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When the datamining robots of doom at Wowhead and MMO-Champion caught an extremely odd tooltip change for Burst of Speed last night, they did what any good Internet robots do: spit the data out into the ether.
Only, thing is, about robots: Sometimes they data they spit is wrong.
What Wowhead and MMO-C saw was an alteration to Burst of Speed that appeared to change it from a 70% speed buff that lasts four seconds to a 1% speed buff that lasts a tenth of a second.
Let's reread that together: a 1% speed buff that lasts a tenth of a second.
I know there's a bunch of us who are utterly convinced that Blizzard is trying to actively destroy a class that the company itself designed and that hundreds of thousands of people play regularly. But, c'mon. It doesn't take more than a tenth of a second of rational thought to realize: This datamining probably isn't accurate.
Nonetheless, it didn't take long for folks to freak out. Thankfully, it also didn't take long for WoW's designers to clarify the situation.
In fact, not only is what's happening here not a nerf to BoS — it'll make BoS *better* by resolving an inadvertent problem the designers introduced several weeks back.
Overlooked in the hubbub over the tooltip text change was an adjustment in the spell effects to the way BoS provides immunity to snares. Specifically, quoth PvP czar Brian "Holinka" Holinka:
.@VerasGunn On live, you can't use BoS to clear snares if Sprint is active. We're fixing that but ensuring the speed boosts don't stack.—
Holinka (@holinka) May 15, 2014
.@VerasGunn The ability to clear snares while Sprint was active was broken about one month ago in a hotfix.—
Holinka (@holinka) May 15, 2014
@aranvael this fix will be a buff if anything—
Holinka (@holinka) May 15, 2014
So, say it with me, dear peoples: Datamining is not official. Datamining can be wrong, or it can reflect something the designers put in the game accidentally. In fact, pretty often, what datamining sees actually *is* wrong. It's OK to wait a little while for confirmation before freaking out, throwing cats around the room and eating glass in fury.


text: Originally, James Franco auditioned for high school plays in order to get back at a girlfriend who kissed another boy on stage. The vengeful ploy serendipitously motivated this modern-day Renaissance man's multiple-mediums career. After dropping out of UCLA in 1997, he started on the small screen in " Freaks and Geeks," a gig which introduced him to frequent collaborators Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow. Playing James Dean in the 2001 TV biopic earned him a lead actor Golden Globe as well as Emmy and SAG nods. He picks roles all over the genre map and in just about every budget including Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy, "This Is The End," "Howl," "Milk," "Rise of The Planet Of The Apes," "Eat, Pray, Love," "Pineapple Express" (which got him another Globe nomination) and "Spring Breakers." In 2010, he received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for "127 Hours." He's modeled for Gucci, cameoed on "30 Rock," directed ("Bukowski," "The Sound and The Fury"), produces, authored a couple of books, did multiple guest stints on "General Hospital" after he was famous, hosted the 2001 Academy Awards, has Hollywood Walk of Fame star and a private pilot's license, paints proficiently, teaches acting, volunteers with Art of Elysium, and has earned multiple degrees (bachelor's from UCLA, two master's in writing from Columbia and Brooklyn College, master's in film from NYU).

subset: commoncrawl


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Bergdahl adds to Dem Obama angst
On Monday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was cheering the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. "I am looking forward to him being reunited with his family soon and am thankful for his service, his sacrifice, and his courage," the New Hampshire Democrat said in a statement.
By Wednesday, she wasn't cheering anymore. "I continue to have concerns about the Administration's failure to consult Congress," she said in a second statement after the Obama administration briefed senators about the exchange for five Taliban prisoners.
Story Continued Below
And of the allegations that Bergdahl deserted his unit, Shaheen said, "I fully expect … that there will be a full investigation into Bergdahl's separation from his unit, and that appropriate actions will be taken."
( Also on POLITICO: 7 times Obama dissed his critics)
For Democratic candidates in the most competitive races, the Bergdahl case has been yet another reason to put a healthy distance between themselves and President Barack Obama. They've been doing it on Obamacare for months, but they're not exactly rushing to his defense on the economy, the Keystone pipeline or his response to the Veterans Affairs scandal, either. If this were a sales contest, they would have been fired by now.
The political reality, of course, is that it's not a sales contest. It's a midterm election, and specifically, a midterm in the second term of a presidency, where it's not that unusual for candidates to put a bit of distance between themselves and the White House. And a lot of the most competitive races are in red states where Obama's not exactly Mr. Coattails.
Even by those standards, though, Democrats are staying far away from Obama this year. At best, they're quietly following in his footsteps and not admitting it. At worst, they're leaving skid marks. You almost need a detective to find Democrats using the words "President Obama" on the stump these days — at least in a positive way.
( Also on POLITICO: DOD: Bergdahl's condition improving)
Take the VA scandal. Democratic candidates piled on Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki so mercilessly, one after another, over the increasingly grim stories of delayed medical care and cooked books that Obama was basically forced to cut him loose.
But there are other flash points for red-state Democrats. After the administration put out its new climate rule, which calls for a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state who's running to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, blasted Obama with a radio ad accusing him of "targeting Kentucky coal." Embattled West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall said he'd introduce a bill to block it.
And then there's Keystone. Both Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas are making a point of opposing Obama by calling for its construction. Landrieu built an ad around her fights with the administration on oil and gas production, and Pryor noted in Little Rock that "from the very beginning I've been in a different place than where the president is on this."
Obama is doing marginally better on his economic agenda. It's not so much that Democratic candidates are running on it — they're just not actively running away from it. Some are quietly picking up his themes, like pay equity and an increase in the minimum wage, without mentioning his name. Most of the time, though, they're localizing their own economic plans.
( Also on POLITICO: Chambliss: Would have raised 'Holy Hell' on Bergdahl)
Even then, sometimes they'll give Obama just a little punch when it helps them. On Grimes' website, for example, she lists lots of economic issues that could fit with Obama's agenda easily — like the minimum wage, pay equity and affordable child care. The only time she mentions Obama, though, is to take one more whack at Obama's "attack on Kentucky's energy industry."
Democratic operatives say the pattern is largely being driven by where the competitive races are and who the audiences are — an unusual mix of deep-red states and the older, more conservative midterm voter demographics that are more typical for midterm elections. In that environment, they say, it's not surprising that Democratic candidates are looking for easy ways to distance themselves from Obama.
"Because of the vagaries of this Senate cycle, there are a disproportionate number of red states in play," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane — especially states like North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alaska, where Obama didn't even mount a serious campaign in 2012.
As one consultant who's involved in some of the most competitive races put it: "It's just a bad draw."
Nothing captures the pattern better than the way several Democratic candidates are talking about Obamacare — after Obama said Democrats should "forcefully defend and be proud" of their health care law.
Both Michelle Nunn, the Democratic Senate candidate from Georgia, and Grimes have danced around questions about whether they would have voted for it if they'd been in the Senate. And they're hardly the only examples of Democratic squishiness. A few of the others that have been stacking up during this election cycle:
- Montana Sen. John Walsh, who replaced ACA co-author Max Baucus in the Senate and is running to keep the seat, points out to anyone who will listen that he didn't vote on Obamacare. After a recent Democratic primary debate, an opposition group posted a clip of Walsh noting that he was sending troops to Iraq at the time (he was adjutant general of the Montana National Guard). He also declared that "the jury is still out" on the law, according to the Great Falls Tribune.
- Alaska Sen. Mark Begich told RealClearPolitics that Obama's call to campaign on the law is "kind of irrelevant" because "that's not how I campaign." He also said the law is "not perfect" and "needs to be worked on."
- In a February radio interview, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who was in the Senate when the law was passed, dodged a question about whether she would vote for it again, knowing everything she knows now: "I would have designed it differently if I had been designing it. Unfortunately, I wasn't the person who was writing the law."
- In a March interview with The Huffington Post, Jason Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter who's running for governor in Georgia, wouldn't say whether he believes the Affordable Care Act is good policy: "I don't know that it's one policy. It's such a gigantic thing that it's hard to get your head around it."
- Mike Ross, the former congressman who's running for governor in Arkansas, says on his website that he voted against Obamacare four times and voted to repeal it 23 times. But he also says there were "good parts and bad parts," and that the law's Medicaid expansion was one of the good parts.


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This is a story.
A Karate Sensei was addressing his students after he watched them perform kata.
When he got to Dave, an extremely egotistical student, he said, "You are absolutely the worst student I have ever seen."
Dave turned to the student standing next to him and said, "Did you hear that? 'Absolutely the worst!'"
An egotistical person hears what he wants to hear.
Charles C. Goodin
An Egotistical Student
This is a story.
Transgendered Student
I have previously written that I would teach a gay student the same as any other student, and that a gay student would be equally welcomed in our dojo.
I have the same feelings and policy about transgendered students. They are equally welcomed in our dojo, and I would teach them the same as any other student.
I try to address the unique strengths and weaknesses of each student. That is not a matter of gender (or sexual orientation) to me, so much as it is a matter of physical conditions (height, weight, reach, speed, physical conditioning, etc.).
Our dojo is like a family. And like the early Karate dojo here in Hawaii, if anyone messes with a student in our dojo, they are messing with all of us. I guess you can tell that I was a Kenpo student and instructor first.
One of the most important things a Sensei can do is to be accepting and supportive of students... and then to make them extremely skilled.
Now, what would I do if I accepted a transgendered student and all my other students quit? Then I would have one good student! But knowing my students, that would not happen.
Charles C. Goodin
How Important is Consistency
How important is consistency in your dojo? Is it important that all the students do the same things in the same way, or that each student become the best he or she can become? There is an age old tension between these objectives. Actually, it is not "age old," just since about 1900.
Once Karate became public and classes became larger, it became more and more important for there to be consistency within the school or dojo. With the rise of styles (and the resulting competition for students), such consistency became even more important.
If you did a certain movement the wrong way, it could reflect either poor instruction, or even worse, disloyalty. It certainly would not look good for a student from Dojo 1 to move like a student from Dojo 2.
Of course, this is all pretty ridiculous! If you are like me, you are more interested in skill than conforming to a group standard. In addition, I am not loyal to a style per se. If anything, I am loyal to my Sensei (plural) because of my admiration of and affection for them. Style means very, very little to me.
In my particular "style" (Kishaba Juku Shorin-Ryu), we must be the least consistent Karate students in the entire world! Most of us know many ways to do every movement, and how we perform the movement at any given time is more a matter of personal choice at that moment than anything else. As you can imagine, a group performance of kata is not a very uniform thing (unless we agree in advance to move a certain way).
I do not believe in "cookie cutter" Karate. That may be fine for cookies, but not for Karate students. All people are different. Each student has unique strengths and weaknesses. If a small, weak woman moves exactly the same as a large, strong man, then her Karate will not be the move effective for her (and vice versa). Consistency, in that case, will be a disservice to the student.
In our dojo, we want each student to become the very best that he or she can become. And that requires special and long term attention on the part of the instructors to customize the training to accomplish that objective.
Of course, we have a small dojo, with a pretty high ration of yudansha (black belts) to mudansha (non-black belts, or kyu holders). We can afford to spend more time with each student, but even in our case, it requires hard work. A "cookie cutter" approach would be much easier, but we are making Karate students, not cookies.
There is another issue -- sometimes the emphasis on consistency is more a group control thing than a Karate teaching thing. Some Karate instructors spend more time and effort enforcing their domains or kingdoms than actually teaching Karate. Somehow I cannot imagine the early Karate masters (such as Matsumura, Itosu, Higashionna, Motobu, Kyan, etc.) doing this.
The kingdom of Karate is entirely an internal matter.
Anyway, I am not a fan of consistency, even with cookies.
Charles C. Goodin
An Open Letter to My Son: Five Virtues by Dr. Jinichi Tokeshi
As a father, physician, and martial artist, Dr. Tokeshi has some observations and advice that I agree with very much. I hope that you will read the article very carefully.
Charles C. Goodin
Not Fighting 2
I think I missed one of the points in my last post.
I should have added that the better you become at "fighting" the less that you want to do so. I have practiced Karate for over 35 years and many of my friends have practiced for much longer. I certainly think that my Karate skills are better today than when I was in high school. I know that I can do things today that I could not do back then (except the splits).
But when I was a young man, I think that I had a hotter temper. That temper has cooled quite a bit with age and experience.
I am reminded of a saying that my Sensei in Hawaii, Sensei Rodney Shimabukuro, taught me: "A Karate man does not fear others, he fears his own hand." By this I believe that he means that we fear the consequences of the use of our Karate techniques (or hand) more than we fear being attacked by other people.
If self-defense is unavoidable and the last resort, then you must do your very best without reservation or hesitation. But until that point, you must exert just as much effort to avoid the use of destructive Karate techniques.
Aside from a moral principle, I also believe that this is a logical strategy. Even an attacker who appears weak or lacking in fighting skills could be armed or accompanied by friends who you might not see. He could also have a contagious disease or come back to attack you (or your family) in the future. Avoidance is a good strategy up to a point.
Charles C. Goodin
Not Fighting
As I grow older (and hopefully wiser), my attitude about Karate is more and more about "not fighting." I probably am the least likely person to get into a fight. I would run first or try to talk my way out of the situation. I would not fight over a material possession -- short of someone trying to break into my house and threaten my family. I would not fight over an insult, particularly about Karate or manhood or any such thing. I certainly would not fight about an insult against me, my Sensei or my style of Karate. Why would I?
I often tell my students that if someone insults you, why should believe that person? If that person is an idiot, would you believe an idiot? If you do not believe the idiot, then why would you take his insult seriously?
What does it matter if an idiot calls you an idiot? Perhaps that is just a double negative.
I also tell my students that you should be careful when someone praises you. How do you know that the person knows what he is talking about? He might be wrong. If you are good at something then you are good at it -- whether someone praises you or not.
If you are very confident and comfortable with yourself, you will not be upset by insults or swayed by praise.
Now, I also tell my students that although I am the least likely person to "fight," I would do everything imaginable to protect my family and loved ones. Then there is no holding back, and I would be a terrible person indeed. Then the proverbial can is opened. But of course, that is not fighting, that is self defense. When self defense becomes the last resort, then that's that!
But otherwise, fighting is not my thing.
Charles C. Goodin
Passing of Shihan Bobby Lowe -- September 14, 2011
I have been notified by the family of Shihan Bobby Lowe (Edward "Bobby" Lowe) that he passed away peacefully last night, Wednesday, September 14, 2011, at 9:18 p.m., at Queens Hospital, in Honolulu, Hawaii. I do not usually post such notices, but I have spoken directly to the family and am certain about the facts. I visited Lowe Sensei at the hospital the night before.
In time, I and many others will write about Lowe Sensei's Karate legacy. At this point, I simply wanted to notify people of his passing.
Charles C. Goodin
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Thursday, September 15, 2011
Shuri Lecture: Thursday, September 22nd at the UH
I just received an email notice and flyer from the Center for Okinawan Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The notice read:
The Center for Okinawan Studies Lecture Series resumes with a talk by Dr. Alfred Yama Kina on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 3 pm in Moore Hall 319. Dr. Kina received his PhD in folklore studies from Indiana University in 2006. He will be speaking about his observations/experiences living in Shuri, the old capital of the kingdom of Ryukyu. Please see the attached flyer for details.Here is a link to the flyer (pdf format).
I am going to try to attend. Dr. Kina is also a licensed Okinawan dance instructor, and studied in Hawaii with Kikue Kaneshiro.
Let's support our local Okinawan culture experts!
Charles C. Goodin
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Wednesday, September 14, 2011
My Next Articles
The next issue of Classical Fighting Arts is at the printer. I have two pieces in it.
I wrote the editorial, which is about getting back to the roots of Karate in Okinawa. I also conducted an interview with Sensei Pat Nakata about what his teacher (Chosin Chibana) told him about his teacher Anko Itosu. I learned a lot when I interviewed Nakata Sensei. I hope that you enjoy the interview.
Charles C. Goodin
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Monday, September 12, 2011
A Room Full of People
This is a story.
A martial arts expert walked into a room filled with people with his friend, another martial artist. After surveying the room he proclaimed, "I could easily defeat every one of these people!"
In fact, the martial arts expert felt this way all the time.
His friend nodded and said, "In an emergency, how many of these people could you help? If there was a hurricane or an earthquake, could you summon the strength to help others, or would you panic? There is more to life and martial arts than fighting skill."
The martial arts expert was so upset that he reared back and was about to punch his friend. Right at that instant, there was a big earthquake....
No there wasn't but you get the point. Self defense skill is useful, but there is certainly more to life and martial arts than that. If there was a hurricane, earthquake, or other disaster, could you summon the strength to remain calm and help others?
Charles C. Goodin
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Monday, September 12, 2011
Never Forget Effectiveness
There are two concepts in Karate that need to be understood.
First, faster is generally better. A faster movement will generally transfer more power... a good thing.
The second is that as we advance, we are to refine our movements. You could compare this to polishing a diamond.
However, these two concepts are sometimes used by students to justify the minimization of movements to such an extent that the original meanings of the movements are lost. Some students emphasize speed above all else and one way to accomplish this is to minimize (or streamline) the movements.
Take a simple outward block (what I call uchi uke.. like the first movement of Pinan Godan). Most students will prepare for the movement by crossing their bent arm across their body. Then they will block, sort of in a windshield wiper-like manner. This is a gross simplification, however my point is that there are two movements involved.
To speed things up, the first movement (the preparation) can be minimized or even eliminated. The block would then be thrown, much like an uppercut. The sideways movements are minimized or eliminated. All that is left is a vertical rising block. Actually, there is no difference between uchi uke and soto uke when the block is minimized in this way. The element of blocking from the outside or inside is eliminated. You just block up and out.
Again, these are gross simplifications, but I hope that you understand my point. To make things faster, movements are streamlined... sometimes to extreme degrees.
Here is what I am trying to get to. That first part of the block, the preparation in which the student crosses his bent arm across his body, has meaning. In some cases, that movement is actually the block and the second part of the block is actually a strike. If you eliminate that first movement, you also lose the meaning.
As kata are streamlined (minimized for speed), this movement and that are eliminated -- as are the meanings associated with those movements. Soon you are left with a shorthand kata that might look good (to the untrained observer) but will be less meaningful than the original kata.
Of course, a Karate expert can perform a kata in many different ways. He can perform the kata the longhand way or the shorthand way -- either way, he will know all the meanings (imi or bunkai). He can perform the kata as he likes or as needed. He can also execute techniques as he likes or as needed. If a preparatory cross is needed, he can do it. If not, he can skip it. He can do what is needed because he understands the movements fluently.
But there is a major problem when less advanced students try to copy an advanced form (that might be minimized). That student might not understand the movements as fluently, and when he minimizes or eliminates a movement he actually loses something. His kata will now be less effective.
Speed does have value. But what matters is not how fast you get from Point A to Point B, but how fast you execute the movement once you get to Point B. Don't rush. After all, the attacker is attacking you. You know where he is going. He is coming toward you. Your job is to defend against that attack.
And when you defend, speed only matters if it makes you more effective. Does your speed allow you to generate and transfer more power, or are you just floating? Are you all flash with no pop?
Hey, there is something to be said about just hitting really, really hard. It might not be elegant, but it generally works.
And refinement does not simply mean making movements faster. Refinement is always balanced against the effectiveness of a movement. If the movement is refined, it becomes more effective, not less.
I often tell my students that sometimes the best defense it to simply tackle the attacker, wrestle him to the ground, and punch the crap out of him (or choke, joint lock, stomp, etc.). Before you reply that this is a crude defense, think about some of the Karate experts you have seen. Some look so good, so fast, so refined, but could they withstand such a defense? Could they really?
If you make a movement faster, it must be more effective. If you make a movement more refined, it must be more effective. Everything we do must be measured by effectiveness.
An ugly effective technique is way better than a pretty ineffective technique.
Charles C. Goodin
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Wednesday, September 07, 2011


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Ruang diskusi berbagai cabang olahraga.
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Browse BMW of Monrovia's Luxury Used Cars for Los Angeles County | A Glendale and Pasadena Area Car Dealership
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It was an interesting week. As news of the debate over the possible bailout of the United States' struggling automakers captured the headlines and largely dictated the mood in the major financial markets around the world, newspaper titan Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy and the Pulitzer Prize Board decided to fully embrace online journalism.
In these tough economic times, a lot of industries are hurting. The newspaper industry is probably hurting just as much as the American automobile industry in many respects. Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy this week and the New York Times isn't in the greatest of shape but that news was largely overshadowed by talk of a bailout that would prevent GM, Chrysler and Ford from meeting the same fate as the Tribune Co. (at least for a few months).
With newspapers providing many of the jobs available to the best writers in the world, two writers are asking, 'What about us?'
In an article that will be published in this Sunday's New York Times Book Review, writer Paul Greenberg suggests that to deal with the "overcapacity" that "has been something generally acknowledged across the writing industry for at least 10 years," suggests a program modeled after the Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which paid farmers to grow fewer crops.
Under Greenberg's 'plan', if writers were offered the cash equivalent of the average writers' annual income ($38,000), it would cost a "paltry" $10.5 billion to "dramatically reduce the book overcapacity."
If that isn't enough, half of the 185,000 writers in America could be offered $400,000, the amount the National Endowment for the Arts says an average writer earns in 10 years. That would cost $37bn, a bargain given that was the US government's down payment on its bailout of AIG.
Of course, Greenberg is certainly suggesting his bailout with a bit of humour. But another writer, Mark Pinsky, seems a bit more serious.
He writes in The New Republic:
"Any federal effort to put back to work the hundreds of thousands thrown out of work in the nation's hard-hit industrial, construction, airline, and financial sectors should consider displaced news media workers–including those newly laid off from the publishing industry–as well."
He notes that from 1935 to 1939, the government operated a Federal Writers Project that employed "more than 6,000 out-of-work reporters, photographers, editors, critics, writers, and creative craftsmen and -women."
He adds that American culture gained some priceless assets as well.
And what would such a program accomplish today (besides subsidizing jobs)?
"This time, the FWP could begin by documenting the ground-level impact of the Great Recession; chronicling the transition to a green economy; or capturing the experiences of the thousands of immigrants who are changing the American complexion."
Pinsky admits that there are problems with such an idea but concludes:
"…providing some way to provide young journalists a way to get started, or displaced media workers a way to transition to new occupations, or to retirement, might help–and serve the nation in the process."
The troubles facing newspapers is saddening. As I've argued before, institutions like newspapers are currently the only entities capable of producing the news in the fashion that we've become accustomed to. Blogs aren't in a position to fill the void.
Most unfortunate is the fact that newspapers provide a great product that consumers still demand; the economics of their businesses simply don't work today.
But the fact that some within the industry are even mentioning the 'B-word' evidences the moral hazard the United States government has created with its bailout binge. It's difficult for struggling workers in any industry to not ask the question, 'Where's my bailout?'
Unfortunately, no government has enough money to subsidize a job for every one of its citizens and there are very real limits to national debts (and the printing press) even though you wouldn't know that looking at the way many governments have managed their finances the past several decades.
In reality, the most fundamentally sound economies are the ones in which the government isn't the largest employer and in which private industry is responsible for managing its own affairs. As much as I love newspapers and as much as I value the contributions writers make to society, they're going to have to sink or swim on their own.
For better or worse, one thing is for sure – there will be no bailout for writers.
Given the fact that government intervention (and malfeasance) in the financial markets was a leading contributor to the global financial crisis, you can be sure that politicians aren't going to spend a dime helping the very writers who would eventually study, dissect and analyze this story and write the history of one of the global economy's saddest times.
The press is referred to in the United States as 'The Fourth Estate' (although the saying is actually attributed to Edmund Burke's reference to the press gallery of the House of Commons) and I'm pretty sure that the American Congress is eager to find a way to live with three.
Pulitzer Prizes to allow online-only publications
The Pulitzer Prize Board has decided that in 2009 it will permit "entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories." The announcement was symbolic since it came the same week that The Tribune filed for bankruptcy.
According to AFP:
"The Board said that online or print entries should come from US newspapers or news organizations that publish at least weekly and are 'primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories.'"
That obviously leaves out most tech blogs but the move does make sense. More and more newspapers and news organizations are investing heavily in their online efforts and this trend will only grow stronger.
Steve Jobs 'wrong' on netbook sales
Steve Jobs is often referred to a technology 'visionary' and he does reasonably deserve the time.
But being a 'visionary' doesn't mean that you see everything. Such appears to be the case when it comes to Jobs' position on the "nascent" market for netbooks – mini notebook computers that typically cost well under $500.
According to PC Advisor, Jobs stated last week that "there's, as best as we can tell, not a lot of them getting sold."
This is a curious statement given that Gartner and DisplaySearch indicate that 5.6mn netbooks were sold last quarter. For comparison, PC Advisor points out that Apple shipped 4.7mn in the same period.
In October Jobs told investors on a conference call that "we choose not to be in certain segments of the market" and noted that "we don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that."
Fair enough, but when Jobs states that netbooks aren't selling and the market is "nascent" when the sales figures indicate otherwise, you have to wonder just where Jobs is getting his information from.
Instead of looking at ways to take advantage of the Apple brand in a market that is currently being led by companies like Acer and Toshiba, Jobs seems to think that the iPhone is a viable alternative to a netbook, stating:
"One of our entrants into that category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing email and all the other things that a netbook lets you do."
But in the real world, the iPhone is not a substitute for a netbook. While there may be some theoretical overlap between the iPhone market and the netbook market, the netbook market is clearly larger for obvious reasons.
That Jobs would not realize this is surprising, although given the fact that Apple has never had to compete on price and has such a loyal following, I'm sure it could release a netbook in late 2009 costing $600 and I'm sure there'd be a market for it.
To be sure, Steve Jobs will maintain his 'visionary' title even if he misses the rise of new markets such as the one for netbooks.
Beta no more for Google's Chrome
Whoever said miracles don't exist might want to rethink that statement. Google's Chrome browser is 'beta' no longer. That's right, the company's threat to Microsoft Windows is now officially a legitimate product. And it took less than a year, a blink of an eye in Google years (GMail has been in beta since the beginning of time).
Of course, the bigger question is – who cares? The 'beta' label is truly meaningless in today's internet because it has been used so casually by companies like Google. You can find plenty of mature products that are in 'beta' yet you can find plenty of buggy products that look like 'alphas' but are presented as being ready for mainstream action.
In the case of Chrome, the real issue is that not many people are using it. According to Google, Chrome has 10 million active users but in the browser market, that's not saying much.
Chrome is still nowhere near to being a threat to Firefox or Internet Explorer and given that Chrome almost certainly received the press that it's going to receive when it launched, it's hard to see Chrome becoming an important wildcard for Google anytime soon.


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GLENDALE — Much like the program itself, the 2011 Glendale Community College men's golf team has become better and better as the season has progressed.
It's a huge factor as to why the Vaqueros are set to make their inaugural appearance in the state championship, which will be held at 8 a.m. Monday at Kings Country Club in Hanford.
"We have a good lineup and we have some experienced players," said Glendale college men's Coach Greg Osbourne, whose team finished second at the Southern California Regionals on Monday at Bermuda Dunes Country Club and will be one of eight squads competing for state prominence. "We have become a more cohesive unit since the start of the season."
And a unit seemingly gaining momentum with each round.
The Vaqueros finished second in the formidable Western State Conference and are one of four teams from Southern California and the only squad from the WSC who will take part in the 36-hole state tournament. They are joined by College of the Desert, which won the Southern California Regional, Long Beach City College and Santiago Canyon. From the north, Reedley, Chabot, Santa Rosa and Folsom Lake will compete. The top six individuals from each region not on a qualifying team will also advance to the state tournament.
Glendale will look to keep its game up to par on a course that Osbourne described as "flat."
There's plenty of incentive for the Vaqueros, who will likely feature a lineup consisting of sophomore Brennan Amirkhizi and freshmen Michael Timpson, Chris Ramirez, Vincent Lam, Danny Fernandez and Jin Park.
"We want to go out there and win it," said Osbourne, whose team planned to take part in a practice round today. "We want to be the state champion and we do have our work cut out for us, but we go into this with a great attitude and a lot of pride.
"It's going to be a great opportunity for us. Three years ago, we couldn't beat anybody in our own conference. Now, we have a chance to win state."
The program was brought back in 2008 after being dropped in 1985 because of budget cuts, but Osbourne went out and hit the recruiting trail to bring some established players to Glendale.
Among them was Amirkhizi, who finished third at the Southern California Regionals with a two-round score of 147.
"We took second at regionals and only two or three of us played well," said Amirkhizi, a two-time all-conference selection. "I think that if we can just play to our capabilities, then we can go out there and win state.
"We are right there. We can't be intimidated. We just have to think we can do well and we can win it all."
Timpson, a Crescenta Valley High graduate and a reigning All-Area selection, said the Vaqueros regrouped after a decent first round at the regionals.
"We didn't play all that great in the first round, but we were only one or two strokes out of fourth place," said Timpson, who finished tied for fourth with a two-round score of 148. "Greg told us we could come back and we were fired up.
"We've had a lot of ups and downs throughout the season. I think a lot of us didn't realize how good we can be until the regionals. It would be awesome if we could win it all."


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Baby G is ten weeks old today. It's already hard to imagine what we actually did with our lives before she turned up. Ten weeks doesn't seem like a lot, but I now understand that when you're a new parent and fitting in all of the new things you have to get done every day, ten weeks feels closer to about ten years. I also now understand that those people who say that time flies by and babies grow up before you even realise it are liars. Liars! I mean look at our baby, she's still a tiny baby! She can't crawl or stand up or explain the offside rule (as a girl, she may never be able to do this) or anything!
Anyhow, I'll grant you that she has grown up a little bit since she was born. Enough in fact for us to decide to put her in her own room at night from now on. G has actually been sleeping through the night reasonably happily for a while, so this measure is possibly more for the benefit of Mrs J, who usually finds herself being woken by G's every gurgle and movement even though the little one is doing it all in her sleep. So, the cot is now in the spare room, and G is currently in it, as the picture above (taken in the dark with a flash) shows.
Our new routine calls for her to be in her room from after her mid-evening bath and feed (about 7ish) onwards. Tonight, during the time between that and her usual late feed at 10:30pm, she kept waking up. This meant both me and Mrs J trooped in and out of the room all evening making increasingly useless attempts to settle her down by cooing at her, turning her mobile on (it's amazing how irritating that tinkly sound becomes after, oh, let's say the second time), putting her dummy back in, or just staring at her blankly in the hope she might stop crying (this was me). However, we didn't give in, and at no time did we remove her from the room. This, apparently, is important, and, also apparently, we will be grateful for it later.
After the late feed Mrs J went to bed and I tried to get G back off to sleep. Mrs J manages this by cradling her and softly whispering in the classic motherly style. Alas, when I attempt that, G cries and fidgets and tries to grab on to the collar of my t-shirt and, if that's successful, a clump of my exposed chest hair, to surprisingly painful effect. For the last couple of weeks, the only way I've been able to get her to sleep is on my knees, with her facing away from me. I like to call it the Superbaby position. Here's G demonstrating it a short time ago:
There are two things to notice about this photo. The first is that baldness is obviously hereditary. The second is that it doesn't look very comfortable. But G seems to like it, and that's all that matters. Another thing about being a new parent is that getting baby to sleep is of paramount importance, so if baby develops a taste for drifting off in the airing cupboard or tumble dryer (note - don't try this at home) you'd probably let her do it. Right now, the baby monitor gadget in front of me tells me that G is indeed fast asleep. So it's time I got some sleep too.
Going To Sleep In Her Own Room
3 comments:
- Benjamin Judge said...
Nice link to the offside rule there. Too little seen on parenting blogs in my opinion. And you never know, you could be being woken up at regular intervals by the next Kelly Smith.
- 10 December 2009 at 10:00
- Richard said...
Maybe! Anything as long as she's not the new Diana Ross - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXjCKwBtG0I
- 10 December 2009 at 20:38
- Crying Baby Help said...
For babies to have a sound sleep, they must have a consistent bed time routine. Lay down the baby on the same bed even for naps, make the room dark and play some music. This way it will keep the baby from crying too.
- 17 December 2009 at 05:19


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European Commission
Press release
Brussels, 19 November 2012
Digital Agenda: Tech CEOs and leaders kickstart new EU cloud computing board
The Steering Board of the new European Cloud Partnership (ECP) met for the first time in Brussels today, kicking-off a process where public authorities and industry work together to help building the EU Digital Single Market for cloud computing pursuant to the European Cloud Computing Strategy. Specifically, the ECP aims at leveraging the public sector's buying power to shape the growing and maturing market for cloud computing services. Chaired by Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia, the board brings together tech Chief Executive Officers and government representatives with responsibility for IT procurement. The board will deliver strategic advice to Vice President Kroes (see annex for full list of members).
European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes said: "I need this top-level input so that all of Europe can see the full benefits of cloud computing, and quickly. President Ilves and all Board members are going to give no-nonsense, action-oriented advice to get the European Cloud Partnership moving."
Under the guidance of its Steering Board, the ECP will bring together public authorities and industry consortia to implement pre-commercial procurement actions for public sector cloud computing. The ECP will develop common cloud computing procurement requirements for use by Member States and public authorities throughout the EU.
Today the Steering Board discussed and decided on its 2013-2014 objectives (see its public statement). Most importantly, the board will work to raise public awareness and map out practical solutions to barriers to cloud computing adoption in the public sector whilst dispelling imaginary ones. It aims at making cloud readiness and adoption a political priority. In addition, the board has decided to support the Commission's work on actions related to cloud computing standards and certification schemes; and to identify cross-border and interoperable cloud pilot projects to be set in motion by 2014 in mission-critical areas of business and public life, such as eID, smart cities, eHealth, eEducation, research and digital content services, building on existing large scale pilots.
This is one of the key actions of the European Cloud Computing Strategy adopted by the European Commission earlier this year.
The main mission of the Steering Board is to provide strategic advice to the ECP and orientations for possible new ECP initiatives. In particular this could comprise reviewing and advising on implementation issues and providing recommendations for future implementation, uptake and research actions. Looking beyond the ECP, the board may also express views and recommendations on the range of other policies and actions put forward in the Cloud Computing Strategy.
The board, the Chairperson and members of the Steering Board were appointed by Vice-President Kroes. It will meet two or three times per year and may consult with industrial, academic and governmental bodies and experts.
On the implementation level, an initial budget of €10 million has already been earmarked for a pre-commercial procurement project in the ICT theme of the 7th Framework Programme for Research (FP7). The relevant call for proposals was published on 9 July.
Useful links
Steering Board Public Statement
Terms of reference of the Steering Board of the European Cloud Partnership
"The Clikkers and the Cloud" video
FP7 call for proposals (please refer to page 109 of the document)
Hash Tag: #cloudstrategy
Neelie Kroes website
Follow Neelie on Twitter
Annex: Members of the European Cloud Partnership Steering Board
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How to Use the Images
Photo 5: Castolon, Texas.
Questions for Photos 5 & 6
1. How would you describe the landscape? Compare your description to your surroundings today. What is similar? What is different?
2. Why do you think Big Bend has not grown as rapidly as other parts of Texas, such as Houston and Dallas?
* The photos on this screen have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Photo 5 and Photo 6, but be aware that each file will take as much as 30 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.


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On one of the rare times Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce missed a shot Sunday, Andray Blatche corralled the rebound and fired a full-length pass down the court to Nick Young for a vicious one-handed jam.
Admiring his work, Blatche stopped at half-court, looked over at the Washington Wizards bench and smiled as he struck his version of the Heisman Trophy pose. Blatche later joked that he's "a quarterback," showing a playful side that he had hid the past few games as fans at Verizon Center booed him.
Blatche played through the distraction, just as Young was able to fight through a left hand injury. But even as John Wall continued his inspired run of late — coming close to a tripledouble with 27 points, a season-high 10 rebounds and seven assists — the Wizards couldn't avoid a 100-94 loss to the undermanned Celtics.
"We've gotten to the point where 10 days ago, we weren't competing at a high level," coach Flip Saunders said after his team suffered another close loss at home. "We've gotten to the point now where we're competing at a high level. Now we've got to find a way to close out these games like we did close out against Oklahoma City."
The Celtics provided the Wizards (2-14) with an opportunity to steal their first win in three tries against Boston, as Rajon Rondo missed his second game with an injured right wrist. Ray Allen then came up limp in the second quarter with a jammed left ankle and missed the rest of the game.
But if anything has been consistent in the three games these teams have played this season, it has been that the Celtics need only two of their All-Star quartet to get going in order to have a chance to upend the Wizards. And on Sunday, Boston really needed just Pierce to get going, and Kevin Garnett came along for the ride late. Pierce had 34 points and 10 assists, abusing every defender Saunders put on him. He made light work of rookie Chris Singleton, veteran Rashard Lewis and guards Young and Jordan Crawford.
Late in the game, Wall asked Saunders to give him a shot, but by then the damage had been done.
"He's a great player for a reason," Wall said of Pierce.
Garnett (17 points) made back-to-back baseline jumpers to give the Celtics a 61-46 lead in the third quarter, but the Wizards responded with a 29-16 run over the next 10 minutes, tying the score at 75 when Wall found Trevor Booker for a dunk.
Crawford (12 points) and Pierce both received technical fouls for trash talking during the run. "You can't back down from nobody, no matter the circumstances. And I just felt it was needed at the time," Crawford said of his exchange with Pierce.
While the Wizards had the initial spark from the double technical, Garnett credited it for inspiring the game-altering sequence in which the Celtics outscored the Wizards 18-11; Pierce scored or delivered the pass that set up all of the points. "They started talking a little garbage to him, a little trash. We call that 'hitting the button.' Truth hit the button," Garnett said of Pierce.
The Wizards led 84-83 with 6:06 left after Young caught the pass from Blatche and dunked on Mickael Pietrus, picking up a taunting technical for cursing and flexing afterward.
"All of a sudden, we got ahead, and the ball had Velcro," Saunders said, complaining of the lack of ball movement in the final minutes.
Pierce made a driving layup to give the Celtics (6-9) a 93-86 lead, and the Wizards had several more questionable offensive possessions down the stretch, including Young taking a poor three 3-point attempt in the corner despite being double-teamed by Garnett and Pietrus.
Washington also had a questionable breakdown on defense after Crawford made an 18-foot fadeaway jumper to bring the Wizards within three points with 2:19 remaining. Garnett got the ball at the free throw line, pump faked to get Wall and Booker off their feet, then waltzed inside for an easy dunk to put Boston ahead 95-90.
Added Young after scoring 19 points: "We go in there confident. We've just got to find a way to pull it out in the end.We're playing as hard as we can. Even Dray came out and did what he did. You didn't hear that many boos tonight."
Crawford couldn't find any consolation in another close loss.
"Not when you're losing. Not when you're losing, it doesn't matter," he said. "We're playing better, but we've got to get some wins."


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Buzzer Beaters: NFL Rule Changes, March Madness Drinking Game and More
Today's top sports stories:
The NFL has approved several rule changes for the upcoming season. Most prominently, the "tuck rule" has been abolished, along with new regulations against certain kinds of helmet hits and tweaks to coaches' usage of instant replay. [ESPN]
The Miami Heat take their 23-game winning streak to Cleveland tonight, where they'll face the Cavaliers, who have a record of 22-45. "Make that 24-game winning streak," said everyone. [S.I.]
Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez could be out as long as two months after injuring his thumb during the World Baseball Classic. Or it could be just two weeks. Who can tell?!?!?!?! [Yahoo]
You may have heard that there's this little basketball tournament thing that starts on Thursday. Even President Obama has filled out a bracket, picking _______ to win it all. [ABC]
And if you want to really have fun watching the NCAA Tournament, check out this March Madness drinking game. (To be used with water and juice only, of course.) [GuySpeed]


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The Inter-Continental Paper Exchange (IPE) is a member based world wide information exchange designed for companies and individuals who
BUY / SELL / TRADE goods and commodities.
Back to :IPE Paper Cards & Tags Index |
View Listings: All Listings
Send inquiries, questions, comments, news, etc. by mail to the Paper Cards & Tags email group.
(student inquiries welcome)
If you are active in the Paper Cards & Tags Industry, add your name to the E-mail group to receive current news, views, etc..


text:
I've installed 11.04 but some windows effects were off, so I tried to re-enable them. While in the process, however, I ended up losing that handy menu (normally on top) where we have the Ubuntu icon, and the volume and shutdown menus.
How can we restore that panel?
Thanks in advance.


text:
Are you wanting to travel but don't necessarily have all the funds? Whether it's a mission trip, school trip overseas or simple an adventure, raising money online is easy, fun and social with Fundly.
We need it to verify your campaign
We'll help you every step of the way
Easily customize your page and start accepting online donations.Start For Free
Looking to raise money?


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oh hello everyone!
it's tattoo tuesday and i've got quite the collection for you ...let's get right to it and start the month off with a BANG! ♥ ♥ ♥
PS. i dont know who the above guy is but he's awesome.
30 seconds to mars!... support jared leto.
andy warhol banana! LOVE!
so good!
i LOVE this cus i LOVE my little sister ♥
is it a fakey??? ...i dont care... i love it.
sporadic doodles!
beards and diamond tattoos = i LOVE you.
gonna dream about this one cus it might be my next.
feather LOVE.
lets talk about how beautiful the head dress is!
nerd LOVE!
oh, hello :o)
ladies and gentlemen... im in LOVE!
i bet the other arm says "...that I am God" .....BEST!
SO cute.
little hearts make me smile.
i mean it :o)
other photos via


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The Hope and Calvin men's soccer teams will co-host the Bergsma Memorial Tournament on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11-12.
The Hope and Calvin men's soccer teams will co-host the Bergsma Memorial Tournament on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11-12.
The tournament honors the memory of Dr. Calvin Bergsma who died tragically in a car accident during the summer of 2001.
Hope and Calvin will each host games exchanging opponents Kenyon, Ohio and Wheaton, Ill.
The Flying Dutchmen (2-0) will host Kenyon (3-0) at 4 p.m. Friday and Wheaton (1-1) at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Calvin has a 1-1 season record.
A 1967 graduate of Calvin College, Dr. Bergsma was a West Michigan urologist who was known as a kind-hearted man who cared deeply for everyone. Dr. Bergsma was particularly close to his friends at both Calvin College and Hope College. He had family ties to both institutions as his wife Gwen (1968) and son Corwyn (1996) are Calvin graduates while his son Clayton is a graduate (2000) of Hope College. Clayton was a four-year member of the Hope men's soccer team while Corwyn was a four-year member of the Calvin men's basketball program.
Hope is the defending champion. The Flying Dutchmen and Calvin Knights have each won the tournament championship three times. Wheaton won the championship in 2005 and 2007. Kenyon is playing in the tournament for the first time.


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You are here:
Access official press releases from 2008, illustrating the key aspects of the Vaccine Alliance's work
12 December 2008
GAVI Alliance recommends improvements to make humanitarian aid more efficient
Poor data quality hampers effective aid to developing world.
02 December 2008
Financed by the GAVI Alliance, massive campaign is launched to prevent outbreak
Burkina Faso vaccinates 7.9 million against deadly yellow fever disease.
28 November 2008
Germany to further support for life-saving vaccines
To further protect millions of children in the developing world against life-threatening diseases, the Government of Germany has committed an additional four million Euros to the GAVI Alliance.
26 November 2008
GAVI Alliance to vaccinate an additional 6.6 million children against three killer diseases
Alliance commits US$ 134 million but warns of funding challenges to introduce new support against cervical cancer, typhoid, Japanese encephalitis and rubella.
30 October 2008
Robinson to lead efforts to strengthen global immunisation
Former President of Ireland and High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will lead the GAVI Alliance's new executive board, created to strengthen the organisation's ability to meet global health challenges.
29 October 2008
New immunisation figures to be presented at GAVI Board meeting in Geneva
3.4 million deaths averted through GAVI-funded immunisation programmes.
25 September 2008
At General Assembly event, a call for equity and action on development goals
UNICEF website – On the opening day of the United Nations General Assembly session, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said there is a long way to go to reach the Millennium Development Goals by their 2015 target date.
24 September 2008
Significant progress in mother and child health and reduction of malaria and HIVAIDS deaths in poorest nations
MDGs still within reach but stronger focus on the most marginalized will be required.
08 September 2008
Two million people successfully vaccinated in Abidjan following a yellow fever outbreak
Yellow Fever epidemic contained after combined efforts from the Yellow Fever Partnership to vaccinate over 2.2 million people in the Ivorian capital.
04 September 2008
African health ministers to introduce new vaccine to prevent deadly meningitis epidemics
Health Ministers from countries of the African Meningitis Belt today committed themselves to introduce a highly promising candidate meningitis vaccine. The vaccine is designed to prevent periodic epidemics of the deadly disease in these countries.
01 August 2008
First shot of pentavalent vaccine for the children of the Solomon Islands
Support from the GAVI Alliance enables Introduction of Vaccine against Deadly Haemophilus influenzae type b (or Hib) and Four Other Diseases.
26 June 2008
GAVI Alliance commits further support for vaccines against pneumonia and meningitis
GAVI Alliance Board confirms its intent to provide US$1.3 billion for the purchase of pneumococcal vaccines.
25 June 2008
New vaccine strategy prioritises deadly diseases
Meningococcal A, Japanese encephalitis and Cervical Cancer among those identified.
20 June 2008
Successes in global immunisation boost progress towards MDGs
GAVI Alliance Progress Report highlights major advancements to save lives in world's poorest countries.
23 May 2008
Stronger health systems are key to battling disease in poorest countries
In response to unprecedented demand from developing countries, the GAVI Alliance will increase its funding for health system strengthening to US$800 million.
24 April 2008
Symposium announces great strides in childhood immunisation
Significant progress to date, with opportunities for overcoming the financial, logistical, and technical barriers that hinder steps forward.
09 April 2008
Australia and Papua New Guinea launch efforts to crush deadly Hib disease in Pacific region
New vaccine rollout through the GAVI Alliance expected to help extinguish childhood killer. Papua New Guinea will begin immunising children this month with a vaccine that promises to rid the nation of Haemophilus Influenzae type b, or Hib disease, one of the deadliest causes of meningitis and pneumonia.
12 March 2008
Denmark supports immunisation efforts in the developing world
The GAVI Alliance today thanked the Danish government for Denmark's support to GAVI. During the meeting GAVI and the Danish Minister discussed issues related to vaccine deliveries in developing countries with weak health systems and also the role of GAVI in the international health architecture.
10 March 2008
Deadly disease eliminated in children under five years of age in Uganda
Hib meningitis has been virtually eliminated in young children in Uganda just five years after the country introduced Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine nationwide, according to an independent study.
04 March 2008
Japanese investors welcome the launch of IFFIm's debut "Vaccine Bonds"
Japanese investors enthusiastically welcomed the launch of the debut offering in the Japanese market of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation Company ("IFFIm"), a ZAR 1.7 billion (USD equivalent 223 million) two year uridashi issue.
27 February 2008
"Vaccine bonds" offered in Japan will help save children's lives in the developing world
A "vaccine bond" expected to be offered in Japan next month aims to accelerate efforts to immunise children in the world's poorest countries against deadly diseases, the first initiative of its kind in Japan to use the capital markets to raise funds for a specific development purpose.
15 February 2008
Spain's leading corporate foundation gives €4 million for child immunisation
La Caixa's largest donation to one single organisation marks a fundraising boost to help vaccinate children in the world's poorest countries against life-threatening diseases.
08 February 2008
Bold Canadian investment of US $158 million helped prevent thousands of future deaths
A bold and far-sighted investment in child survival by the Canadian government over the last five years has helped save hundreds of thousands of lives and paved the way for further reductions in child mortality globally.
23 January 2008
2.9 million future deaths prevented by GAVI immunisation programmes since 2000, new data show
Targetted immunisation backed by innovative financing to pay for the introduction of new vaccines is key to reducing child mortality in the world's poorest countries, the GAVI Alliance said today.
Press releases
Ethics hotline
Concerned about the misuse of Gavi resources? Report it now.
© Gavi 2019
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Flint Records Over 16 Inches of Snow, Most Since 1975
If you've been thinking, "I don't remember a winter storm this bad," your hunch was right. The National Weather Service says Flint hasn't seen this much snow since 1975, but where does it rank in our recorded history?
According to the National Weather Service, 16.2 inches of snow fell on Flint during the recent winter blast -- that's the third highest amount in our recorded history. The only time we've seen more snow (and I use "we" pretty loosely, as many reading this were likely not born yet) was April 2-3, 1975 (17.3 inches) and January 26, 1967 (22.7 inches).
Most schools and businesses are closed, but the Genesee County Road Commission have 41 trucks currently working to clear the main roads before heading to subdivisions. A report from Genesee County Scanners led many (us included) to believe that only the expressways would see attention today. Thankfully, that is not the case.
We're not out of the woods yet though, reports indicate we will soon see record low temps after windchill is factored in. Stay safe and stay warm.


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General Discussion / Re: triplet design« on: March 10, 2010, 07:32:18 pm »
I wouldn't recommend it. Tandem and triplet tubing is much bigger than single-bike tubing. Before the likes of Bill McReady (sp?) at Santana came along and made the tandem world what it is today, one problem with early tandems was that they were much too flexy. Our steel tandem's tubes are the size of Cannondale single-bike aluminum tubes, and the bottom tube is as wide as the BBs.
Well said.
Anyone with the math skills tol calculate the frame stresses would agree that a tandem or triple bike is a new and different bike from the ground up.


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WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- U.S. government agencies have not made progress on achieving most of the goals articulated in the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy, federal officials said.
The strategy identified seven goals involved in reducing drug use among teens by 15 percent by 2015. The Government Accountability Office said the Office of National Drug Control Policy and other federal agencies had made progress toward one goal but no progress on four others as of March.
The GAO found there has been an increase in the rate of reported marijuana use, but that was offset by decreases in the rates of reported use of other drugs.
Drug abuse prevention and treatment programs are fragmented across 15 federal agencies and provide some overlapping services, which could result in duplication of efforts, the report said.
Specifically, GAO identified overlap in 59 of the 76 programs included in its review.
"These programs could provide or fund one or more drug abuse prevention or treatment service that at least one other program could also provide or fund, either to similar population groups or to reach similar program goals," the report said. "Such fragmentation and overlap may result in inefficient use of resources among programs providing similar services."


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Sunday, April 20, 2008, 08:49 PM - Geometry, Differentiationimages of result of collaboration with Theodore Spyropoulos of minimaforms and part of the conceptual revisiting / reintepretation of project 19 by David Green, archigram. read more on L.A.W.u.N*project#20.
Posted by Administrator
Posted by Administrator
Read More...
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Saturday, April 19, 2008, 06:10 PMIn the days of ever-growing acronyms..a personal favorite.Good 0ld Fashioned Intelligence. albeit..a rip off from simon penny: good old fashioned artificial intelligence.(sic!)
Posted by Administrator
Posted by Administrator
more coffee break fun with straight forward animation. only camera being 'scripted'.
A free player from tradebit.com
A free player from tradebit.com
....have lines, will follow!
9 comments ( 40 views ) | 0 trackbacks | permalink | ( 3 / 1064 )
Monday, April 14, 2008, 07:46 PM - Maya.c++.api., optimizations, utilities
Posted by Administrator
Posted by Administrator
Image:David M. Mount and Sunil Arya;
Images from simplistic implementation of the Octree algorithm in Maya. Primarily as an exercise to understand its API and class derivation within it.
"Binary space partitioning (BSP) is a method for recursively subdividing a space into convex sets by hyperplanes. This subdivision gives rise to a representation of the scene by means of a tree data structure known as a BSP tree."
Wikipedia Accessed Aug 2007
"An octree is a tree data structure in which each internal node has up to eight children. Octrees are most often used to partition a three dimensional space by recursively subdividing it into eight octants."
wikipedia Accessed Aug 2007
Approximate Nearest Neighbour
"Computing exact nearest neighbors in dimensions much higher than 8 seems to be a very difficult task. Few methods seem to be significantly better than a brute-force computation of all distances. However, it has been shown that by computing nearest neighbors approximately, it is possible to achieve significantly faster running times (on the order of 10's to 100's) often with a relatively small actual errors. ...."
David M. Mount and Sunil Arya
Even accounting for the amateur nature of our attempt, it would appear that the above holds true in 3 dimensions as well ie. an octree algorithm provides a significant advantage over brute calculation of distances only when the point distribution is sparse, point sets are large (above 50000) and some tolerances are allowed in terms of measurement.
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Monday, April 14, 2008, 07:06 PM - programming interests
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inspiration:image from wired magazine and article on Visualizing Viruses: click for more (c)Image: Alex Dragulescu
playtime with some openGL lines: 'visualizing fields'
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Sad comparison heightens the need to get an handle on basic openGL routines including bezier curves drawing (notice segmentation), alpha blending (notice flat alpha), lighting (notice lack of) et al. goes to prove art is not independent of technique.much to learn. end of coffee break.!
glPointSize(sz);glBegin( GL_POINTS );
glBegin( GL_LINE_STRIP );glLineWidth(sz);
//glEnable ( GL_LINE_STIPPLE_PATTERN); //glLineStipple(2,0x0B25);
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Monday, March 31, 2008, 03:38 PM - Geometry, Differentiation
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By now ancient sketch script a single NURBS with 3 dimensional components. It translates the world space coordinates of the component object into the moving-space defined by the ortho-normal vectors of the surface.
[Accessed May 2006]
Frenet Vectors.
"A Frenet frame is a moving reference frame of n orthonormal vectors which are used to describe a curve locally at each point. It is the main tool in the differential geometric treatment of curves as it is far easier and more natural to describe local properties (e.g. curvature, torsion) in terms of a local reference system than using a global one like the Euclidean coordinates..."
[Accessed May 2006]
surface analogue to Frenet frame on a curve
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Monday, March 31, 2008, 01:12 PM - Differentiation
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A free player from tradebit.com
swarms and distribution of intelligence: decentralised decision making
That war (vietnam) also proved the self-defeating nature of centralization: the more
one tries to achieve total certainty, the greater the increase in the information flow
needed to run the operation, and therefore the more uncertain the final results. Far
from solving the problem, computers ended up compounding it by producing their
own endless streams of information.
De landa, M. War in the Age of Intelligent Machine, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990)
p. 79
self similarity and difference
Architecture as an assembly of design components implicitly suggests self-similarity and difference amongst the parts of the system. Particulars or aspects of this similarity and difference could be multitude. Nonetheless, our research aims to appose and /or articulate the notion with other issues that deserve to be discussed. In recent parametric systems of design and of codification of design for construction, this aspect of similarity and difference, have tended to be manifested in the production of homeo-morphic geometries such as adaptive (to curvature) tiling patterns, structural skins etc. Alternatively, there have been systems, like those in robotics , that concentrated on production of non-topological difference and on aspects of family and individual on the basis of attributes such as constituent parts , specific task-capacities, transformation pathways etc.
Images and videos show attempts to combine the position & directional relations betweens 'objects in a swarm' and the morphological self-similarity of 'objects in a family', towards developing an formal language of at urban scale. This apart from more weathered concerns of architecture and urbanism including discourses on performance fitness, spatial perception and experience, socio-cultural implications etc.
A free player from tradebit.com
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notation systems: symbols and manipulation;
Marvin Minsky, pioneering extensive research in cognitive science, and evolution of intelligence, explicates that fundamental to the evolution of intelligence and problem solving capacities, is the need for a system of representation:
All problem-solvers, intelligent or not, are subject to the same ultimate constraintslimitations on space, time, and materials. In order for animals to evolve powerful ways to deal with such constraints, they must have ways to represent the situations they face, and they must have processes for manipulating those representations.
Marvin Minsky: Communication with Alien Intelligence, Published in Extraterrestrials: Science and Alien Intelligence (Edward Regis, Ed.)Cambridge University Press 1985.
Extending the argument to the domain of design-research, it could be argued that symbols (notation) and operations (manipulations) are embedded within the performative capacities and constraints of the selected tool (s) of design. They produce results, which extend beyond the level of affect and alter the sensibilities of the designer. They manifest themselves as shifts or variations in the organizational relationships and formal possibilities accessible to the designer. Further, symbol systems form an integral aid in procedural thought argued for earlier, for any problem-solving has to make creative leaps in the face of incomplete information regarding the problem. This because a notational system can be articulated at varying degrees of figural representation as well as describe immaterial substance, and the designer must construct or clarify the components to be examined. The use of notation is not only intended to make recognizable what was potentially unseen, rather to place emphasis on the components or elements of decided significance. In essence then, symbol-systems can aid the process of pattern recognition within a search for a solution space. The point here being that, these notations or symbols give data cognitive recognition, which down the path of heuristic learning yield unique results based on their the selection . The research has to then clarify and codify its findings and discoveries to fuel its own pursuit further.
images and video relate to aforementioned 'diagramming' in so called non-CAD platforms, including Flash, maxMSP,external hardware and their digital controllers etc.
James warton,AADRL, Manifold-04.06 deomostrating a prototype of software controlled, piston driven 'arms'.
Photograph from FaceBreeder installation by Vasilis Stroumpakos and Theodore Spyropolous at AA School,London. Production Assistants included members from team Manifold, Reploy, YME etc.For more see facebreeeder.com
A software 'map'/feed back loop between Maya, maxMSP, Flash, and external hardware including iCube-X midi-digitiser, pneumatic pistons and solenoid controlled compressor.
a info-map of 26 drl team projects ('03-'05,'04-'06) and their various studies leading to a thesis candidacy proposal.This effort was in collaboration with vasilis stroumpakos.
a info-map of 105 drl team projects as part of the AADRL TEN exhibition. The production team included Kostas Grigoriadis,Peter Sovinc,Suryansh Chandra,Pier Andrea Angius, & Matei denes.
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Sunday, March 9, 2008, 04:17 PM - Geometry, Tessellationsvideo is in realtime
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Shows the execution of MEL prototype of dividing the included area of a given input curve into smaller cells.
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collection of recent code-sketches on areas of research interest including demi-regular tessellation, Cell division etc.
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Saturday, March 1, 2008, 04:26 AM - Researchmailer for yesterday's event.
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Last evening was the first public presentation of the computation and design group(co|de)at Zaha Hadid Architects. This group is an effort towards formulating a research unit within the office to address the following issues, and concerns.
Following are the objectives of the research group:
_Extend toolkit addressing recurring challenges in the office
_Application specific support-base: Maya, Rhino
_Information Pool - tool documentation, code library, training.
_Project specific toolkit extension
_Production pipeline
data-exchange between applications, porting/transposing methods
between platforms.
official email:
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Monday, February 25, 2008, 07:41 AM - Geometry, Tessellations
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A free player from tradebit.com
A free player from tradebit.com
A free player from tradebit.com
Analytical computation, as an instrument to generate geometry and evaluate its performance, is inherently dependent on meshes or node based geometry. The attempt on this short-term research was to understand the functioning of node-based geometry, text-based polygon file formats, types including Delaunay , Voronoi, half-space intersections, convex hulls etc.
In view of the lack of access to Maya's internal triangulation engines, the research concentrated on wrting simple translators to access external, command-line executables such as qhull,tetgen and surface evolver.Tetgen has so far proved to be most useful, in that it can be compiled into either an executable or a dll. ie. supports both standard MEL 'system' calls and c++ api calls from within Maya plugins. Further, tetgen also supports constrained delaunay triangulation.
Although resulting triangulated meshes do not support regular poly-modelling workflows, they provide interest as reference objects.They are also useful in geometric problem solving, eg: prim's algorithm.
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text:
Originally uploaded by Knitters Uncensored
Sorry, but episode #07 hasn't been recorded yet. I think that we'll be doing that this coming Saturday....
NB: Also, some of you might notice that iTunes has stopped downloading since episode #04. So, I'm hoping that you're reading this here. Mea culpa, when I was updating the blog back in episode #04, I mucked up the dates and so it was set to September. So, iTunes won't be picking anything up until September.
To fix this, you have to unsubscribe from the feed and re-subscribe to it again . That would put the dates right again.
As for Benediktbeuern trip in September, I will figure out the travelling time for all of us who are travelling from Munich, so that we can go together on the train. I think that at the moment, all of those from Germany are going to gather in Munich and then we'll go together. But I'll send out an email concerning that again soon.
Lastly, you see the picture above...yeah, that's my hand-spun! I and Ms. B started spinning. I like it...Ms. B declared herself a non-spinner. ;-p
But we'll talk about that in the next episode. ;-)
Catch y'all later!
Ps. If you want to see Scout's special colourway for us KU, "South Tyrolean Mankitten in Lederhosen"...here you go:


text:
Hello everyone!
Olga here today showcasing this fun image called Image 40 - Sleeping Beauties.
You can find many more images on the Sasayaki Glitter Store.
For more pictures and details you can visit my blog Here.
Thank you for visiting,
xoxo Olga
We also have a Facebook group where you can join us and get some inspiration or just hang out in a fun community!
And you can always visit us on our Sasayaki Glitter Inspiration Pinterest page.


text:
(visited by Grant Hopcraft)
10-Jan-2004 -- From a sudden fit of Friday afternoon lethargy and increasing disillusionment from a hectic week, I decided it was a perfect weekend to get away. I packed up a few cans of beans, some rice, a 6 pack of beer and various bits of camping gear along with the trusty GPS and maps, and headed off in search of 2° South and 34° East. The mountain bike was tossed in on top of everything else and contributed nicely to the cacophony of noise already coming from the back of the landrover. I felt guilty at leaving behind by usual confluencing buddy (Dave Erickson), but I continued under the supposition that guilt eventually goes away.
The Confluence lies about 8 km north of the Grumeti River, which forms the northern boundary of the Serengeti's Western corridor. To get there I decided the funniest way (which ranks highly in my opinion) would be to travel through the park out the western-most gate (called Ndabaka), circle around some of the settlements near Lake Victoria and back inland towards the Confluence. I started down the Western Corridor on Friday evening and camped along the edge of the Orangi River in the dense fig tree forests, which are alive this time of year with the chorusing of frogs and cicadas, not to mention the distance grunts and roars of lions and hyenas. I was shocked that evening to be visited by a very bold genet, which wandered straight into camp completely undetected under the cover of the riotous night-time noise. I initially mistook its shadow for one of the larger more dangerous carnivores of the Serengeti. As an apology of sorts, we shared a boiled egg, which she quite happily ate off my foot to save it from getting all gritty on the ground!
The next morning was highlighted by having breakfast with the crocodiles and hippos living in the river before heading for Ndabaka Gate. From there I bought too many mangoes from an elderly woman in Bunda, before finally getting to within 5 km of the point. The area around the point is primarily agricultural and is populated by the Wasakuma tribe. I left the vehicle parked next to a maize patch, where a man was guarding his crop against baboons. He agreed that the roof of the landrover would make for a comfortable vantage point and in exchange he would look after the vehicle. Assured by our mutual agreement, off I went with the GPS mounted on the handlebars of the bike with a few trusty coils of duct-tape.
I followed cow paths and tracks through a patchwork of crops, which were bordered, by acacia thickets and forests all cackling with guinea fowls and birds. As I got closer to the point it became clear that it was on the hill overlooking a valley leading into the Serengeti. I rode as far as I could up the hill and arrived bright red and breathless at Mzee Matinde's house. He and his shocked family feigned interest in what I was up to. I am sure it only proved their suspicion that I was totally and irretrievably demented. His children agreed to look after my bicycle while I climbed the mountain and rattled off a few pictures of the area. It is a beautiful spot… the views north and east look out over agriculture, south gives you glimpses of the Serengeti through the mountains, and west is the rest of the hills.
I returned to Mzee Matinde's house to find my tires well watered by the farm dogs and the children in a hive of excitement. We spent almost an hour taking turns riding the bike and taking silly digital pictures. Mzee Matinde and his wife wanted nothing to do with taking images of themselves, although they were in hysterics watching their hooligan children.
On the ride back I came across a fantastically old man who, by all accounts, looked like he had survived since the German occupation of the area pre-world war two, also on his bicycle. In the typically friendly Tanzanian way, he asked me where I was coming from, so I told him I lived in Seronera (over 100 km away) and was heading home. He almost fell over. For a moment I thought I might need to display my total lack of CPR training. Luckily he recovered, and told me that I was very lost, it was way too late in the evening, and that I was never going to get home tonight. He very kindly invited me to his house for ugali (maize meal) and to spend the night. I assured him that my vehicle wasn't too far (although in my excitement I failed to get a waypoint on it) and that I was actually driving home tomorrow. He was a bit more relaxed about the idea of a vehicle waiting for me and wished me a "safari njema" (a good safari), which is exactly what it was.


text:
The protests in Egypt intensified with the news that President Hosni Mubarak will step down from power, but not until the end of his term in September. Supporters of Mubarak and anti-government protesters clashed in Tahrir Square Wednesday over the announcement.
But amid this bad news, I have good news to share. Friendly Planet travelers in Egypt will be leaving Cairo on a nonstop, EgyptAir flight for JFK International Airport on Feb. 3. Until then, Friendly Planet travelers will continue to stay in at Fairmont Towers, Heliopolis.
Below is the e-mail I sent to their emergency contacts last night detailing the decision to book the EgyptAir flight and how they will be accommodated until they depart. We worked 24/7 to make these arrangements for our travelers, and I'm so happy that they'll be back in U.S. within the next day.
I'll share more updates with you on the situation in Egypt as they unfold on the blog, Twitter, and Facebook. And stay tuned, I'll tell you what to do about rescheduling or cancelling an upcoming trip to Egypt in my next blog post.
We would like to update you regarding your family and friends still in Egypt. At present, our group remains at the Fairmont Heliopolis. Early this morning (Cairo time) the group was offered three options for leaving Egypt. The options were:
1. A Viking Cruises-organized charter flight from Cairo to Frankfurt.
2. US Government-organized evacuation flights to Malta, Cyprus, Athens and other European locations.
3. Confirmed space on Thursday, Feb. 3 via EgyptAir non-stop service to JFK.
The group unanimously voted to remain in Cairo until Feb. 3, when they could depart via EgyptAir direct to the USA. The other two options were less attractive to the group due to the unknown costs associated with getting from Europe to the USA. The cost of the Viking charter was $600 per person plus the cost of getting from Frankfurt to the USA, plus hotel and meal expenses if overnight accommodations in Frankfurt were necessary. The cost of the US Government flights is unknown, and as with Frankfurt, the cost of getting from the European cities to the USA plus potential hotel expenses also should be considered.
The EgyptAir appeared to be the best option, as the ticket is already covered by the original EgyptAir ticket from our tour, and the extra nights at the Fairmont hotel are being covered from the refund of services our travelers are due. Thus, if all goes well, you will be seeing your loved ones very soon. And in the meantime, our travelers are comfortable at the Fairmont Hotel, with two provided meals daily as well as their hotel accommodations.
Telephone service remains difficult, although the land lines seem to work better than cell phone service. The internet remains a huge problem. We have not been able to communicate via the internet since it was cut last Thursday.
Our Egypt representatives remain with the group at all times, so they have local assistance if needed.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance to you. In the meantime, we will continue to update you as we receive more information.
Peggy M. Goldman
Friendly Planet Travel


text:
Baseboard Moulding Pacific BeachBaseboard, technically referred to as Base Moulding, surrounds the perimeter of a room and run along the corner where the floor and wall meet. VIEW MDF CATALOGCALL FOR PRICING
Baseboard Moulding Pacific Beach
It's amazing what baseboard moulding Pacific Beach can do to a room. The baseboard moulding covers any gaps between the wall and floor, and protects the lower walls from damage, primarily from furniture and even feet. Another important use of baseboard moulding or baseboard trim is the aesthetic value that it adds to your Pacific Beach house. You may be surprised by the difference baseboard moulding can make. Many houses and apartments have baseboard moulding installed to add that sophisticated touch to their interiors. Here we describe a number of different types of baseboard moulding Pacific Beach that you can use to add some character to your Pacific Beach house.
This is the most common kind of baseboard moulding Pacific Beach. Depending on your preference, a number of different woods are available. Options include oak, maple, mahogany and even pine and fir. Hardwood is the most commonly available baseboard on the market. It is known by a number of different names, such as ranch, colonial, ogee or anniversary, so you if you see one of these names, it is referring to hardwood baseboards. You can also get some designed trim to add a vintage feel to the room. Hardwood baseboard moulding is installed by first adding a baseboard moulding to the wall and then attaching a thinner piece to the top to create some shadow lines.
Flex / Resin
Another interesting choice is flexible, or resin moulding. This type of baseboard moulding is very malleable and is great for curved wood applications where regular wood won't bend to fit. This means that tricky corners and curved edges are not a problem at all! You can easily mold the baseboard into the contours of the wall to create beautiful patterns and a perfect fit. Its main advantage is for a curved wall, where stiff baseboards won't work. Another advantage is that it is moisture proof, insect proof, and can withstand extreme heat and cold temperatures without warping, cracking or deteriorating. And, if you want to add an original touch, it can also be painted any color of your choice. Buying it is much cheaper than other kinds, too, and since you can use every inch of it, it is more efficient.
Popular applications include:
- Half Round Windows
- Elliptical Windows
- Arches and Arcs
- Bowed Windows
- Radius Drywall Corners
- Curved Stairwells
- Round Columns
- Trim Ceiling Domes
These vintage baseboards are somewhat hard to find nowadays, but do make an appearance every now and then. These baseboards are 3/4 inch of pine or fir with a 4-6 inch width. Many of these baseboard moulding Pacific Beach styles also have a bullnose on the top corner about a radius of 3/8 inch. You can still spot this kind of baseboard trim in certain old homes in San Diego. Usually, the finishing touch is a thick coat of enamel which seals off the boards completely. Certain people with a taste for vintage designs still opt for this kind of moulding. They install it with another structure called plinth block. This is a 1 x 4 x 6 inch, carved, wooden, vertical block that accompanies the corners or the doorway. The baseboards are seen butting into the plinth block for the finished look. Although, this style of baseboard may not for everyone, they sure do have a unique style.
Composite baseboards are strong, durable, and impervious to water. Typically they are used in wet or humid areas, such as bathrooms or commercial kitchens. They are produced using recycled products, making them "green" and "eco-friendly". Composite baseboard moulding has long-term value; is durable, waterproof, termite proof, and highly resistant to mold and mildew.
- Pre-sand and prime before painting
- Use water based interior paint
Note: For best results, we recommend using a primer so your paint will adhere longer.
Find the best baseboard moulding Pacific Beach
No matter which type of baseboard moulding Pacific Beach you choose, based on your own preference and needs of the room, will make a quality baseboard moulding for your home. Baseboard moulding Pacific Beach can add a whole new dimension to your house. Choose the one that best suits your requirements and be ready to add some quality and flair to your home.
Shop Baseboard Moulding Pacific Beach
San Diego Wholesale Moulding Warehouse


text:
DETROIT -- General Motors' freshly inked alliance with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen raises a lot of questions that we won't be able to answer for years.
But there's one thing we know with certainty now: The pact is only the first big move by GM to fix its money-losing European operations.
That's because none of the $2 billion in annual savings that the automakers project they eventually will split evenly from joint purchasing and sharing platforms and capital expenditures will show up any time soon.
The first jointly produced vehicles -- mostly small and mid-sized cars -- won't arrive until 2016. Sure, there might be some capital savings leading up to that date. But any savings from the greater purchasing heft must wait until then.
(It's also too early to know what it means for GM's product lineup. Given that it's billed as a "global" pact, vehicles built on GM-PSA joint platforms could show up in U.S. showrooms as Chevys or Buicks, GM acknowledged.)
But it's clear that overcapacity is the biggest thorn in the side of Opel, GM's European unit. Leaders from both automakers made plain in comments to analysts and reporters Wednesday that their pact won't do anything to pare those costs.
"The most critical message we want to address here is that this alliance is not a replacement" for more-immediate European restructuring, said GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, GM's point man for fixing Europe as head of Opel's supervisory board.
"We look at this as adding additional tools to the tool kit," he says.
Translation: GM needs to stop the bleeding in Europe now, and closing plants and laying off workers are the likely next steps (if GM can push it through its European unions and public officials).
Opel's assembly plants operated at about 70 percent capacity last year, a figure that likely will fall to 65 percent this year, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas estimates. That compares to more than 90 percent capacity at GM's North American plants.
"It is not clear that a tie-up between GM and PSA would do anything to address this situation," Jonas concluded in a research note written last week as reports of the alliance swirled.
The capacity problem is the primary reason for the red ink that GM continues to spill in Europe: $747 million last year, and some $13 billion since the late 1990s.
Even before the pact announced Wednesday, naysayers were questioning the merits of the deal for GM:
- How does combining the efforts of two weak players in Europe help both?
- If a big chunk of the savings should come from purchasing power, won't that disproportionately benefit the much-smaller PSA?
- What about GM's spotty track record with past alliances, such as a 2000-2005 tie-up with Fiat that included a similar purchasing arrangement?
GM executives will have plenty time to answer those and prove the skeptics wrong. They have far less time to fix the more-pressing issue of GM's bloated cost structure in Europe.