and the director of the Four Percent Growth Project at the Bush Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
© Copyright 2012 Bloomberg
Available for order:


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[Editor's note: In the next release of ArcMap, due this summer, ESRI takes cues from Google Earth and adds a "time slider" to easily visualize time series in GIS.]
Republished from ArcNews (Winter 2009/2010).
Visualizing Time in GIS
In his First Law of Geography, noted geographer and cartographer Waldo Tobler states, "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."
GIS professionals are well versed in visualization of spatial relationships and dependencies, of the proximity of near things and distant things, as in things you can measure with a ruler or with mile markers. But often when studying geography and looking for relationships and dependencies, equally important is proximity in time, as in something that can be measured with a watch or calendar.
Pioneering environmental planner Ian McHarg is widely known in the GIS community as the "discoverer" of overlay theory, the base theory behind GIS. Another of McHarg's discoveries—perhaps lesser known, but equally important—is chronology, or the placing of geographic layers in chronological sequence to show relationships, dependencies, and causation through time. "We found the earliest events, mainly of geological history, had pervasive and influential effects, not only on physiography, soils, and vegetation, but also on the availability of resources," McHarg states, describing an environmental planning study in the 1960s, in A Quest for Life. He calls his discovery of chronology—the order or sequence of features through time—". . . a most revelatory instrument for understanding the environment, diagnosing, and prescribing," a construct that leads to a deeper understanding of structure and meaning in the landscape.
Chronology is enabled by temporal data. Temporal data is data that specifically refers to times or dates. Temporal data may refer to discrete events, such as lightning strikes; moving objects, such as trains; or repeated observations, such as counts from traffic sensors.
Depicting spatial change over time is a four-dimensional problem, and visualizing temporal phenomena on a two-dimensional map has always been a challenge. The simplest approach is the map series, where individual maps of geographic conditions at certain points in time are presented individually, in chronological order.
Other inventive methods of visualizing change over time and space include creative symbolization, such as in Charles Joseph Minard's famous map of Napoleon's march across Russia.
Temporal GIS is an emerging capability for integrating temporal data with location and attribute data, enabling temporal visualization and ultimately temporal analysis. Visualizing change on a computer screen in a GIS environment may give the viewer more options, but it is still a challenge. A simple yet highly effective method of visualizing time in GIS is through animation—displaying a series of maps in rapid succession on the screen.
"The eye and brain are enormously efficient at detecting patterns and finding anomalies in maps and other visual displays," says Michael Goodchild of the University of California, Santa Barbara. "GIS works best when the computer and the brain combine forces and when GIS is used to augment human intuition by manipulating and displaying data in ways that reveal things that would otherwise be invisible." Building a robust temporal capability into GIS provides the human eye and brain with powerful visual tools to help determine the reasons why things happened in space-time. It is also key to modeling and predicting things that might happen in the future.
The new time-aware functionality in ArcGIS 9.4 lets you
- Create and manage time-based data.
- Display and animate temporal datasets.
- Publish and query temporal map services.
ArcGIS 9.4 makes temporal mapping simple and easy; enables temporal data management, exploration, and visualization; and creates a strong foundation upon which sophisticated temporal geoprocessing tools and workflows can be built in the future. As McHarg states in To Heal the Earth, "Processes, laws, and time reveal the present." And once we have the tools and techniques in place to fully grasp how the past has created the present, we can use these same tools and techniques to shape our future.
More Information
For more information, visit www.esri.com/whatscoming.


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Find more Crime-Fighting Zombies and Wizard PIs
If you're a devoted reader of either mystery or fantasy fiction, you probably already know there are many crossovers between the two genres—far too many to assemble anything remotely resembling a comprehensive list. But here, if you're curious, are some of the most popular and interesting mystery series that we can, quite literally, call fantastic.
Anonymous Rex series, by Eric Garcia
It's revealed in these magnificent novels that dinosaurs didn't really die out 65 million years ago—they're still very much alive and living among us, wearing latex human suits. Vincent Rubio is the private-eye hero of the series, which began with Anonymous Rex (1999), continued with Casual Rex (2001), and concluded with Hot and Sweaty Rex (2004). The cases are traditional hard-boiled mysteries: Vincent solving his partner's murder, finding a missing person, that sort of thing. But the real fun is in the details of the dinosaur culture, which is richly developed, very entertaining, and surprisingly believable. This is a series that ended much too soon.
Dan Shamble series, by Kevin J. Anderson
How about a mystery-fantasy in which the hero is the, um, monster? Dan Chambeaux, otherwise known as Dan Shamble, is a crime-fighting zombie; before his death, he was a P.I., and, post-death, he continues handling cases, mostly of an otherworldly nature. In his debut, Death Warmed Over (2012), Dan helps out a couple of witches who are suing a publisher while at the same time trying to solve his own murder. There are two other Dan Shamble novels, Unnatural Acts (2012) and Hair Raising (2013), plus a few e-books. They're very clever: Dan may be a zombie, but he's also a working private investigator who has his own unique set of personal issues (for example, dealing with the effects of his constantly-decaying flesh).
Dirk Gently series, by Douglas Adams
If you like out-and-out comedy, check out this trio of books by the late and massively missed (certainly by your humble typist) Adams. Their star is a fella called Svlad Cjelli, who goes by name of Dirk Gently. He's both a holistic healer and a psychic who doesn't believe in psychic powers, a guy who operates more on the basis of assumptions and guesswork than any actual, you know, facts. Adams published only two novels about the character, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988), though a posthumous collection of Gently stories, The Salmon of Doubt, came out in 2002. Wildly funny stuff, almost as funny as Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
Butcher's gritty novels about Chicago private investigator Harry Dresden have been growing steadily in popularity since the first one, Storm Front, was published in 2000. (Cold Days, the most recent, came out in 2012.) The series offers a nice blend of hard-boiled mystery and fantasy elements: in Butcher's Chicago, magic is real, and Harry, a wizard, spends most of his time working cases with a supernatural element—for example, a homicide for which the strongest suspect is a werewolf. A TV series based on the books, called The Dresden Files, ran for one season on the Sci-Fi Channel back in 2007.
Joe Ledger series, by Jonathan Maberry
Patient Zero (2009) was the first novel about Ledger, a Baltimore cop recruited into a top-secret government agency, the Department of Military Sciences, whose mission is to ward off science-based attacks on the U.S. Over the course of the series, Joe has gone up against zombies, genetically enhanced soldiers, modern-day versions of the biblical plagues of Egypt, and other nasties. The latest novel, Code Zero (2014), is a direct sequel to Patient Zero, with Joe battling a new and improved version of the zombies he tackled in that book. These are first-rate action thrillers with seriously dangerous fantasy elements—but, cleverly, the author makes sure we understand that the fantasy is itself based in science, and not in the supernatural.
John Justin Mallory series, by Mike Resnick
Mallory, the private-eye hero of a few novels by prolific sf and mystery novelist Resnick, made his first appearance in Stalking the Unicorn (1987). He's a New York private eye whose career and personal life are on the skids when an odd little man comes to him with an unusual case: he needs Mallory to find a stolen unicorn. So begins Mallory's new career as an investigator of crimes of the weird. The book isn't an outright comedy, but it comes awfully close, and Resnick has a lot of fun with the idea of a "hidden" New York, full of strange and wondrous creatures, just around the corner from the real one. Stalking the Dragon (2009) is the most recent book in the series, and there was a 2012 short story collection, Stalking the Zombie. (If you're listening, Mr. Resnick, we're about due for another full-length Mallory adventure.)
Nursery Crime novels, by Jasper Fforde
Speaking of comedy, let's take a quick look at a pair of detective novels starring Jack Spratt, of the Reading, England, police department's Nursery Crime Division. In The Big Over Easy (2005), Jack's looking into the death of Humpty Dumpty, who, you know, took a tumble. In the sequel, The Fourth Bear (2006), Jack is suspended from duty—a case went seriously awry—but still finds time to take on a missing-persons case. (It seems a young woman, Goldilocks, has gone missing.) The books are excellent mixtures of hard-boiled detective fiction and impish fantasy, with the same sort of affable, goofy humor as Fforde's better-known Thursday Next series.
The Repairman Jack series, by F. Paul Wilson
Repairman Jack has a long and rather complicated backstory—you'd need to read pretty much two whole series to get a real sense of it—but, in simple terms, he's a fix-it guy, sort of an Equalizer (remember that TV series?) for the supernatural crowd. He helps the innocent and downtrodden, using his unique gifts to combat forces and bad guys that aren't your normal, run-of-the-mill villains. Lately, Wilson's been exploring Jack's early years in New York City in an origin-story trilogy that revitalized the lethargic series; the second installment, Dark City, was published in 2013.
The Toy City novels, by Robert Rankin
If you like Jasper Fforde, you should probably also check out The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002) and its sequel, The Toyminator (2006). They follow the adventures of Eddie Bear, a private eye in Toy City, who looks into the disappearance of his partner, Bill Winkie (in the first book), and a mysterious series of deaths (in the second). Although they're thematically similar to Fforde's novels—both authors have fun with nursery rhymes—Rankin takes a more aggressive comic approach, hitting us with rapid-fire puns, sly references, and in-jokes. Lots of fun.
The Vampire Files, by P. N. Elrod
In this long-running series—the first book, Bloodlist, was published in 1990—the hero is Jack Fleming, a Chicago journalist in the 1930s who's rescued from death by his girlfriend, who turns Jack into a vampire. Now Jack solves tough cases, often involving organized crime, while trying to get the hang of being undead. (He's claustrophobic, unfortunately, which makes sleeping in the traditional small enclosed spaces tricky.) The gangster-era Chicago atmosphere gives the books a nice sense of realism, somehow making the idea of a vampire detective seem not nearly so out-of-left-field.
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Surface currents for sailors
Current predictions for sailors as GRIB files
The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) provides surface current forecasts as data packages that can be used in navigation and regatta programs.
Due to the increasing demand from water sports enthusiasts for current forecasts, the BSH offers 16 regional data packages daily in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Elbe area, containing up to three-day forecasts in GRIB format.
Data generation methodology
The BSH generates the data using a numerical prediction model developed for the current water level and storm surge forecasts of the BSH as well as for drift and dispersion forecasts, e.g. for oil pollution. The model calculates daily two- or three-day forecasts for tidal, wind and density-related currents. The calculated surface currents represent mean values of the currents over the first 5 m of the water column.
Legal note on the current predictions
The BSH does not guarantee the functionality, completeness, accuracy and up-to-dateness of the forecast data. In addition, no liability is accepted for interruptions or other technical faults caused by incorrectly created files or incorrectly structured formats.
The BSH wishes all sailors always a hand's breadth of water under the keel!


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KCMO Mobile Truck Repair
The number one mobile truck repair company in Kansas City!
Kansas City truck owners: Have you ever been in a situation when you needed mobile truck repairs but didn't know where to turn? Well, look no further! We are KCMO Mobile Truck Repair and we offer fast and reliable service to get your truck running again. Whether your truck has a broken belt or needs a new transmission, we can help. Give us a shout today!
Business Name:
KCMO Mobile Truck Repair
3930 E Truman RdKansas City Missouri 64127United States
About Kansas City
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the most populated municipality of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line and has a population of 2,392,035. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west.
Neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri
Beacon Hill, Blue Hills, Broadway Gillham, Brookside Park, Coachlight Square, Coleman Highlands, Columbus Park, Country Club District, Countryside, East Community Team South, East Swope Highlands, Fairway Hills, Forgotten Homes, Hanover Place, Holmes Park
Things to do in Kansas City, Missouri
Our Newest Profiles


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DesignThe Elmington Roundhouse Sunglasses. Pairing minimalist design with stylish modernity, Vitae London's classic range of Sunglasses are subtle yet sophisticated. As with all of our products, with each pair sold we will distribute a solar lamp to a child in need so they can study safely in the evenings.
- Unisex design
- Titanium Frame
- Polarised CR39 UV protection lens
- Comes boxed with a faux leather case, lens cloth and travel pouch
You might also like
Your Watch, Their Future
Each elegant watch supporting a child through education across sub-saharan Africa. Through education we help these amazing children unlock their potential and impact their community.


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I\u2019m a BN prime minister, says Ismail Sabri
,Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob says BN members need to stop attacking each other and focus on fighting the opposition at the next general election. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, July 2, 2022.telegram群成员id采集器(www.tel8.vip)是一个Telegram群组分享平台。telegram群成员id采集器包括telegram群成员id采集器、telegram群组索引、Telegram群组导航、新加坡telegram群组、telegram中文群组、telegram群组(其他)、Telegram 美国 群组、telegram群组爬虫、电报群 科学上网、小飞机 怎么 加 群、tg群等内容。telegram群成员id采集器为广大电报用户提供各种电报群组/电报频道/电报机器人导航服务。
PRIME Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said he is a Barisan Nasional (BN) prime minister, therefore any attack on him would weaken the coalition's leadership, in a speech in Kota Kinabalu last night.
Ismail added that he was also the prime minister in charge of leading the federal government and any attack on him was an attack on the government.
"I was not meant to give my speech today, I was given tomorrow's slot (at the Sabah BN convention) but I apologise for being unable to attend… I am speaking tonight although only for five minutes because someone has said that I have been denied the opportunity to speak.
"What happened tonight clearly shows outside parties trying to sow disunity among us," he said during his speech at the BN supreme council members dinner together with Sabah BN leadership at the Umno building in Karamunsing.
Ismail said, as the next general election draws near, outside parties were trying their hardest to split BN unity.
He said all BN members needed to work towards unity and not attack each other.
"Why should we attack each other, except when we want to take on each other during party elections? That's why character assassination happens, because we want to 'kill' each other, as we will compete against one another.
"Yet when we have decided there will be no contests among ourselves before a general election, we have to focus on the polls, I will discuss with the Umno supreme leadership, discuss with the BN leadership what we will decide then," he said.
He said even though it is not known when the next election will take place, all BN members should be prepared and assume it will be held tomorrow.
Ismail said the Sabah BN convention will be an avenue to prepare the coalition for the general election.
"I asked Sabah BN chairman Bung Moktar Radin and he said: 'Sabah tatap ready'... my friends and I in the government have many issues (that need) to be settled, rising prices, costs of living.
"The opposition will build the momentum against the government, to raise people's sentiment against the government when they get the idea that polls will be held soon," he added.
He said the government will continue to try to ensure prices do not rise too high to ensure Malaysians will not face too much pressure and more than RM70 billion has been spent in subsidies for selected products to control rising prices. – Bernama, July 2, 2022.


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Christian Edwards
(Australian Associated Press)
The number of home loans approved for owner occupiers continued to soften in January but first home buyers are pushing their way into the market.
Approvals for loans to first-time buyers lifted 1.7 per cent in January, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
While the total value of lending to first-home buyers dropped 16 per cent compared to December, as loan sizes shrank, first-timers have slightly increased their share of the lending market.
Home loan approval volumes for all owner occupiers fell 1.1 per cent for January, worse than market expectations of a 0.2 per cent decline and the third straight month of declines, Tuesday's data shows.
Total housing finance rose 0.7 per cent in January and remains close to record highs at $33.1 billion, with the value of investor loans rising 1.1 per cent, more than double the lift for owner occupiers.
ANZ senior economist Jo Masters said finance for first-home buyers remains strong.
First-home buyers' share of all home loans now stands at around 18 per cent in January, the highest proportion since July 2013 and ending to first-home buyers is around a third higher than last year, Ms Masters said.
Meanwhile, lending to investors is down 12 per cent over the year to January, but remains historically high despite tougher interest rates imposed on investors, particularly those with interest-only loans.
Investor lending was tightened in March 2017 as the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) moved to cap interest-only mortgage lending.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the bounce in the value of investor loans was not surprising given December's 2.9 per cent drop.
"It still leaves the softening trend in investor lending in place, while the overall the trend in housing finance data remains softish," Mr Oliver said.


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Wahoo!!! Dungeonmorph Kickstarter for Cities and Villages Dice Sets has been funded and we got far enough to be able to produce all three sets, which we were really hoping to do. Thanks so much to all the people that supported and pledged to this project. I was watching this on and off all day, I was amazed at how it just kept going and going, I am very happy that we are able to do all three sets now. I have a lot of drawing to do now………:)
Archive for November, 2014
….Dungeonmorph Kickstarter….Funded and then some….
….Dungeonmorph Kickstarter….Cities & Villages….13 Hours Left..!!!
The Dungeonmorph Kickstarter for Cities and Villages Dice sets, has really started to take off! We are at around $14,397 at the moment and are hoping to get it up to $19,000 in order to make the third set of dice, ruins. If you have not pledged yet, now is a good time to jump in. If you have already pledged for a few sets, it would be a great time to bump up your pledge for an extra set or two. With the improved original sets and the new cities/villages sets you'll have plenty of dice set options to chose. So check it out and help us hit the final goals with this last push.
…."Friday's Mystery Meat"….Some More Village w/ River Morphs….
~ Attention. Here's an update on tonight's dinner. It was veal. I repeat, veal. The winner of tonight's mystery meat contest is Jeffrey Corbin who guessed "some kind of beef."~
Welcome again to this weeks edition of "Friday's Mystery Meat", I have been very busy with the Village-City Dungeonmorph Dice project. Since, I don't have any of my new stuff scanned and ready for this today, I have this set of village geomorphs with rivers that was an earlier test run for the Dungeonmorph Dice project, since it looks like they will not be used at all on the new dice, I thought I would just share them here. If they ever do get used, well I guess you seen them here first. Joe Wetzel has posted several pages of the village-city geomorph designs on the Kickstarter page, some of my original ones along with the ones I converted to the hand drawn style. Go check them out if you haven't yet. Anyways hope you all have a great weekend. Click on the image below for the PDF. As always enjoy!!
…."Friday's Mystery Meat"….The Late Night Edition….
~ Attention. Here's an update on tonight's dinner. It was veal. I repeat, veal. The winner of tonight's mystery meat contest is Jeffrey Corbin who guessed "some kind of beef."~
It's been a crazy busy week, I still have yet to replace my printer/scanner, and I was too busy at work to mess around with scanning things in while I was there. I have also been scheduled a lot at the restaurant this week so I have not had a lot of free time. On top of all that I celebrated the 31st anniversary of my 21st birthday yesterday, well actually Danielle and I celebrated it on Wednesday night, as I had that night off. We just went out to dinner and had a great time, I had a half dozen east coast Wash-A-Shore oysters, some calamari, and a big-ass 28 oz bone-in ribeye, with wild boar ribs. It was really nice to be sitting in the restaurant as a customer for a change, the meal was great, and the lovely Danielle was even better….but then she always is…!!!
Since I don't have anything scanned in right now I am not posting any new stuff this time around, but I am sharing a few new things I discovered out there on the interwebs.
First up: "The Observations of the Fox" this guy is awesome, I love his mapwork! Apparently he too was inspired by Dyson Logos. His map drawing tutorials are absolutely beautiful. I already understood most of the techniques he describes, but I am always willing to learn something new. I was so happy to find some new concepts in his tutorials that I will be trying out soon. I am surprised that it took me this long to discover his blog. If you haven't seen it, go do it now.
Second up: I was checking out Gothridge Manor tonight, always, always great stuff on that blog. I saw a post about Mythoard so I had to go look at it myself, two minutes later I subscribed. I love the whole concept. Basically it is a subscription to a box of random gaming goodies, adventures, minis, dice, etc..that comes to your door once a month. Now, first of all this is just a Beta run, they are doing a test run of the concept this month (which is really smart) to get all the bugs worked out. For $20 you can get the first box, and you are NOT signed up for any additional months or recurring charges. There are only a limited number of the Beta subscriptions available, once they are gone they are gone. I know that something like this is not for everyone, but for me it is! I love the being able to open a box full of random stuff, gaming stuff that I might not ever have purchased before. I do know that a concept like this works well. Mantic Games does a Mystery Box of Miniatures around Christmas time every year, and I have heard the girls at work talk of certain companies that provide the same type of Box full of random "Girl Stuff" make-up, lip gloss, moisterizers, etc…on a subscription basis….and they all love it. Check it out, I think its a great idea, and I hope they succeed…!!!
Thats all I have for now, and it's already past midnight so now my "Friday's Mystery Meat" has bled into Saturday….oh well…Have a great weekend.
…."Friday's Mystery Meat"….Village Geomorphs w/ Rivers….
Tags: Dungeons & Dragons, Dyson Logos, Fantasy Gaming, Free D&D Maps, Free Gaming maps, Free Village Maps, Geomorphs, Heros and Other Worlds, Inkwell Ideas, Labyrinth Lord, Mapping, Moldvay, Old School Gaming, OSR, OSR Maps, Risus Monkey, RPG, Sword and Shield, Sword and Shield Blog, Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Edition, System Neutral, Village Maps
~ Attention. Here's an update on tonight's dinner. It was veal. I repeat, veal. The winner of tonight's mystery meat contest is Jeffrey Corbin who guessed "some kind of beef."~
Well, I somehow broke one of the pins to my USB connection on my printer/scanner…Damn!!! Even though it is a wireless device as well, I can not get the wireless part to work right now. In the past when it lost the wireless connection I would have to reload the drivers and the software using the USB cable to get the wireless functionality back. It was always such a hassle, I just quit using the wireless capability. Last night I spent a couple of hours working on it, I could see it on my laptop, but without the USB connection I could not get the driver to install properly for some dumb-ass reason. So I gave up for now, I will probably just have to buy a new one soon. Hell if I could just open the case (which I see no way of doing with out seriously breaking it apart) I could just solder a new USB connector onto the circuit board…problem solved. The good news is I can adjust some settings on a scanner at work so I can scan my stuff in until I get a new one, the bad news is I just spent $60 on new printer cartridges for the damned thing. Such is life, and if that is the worst thing that happened to me this week…then life is still pretty damned good.
I told you all this, because I wanted to post something else for this week's "Friday Mystery Meat" but I could not scan it. So instead, I have this set of village geomorphs with a river, I really like how these turned out…and I have another set of these done as well. I created these for the new Village and City sets of Dungeonmorph Dice that Joe Wetzel started on Kickstarter, but we're not sure we will be making a set of dice with rivers this time around. The first two drawings are just concept drawings for river geomorphs, I did them just to get my head wrapped around the best way to make rivers flow on geomorphs. Besides that I had a lot of fun drawing these, if anyone wants the PDF's for these let me know and I will link them up. I am not sure if they would be of any use for gaming but I do love how the second one looks for some odd reason…it was just fun for me.
First drawing of River Geomorphs Concepts: This one I do not like so much.
Second Concept Drawing of River Geomorph concepts: This one I like so much more, its much more organic, and for what it's worth….I really enjoyed drawing this….!!!!
And finally here are the Village with Rivers Geomorphs, click on the image for a full page PDF. As always, Enjoy!
….Megamorph-4….Something Different….
This Megamorph was totally inspired by the first (or was it the second one..?) Hobbit movie, the scene when they are running through the goblin caves on all the rickety wooden platforms. In my mind when I started this, it seemed like it would be really awesome, but it did not turn out that way in my humble opinion. After some trial runs at drawing the wooden bridges/pathways I found a great way to depict them….which I plan to share in the future. But the combination of the wood bridges with the style in which I do my crevasses just gets too damned busy and doesn't work for me visually. I can see that they would look really great over some water or less busy spaces, just not so much with my crevasse style. Even though the final drawing doesn't work for me so much, it was really a lot of fun to draw, and is sort fun to look at. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make it work better with my style of crevasses (Which I like too much to ever change) please let me know. One idea I have had is to keep them more at right angles to the cliff faces, to break up the lines a bit more. Anyway, let me know what you all think.
Click on the image for a full page PDF, and as always enjoy!


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Previous: Files and Directories, Up: Decoding and Viewing [Contents][Index]
Here's an example viewer for displaying
text/enriched inline:
(defun mm-display-enriched-inline (handle) (let (text) (with-temp-buffer (mm-insert-part handle) (save-window-excursion (enriched-decode (point-min) (point-max)) (setq text (buffer-string)))) (mm-insert-inline handle text)))
We see that the function takes a MIME handle as its parameter. It then goes to a temporary buffer, inserts the text of the part, does some work on the text, stores the result, goes back to the buffer it was called from and inserts the result.
The two important helper functions here are
mm-insert-part and
mm-insert-inline. The first function inserts the text of the
handle in the current buffer. It handles charset and/or content
transfer decoding. The second function just inserts whatever text you
tell it to insert, but it also sets things up so that the text can be
"undisplayed" in a convenient manner.