text:
|On Localization
|Subversion Ops, Localizing Non-Text Resources
|Related Articles
|External Reading
The lbundle_check.py script checks and records the state of localized non-text resources organized in lbundles, allowing translators to track their relation to original resources. Its latest version can be found in trunk/l10n-support/scripts/ directory in the KDE repository.
lbundle_check.py is in no way tied to KDE Translation Project, but can be used in any other environment. Only the instructions in this article are specifically about using lbundle_check.py in context of KDE TP.
To be able to track lbundle states, the translator (one of the coordinators) needs to have all the sources to which localized resources correspond. This is done by checking out once from the KDE repositories, and then regularly updating local checkouts. This is hard to do and maintain manually for selected sources only.
Instead, the easiest is to check out and update all localization-relevant KDE sources, using a single command. This command is populate_source.sh, found in trunk/l10n-kde4/scripts/ and branches/stable/l10n-kde4/scripts/ directories; each knows how to check out and update sources corresponding to the given translation branch (trunk or stable). It is run simply like this:
$ cd $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4
$ scripts/populate_source.sh
$ cd $KDEREPO/branches/stable/l10n-kde4
$ scripts/populate_source.sh
Running populate_source.sh which will take quite some time for the first run, but subsequent runs will be much faster. After the run is complete, in current working directory there will be the source/ directory, with all the checkouts in it. The local directory tree should then look like this:
At the moment of this writing, the source/ in trunk occupies ~10 GiB of disk space, and in stable ~6 GiB. While this is not little space, it should not be a significant problem given contemporary typical disk sizes.
To quickly check out or update only one or few modules, their names can be given as arguments to populate_source.sh:
$ scripts/populate_source.sh extragear-network_konversation kdegames_konquest
Module names for use as arguments can be found in source/modules file. This file is generated anew whenever populate_source.sh is run without arguments, i.e. to update everything.
The source/ directory contains the repo/ subdirectory with actual local checkouts, and the link/ subdirectory, with links to checkout directories suitable for later operations. If the imaginary KDingus application is part of kdeutils top module, and is kept in a Git repository, it will be located like this in source/ in trunk:
kdingus --> ../../repo/kdeutils_kdingus
And if KDingus were in the Subversion repository:
kdingus --> ../../repo/trunk/KDE/kdeutils/kdingus
Note that in both cases the link location stays the same, source/link/kdeutils/kdingus. It will also stay the same in source/ of stable branch, where repo/ will instead contain git-stable/, branches/KDE/4.x/, etc.
There is a special case when a top module name represents Git repository of its own, such as kde-baseapps or kdepim. The link then has to repeat the module name:
kde-baseapps --> ../../repo/git-unstable/kde-baseapps
kdepim --> ../../repo/git-unstable/kdepim
lbundle_check.py is capable of gracefully handling this case as well.
Before going through the setup examples, refresh the examples on organization of lbundles in the repository, which dealt with localizing the splash screen of the imaginary KDingus application.
lbundle_check.py can be used to track both out-of-source and in-source lbundles, but the setup needed for these two modes is somewhat different. The setup is explained for both modes, followed by the details of operation.
When it was assumed that KDingus was part of kdeutils top module, its out-of-source lbundle for the language aa was organized like this:
except that this listing includes one new file, the l10n-spec. This is the setup file for tracking the lbundle, or rather, all lbundles on its level and beneath. The files outside of l10n/ subdirs are going to be called unbundled, as they are not considered a part of the lbundle proper.
l10n-spec files are composed of key = value fields per line. For the example above the content of l10n-spec would be:
# l10n-spec for KDingus' out-of-source bundle.
source-root = aa/data:source/link;^1
source-vcs = auto
bundle-vcs = auto
languages = aa
track-unbundled = CMakeLists.txt
The fields used in the example are:
Several other fields, not used in this example, are available:
Paths in path-valued fields (such as source-root) can be specified in several modes. When it makes sense, to make up one path field value two or more modes can be chained, separated with semi-colon (;). Each subsequent mode refers to the path established up to that point. Path specification modes are as follows:
The usual #-comments are allowed in l10n-spec files, as well as line continuation by trailing backslashes (e.g. when several file paths are needed in track-unbundled field).
If KDingus is an extragear application, its directory structure with the in-source lbundle having aa and bb languages, and an l10n-spec file, would be this:
The contents of l10n-spec is simpler than that of out-of-source lbundles:
# l10n-spec for KDingus' in-source bundle.
source-vcs = auto
languages = aa bb
Since the lbundle is kept together with the application, sharing same root directory and version control system, there is no need for the source-root and bundle-vcs fields. In fact, the presence or lack of the source-root field identifies the lbundle as out-of-source or in-source.
Field track-unbundled (or ignore-unbundled) are not present either. All files which are unbundled are silently ignored. It is assumed that the KDingus' maintainer will modify and test installation instructions such as not to break installation of localized resources.
languages field could be omitted here as well, but for in-source lbundles it is even more important to keep tight check of wrongly named language subdirs.
The default assumption behind lbundles is that only a small part of all resources need to be localized. It is upon the translator to spot the resources which need localization, make their localized versions, and add them to an lbundle where they will get tracked.
When instead it would be better to track all of the original resources, lbundle tracking can be set to greedy mode: any original resource that does not have a localized counterpart yet will be tracked as missing. When a new original resource gets added, the translator will be notified of that by lbundle-check.py.
Fields in l10n-spec used in greedy mode are as follows:
To check all lbundles for the language aa in trunk, lbundle-check.py can be run like this:
$ cd $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4/
$ lbundle-check.py aa/ # check all out-of-source
$ lbundle-check.py source/link/ -l aa # check all in-source
If -l aa option weren't specified in the second invocation, lbundle-check.py would check all languages in source/link/ instead of only aa. In the first invocation -l aa was omitted because out-of-source bundles contain only their own language, but it wouldn't cause any problem if it were present. Only particular lbundles can be checked by giving their subdirectories as arguments.
So, what does lbundle-check.py actually do, and what does it report? For brevity, let's limit to the out-of-source bundle for the KDingus as kdeutils application. After setting up the l10n-spec for that case (as shown earlier), running lbundle-check.py for the first time will output:
$ cd $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4
$ lbundle-check.py aa/data/
! aa/data/kdeutils/kdingus/pics/l10n-track
Added to tracking: 2
The file aa/data/kdeutils/kdingus/pics/l10n-track will be created, with the following contents:
# Do not edit manually, except to remove complete lines.
# -
ok ¦CMakeLists.txt¦ 865f7...e926d 755260
# aa
ok ¦l10n/aa/kdingus-splash.png¦ 37c4a7...8fe3a 755647
For each l10n-spec file encountered, lbundle-check.py will create one of these l10n-track files. l10n-track file, in each non-comment, non-empty line, contains four fields, in order: the state of the localized resource against the original, the relative path to the bundled resource, the checksum of the original resource, and the VCS revision string of the original file which has this checksum.
At this point, when l10n-spec file has been manually written, and l10n-track created by running lbundle-check.py, both should be added and committed to version control.
So long as the original resource does not change, rerunning lbundle-check.py in the same way will do nothing, as everything is in sync. Obviously, the original resources should be updated to the latest repository version prior to checking, and lbundle-check.py can do that itself if started with -u option:
$ lbundle-check.py -u aa/data/
svn up .../kdeutils/kdingus/pics/CMakeLists.txt
At revision 762512.
svn up .../kdeutils/kdingus/pics/kdingus-splash.png
At revision 762512.
Once the original resource is modified, e.g. KDingus' splash screen is tweaked up, lbundle-check.py will report the following:
$ lbundle-check.py aa/data/
! aa/data/kdeutils/kdingus/pics/l10n-track
Newly fuzzied: 1
and its entry in l10n-track will state:
fuzzy ¦l10n/aa/kdingus-splash.png¦ 37c4a7...8fe3a 755647
i.e. only the status will have changed from ok to fuzzy. Now the translator has the information needed to compare what has changed in the original splash image: this entry still states the revision of the previous original file on which the localized file was based.
If the original resource is renamed, moved, or deleted, the report will be slightly different:
$ lbundle-check.py aa/data/
! aa/data/kdeutils/kdingus/pics/l10n-track
Newly obsoleted: 1
and the entry in l10n-track:
obsolete ¦l10n/aa/kdingus-splash.png¦ 37c4a7...8fe3a 755647
Now the translator must find out, using the old revision string, what exactly happened to the original resource, and do the same for the localized resource.
When the fuzzy or obsolete state has been resolved, localized resource updated to reflect changes in the original, it should be recorded as such. To do this, the entry for the resource is first manually deleted from l10n-track file (the whole line is removed), and then lbundle-check.py is rerun. This will recreate the entry with a fresh ok state.
If strict-state field has been set to true in l10n-spec, then not only the state of the entry in l10n-track is changed, but the tracked file itself is renamed to contain ~fuzzy or ~obsolete marker just before the extension. This mode is called strict because unless the out-of-sync state is corrected, the file is "misnamed" from the point of view of the runtime system, and will not be used instead of the original (it may even not get installed, depending on the exact installation instructions).
To resolve the fuzzy or obsolete state in strict mode, it is not necessary to manually remove the entry from l10n-track. Instead, it is enough to put an updated version of the file (without the state maker in its name) next to the out-of-sync version, and rerun lbundle-check.py. It will remove the old version and update the entry in l10n-track. (The renaming/removal are version control aware, i.e. proper version control commands will be used for these operations if *-vcs fields have been set in the spec file.)
When greedy bundling is engaged, each original file which doesn't have a localized counterpart will be reported in the track file (either as bundled or unbundled, depending on greedy-monolingual option), with it's state set to missing (except for the ignored files, given by the ignore-unbundled option). When the localized file is placed at the appropriate location, next run of lbundle-check.py will change the state to ok.
|This section should be mostly self-contained, providing all the information needed for resource tracking in documentation, for two reasons. Firstly, it can be reasonably assumed that many more KDE translation teams will want to track localized documentation resources, rather than some other, special resources. Secondly, structure of documentation resources is significantly different from that of normal lbundles, so having separate examples helps.
KDE documentation consists of two types of resources: the text, which is provided through Docbook files, and other data, mostly screenshots from applications. The text from original Docbook files is extracted into PO templates, translated through PO files, and localized Docbook files created out of them. Thus, when the original text changes, translators are automatically made aware of that through new and fuzzy entries in PO files. This is not so for screenshots. When an original screenshot changes, gets removed or added, translators get no notice of it. However, the tracking mechanism provided by lbundle-check.py can be used to help rectify this.
Localized resources of KDE documentation are not really organized into lbundles; their organization far precedes the lbundling system. Still, every language's documentation directory (aa/docs/) can be understood as one greedy monolingual lbundle composed solely of unbundled resources, and as such tracked by the lbundle-check.py. Docbook files are excluded from tracking, as they are kept up-to-date through Docbook-PO-Docbook roundtrip. At the moment, tracking is set up and operated by the coordinator of each language team that wants to have it.
To set up tracking, the coordinator of the language aa should maintain the local checkout of several modules, with same structure as KDE repository, as follows:
In fact, it is a good idea anyway for a language coordinator to maintain such a checkout (the total space requirement is between 500 MB and 1 GB).
The documentation/ subdirectory is not actually found in the Subversion repository; it is created and periodically updated by running the scripts/populate_documentation.sh script, in stable and trunk:
$ cd $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4
$ scripts/populate_documentation.sh
$ cd $KDEREPO/branches/stable/l10n-kde4
$ scripts/populate_documentation.sh
populate_documentation.sh from trunk will get exactly the documentation modules' branches translated as trunk, and populate_documentation.sh from stable those translated as stable.
After this file structure is established, create the files:
both with the following, branch-independent content:
source-root = aa/docs:documentation
source-vcs = file
bundle-vcs = auto
track-by-subdir = yes
greedy-bundling = yes
greedy-monolingual = yes
greedy-from-level = 2
ignore-unbundled = \
CMakeLists.txt */CMakeLists.txt */*/CMakeLists.txt */*/*/CMakeLists.txt \
*/*/*.docbook */*/*/*.docbook \
Note the language code aa in aa/docs:... at the top, and modify it accordingly.
Finally, run the lbundle-check.py script from trunk/l10n-support/scripts/ on the documentation directories of your language, e.g. for the trunk:
$ lbundle-check.py $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4/aa/docs/
After some time, depending on how many localized screenshots you have made already, a whole lot of output may appear -- listing of files having been added to tracking. More importantly, each subdirectory in aa/docs/ which has (or could have) at least one localized screenshot, will get a tracking file, named l10n-track. Tracking files will be automatically added to version control as well, so you can commit aa/docs/ right away.
What does a tracking file look like? For example, the original documentation for KRuler contains these files:
Assume that your language's localized documentation contains:
that is, the localized variant of kruler-settings.png is missing. Then, the aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/l10n-track that got created will have this contents:
# Do not edit manually, except to remove complete lines.
ok ¦kruler.png¦ 58ba...872a 58ba...872a
missing ¦kruler-settings.png¦ 4dd2...5ebf 4dd2...5ebf
Each line contains four pieces of data: the sync state and the name of the localized file, and the twice repeated checksum of the original file. (Instead of the second checksum normally there would be the repository revision of the original file, but populate_documentation.sh does not make proper repository checkouts). Since this is the first run of lbundle-check.py, it assumed that the present localized kruler.png is up-to-date (more later on this assumption), and so its state is set to ok. For kruler-settings.png, which is not there in the localized directory, the state is set as missing.
The day-to-day operation constitutes running lbundle-check.py from time to time, in the same way as the first time. When a new original screenshot is added, the appropriate l10n-track file will get a new missing entry. When a localized screenshot is produced and put into correct place, the missing state will change into ok:
$ cd $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4/
$ (...put localized kruler-settings.png into aa/docs/...)
$ lbundle-check.py aa/docs/
A (bin) aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/kruler-settings.png
M aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/l10n-track
New 'ok': 1
aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/kruler-settings.png (...)
Note that version control operations are done automatically too.
Assume now that, in the above example, after some time the original kruler.png is modified, and the original kruler-settings.png is removed. Then, running the tracker produces:
$ cd $KDEREPO/trunk/l10n-kde4/
$ lbundle-check.py aa/docs/
M aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/l10n-track
New 'fuzzy': 1
aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/kruler.png (...)
New 'obsolete': 1
aa/docs/kdegraphics/kruler/kruler-settings.png (...)
and the content of tracking file becomes:
# Do not edit manually, except to remove complete lines.
fuzzy ¦kruler.png¦ 58ba...872a 3d94...2c6f
obsolete ¦kruler-settings.png¦ 4dd2...5ebf ae31...b561
Now the translator should remove the obsoleted localized kruler-settings.png, and check the new original kruler.png to see what to do with the localized kruler.png. When the fuzzy state of localized kruler.png is resolved -- by making a new localized screenshot, or deciding that the existing screenshot is still fine -- the translator edits l10n-track to remove its line. After rerunning lbundle-check.py, new localized kruler.png will be picked up with the default ok state, and the line for kruler-settings.png will be automatically removed.
|As the top comment in l10n-track files states, never manually edit these files except to unfuzzy entries by removing their complete lines. E.g. do not change the state manually, which would leave the original checksum and revision wrong.
Instead of running lbundle-check.py on the whole aa/docs/ tree, it can also be run on any given subdirectory of it. It will then check only the files in that subdirectory and below.
There is a small issue with the fact that lbundle-check.py will set state of new files to ok. If the documentation directory already has a lot of screenshots with unknown state compared to the original, it is not appropriate to consider them ok, but fuzzy. To have this, after the first run of lbundle-check.py simply postprocess all l10n-track files:
$ find aa/docs/ -iname l10n-track | xargs perl -pi -e 's/^ok /fuzzy/'
$ find aa/docs/ -iname l10n-track | xargs perl -pi -e 's/[0-9a-z]{32}/0/'
(The second command replaces the original checksums with all zeros, as otherwise the files would be again recognized as up-to-date on the next run.) Afterwards, in due time, existing screenshots can be inspected one by one, and their fuzzy state removed as explained previously.


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Los Angeles alternative country group I See Hawks in L.A. singer Rob Waller recently released a free song "Drysdale, Sutton, and Koufax" on its website for its fans, and more importantly for the city's baseball fans.
The group is scheduled to perform at 1 p.m. Sunday on the Palomino Stage at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, kicking off the last day of Southern California's biggest outdoor country music event. This will be the second time I Seek Hawks in L.A. has played at Stagecoach as the Angelenos performed in 2010 in the morning on the porch of a house-like structure when festival gates were opening up.
"We were playing as people walked in the gates," Waller said in a recent phone interview before the festival. "That was the one time we had been there before. I think it's going to be better. We're definitely looking forward to it. We had a great time last time."
The group name comes from driving out to Las Vegas on March 31, 1999 when they stopped near Cima Road off the 15 Freeway and went for a hike in the Mojave, Waller said.
"We kind of got lost and the sun went down," Waller said. "One of the guys' girlfriends, we lost her. She had to be picked up several miles away — that part is not great — but that's where we came up with the name of the band and the concept for it. We all sort of realized we were seeing hawks around L.A. Some people say there are no hawks in L.A., but there still is ancient, old wildlife around. The music we make is sort of old, too, and natural. We've always sort of been connected to it."
Waller, 42, said he has changed his approach to recording in the studio since he started.
"I used to do multiple takes of making a record. I would do eight or 10 vocal takes and then go through and make a compilation of the best lines. I don't do that anymore. I do one take. I do almost everything live. It's gotten that way as a band. You get the take or you don't. Just to give it more of a live, emotional feel. So much of the music I love the most, in some ways, is more old fashioned. You get the song ready and deliver the performance. We use the old-fashioned way."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759
One of the finest victories in the annals of the Royal Navy was won in Quiberon Bay on France's Biscay coast near St Nazaire on a stormy November day in 1759, the 'wonderful year' of victories, immortalised in the song 'Hearts of Oak' composed to commemorate the battle.
France had been at war with Britain since 1756. After three years her position in Canada, India and the West Indies was on the point of collapse and in Europe she faced stalemate against Prussia which received British support. To solve all their problems at a single stroke, the French planned to land an army of 20,000 men in Scotland to be covered by a fleet of twenty-one ships of the line under Admiral Conflans.
Admiral Edward Hawke had been leading his Western Squadron in blockading the French for much of the year, the British crews acquiring magnificent seamanship skills in the process. He also ordered his Captains to engage the enemy at short range. A November gale, however, caused Hawke's fleet to take refuge in Torbay and this allowed Conflans to sail from his base at Brest with his fleet of twenty-one ships. This was reported to Hawke who sailed in pursuit through the continuing bad weather catching the enemy at Quiberon Bay where the French planned to embark their army.
Hawke had twenty-three major ships and the outnumbered Conflans decided to take refuge in the bay thinking the British would not dare follow him onto a lee shore. He was wrong. On 21 November Hawke chased the French into the bay under full sail and the leading group of British ships commanded by Lord Howe raced forward to engage the rearmost French. The British had better trained gunners and came off the best in the confusion that resulted until Hawke was forced to order his fleet to anchor late in the afternoon.
One French ship was so badly damaged by the gunfire of Hawke's flagship the Royal George that it sank in the rough seas. Another, hard pressed by a British ship was caught by the wind and rolled over, water flooding through the gunports causing her to sink rapidly. Two others struck their colours although only one, the flagship of the French rear admiral, could be captured. Six French ships took refuge in the River Viliane, in whose shallows they were trapped and a seventh grounded and was wrecked trying to get in. A further eight fled south to Rochefort and another was wrecked as it tried to enter the River Loire. The French flagship and the uncaptured ship that had struck its colours went aground the following morning and were burnt. Two British ships ran aground and were wrecked, but it was a small price to pay for the destruction of the Brest fleet and the end to the threat of a French invasion.
Further reading:
- R. Mackay, "Hawke: Quiberon Bay, 1759" in E.J. Grove (Ed.) Great Battles of the Royal Navy (London, 1994).


text:
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text:
Salwar Kameez - Shantoon - Churidar Suit
Today, you might be looking for even wedding suits online, but how many people would have actually known that the salwarkameez has a history that is not only long, but extremely rich too. While no one knows for sure exactly when the first version of the salwarkameez was made, it is believed that its origin lies in the Mughal reign. Because the Mughal reign was most prominent in the northern parts of India, present day Pakistan and Afghanistan, it comes as no surprise that even today, this is an outfit of choice in these parts of the subcontinent.
However, what is interesting is that today, the salwarkameez has become a global phenomenon and you can see everyone, including Hollywood celebrities, wearing them with aplomb. What makes the salwarkameez so popular is the fact that it is extremely easy to wear and can you give the ethnic look, almost instantly. Another reason for the popularity of the salwarkameez is the sheer variety – from Punjabi suits to anarkali suits, there is something for every occasion. Whether it is a simple family affair or a grand wedding that you need to attend, you will be able to find a salwarkameez that is just right for the occasion.
Finding churidar suits that match the occasion that you are off too, should depend on certain factors, such as what the actual occasion is, your body type and complexion to name a few. So, while slim bodies will look great in vertical lines, women who are on the heavier side might want to look for small floral patterns or even solid colours. Tall women will look great in high low kurtas, teamed with palazzos, while slightly shorter women can carry off the floor length anarkali well.
And then comes the 'work' part of it – designers these days are so creative that they can achieve almost any design with a few spools of thread or some stones. Whether you want intricate thread embroidery that tells the tale of a floral garden or you want a stunning kurta with stone work, chances are that you will be able to find it all online. What makes online shopping truly a wonderful experience is that not only can you find something that sits well within what you are looking for, but also something that does not burn a hole in your budget.


text:
Red Hat has released the first public beta for RHEV 3 in the last week or so. I didn't have time to play with it since yesterday, waiting for the rest of Irene to strike my city.
So, I grabbed the documentation, go through it rapidly and start the installation on a spare server I have at home. The first thing to notice is how wonderful it is to just "yum install rhevm"! Seriously, compare that to the need to install Windows 2k8, Active Directory, .Net, etc, etc… This is a major step up for RHEV.
After playing with RHEV for the whole day, here is what I conclude :
– For a first public beta, RHEV 3 is extremely stable. I saw some problems here and there but nothing major. There is some errors in the documentation and some problems accessing the Spice console with Fedora 15 and Gnome 3 (and this one is not necessarily a RHEV problem). Everything is stable, smooth and work as advertised. I am impressed because I thought that porting from .Net to Java would cause more problems than that.
– RHEV 3 also gave me the chance to play with FreeIPA, which is in "Technology Preview" in RHEL 6.1. Again, really impressed with this product and will be sure to look at it again on it's own in the near future.
– The upgrade to RHEL 6.x really show : the performance are amazing. I look forward to try RHEV 3 on bigger hardware than what I have currently. This is largely due in performance improvement in the kernel and KVM : KVM performance improvements and optimizations
– I like how Red Hat used their technologies combined with other major Open Source products : JBOSS, OpenJDK, PostgreSQL, KVM, RHEL 6.x, FreeIPA, etc. I like that a big project like RHEV based on Windows, .Net, Active Directory and SQL Server can be ported to stable and trusted Open Source equivalent.
The only downside from all this is that you still need Internet Explorer to access the Administration console. After searching for a bit, this is supposedly going to be fixed in RHEV 3.1. This is a small downside for all the gain that RHEV 3 come with.


text:
Easy to install. No flame. No trouble.
Firestone Building Products specially designed the Firestone RubberCover™ EPDM Roofing System for small residential flat roofing applications. The system is based on high performing Firestone RubberCover™ EPDM rubber membranes and a limited range of accessories offering a watertight and durable roofing solution.
The Firestone RubberCover™ EPDM Roofing System is the ideal, durable solution for small residential flat roofs such as: extensions, verandas, dormers, porches, garages, carports, garden sheds, balconies, gutters, trailers.
Firestone RubberCover™ EPDM Roofing Systems offer a unique combination of features and benefits:
Copyright © 2019 M A Roofing Services - All Rights Reserved.


text:
Industry analysis performed in 2003 predicted 2004 would be a flat year for construction, putting the construction industry on a slow road to recovery. However, in its 2005 Construction Outlook, McGraw-Hill Construction says 2004 will actually end the year with a 9% increase in new construction starts and reach $577 billion — the biggest gain in total construction since the late '90s (Fig. 1). So in retrospect, the slow road to recovery didn't turn out to be quite so slow after all. What caused the results to exceed projections? The single greatest influence was the fact that long-term interest rates and inventories stayed low enough to keep the raging residential housing market hot, despite economists' predictions that it would cool off.
As 2004 comes to a close, the question on everyone's minds is, "What will 2005 bring?" Projections vary from a 2% increase predicted by McGraw-Hill Construction to the U.S. Department of Commerce's 6% estimate — with several more falling in between. (For more 2005 predictions on construction put-in-place, see Table 1 and Table 2) Because economists must base their projections on many unknowns and rely on historical data and trends to make educated guesses, in a way they're really hedging their bets as to what tomorrow will bring — and most tend to stay on the conservative side.
Based on the fact that last year's percentage increases far exceeded expectations, it's hard to know exactly what to expect for 2005. However, most economic analysts agree that the overall construction market is on an upswing, and the driving force behind that growth is shifting.
The residential housing market has carried the load for the majority of the construction industry during the recession and beyond, and public projects have struggled to keep up. But that may be changing. Once interest rates rise, economists predict the homebuilding market will finally slow down; however, they believe the non-residential market will step in to take its place.
"I expect housing to taper off the way I'd expected it to in 2004," says Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, Washington, D.C. "I think 2005 will be better for private non-residential work and start to get better for public construction. Public sector finances are getting better at the state level, so I think the legislatures will start appropriating more money."
In Simonson's Dec. 2, 2004, report he suggests the silver lining for 2005 may be tucked inside storm clouds. For example, he says real gross domestic product has grown at a steady pace (between 3% and 5%) for four straight quarters and should produce a repeat performance in the final quarter of 2004. This is a great lead-in to 2005. "I believe the case is slightly stronger for an economy that will thrive, rather than dive, in 2005," Simonson says. "But the results will vary significantly among sectors, and even within some."
The consensus among experts at Reed Construction Data's North American Construction Forecast Conference in October was that 2005 will bring the beginning of an economic recovery that will gain momentum through 2007, despite impending interest rate hikes and continued sluggish job growth during 2004. The group forecasted that the next two years would not only provide an increasingly stronger economy, but will also usher in a positive upward swing for the industrial, public, and other non-residential construction markets.
Ed Sullivan, chief economist of the Portland Cement Association (PCA), feels strong growth in non-residential construction, moderate growth in public construction, and slowing residential construction will equate to about a 3% increase in the real value of total construction in 2005. Sullivan believes that a strong economy will fuel non-residential construction while increasing interest rates will begin to slow down residential construction. He also believes industrial construction will experience a strong increase by the summer of 2005, and despite higher office vacancy rates across the country, office construction will improve.
Randy Giggard, manager of research services at FMI, Raleigh, N.C., thinks 2005 will bring with it many of the same risks as 2004, including confusion over oil prices, the Iraq situation, job creation, and unstable consumer confidence. However, he expects oil prices to fall and consumer confidence to improve gradually in 2005. The only wild card, he says, is the Federal Reserve policy and expectations that it will steadily raise interest rates.
So although most experts agree 2005 has the potential to be a good year for construction, the key will be to know where to look for the work. That's why this year we've taken a different approach and broken down the construction market into 12 sub-categories to give you a better idea of which sectors are hot and which ones aren't.
Single-family housing. While the housing market is expected to cool down in 2005, the pace of construction should remain at near-record levels. Speaking at the NAHB Construction Forecast Conference in October, David Seiders, chief economist and senior staff vice president at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, D.C., expects single- and multi-family housing starts to slow down in 2005 to a combined total of 1.853 million units. Due to the unexpected resilience of the housing market, Seiders has had to revise his projections over the past several years. For example, the actual construction totals in 2004 were 13.82% higher than what he forecasted last year. Similarly, he's raised his 2005 total construction prediction by 11.76% since last year's conference.
NAHB expects fixed mortgage rates to increase from 5.9% this year to 6.5% next year before passing the 7% mark in 2006. Based in part on this rate increase, NAHB is calling for single-family housing starts in 2005 to decline 4.4%, followed by another 3.5% decline in 2006 (Fig. 2 above). Glenn Mueller, Ph.D., a professor at Johns Hopkins University's Real Estate Department and a real estate investment strategist for Baltimore-based Legg Mason, says it's important to remember that a 6.5% mortgage rate is considered the "tripping rate," or the point at which enough pressure on home affordability results in significant declines in single-family construction activity.
The run-up in residential construction over recent years has been phenomenal, notes Giggard, who continues to be surprised by this sector's endurance. "It's interesting because if you look back, economists have been predicting this market would cool off, and it just keeps going," he says. "Again, we're predicting a slowdown, although the total construction value is still up 6%."
According to McGraw Hill's 2005 Construction Outlook, there's been more to the residential market's phenomenal run than the low cost of financing. Demand has been boosted by the attractiveness of housing as an investment, especially when compared to the sluggish performance of the stock market. In addition, the increase in demand for second-home construction has increased due to the number of baby boomers approaching retirement age.
Multi-family housing. As the job market improves, so will the multi-family and real estate markets, Mueller predicts. According to his latest projections, he expects multi-family vacancies to drop below 7% by mid-2005, producing 2% to 4% rental growth. New employment growth forecasts show increases from 1.2% in 2004 to as high as 1.8% in 2005, which translates into good news for the apartment business. As more young people get jobs, they'll leave home and move into places of their own. He expects new construction starts to fall over the next year, slowing the unreasonably high new supply of the past two years. These two factors, says Mueller, will combine to produce positive absorption and declining vacancy forecasts.
According to the 2005 Construction Outlook from McGraw-Hill, while rents have remained flat recently, the sharp rise in housing prices in specific markets will allow them to increase. Multi-family housing in 2004 will slip back to 435,000 units, which is only a 2% decline from the previous year (Fig. 3). In 2005, McGraw-Hill expects multi-family housing to rebound 2% to 445,000 units. The report also suggests that this sector continues to be supported by the emphasis on downtown redevelopment in a number of cities across the country.
Another interesting footnote in this category relates to demographics. The number of 18- to 24-year-olds is expected to increase by 3.2 million in the current decade, as the children of baby boomers move out on their own. This should bring a surge for apartment demand.
Home improvement. If interest rates continue to rise as expected, new home purchases will inevitably taper off, leaving room for home renovation projects to pick up steam. The value of residential improvements has increased more than 35% since 1999, and a report from FMI Corp. predicts this trend will continue. FMI's Forecast for 2005 report found that the market reached $134 billion in 2003 and is expected to exceed $147 billion this year (about a 10% increase). The report predicts that figure could increase another 7% by the end of 2005.
The size and health of the remodeling segment of the housing market was also discussed at the NAHB Construction Forecast (Fig. 4). Industry observers expressed frustration with the lack of reliable sales numbers in this important segment of the housing industry, but a few are available. The U.S. Census Department predicts a 12% increase in the housing renovation market next year and estimates that annual residential-remodeling expenditures will be $177 billion. However, a new study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University puts this number significantly higher at $225 billion. Kermit Baker, senior research fellow at the program, is developing a leading economic indicator based on a survey with more than 50,000 households that he believes will more reliably forecast the size of the remodeling market.
Although the totals vary markedly among the various sources, it's a sure bet this market segment is worth keeping an eye on.
Retail/Commercial. As recently as the year 2000, private sector commercial work made up about half of the Norwalk, Conn.-based EMCOR Group's construction backlog. Today, it accounts for about 20%. "Although that speaks to the diversity and flexibility of our firm, it also means we have a lot of improving to do in rebuilding our commercial portfolio that was really decimated by the recession and shortage of private sector capital spending that went along with it," says Frank MacInnis, the company's chairman and CEO. "We'll really be concentrating on commercial construction and redevelopment in the next couple of years, but all in all 2005 looks like an improving year over 2004."
Based on the research out there, it looks like MacInnis and EMCOR may get their wish. Mueller of Johns Hopkins maintains that retail is the only property type in the expansion phase that's doing well in occupancy and rental growth in 2004. "Commercial construction is hottest in most of the Florida markets as there is lots of job growth there," he says. "We don't watch individual markets' construction rates alone, but look at the balance of demand versus new supply. Southern California has the best occupancy levels on average for the five major commercial property types."
Mueller says retail was the sector least affected by the recession. Low interest rates and refinancing opportunities have given consumers more disposable income. He predicts the retail occupancy rate, which typically averages about 86%, will stay flat through 2004 and grow 3% to 4% in 2005 (Fig. 5).
More specifically, Simonson of AGC believes retail construction will be more evenly distributed among malls and specialty stores as opposed to big-box and discount chains. This may also feed into the growing popularity of mixed-use centers, which many developers are using to blend commerce and culture to revamp many U.S. city's downtown areas.
Lodging. The future is now for a few segments of the non-residential construction market, namely the hospitality industry. "The hotel industry seems to be coming on strong in 2005," Simonson says. "We are expecting 2004 to wind up being a record year for air travel. We've seen a significant increase in both occupancy rates and average rates per room. So the hotel chains are certainly seeing more business and leisure travelers. With the steep decline of the value of the dollar, the U.S. has become a cheap place for foreigners to come and visit and shop, so I expect more business travelers to be coming from abroad."
The hotel industry bottomed out after 9/11, but is showing signs of recovery, Mueller explained in his presentation to the crowd at Reed Construction Data's North American Construction Forecast Conference. However, he didn't predict that occupancy rates would climb above the average rate of 65% until 2007.
Against the backdrop of a healthier economy and improved demand for travel, 2004 is turning out to be a stronger year for lodging, McGraw-Hill Construction reports in its 2005 Construction Outlook. For example, hotel occupancies improved to 60.5% in the first half of 2004, which is an increase of 4% from the same time last year. The report goes on to say that contracting for hotels is expected to climb 13% to 53 million square feet.
"This market obviously took a big hit after 9/11, but the rates at which the rooms are being filled [now] are much higher," Giggard says. "The other interesting thing in lodging is that through the business downturn owners found ways to be much more efficient, so they were actually making money with much lower occupancy rates."
Education. According to figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, enrollments for K-8 peaked in 2002 at 38.8 million students, will decline modestly through 2005, and then grow to a projected 40.6 million students by 2013. In the next decade, higher education enrollments are expected to increase from 16.7 million in 2003 to 18.2 million by 2013.
Although this category is down at present, McGraw-Hill Construction notes there are signs that fiscal conditions are improving. It cites the most recent Fiscal Survey of the States, which reveals that 39 states reported their fiscal 2004 revenues would meet or exceed budgets. That's why it's predicting education will experience a modest upturn in 2005, rising 3% to 223 million square feet. Some of this construction may also give way to the somewhat new trend of public-private building partnerships in the education sector.
Studies conducted by the National Education Association reveal that billions of dollars are needed for school modernization across the country. And when you consider that enrollment in U.S. schools is supposed to peak in the next two years, according to a report from FMI, this situation potentially sets the stage for educational construction, and therefore more electrical work (Fig. 6), in the short term. Of course, the keyword is "potential" because all public projects depend on the approval of local budgets.
New Jersey is one state taking matters into its own hands. With the passage of the New Jersey Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act in 2000, the state will allocate $8.6 billion to the public school system for construction and renovation over the next decade. The New Jersey School Construction Corp. is expected to award $2 billion in contracts in 2005.
For 2004, the McGraw-Hill 2005 Construction Outlook estimates that the entire educational building category will be down 10% to 217 million square feet — the lowest volume since it hit 203 million square feet in 1998. It should be noted, though, that it's still more than 20% above the average for the '90s.
Health-care. As baby boomers move toward retirement age, the need for more health-care facilities and expanding existing ones continues to drive this market segment. Based on several industry forecasts, experts expect the health-care market to enjoy a slow-to-moderate rise in 2005. The U.S. Dept. of Commerce is expecting 8% and McGraw-Hill Construction is projecting an increase of 3% to reach 94 million square feet, while others are calling for more modest bumps of less than 2%. Nevertheless, hospitals across the country continue to plan for major expansion and renovation projects to compensate for technological advance, a growing population, increased use, and aging facilities (Fig. 7).
As the need for health-care increases, hospitals are looking for creative ways to upgrade. Rather than funding expansion projects, some are teaming up with developers to pay for construction costs. In this arrangement, developers pay for construction of the new building and the hospital signs a long-term lease. Such a partnership allows hospitals to provide new products and services to their patients without tying up cash in the construction of new surgery centers, medical office buildings, or wellness centers.
"Health-care is a very important business for us," MacInnis says. "This is not just because all of us are getting older and are going to need more sophisticated medical and clinical facilities, but also because these facilities are so systems-rich. Therefore, they are so significant from the standpoint of the electrical contractor and electrical systems manager."
Manufacturing/Industrial. Of all the non-residential market segments economists track, manufacturing/industrial is one to watch next year. Not only has this category performed extremely poorly in recent years, but future forecasts for growth are extremely widespread, ranging from 10% to more than 50%.
FMI is staying on the conservative side, showing growth of 13% for 2005. "A lot of lower tech industry jobs have gone overseas and probably won't come back," Giggard says. "But at the same time the higher tech industries, such as pharmaceuticals and electronics, are continuing to grow. The manufacturing segment was so decimated over the last couple of years, and there hasn't been much investment. We think some of that is going to come around, and companies that have realized productivity gains are going to have to start expanding and updating."
Sullivan of the PCA predicts industrial construction will experience a strong increase by the summer of 2005, possibly enjoying a leap in industrial work of 53% next year (Fig. 8).
After a five-year decline, construction of manufacturing buildings is finally on an upward track. According to Mueller's projections, demand for industrial space will improve by 2.5% in 2005 while new stock is only expected to rise 1%. New industrial starts are expected to decline over the next year, allowing rents to grow 1% to 3%. McGraw-Hill Construction says the manufacturing building category will increase 10% to 80 million square feet in 2005, fueled by an increase in automotive-related projects followed by pharmaceutical and biotech projects. To put this growth into perspective, it's important to note that the 2005 level is less than half of the 1997 peak of 191 million square feet.
Office. According to the McGraw-Hill 2005 Construction Outlook, office and warehouse construction is poised to see its first gains in four years in 2005. The report calls for a 10% increase from 2004 in square-footage to 170-million square feet and a 12% increase from 2004 in contract value to $22.9 billion (Fig. 9).
In his presentation to Reed Construction Data's North American Construction Forecast, Mueller cited Orange County, Calif., as the area that's experiencing the best office market rental growth, with additional markets in Southern California and Florida showing flat or slightly positive rental growth — unlike the rest of the nation where office market rental is suffering.
Once the exclusive domain of industrial facilities and manufacturing plants, urban areas with a surplus of abandoned or underutilized spaces are catching the eye of many developers who are renovating these structures into high-rent condos and offices.
Although the office sector has already begun to turn around, it continues to recover more slowly than expected, Mueller notes. He admits every time he runs a new forecast, the numbers are slightly lower than anticipated. Simonson agrees. He predicts it's going to be late in 2005 before this category sees any kind of sustained upturn.
FMI is looking for a 10% growth spurt in the office market for 2005. "It's an interesting segment because vacancy rates are still relevantly high—in the 17% range—but they vary a lot with downtown areas having a lower rate than suburban areas," Giggard says. "We're seeing a lot of companies choosing to do client refit work—taking buildings and turning them into what they want or going to areas and building corporate centers to suit their specific needs."
According to Mueller's latest projections, he expects office demand to grow at 2.5% from 2004 to 2005. However, office starts are projected to be down 25% year-over-year, creating a stock increase of about 1%, which translates into a vacancy decline of just more than 1% by the end of 2005, leaving the national average vacancy at about 16.5%.
Despite higher office vacancy rates across the country, office construction will remain on a steady upswing starting in 2005 and lasting through 2007.
Water and sewer. EMCOR's MacInnis is watching water and wastewater work closely. "We think water, and especially wastewater treatment projects, are going to be extremely important across the country for the foreseeable future," he says.
According to McGraw-Hill Construction's 2005 Construction Outlook, 2004 will post strong growth from water supply system and sewer work, as a backlog of jobs reaches the construction start stage. In 2003, the report reveals that water supply projects dropped 13%; however, the decline has reversed in 2004 with this segment jumping 17% to $10 billion, thanks to several large projects in the West.
Sewer construction rose 1% in 2003, and a 7% increase is expected for 2004. Part of this hike is attributable to a $191 million sewer tunnel project in Atlanta. But analysts aren't too optimistic just yet. Because the Bush Administration has proposed reducing federal contribution to state clean water revolving funds for 2005 from $1.35 billion to $850 million, more concrete projections will have to wait until Congress weighs in on this issue.
Power. Competition in wholesale electricity markets and an increased demand for power have lessened the reliability of the nation's electric grid. However, investment in new power plants and transmission and distribution lines is still minimal, at best.
New construction starts for electric utilities continue to retreat. In its 2005 Construction Outlook, McGraw-Hill Construction reports that last year's 29% decline brought construction down to $8.9 billion—well below 2001's all-time high of $24.3 billion. In 2004, it predicts a similar reduction, with construction estimated to fall 32% to $6 billion.
The report indicates that capacity utilization rates for power plants reached 96% in 2000 but fell to 89% by 2002. The large increase in generating capacity drove rates down to an average of 84% in 2003, followed by a slight improvement to 85% in the first nine months of 2004. Accordingly, electric utility starts will continue to decline through at least 2005, with next year's starts expected to drop 8% to $5.5 billion.
On the other hand, while power plant construction has fallen dramatically, McGraw-Hill Construction reports that transmission line work has picked up significantly. For example, power line work jumped 112% in 2004, which accounted for 7% of electric utility starts in 2003. In the first three quarters of 2004, this market has seen another 67% increase.
In the power business, MacInnis points out that the problem lies not just in the high cost of energy but in the uncertainty and variability of that cost. However, he does call attention to a bright spot in this declining market segment. "The cost of owning or operating a facility used to be relatively static, and now it's one of the most unpredictable factors," he says. "I think the proliferation of systems and of management services that help owners or end-users of facilities to know what their costs are going to be will be in great demand."
Final thoughts. As the country leaves memories of the recession behind and gears up for better times, electrical professionals will be waiting and watching to see what 2005 will bring for the construction market. And if the fiscal events of the last few years have taught electrical industry professionals anything, it's that you can never take the state of the economy too lightly. Nearly half of EC&M's Top 50 electrical contractors report that the health of their bottom line weighs heavily on their minds.
However, most admit all that worrying may be unnecessary. The vast majority (86%) agrees with economists' predictions and expects the market to improve next year, while merely 3% foresee a decline. So if you put stock in economic experts' predictions and the expectations of some of the most successful electrical contractors in the business, 2005 should turn out to be a pretty good year for most in the electrical industry.


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Note: Please check this page throughout the Annual Meeting, as we will post the latest news right here as soon as it becomes available.
Photo Galleries: Friday | Saturday
Bishop, Sprague and Levy elected to highest offices at PGA of America
Ted Bishop of Franklin, Ind., was elected the 38th president of The PGA of America on Saturday at the Annual Meeting. Succeeding Bishop as vice president is Derek Sprague of Malone, N.Y., while Paul Levy of Indian Wells, Calif., was elected secretary. In addition, six new members of the PGA Board of Directors were sworn into office.
Bevacqua named new CEO of PGA of America, Crall promoted to COO
Peter Bevacqua has been selected as chief executive officer of The PGA of America, becoming the third CEO of the world's largest sports organization. He previously served as chief business officer for the United States Golf Association and more recently led the golf division of CAA Sports. In addition, Darrell Crall, currently the PGA's managing director, strategic development, will become chief operating officer.
New Jersey Section receives Herb Graffis Award for player development
The New Jersey PGA Section, comprised of 452 members and apprentices, was presented the Herb Graffis Award Saturday, honoring its exemplary contributions in player development and growth of the game programming. The NJPGA Section was honored for its expansive player development programming, highlighted by Golf In Schools, an initiative that impacts 95,000 boys & girls at elementary and middle schools throughout the Garden State.
PGA Professional Kennedy receives Patriot Award for supporting military
John Kennedy Jr. of New Canaan, Conn., whose leadership within the Metropolitan PGA Section extended to establishing a foundation for supporting the men and women of the military along with affiliation with the VA to help instruct disabled veterans, has been presented with the 2012 Patriot Award. First presented in 2008, the Patriot Award honors a PGA Professional who personifies patriotism through the game of golf and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who have valiantly served and protected the United States of America.
PGA Annual Meeting in Baltimore to focus on ways of transforming golf
Four hundred PGA Professionals, representing 41 nationwide Sections, have gathered in Baltimore for the 96th PGA Annual Meeting, which carries the theme "Transform. Empower. Engage." Delegates will elect new officers, and bring into focus the many ways that the Association and industry are transforming the sport of golf to further empower PGA Professionals so they can grow the game.


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Pac Man & Ghost R/C Set
Catch him if you can!
- Bring your Pac-Man adventures to real life
- Twin pack includes 1 Pac-Man and 1 Ghost
- 10 AAA batteries required. Not included.
You can get your race on and your Pac-Man fix all at once with no quarters necessary. Take the high-intensity 2-D chases into 3D these Pac-Man and Ghost RC Racers. Thankfully for ol' Pac, the playing field is a little more level. One Pac-Man, one Ghost -- Blinky to be precise -- no rules. Game on.
These two racers come with an arcade-like infrared joystick and blast Pac-Man theme music to accompany your choreographed chase scene around the living room floor. There may be no real pellets (unless you drop some Kix on the floor), but there is lots of real-life fun!
Product Specifications
- Race Pac-Man and Blinky around your living room
- Easy-to-use infrared controls
- Racers move in four directions
- Pac-Man gaming sound FX play while you race
- Batteries: 10 AAA batteries total (not included)


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I rarely accuse Paul Krugman of failing to think clearly, but he's missed the mark with his his argument against breaking up the U.S. too-big-to-fail financial oligarchy.
Here's Krugman's core objection:
Breaking up big banks wouldn't really solve our problems, because it's perfectly possible to have a financial crisis that mainly takes the form of a run on smaller institutions. In fact, that's precisely what happened in the 1930s, when most of the banks that collapsed were relatively small — small enough that the Federal Reserve believed that it was O.K. to let them fail. As it turned out, the Fed was dead wrong: the wave of small-bank failures was a catastrophe for the wider economy.
The same would be true today. Breaking up big financial institutions wouldn't prevent future crises, nor would it eliminate the need for bailouts when those crises happen.
Krugman is leaving out the most important part of the 1930s story here. The mass failure of small banks in the Depression was an economic disaster because it wiped out the deposits of citizens all over the country. It wasn't just that the banks were being wiped out, it was that people's savings were being wiped out with them. The government solved this problem when it invented deposit insurance. And as a result, when small banks go down, it doesn't wreak havoc on the economy. Literally thousands of small banks failed during the savings and loan crisis, but depositors didn't lose a dime. The S&L crisis wasn't good, but it was never a problem that threatened to bring down the entire economy. This is not the case when large banks fail today, as evidenced by the quagmire following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Krugman is undoubtedly correct to state that breaking up the big banks would not prevent future crises, but that's not the point. No reform can eliminate the business cycle. What we can do is create meaningful regulations and restructure our markets to ensure that future crises are not total catastrophes. Part of this will mean, as Krugman suggests in his column, regulating what banks do. But part of it will also mean making sure that when regulators screw up, the result isn't economic Armageddon. The only way to do that is to break up the big banks.
Two other points are worth mentioning. First, as Simon Johnson and others have noted, the principal problem with Wall Street is not economic, but political. There's a reason why banks were able to secure their bailouts within a matter of weeks, but we've had to wait nearly two years for regulatory reform. The banks have been lobbying hard against any reform whatsoever, and for the most part, they've been successful. Even today, it's not obvious that any financial reform package, however weak, will get through Congress.
If Congress does find the will to enact stronger regulations, but doesn't break up the banks, it's very likely that the major banking conglomerates will be able to push regulators around and dodge the enforcement of those new rules. The only way to mitigate this political influence is to cut banks down to size.
Second, even if Congress establishes a new FDIC-style "resolution authority" for the shadow banking system—and I agree with Krugman that it should—the credit markets simply won't take it seriously. The biggest banks—Citigroup, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc.—will still be able to raise money at low interest rates based on the presumption of a government bailout. That injects a costly inefficiency into the financial system—Dean Baker estimates that it results in $34.1 billion a year in misallocated funds, all of which could be supporting small businesses or creating jobs.
But the lure of low-cost funding also encourages banks to get bigger. Right now, every significant incentive in the banking system is pushing banks to grow, grow, grow. If we do not break them up, the threat they pose to the economy is only going to be exacerbated over time. The largest U.S. banks currently hold about $2 trillion in assets. Does anybody, including Paul Krugman, really want us to confront the next crisis with a handful of $10 trillion or even $30 trillion banks?


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Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of Iran's attack on an American surveillance drone operating above the waters of the Persian Gulf on the first of this month. Exactly who ordered the attack and why, remains unclear. And, oddest of all, the fact that the event, which took place just five days before the U.S. presidential election, was kept secret by both the United States and Iran until November 8, after that election, suggests both sides had a common interest in keeping it quiet.
That's an important clue about whether Washington and Tehran might now move toward direct, one-on-one talks aimed at resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
First, the facts – as they are known so far. On November 8, two days after President Barack Obama's reelection, and following media reports of Iran's attack against the drone, Pentagon Spokesman George Little said, "I can confirm that on November 1, at approximately 4:50 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, an unarmed, unmanned MQ-1 U.S. military aircraft, conducting routine surveillance over the Arabian Gulf, was intercepted by Iranian Su-25 Frogfoot Aircraft and was fired upon with guns." Less than twenty-four hours later, Iran's Defense Minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, also confirmed the attack. And though the two sides disagreed about whether or not the drone had been flying over Iranian airspace or not, the subsequent comments from both sides – although containing the usual boilerplate, and although Little couldn't resist calling the body of water over which the incident occurred the "Arabian Gulf" – were notable for their restraint. Neither side, apparently, wanted to ratchet up tensions.Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.
So what were the Iranians up to? It's certainly possible that the entire episode was set off by an overly aggressive local military commander. But other scenarios are equally plausible, and many of these lend support to the idea that Iran is preparing itself, and its population, for talks and possibly an agreement with the United States.
First, there is the possibility that the attack on the drone was initiated by a hardline faction within Iran's military, most likely within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who are opposed to any sort of deal with the United States. This scenario gains credibility from the fact that the two planes that attacked the drone were under the command of the IRGC, not Iran's regular air force. The inner core of the IRGC has plenty of reasons to fear an accord with the United States, since it would put the brakes on any future effort to militarize the nuclear program in pursuit of atomic weapons and, among other things, the fact that the lifting of economic sanctions would deprive the IRGC of its vastly profitable smuggling network for critical imports through a network of unofficial ports run by individuals and organizations affiliated with the IRGC. In addition, there is undoubtedly within Iran's top leadership and the IRGC in particular, a faction ideologically opposed to a rapprochement with "The Great Satan."


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Commons:Project scope/Precautionary principle
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WEDNESDAY, April 29, 2009 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking diet sodas, especially those with a citrus flavor, might help ward off painful calcium deposits known as kidney stones.
The drinks contain citrate, which is known to inhibit calcium formation, according to the authors of a study that was to be presented Sunday at the American Urological Association annual meeting, in Chicago.
And there's more good news in the drinks department: A second study being presented at the same meeting found that pomegranate juice might slow the progression of prostate cancer.
Some 10 percent of people in the United States will form these calcium deposits, known as kidney stones, at some point in their lives. In as many as a third of the cases, it's because they do not urinate enough citrate, said study author Dr. Brian Eisner, a clinical fellow in urology at the University of California San Francisco and an instructor in urology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, in Boston.
Potassium citrate and other pills can help alleviate the problem, as can a special lemonade drink (rich in citric acid) concocted by one of Eisner's co-authors a decade or so ago.
But this study extended the idea to see how much citrate was contained in 15 commonly consumed diet sodas. The authors did not look at regular sodas because of the potentially unhealthy sugar content.
"They're measuring certain ingredients in diet sodas which are known to have an activity against kidney stones," said Dr. Patrick Lowry, an assistant professor of surgery at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and section head of laparoscopy and endourology at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple.
Eight of the soda types had as much as or more citrate than the original lemonade formula. The highest performers were Diet Sunkist Orange, Diet 7-Up and Diet Canada Dry (Diet Coke with Lime had no citrate).
"This is nice because patients have to drink fluid anyway to protect them from kidney stones," Eisner said. The current recommendation is two liters of fluid per day for people who have kidney stones.
But another expert wasn't convinced.
"I think it would be farfetched to think everyone should drink diet soda for kidney stones," said Dr. Michael Palese, director of minimally invasive surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "You can argue that other things in the soda, like caffeine, would be detrimental because it will dehydrate you. Water is one of the better ways to go."
"This isn't for everybody and for people with severe low citrate, it's probably not that great," added Eisner, who is gearing up for a study to see if these diet drinks lower urinary citrate levels in actual humans.
The second study, led by urologist Dr. Allan Pantuck of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels among a small group of patients drinking eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily took significantly more time to double compared with men not drinking the juice.
High PSA levels can indicate the presence of a prostate tumor, although the test is not fail-safe.
"The fact that it actually slows progression by measuring a tumor marker is a pretty big deal," Lowry said. "There's really very little out there that has much activity against active prostate cancer."
Although the evidence is far from conclusive, experts seemed to agree that there were few reasons not to drink pomegranate juice.
"When patients ask me if they should take vitamin E, selenium, wheat grass juice, I'll say nobody's studied any of this stuff," said Dr. Simon J. Hall, director of The Deane Prostate Health and Research Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "At least with pomegranate, somebody did and it appeared to have some efficacy."
"The only potential downside is that it's a semi-high-calorie juice, but if you have prostate cancer, that's probably the least of your worries," Lowry stated. "And if they can show activity against prostate cancer, then this might spur some research in the area of prostate cancer prevention. That's really key. The disease affects one in six men. Anything that can affect prevention of prostate cancer is very important."
The researchers, all of whom had received money from POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, used the product for the study.
More information
There's more on kidney stones at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.


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If resistance fighters decide to regroup and resupply after passing the border inside Russia then equipment like large trucks and similar items that are visible from above should be of second priority
as recently there were threats by the ukranian administration to bomb passing vehicles across the Russian border. Some smaller equipment which cannot be immediately transferred accross the border without large trucks like ammunition stockpiles can be buried underground at night or hidden or someway disguised while passing to the other side.
infantry and smaller vehicles should pass with commanders having higher priority to coordinate the resistance from a safer position along with other refugees hiding amongst them. larger weapons like aa trucks can also be evacuated but there should be more caution. Ofcourse If a sector is secure and analyzed to be not too risky passing with arms and better equipment would ensure better protection.
Both Donetsk and Lugansk has a huge border with Russia and other side of the border is protected from above.
If current ukranian administrtion refuses to negotiate and continues the shelling and aerial bombing against minorities then atgms, manpads and ieds can keep them busy for a very long time.


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Better Option for test Captaincy:
- Shoiab Malik
- Mohammed Yousuf
for god sake no shoaib malik plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Though your rest of post is right on spot. And personally I dont Moh. Yousaf should be captain. let him play freely as batsman. If he wants to be captain then yeah sure but then the coaches should have a regular feed of strategy making decisions. He is somewhat defensive captain.


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Mark Kashman
(@mkashman) is a senior product manager on the SharePoint marketing team.
Getting work done often requires working not only within the company
boundaries but also working beyond the firewall with business contacts who do
not fall within your corporate domain. We've been hard at work to enhance the
external sharing user experience so that sharing is more and more friction free,
for both users and admins.
As such, we've made the following improvements to SharePoint Online and
Office 365:
- Get a link: create anonymous Guest Links in one click within
the Office 365 user interface.
- Members can share: enable site members to invite external users, not
just the site collection owner.
- All invitees on same
email To line: start a
collaborative email with *everyone* when sharing a site or document.
These new external sharing updates are rolling out live worldwide right now.
Let's dive into the details.
Get a link
It's now possible, in one click, to generate a Guest
Link (either a View Only or Edit anonymous link to a document) directly from
your SkyDrive Pro and your SharePoint Online document libraries' user interface.
You click, copy and paste, and go. And when you no longer want the Guest Link to
be active, you can disable it at any time from the document's same Share dialog box.
The External Sharing
dialog box now has a merged Invite people tab, a Get a link tab and a Shared
with tab, so all the ways to share are in one place.
Members can share
Much of SharePoint Online and
Office 365 is about administration delegation: empowering others to make the
right business decisions, paired with giving them the right levels of control. Site
collection admins can now allow members of the site to send a sharing invitation-both
internal and external-without requiring the site collection admin to first
approve/reject the invitation request. This removes a common barrier to sharing
while enabling finer grain control per your preferred governance and
productivity plans.
Learn more about Members
can share (video) on Office.com.
All invitees on same email To line
âWe've made it easier to notify all recipients at the same
time, on the same email. Now, when you share with multiple people via the
sharing dialog box in SharePoint Online, a single email message is sent to
everyone you shared with-with you included on the Cc line-rather than sending a
separate email to each recipient. Note: external email addresses typed in the
people picker will still send individual external invitations, because external
invitees need unique invitation links that properly route them through the external
sharing process associated with Microsoft Account.
From the Share dialog
box in SharePoint Online, you can share with multiple recipients with a single
email message. Email recipients see all invitees on the To line.
Start sharing
Whether you're collaborating with employees, customers,
partners or suppliers, we hope the new set of external sharing enhancements
helps you work more efficiently, delegate effectively, and collaborate.
We're always looking to improve your experience in Office 365 and SharePoint
Online and pay close attention to your feedback. To get the latest SharePoint
Online news and tips, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or join us on the Office 365 Community.
–Mark Kashman,
Which Office 365 plans will receive the improved external sharing experience
A: The new external sharing experience is now available for all
Office 365 for business users. Specifically, these plans are: Office 365
Small Business (P1), Office 365 Small Business Premium (P2), Office 365 Midsize
Business, Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, and E4, Office 365 Enterprise K1 &
K2, Office 365 Education A2, A3, and A4, Office 365 Government G1, G3, and G4,
and Office 365 Enterprise E3 for Nonprofits.
Q. Does this announcement apply to Office
365 dedicated subscribers?
A. No. The Office 365 dedicated plans are not receiving this same update at
this time. They are managed in a unique, isolated infrastructure.
Q. Does this announcement apply to
customers who have deployed SharePoint 2013 on-premises?
A. No. This update applies only to the Office 365 service instance.


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Journal Article
Women's health and pregnancy in patients with multiple sclerosis." Multiple Sclerosis. 2008;14(S1):S154."
Why disability and rehabilitation specialists should lead the way in patient-reported outcomes." Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2014;95(8):1419-22."
What do healthcare providers advise women with multiple sclerosis regarding pregnancy?" Mult Scler Int. 2014;2014:819216."
Western Regional Survey: Update." International Journal of MS Care. 2002;4(3):34."
Vocational rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis (MS): a profile of clients seeking services." Work. 2003;21(1):69-76."
Vocational Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis: A Process Perspective." Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine. 2002;25(3):218."
Variables associated with communicative participation in persons with multiple sclerosis." International Journal of MS Care. 2009;11(S2):20."
Variables associated with communicative participation in people with multiple sclerosis: a regression analysis." Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2010;19(2):143-53."


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Other Proposed Treatments
- Fiber Supplements: Psyllium, Glucomannan , and Methylcellulose
Almost half of all Americans over the age of 60 develop diverticulosis: small, bulging pouches (diverticula) in the colon. In most cases, these diverticula do not cause any discomfort. However, in perhaps 15% of people with diverticulosis, diverticula may become inflamed or infected. The result is a condition called diverticulitis. Symptoms of diverticulitis include pain, nausea, and sometimes fever.
It is thought that the main cause of diverticulosis is the relatively low-fiber diet consumed in developed countries. Treatment of diverticulitis includes dietary changes, antibiotics, and, sometimes, surgery.
Proposed Treatments for Diverticular Disease
Fiber supplements have shown promise for both preventing and treating diverticulosis and diverticulitis.
Studies suggest (but do not prove) that diets high in fiber and low in total fat and red meat may help prevent diverticular disease. 1
Furthermore, high fiber consumption may help prevent diverticulitis from developing in people with diverticulosis. 2 However, this has not been proven, and the results of the scant published controlled trials on the topic have been inconsistent. 3,4
Common fiber supplements include psyllium, glucomannan , and methylcellulose.
Note: Use of fiber supplements during an active bout of diverticulitis is not advisable, because the colon needs to rest.
Contrary to some reports, there is no evidence that obesity or consumption of caffeine or alcohol increases risk of diverticular disease. 5 However, high levels of physical activity may reduce the risk of developing the condition.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO CAM Review Board
- Review Date: 12/2015 -
- Update Date: 12/15/2015 -


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What's the Smartest City in America?
You don't have to turn on 'Jeopardy!' to find America's best and brightest.
Neuroscience research company Lumosity has created a list of the smartest cities in the US, using data collected from three million people who've completed a variety of brain-training exercises.
Perhaps not surprisingly, college towns dominated the rankings. And while we're not sure what the fashions look like in Ithaca, New York, we do know smarty pants are extremely trendy – the city finished at number one. Ithaca is home to esteemed Ivy League school Cornell, as well as Ithaca College.
The news isn't as pleasant for Cincinnati. The Ohio city finished dead last, which makes us wonder if they should consider coming up with a name that's slightly easier for its citizens to spell.
The 10 Smartest Cities in America
1. Ithaca, New York
2. State College, Pennsylvania
3. Lafayette-West Lafayette, Indiana
4. Iowa City, Iowa
5. Ames, Iowa
6. Ann Arbor, Michigan
7. Bloomington, Indiana
8. Madison, Wisconsin
9. Lawrence, Kansas
10. Pullman, Washington


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SUWON, South Korea, July 22 (UPI) -- Samsung launched its 105-inch Ultra HD TV, available for preorder starting Tuesday at a cost of $119,999.99, or as much as a BMW M5.
The TV, which was first displayed at CES 2014 and called the 105U9500, is a curved, 4K TV and is only "made to order." The TV has an LCD compatible screen and comes in a black wood finish. Samsung promises to install and personally set up the TV using its specialized group of "Field Engineers."
The television is the largest to have both Ultra HD and a curved OLED display, providing lucky buyers with 21:9 aspect ratio. Because of the extra wide display, it won't exactly be 4K -- 5,120 x 2,160 resolution, or 11 million pixels -- and although black bars appear along the sides of 4K video, cinematic movies are usually filmed in 21:9.
Customers who would like to mount the TV on a wall need not worry; Samsung has a specially designed mount, sold separately.
Apart from Samsung's gigantic TV, Sony's 65-inch KDL-65S990A is the only other curved LED LCD on the market and the 58-inch Vizio XVT3D580CM is the only other 21:9 TV on the market.


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Peabody Coal Lawyer Laurence Tribe, Obama's Law Professor, Testifies in Congress vs. EPA Carbon RuleRead time: 4 mins
Steve Horn | March 20, 2015
By Steve Horn • Friday, March 20, 2015 - 12:38
Laurence Tribe, constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School and of-counsel at the firm Massey & Gail LLP, recently testified in front of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce against the proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carbon rule.
Currently working as legal counsel for coal industry giant Peabody Energy and helping the company write comments, Tribe submitted a 57-page legal memo to accompany his five-minute testimony (starting at 22:43). In December 2014, Tribe submitted 35 pages worth of comments to the EPA on its proposed rule.
Joining Tribe were both New York University School of Law professor Richard Revesz and Hunton & Williams attorney Allison Wood, who testified for and against the Clean Power Plan, respectively. But Tribe served as the star witness and fielded most of the questions from the Committee during the question-and-answer session.
Fittingly given his distinguished legal background, Tribe argued against the Clean Power Plan on constiutional law grounds.
"Burning the Constiution should not become part of our national energy policy," Tribe wrote in the early pages of the legal memo he submitted to the Committee. "At its core, the issue the Clean Power Plan presents is whether EPA is bound by the rule of law and must operate within the framework established by the United States Constitution."
He also proposed a solution — favored by his client Peabody — in a section titled, "There is a Better Way."
"The United States could…support carbon capture and storage technologies," Tribe wrote, not mentioning Peabody's advocacy for so-called "clean coal."
"An 'all of the above' energy policy can support all forms of domestic energy production that will minimize carbon emissions, protect consumers and American jobs, and ensure that the U.S. remains independent from unreliable foreign sources of energy."


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The Seattle Skills Center is a free program in Seattle Public Schools that prepares students for careers, college, and life. We do this by providing advanced Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses that give students options to continue to career-focused learning in four-year colleges, or earn post-secondary certification, or join the work force right out of high school. We provide this training through our regular school year courses and our summer program.
For more information, please visit our Skills Center Website!
School Year Application
School Reports
Seattle Skills Center CSIP


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You see the following error code and message when you try to purchase something from Xbox Live:
Sorry, there's a problem with the Xbox service. Try again later.
Status code: 80162765
This means that there may be a problem with your payment option. For example, this error can occur if there's an outstanding balance on your primary method of payment.
Note If you're trying to redeem a prepaid Xbox Live subscription code and you see this error, you should pay the outstanding balance on the primary payment option and then redeem the prepaid code. (An outstanding balance is most likely to be caused by a monthly renewal of an existing Xbox Live subscription that is associated with your billing account.)
To resolve this problem, use the following solutions:
Solution 1: Pay outstanding balance owed on Xbox 360
To manage your payment options on Xbox 360, see Manage your payment options on Xbox 360
Sign in to your Microsoft account and follow the steps to pay the outstanding balance owed on your primary payment option.
Solution 2: Pay outstanding balance owed online
If your current payment option has expired or is no longer valid, you'll have to change the option associated with your subscription. Here's how:
Note To add a new payment option, select Add a new way to pay, select Next, and then follow the steps to set up your credit card, debit card or PayPal account as a new payment option.
If you need to remove a payment option, select Payment & billing, select the payment option to remove, and then select Remove. For details, see Manage your payment options online.
Thanks for your feedback!
Provide feedback for this topic
Would you like to contact Support regarding the "Error 80162765 occurs when you try to make an Xbox Live purchase on Xbox 360" issue you were reading about or a different issue?


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Pits you against the best Civilization players from all corners of the earth via the Internet. With new online modes of play like "turnless" and fast-paced games like Regicide and Elimination, the battle for the ultimate in bragging rights will be intense!
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.


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Stop by SportsArt Fitness' booth No. 1011 and check out our iPod-compatible cardio products, award-winning strength line and the unique S770 Pinnacle Trainer. Take advantage of end-of-the-year closeout pricing and special packages before it's too late.
About SportsArt Fitness: SportsArt Fitness provides a new generation of high-end cardio and strength equipment designed to deliver a superior value and an exceptional workout.
Booth No. 1011
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Travel Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
Obviously, if you're traveling to a particular city, you should check out Bullz-Eye.com's City Guide before going. If our guide doesn't cover that city or you need more information, check out the guides listed below.
The urban travel guide is one of the coolest travel sites around. If you want to enjoy nightlife during your travels, this is a fun resource. It's also a great read for those days you just want to think about new places to visit.
Provides excellent guides to over 60 major cities in the U.S.
This site provides guides to over 40 major cities, mostly in the U.S.
Frommer's Budget Travel
The destinations guide covers over 200 cities, mostly overseas.
Portfolio.com - City Guides
Great guides for business travelers from this excellent business magazine.
Cool site with video as well.
You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for content updates. Also, sign up for our email list for weekly updates and check us out on Google+ as well.


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Shipping to: Ελλάδα
Tone corrector for deep dark circles. Conceals the dark circles under the eyes, giving you a rested look. Thanks to the soft-focus effect, imperfections seem to vanish.
The fine and velvety texture blends with the skin tone, creating a lightweight film with adjustable coverage.
Available in two colour shades:
01 Yellow
02 Orange
Dermatologically tested = formulated to ensure minimum instance of allergic reactions.
Ophthalmologically tested.
Non comedogenic.
Fragrance free.
5 ml
Effectively obscures dark circles. Small expression lines look as if they have been smoothed out. The skin around the eyes takes on an even look.
Apply to the eye using the appropriate brush, such as Face 108.
In the case of deep dark circles, apply also Dark Circle Concealer.
In the table below are some pointers to help you choose easily the ideal colour of Dark Circle Tone Eraser.
The cost varies depending on the delivery service and the destination country of the order. For more details see the "Delivery information and costs" page.
More information
Shipping times may vary depending on the service chosen. In the countries served by Swiss Post (Asendia) only, delivery takes an average of 6-7 working days (up to a maximum of 10) from the order being dispatched. In countries where the Skynet service is also available, the shipping time is 2-4 days after being dispatched by courier. More information
Purchases made on KIKO are secure and guaranteed. All information relating to payments, including personal information and credit card information, is protected through an advanced encrypted data transmission system. Under no circumstances will KIKO file your credit card number, nor will it use or keep the information you provided on its own systems.
You have 14 business days from the date you receive the items in which to exercise your right to return the goods. Please let Customer Service know about any problems relating to the goods received.
To use a promotional code, select "Have you got a promotional code?" on the shopping cart page and insert the characters indicated in the appropriate field. If your code is inserted correctly, the amount and/or content of the Shopping Cart will be recalculated based on the promotion applied.
Brightening and perfecting face base that revitalizes the complexion with a fine sheen
A package of 25 make-up remover wipes for the face, eyes and lips
Make up must have!
Ottima base
Au top


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Hope College students are receiving three national or regional awards for excellence in research from Psi Chi – The International Honor Society in Psychology.
Xander Krieg, a senior from Franklin, will receive a national Undergraduate Research Award for his research project "Attachment and Hikikomori: a Psychosocial Developmental Model." The recognition will be presented by Psi Chi during the national convention of the American Psychological Association, taking place in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 2-5.
In May, the Midwestern chapter of Psi Chi will present research awards to students for two different studies. The team of junior Ariana Cappuccitti of Mount Prospect, Ill., junior Rachel Cho of Barrington, Ill., senior Allyson Dreger of Kalamazoo and senior Heather Stiff of Galena, Ohio, is being honored for "Physiological and Psychological Anxiety Levels in Dancers during Performance Compared to Rehearsal." Senior Elizabeth Fast of Grand Rapids is being honored for "Lexical class and explicitness as modulators of the neural mechanisms of metaphor comprehension." She had the assistance of seniors Ashley Drew of Spring Lake and Audrey Weil of Gurnee, Ill., in the completion of the project. The regional awards will be presented during the 84th annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, Ill., on Thursday-Saturday, May 3-5.
Since 2000, four Hope students have received national research awards from Psi Chi and a total of 19 Hope research teams have received the regional recognition.
Krieg's research investigated risk factors that could potentially predict "hikikomori," a condition of acute social withdrawal, found primarily in Japan, in which individuals shut themselves away from society for months or years on end. Hikikomori are often adolescents or young adults—and even into middle age--who isolate themselves in their rooms in their parents' homes, with an estimated 700,000 individuals in Japan affected by the condition. Measuring a variety of characteristics, the study found that the combination of "ambivalent attachment" (a "warm-cold" pattern in close relationships, often a consequence of childhood experience) and peer rejection together significantly predict hikikomori.
Krieg is dual-majoring in Japanese studies and psychology and minoring in sociology. He collected data for the research while spending his fall 2010 semester studying in Tokyo, comparing a clinical sample of hikikomori with a contrast group of undergraduate students. He conducted his research with Dr. Jane Dickie, professor of psychology.
The dance study, a unique collaboration involving three departments (biology, dance and psychology), considered how dancers' anxiety levels differed between rehearsal and performance settings, as well as before and after performances. Involving 73 of the college's dance students, the study measured the amount of cortisol—a hormone that spikes in response to stress—in the dancers' saliva and examined their mental state through a series of questions. The study found that anxiety levels were higher before performances than before rehearsals, but also showed the benefit of training and experience: dancers with more experience were less anxious both before and after performances than those with less. The college's department of dance emphasizes performance opportunities for its students as a key component of their education, scheduling multiple concerts during each school year.
All four of the research students are themselves involved in the dance program: Cappuccitti is dual-majoring in dance and psychology, Cho is dual-majoring in dance and chemistry, Dreger is majoring in exercise science and minoring in dance, and Stiff is dual-majoring in dance and chemistry. The students conducted their research with Dr. Greg Fraley, associate professor of biology; Linda Graham, professor of dance and chairperson of the department; and Dr. Lorna Hernandez Jarvis, professor of psychology and director of general education and interdisciplinary studies.
The metaphor-comprehension study considered whether or not there are differences within the brain when an individual is confronted with either literal or metaphorical statements. The study participants were presented with literal sentences like "There was chaos in the city after the earthquake" and metaphorical sentences like "The unexpected divorce was an earthquake," as well as "anomalous" control sentences like "He sloppily taped the picture to the earthquake." The study used the department's EEG (electroencephalography) system machine to measure N400 waves (an index of semantic processing), finding a larger N400 for metaphorical statements than for literal ones.
Fast is a psychology major and neuroscience minor. She conducted her research with Dr. Gwenda Schmidt, assistant professor of psychology, whose research emphases include semantic processing, neural correlates of language processing, the role of the right hemisphere in language processing, figurative language processing, and language and figurative language deficits in autism.
Psi Chi – the International Honor Society was founded in 1929 to encourage, stimulate and maintain excellence in scholarship, and advance the science of psychology. Psi Chi has chapters at about 1,100 senior colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Ireland and New Zealand. Since its founding, the honor society has registered more than 500,000 lifetime members.
The honor society's chapters are grouped within six regions: Eastern, Midwestern, Rocky Mountain, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. The Midwestern Region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Hope's chapter was chartered in 1965.


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WP7Forum.ru member Eugen Diskin has published a video comparing the recording capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 920 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Sound familiar? It should as we've seen this done before with the Lumia 920 and a Galaxy S3. This time the two smartphones were mounted on to a toy vehicle and dragged along the floor.
The end footage yet again confirms how Nokia has ensured that video recording is stabilised with the OIS (optical image stabilisation). It's nothing new and we would expect the Lumia 920 to record better quality footage with shaky hands, but it's good to see a test performed against Samsung's latest Android hit.
Source: YouTube, via: Nokiapoweruser; thanks, riffraffy, for the tip!