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Based around a 14 megapixels image sensor and a powerful 22x optical zoom lens, the SP610UZ offers 35mm-equivalent focal lengths ranging from 28mm to a whopping 616mm. As you'd expect, the SP-610UZ includes mechanical image stabilization with which to prevent blur from camera shake -- specifically, a sensor shift system. The SP610UZ doesn't offer any optical or electronic viewfinder, though, instead opting solely for a 3.0-inch LCD display.
The SP-610UZ provides for ISO-equivalent sensitivities ranging from a minimum of ISO 100 to a maximum of ISO 3,200 equivalent. As well as JPEG still images, the Olympus SP610UZ can capture high-def 720p (1,280 x 720 pixel) movies. The SP610UZ's burst shooting rate is quite modest, though -- we don't have a full-resolution spec, but even at a reduced eight megapixel rating, the camera is limited to just three sequential frames at 0.77 frames per second.
The Olympus SP-610UZ will ship in the USA from February 2011, with pricing of about $230. For more details, read our Olympus SP610UZ preview.
Expand Your Creative Horizons with Magic Filter HD Video, 3D Photos, and In-Camera Panorama with New S-series UZ
CENTER VALLEY, Pa., January 5, 2011 – Olympus today unveils the full-featured SP-610UZ, a lightweight, 22x wide-angle ultra-zoom camera with HD Video capability, delivering the celebrated strengths of this pioneering family of cameras: sophisticated long-zoom, go-anywhere photography. The SP-610UZ packs fun features and superb image quality in a user-friendly camera, providing further proof that Olympus lets you capture it all.
Whether shooting wildlife, a school performance or a soccer game, consumers want powerful zooms without the bulk. The all-black SP-610UZ comes packed with a variety of features that deliver a superior imaging experience far and wide:
New Magic Filters – make it possible to create special artistic effects in still images and/or movies directly in the camera;
HD Movie & HDMI™ Control – high-definition video (HD video) delivers a broadcast-quality movie experience when played back on an HDTV;
3D Photo Mode – captures two shots of a scene from two different angles to create still photos that can be viewed with the added excitement and realism of 3D.
Eye-Fi™ Card Compatibility– enables automatic wireless uploading of images to the website or PC of your choice;
In-Camera Panorama – offers quick and easy panorama shots; and
AF Tracking – tracks a moving subject automatically and keeps it in focus for optimal image quality.
"The new SP-610UZ combines the zoom power that has made Olympus ultra-zooms famous with fully automatic controls ideal for amateur photographers looking to capture it all at the touch of a button and in-camera Magic Filters for artistic control in a portable body" says Jennifer Schmell, product manager, Olympus Imaging America Inc. "The 22x wide-angle optical zoom on the SP-610UZ is an upgrade to the SP-600UZ, which provided a 15x wide-angle zoom. We're continuing to push the boundaries of what camera optics and software can do for the consumer."
Ultra-Powerful Zoom in a Stylish Package The SP-610UZ packs a 22x wide-angle optical zoom lens into a compact, easy-to-hold body. With an f2.8 (Wide) / f5.6 (Tele) wide-angle lens providing the equivalent of a 28-616mm focal length, users can get closer to the action with zoom performance comparable to that of a 500mm equivalent telephoto lens for Digital Single lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. The wide-angle lens makes it easy to take a picture of the entire stadium, while the powerful zoom lets you focus on your favorite player. Whether capturing fast-action, life's everyday snapshots or HD videos, this S-series camera provides the versatility to get the job done like never before.
Express Your Inner Artist with New Magic Filter Movie The SP-610UZ is equipped with in-camera Magic Filters that enable users to enhance and customize images as they're being captured. Have more fun and get more flexibility without expensive and time-consuming computer software. Magic Filter Movie is a new feature that allows you to apply Magic Filters to your high-definition movies, taking them to a new level of artistic expression.
The Magic Filters for stills and HD movies include:
Pop Art - enhance and saturate colors to create vivid, high-impact pictures that express the joyful, lighthearted feel of the Pop Art style of the 1960s;
Pin Hole - reduce the peripheral brightness of an image as though it were shot through a pin hole, connecting the viewer intimately with the subject at the center;
Fish-Eye - emulate the wide-angle of a fish-eye lens by taking extremely wide, hemispherical images and magnifying the center of the frame;
Soft Focus - encloses the foreground of an image in gentle, pastel colors with a soft, elegant focus; similar to effects achieved in a studio;
Drawing - turn your image into a sketch outline for children to color;
New! Watercolor - transform your images with a finish like that of watercolor paintings;
New! Sparkle - shoot photos with the luxurious feel of twinkling lights; and
New! Punk - create two-tone images full of rock-and-roll spirit.
HD Videos and HDMI Control for a Home Theater Experience The SP-610UZ shoots gorgeous 720p HD video, so you'll always capture the moments you cherish in clear, crisp high-definition at the touch of a button. With HDMI Control, playback also is a breeze. Gone are the days of friends and family huddling around your camera's tiny LCD to see the pictures and movies you just captured. Now, you'll be the hit of the party or any family event when you proudly display your brilliant images and movies on high-definition televisions. Simply connect the camera to an HDTV with an optional HDMI™ cable. With HDMI Control, you can use your HDTV's remote to control playback functions and navigate the camera's menus from the comfort of your couch.
New 3-D Mode Now you can add even more dimension to your photographs by shooting dynamic 3D photos in any mode from macro to landscape. Recreate a sense of depth like that of the original scene. Simply select the 3D Photo shooting mode, release the shutter for your first shot, slowly pan until the camera automatically takes a second image from a slightly different perspective. The 3D data is processed in-camera resulting in an .MPO file, the universal industry 3D format for easy display on 3D televisions or laptops.
Share Images Instantly with New Eye-Fi Card Compatibility Ready to upload and share your party images live as they happen? The SP-610UZ is compatible with an optional Eye-Fi SD card, adding Wi-Fi capability so you can automatically upload images to your computer as you take them. Be the life of the social media party by uploading your shots immediately.
New Large High-Resolution LCD The SP-610UZ boasts a bright, 3.0-inch LCD monitor, an upgrade over its predecessor, the SP-600UZ (2.7" LCD). Ideal for viewing, composing and sharing all your favorite images and HD videos.
Cut Out the Blur with Dual Image Stabilization Dual Image Stabilization combines two technologies – Mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization – to provide one powerful anti-blur solution for capturing great images whether the photographer or the subject is moving. Olympus' mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization keeps images sharp by adjusting the internal image sensor to compensate for camera movement, even in low-light conditions when shutter speeds are slower. Additionally, Digital Image Stabilization freezes the action with high ISO sensitivity and fast shutter speeds to prevent blurry images often caused by a moving subject.
Broaden Your Horizons with In-Camera Panorama The places you can take the SP-610UZ—national parks, weddings, sporting events or city streets—are locations where you want to capture as much of the scene as you can. In-Camera Panorama mode makes it possible by capturing three images and stitching them together to create one amazing panoramic picture. Simply press the shutter button and slowly pan across the scene. The second and third images will be captured automatically and stitched together with the first image – resulting in one seamless panorama-size picture. To create the ultimate panorama, consumers can use the OLYMPUS [ib] Software to stitch up to 10 images together.
Easier Group Shots with Face Detection! Wedding, team shots and family reunion photos have never been easier with Face Detection. The SP-610UZ detects up to 16 faces within the frame and automatically focuses and optimizes exposure to capture sharp, brilliant portraits and group shots. Even more remarkable, the SP-610UZ comes equipped with Beauty Mode. Designed to touch up the appearance of your subject's skin as the photo is captured, enhancements that typically would necessitate retouching in a graphics editing program.
Lock Onto the Action with AF Tracking AF Tracking technology locks focus on your fast-moving subject – everything from house cats to Siberian tigers – and continuously adjusts focus and brightness. This enables you to keep quick-moving and unpredictable subjects like kids and pets in focus for the perfect shot. There's even two newly designed "Pet Modes" for animal lovers, offering the ability to recognize the faces of a variety of breeds of both cats and dogs.
Intelligent Auto Thinks for You Taking a moonlit stroll on the beach? Intelligent Auto Mode automatically identifies what you are shooting (i.e., Portrait, Night + Portrait, Landscape, Macro or Sports) and adjusts the camera's settings to capture the best quality results. Amateurs can jump into this quick and hassle-free feature that does the thinking for them and produces incredible images.
New TruePic™ III+ Image Processor Delivers Superior Quality and Performance Whether you are globetrotting or attending a sporting event, the SP-610UZ offers a 14-megapixel sensor, enabling consumers to achieve consistently sharp and vivid images when producing large-format prints or cropping/enlarging a portion of a photo. Olympus developed its exclusive TruePic III+ Image Processor for the demanding performance of DSLRs and has migrated the technology to the S-series cameras for amazing image quality. Olympus' enhanced TruePic III+ Image Processor produces crystal clear photos using all the pixel information for each photo to deliver exceptional clarity with more accurate colors, true-to-life flesh tones and faster processing speeds. TruePic III+ also captures crisp, clear photos at high ISO settings, which are traditionally associated with increasing noise or producing grainy photos.
OLYMPUS [ib] Software Makes it Even Easier to Share and Print Your Photos All Olympus digital compact cameras now offer the new OLYMPUS [ib] photo organizing and editing software. It includes photography workflow, browsing, editing and unique photo organizing functions. You can organize photos by person with automatic face-recognition technology, by place with a map-tagging function, or by event. All information will be tagged in each photo's data. You can then easily upload images to the integrated online service, [ib on the net], to share and backup photos, as well as order prints and photo merchandise. The name [ib] stands for image bridge, because the software is designed to create a bridge to help you get images from your camera to services where you can do more with your photos.
SD Compatibility Olympus' new spring 2011 digital compact cameras have SD compatibility for up to 32 gigabytes of capacity.
Availability The SP-610UZ will be available in February 2011. The SP-610UZ includes four standard AA-size Dry-Cell Batteries. The camera also includes a Neck Strap, WIN/Mac USB cable, Audio/Video cable, Manual, Warranty Card and OLYMPUS [ib] software.
U.S. Pricing SP-610UZ Estimated Street Price: $229.99 (U.S.)
ABOUT OLYMPUS IMAGING AMERICA INC. Olympus Imaging America Inc. is a precision technology leader, designing and delivering award-winning products for consumer and professional markets.
Olympus Imaging America Inc. works collaboratively with its customers and its ultimate parent company, Olympus Corporation, to develop breakthrough technologies with revolutionary product design and functionality that enhances people's lives every day. These include:
Digital Cameras
Professional Digital Interchangeable Lens System Cameras
Related Underwater Products and Accessories
Digital and Microcassette Recorders
Digital Media
Olympus Imaging America Inc. is responsible for sales in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. For more information, visit: www.olympusamerica.com.
*Specifications and design are subject to change without any notice or obligation on the part of the manufacturer. All trademarks and registered trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective holders, in the US and/or other countries.
©2011 Olympus Imaging America Inc


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EAST COUNTY — Midday Jan. 19, nine of the people closest to Alexandra "Lexi" Brown sat around a table in the brightly lit dining room of her Heritage Harbour home and shared stories.
Lexi, however, was there only in spirit. Her size nine shoe still sat where she had left it — on the fourth-from-the-top step of a staircase.
The 10-year-old fifth-grader at Gene Witt Elementary died last week. According to police, her father, Timothy Brown, killed his only daughter, then committed suicide in rural Ohio. The investigation is ongoing.
Brown and Lexi's mother, Nikki Lowe, are divorced, and he had custody the weekend before Jan. 14. Lowe thought her ex-husband, who lived in Parrish, would drop Lexi off at school Monday morning — like always.
Although the details remain raw, family and friends shared smiles as they gathered at the home of Lexi's mom and stepfather, Chad Lowe.
Most people at the table wore lime-green shirts with "Lexi's Paw Pals" written in cursive on the back, with a picture of Lexi sprawled out over a dog.
Her friend, Brianna Hair, wore a pair of Lexi's clothes — a lime-green T-shirt with pink cursive writing and light blue jean shorts — she had pulled from a drawer in Lexi's room.
Lexi's room remains untouched. It contains a bejeweled gold crown on a nightstand, an accompanying lava lamp and a turtle tank where Sludgeface —"Buddy," for short — sleeps.
A poster shows a penguin with "Just chillin'" written above it, and a Florida State University banner hangs on a lime-green wall atop her lime-green bedspread.
At 5-foot-2 with size nine feet, Lexi, who took hip-hop, ballet and jazz at Jump Dance Co., in Lakewood Ranch, was rhythmic, yet clumsy.
She was a natural athlete who came into sport later than her peers. She played softball and volleyball.
In a 2012 Witt talent show, Lexi tipped her top hat and said in her best British accent, "Today we will sing for you, 'Starships are Meant to Fly.'" Lexi ended the show with her "cheer-up crazy dance," during which she waved her arms wildly, kicked her feet up and puffed her cheeks.
Lexi once earned third place in a school science fair for a project she called "Fish poop." But, beyond her outward goofiness was a student who participated in Witt's honors program and science club.
Lexi was a serial planner. She had already planned her 11th birthday party in April — a family camping trip. And with the hope of becoming a marine biologist, she planned her life around animals.
Lexi spent much of her free time at Nate's Honor Animal Rescue.
At first, less than two years ago, Lexi would drag her family to the shelter and pretend to want to adopt dogs, just so she could socialize with them.
The staff finally caught on, so Lexi tried to get involved another way.
Two weeks ago, she signed her family up online for an animal-training program called Open Paws, which was re-named to Lexi's Paw Pals after her death. The family was supposed to go to the shelter Jan. 20, as part of the program. Her mom and stepdad still went in Lexi's honor.
Lexi was a people-pleaser.
When Chad Lowe had a bad day at work, Lexi would say she needed a hug. She never said, "I think you need a hug." It was her unique way of cheering up her stepdad.
As the memories keep the family going, the commemorations keep coming, as well.
Broken Egg will name a hamburger after Lexi, "Lexi's Big Mouth Double Decker Burger." Lexi was known to eat 11 pieces of bread in one sitting.
Nikki Lowe has read more than 100 letters from Lexi's classmates, including one from a boy who fit two lime-green pencils into an envelope.
In it, the boy wrote Lexi was the only kid who had befriended him when no one else would.
Lexi's best friends, Brianna Hair and Ronni Belser, spoke at a Jan. 21 service at Woodland — The Community Church.
"Lexi liked the saying, 'Live each day like it's your last,'" Nikki Lowe said. "She sure did. She had a short life, but she had a lifetime of happiness for everybody. She touched everyone."
Lexi Brown is survived by her mother, Nikki Lowe; stepfather, Chad Lowe; half-brother, Tyler Sambucci; stepbrother, Christian Lowe; and stepsister Hope Lowe.
Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].
EAST COUNTY — Midday Jan. 19, nine of the people closest to Alexandra "Lexi" Brown sat around a table in the brightly lit dining room of her Heritage Harbour home and shared stories.

subset: commoncrawl


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Red Hat's senior director of engineering for its middleware business Mark Little has this month gone on the record detailing some of the mechanics that led to the recent release of Java EE7 Enterprise Edition. Speaking directly to Dr. Dobb's Journal, Little said that while Java EE7 was a little overdue, it represents a milestone for the entire Java ecosystem and the release signifies the start of a more aggressive and realistic release cycle for the language and hopefully for the entire Java EE platform.
"It doesn't do much good to have a language or platform that is 'just fine for now' if it is released so late that it cannot have a meaningful impact. Particularly since Java is the dominant language for enterprise computing, this release had amassed a great deal of anticipation over time," said Little.
Little insists that one of the important changes that Sun introduced a few years ago was to allow support for multiple languages on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). "In many ways, that change has made the future of the JVM more secure than the Java language; all programming languages wax and wane (just look at COBOL, Pascal, and C++). Regardless of what the next popular language is, the fact remains that some of the best middleware stack implementations today are written in Java."
Unsurprisingly then, Little points to Red Hat's JBoss stacks as "good" examples, especially the recently released JBoss Application Server 7. "The last thing we should do, even if language XYZ becomes the next flavor of the month, would be to throw these stacks away and start again. We did that with the transitions from DCE to CORBA and CORBA to J(2)EE, and not all of the time spent reimplementing was time well spent."
Red Hat probably cannot afford to do that again to its users, or to its engineers, and Little is open about that fact. The company has the runtime today, and is committed to evolving it and using it, which is why it has dedicated so much time to rearchitecting JBoss Application Server 7 so that it can form the basis of JBoss enterprise middleware, regardless of programming language or deployment, e.g., "cloud."
Looking ahead, Red Hat's Little states that, "Currently, our focus at Red Hat is on advancing Java EE7 and Java SE8, both of which will be important for establishing Java more firmly in the cloud. Fortunately, we have a lot of experience to offer these efforts, with the work we've been doing for the past few years around JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, JBoss Application Server 7, OpenShift, OSGi, Infinispan and Platform-as-a-Service, so I'm expecting that a lot of what our communities, customers, and users are accustomed to receiving from Red Hat today, will soon make their way into these standards."


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This is a non-handed surface mount Sliding Patio
Door Handle Set.The
latch lever is located off center, in position B.
Mounting Surface: 1 in by 8-1/2 in.Center-to-Center Holes: 3-15/16 in (100 mm).
Finish: WhiteThis Mortise Style Handle Set has a die cast inside and outside pull.
If a latching mechanism is needed, please, use one of the Mortise Locks. The handle set is surface mount and has a drillable plug for adding
key cylinder. It is designed to be used with E2145
External Key Cylinder, which must be purchased separately.
Minimum Order: 1 Package (one inside and outside pull per package).


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Copyright Law's Abuse
Yesterday, we had a very interesting discussion of copyright at our event on Tom W. Bell's book, Intellectual Privilege. (Video will be available soon.) Today, I received an email that reflects how the copyright statute can be misused.
In a 2009 blog post about an $18,000,000 U.S. government web site, I pointed to the web site, Recovery.org, which was then hosting the same information as the government site, and doing it for free. Since then, the Recovery.org domain has evidently been transferred to an organization specializing in recovery from addiction (to alcohol and drugs, not government spending).
The email I received today purports to be from an attorney named "Rick Smith" of the "Law Offices of Rick Smith & Associates"—no web site or phone number, and only a Gmail account. It asks me to remove the link to http://www.recovery.org/, claiming to have "received numerous complaints" from readers of the 2009 blog post.
It goes on: "If you fail to respond by May 13 we will be forced to serve you with a formal DMCA take down notice. A copy can also be sent to the hosting provider and major search engines that can exclude this and other pages from organic search rankings."
The notice‐and‐take‐down provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows aggrieved copyright holders to attack the wrongful Internet posting of material over which the law gives them control. It is not there to help people seeking correction of web site inaccuracies, much less for them to threaten suppression of access to material in which they do not hold the copyright.
I know this, of course, but many people don't. Emails like this can fool people into thinking that they have to make demanded changes.
I'm going to make the change because there's no sense in preserving a bad link. I'm also going to contact the folks at Recovery.org to see if they're aware that someone purporting to be their attorney is misusing copyright in their name.


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Oil prices are mixed as investors weigh strong U.S. corporate earnings with ongoing concern about European debt.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose Tuesday by 56 cents to $103.67 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price international crudes, fell by 42 cents to $118.29 per barrel in London.
Europe continues to be saddled with massive government debt, and borrowing costs rose Tuesday in Italy and Spain. In the U.S., stocks markets rose following strong first-quarter earnings from AT&T and 3M.
Retail gasoline prices fell in the U.S. to a national average of $3.849 per gallon. A gallon of regular has dropped by nearly 9 cents after peaking on April 6. It's now cheaper than it was a year ago.


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By Teachers, For Teachers
We recognize the value of iPads in the classroom, so on the heels of our popular article, 20 Amazing iPad apps for Educators, we have compiled a list of the top 11 apps for math teachers and students. The functionality ranges from a platform for lectures all the way to basic math flash cards - and everything in between!
1. iTunes U - Apple FREE
On iTunesU, you can download some great mathematics lectures to help you navigate numbers in ways you never thought possible. Access math lectures from Khan Academy, ASU, MIT and HACC, among many others.
2. WolframAlpha - Wolfram Alpha LLC 1.99
With its simple interface, the Wolfram|Alpha App lets you instantly compute answers to questions across thousands of domains—from finance and food to math and medicine.
3. Calculator+ - xNeat.com FREE
Calculator+ is an iPhone / iPad calculator designed with simplicity, usability, and beauty in mind. It's features include an elegant & intuitive interface, handwriting support, many scientific functions and much more.
4. Math Bingo - ABCya.com .99
The object of Math Bingo is to get a pattern of five Bingo Bugs in a row by correctly answering math problems. Math problems are presented at the top of the game screen. Feedback is presented at the bottom of the game screen. Correct solutions to problems answered incorrectly will be displayed.
5. Free Graphing Calculator - William Jockusch FREE
A powerful, flexible graphing calculator . . . and it's free! Multiple useful functions in one app, including a Scientific Calculator, a Graphing calculator, and a unit converter.
6. Monkey Math School Sunshine - THUP Games.99
Monkey Math School Sunshine allows your child to build fundamental math skills while they are endlessly entertained. Your child will count, add and sort their way through engaging games with uninterrupted play. For ages 3 to 6.
7. Team Umizoomi Math: Zoom into Numbers - Nickelodeon3.99
Each game teaches fundamental math concepts critical for preschoolers: identifying numbers; one-to-one number correspondence; rote counting; reading number symbols; associating symbols with quantity; and basic addition and subtraction. Games are leveled, and designed to increase in difficulty. Appropriate hints are provided to support your child as they practice and build their math skills.
8. BrainPOP Featured Movie - BrainPOP® FREE
Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP Featured Movie app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Watch a different animated movie every day, then test your new knowledge with an interactive quiz – free!
9. Math Drills Lite - Instant Interactive FREE
Graphically rich and fun environment allows a single student to learn basic math skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Explore solutions to problems using number lines, wooden blocks, facts and hints.
10. Math Fact Master: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division - TicTapTech, LLC .99
FLASHCARD mode allows children to practice specific number sets and operators in the proven learning style of flash cards. CHALLENGE mode lets children test what they have learned . The SETTINGS menu is simple enough for your child to set and use. Flexible - Choose ANY combination of operators and number sets.
11. Mathemagics - Mental Math Tricks - Blue Lightning Labs .99
Amaze and delight others as you multiply, divide, and square at lightning fast speed. Learn and practice the tricks of mental math calculation in a fun and engaging application. Study any of the math tricks and then practice them as you progress through various levels of proficiency. Tease your brain with a quick practice session while waiting in lines, riding in the car, or on the plane. Only the basic math skills of addition, subtraction and simple multiplication and division are needed to achieve astonishing results.
Are you currently using any iPads in the classroom? Do you have any apps that you just can't live without?


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Originally Posted by dunoon32
I bought a collection awhile back and now have a HUGE collection of Dale Murphy! Almost every card made of him in the 80's and 90's. I just thought someone out there might appreciate and need this collection more than myself. Please let me know and have them get in touch with me. Thanks, Drew


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(MEDIA GENERAL) — Being the host for Thanksgiving dinner isn't easy. No matter how big or small the guest list, a host is bound to spend a good chunk of money and time to prepare. Whether they're only hosting Thanksgiving this year because of a family consensus that it's their "turn" or someone in your life is just kind enough to invite you to their home to celebrate, show your appreciation by bringing a hostess gift.
Here are seven thoughtful ways to give thanks to the host:
BlueAvocado Re-Zip Seal Reusable Storage Bag Kit (Pack of 5) – $16.99
Help your host handle all those leftovers with ease!
Belvoir Elderflower & Rose Presse – $5.99
The perfect holiday edition to their bar cart.
You can never go wrong with a fresh bouquet of flowers. Don't make the host feel obligated to spend time digging around for the right vase. Pick one up from your local dollar store, dress it up with a pretty bow, fill it with water and arrange some fall flowers in it. If you're traveling by bus, plane or train, use a flower delivery service to avoid showing up with a damaged bouquet.
Cards Against Humanity – $20.00
A great distraction to avoid those uncomfortable election conversations.
Donate to a charity in their honor
Give thanks, by giving thanks!
Decorative Matches
Help make sure your host stays warm this winter with a box of matches that blends in with the classic reads on their bookshelf.
Because no family gathering would be complete without lots and lots of wine on Thanksgiving.


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Sign In
Blackjack Strategy
another question on sessions.
December 2005
Hypothetical question;
You are in a casino,playing $10 a hand,raising your bet as per the count and playing perfect BS.
Every hand goes your way,you get dealt 12 with a high count against a ten ,but dealer busts,you win your doubles,your splits,everything,and when you can't make a hand,the dealer busts.
Two hours later,you are up $800.
If you quit,you walk out $800 ahead.
If you stay,you may win more.
If you stay,you may tread water and stay up $800
If you stay,you may lose some ,alot, or all of your $800 in winning.
Three choices,2 out of 3 that don't favor you. So why do so many folks here insist that leaving now is some form of voodoo.
Even assuming that your entire life is some "super-session",your "EV" will be the same next hand you play,no matter if its now,tomorrow or next week.So why are you so oppossed to setting a quit limit.
December 2005
I don't think anyone is opposed to setting a quit limit if you want to set a quit limit. The question is why are you setting a quit limit.
If you are setting a quit limit as part of a strategy to improve your odds against the house, then that is what people are calling voodoo. Picking a quit limit doesn't change your EV or improve your chances for winning throughout your lifetime.
Many people want to walk away from a night gambling as a winner. For those, it may give them pleasure to stop if they win a certain amount and then they can say they were a winner for that night. No one will stop them. Its just when it is part of a strategy to increase your odds that people rightly point out the fallacy of such a strategy.
December 2005
NYB- I'll give you my opinion/answer by looking at some fundamentals of
money management and card counting theory. First, and before I go to
the casino I figure the amount of time that I have to play and the BR
needed for some level of coverage, say two SD. In my mind, I am willing to
play as many hands as possible in my restricted timeframe. The BR is sized
to fit the situation and I'm fully aware that I may lose it all and have on many
occasions. I plan on a four hr. session with 1.2 hrs. drive each way.
At the casino I play the game you have described and like you I am supprised
that I am on such a good roll. During the first two hrs I find I'm up $500, then
$600, then $700 and then $800. What form of motivation does these numbers
bring? Well, frankly none. Why should they? I still have two good hrs and if
I don't intend to use them why did I come in the first place? What we are
talking about is not letting scared money, resulting from conservative thinking,
have an impact on the need to play as many hands as possible every time I
fill up the tank and head for the casino. A card counter must understand this
concept if he expects to at some time get ahead of the game. If you quit at
anyone of the above numbers you have accomplished nothing. Absolutely O.
When do I go home:
- 4 hrs are up, time constraint
- Too tired, not likely in four hrs
- Broke, empty pockets
December 2005
Accomplished nothing,but added $800 to my bank account.the problem I have with this sort of thinking is that you seem to value EV over everything. EV is a guide,not a law.
Quitting up money may not raise your lifetime EV,but to say it wouldn't raise your lifetime earnings is beyond me.
The cards don't know that I quit up $800,so there will be no 'evening up session",its just that my lifelong session begins anew,with me up $800.Whatever my EV was on the hand I quit will be the same,unless I've learned a new trick or two.
One thing I keep hearing/reading is that if not constrained by time,you should play until you find yourself too fatigued to make proper decsions.I'm pretty sure that by the time a player realizes he's burnt out,its several hands too late.
Were I a professional player,I would think that I would want to make X amount of $$$$ a week and quit playing when I reached it. Greed will kill the Golden Goose.Too much time at the table leads to more "heat".
As a casual player,I want to play long enough to pay for my trip,increase my bankroll and earn the comps I get.I'm not someone who plays 12-15 hours a day for the length of his trip.Still have tons of non-casino things to do and see in and around Vegas.
Setting a goal(a quit point) works for me.Perhaps it is an artificial goal,but life is full of those.
stainless steel rat
December 2005
The math just doesn't work like that. You can quit when you are up $800. Or you can play on. It has _zero_ effect on your lifetime bankroll. You might quit just before a big loss, or just before another big gain. No way of knowing. Only thing for _certain_ is that you are going to approach your expected value as you play more and more hands. Whether you play em one hand a day, or 1000 hands a day doesn't change a thing, except for how long it takes you to "get there".
This is all about random samples. And just because you pick a "good sample" for one trial, (up $800) that does _not_ turn out to be a bankroll improver. If you play on today, or you wait and start playing tomorrow, you could have _exactly_ the same final result after the same number of hands are played both ways.
There is simply no way to "cheat" the math. Long-term is long-term. Stop-loss or stop-win limits have no effect. Unless you count cards. If you "stop-win" it actually hurts your overall EV. Norm Wattenberger posted some numbers over on AP.com about this very issue. Why does enforcing a "stop-win" limit hurt your ev? When do you typically reach a win limit? Answer: in a + count where you are betting big and winning. When you get to $800, would you _really_ quit with a +6 TC and throw away an advantage opportunity that exists _right now_, knowing that the next session will start off at zero on a new shuffle? That actually lowers lifetime EV. If you set your stop-win limit to say "I will quit after I win $800 _and_ reach the end of the shoe, or the count tanks, whichever occurs first, then your EV doesn't drop. But it also does _not_ go up...
December 2005
I play DD,so I would play until the end of the deck.
I'm not saying quiting will improve the EV,but it will improve the earnings. Earnings and EV are not the same.
There will be players that strictly play BS but have a lifetimes positive earning rate and there will be players that count with the best that have negative earnings. There will even be the super-rare idiot that is clueless but somehow wins the majority of the times he plays.
December 2005
Earning and EV are not the same, but EV is the best way to predict what your earnings will be. If your earnings turn out to be higher than what your EV predicted, then you are on the positive side of the bell curve. You could quit while you are ahead and always be up that amount of money.
However, assuming you are going to play blackjack again sometime in your life, there is no difference between continuing to play; stopping for an hour and then playing again; stopping for a day and then playing again; or stopping for five years and then playing again. That's the point. (Although Rat rightly points out that when you are winning, there is a greater chance of a positive count, so stopping when you are winning may mean you are leaving a good deck).
There is of course other reasons why you may want to stop: you may be tired; you may have had your fill for that day; you may be happy with winning X amount and this makes you happier than playing any more could make you. These are all valid. The serious counters, though, are there to make the most money possible and care less about the enjoyment of the game or feeling good after a few hours. Plus, they know that if they have a positive EV, they will, in all probability, make more money the longer they play.
December 2005
Chicken- That is a very good summary. If you don't follow the methods of
advantage play, then it does not matter how you react to a win or loss. It's
you money, your time,etc. I think the objective here is to make sure new
players understand the theories of correct play that have been proven over
the last 40 years.
December 2005
Chicken - I'll go one beyond Ray and say that was an "excellent" summary, especially that last paragraph......Grifter
December 2005
Yet even the worlds best players must have quit points,no?
A world class counter isn't going to stay in a casino until he is mentally exhausted,nor is he going to leave a positive shoe simply because its time,are they?Especially if they are going to continue playing in another casino,where the count would start over.
But I'm not a serious player,yet. I plan on being one day. Just took the quiz in Renzy's book and scored a 32.As I've said,I have more to do in Vegas than just play cards.And setting artificial goals lets me make money and do those things.
December 2005
A world class counter will stay in a casino as long as counts are good, playing conditions seem favorable, he can get a lot of hands per hour, and he isn't getting much heat. A lot of variables go into how long worldclass players stay.
Sounds like you have a plan -- best of luck as you continue to learn. I'm continuing to learn myself every day and I would hazard to guess that everyone on this board trys to enjoy the other aspects of the casinos or Vegas while at the same time working to make money and perfect their skills.
Myself, I can't help but play Craps and (gasp) Let It Ride every once in a while, even though I know my odds are worse. I'm very much in it for the fun, though (although I find counting and trying to "beat the casino" fun).
stainless steel rat
December 2005
I have a session limit of one hour or less. That is for a single pit. Playing longer has frequently resulted in problems because the more you play, the more you win, the more attention you get. It is hard to figure out whether someone is counting for certain if they are not at the table long enough to attract attention, and cause the pit to ask surv. for a "skills check".
My reasons for quitting, in no particular order:
1. session time limit reached. I _never_ play more than an hour before "moving on".
2. time to eat and wife is waiting.
3. get tired enough to pack it in for the day (night).
4. Have other plans. Show. Shopping. sightseeing. Etc.
Notice there is no mention of reaching some win level. Of course if I cough up my session bankroll, I quit, if I have a session bankroll. When I play seriously I have a trip bankroll and that's all I worry about.
December 2005
Since you limit your session to one hour or less, how do you get in enough playing time? My problem with moving to different pits is that usually the conditions will be different such as higher minimums, CSM's, bad pen, etc. When I go to my local casino, it usually has only one or two pits with playable games. In Las Vegas you can move around to different casinos, but even there, it's more difficult to find good games. I would be interested in knowing how you and some of the other AP's deal with this.
stainless steel rat
December 2005
Easy enough with several answers.
In vegas, or reno, or even laughlin, the "next casino" is not very far away. Fremont street for example, where it is a short walk from the Plaza's good DD games to Binion's good SD games (both were good in late June early July, not sure about the present).
If you keep up with the shift changes, you can play 3 one hour sessions in a single pit without seeing the same people twice. If the casino is big enough, and you are willing to take a bigger risk, you can go to a different pit for the next session.
You can become a "Wong'er" for shoe games, where you back-count, jump in on + counts, and leave when it tanks, which limits your playing time at the same table, but increases your EV.
The longer you play, the more careful you have to be. If you start throwing in too much "cover play" then you whack your EV more than if you just accept less playing time. If you use an aggressive spread, and bet at anything beyond $5/$10 units, you greatly increase your chances of being spotted and kicked out. I'd rather play a good game 3 hours per day at a single casino, rather than playing it for 3 hours in a row and getting tossed out where I can't play it again...
Took me about 2 years to figure this out when I first got started. I rarely got backed off while playing, but when I'd return, I could hardly buy in before being told "anything but blackjack for you". I'd played too long at one session, drew attention, and then a video replay for a "skills check" would leave them waiting for my return. With my one-hour limit, I've not had any problems at all. I violated this just before Katrina, playing with someone else's money and playing about 3 hours (at his request) and the next time I sat down, about 2 weeks later, I was tossed. I hope that "record" didn't survive Katrina. :)
December 2005
Your "war stories" are truly amazing. You play in a casino one or two weeks a year and have been evidently been backed off numerous times, had several 'skill checks' called on you, and were almost in a physical confrontation during one eighty-six......I guess I must be a really boring person. I've played about forty-seven weeks out of these last fifty-two and never had anything remotely close to your escapades this year (and very few over the last forty years).
stainless steel rat
December 2005
My "problems" are 3 years behind me. The first two years I counted, I didn't know much about anything other than how to count using hi-lo. And at that time, I lived about an hour or so from west MS casino areas of Vicksburg, a little further from Natchez or Tunica (opposite directions). I played a fair amount and played _many_ sessions of 4-6 hours duration. And eventually started getting "burned" for doing so.
I then started to play shorter sessions, and for the past three years I have had very few problems. BC kicked me out for simply winning, with my wife looking on. A MS coast casino backed me off just before Katrina for playing larger than normal stakes, with my usual spread, and violating my one hour rule needlessly.
BTW I typically play _far_ more than 1-2 weeks per year. I usually make 1-2 trips to Vegas a year. In the past 18 months I have been there three times, for about a week each trip. I usually play the MS coast at least once a month, usually more, as I have lots of occasions to make business trips to the area and flying takes longer than driving due to small airports at the MS destinations I go to. There was a streak way earlier this year where I played almost every week in MS for several months. Of course, since August, I haven't played on the coast because until recently, nothing was open. Now the IP and the Isle of Capri are open, but neither had particularly good games in the past. I am going to be down there this coming weekend if nothing goes wrong.
My only "escapade" for this year was going to a place where I have played many times, for short sessions, spreading $5-$40, and playing for far bigger stakes, bankrolled by a retired friend that wanted to see this stuff "work". It came up at the last minute, and was one of those things that had I thought about it, I would have handled it far differently, but it was a spur of the moment poor decision on my part, potentially costing me access to the best SD/DD game on the MS coast. No idea how Katrina is going to affect that. I hope the "data" was lost, I'll find out sometime next year as I understand they are going to re-open.
As far as getting "backed off" goes, I've been fairly fortunate. I've had a few in the past, nothing to mention recently (except the one mentioned above and the BC Summer before last). The BC case was potentially ugly, as my wife was with me, and I simply refused the "please follow us..." and elected to leave. My wife is a bit paranoid now although we've not seen anything approaching that. My most recent "back-off" was apparently the result of a change in policies, since a friend of mine was backed off within two weeks of my MS coast "problem" as well. He'd been playing the same place, and emailed me about the back-off, within a week or two of mine. So maybe it was less about the big units I was playing, and more about something else that had changed.
My wife and I have known a few CCs over the years, and when we used to sit around and talk, their "tales" had her terrified of walking into a casino with me. :) One good friend, living in CA, was roughed up significantly in Vegas, maybe 6-7 years ago (it happened to him before I had even started counting cards). That really got my wife's attention. And my "history" seems quite tame compared to some of the things I've heard from others... :)
To recap, I've been 86'd exactly once, although I am not sure it would "stick" since I didn't sign anything. In some states, the trespass act requires a signature, in others, just a witness or two. Don't know about vegas. I've been backed off several times, although only once in the past 2-3 years, for my play. I did forget the backoff in a midwest casino where someone bet behind me and we were chased for "team play". Hardly Uston-like, IMHO. :)
December 2005
Regarding your previous description,
Second paragraph: (MS coast back-off): What do you mean by "larger than normal stakes"? What is considered normal? How did they back you off? What did they do that constituted a back-off?
4th paragraph: "Far bigger stakes"- What do you mean? What was the "escapade" you refer to? What happened that "cost you access"?
5th paragraph: Did BC say "please follow me" just because you were winning?
I hope you don't mind me asking for more details. I, like Grifter, find all this somewhat intriging.
stainless steel rat
December 2005
Sorry for the "more than normal" confusion.
I had played that same game _many_ times spreading $5-$40 (DD game). On this occasion, a long-term friend (retired) said "OK, let's hit the boats (MS casinos were floating at the time) and let me see how this counting stuff works." I told him "sorry, but when I stopped by (I was driving back from New Orleans to Alabama) I had not expected to have time to play any and didn't bring any amount of money that would be reasonable to play." He offered to supply the money and asked "how much". I said that for safety's sake, we'd want to have 20 "big bets" for a single session. He said OK, and pulled out $5,000 and said "will this do?" I didn't have my CV software and laptop with me, and couldn't do any real risk analysis, but decided to play $25-$200, which is in line with my normal $5-$40 spread (1-8).
I made two mistakes. (1) spreading $5-$40 is not nearly as noticable as spreading $25-$200; (2) after nearly an hour I said "time to go" but he replied "you are up almost $1000, let's keep playing." I did.
That's apparently what led to my trouble there. We played about 3 hours, and ended up about $1200 ahead. The next weekend I was down fishing with a family member and he suggested we all "hit the boats" after an all-day fishing trip. I had come prepared this time and off we went. I sat down, bought in, and before the first hand was played, pit boss came over and said hold on just a minute before dealing. Next came "the tap" and I was told I could play any other game, but not BJ any longer... I was allowed to cash out with no problems, and just over a week later, Katrina rolled through there shutting everything down.
So larger than normal was referring to _my_ normal unit of $5. I have played $25 units several times, but I typically back off the bigger spread I use with $5 units since $25 units produce a much higher hourly win rate even without that big spread. But playing that long, that accurately, was a stupid mistake. One I would not normally have made, but the entire thing was so "impromptu" that normal thought processes didn't get a chance to fire up.
At the BC "incident" I was playing at a $25 table (I believe, but that trip was 2 years ago and is somewhat a "blur" now). The game never produced a + count, so I simply flat-bet but seemed to win almost every hand I played, no matter what. After about 20-25 minutes of that, I was asked to step away from the table. I did and was told "please follow me." At that point I declined. I was told "we can force you to follow if necessary." I looked the guy right in the eye and said "you mean you can try to force me..." After a few more heated exchanges (with my wife about to have a nervous breakdown) I just walked out the front and left. Let another family member pick up our rental car later. I never bet more than the table min, never made any obtuse BS departures, just got tossed for winning. They told me that if I came back, they would have me arrested for trespassing, read some nonsense from a card one of the two "suits" had, but I did not sign anything nor let them take my picture (although they probably had something through the "eye"..) So yes, they tossed me simply for winning. I have heard similar stories about other gaming choices. A family member was tossed for winning at video poker, for example. (not the same day).
My negative experiences fall into several categories, mostly during my first couple of years of counting, but not exclusively there.
(1) short-shoe, where a shoe game may get 50% pen or less. A message "we know what you are doing..." Can also be through "the glare" from suits in the pit, or the pit boss coming over and counting down the discard tray while glaring. Talking on the phone while glaring. Etc.
(2) typical back-off "no more blackjack, your game is too strong. You can play any other game you want however."
(3) Get out and don't ever come back... Once at the BC, another time at a Midwest casino where someone reached over my shoulder and placed a $1000 bet on my hand a couple of times, in a + count, and got us both booted for "team play" even though I had never seen him before. And I had never seen this "back betting" stuff either, although I have since learned that it is not that uncommon when casinos are way crowded such as in AC.
December 2005
stainless steel rat,
I appreciate your added comments. If you don't mind, I have only one more question.
At BC you were asked to follow the "suits" somewhere. This appears to me they wanted to back-room you. My understanding is that they only have legal basis to do that if you are being acused of cheating or some other crime.
And even then, you can request law enforcement before going anywhere or showing your ID. With all the publicity today about casinos harrassing players and over-stepping their authority, would BC treat you or me the same way today?
stainless steel rat
December 2005
I believe the intent was to (a) simply get a decent quality photograph of me and (b) read me the trespass act and have me sign something saying I had been notified of being trespassed. I don't know whether they would have actually tried the "backroom" behavior as discussed in many older books, although Grosjean's case shows that they still do this sort of stuff from time to time.
I refused to "follow them" because I don't believe the request to be legal, and I personally felt safer in the middle of a crowd, rather than in some private office where anything could happen.
But I will add, it was not clear where they wanted me to "follow them" to. Might have simply been to the cage for all I know. And I really did not intend to find out what their intentions were. But the security guy seemed to be pretty hostile, which didn't make me want to cooperate in any way.
Short story ending is that it is a place that probably should be avoided, IMHO, at least until it changes hands (if it ever does).
As far as whether they would do this today or not, I don't know. I do know that in Summer 2004 they certainly did exactly what I said. In addition, on another day a couple of family members that were out with us (but not present when I had the problem) were playing some sort of video poker, either at a bar, or something, and they got chased after winning a whopping $400 or so. They were playing one machine together, and were told "no more gaming here for you..." They cashed out and left. They also said that the security guy that chased them seemed to be hostile.
Come to think of it, perhaps most everyone I encountered was hostile in some way or another. The pit boss certainly was not the usual "glad-hander" you find in most successful casino pits...
Maybe they were burned recently by a counting team, or the usual hole-carders or trackers. Who knows.
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August 27, 2010
Geek renaissance man and weird-culture hero Mark Frauenfelder recently read Lars Martinson's Tonoharu: Part One - and loved it! In his review on Boing Boing today, Mark writes: "Tonoharu is a story of isolation, frustration, and mystery, with just the right amount of black humor to keep it from being depressing ... the overall effect is stunning. I can't recommend Tonoharu highly enough."
Tonoharu: Part One, Lars' Xeric-winning graphic novel, is the story of a young American college grad who heads to Japan to teach English. In a starred review, Booklist called it "a fully realized, engaging tale of international alienation. You can grab your copy of Part One below - and pre-order Part Two, which ships in November!
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French press coffee maker
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text:
Similar post: Lotus and Pray for Japan
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tears in Heaven - Pray for Japan
Similar post: Lotus and Pray for Japan
58 comments:
- magda said...
What beautiful game with the water!
Beautiful and artistic photos are you!
Good week and greetings :)
- March 29, 2011 at 8:31 AM
- Objekte-aus-Ton said...
It´s just wonderful!
- March 29, 2011 at 8:55 AM
- Madalina Dascalu said...
un gest frumos
- March 29, 2011 at 9:06 AM
- Joop Zand said...
Wonderful pictures, let's pray for the people of Japan.
greetings, Joop
- March 29, 2011 at 9:20 AM
- Victor said...
vântule, ţi-am spus că ai un suflet mare, mare de tot?
da, şi eu m-am gândit de multe ori la Yoshi, dar gestul tău este impresionant...
ai grijă de tine
- March 29, 2011 at 10:26 AM
- Unknown said...
Beautiful photos, have a nice day.
- March 29, 2011 at 10:33 AM
- Jesus de Leon said...
Some precious photos for dedicator.
- March 29, 2011 at 11:22 AM
- Jesús Chueca Zalba said...
- March 29, 2011 at 11:39 AM
- Cristina Deboni said...
Queste foto sono sublimi, adoro le gocce, da come vedrai le ho anche nella mia intestazione. Che bella composizione e che bei colori, la primavera ormai è in casa! Complimenti e buona giornata! Cri : )
- March 29, 2011 at 12:13 PM
- Aliceee Traveler said...
Impresionant gestul tau! Desi nu il stiam pe Yoshi am intrat pe blog si am citit, din pacate Japonia are nevoie acum de mult sprijin!
Colectia ta de lacrimi e superba
- March 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM
- LifeRamblings said...
what a beautiful song and such lovely photos. i'll continue to pray for Japan.
- March 29, 2011 at 12:48 PM
- Bibliotecaru said...
Picături din aburul sufletelor pierdute.
- March 29, 2011 at 1:18 PM
- Bibliotecaru said...
Spun oamenii de ştiinţă că apa are o structură care reţine emoţii şi alte informaţii.
Astfel botezul şi abluţia ar putea fi totuşi o integrare a eului în întregul absolut prin intermediul apei ca mediator.
- March 29, 2011 at 1:29 PM
- Yoshi said...
Dear my friend Wind,
This is Yoshi from Extracting Abstract. Your photos are always beautiful and fantastic.
Thank you so much for your post. I am so moved and you have no idea how grateful it is to me. I am sure that my father, too, appreciate it:)
Please have a wonderful day, my friend Wind.
Yoshi from Japan.
- March 29, 2011 at 2:11 PM
- Catalin said...
Lacrimile timpului...
- March 29, 2011 at 2:39 PM
- Anamaria do Val said...
This is a beautiful and touching tribute, Dalian, and as all you do, is so perfect!
- March 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM
- Luis Gomez said...
Great details. Wonderful drops of water.
- March 29, 2011 at 3:05 PM
- Nancy C said...
Love the song and the photos. They compliment each other beautifully.
- March 29, 2011 at 4:30 PM
- Bob Bushell said...
So clear and beautiful pictures, I love them all.
- March 29, 2011 at 4:54 PM
- becky said...
Exquisite photography as always... and such a thoughtful & kind tribute to your friend.
- March 29, 2011 at 5:00 PM
- Kaori said...
- March 29, 2011 at 5:35 PM
- Fram Actual said...
Those who believe they can master Nature are fools. All of the tears shed by all of the people who ever have lived on Earth are not enough to wash away the acts of the fools among us.
Your photographs are beautiful, Wind, and reflect the symbolism of your thoughts. The music also is perfect for your sentiments and for the times in which we live.
- March 29, 2011 at 6:12 PM
- Bitch said...
I don't know how you do that..
Your photographs with the water drops
and the song I love so much..
Hearing "Tears in heaven" I always
think of the tragedy story of
Eric Clapton and his little boy
who fall off the 54th window.
After that he stopped for years writing new songs.
The first he wrote was this..
- March 29, 2011 at 6:39 PM
- Kaya said...
That is a wonderful and touching post, Daliana.
You are a very special person, kind and thoughtful and artistic.
This tribute to your friend touched my heart deeply.
Wonderful photography and beautiful.
I am sending many hugs to you and my warmest wishes!
- March 29, 2011 at 7:12 PM
Lovely raindrops shots! I love the fresh feel of these photos!
- March 29, 2011 at 9:07 PM
- Unknown said...
Fabulous set of images. Can't pick a favourite!
- March 29, 2011 at 9:53 PM
- Blitz said...
What a beautiful serie of flowers and raindrops. And I will pray for Japan. So great of you to dedicate your pictures to Japan like this.
- March 29, 2011 at 9:57 PM
- Se-cret said...
Superbă serie de lacrimi pentru Japonia.Nu este decât natural ca tu să postezi asemenea fotografii superbe!
Un gând bun pentru Japonezi și unul pwntru tine.
- March 29, 2011 at 10:09 PM
- ANRAFERA said...
Cada una de las fotografías radian belleza, nitidez y visualidad. Me encantan todas ellas, has captado unos preciosos tonos. Un placer ver tus trabajos. Feliz semana. Saludos.
- March 29, 2011 at 10:36 PM
- Viajes Erráticos said...
- March 29, 2011 at 11:34 PM
- Windsmoke. said...
We all need to pray for the wonderful people of Japan. You could call your fantastic photos "Droplets of Life" :-).
- March 30, 2011 at 12:27 AM
- Leovi said...
Some pictures full of beautiful colors and pretty lights, and a few drops of water of great beauty, purely crystalline. All are beautiful but the second I suggested something special. A hug.
- March 30, 2011 at 1:39 AM
Am sure that these prayers are for the world as a whole ! Needed.
daily athens
- March 30, 2011 at 2:31 AM
- Robert Manz said...
beautifully abstracted and beautifully extracted. lush ! regards, robert
- March 30, 2011 at 2:51 AM
- Rajesh said...
Wonderful symbolic images.
- March 30, 2011 at 7:28 AM
- Multibrand said...
Hello Wind,
Another nice combination of beautiful photos and Eric Clapton's song.
- March 30, 2011 at 10:20 AM
- Eric said...
Wow, some quality shots here, love the colors, details and the compositions.
Done a great job!!
- March 30, 2011 at 11:13 AM
- April said...
Atata claritate in fotografiile tale...cum reusesti? Sincer, te admir foarte mult.
O zi buna.
- March 30, 2011 at 1:31 PM
- taio said...
sin palabras
- March 30, 2011 at 4:45 PM
- Ignacio Santana said...
Hola, Wind!!!...unas fotografías preciosas, muy nítidas y llenas del encanto fresco del agua...me gustan mucho, amiga mia!!!
Un abrazo!!! ;)
- March 30, 2011 at 5:36 PM
- This is Belgium said...
what a contrast ! the beauty of your pictures and the sadness at what happened to japan...
- March 30, 2011 at 7:13 PM
- March 30, 2011 at 7:21 PM
- Ramón García Durán said...
Bravo, muy original. Saludos desde Barcelona,
Ramon Garcia
- March 30, 2011 at 7:51 PM
- Ishtar said...
Impresionant gestul tău...şi imaginile spun totul.Fain tot blogul :)
- March 30, 2011 at 9:00 PM
- J_on_tour said...
These images are a great tribute. It's at times like this that we see the love passed from fellow bloggers in times of need. I thank you for this one.
Although not quite the same thing but it is poignant that we see the suffering and grief of one family in Japan that represents in another realm the nation of Japan. May we continue to remember them as news stories in our own countries fade.
Have a great week Wind and I'll catch up with you soon. My regards to you, J
- March 30, 2011 at 10:30 PM
- Veronique said...
Foarte frumos!! foarte! si melodia e superba!
- March 31, 2011 at 9:46 AM
- cartim said...
Lacrimile tale Daliana sunt minunate, sunt convins ca pana si lui Yoshi , care ne priveste de undeva de sus, i-ar place seria ta.
Este un foarte frumos tribut pe care i-l aduci.
- April 1, 2011 at 3:09 AM
- Andrei Barbu said...
Superba seria de imagini, foarte reusite detaliile si culorile! Excelente! Felicitari!
- April 1, 2011 at 9:29 AM
- Lasse said...
Very beautiful photos and the song is just wonderful. Suites this special oportunity very well! Marvellous work Daliana!
- April 1, 2011 at 11:09 AM
- ruma said...
Many aid, encouragement, kindness...
From all over the world...
Thanks to all of them.
Tears of the heart will accept them.
From Japan, ruma
- April 1, 2011 at 4:11 PM
- Balaphoto said...
Beatiful shots!!!Congratulations!!
Good weekend!!
Regards from Barcelona,
- April 2, 2011 at 12:19 AM
- RIZALENIO said...
What a poignant tribute to your idol? Drop of water is always a best metaphor for life. We must all go with the flow.
You're always my idol, Wind. Thanks for touching our hearts through your photos.
- April 2, 2011 at 1:52 PM
- magda said...
I pray with you for the Japanese people.
The water drops are tears, sorry not so interpreted it.
I'm truly sorry for your friend.
- April 2, 2011 at 6:23 PM
- Κώστας Ανδρεόπουλος said...
Wonderful gallery, really artistic!!
Friendly greetings from Greece, Kostas
- April 5, 2011 at 7:35 AM
- Marisa said...
Lovely captures !!
- April 8, 2011 at 7:09 PM
- joanna said...
Beautiful imagery and music,,, another earthquake on Thursday. So sad such beautiful people in Japan.
- April 9, 2011 at 7:23 AM
Hear the mysterious sounds of water.
I feel the beginning of the universe.
The great.....∞
- October 22, 2011 at 11:09 AM
Stunning. What a way with water you have. # 5 is really amazing.
- October 23, 2011 at 9:03 PM


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The Girls Club YMCA helps Cleveland County children by providing mentors, tutors, after-school counselors and event coordinators who guide them to a better life.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is one of many highlighting Cleveland County organizations that help at-risk children and will participate in Connect, Commit to Change 2012.
The Girls Club YMCA helps Cleveland County children by providing mentors, tutors, after-school counselors and event coordinators who guide them to a better life.
The organization connects with those volunteers at fairs, promotional events, on Facebook - and through Connect, Commit to Change, said Girls Club YMCA director Crystal Johnson.
Volunteers help the county's young girls become better citizens who improve the community around them, she said.
"A teenage girl who lived in Kings Mountain struggled and did not have a lot of guidance from parents who did not attend college," Johnson said. "She attended every college fair, joined the teen advisory board and planned events. She went on to graduate high school and attends North Carolina Central University as a freshman, and was a member of the first graduating class of the YMCA's early college program."
The Girls Club also offers events to recruit girls and families for its Team Achievers, Parents Night Out, Family Night and Girl's Night Out programs.
The Team Achievers program is geared toward minority students to help with networking skills, interviewing skills, pursuing college education and to learn about various careers.
"Family Night is a means of fellowshipping over dinner and a means of getting back to the basics of talking over life at the dinner table and bonding, while the Girls Night Out gives the girls the opportunity to fellowship and talk over school issues," Johnson said. "Parents Night Out gives the parents a break from their girls while also offering workshops on parenting, budgeting and eating habits."
More about Girls Club YMCA
Agency mission: To help girls become better citizens who improve society
Agency needs: Prayers, support and volunteers
Agency history: 10-plus years in Cleveland County
Connect, Commit to Change:
What is it?: An annual event connecting organizations who help children to volunteers who keep those organizations operating. During the event, which is a partnership between The Star and the community, those organizations share what they do and connect with community members willing to help their cause. From serving as a lunch buddy to spending time outdoors with an inner-city child, there are a variety of ways to help.
How can you help?: Attend the event, connect with an organization in need.
When is it?: Saturday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where is it?: Cleveland County Fairgrounds
Last year: The event netted 244 commitments from volunteers who pledged to help the county�s needy children.
New this year: This year's event is named "The Week of the Child." The event will partner at the fairgrounds with Hog Happnin�, an annual fundraiser to benefit Children�s Homes of Cleveland County. The Shelby Junior Charity League Holiday Gift Galleria will be the same weekend at the LeGrand Center, across the street from the fairgrounds. Groups will share work to promote assistance for area children in need.
For more information: 'Like' the 'Connect Commit to Change' page on Facebook.
Want to volunteer with this year's event? Contact Collette Deviney at email@example.com. Volunteer opportunities are available for both teens and adults.


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If you prefer your steak to be cooked rare, you may want to reconsider that choice after hearing about the latest advancement in food technology to come out of Japan: an edible steak made from human feces, reports Discovery News. (Update: Discovery News is now unsure if the story is real and wondering if they were duped. It reminds us of this "Yes Men" poop burger hoax.)
Take a moment to let that gag reflex subside. Now consider this: it's already been taste-tested, approved, and could eventually become a practical solution to sewage treatment. Someday "bowel burgers" may even provide an easy source of protein for the hungry.
The steaks were first envisioned by Japanese researcher Mitsuyuki Ikeda after he was approached by Tokyo Sewage to come up with a solution for the city's overabundance of sewage mud. Although "eating it" probably wouldn't have occurred to most people, Ikeda recognized that the mud was chock full with protein-rich bacteria.
After isolating those proteins in the lab, Ikeda's team then combined them with a reaction enhancer and put them in an exploder. What eventually came out was no filet mignon, but it was edible.
"Theoretically, there's nothing wrong with this," said Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University. "It could be quite safe to eat, but I'm sure there's a yuck factor there."
To make swallowing the stool steaks a little bit easier, a nutty flavor was added using soy protein, and red food coloring was mixed in too, apparently to make the concoction look more like a juicy, bloody steak. A few brave researchers even took the plunge and taste-tested the product. (Apparently it tastes like regular beef.)
The official composition of the lab-grown steak is 63 percent proteins, 25 percent carbohydrates, 3 percent lipids, and 9 percent minerals. (Which sounds a lot better than 100 percent poop). According to Powell, the idea isn't really all that much different than eating plants that have been fertilized with manure or other excrement.
The idea could even help to solve the world food crisis. By comparison, researchers have also proposed harvesting insect protein (i.e., "bug burgers") as one possible way to help combat famine worldwide. Are "bowel burgers" really so much worse? They also take the ethic of recycling to its logical extreme.
Powell did offer one caveat to the future poo'd food revolution, though: because the steaks are made from human feces, there's always a chance for contamination. If you're brave enough to eat this, at least make certain that it's properly cooked (as if you were going to eat one raw!).
When asked if he would ever consider eating one of the poop steaks if it wasn't cooked, Powell responded matter-of-factly.
"I wouldn't touch it," he said.


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I had a pretty lengthy rant going on Local Edge Radio the other day. I started with the arrogance and mean-spiritedness of Justice Antonin Scalia, making light of the Affordable Care Act, complaining it was too long to read and saying it was OK to let people die.
It was NOT OK to let my son die, or any other American whose life could be saved by appropriate medical treatment. A study released this week placed the United States 19th out of 19 industrialized nations in health care outcomes. Dead last (pun intended). It also estimated 101,000 Americans die each year because they lack access to appropriate treatment.
Someone commented to me that we can't afford to treat everyone — just look at all the problems the Euro-nations are having.
Well, first of all, the economic mess comes from the power of Wall Street and the big banks to do whatever they please, rob the economy blind, take us to the brink of world economic disaster and suffer no punishment for it. Secondly, every one of those countries pays far, far less than we do for health care because it costs far, far less to care for people before they become critically ill. It costs far, far less to treat mental illnesses in a clinic than it does in a jail, which is where some 60 percent of people with chronic and persistent mental illnesses get treatment nowadays.
And we're just talking about the financial cost, not the human cost of allowing people to suffer needlessly.
Regulation is important, not just for health insurance companies, but for banks, Wall Street, utilities — every industry. Without it, you get economic meltdown as the 1 percent steals ever more from the working class.
Without regulation, there is less safety in the workplace — the reason my son has had third-degree burns three times where he works.
The Right would have us believe government can do nothing right. They point to schools, which have been defunded at historic rates. When schools were funded, American children had the best education system in the world. That hasn't been true since the 1980s. In fact, we have been slipping badly.
Now they're defunding highways and transportation, claiming that the market will build and maintain roads where they're needed. Yes I have heard that claim many times; I'm not making it up.
But you still can turn on your tap and get water. You still have libraries and police and fire departments you can call when you need them — at least until the Right privatizes them or eliminates them entirely by defunding them. Already, we're seeing concerted efforts to reduce their power to negotiate and reduce their salaries and benefits.
Workers' salaries aren't keeping pace with inflation. In every city in the country, it takes more than twice the minimum wage to pay for even the most basic needs (housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, child care). Those basic needs do not include cable TV, any meals out, including McDonald's, or Internet service.
Why do you suppose that's true? Well, we've villified the American worker and killed the unions.
This sustained attack on working Americans has reduced our salaries and increased our debt — it hearkens back to the Guilded Age when factories put people up in company-owned housing and paid them in company scrip which could only be spent at the company store. Prices at the store were high enough to keep workers in debt so they couldn't leave.
If you think that's not where we're headed, think again.
And now they attack women, forcing us to have transvaginal sonograms — against our and our doctors' wills — before we can have a perfectly legal surgical procedure. They call us whores because we want to be the ones to decide when and if we will bear children, as though we can't be trusted to control our own bodies.
I lived through the changing of those laws. I thought we had changed attitudes too, but apparently, we weren't as successful as we thought.
We are engaged in endless wars, killing and maiming our soldiers while asking nothing of any of the rest of us. The military-industrial complex is making billions off of these wars while soldiers and their families suffer with not enough pay and not enough care, not to mention the misery we inflict on the populations of people we attack. But if we demand an end to war, we're told we're not supporting the troops. That's bullshit, pure and simple.
I'm tired of the attacks on the American people and I'm furious about the lies they perpetrate on us.
The Affordable Care Act will not result in rationed care; that's being done already by Big Insurance. It will not mean people over 75 will be refused treatment for cancer, not like my 30-year-old son was refused care because he didn't have insurance. These things are deliberate lies.
You bet I'm angry.


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The first teaser trailer for director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel finally debuted last weekend with The Dark Knight Rises, and audiences were given their first taste of what the new iteration of Superman will entail. While the clip didn't show nearly as much footage as the reel we saw at Comic-Con, it did a pretty nice job of announcing to audiences that a new—and decidedly different—Superman is on the way. My only minor qualm with the trailer was the use of Howard Shore's incredibly recognizable (and fantastic) score from The Lord of the Rings. I was left thinking, "Did Gandalf just die?" instead of being wholly enveloped by this new Superman story.
For fans that weren't crazy about the music choice, or for classic Superman fans in general, the Internets have kicked up quite the gem. Someone has removed Shore's score and replaced it with John William's classic theme from 1978's Superman as the backing track for the Man of Steel trailer. Hit the jump to check out the incredibly swell new cut.
Here's the John Williams Cut trailer via Giant Freaking Robot, followed by the trailer for the original Superman.


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No, mac n' cheese isn't the new bacon Huffington Post! Mac n cheese was the original bacon. Mac n cheese is the reason why we can share our gluttonous love of the glory of bacon without shame.
I will add the mac n cheese mashups to my foodie bucket list (already checked off Foie Gras tasting, mac n cheese sushi sounds good in comparison)


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Murdoch founded Shine in 2001 and grew it into a worldwide television production powerhouse before selling it to her father, Rupert Murdoch's, News Corp. in 2011 for about $670 million. She stepped down as CEO last summer but is still chairman, focusing on Shine's creative talent, culture and strategy. Shine Group companies include U.K.-based Dragonfly, Kudos and Princess Prods. and over the past few years it's created Shine Australia, Shine Germany, Shine France and Shine Iberia. Shine's shingles produce such hit series as "MasterChef," "The Biggest Loser," "The Hour," "Clash of the Choirs" and "The Office." In 2011, Shine entered social gaming, acquiring Bossa Studios and buying Web video producer ChannelFlip. Last month, Shine formally launched U.S.-based global commercial-rights management division, Shine 360.
Despite tight biz ties with her family company, she is very independent, declining a seat on News Corp.'s board as a phone-hacking scandal engulfed its U.K. newspaper operations. Brother James was in charge there when things exploded and the generally reticent Elisabeth created a sensation this summer by pointedly criticizing "the idea that money is the only effective measure of all things or that the free market is the only sorting mechanism." At the keynote lecture of the Edinburgh Intl. Television Festival, she praised her father's history of bucking the establishment but said, "But back even then, I understood we were in pursuit of a greater good, a belief in better."


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Texas man charged in killing of sheriff's deputy ruled incompetent for trial
TEXARKANA, Texas – A Texas man accused of fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy at a county courthouse has been ruled incompetent to stand trial.
Tucker Strickland is charged with capital murder in the 2011 slaying of 54-year-old deputy Sherri Jones.
State District Judge Leon Pesek Monday ordered the 23-year-old Strickland confined to a state mental hospital until he's competent to be tried.
Authorities say the Texarkana man overpowered Jones as she accompanied him to a competency hearing at the Bowie County courthouse where he was accused of assaulting his mother. Prosecutors say Strickland took Jones' gun and shot her in the head.
Strickland fled in a county transport van and was captured about 30 minutes later in Arkansas.
Strickland is held in the Fannin County Jail in Bonham under $3 million bond.


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The lighting of a Memorial Candle not only provides a gesture of sympathy and support to the immediate family during their time of need but also provides the gift of extending the An Amazing Life tribute website for future generations.
The proceeds from the Memorial Candle program go directly towards the ongoing cost of maintaining; advancement, archiving and bandwidth for the interactive tribute so that it can continue to be available and shared with family and friends in perpetuity.
Each candle that is lit adds the number of years chosen to the website. A permanent notice of your tribute will remain on the An Amazing Life tribute website.
If you have any questions about An Amazing Life please speak to any one of our helpful staff.
If you have any questions about An Amazing Life or would like to have a tribute website created for a loved one, regardless of whether the service was entrusted to us or not, please speak to any one of our helpful staff.
For more information please contact us


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I recently came across http://www.casesdatabase.com/ from BMC, a collection of more than 29,000 peer-reviewed case studies collected from a variety of journals. I've been increasingly interested in the possibilities of mining clinical data (inspired by impressive work from Atul Butte, Nigam Shah and others), so this seemed like a great resource to explore
The folks at BMC have provided a REST API, which is still in development – as a result, there's no public documentation and it still has a few rough edges. However, thanks to help from Demitrakis Kavallierou, I was able to interact with the API and extract summary search information as well as 28,998 case studies as of Sept 23, 2013. I've made the code to extract case studies available as proc.py. Running this, gives you two sets of data.
- A JSON file for each year between 2000 and 2014, containing the summary results for all cases in that year which includes a summary view of the case, plus facets for a variety of fields (age, condition, pathogen, medication, intervention etc.)
- A pickle file containing the case reports, as a list of maps. The case report contains the full abstract, case report identifier and publication meta-data.
A key feature of the case report entries is that BMC has performed some form of entity recognition so that it provides a list of keywords identified by different types: 'Condition', 'Symptom', 'Medication' etc. Each case may have multiple occurences for each type of keyword and importantly, each keyword is associated with the text fragment it is extracted from. As an example consider case 10.1136/bcr.02.2009.1548. The entry extracts two conditions
{u'sentence': u'She was treated by her family physician for presumptive interscapular myositis with anti-inflammatory drugs, cold packs and rest.',
u'text': u'Myositis',
u'type': u'Condition'}
{u'sentence': u'The patient denied any constitutional symptoms and had no cough.',
u'text': u'Cough',
u'type': u'Condition'}
I'm no expert in biomedical entity recognition, but the fact that BMC has performed it, saves me from having to become one, allowing me to dig into the data. But there are the usual caveats associated with text mining – spelling variants, term variants (insulin and insulin therapy are probably equivalent) and so on.
However, before digging into the cases themselves, we can use the summary data, and especially the facet information (which is, by definition, standardized) to get some quick summaries from the database. For example we see the a steady increase of case studies deposited in the literature over the last decade or so.
Interestingly, the number of unique conditions, medications or pathogens reported for these case studies is more or less constant, though there seems to be a downward trend for conditions. The second graph highlights this trend, by plotting the number of unique facet terms (for three types of facets) per year, normalized by the number of cases deposited that year.
This is a rough count, since I didn't do any clean up of the text – so that misspellings of the same term (say, acetaminophen and acetaminaphen will be counted as two separate medication facets) may occur.
Another interesting task would be to enrich the dataset with additional annotations – ICD9/ICD10 for conditions, ATC for drugs – which would allow a higher level categorization and linking of case studies. In addition, one could use the CSLS service to convert medication names to chemical structures and employ structural similarity to group case studies.
The database also records some geographical information for each case. Specifically, it lists the countries that the authors are from. While interesting to an extent, it would have been nice if the country of occurrence or country of treatment were specifically extracted from the text. Currently, one might infer that the treatment occurred in the same country as the author is from, but this is likely only true when all authors are from the same country. Certainly, multinational collaborations will hide the true number of cases occurring in a given country (especially so for tropical diseases).
But we can take a look at how the number of cases reported for specific conditions, varies with geography and time. The figure below shows the cases whose conditions included the term tuberculosis
The code to extract the data from the pickle file is in condition_country.py. Assuming you have cases.pickle in your current path, usage is
$ python condition_country.py condition_name
and will output the data into a CSV file, which you can the process using your favorite tools.
In following blog posts, I'll start looking at the actual case studies themselves. Interesting things to look at include exploring the propensity of co-morbidities, analysing the co-occurrence of conditions and medications or conditions and pathogens, to see whether the set of treatments associated with a given condition (or pathogen) has changed over time. Both these naturally lead to looking at the data with eye towards repurposing events.


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The Return of ITV's World of Sport Wrestling
Great Britain's Iconic World of Sport Wrestling Set to Make a Comeback at Croydon's Fairfield Halls Sunday 17th November 2013
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Tickets for this family friendly event are priced at £12 adults, £10 concessions, and £40 for a family of four
World of Sport Wrestling utilises a highly respected technical style drawn up by the late Admiral Lord Mountevans in the Committee Rooms of Great Britain's Houses of Parliament.
Ware, Hertfordshire, UK (PRWEB UK) 5 August 2013
WOS Wrestling Ltd and ITV Studios Limited have come to terms to resurrect ITV's iconic World of Sport Wrestling.
ITV's televised wrestling broadcast from 1955 to 1988, and drew huge ratings with an average viewership of 8.5 million; at it's peak an audience of 18 million tuned in for the 1981 Big Daddy vs. Giant Haystacks match at Wembley. Other British wrestlers such as Mick McManus, Jackie "Mr TV" Pallo, Les Kellett, and "Bomber" Pat Roach all became household names. So popular was ITV's wrestling that a 1963 event held at the Royal Albert Hall featured Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, as a guest of honour.
World of Sport Wrestling utilises a highly respected technical style drawn up by the late Admiral Lord Mountevans in the Committee Rooms of Great Britain's Houses of Parliament.
The comeback event at Croydon's Fairfield Halls, which is being taped for ITV, will feature new wrestlers, but promises to be in the spirit of traditional World of Sport Wrestling, utilizing the Mountevans rules. A number of the original World of Sport Wrestling legends will also be making a special appearance, including the masked man of mystery Kendo Nagasaki, and the man widely considered the world's greatest technical wrestler; Johnny Saint.
"What's old is new again," said WOS Wrestling Ltd's Managing Director John Chapman. "The internet age has produced a whole new generation of wrestling fans who study the wrestling skills of British legends such as Johnny Saint, Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, and Dynamite Kid. We've gone full circle. The public want this style of wrestling to come back; it's an alternative to the American style. World of Sport Wrestling goes right back to basics, putting a clear emphasis on the actual wrestling."
The comeback event has been three years in the making. IT entrepreneur John Chapman incorporated WOS Wrestling Ltd in 2010 and started the process of acquiring rights to bon-vaninta wrestling trade marks from the Crown. In June 2013, WOS Wrestling Ltd sold numerous World of Sport trade marks rights to ITV Studios Limited with an agreement to provide new World of Sport Wrestling for ITV.
Tickets for this family friendly event are priced at £12 adults, £10 concessions, and £40 for a family of four. Tickets may be purchased via the Fairfield Halls website http://www.fairfield.co.uk, or alternatively telephone the Fairfield Halls box office on 020 8688 9291 (booking fee may apply). Tickets will also be available on the door, subject to availability. Doors open Doors 2pm, and the event commences 3pm.
About WOS Wrestling Ltd
WOS Wrestling Ltd, a privately held company, is principally engaged in providing family-friendly wrestling on its television programming, digital media and publishing platforms. Incorporated in 2010, WOS Wrestling Ltd acquired rights to numerous bon-vaninta wrestling trademarks from the Crown. In 2012 WOS Wrestling Ltd (in conjunction with ITV Broadcasting Limited) began distribution of classic World of Sport Wrestling television episodes on iTunes. In 2013 WOS Wrestling Ltd sold numerous trade mark rights to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc, and sold numerous World of Sport trade mark rights to ITV Studios Limited with an agreement to provide new World of Sport Wrestling for ITV. The company is headquartered in Ware, Hertfordshire, UK, with offices Delaware, USA (WOS Wrestling Inc). WOS Wrestling Ltd has consecutively produced annual pre and post tax profits that have contributed towards corporation tax.
Additional information on WOS Wrestling Ltd can be found at woswrestling.com.
About ITV Studios Limited
ITV Studios UK is the largest and most successful commercial production company in the UK, creating over 3,500 hours of original programming each year. Building on a heritage of over 50 years of quality programme-making, ITV Studios UK produces across a wide range of genres, from drama and entertainment to factual and lifestyle, for channels including ITV, the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Discovery, National Geographic Channel, History and Channel 5. It is based in London, Manchester's MediaCityUK and Leeds.
Additional information on ITV Studios Limited can be found at itvstudios.com.
WOS, World of Sport and the World of Sport logo are registered trademarks of ITV Studios Limited. ITV is a registered trademark of ITV Network Limited. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. WOS Wrestling Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number number 07393109. WOS Wrestling Inc is registered in Delaware, USA, company number 5089081.
Category: Wrestling.
Tags: itv, world of sport.


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Fun Technology Ltd (China)
Video Brochure Manufacturer
Skype/WeChat: funtekservice
WhatsApp: +86-13724243678
Europe Office: +4369912013815
Middle East: +971 50 775 7601
7.0 inch HD/IPS
Current Location: Home > Products > Video Brochures > 7.0 inch HD/IPS
7'' Video Brochure VGC-070T
Full HD 1080P Touch Screen Video Brochure - A5 Landscape - 7'' TFT LCD color screen 1024x600 pixels, 128MB-16GB flash memory, rechargeable 1000mAh lithium battery, magnetic on/offf switch, 1-10 control buttons, 1 x micro USB port, CMYK printing, matte/glossy lamination. Shipping in 7 working days!
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ŌŚÅ Accessories: USB cable
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Various Screen Sizes from 2.4'' to 10.1''. Available in three high resolution LCD screen sizes, 2.8", 5.0" and newest 7.0", with crystal clear sound and in sync with video when brochure open!
Sizes can be from A6 to A4, depending on your particular requirements. Other sizes and paper options are available upon request. You can also choose landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical) orientation. Landscape option is selected by default.
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Depending on the device variant and your video files, the flash memory size is optional up to 4GB. Below information will help you choose the suitable memory.
Button Options
The standard Video Brochure has a magnetic switch, so it can autoplay videos once unfolded. It can be with multi-button with specific functions like power on/off switch, play/pause, play/FF, pause/REW, forward, backward, volume up, volume down, rewind, fast forward, video selection, etc. Buttons can be placed below the screen or on the screen left/right side. It takes a maximum of 10 buttons.
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Video Brochures are superb for presentations, invites, PR, direct marketing, advertising and promotions.
Operating Instructions
1. When you open the Video Card, it will automatically play the video loop playback. Once itŌĆÖs closed, it will stop playing the video.
2. Charge: First, USB ties is inserted to computer and then insert to the card USB interface, which the battery could be charged. During the charging process, the card is closed. The charging time is 3~4 hours.
3. When using the card, it cannot be blended, patted and dropped.
4. You must switch off the video firstly and then connect with the computer.
5. When loading the videos, the video files could be stored to the VIDEO Folder of the removable Disk. We also could copy the data of the LCD card to the computer or U Disk.
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Packaging Detail: 1 piece/EPE foam bag, 80 PCS/CTN. NW/GW: 13KGS/15KGS. MEAS: 47.5*30*37.5cm
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Discover our cellar doors and tasting rooms, winery restaurants, vineyard accommodation, wine tours and experiences.
New Zealand's distinctive winegrowing regions each have unique soils and climatic conditions that are expressed in the wines produced.
Our temperate maritime climate allows a wide range of wine varieties to flourish. Whatever your preferences, we're sure to have a wine to suit your palate.
Dig a little deeper into how our winemakers and grape growers are helping their natural environment, local businesses and communities to thrive.
Browse our calendar of world-wide events where you can taste New Zealand wine and meet the personalities behind the brands.
Keep up-to-date with our latest press releases, reports and statistics, flick through image and video galleries, and connect with us socially.
New Zealand's wine industry is one of the youngest in the world, but the 'can-do' attitude of our pioneering winemakers and growers put in place a solid base for our innovative, world-class industry to flourish.
Information for NZW members on the COVID-19 virus and response.
Learn about New Zealand's wine regions and subregions.
Unique, exuberant, intense. The explosive variety that awoke the world to New Zealand wine.
New Zealand winemakers tease an array of distinctive regional and terroir-driven styles from this generous, yet notoriously fickle grape.
New Zealand Winegrowers is the national organisation for the country's grape and wine sector, with over 600 grower members and 700 winery members.