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Interview with Mark Kretschmann and Amarok Installer for Windows
Amarok project founder Mark Kretschmann was interviewed for "Not the Gentoo Linux Newsletter". He talks about Amarok and what makes this project special, its community, beer, more beer and other things of importance to him. Amarok headquarters is also pleased to announce Amarok 2 Technology Preview 1 for Windows, complete with an easy to use installer! More juicy details at the Amarok blog.
Liked this one
>So that explains why the Amarok crew parties so hard (see FROSCON) ?
Not that I'm that crazy but there are true gems in there :)
By Diederik van de... at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
Well if your the type of person who likes to party hard... Personally I'm not that type of person.
It takes all types to make this world go round though. He did come out against drinking and coding, so I have no problems with him.
By Hank Miller at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
What's wrong with hacking and drinking? I always drink when I am writing code. I mean, you get into a really loooong coding session you can easily dehydrate. You better do drink!
Are you that fussy about your keyboard?
By Uwe Thiem at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
You have obviously never taken apart a TV remote... I'm telling you, things with buttons + food and drink results in some of the nastiest (and completely unidentifiable) filth to be found in the average household.
Jeff... The IR LED scavenger
By Jeff at Wed, 2008/02/20 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
Nah, don't take the partying line too serious. I like to go out, but I'm not doing crazy things. On the contrary.. I can be pretty serious about things. The lines I noticed were about being able to love yourself and what you'd remember over 30 years.
By Diederik van de... at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
Really fantastic answers. Thanks for the last few minutes of laughing :)
By Sebastian Sauer at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
I love the amarok team.
No wonder it's such a great program. They know how to have fun..
He should work for google when he "grows up" (i.e.: wants to settle down.) They party like crazy as well.. :)
By Max at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
Why only girls? Why don´t you try boys also?
Why only walk with the dog?
By Jonh the G at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
Thanks for calling me crazy. The first one is free, but after that our legal department is going to sue you.
PS: Appreciated your comment ;)
By Mark Kretschmann at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
ok, thanks!
*calls a lawyer*
By Diederik van de... at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
> If you had a million dollars (that's roughly 175Eur at current exchange rates) - what would you do with it?
What did the interviewer mean by this? I guess he means US$ and EURO?
Just a bit nit picking...
By Harald Henkel at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
There's this rare, mythical thing called a joke. A good, basic book on the subject is Hannjost Lixfeld: Witz. Arbeitstexte für den Unterricht. Stuttgart, 1978. Gomperz' article "Witzjagen om zu leben" is relevant in this context. Of course, the standard work is still Freud's "Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten " and "Humor", while the journal Maledicta, pub. Reinhold Aman, is often very informative on the more down-to-earth side of the subject. Finally, the collected works of T. Pratchett are as valuable a resource in the English-speaking world as the works of G. Bomans and P. Rodenka are in the Dutch-speaking world.
By Boudewijn Rempt at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Liked this one
And it's a really good one too!!!
VERY, VERY FUNNY!! I rofl't for quite a while.
By Max at Mon, 2008/02/11 - 6:00am
That "Not the Gentoo Linux Newsletter" is great. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously in open source, so it's good to have stuff like this.
By Ian Monroe at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: !GWN > GWN -- Very true!!
Very true.
The open source community sometimes has a "holier than thou attitude".
Coding should be fun. More fun than in the corporate environment. Geeks are great people to hang out with. Especially the ones that like to party. I know a few of those in Silicon Valley.
By Max at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Ruby FTW
> For me Ruby programming was an eye opener: it's so smart and wonderful on so many levels, and yet easy to learn. I tend to be vocal about such things, and I openly fight Python (which is of course the antichrist) wherever I can. Give Ruby a try, it's just a work of art, and actually useful. I use it whenever I'm not forced to use C++, and I'm even known for my wilds plans to rewrite part of Amarok in Ruby.
Amen :)
By patcito at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
Cool.. Glad to hear that.
I heard very little about Ruby so far, but what I hear is overwhelmingly positive.
By Max at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
If you don't hear much, I'll add one:
By chris at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
I've been using ruby for 3 years and never had a problem with unicode. Plus, unlike Python, ruby is developed by Japanese guys so you can bet they know how to deal with encoding. 1.9 even comes with awesome m17n.
By patcito at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
When I say Unicode I mean seamless integration à la Java. But instead "encoding error" here, "module currently doesn't support Unicode" there.
Ruby was said [1] to lack proper Unicode support as the leading Japanese guy doesn't like Unicode (many Japanese ppl seam to dislike Han-Unification). A lot of hearsay here though, sorry.
[1] http://blog.ianbicking.org/why-python-unicode-sucks.html
By chris at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
Ruby uses a global variable $KCODE to set the default encoding - either ascii, UTF8 or two Japanese/Korean encodings, which is very similar to the 'setdefaultencoding()' function in your python link.
In QtRuby or Korundum for Qt or KDE programming in Ruby, you can display Unicode strings from UI code you have set up in Qt Designer by setting $KCODE to 'u'. As far as I know that is good enough for a lot of use cases. If you want your code to depend on non-ascii collating sequences and regular expression matching you need to be very careful anyway, whichever language you are using.
A Ruby String is a sequence of bytes with a length, and how your interpret it depends on the encoding you are using. There will never be two sorts of strings as in Python. Java has only one sort of string, and so it might not be as convenient for handling non-UTF strings. There is no right answer - language encoding is a complicated subject.
By Richard Dale at Mon, 2008/02/11 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
"language encoding is a complicated subject."
I strongly disagree. It might be now, but hopefully in 10 years we will think somebody is randomly generating characters once we see the string "ISO 8859-1".
In my eyes there is no usage for any other encodings except the Unicode ones, except again there are should be some codes Unicode why so ever would decide to not include. Well, there's still a private area in the code table for own use though.
I hope then the Python ppl will say: F* me, but that was one bad decision 10+ years ago.
By chris at Tue, 2008/02/12 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
That's because it is too useless for anybody except religious ruby zealots to know about it and actually use it...
By python loving f... at Fri, 2008/02/08 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
By Mark Kretschmann at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
0h I love the way Ruby is the answer to all problems.:P I mean really, you shouldn't be writing that much code that the language actually affects what you write. I have seen too many guys spit out lines and lines of code, only to go and delete it all or rewrite much of it because they were going to fast and not thinking things through. Whatever you code, think it though. Then it won't really matter what language you use. Be creative. If you have to reinvent the wheel, better not use an interpreted language anyway.
By winter at Sat, 2008/02/09 - 6:00am
Re: Ruby FTW
This, and especially the part about making Ruby a hard dependency of Amarok, bothers me hugely. If you need to resort to making something a mandatory dependency for it to gain traction, isn't that a sign your chosen tech may be doing something wrong that you are not aware of?
Besides, doesn't KDE come with the Kross framework, that exists SPECIFICALLY to make each user's respective choice of scripting tech a non-issue?
Seriously, I think this kind of zealotry has become Ruby's number one issue lately. It's not a bad language, but it increasingly looks like its fans are more interested in attacking the competition with underhanded tactics instead of catching up technically and that's very, very wrong. :(
By For chrissake... at Tue, 2008/02/12 - 6:00am


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The first post in this blog series provided an overview of liquid alternatives strategies while providing a closer look at long-short equity strategies and event-driven strategies. In this post we focus on long-short bond strategies and macro strategies, with concluding thoughts about selecting liquid alternative products.
Long-Short Bond Strategies
Long-short bond strategies include convertible arbitrage, relative value and distressed debt, and typically are used as bond substitutes in portfolio construction. Other long-short bond strategies may increase or decrease different risk factors, such as interest rate or credit risk, in order to produce a less correlated return pattern.
Convertible arbitrage strategies are similar to merger arbitrage, with funds typically buying convertible bonds while shorting the stocks of the same issuer. Conceptually, convertible arbitrage investors are seeking to capture the embedded option contained in the convertible structure while also benefiting from an illiquidity premium associated with the convertible.
Relative value strategies exploit price differences between various bonds and can offer steady returns with risk that is less correlated with bond markets. However, relative value strategies are also vulnerable to extreme market environments, and a strategy that is steady in good times can provide unexpected downside during events such as the Russia bond default in 1998 and the financial crisis of 2008.
Distressed debt strategies invest in companies or government entities that are in default or are in distress and are headed for a likely default. Investors often use distressedvdebt as an alternative investment, buying the debt at a deep discount while aiming for a high return if the company or country does not go bankrupt or there is a higher than expected recovery rate post-default.
We categorize distressed debt as a more volatile subset of the non-investment grade bond category. Distressed debt is less prominent among liquid alternatives than in the traditional alternatives landscape, as regulatory restrictions limit the ability of liquid alternative products to invest in what are typically concentrated and illiquid opportunities.
Macro Strategies
Currency strategies invest in currency futures, forwards or in short-term government debt. Most of these strategies are short the U.S. dollar. Many of the strategies invest in higher-yielding currencies while shorting lower-yield currencies. Other strategies are trend following, using momentum to generate returns. The objective of currency funds is to provide bond-like returns and risk in a manner that's uncorrelated with stock and bond markets.
Managed futures strategies make bets on a wide variety of futures contracts based on price momentum. These strategies are typically quantitative in nature and are designed to provide returns uncorrelated with equity markets. These portfolios are often diversified and include global exposures to currencies, commodities, equities and fixed income markets.
Global macro strategies invest long and short in a wide variety of investments, including bonds, forwards, swaps and bonds in order to provide absolute returns with risks uncorrelated to stock and bond markets. A global macro strategy's investment philosophy is often more nuanced and its process more qualitative when compared to a typical managed futures strategy that may follow a strictly mechanical trend-following process.
Macro strategies are typically used as bond substitutes due to their low volatility and low correlation to equities.
How to Select an Alt Strategy for Clients
When considering the process of selecting a liquid alternative, due diligence is critical, starting with research into the role that liquid alternatives would serve in the portfolio's asset allocation. Examining past performance of the asset class is a foundational exercise—identifying the effectiveness with which the strategy will contribute to portfolio performance.
For strategies that have a long-term record in private hedge fund form but a short track record in liquid form, it is critical to evaluate differences between structures that may limit the ability of the liquid vehicle to match the performance track record of the private vehicle. For example, arbitrage strategies that rely on leverage are constrained by leverage limitations placed on mutual funds and ETFs.
Similar constraints exist that may reduce the viability of strategies that focus on concentrated or illiquid positions, or which require extensive use of derivatives. Mutual fund-based alternative products face the additional challenge of needing to accommodate daily cash flows, a very different investment consideration than is faced by hedge funds and private equity funds that at best offer quarterly liquidity.
Given the short-track record of many 1940 Act-registered alternative products, advisors will need to evaluate the effectiveness of these products compared to their less-regulated family members.
It's also important to consider the context of the historical track record, understanding how changes in the investment environment may influence future performance of the strategy. Investments that did well during a 30-year environment of declining interest rates may not do as well in a low-interest-rate environment or an environment of rising rates. Trend-following investments may also not perform as well in an environment in which sudden and frequent reversals of trend are more the rule than the exception.
In comparison with traditional investment strategies, many liquid alternative strategies feature significant performance differences between the best and worst performers in a category. This dispersion of results highlights the importance of due diligence.
In categories such as event-driven and long-short bonds, the ranges are narrower. This may be a function of the constraints placed on 1940 Act funds, which could create more similarity among the strategies. Also, other strategies have shorter track records as 1940 Act funds and so are not visible in the table below
We are also wary of liquid alternatives managed by firms and managers that migrate from the long-only world to the world of alternatives. Short selling is a very different discipline in investment and implementation terms than long investing, and we prefer managers well versed in short selling.
In short, liquid alternatives provide an expanded opportunity set for advisors to use to improve client outcomes. However, advisors must also be aware of the potential pitfalls
View the first post in this blog series, and related articles on liquid alternatives.

subset: commoncrawl


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Assistant Commissioner to Community Affairs Kevin O'Connor handed out a list of crews in south Queens, including POS (Pop on Sight) at Hammels Houses from Beach 81st to 86th streets and Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach Channel Drive; the Woodhaven Mayans from 85th Street to 88th Street; and the Woodcity Gang from Woodhull to Jamaica avenues and 195th to190th streets.
O'Connor emphasized that these aren't typical gangs because there are no initiations, there is no hierarchy, and kids simply form alliances based on where they live. Many kids kill or assault each other just for being in another crew.
"Everything today is about protecting each other and forming an alliance," O'Connor said.
He said social media has ramped up the intensity. Kids post everything on Facebook, including pictures with guns, ranting about beefs, what party they are going to and even images from ambulances after getting shot.
"You're seeing a change of environment in the gangs," he said. "The pressure is now on the Internet."
During the summit, which was held at Campus Magnet High School, O'Connor also showed numerous images of gang-related graffiti. He said if there is the letter 'k' at the end it means they have a beef with that crew, but if there is an arrow or the number '2' that means two crews are in alliance.
Only about 20 parents and kids attended the summit. Christine Merrick has been a teacher's aide at Campus Magnet for 10 years.
"Violence has decreased in the school," she said, but wished more students would have attended the event.


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Possible Duplicate:
Choosing a functional programming language
I am a C++ programmer looking to learn a functional language as a hobby and out of sheer curiosity. I am not looking to be an expert, but just to get a grasp on functional programming. This language should be simple to learn and have good tutorials and resources for beginners. Are there any such languages?


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Domestic Dispute Wounds Two Children with Pellets
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, Mo. (AP) -- Authorities in southwest Missouri say a domestic dispute led to a shooting that sent two young children to the hospital.
Jasper County Sheriff's Capt. Derek Walrod told The Joplin Globe the pellet wounds to the 2-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother are not considered life-threatening.
The incident happened Monday morning in Brooklyn Heights, a small village northeast of Joplin.
Walrod says the children's parents were arguing when a third person became involved. The deputy says the husband and the third party were struggling for control of a shotgun when it discharged.
The wounded children were flown to a hospital in Springfield. The husband and the third party were in custody Monday afternoon, but charges were not immediately filed.


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Three developers working on five projects off the coasts of Kent, Suffolk, Cumbria and Merseyside are to be allowed to extend their sites, while developers of two projects in the Greater Wash on England's east coast will be able to add extra turbines totalling 340MW within their project boundaries.
The aim of this round of extensions is to provide a stable flow of construction projects to sustain the offshore wind supply chain in advance of Crown Estate's bigger Round 3.
Developers will need to lodge a new planning application for each of the extensions, including an environmental impact assessment and consultation. Once government consent has been secured, the Crown Estate will grant a lease to allow construction to start.
Nordic winners
Danish energy company Dong came away with the highest share of the new capacity, with two extensions totalling 984MW to its operational Burbo Bank wind farm and its Walney project, which are both in the Irish Sea. Sweden's Vattenfall secured 198MW, with extensions to projects off the coast of Kent - the operational Kentish Flats wind farm and its Thanet project, currently under construction.
The remaining extension goes to a joint venture of SSE and RWE, allowing them to double the size of their 504MW Greater Gabbard project, which is being built off the coast of Suffolk. The extension, to be known as the Galloper wind farm, already has a connection agreement with National Grid.
The Crown Estate is also to amend existing agreements with Centrica Energy and Warwick Energy, allowing them to increase the size of their projects within the agreed project areas; both projects are awaiting planning consent.
The Crown Estate stresses it expects projects to be completed within a tight time frame. Construction is expected to begin in 2014 with completion by the end of 2016. The extensions will benefit from sharing construction crews, vessels, ports and onshore facilities with the original projects, it says.
The timetable presupposes minimal delays to the consenting and grid connection regimes. However, the industry is waiting to find out whether the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government will retain the newly created Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), which has been set up to decide projects of national importance, including large wind farms.
Before the election, both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats pledged to abolish the IPC. Nick Medic, spokesman for trade body RenewableUK (formerly the British Wind Energy Association), does not believe that abolishing the IPC will lengthen decision times, although it might affect investor confidence. "We already have a successful framework for offshore consents," he says. "Whether decisions within that framework are carried out by the IPC or the secretary of state (as they have been up until this year) is unlikely to make much difference."
Peter Madigan, RenewableUK's head of offshore renewables, says that the level of interest in the extensions provides emphatic evidence of offshore wind viability and growth. "The projects are proven to deliver, so it makes sense to scale them up," he says.
Rob Hastings, the Crown Estate's director of the marine estate, says that the 2GW of extensions has been driven by developer interest and will increase the total potential 2020 installed capacity to 48GW.


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The Capital One Bowl indeed was the last time we'll see Jadeveon Clowney play at the collegiate level.
Following South Carolina's 34-24 win over Wisconsin Wednesday in Orlando, the junior defensive end was asked if he was turning pro.
"Yes, sir," was the response.
It was about as foregone a conclusion as possible that Clowney would leave Columbia after his junior year. Despite finishing with only three sacks in 2013, Clowney proved all he could in 2012. Racking up 13 sacks will do that (Clowney also had eight his freshman year).
He was the subject of some passive-aggressive barbs from coach Steve Spurrier (which, really, is par for the course from the head ball coach) earlier in the year when he backed out of playing an early October game. The Spurrier quote:
"If he doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to play, simple as that. We were thinking he was going to suit up and play. He did not practice Thursday. Couldn't run. Said he couldn't play. Any time a player says he's hurt, can't play, who are we to question? He doesn't play."
Spurrier later admitted everyone involved handled the situation poorly, and there didn't appear to be any lingering animosity between the player and coach.
Clowney is almost universally rated as the best defensive player in the 2014 NFL Draft pool, and jockeys between the No. 1 and No. 2 overall player with Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (who declared for the draft earlier today).


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Students create three-dimensional clouds and label them with facts, diagrams of the water cycle, and vocabulary words.
Lesson Plan
I Just Drank George Washington's Water! A Magic School Bus Lesson Plan
Students will:
- Understand that water is reused over and over again through the water cycle.
- Understand how precipitation, evaporation, and condensation are interconnected in the water cycle.
- Define and use water vocabulary words correctly.
- Use reading resources to develop a list of 10 facts about water.
- Record events in sequential order as they complete a graphic organizer on the four parts of the water cycle.
- Write a summary detailing how the water cycle works.
Lesson Resources
- The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks by Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen, or another book of your choice that provides many facts about water.
- The Magic School Bus Wet All Over: A Book About the Water Cycle by Patricia Relf, or another book of your choice that describes how precipitation, evaporation, and condensation work together to form the water cycle.
- Cycle Graphic Organizer (PDF) from The Big Book of Reproducible Graphic Organizers: 50 Great Templates That Help Kids Get More Out of Reading, Writing, Social Studies, and More! by Dottie Raymer, Jennifer Jacobson. Or use this Cyclical Pattern (PDF) as an alternative.
- Paper for publishing student writing (Note: I use the water/weather sheet from The Big Book of Classroom Stationary but students may also publish on any paper of your choice or by using a word-processing program.)
- Chart paper
- Light blue construction paper
- Two contrasting shades of 9- by 12-inch construction paper
- Tag board
- Scissors
- Markers
- Paper and pencils
Set Up and Prepare
- Gather all trade books you will be using. Preview and read. Make notes you will use for group discussion.
- Print and make enough copies for each student of the Cycle Graphic Organizer printable.
- If you are using backline master stationary for publishing, make enough copies for each student.
- Trace a large raindrop on tag board 6-8 times. Cut out. These raindrops can now be used by the students to trace raindrop shapes onto construction paper. Helpful Hint: Whenever I need to make tracers, I print clip art that I have sized to suit my needs then trace onto the tag board. These raindrops will be used in Part I.
- Gather a sheet of blue construction paper for tracing raindrops for each student.
- Trace a 4-inch long arrow on tag board 8-10 times. Cut out. These arrows can now be used by the students to trace arrow shapes onto construction paper in Part II.
- Gather two contrasting shades of construction paper for tracing arrows for each student.
Day 1
Part I: Getting the Facts Straight
Step 1: Using chart paper or your white board, review with students the facts they already know about water. Record answers. Ask students if they ever think about what happens to water after it falls from the sky or goes down the drain. Discuss the ideas.
Step 2: Tell students you are about to read a book that will give them many facts about water, some that they may already know along with some new ones. Before you read, provide students with notepaper or sticky notes to record facts while they read. Tell them specifically to listen for eight to ten important facts. Read The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks or a similar title of your choice. Afterwards discuss the facts that students have recorded. Write a complete list on chart paper. Below are some examples:
Water Facts
- About 2/3 of your body is made up of water.
- Water is the ONLY thing that can be a liquid, a solid and a gas.
- There is water in the air we are breathing. We can't see it because it is water vapor (a gas.) On humid days, there is a lot of water in the air.
- Clouds are water. The higher up you go, the colder the air is. When water vapor rises, it attaches to dust particles. The cold air makes the vapor form droplets, which hang in the air as a mist. This is a cloud.
- Fog is a cloud that forms near the ground.
- There is exactly the same amount of water on earth now as there was millions of years ago. The water keeps going around and around in the water cycle.
- Less than one-percent of all the water on earth is fresh water that we can drink. Over 99% is salty water or water frozen in glaciers or ice caps.
- Clear water is not always clean water. It can still contain germs that can make you sick until it is purified.
- The first pipes in North America were made of hallowed out logs. Today, water pipes are made of concrete, metal, or plastic.
- Many cities add fluoride to the drinking water to make teeth stronger.
Step 3: Provide students with a tag board raindrop tracer. Have students trace ten drops on blue construction paper then cut out. One water fact should then be written on each raindrop. Students will need to save these to use in Lesson Two.
Day 2
Part II: Building Vocabulary
Step 1: Ask students to tell you words come to mind when they think of water. Write their responses on chart paper or a white board. Have students define each one. Prompt students for words if you think the list is not thorough enough. This list will become your set of vocabulary words you would like students to define and use properly. If necessary, assign additional vocabulary enhancing activities to practice the water words. Below are some examples:
Water Words
- Accumulation: All processes, which include snowfall, condensation, snow transport by wind, and freezing of liquid water, that add snow or ice to a surface.
- Condensation: Water vapor turns to water droplets as it lifts and gets colder. These droplets come together to form clouds. When a cloud has too many water droplets the water returns to the earth as precipitation.
- Evaporation: The heat from the sun or another source causes water to go up in the form of water vapor.
- Ground water: Water that is held in the rocks and soil beneath the surface of the Earth. Ground water feeds wells and springs.
- Precipitation: How water returns to earth. It can be rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
- Purify: When you use a specific process to clean the water. Our drinking water is purified water from the Detroit River.
- Surface run-off: Water always heads for the lowest spot and moves towards oceans, rivers and lakes.
- The Water Cycle: How water keeps going around and around. It evaporates, forms clouds in the sky, then returns to earth again as rain or snow.
- Water pressure: The force of water as it moves through the pipes.
- Water Vapor: Water in the form of gas. Water exists in three phases at the Earth's surface depending on temperature: liquid water, water vapor, and frozen water or ice.
Step 3: Provide students with an arrow-shaped tracer. Have students trace five arrows on one color of construction paper, then five more arrows on a different color of paper. Next, students cut out the arrows and write one word and definition on one side of each arrow. One water word along with its definitions should fit on the front side of each arrow. The back of the arrow should be blank. Have students save these for Lesson Two.
Days 3–5
Part III: Summing Up the Water Cycle
Step 1: Bring your students together in a large group, on the carpet or at their seats. When you have everyone's attention, take an exaggerated drink from your water bottle, cup of coffee, or any liquid you choose. Exclaim, "Wow! That was really fantastic water. It's hard to believe that George Washington might have washed his dirty shirt in that water I just drank!" This comment is sure to capture their attention even more and bring on shouts of "Eww, yuck!" Tell students what you said is true and ask how water from George Washington's time could have possibly made it into your water. Conclude the discussion by emphasizing to students that there is the exact same amount of water on earth today as there was a million years ago. The water keeps being recycled over and over again through the water cycle.
Step 2: Read the The Magic School Bus Wet All Over to the class or choose a similar book of your own. As you read, stop at pertinent points and discuss the different parts of the water cycle. Discuss how precipitation, evaporation, and condensation are related.
Step 3: On chart paper or your board, draw a rolling hill. Invite students to come up one at a time and add to the picture as you direct. For example, ask "Who would like to show precipitation coming down onto my hill? Who would like to add run-off? Who would like to draw condensation?" etc. Ask students to label the following components: precipitation, evaporation, condensation, water vapor, accumulation, run-off, and groundwater. When you have finished modeling the illustration of the water cycle, let students know they will be writing about what they see. If possible, keep this diagram available for Lesson Two.
Step 4: Distribute copies of the Cycle Graphic Organizer to each student. Discuss how the water cycle can be divided into parts. Have students complete the four parts by first describing what the water cycle is, then telling about precipitation, evaporation and condensation.
Step 5: Next, students use the graphic organizer to write a draft of how the water cycle works. Remind students they must use each term that was labeled in the illustration. After writing, provide students with time to revise their summary before meeting with a peer group for more revision and editing.
Step 6: Bring the students back together as a group with their graphic organizers to help them write the beginning sentence. Remind them how the day before you "drank George Washington's water." Tell them to think about whose water they might be using the next time they take a drink. Provide some time to discuss among themselves whose water they might have had. Tell them that if you were writing a paper on the water cycle, you would want a catchy beginning to capture their reader's attention. Help students write their beginning sentence by following this pattern:
- First part of the sentence: Think of something you do with water such as drink, swim, cook, clean, etc.
- Middle of the sentence: Think of a person or event from long ago.
- End of sentence: Think of some way that water was used long ago in relation to the person or the historical event.
Step 7: Instruct students to put the three parts together to come up with one complete, attention grabbing sentence, such as "Can you believe my mom cooked our spaghetti last night in a pot of water that might have come from the iceberg that sank Titanic?" or "Isn't it amazing to think that you may have gone swimming in the same water that dinosaurs once drank?"
Step 8: Once students have written their beginning they can put it together with the completed summary and prepare to publish. Have students publish on a paper of your choice or on the computer. I use backline master stationary or stationary I have created on the computer with a cloud background and thin gray lines. Have students display these published pieces by adding them to the cloud project in Lesson Two.
Supporting All Learners
Appeal to many intelligences and learning styles by showing students how to use the internet to find more information, listen to recordings of water and running rivers, watch video clips that support learning and more. Visual learners will appreciate the diagramming within the lesson. Make sure information you give is always presented in both visual and auditory forms.
Lesson Extensions
To help students visualize the processes involved in the water cycle, students can work in small groups to build three dimensional models. Using a plastic shoe box and modeling clay, direct students to build a hilly landscape that includes lowlands, higher elevations, and a river that runs lengthwise across the box. Students can then use spray bottles to mist their landscape in order to emulate precipitation. Water droplets will run down the clay, fill the river, and accumulate in the low areas. Place the plastic lid on the box and place near a heat source where, over the course of the school day, students will be able to witness the rain condensing on the sides and lid of the box before it "rains" down again.
Home Connection
Keep parents informed of what you are doing in class in science and in all other areas of the curriculum. Ask parents to help with proofreading papers in class and at home.
- Write ten water facts.
- Define ten water words.
- Complete the Cycle Graphic Organizer.
- Write summary of how the water cycle works.
Did students have a clear understanding of how water is used over and over again in the water cycle? Could students differentiate between precipitation, evaporation, and condensation? Were students able to write about the cycle sequentially? Was peer editing effective? Were students using the water vocabulary appropriately? What would you do differently next time?
Lesson Assessment
- Did students come prepared with prior knowledge from previous lessons?
- Were students able to take notes on important facts?
- Were students able to put the steps of the water cycle in sequential order?
- Could students define and use water vocabulary?
- Use a writing rubric to evaluate the completed written report. You can make your own rubric with the Rubric Maker. How did students score on the rubric?


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We just got this notification from Serials Solutions (the provider of our Summon discovery interface).
Note that library searching in MIDCAT will not be affected.
"Downtime Notification for
March 24, 2012
Due to extenuating circumstances, Serials Solutions services will be unavailable to you and your patrons on Saturday, March 24, 2012, starting at 8:00 p.m. EDT in order to implement an emergency upgrade. The service outage will be no more than one hour.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and your patrons."


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When connecting to WebCit, the message "This program was unable to connect or stay connected to the Citadel server. Please report this problem to your system administrator" appears.
The Citadel system consists of several major components. The Citadel server provides an abstracted storage layer and several access protocols such as IMAP and POP3. WebCit provides a web-based user interface that connects to the Citadel server.
Without a working Citadel server, , WebCit is unable to provide you with any more content than this error page. The reason for this might be that citserver is not running; another might be that you configured it to listen to another IP address or port, or if your Citadel server is running on another host, it might not be able to reach it.


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Access denied.
Access to this page has been denied for one of the following reasons:
You are not logged in. Some pages are restricted to users only. To login, fill in the information below. To register,
click here
Your account is closed or not activated. Please contact the Administrator in this case.
You are trying to access a page restricted to certain user groups. You do not have permission to enter this page.
If you have any questions concerning the board or did not receive an activation email ( please wait some minutes for the email to arrive!), feel free to write an E-Mail to
Forgot password?
Encrypt transmission?
Forum Software:
Woltlab Burning Board 2, developed by WoltLab GmbH


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I've tried to set up a VPN server on my copy of Ubuntu 10.10 with insuccess. Community material on the topic is little and poorly documented (clients only information, scenario-specific information, WIP pages, ...)
What I need in specific is tunnelling of traffic over HTTPS to go around a proxy server that only allows HTTP and HTTPS protocols.
What I did try is following this ubuntugeek.com guide. I've gone through each step (here are my config files), set up an account through DynDns.com, set up port forwarding and set up a VPN on my copy of Windows 7:
- Endpoint: redacted
- Username: badp (I also tried delta)
- Password: redacted
I've also turned on logging on the Windows 7 side of things and attempted to connect from an unfiltered location. From the logs, it seems like the connection is dropped right after authentication takes place.
Where did I go wrong? Was there a guide on the Ubuntu official resources I could've tried instead?


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Betty Parise lends her support to the United States Military the best way she can: by baking, informing, and offering other services through a company called Dancing With Cookies.
Betty Parise lends her support to the United States Military the best way she can: by baking, informing, and offering other services through a company called Dancing With Cookies.
A Stoneham resident for the past 25 years, Parise has been sending cookies to countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait since Nov. 7, 2006.
"I've picked a cookie that comes from the Middle East— a cookie that is used to the heat so that it will travel well and withstand the heat when it gets to its destination," explains Parise, referring to the waffle-like pizzelle.But the pizzelle is not the only treat she sends the troops.
"Every soldier gets a letter in addition to the cookies. I didn't put the letter on the Web site because I felt it was personal," she says, referring to her site, sundaysspecialties.com. "It is a very moving letter and I've gotten some nice feedback, [including] cards and pictures. One of the captains sent me the most beautiful letter, which I did put on the Web site, and every time I read it, I cry.
"They get a datebook. It has all the time zones and world maps and important dates for their families. I've shipped about 1,000 so far. I've footed the bill for most of this through donations. We've now become tax exempt."But that's not all.
"We give them a pound of Dunkin' Donuts coffee when we have the funding," adds Parise.
"They also get a BCCC agency brochure. I have set up this agency to deal with all of the credit issues that a lot of our National Guard Soldiers, in particular, are experiencing due to their employer not paying them anymore."
Parise was employed at a string of banks for years, and has often dealt with credit issues.
She welcomes calls from the families of soldiers who are looking to resolve such financial problems.
"I try and get the banks with the lowest fixed rate," she says. "I work with them and make them an offer. I can save [the families] about 40 percent on their balances."
Yet Parise is dealing with her own money struggles in sending out her overseas contributions.
"Everything costs money — the packaging, the cartons, the ingredients, the ink," she explains of the baking and shipping process.
"We haven't had any donations since September of 2007," she says. "I have met all my goals up until this time but now we're at a point where we need funds to continue."
The "we" Parise speaks of refers to a supportive team she has enlisted, including Wes and Marilyn Suszek, Roy and Judy Babb, Capt. Jacqueline Cole and Lt. Mu Kim and Maureen Buckley. These volunteers have worked on everything from shipping to picking up needed items.
"I cant even being to tell you how much I appreciate their help," says Parise. "Without them it never could have been done."
Companies, in addition to individuals, have been assisting Parise's goodwill mission. Although she currently lacks funding, she is grateful for the businesses that have donated in the past. For instance, AC Moore has contributed ribbons that Parise uses to tie up the cookie packages, and BJ's has contributed ingredients.
"I want to thank the PRA, the Polaroid Retiree Association, who was my biggest benefactor last year," having "made the two largest donations that I got," she says.
Because of the aid of such individuals and companies, Parise has been able to send over 90,000 cookies to the Middle East. She works in mass production, baking 2,500 cookies every two days before a shipment goes out.
"It takes an hour to get everything together and two hours to mix it," she says before exclaiming, "No lumpy cookies for my boys!"
The entire endeavor began with a posting in a church bulletin at St Joseph's Parish in Wakefield.
"I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could send [the troops] some cookies too? I've been a baker since I was 11 years old," Parise says. "I've been disabled since 1998 from a car accident and have tried to be a contributor to the community even through I'm disabled. I roll up my sleeves and dig in and start working."
Parise called up a woman by the name of Kathleen McKenna in response to the church bulletin, and together the two crafted their plans.The government subsequently approved the business.
"I saw this as an opportunity to help in a different way. My whole family has been in the service. This is my dedication to my soldiers," she says.
Parise continues, "Sometimes we get a joker card in our lives, but we have to put it aside and do what we can to help out."
To donate, make checks payable to "Dancing with Cookies" and mail to Sunday's Specialties, Stoneham Savings Bank, 359 Main St., Stoneham, MA, 02180, attn: Debbie C. For more information, call 781-438-7424, or visit www.sundaysspecialties.com.
A letter of thanks
Editor's note: Betty Parise received the following letter last week in response to one of her cookie care packages.
To Ms. Betty Parise (The Cookie Lady),
I cannot thank you enough for the cookies you have sent and the happiness that they brought. It meant so much to me and my fellow airmen and soldiers. It was a pleasant surprise in a not-so-pleasant environment and we are truly thankful!
I am part of the Comptroller Squadron (Financial Management Customer Service) for all Air Force personnel here at Balad Air Base, Iraq. We have a customer service orientated mission here so we happily share our cookies with the customers. They loved them! We see many soldiers coming right off the battlefield that come in with finance questions. Needless to say, they also enjoyed the cookies immensely! We also work side-by-side with DOD civilian employees that enjoyed them as well. They too said that the cookies made them feel more at home.
I just wanted to send you a quick note of thanks and appreciation for your dedication and the time you spend just to brighten our days. The joy you bring to all military serving in Iraq is immeasurable and invaluable. You truly are a gift to all of us here and for that we say … "Thank you!" You will always be remembered for your kindness and love. But most importantly, thank you for all your prayers as you are now in our prayers as well … take care, ma'am.
Christopher Hladky, SSGT, USAF
Finance Customer Service
Balad Air Base


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By Elias De Leon and Brian Zhou
Sometimes you achieve something that's significant only to the few people who know just how hard a thing it is to do. In our case, the thing that was hard to do was also hard to see. But in the end — on our second-to-last day of school in June, as our classmates signed yearbooks and talked about summer plans — we did see it. There it was, like a tiny, open mouth calling at us through the microscope. A stomate.
Stomates are tiny holes on the underside of leaves that allow plants to exchange gases with the air around them – exhaling oxygen and water vapor and inhaling carbon dioxide. They're as common to plants as mouths are to mammals. Only more so, since a single leaf can contain hundreds of thousands of stomates. But what was so uncommon about the stomate under our microscope was its age: about 15 million years old.
Also unusual in this context is our age. We are both teenagers, recently graduating seniors at Brooklyn Technical High School where this past school year we took a class called Environmental Inquiry. Neither of us had much hands-on research experience, but with the guidance of our teacher, John Cunningham, our study is truly cutting-edge. It may even help to advance the emerging field of paleoclimatology.
A big part of studying global warming is comparing today's climate to that of the past. If you've ever seen the movie An Inconvenient Truth, you'd recognize a chart that shows how carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have fluctuated along with global temperatures. You may recall that climatologists got those historic CO2 measurements from bubbles of air trapped in the ice of very old glaciers. But those ice core samples go back only 650,000 years. What we're trying to do is extend that timeline much further back into the past.
In theory, our experiment is easy to grasp. Researchers have evidence that, for many plants, the number of stomates per leaf changes in response to how much carbon is in the air. By comparing modern leaves to leaves preserved in 15-million-year-old clay deposits, we can estimate how much CO2 was in the air when the ancient leaves were alive. It's like solving a simple algebra problem.
The not-so-simple part is getting a good look at the stomates of the preserved leaves in order to count them. For one thing, the leaves are extremely delicate. To view the lower epidermis of living leaves, we simply painted the leaf's underside with nail polish, covered it with cellophane tape when it dried, and peeled off an imprint that clearly showed each stomate under the microscope. Using the peel method on an ancient leaf destroys it.
The leaves are also rare. They were sent to us by a professor of paleobotany at the University of Idaho named William Rember, who dug them out of his backyard pit near Clarkia, Idaho. During the Miocene epoch, when strange-looking mammals like the hornless rhino and the three-toed horse roamed North America, much of Idaho was underneath a large lake whose oxygen-deprived clay bottom mummified the leaves that fell into it. There are few sites in the world with such well-preserved leaves. (Mr. Cunningham calls it a "Shangri-La" for Miocene "mummies.") So while we found the nail polish-tape technique for fresh leaves after a quick Google search, there are few documented procedures to observe the stomates of Miocene leaves.
At least not with the materials at our disposal. For a high school, we have a top-of-the-line laboratory at Brooklyn Tech. But because we're high school students, we're forbidden from handling hydrofluoric acid, which according to other studies will reliably separate a mummy's epidermis from the rest of the leaf. So we had to experiment with other chemicals.
First we tried soaking a leaf overnight in a dish of hydrogen peroxide. The next morning, it was destroyed — nothing but floating debris by the naked eye and indistinguishable cellular bits under the microscope. We adjusted the length of time and the strength of the peroxide. None of them worked – the solution either destroyed the leaves or had no effect on them.
Usually, the science experiments teachers assign us work perfectly. You get a lab sheet with the exact measurements of the chemicals you need to use and an estimate down to the minute of how long the procedure should last. It's like a tried and true cooking recipe. And it almost always gets you the result and the conclusion you (and, more importantly, the teacher) expects. All over the course of a single lab period. Two periods, max.
Our experiment took much longer: four months of trial and error with different chemical solutions and different lengths of time, diligently recording every step but never catching a glimpse of a Miocene stomate. We pushed on. But with each day closer to the end of the school year we began suspecting that we'd never get past our study's Materials and Methods section to its Results.
Then a last-minute surprise. Mr. Cunningham got a tip that Clorox bleach might work, and during the last week of class we started experimenting with it. Ten minutes after dropping a piece of leaf into a test tube of undiluted bleach, a white piece of debris floated to the top. We pulled it out with tweezers, placed it in distilled water and then on a glass slide. It was a lot lighter in color than the previous debris we'd put under the microscope. We turned the side knob and it slowly came into focus…
Ultimately, we ran out of time to do the modern leaf-ancient leaf comparison that could have added a 15-million-year mark on the timeline of the Earth's CO2 levels. But what might look anticlimactic to some, was a triumph for us. We started from scratch on this research and we took it as far as we could so that next year's Environmental Inquiry class can go further. They'll have a guideline to the nitty-gritty of how climate science gets done and the methods they'll need to get the results. And, we hope, the knowledge that when you finally do get them, it's pretty satisfying.
More Info:
Youth Radio Investigates is an NSF-supported science reporting series in which young journalists collect and analyze original data with professional scientists, and then tell unexpected stories about what they discover. Check out more from Youth Radio's science desk here.
For more Youth Radio Investigates stories on Turnstyle News, a project of Youth Radio, check out:
You Can Lead a Kid to Water
My Brain on Ads


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James Murdoch is arguably the most important man ensnared in the phone hacking scandal, at least so far. Although not as powerful in the Murdoch empire as his father, Rupert, James was the chair at both News International and BSkyB, though he has since stepped down from both positions. His role at News International is particularly key, as he served as the chairman while the phone hacking was happening at News of the World, a newspaper under News International's corporate umbrella.
James has consistently denied any knowledge of the phone hacking and has not been charged with any crimes in relation to the scandal. But during April 24 testimony before the Leveson inquiry, the body investigating the phone hacking scandal, investigators released several dozen emails that appear to show inappropriate communications between Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt of David Cameron's government and News Corp. Mr. Hunt appears to have regularly provided News Corp and James with backchannel information about the government review of News Corp.'s attempt to purchase BSkyB – a review that Hunt was supposed to be impartially adjudicating.
James is also close friends with Rebekah Brooks, former News International CEO, who is the highest level News Corp. official arrested so far in connection with the scandal.


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Page One
Isolation, Displacement and Disenfranchisement—What Berkeley Misses (Personal Essay)
I live in Berkeley, California. Yes, that Berkeley. I have long hair. I don't often wear tie-dye t-shirts anymore but I think I still own some. I think everyone who lives in my apartment building is college educated or close to it. The public schools are said to be pretty good. There is a very large, very well maintained public park nearby and kids' leagues from surrounding cities come to make use of the two well groomed baseball diamonds. (The tennis courts, tot playground, community center, picnic areas, recently resurfaced basketball courts and unofficial but tolerated off-hours dog park are also very popular.) Our City Council on Tuesday took up a resolution against allowing civilian or law enforcement drones here—an item put forth by the "Peace and Justice" council-appointed citizen's commission. That commission is one of many citizen commissions that operate with funded support from city staff and help to create and shape local public policy. While my block and neighborhood are high on the list of poorest, relative to the rest of the city, the city as a whole is very affluent. By population I think we are about 4 times larger than Newtown and by land area we are almost 6 times smaller. One of the most bitter battles in the recent election was a narrowly decided zoning issue regarding our light industrial zone (and its possible up-zoning).
I live right next to one of the murder capitals in the US., Oakland California. I can walk a few blocks to a famous "gang injunction" area — a court-ordered stay-away zone and do-not-associate-with-one-another zone for a bunch of named gang members. A few months ago a fellow was murdered (outside the zone) about 2.5 blocks from here (in Berkeley) near the corner store and next to the community's non-profit organic nursery. Rumor had it that that was a case of mistaken identity. A couple of years ago I covered, for a local news outlet, a murder even closer than that. I got to that crime scene early on in the event because I had my window open and heard the multiple-10s of shots, in well under a minute, with only perhaps two or three shooters, using weapons that would not be prohibited by Diane Feinstein's bill. There was a teen there at the scene who acted kind of weird around me once I was recognized to be press and, I'm not sure it's the same guy, but I think he was the kid killed a few weeks later in a shooting that the police decided was an accident. I can give you a rough idea of where, nearby, you can buy a few hours alone in a motel room with an adolescent child, if you are so inclined.
What remains of the local press is increasingly afraid to venture into Oakland because a resale market exists for high-end cameras and video cameras such as the one that was recently stolen from a TV news station during a live broadcast from a public high school. "Someone is going to get shot and the funeral won't be mine," said one photojournalist to explain why he was refusing to go cover any more stories in Oakland where, in fact, people get shot all the time. Generally speaking the Oakland police department no longer responds to or investigates home burglaries and the like, although they maintain a web site where you can file a police report for insurance purposes. Indeed, in Oakland the son of Willie Brown (former mayor of San Francisco and former state assembly speaker) came home to observe burglars in his home — who took their time finishing the job and leaving well before the police sent a squad car to take the report. I have neighbors whose main response to this kind of thing is to try to engage in collective punishment, suing and harassing black families and businesses out of town. Did I mention that the Oakland police department has recently been put under the control of a federal-court-appointed official because of its repeated failures to correct its tendency to act like just another street gang, shaking down and beating up and murdering and such?
Again: I'm talking about Berkeley and the Bay Area. You know, "The Graduate", vegan food, Chez Panisse, and Silicon Valley. Some of you have probably been here on business and had very nice meals and some good wine. Perhaps you caught some theater or took a drive along the coast.
Berkeley is increasingly awash in (mostly white) economically displaced young people — many of whom aged out of foster care and were dumped off on the street. Word is that the whole coast is lit up with this growing demographic of very angry, permanently displaced young people — many quite smart and not especially crazy — who simply no longer believe in the legitimacy of government or straight society. They don't see many ways to live without enduring the gratuitous violence of the more privileged and they're increasingly consciousness-raised about that. The town's swells are trying hard to harass and legislate them out of town — so we'll look more like Palo Alto, I guess, in spite of having little in common besides the dual presences of a lot of money and an institution with "University" as part of its name.
I've been directly engaged in two mental health crises right on my street. One was an impoverished single mom who the community could no longer prop up to get past her episodes of standing and shouting out to Jesus for hours on end. I only knew one of her boys... perhaps 6 or so ... from holding his head in my lap while he hoped to avoid another beating. I wound up praising and encouraging his late developing ability to add numbers less than 10 together. He was keen to show them off. He'd seen something like it in school, I gathered. He illustrated his reasoning with some rocks off the ground. In another case there was the 30-something woman, nearly catatonic most of the time, kept as a latchkey child by a mother who knew all too well what the public options were. When her mother's care faltered, and the disabled woman spent months living in a feces-filled apartment, roaming the street from time to time in her feces-covered clothes, dropping weight to the point she looked on death's door —- when that happened it took all of those months from the first sign of trouble for me to coordinate the public agencies enough that they felt they could legally act.
I have great respect for how badly the Newtown tragedy makes everyone, including me, feel. It is a struggle — and I do try — to have any respect at all for the kind of "gun control!" or "more gov't spending on mental health!" responses and rhetoric. I want to say, frankly, those responses come from a perspective that is not situationally aware. It is a harsh thought but I keep coming back to my perception that economic and racial and gender privilege — combined with the specific technological and cultural organization of our time — has left so many of us without a freaking clue about what the state of the world is. It's so easy to isolate ourselves. To go live in a nice neighborhood. To maintain the illusion of worldliness by developing a keen familiarity with the airport corridors and fine hotels and restaurants of major cities around the world. To eat from menus that vaguely refer to what used to be a practical diet, and call it rustic. To support (passively or actively) the school district that wants to drive out the problematic kid (as in this Newtown case). To feebly entrust to Diane Feinstein our political response to a tragedy. To throw more money at mental health agencies on the assumption its their job to make the problems just magically disappear. It's just rent on our personal islands, right?
The powerful in this country — and relatively speaking that's us — treat all this dysfunction as an inconvenience. We look to government or mental health institutions or institutions of education to please just go ahead and implement some policies and make all these displaced, angry, violent, dead-ended, rejected, ostracized people disappear from sight. When, as in Newtown, white privileged society, with its predilection for exclusions and expulsions starts manufacturing maniacs of its own the liberals can't decide if its better to step up the elitism with gun regulations or state-operated mental health regulations but either way the gist is the same: to try to answer the symptoms of isolation, displacement, and disenfranchisement by making the barriers of exclusion harsher. Hey, maybe it's not just an outrageous distribution of income disparity we suffer in this country but an outrageous distribution of attention and community.


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California's Water‐Liu
Over the last year and a half, I've blogged many times about Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, the controversial nominee to the Ninth Circuit, the federal appellate court with jurisdiction over the western states and territories. Here's an op‐ed I published in the wake of that nomination — which happened to coincide with Obamacare's enactment. And here's a taste of what I wrote when Republicans filibustered Liu, which ultimately led him to withdraw:
I'm not going to weigh in here on the issue of whether judicial nominees ought to be filibustered in general … but if ever there were an "extraordinary circumstance" fitting into the Gang of 14 agreement that broke the judicial logjam under President Bush, this is it.
As I blogged last year, Liu is, without exaggeration, the most radical nominee to any position that President Obama has made. He believes in constitutional positive rights — not that the welfare state and all its accompanying entitlements (and then some) are a good idea, but that they are constitutionally required.
Well, today Liu finally reached the bench, being confirmed to the California Supreme Court. This is an unfortunate development for the citizens of California, to be sure, but, as I tweeted earlier today, at least Liu's damage will be limited to that irredeemable state.
Of course, a state supreme court justice may be an attractive choice for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, particularly given that we haven't had a state jurist appointed since President Reagan tapped Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981. And Liu would be the first Asian‐American on the highest court in the land, which could further tempt Barack Obama or a future Democratic president to select him. Such are the stakes for every presidential election until the 40‐year‐old Liu is deemed too old for elevation.


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Celebrating 40 years of scientific excellence
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) turns 40
Heidelberg, 18 June 2004 - The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) this weekend celebrated its 40th anniversary. Leading scientists from all over Europe – amongst them 5 Nobel Laureates and GlaxoSmithKline Senior Vice President of Discovery Research – flew in to EMBO's Heidelberg base in Germany to take part in the celebrations; all of them honoured EMBO members. Many more sent messages of congratulations.adidas
Set high on the hill above Heidelberg, its home since 1973, EMBO has come a long way since its foundation in 1964. Now the leading life sciences organisation in Europe with around 1200 members, EMBO has stayed true to the vision of its early founders. Dedicated to promoting the life sciences in Europe, the organisation supports scientists young and old in their work. An example of EMBO's early impact was its establishment of the well-known European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in 1974.
Many of EMBO's current initiatives were showcased at the anniversary meeting, but the event also gave the opportunity to look back at the early days of EMBO and scientific advances in which many of its members have had a hand. Five of EMBO's 36 Nobel Laureate members attended the event and gave talks on their research.
Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard, Director of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen and 1995 Nobel Laureate in Medicine, spoke of EMBO's role in her career. An EMBO fellowship in 1975 enabled the biologist to pursue her research in Basel, Switzerland. Nuesslein-Volhard described EMBO as "an organisation with enormous impact on the advancement of biological sciences." On a personal note Nuesslein-Volhard added, "EMBO was a great source of support to me, at a time when I was getting little help from elsewhere."
Today, EMBO runs a number of programmes that support scientists both financially and academically. Fellowships, courses and workshops provide training to scientists at all stages of their career. The Young Investigator Programme backs young scientists in the first difficult years after establishing their own research laboratories. The Science & Society Programme promotes a closer link between scientists and the general public, providing various workshops and activities, particularly for teachers, to encourage open communication and exchange. On November 5 – 6 2004, EMBO and EMBL will jointly host their annual public meeting on Science & Society, with this year's discussions centring on time and ageing.
For Frank Gannon, Executive Director of EMBO, the event was particularly satisfying. "The discussions that engaged the founding EMBO members and all subsequent generations of scientists showed that EMBO today has a major impact on European science – and that is a real reason for celebration. Now EMBO looks forward to new challenges and continued success."


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Would Obama Veto SOPA? Extremely Doubtful
from the too-much-money deptI usually like the work of Arik Hesseldahl, who's pretty sharp in his reporting, but it appears he may have waded into a subject where he doesn't have much knowledge, in arguing that Obama would likely veto SOPA should it pass out of Congress and land on his desk. Arik's summary is that Obama "likes the internet," so he'd probably veto such an anti-internet bill. No offense to Arik, who perhaps just wanted a quick holiday post on the subject, but that shows little understanding of the history of Obama on intellectual property issues, or the many, many signals that the administration has been giving over the bill. In fact, the signals suggest pretty strongly that if the bill landed on his desk today, President Obama would sign it into law with little hesitation -- and declare it a victory for the economy and American jobs.
No doubt: there is a significant split inside the administration from everything we've heard. Much of the State Department is strenuously opposed to the bill, knowing darn well that it would do significant harm to their efforts to push internet freedom and openness around the globe. SOPA supporters love to point to the letter that Hillary Clinton sent to Rep. Howard Berman about how there's no conflict about protecting intellectual property and working for internet freedom. But they're significantly overplaying the letter, which was written before SOPA came out and didn't mention SOPA at all. In fact, it would be a hilariously bad breach of standard protocol for Clinton to take a position on a bill before the White House made its official position clear, and everyone involved in the debate knows that, even if they pretend otherwise. Either way, multiple sources within the State Department have made it abundantly clear that State has been putting tremendous pressure on people to either fix SOPA or kill it altogether. They're not happy. Ditto for many in the Commerce Department, who see how bad it would be for the economy to have a bill like SOPA in place. The feelings there aren't quite as strong as at State, but they definitely appear to lean towards opposed (or, at the very least, neutral).
There are also voices in both Homeland Security and the Defense Department who are worried about the online security aspects as a part of the DNS blocking features of the bill. Of course, those voices are likely outweighed by those who like the ability to shut down domains -- such as ICE, who would gladly support SOPA. The Justice Department, also, appears to be a huge, huge, huge supporter of SOPA, seeing as it would give them much greater powers to shut down websites.
Then, of course, there's the White House itself. And, again, there appears to be a bit of a mix of feelings there, but the leaning definitely appears to be towards supporting the bill. Throughout his administration, the President has left almost all intellectual property issues up to Vice President Joe Biden, who has been about as big a copyright maximalist as can be. He's the guy who claimed that the heads of the biggest entertainment companies represented "all the stake holders" (public be damned) in a roundtable about intellectual property that he convened two years ago -- from which the ideas behind SOPA and PIPA came. It's safe to assume that he's totally on board with the bills, and since Obama defers to him on these issues, you can expect this issue is pretty much decided. There are a few others in the White House who may weigh in on the subject, including IP Czar Victoria Espinel. Again, the likely guess is that she's in favor, having supported the plan to seize domains which is related to SOPA & PIPA. Others in the White House include the CTO, Aneesh Chopra, who hasn't given much of an indication of where he'd fall on the issue, but has supported open internet initiatives in the past. If I had to guess, I'd say he's mildly against the plans, but not enough to make a big deal about it. If anything, he'd probably prefer that the bill be adjusted to make it slightly more palatable and then have it pass and be signed.
Finally, there's Obama himself. Heading into what may be a difficult election year, and dependent on money from Hollywood and unions (the big Democratic funders), this is an easy call. He'd sign it in a heartbeat. Any bill that has the support of the MPAA and the AFL-CIO is red meat for him when it comes to fundraising. The whole "loves the internet" thing is great... if the internet donates. The internet was certainly useful to Obama in the primaries last time around, but when it comes to the big fight, he needs the big guns. So he's looking for the big cats, and those still support the bill in a big, bad way. If you want a blueprint for how this works, just look at how he signed the patent reform bill a few months ago, despite widespread complaints among the tech industry about how the patent system was totally broken and the bill didn't help at all. He still signed it and declared (incorrectly) that it would stimulate new jobs. He'd do the exact same thing here. Sign it, point to the AFL-CIO and US Chamber of Commerce support and talk about how this was a "jobs bill" that would "help the economy" by "protecting American jobs." The internet? Meh. No one cares about the internet when Hollywood and the unions have checkbooks open.
The only way that changes is if SOPA and PIPA become so toxic that any support is seen as career suicide -- and if that's the case, then the bill itself probably doesn't get out of Congress to get on his desk in the first place. Getting GoDaddy to switch positions is one thing. Getting these bills to the toxic level is a whole different ballgame, and we're certainly not there yet. For those celebrating the "victory" over GoDaddy last week, this fight is far, far, far from over, and the MPAA and the other supporters of SOPA don't give up easily. Both SOPA and PIPA are dangerous in the extreme, and still have a decent chance of passing, if people don't speak up directly to the politicians who continue to support these bills.
Filed Under: joe biden, pipa, president obama, protect ip, sopa, veto, white house


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(Application Notices, Requests for Comment, etc.)
In addition to basic text, some of these documents are also available in portable document format (PDF). In order to read PDF documents, you will need to have an Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. For information about how to download the Acrobat Reader free of charge, please visit the Adobe web site.
Please note that the PDF files may include forms and exhibits omitted from the text version. Documents available in PDF format are denoted with the Download icon:
June 29, 1998
- Notice Inviting Applications for New Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers for Fiscal Year (FY) 1998, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (Final Priorities Notice in Final Rules Section) [OSERS] (35K text, 1.2M pdf)
June 26, 1998
- Federal Pell Grant Program; Notice of deadline dates for receipt of applications, reports, and other documents for the 1998-99 award year [OPE] (23K)
June 25, 1998
- Application Deadline Date Extension for Notice Inviting Applications from local educational agencies in Oklahoma and Montana for fiscal year 1997 and 1998 funds under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. CFDA 84.317 [OESE]
June 23, 1998
- National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; Notice Inviting Applications for New Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers for Fiscal Year (FY)1998[OSERS]
June 19, 1998
- National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research: Reinviting Applications and Pre-application Meeting for a New Award for a Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Fiscal Year 1998[OSERS]
June 18, 1998
- National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research: Applications Invitation for New Awards Under Certain Programs [OSERS]
June 17, 1998
- Notice of funding level for FY 1998 consortium incentive grants available under Part C of Title of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1995 [OESE]
June 16, 1998
- Notice of the closing date for institutions that participate in the Federal Work-Study (FWS) Program to submit the Campus-Based Reallocation Form (ED Form E40-4P)[OPE]
- Arbitration Panel Decision Under the Randolph-Sheppard Act[OSERS]
June 12, 1998
- Notice Inviting Applications for New Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers and New Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers for Fiscal Year 1998 (NIDRR). CFDA 84.133B & 84.133E [OSERS] (44K TEXT, 1.3M PDF)
- American Overseas Research Centers (AORC) Program; Notice Inviting New Awards For Fiscal Year (FY) 1998. CFDA 84.274A. [OPE]
June 3, 1998
- Individual With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Special Education-- Technology and Media Services for Individuals With Disabilities [OSERS]
June 1, 1998
- Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program[OESE]
- Notice of Revision of the Need Analysis Methodology for the 1999-2000 Award Year[OPE]
May 27, 1998
May 19, 1998
May 18, 1998
- Special Education: State Program Improvement Grants Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 [OSERS] (83K) **** NOTE: Contact Info was left out of notice. The contact person is Larry Wexler, T-(202) 205-5390; Email: email@example.com *****
May 12, 1998
- Application; Centers for Independent Living; [OSERS]
- Application; Even Start Family Literacy Program for Federally Recognized Indian Tribes and Tribal Organizations[OESE]
May 11, 1998
- Disability and Rehabilitation Research Project and Centers Program for Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 [OSERS]
May 5, 1998
May 4, 1998
April 29, 1998
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Program; To conduct the sampling and data collection component for the 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. [OERI]
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Program; To conduct the development, scoring, analysis, and reporting component for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 [OERI]
April 23, 1998
April 16, 1998
April 15, 1998
- Notice Reinviting Applications and Pre-application Meetings for New Awards for a Dissemination and Utilization (D&U) Project and a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) for Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 [OSERS]
- Grants to States for Workplace and Community Transition Training for Incarcerated Youth Offenders Program [OVAE]
April 9, 1998
- Comprehensive Local Reform Assistance; Notice Inviting Applications From Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) in Montana and Oklahoma for New Awards With Fiscal Year (FY) 1997 and 1998 Goals 2000 Funds [OESE]. (IMPORTANT NOTE ON THE PDF DOCUMENT - There is an error on the instructions for Part III: Application Narrative on pages 17639 - 17640, paragraphs 3 - 6. Those instructions do not apply to this program. A corrective notice will be issued.)
April 1, 1998
- Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)-- Special Focus Competition: Disseminating Proven Reforms [OPE]
Announcements from:1998: January - March.
1997: January - March; April - June; July - September; October - December .
1996: January - March; April - June; July - September; October - December.
1995: October - December.
Last Modified: 07/11/2006


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Example: Xe'la'rala'sidekhir rijaku'het.
1S-PST-PASS-reach sign.
I received the sign / torch.
Yes, there is a term for to receive in rejistanian. But for some odd reason, 'rijaku in the passive sounded better than 'vaku here. I am not sure why as it is a bit longer, so I will just hide behind the idea of aesthetic preferences. For an artlang, that is a sufficient reason.
'rijaku is partly synonymous to 'vetix since both terms imply giving a message. However, the difference is (or could be since sometimes rejistanian surprises and confuses even me) that 'rijaku can also be used for the action of a human. It is also used for signs. A rijaku'het is a sign, a token, and in conlang relay terms, a torch. Token ring would be anux'het rijaku.
Speaking about it. My email provider has become a PITA and rejected my password continuously so that I had to reactivate an ancient email address to reset my password. This took the better part of the evening. Thus, I will translate the torch tomorrow.


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Learn how to make money with Bitcoin and every other cryptocurrency (Ethereum , Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Bitcoin Cash...). Best Methods, Tutorials & Bitcoin mining tools & softwares available as well.


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Sound Selections
All of the Jam's Multi-Pedal effects sound exceptional.The Dyna-ssor was especially good with a humbucker and a little distortion The manual states it can be used as a typical squash-type compressor or as a sustainer. I preferred it for the latter and it worked exceedingly well with the exception of having a somewhat limited boost capability.
The TubeDreamer+ overdrive is next in line and of the handful of Tube Screamer inspired pedals I have played through, it was the best by far. The effect is controlled by three knobs—Level, Tone, and Gain. As mentioned previously, this stomper also has an additional High Gain footswitch that kicks in some beef and fuzz. This overdrive effect gave me great sustain that faded out well at higher Gain settings, and I found the tone richer overall and more harmonically complex than the pedal that inspired it. Used with a humbucker, it was super-crunchy with plenty of bite. And it is a great effect for players who need a tone that punches through thick mixes. The highs can border on brittle, but could also be tamed by the Tone knob. And there was no discernable addition or subtraction to my guitar's bottom end.
Used in conjunction with the Dyna-ssor, this pedal gave a really aggressive tuneful overdriven sound that worked great for lead and rhythm. The High Gain switch is a nice addition on the Tube Screamer theme, and it took the pedal into creamy distortion zones beyond what typical overdrive pedals deliver.
The Delay Llama is third in line. The control set is a familiar and easy-to-navigate set of knobs for repeats, time, and level or mix. With a max delay time of 600ms, repeats range from slapback to sci-fi sound regeneration. If you remove the bottom plate of the unit you can access an internal pot that allows you to adjust the max delay repeats—a very useful addition. The Delay Llama uses faithful reproductions of the classic Panasonic MN3205 IC chip. And indeed, the pedal sounded like a vintage BBD-style delay that was mint-in-the-box and not beat to crap from decades on the road. Like the TubeDreamer+ and the Dyna-ssor, the Delay Llama was quiet and about as noise free as you can get from an analog stomper. The Verdict
The Verdict
All in all, the Multi-Pedal provides extremely faithful reproductions of classic delays, overdrives, and compressors. Like all Jam Pedals, it's very well crafted. At $500, it is reasonably priced for a boutique handmade multi-effect pedal. It provides excellent takes on vintage circuits that could fetch that much or more if purchased individually, with the bonus that if these three aren't the effects you're looking for, can have Jam tailor one more specifically to your needs. For the player that knows what they like and prefers vintage over digital, the Jam Multi-Pedal concept is one that, in terms of ease and tone, really works.
Buy if...
you want faithful but improved replication of vintage stompbox delay, overdrive and compression, and you demand style.
Skip if...
you like the ability to swap pedals in and out and don't really care about one-of-kind graphics.
Street $500 - Jam Pedals - jampedals.com


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查看最新之服務資訊 商品進口時將會收取關稅
Henrik Orre spends his day job creating a nutritionally ideal diet for the riders of Team Sky. In his second book he takes the reader away from the grand tours to visit some of the most cycling-friendly locations in the world - Mallorca, Nice, Girona and Lombardy - creating recipes from locally-sourced produce as well as offering an insight to each area and the type of cycling you can expect. On his travels Henrik also meets personalities from the sport, from professional riders to those who simply love cycling.
Along with 80 recipes, Velochef in Europe offers descriptions of the key cycling landmarks and climbs as well as interviews and incredible photography in a full-colour, hardback publication. You will also discover tips on the essentials to take on your travels - both for the bike and the kitchen.
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感謝您詢問Velo Chef Book 2有貨時我們將通知您。
US Dollars


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Usher Opens Up About Justin Bieber's Troublesby Michelle McGahan | PopCrush
Usher has opened up about mentoring Justin Bieber in the June/July 2014 issue of NYLON Guys magazine.
Gracing the cover in a white, paint-streaked sweater, Usher talked candidly to the magazine about the advice he has given to Bieber amidst a year full of troubles that include a DUI, multiple paparazzi assault lawsuits, allegedly egging a neighbor's home, and most recently, being the subject of two highly controversial, racist videos (though this interview was most likely conducted prior to the release of these clips).
"I gave every bit of advice and always told him it was up to him if he really wanted this. Now that he has it, as an adult, it's his to manage," Usher reportedly told the mag (quotes via PEOPLE). "Do I turn my head in shame based off of what I see, what I know? Nah, I don't because it's all part of life's process. Am I in it with him? Yeah."
But just because he's "in it with him" doesn't mean he approves of Bieber's behavior.
"It's unfortunate. I hate some of the things I hear. Is it all true? I don't know," he said about the 20-year-old pop star's antics. "But I will tell you this: Success comes with a price. Every person that has grown up, grows up with something. It ain't just perfect from the beginning."
And Usher should know, revealing that he was mentored under P. Diddy at the age of 15 — a process that helped mold him into who he is as an artist.
"Artistic development made me who I am," he said. "Somebody took the time to help me find what it is that works for me as an entertainer and who I am as a music maker."
The 35-year-old 'Voice' judge, who is set to play the titular character in an upcoming Sugar Ray Leonard biopic, also revealed that he takes his fan's reactions to his music seriously.
"In all honesty, I give one s—. I do hear them — that's why I say one s—. I do give a s—, but not two s—. Two s—-s is a lot," he told the magazine of his fans. "I care enough to make sure they understand that I'm making it for them, but I've got to be true to where I am."


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PS4 News: Sony Plans to Showcase 40 New Games at E3
The latest PS4 news points to Sony showcasing over 40 new games for the system at this year's E3 conference.
The company's social media manager, Sid Schuman, wrote on the company's blog that those at E3 will get a first look at many hot titles for the console including, Beyond: Two Souls, Destiny, DriveClub, The Evil Within, Gran Turismo 6, Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, The Last of Us, Tearaway, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and many more.
Sony also plans on revealing more information about the actual PlayStation 4 gaming console during next month's E3.
Microsoft marketed its new Xbox One as an all-in-one entertainment system that encompasses gaming, movies, television and online communication between players. Sony's strategy for releasing the top console for this generation will be a bit more basic, according to the company's CEO Kaz Hirai.
"The most important thing we need to make sure we do, at least initially, is that we all agree and understand that the PS4 is a great video game console that appeals to gamers," said Hirai. "If we miss that part than I don't think we get the initial establishment of the console."
However, Sony still plans to implement other features in order to appease those looking for the all-in-one experience. But the company did not reveal how it will do this yet.
"We take a look at this first and foremost as a game console," said Hirai. "We don't want to end there. That's an area we will obviously reveal and talk about in the coming months."
Sony will reveal more about the extras on the PS4 at E3, which takes place for July 11-13 in the Los Angeles Convention Center.


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Quark named to the KMWorld 100 once again! The 2019 KMWorld 100 represents the 100 companies focused on turning data and information into actionable insight that has real business value. Quark is recognized for solutions for Content Automation and Sales Enablement.
Docurated became one of the first sales enablement solutoins to be certified for the Vendor Neutral Certified 100. Vendor Neutral is the advisory firm that guides organizations during the SalesTech selection process. The Certified 100 is based on analysis of solutions that meet the sales enablement requirements of today's buyers.
Quark was named to the EContent 100 2018/2019, the list of leaders in content solutions that enable the creation, management and delivery of digital content. Quark is recognized as a leader in content services for its innovation in content automation.
The KMWorld 100 is a list of companies that matter most in knowledge management. In 2018 Quark was named to the list for its leadership and innovation in content automation and the increasing adoption of the Quark Content Automation Platform.
Quark won the CODiE Award for Best Multi-Channel Publishing Platform. The CODiE Awards, given by the SIIA (Software and Information Industry Association), recognize the companies producing the most innovative business technology products around the world.
Enterprise content management (ECM) continues to evolve into an emerging category called Content Services. In its first ever Cool Vendors in Content Services report , Gartner named Quark one of four vendors who display "innovative offerings in the realms of content creation, automation, integration and protection."
Quark was named to the EContent 100, an annual list of the companies that represent the cutting edge of creating, delivering, and monetizing digital content. Quark was recognized for its content automation platform.
For the third consecutive year, Quark made the list of the Top 100 Digital Companies in Colorado. The list, compiled by Built In Colorado, reflects Colorado's diverse tech landscape — from cybersecurity and consumer mobile apps, to enterprise software and digital agencies.
SIIA (the Software and Information Industry Association) named Quark Enterprise Solutions a CODiE Award finalist for Best Multi-Channel Publishing Platform or Service.
Quark named one of 30 Fastest Growing Companies in the enterprise software market by SiliconIndia. The publication attributes Quark's growth to the significant adoption of content automation.
EContent magazine named Quark to the EContent 100, a list featuring the top 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry. Quark earned a spot on the list for its content automation solutions.
Built in Colorado, a community of tech entrepreneurs and innovators headquartered in CO, named Quark Software Inc. one of the top 100 digital employers in the state.
From a field of nearly 40 vendors, Frost & Sullivan awarded Quark the firm's prestigious Competitive Strategy & Innovation Leadership Award for Dynamic Publishing Solutions.
Macworld named Quark DesignPad the iOS App of the Year.
Quark was named a finalist in the UK IT Industry Awards for Business IT Innovation of the Year for the development of its HTML5 solution for the creation of Web apps.
Quark Software Inc. was named one of the 10 Most Promising Enterprise Software & Solutions Companies globally by SiliconIndia magazine. The report notes that "What separates Quark from other players is its ability to provide end-to-end solutions from content creation straight through to delivery."
The Colorado Technology Association named Quark an APEX Award nominee for Technology Project of the Year for both innovation in cloud technology and digital publishing.
Each year EContent magazine names the top 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry. Quark has become a staple on the annual list.
Quark Publishing Platform won the Top Product Award from Quick Printing Magazine for the Design Software category.


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If your first thought upon seeing this cover was, "How crass! I will most certainly not be reading this publication," then the art director at Orange County's Where magazine has successfully convinced you that an art director's job is way harder that it looks. I mean, magazine covers tend to have heads and body parts flying in between letters and words and though it's imperative that never the twain shall meet, at least in this instance, they have met, and in a tragically awkward way. According to AdWeek, this very same "whore" debacle happened earlier this year to Where's Milan edition, which means that someone is using the malleability of lowercase "e" to have a little jest, or the people in charge of such things at Where are treating the demise of print journalism like the consequence-free last twenty minutes before an asteroid slams into the corn belt.
'Where' Magazine Becomes 'Whore' Magazine Thanks to Art Director Fail [AdWeek]


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Guthrie, Royals shut down Athletics
Kansas City, MO – Jeremy Guthrie hurled seven scoreless innings and the Kansas City Royals used a five-run fifth to dispatch the Oakland Athletics, 5-0, in the opener of a three-game set.
Guthrie (2-3) scattered three hits and walked two while striking out eight to earn his second consecutive win. He's thrown 15 scoreless innings over his last two starts.
"(In) both I want to go out there and pound the (strike) zone and get ahead of guys," Guthrie said. "Finish them off and not make mistakes. That's been the key in the last two starts."
Billy Butler, Chris Getz, Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar drove in a run each for the Royals, who have won five of their last seven.
Jarrod Parker (7-7) was charged with five hits and five runs -- all but one earned -- over 4 2/3 innings for the Athletics, who have lost six of nine.
Parker held the fort for the first four innings, but the floodgates opened in the fifth.
Salvador Perez worked a leadoff walk, Jeff Francoeur followed with a double to put two in scoring position and Hosmer singled home Perez. Lorenzo Cain walked to load the bases, then a Getz sacrifice fly to right plated Francoeur, Gordon singled home Hosmer and Escobar's grounder to second -- which was booted by Jemile Weeks -- brought in Cain and left Gordon at third before Butler's fly to center capped the rally.
"I just got behind on a couple guys and they hurt me then," Parker said. "It's something I can't really do. It's inexcusable to put guys on after attacking. I started pitching backwards and it's not my style."
Jordan Norberto got the call and fanned Mike Moustakas to end the frame.
Guthrie, on the other hand, worked out of trouble in the third. Josh Donaldson singled and was thrown out at third trying to stretch out a Coco Crisp one-out base hit.
Donaldson walked with two down in the fifth, but the veteran right-hander retired Cliff Pennington on a fly out to left. KC's starter ended his outing by sending down the final five batters he faced
Tim Collins and Greg Holland combined to hold Oakland without a base runner over the final two innings.
Game Notes
The Royals' streak of eight straight games with a home run was ended on Tuesday ... It was the second time in 2012 Kansas City performed the feat after a run from May 21-29 ... Guthrie has tossed 15 scoreless innings over his last two outings, and recorded back-to-back wins for the first time since taking three straight from September 9-19, 2011 with Baltimore ... Prior to the game, the A's announced they placed third baseman Brandon Inge on the 15- day disabled list and recalled infielder Josh Donaldson from Triple-A Sacramento ... Oakland batters struck out 12 times.


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- a very sunny weekend with our first few days of gorgeous weather
- my first trip to the farmer's market in months AND without crutches!!!
- a great week of swimming and physical therapy which means I've also been walking really really well! We'll see how my 3-month check-up goes tomorrow!
- Doggies
- Making time to cook a delicious dinner, linguine with shrimp scampi, and fresh baked bread from the market
- Sunday night tv....Game of Thrones, The Killing, The Good Wife, and Mad Men. It distracts me from dreading Mondays :)
- A Plucky Knitter update tomorrow, featuring my new design, Fiar. The pattern and kit will be available in the Etsy Shop Update, which begins at 10am Eastern on Monday morning.
A good weekend. Hope yours was too.
Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits


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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stumps in Morrison, Colo. with running mate Paul Ryan as they crisscross the country visiting key swing states with only two weeks before the election.
MORRISON, Colo. — For the second time Tuesday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney portrayed his campaign as one that cannot be stopped and attacked President Barack Obama's lack of vision for the country.
"You see the president's status quo campaign, you know going forward with the same ideas as we've seen over the last four years is, is why he's slipping," Romney told an energetic crowd inside the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. "And it's why our campaign is gaining. It's why this movement is growing across the country, and it's why we need you go to out and get other people."
Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, made their first joint appearance together in the Centennial State with giant blue "R" lights on the rocks over the amphitheater just outside of Denver.
"We're on the home stretch now and I think the people of Colorado are going to get us all the way there, what do you think?" Romney declared before the crowd of roughly 12,000.
In recent weeks, the Romney campaign has become increasingly bullish on their chances for victory in Colorado. It is a state that Barack Obama carried by more than eight points in 2008 but which went Republican in every preceding presidential election dating back to 1992. According to the CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac poll from the beginning of October, Romney was barely leading Obama here 48 percent to 47 percent.
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
Advisers to the GOP nominee say they see the suburbs around Denver, particularly in Jefferson County, where Tuesday night's rally was held, as ripe with swing voters, disappointed in the president's leadership.
"We feel really good about Colorado. I think the key swing counties that we're going to be near in the next —during our trip there -- Jefferson county and Arapahoe county -- are I think key to our —are a big part of a winning turn-out model there," Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden told reporters traveling with Romney today. "I think those voters in those counties and elsewhere throughout the state are focused on the economy."
Romney took time during the nighttime rally that also featured performers Kid Rock and Rodney Atkins to thank all the supporters who are helping the GOP ticket across the country.
"You hear the word grassroots from time to time, about how the grassroots are involved. You recognize that the most important thing in helping change the course of a nation and setting the course on a path that will lead to greatness and prosperity again and again, that is the grassroots of America. That's the people of America. That's who we are tonight. That is you, and your willingness to be here tonight. It makes the difference," Romney said, with just 14 days to go until Election Day.