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Multiple conformant implementations shipping; Free development SDKs available; Support from Operators and Handset OEMs; Open source OpenKODE Project announced
February 11th 2008- Mobile World Congress - Barcelona, Spain – The Khronos™ Group announced today that it has publicly released the final OpenKODE™ 1.0 specification, a royalty-free, cross-platform open standard that bundles a set of native APIs to provide increased source portability for rich media and graphics applications. Khronos is also releasing a full conformance test suite for OpenKODE 1.0 to enable conformant implementations to use the OpenKODE trademark. Multiple Khronos members are demonstrating fully conformant OpenKODE implementations at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and are offering free development SDKs. Khronos has also announced a supportive collaboration with the FreeKODE Project to create an open source version of OpenKODE. An OpenKODE whitepaper and the OpenKODE 1.0 specification is available for download at www.khronos.org/openkode/. The specification may be used royalty-free by implementers and developers.
Mobile developers routinely need to maintain hundreds of source versions for every application to handle functional differences between handsets, resulting in significantly increased porting and testing costs, and slowing innovation. Additionally, the interaction between multiple graphics and media APIs is typically not defined, hindering the development of innovative mixed-media user interfaces and applications. The bundle of native, royalty-free APIs in OpenKODE 1.0 helps solve these problems.
"The usability of the Apple iPhone has already had a major impact on the mobile industry, and now consumers demand compelling and highly functional user interfaces and applications which, in turn demand highly-integrated graphics acceleration architectures," said analyst Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research. "Khronos is to be applauded for creating an open standard that not only tackles the problem of mobile platform fragmentation head on, but also delivers an open architecture that can provide a low-level media processing foundation for a wide range of software platforms such as Windows Mobile, Brew, Symbian UIQ, S60, Limo, Google Android and WIPI – all of which need to deliver stunning rich media in the palm of your hand."
The new OpenKODE Core API is a small and light abstraction layer that will be familiar to POSIX and C programmers for accessing operating system resources while minimizing source changes when porting applications between Linux, Rex/Brew, Symbian, Windows Mobile, WIPI and RTOS-based platforms. OpenKODE Core provides advanced functionality, such as multi-threading under an event-driven architecture; while being carefully designed to provide real-world portability to a wide variety of mobile platforms. An OpenKODE Core library is typically under 100KB in size.
"OpenKODE will play a key role in the development of rich media applications and services in the Korean market, as this new standard is extremely complementary to WIPI-GIGA and other software platforms," said Hoo-Jong Kim, Head of Mobile Device Development Team, SK Telecom. "As an operator and Khronos Board member, we strongly welcome the reduction in platform fragmentation and the increase in rich media acceleration that the OpenKODE standard provides."
OpenKODE 1.0 also defines a state-of-the-art media-stack architecture by bringing together the Khronos OpenGL® ES and OpenVG™ media APIs through EGL 1.3 plus a set of EGL extensions for acceleration of mixed 3D and vector 2D graphics. OpenKODE will use upcoming versions of EGL to integrate synchronization and data processing of streaming media using the OpenSL ES™ and OpenMAX™ media APIs to provide accelerated video and audio functionality that is fully integrated with graphics processing; for accelerating a wide variety of software including 3D user interfaces and games, Flash and SVG players, TV and video applications and media players. Through the relevant JSRs, OpenKODE can also provide acceleration for Java as well as native applications.
"OpenKODE Core has been designed by a group of companies within the Khronos Group that have the in-depth experience to provide state-of-the-art functionality in a way that is genuinely portable over a wide range of mobile platforms. OpenKODE will protect developers from having to gain that same encyclopedic knowledge the hard way," said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group, chairman of the OpenKODE working group and vice president of embedded content at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA is using the OpenKODE standard to deliver the full power and flexibility of our new generation of application processors. We are showing a fully conformant OpenKODE, including fully accelerated OpenGL ES and OpenVG seamlessly integrated through EGL, here in Barcelona on the new NVIDIA APX 2500."
All APIs included in a conformant OpenKODE implementation must pass the individual conformance tests defined for that API – including OpenKODE Core. In addition, OpenKODE defines a set of trans-API conformance tests to ensure that the media APIs and EGL correctly provide the specified mixed media functionality - an important factor in genuinely reducing platform fragmentation for application developers. The OpenKODE conformance test suite has been created by Futuremark Corporation under contract to Khronos and is available through the Khronos Group OpenKODE Adopters program – more details here www.khronos.org/adopters/.
"OpenKODE is a significant advance for the handheld industry as it combines the Khronos industry-leading media APIs into a reliable set of functionality that can provide great native performance on mobile devices while reducing fragmentation from the software developers' point of view," said Tero Sarkkinen, CEO of Futuremark. "Futuremark has been delighted to play a key role in the industry roll-out of OpenKODE and to apply our considerable expertise in performance measurement software development and functionality testing to create the OpenKODE conformance tests."
In a separate announcement today, Antix Labs announced an agreement with Motorola for its Game Player client for Motorola UIQ devices implementing the OpenKODE 1.0 specification.
"The fragmented, device-specific nature of native multimedia content has been destroying the mobile industry's economics; OpenKODE takes major steps to reduce that fragmentation and encourages publishers and developers to improve and deploy more attractive services," said Tim Renouf, OpenKODE specification editor and systems architect at Antix Labs. "The Antix Game Player, Antix's cross-platform, binary portable, native solution for mobile gaming, supporting the OpenKODE specification, is being demonstrated at both Mobile World Congress and Game Developer Conference."
Today Acrodea has announced it is releasing development versions of OpenKODE 1.0 for Windows and Mac OS X which are freely available for developers. The implementations are available at
http://www.acrodea.co.jp/en/openkode. Acrodea has also announced it is porting OpenKODE to the Brew platform.
"OpenKODE is a long-awaited solution that genuinely helps resolve problems such as platform fragmentation and media API interoperability among mobile platforms. Acrodea has actively participated in the OpenKODE standardization work from the very beginning and is extremely pleased with the specification being now ratified and by being able to deliver one of the first, fully-conforming OpenKODE implementations to the market. By maximizing the usage of Khronos APIs, such as OpenKODE and OpenGL ES, Acrodea believes it can minimize time-to-market of its product portfolio and enable more sophisticated user experiences on all major mobile platforms," said Yoshi Kuniyoshi, CTO and executive vice president of Acrodea.
OpenKODE will be a fertile foundation for innovative and differentiated solutions that go beyond the specification itself – such as middleware platforms that enable the distribution of a single binary across multiple handsets.
"Ideaworks3D has enormous experience in using smart technology to solve mobile fragmentation problems. We've offered Khronos strong support through the evolution of OpenKODE 1.0, and have been intimately involved in the design of the OpenKODE Core API. At Mobile World Congress this year we are proudly presenting Airplay 3.5, a single-binary native execution environment which is declared to be conformant with OpenKODE 1.0 on a huge number of platforms," said Alex Caccia, CEO Ideaworks3D Ltd.
An independent initiative to implement a full open-source version of OpenKODE – FreeKODE - is underway on SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/freekode/. Khronos supports and encourages open source projects based on its API specifications – including providing access to its conformance tests to enable conformant open source implementations.
"We see OpenKODE as an effort to close a critical gap in the consolidation of cross-platform native multimedia development. FreeKODE aims to provide free OpenKODE implementations for a variety of platforms with the help of the open-source community. Using FreeKODE, developers will soon be able to design and build native multimedia applications on the PC, taking advantage of mature development tools, while at the same time target all available OpenKODE compatible platforms," said Diogo Teixeira, project manager for the FreeKODE Project.
"Some of the recent device launches have heightened consumer expectations for user experience, design, and advanced applications. By helping to reduce porting costs and enabling standardized access to a rich set of media and graphics APIs, OpenKODE provides developers the ability to bring these services and user experience much faster to the user," says Ryu Koriyama, CEO of Aplix Corporation. "Aplix is pleased to see the public release of the OpenKODE 1.0 specification. Aplix has been an active participant and contributor to the specification from a very early stage and we plan to integrate OpenKODE support into our product portfolio including the industry leading JBlend product which has been deployed in more than 397 million handsets."
"As an active working group member, we are very excited to be a part of the announcement of the long-needed OpenKODE 1.0 specification. We believe this innovative work will open the door wide for us to innovate next-generation applications and services for diverse mobile platforms with dramatically reduced porting costs," said Hirotaka Suzuki, CTO of HI Corporation.
About The Khronos Group
The Khronos Group is a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of open standards such as OpenGL®, glFX™, OpenKODE™, OpenGL® ES, OpenMAX™, OpenVG™, OpenSL ES™, OpenWF™, OpenML™ and COLLADA™ to enable the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. All Khronos members are able to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications, are empowered to vote at various stages before public deployment, and are able to accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge media platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. More information is available at www.khronos.org.
Khronos, OpenKODE, OpenVG, OpenWF, glFX, OpenMAX and OpenSL ES are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. used by permission by Khronos. OpenGL and OpenML are registered trademarks and the OpenGL ES logo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. used by permission by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.


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Hello all,
I am just starting out using VS2012 Pro & .NET 4.5 coming from an Eclipse/Java background. I am in the process of porting a Java program to .NET.
After reading on MSDN about RichTextBoxes, I've decided to go that route for displaying my syntax colored text. In the MSDN example, it shows the need to have "using System.Windows.Documents;" declared.
The problem I am having is that Documents is not one of the choices presented by the IntelliSense system. I only have Forms, Input, and Markup available as descendants of System.Windows.
I just started using VS this morning, so everything is still Greek to me.
Right clicking on my project in Solution Explorer and choosing Properties, the Target Framework is listed as .NET 4.5 and the Output Type is shown as Windows Application.
Any info you can provide on how to enable System.Windows.Documents would be greatly appreciated.

subset: commoncrawl


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This Sunday, churches up and down the country will make a political statement which will be widely covered across print and broadcast media. But it is likely to pass without so much as a murmur of criticism.
On Remembrance Sunday, thousands of services will take place, commemorating - as the Church, state and the British Legion put it with one accord - "those who have given their lives for the peace and freedom we enjoy today". But the political, and for that matter theological implications of such a perspective, will be quietly ignored. This should be, they say with equal agreement, an impartial event, devoid of political considerations.
But it isn't. Because this is in reality Remember-In-A-Certain-Way Sunday – and one that sits uncomfortably with some of the church's own teachings and beliefs, not to mention the positions it has taken on recent conflicts.
There is a clear and present sentiment behind the poppies and the prayers – and one that, if the people in the pews really stopped to think about, would not be shared by all who attend this Sunday's services. Many bishops and clergy certainly can't sign up wholeheartedly to the idea that those who died in the Falklands, Iraq, and even World War 1, gave their lives for 'peace and freedom'. Some feel that the military campaigns worked against it. And then there is the matter of the people who were on the receiving end of their bombs and bullets. The Christian tradition insists that all are equal in the sight of God. True remembrance requires that the dead on all sides are brought to mind.
It is easier though for the Church not to think too hard. The last time it did - when Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, himself a Military Cross holder prayed for the Argentinian dead at the Falklands war memorial service at Westminster Abbey - a momentous political row ensued with the Government of the day. Remembrance Sunday remains one of the few days in the calendar when the church reassures itself that it still has a role of national importance. So why rock the warship?
But if the truth be told, the Christian mission has never been very good at navigating the choppy waters of military action. The problems began when Jesus Christ urged love of enemies, unconditional forgiveness and turning the other cheek. As Christianity grew in influence, soldiers who were converting had problems reconciling their new faith with their vocation. A strange dualism began to emerge. Upon baptism (in those days undertaken by complete immersion) some soldiers left their sword arms above the waterline so they could continue killing with a clear conscience. Others prayed for the dead they had just killed on the battlefield. Later, it was considered acceptable for the laity to kill, but clergy had to keep their hands clean.
It was the Emperor Constantine's conversion though that fully institutionalised the problem. Christianity was now aligned with an empire built on conquest. It was no longer a question of whether Christians could take part in wars. It was now simply a matter of when and how they were going to do it. Some nifty theological footwork was undertaken and a theory of the 'Just War' was the resulting map, albeit an evolving one, to guide most Christians through the next 1700 years.
But Remembrance Sunday shows only too clearly that the double standards are still alive and well even today. According to ideas of just war – which most in the church would still subscribe to – war is always an evil, albeit sometimes a necessary one. But such is the Remembrance Day mantra, few can get away with articulating such beliefs without causing upset, outrage and disgust.
Two years ago Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow talked about the 'poppy fascism' in the broadcasting industry, which required their display by public figures every November. There is a similar unspoken oppression in the way that the church deals with Remembrance. Only the very brave would suggest from the pulpit that the dead might not all be 'glorious', that some might have died in vain, or that our recollections should encompass those that our country's soldiers killed – even though that it what the Church is supposed to believe.
A few weeks ago I found myself doing a radio interview with a war veteran who wanted a campaign medal to be given to Bomber Command. Bomber Command, and those involved with it had never received one. The reason, he said, was that the carpet bombing that they had been ordered to undertake in World War Two had been considered by many shameful and embarrassing. They had been quietly forgotten and pushed to one side.
The 50,000 aircrews and personnel who died, need a proper memorial. They should be remembered. And perhaps it is the church's role to make sure that people like those, whose story has been marginalised, continues to be told.
But it is also important that their actions and the consequences should be remembered, - openly and honestly. We should recall that in a few nights of bombing, a similar number - 50,000 but this time civilians - were burned alive in the firestorm at Dresden.
This is not to judge the soldiers and aircrews, or indeed fail to recognise and acknowledge the huge price that they paid. Rather it is to be truthful about what took place, and make sure that all the dead are remembered.
The church is uniquely placed to bring such a perspective. Its new position in post-Christendom may call it to have less focus on the nation state, and call society to a broader view to remember both friends and enemies.
If we accept the Remembrance Day rhetoric, that soldiers laid down their lives to give us the liberties we enjoy today, then surely that must include the freedom to choose how we remember the dead, and say what we believe? Indeed, it does a disservice to their memory not to allow such choice and conscience to be expressed.
Remembrance Sunday needs to experience the liberation to which is pays lip service. The church should be the freedom fighter to bring it. But in the absence of a few more Runcies, the tyranny of partial remembrance looks set to continue its reign for a while yet.
(c) Jonathan Bartley is co-director of Ekklesia and author of Faith and Politics After Christendom (Paternoster, 2006).
See also: 'War remembrance and Christian hope', a theological perspective from Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow - http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7942 [1]


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Hi you all.
"I am called Strider"
I'm from Spain... and too old compared to other people that meets here.
I have too many hobbys... mainly model-making in various scales, even 1/1, but now I'm a little bit focussed in 1/6.
I like: Tolkien's universe, Star Wars (first trylogy), body surf, survival, Lego minifigures, photography, mountainbike, diving, militaria, mountaineering, classical music, action figures, books, weapons, ...
I don't like: Better don't saying anything...
I began with SP-Studio making pictures of my working mates and then other kind of characters.


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Page One
Draconian Budget Cuts to Senior and Disabled Programs
Arnieville, the name inspired by the Hoovervilles in the depression years, was a month long camp out in Berkeley in July to protest threatened cuts in services for elderly and disabled people. Last week Arnieville went to Sacramento with their allies in a last ditch effort to prevent the legislature and the governor from making cuts in their desperately needed programs. The results – nothing. Other than a few arrests for "obstructing state business" they were not heard. The budget was passed with the cuts the legislative leaders had agreed on (in closed sessions).
Then the governor wielded his blue pencil and proceeded to make even more draconian cuts. He blue pencilled 23 line items, altogether almost $1 billion in spending on welfare, special education and various social service programs. Assembly Speaker John Perez (D- Los Angeles) said the governor's vetoes "were directed at making life more difficult for California's working parents and the poorest, sickest and most elderly Californians."
Many social service programs are already struggling to survive. For some programs, such as In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) or MediCal, which literally help people survive, even a small cut can be devastating. IHSS provides home care workers who help seniors and disabled people with the necessary activities of daily living, with meals, washing, dressing, getting in and out of bed, and so on which they can not do for themselves. Without the help, they have no option but to go into a nursing home. One need only listen to a few people with the experience to realize what a horrible alternative that can be. Adrienne Lauby, IHSS recipient and Arnieville activist, says "there are people who have told me they will kill themselves rather than go into a nursing home and I am sure that some of them will. Because they've been there. And the loss of control that you have, like when you get up in the morning, when you have food, it's just immense. And then there's downright abuses ..."
Cut backs in IHSS, MediCAL and other services not only hurt those who need them but have a measurable impact on the economy. A measure of the impact is what economists call 'output multipliers'. A report published by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education explains "Low income residents spend a greater share of their earnings and spend more locally than do higher income residents. For this reason, the multipliers for CalWORKS and IHSS are particularly high since more of the funds go to low income families while the multipliers for tax cuts to upper income tax payers are relatively lower." IHSS, by far the largest program, itself employs over 300,000 workers so even a 10% cut would have a significant impact. The report also points out that some human service programs also bring in significant matching federal dollars.
There is other collateral damage that results from cutbacks in services. Loss of the services of their home care workers can mean that family members have to fill in. A daughter might have to give up her job to become the care giver, thus further reducing the family income. And cutbacks in medical care are putting more and more of a load on hospitals and emergency rooms, all of which has negative effects on the economy. As for the home care workers, who receive minimum pay as it is, even if they don't lose their jobs they could have their hours reduced. This causes additional hardships for the workers because they must be employed at least 80 hours a month in order to qualify for medical benefits.
Among the organizations joined in the coalition with Arnieville is CUIDO - Communities United in defense of Olmstead. [This refers to the 1999 supreme Court Olmstead decision that basically required states to provide persons with disabilities accommodations in community settings rather that institutions. It is a requirement as part of the implementation of the ADA.] Also participating in the coalition are the Health and Human Services Network of California, the California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA), and Parent Voices. (For more information, all have web sites.)
More and more people are feeling the pain and they will continue to appeal and to protest. A big issue, Adriene Lauby explains, is the so-called "anti-fraud" measures that are still in the budget which are used to intimidate and harass. And she points out that the budget process starts all over again in January. "We'll demand that the legislature get more taxes into the budget. We believe in a time of recession the safety net needs to greatly expand."


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Stankovic, Peter
AbeBooks Seller Since February 23, 1998Quantity Available: 1
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About this Item
Bibliographic Details
Title: 1609 DANA NA FRONTI CD GRGE TURKALJA-GUSLARA
Publisher: Izdala Knjizara Kanadskog Glasa, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Publication Date: 1930
Binding: Soft Cover
Book Condition: Fair
Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket
Book Type: FOREIGN LANGUAGE
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Favorite Rascal Flatts Song – Readers Poll
Happy Birthday, Jay DeMarcus! The Rascal Flatts superstar celebrates 41 years today (April 26), and we know it's bound to be a good day for him. After all, the Flatts just released their chart-topping new album, 'Changed,' at the beginning of his birthday month, 'Banjo' is a huge hit with fans and radio alike, and DeMarcus and his wife are expecting their second child — a boy — this summer. Could life get any better?
In order to help him celebrate, today's Taste of Country Readers Poll asks you, what's your favorite Rascal Flatts song? We selected just a handful of the group's most popular hits for you to choose from, mixing a few old ones with some fresh tunes. But if you're in love with a song that didn't make the cut, feel free to tell us in the comments section below!


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Get the essential vitamins and minerals your body needs with DEVA Vegan Multivitamin & Mineral Supplement. Balanced, multiple vitamin and mineral formula enriched with special herbs especially formulated for vegans / vegetarians. DEVA Nutrition is pleased to offer this high potency, balanced multiple vitamin and mineral especially formulated for the unique nutritional needs of vegans and vegetarians. DEVA Vegan Multivitamin put more emphasis on vitamin B-12 and iron because vegetarians and vegans are more likely to be deficient in B-12 and iron.
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Warnings: Always consult your doctor before taking any dietary supplement.


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This weeks deals plus a few project ideas made using the Hamburger Box and Watercolor Words Stamp Set.
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Google is tweaking its infamous algorithm to bury websites littered with ads and with very little content.
The search titan is targeting those sites with layers of ads "above the fold," or at the top of the page and takes some scrolling to get to the content -- if there is any. From Google's Matt Cutts:
We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page.
U.S. & World
(Ironically, Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land reported that Google just sent him an AdSense email saying he needed more ads on his site -- but it did stress that the ads should not to be top-heavy.)
Cutts said that this will really only affect about 1 percent of searches and punish only those with static ads on the top. The pop-ups and overlays (unfortunately) won't be affected. And since Google has already started the culling, those with top-heavy ads are going to have to update their layout or be buried by the almighty Google algorithm.


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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Peace. At Last.
As I pulled into a desolate road, as the trail head is closed, as the whole trail is closed and I now have to run on the sly, I realized that the hunters were not hanging out of the trees. Hunting season in the Sherburne Wildlife Refuge must have finished up on Sunday. Yippee!
I was able to enter the fields without peeking around the trees, looking to see if a person in orange was nearby. I was able to run relaxed, shoulders down, mind floating from one thought to another, running through the peaceful woods without hearing the shots of nearby hunters. It was wonderful.
I noticed that Topaz wasn't running quite as close to me, he was way out to the side, or way up in front, then tearing back to me as fast as he could. I realized that he hadn't been running in his normal manner the past two weeks. The gun shots were making him nervous as well. I hadn't noticed it at the time. I noticed that he was again running with the deer, and realized that the last two weeks he hadn't been running with them. He had been sticking with me. Interesting.
Today the only noise that made me bunch my shoulders to my neck in anxiety was the noise that the three grouse made as they flew out of the tree and right across my path! They freaked me out!
I had an abundance of energy today. This morning I had the BEST ever treadmill workout. I ran my fastest ever. EVER. I was planning on running my usual intervals: warm up, run 5 minutes at 7 mph, 5 minutes a 8 mph, then 1 minute at 8.5, recover a minute, repeat. Today I ran 4 7:34 minute miles. I have never run that. Ever. Ever ever ever before. It was awesome. I had incredible energy and I don't know why, for sure. I have a theory..but who knows for sure. I thought because of my great AM workout that tonight's run would be lacking; but it wasn't. I felt like running another 8 miles. I didn't, it was getting dark and I have two workouts scheduled for tomorrow, but still, this energy is incredible.
I think it is because I am 'detoxified'. I think that the chemical reaction I get from the sugar is gone, I'm eating cups of healthy veggies, lean meats, ample fats and fruits each day, this is giving me great energy. It has to be the loss of the sugar, the additional healthy veggies, etc. that are making a difference in my workouts.
Today after my treadmill workout I had 1 whole egg, 11 whites, 3 cups of sauteed spinach (it shrinks to less than 1 cup cooked) and a cup of mushrooms with a slice of no fat cheese to create a whopper of an omelet. I had a huge pear at about 10. For lunch I had a cup of chopped carrots, a chopped apple, 5 oz tuna, 1 T low fat mayo, raisins. For dinner I had 3 cups of sauteed broccoli, 6 oz of salmon, an onion, soy sauce. For dessert I had a very ripe banana. I was totally satisfied and full. All that fiber, all those veggies, plenty of omega, all good stuff. I had plenty of energy to fuel my workouts. I didn't miss my oats at all, I ran out yesterday and didn't make it to the store today. I was still full when I was going to eat another 200 calories so I just let it go. I think the soy sauce has made me very thirsty and with all of the water I am drinking I could not eat another thing.
I will be sure to get in all of calories in tomorrow; I wonder how my workouts tomorrow will go. I continue to be amazed at how great I feel, how much energy I have, since I have stopped eating sugar. I'm reading more and more data on the connection between sugar and brain chemistry, how it has been proven that sugar can change our brain chemistry over time and it blows my mind.
Now, I must watch The Biggest Loser.
8 comments:
- Runner Susan said...
11 egg whites? Wow. I need to get back on an eating plan, I jumped off the wagon at halloween.
Yeah for the sugar. That *was* one of my addictions as well. I went cold turkey along with, caffeine, asparatmine (which read up on that crap and it's worse than any sugar), cheese and meat. I feel wicked awesome also!!! I never thought I could be satisfied with just fruit for breakfast, but I feel so much better.
Honestly, again, you were one of my biggest inspirations!!
Way to go hitting the weight too! I am thrilled for you!!
Have you ever looked into stevia or agave? I have just avoided anything like that while I detox as well.
Great job and what a fantastic post to read first thing in the morning!!
- Olga said...
Awesome, Juls!!! You rock, girl, just get'r done:)
- Carilyn said...
I'm loving that you, Olga, and Ronda are posting your nutrition info. It is really helpful. I definitely needed a good kick in the caboose and watching y'all is very motivating! Thanks for the great post!
- RunBubbaRun said...
Ever since I read your post about hunter, I've been paranoid running on the trails. I'm glad they don't have deer season where I run, I hope anyway.. Glad your is over with.
Great job sticking with the "sugarless" program, That is some great will power there..
ps. I was thinking about doing McNaughton 100 in '08, I was wondering if you could send some tips my way on how to train for night running, firstname.lastname@example.com
I also love that you're posting your nutrition plans - it is indeed inspirational, and you're reflections on how going sugar-less is affecting your energy levels are incredibly motivating!
- Julie B said...
You guys-my nutritional information for EVERY DAY is in the link on the side bar-it says My Food Leanness Lifestyle or something. Every day for the past year or so is there.
- SteveQ said...
You were voted a board member of the UMTR last night! So was I. You'll get all the details from Larry or Alicia.
I finally started a training blog.


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High Level Concurrency with JRuby and Akka Actors
Many developers are used to low-level concurrency primitives, such as locks, monitors and semaphores. Java also has higher level concurrency utilities such as Atomic Objects and Fork/Join framework. Such primitives still require a lot of attention to shared variables, and are very easy to get wrong. Ilya Grigorik recently discussed other models of concurrency on his recent post Concurrency with Actors, Goroutines & Ruby, where he even introduced a ruby port of Go's concurrency mechanism. These models attempt to make concurrent programming easier.
The actor model is another very simple high level concurrency model: actors can't respond to more than one message at a time (messages are queued into mailboxes) and can only communicate by sending messages, not sharing variables. As long as the messages are immutable data structures (which is always true in Erlang, but has to be a convention in languages without means of ensuring this property), everything is thread-safe, without need for any other mechanism. This is very similar to request cycle found in web development MVC frameworks.
Scala is famous for coming with an Actor library built-in. However, using Scala libraries in Ruby is not easy[1]. Akka is another great project that implements Actors, however it has a java Api, which makes the JRuby integration easier. Why JRuby? Not only to access Akka's actor library, but also because JRuby is one of the few ruby implementations that doesn't have the GIL, therefore it allows true concurrency for all types of applications (IO bounded or not).
Integrating Akka with JRuby
For starters, let's first create a simple actor in Java:
public class PingActor extends UntypedActor { public void onReceive(Object message) throws Exception { if (message instanceof String) { System.out.println("!!! Acted on: " + message); } else throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown message:" + message); } }
This simple actor will just output any message it receives prefixed with "!!! Acted on: ", and will throw exception on any message that is not a string. This example show how simple it is to define an actor: just define a onReceive method that is called whenever a message is sent.
To see this actor working, we need four lines:
ActorRef actor = actorOf(PingActor.class).start(); actor.sendOneWay("hello actor world"); TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1); ActorRegistry.shutdownAll();
The first gets an actor reference and starts it. It is important to note that you cannot create an actor just by invoking new. Not in java or scala (we can solve this in Ruby). This is because there is a lot of AOP going on the background[2]. The second line just sends the message to the actor asynchronously. There two other ways of sending messages, which I'll not cover, but you can read more in Akka's documentation.
The last two lines just give time to the message reach the actor (remember, the sendOneWay method is non-blocking), and stops all actors on the system. Pretty simple right? Let's see how we can do the same in JRuby. Setting up the stage:
require 'java' module Akka include_package 'se.scalablesolutions.akka.actor' end
These lines enable java and make a ruby module with all the classes of se.scalablesolutions.akka.actor package. Basic JRuby setup. Now on to defining the actor:
class PingActor < Akka::UntypedActor def self.create(*args) self.new(*args) end def onReceive(message) puts "!!! Acted on: #{message}" end end
Here we have our first differences. The onReceive is just a cleaner version of the Java one. No type annotations, no type checking and a simpler string output. However, we have to define a classmethod called create, which just invokes new. This method seems to be created by the AOP part of Akka, which doesn't seem to work on Ruby subclasses of UntypedActor. However, we can defined it ourselves. Now to actually using the actor:
actor = Akka::UntypedActor.actorOf(PingActor).start actor.sendOneWay "hello actor world" sleep 1 Akka::ActorRegistry.shutdownAll
Pretty much the same four lines as on the Java version, with a little less parenthesis, and a terser sleep method. The ruby code can be found on this page, and Java code here.
Fixing the Ruby Interface
Much of the code in the former example is infrastructure, but we can work around the static nature of Java classes in ruby. As factored out in akka.rb, we can gather this functionalities into a base class, and rewrite the first example in 8 lines:
require 'akka' class PingActor < Actors::Base def onReceive(message) puts "!!! Acted on: #{message}" end end PingActor.spawn.sendOneWay "hello actor world" Actors.delayedShutdown 1
Using closures we can even enhance our JRuby api with some ideas from the Scala api, making it down to 3 lines:
require 'akka' Actors.spawn { |m| puts "!!! Acted on: #{m}" }.sendOneWay "hello actor world" Actors.delayedShutdown 1
In this example spawn takes a block, and creates an actor that executes it every time it receives a message. As in the Scala API, spawn starts the actor as well as creating it.
But every Object is an Actor!
Alan Kay, the inventor of Smalltak and of the term OO, once said:
I'm sorry that I long ago coined the term "objects" for this topic because it gets many people to focus on the lesser idea. The big idea is "messaging".
This is one of the reasons that Erlang with its actors form an object oriented language[3]
If we look into the resemblance of sendOneWay and the reflective method invocation, which in Ruby is made through send or __send__, it is quite easy to adapt the ruby method invocation to Actor message sending. We start with a simple delegator:
MethodParameters = Struct.new :name, :args, :block class DelegatorActor < Base def self.new(target) ret = super() ret.instance_variable_set(:@target, target) return ret end def onReceive(message) param = message @target.__send__ param.name, *param.args, ¶m.block end end
The important part is the onRecieve message, which takes a MethodParameters object and invoke on the target. The caveat here is that we need to override the new method, because, for some reason, ruby subclasses of Akka UntypedActors will not invoke the initialize method with the arguments passed[4]. However, by turning any object into an actor, this can be the only place such hack is needed.
Now, the next step: adapting the actorRefs to make the ruby method invocation a actor sendOneWay:
class ActorRefHandler public_instance_methods.each do |m| undef_method m unless m =~ /^__/ or m == 'to_s' end def initialize(actorRef) @actorRef = actorRef end def method_missing(name, *args, &block) @actorRef.sendOneWay MethodParameters.new name, args, block end end
Which is a pretty standard implementation of message forwarding in ruby: remove all instance methods (except the really private ones, such as __send__), making sure all method calls are forwarded to method_missing.
With all of this we can write a simple example of making any object an actor:
require 'akka' class HelloWord def hi puts "hello actor world" end end Actors.actorOf(HelloWord.new).hi Actors.delayedShutdown 1
Making it faster
In the heart of all of this lies the problem: making code runs faster by using the machine's cores more effectively. Here we build the good old canonical map-reduce example: word count. We will count 5.4 MB of Shakespeare's texts. The example consists of 3 types of actors: a producer, mappers, and one reducer. The producer generates the chunks of lines to the mappers, which count the words on each chunk and generate a hash of word:count pairs, which the reducer aggregates into a hash of its own.
require 'akka' require 'regular_word_count' include Actors module AkkaDispatcher include_package 'se.scalablesolutions.akka.dispatch' def self.workStealer(name) Dispatchers.newExecutorBasedEventDrivenWorkStealingDispatcher 'mappers' end end file = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'shakespeare.txt') input = IO.readlines(file).each_slice(500).map &:join
This code setups up the code to later define WorkStealer, so that our map actors can share the same message queue. We also load the file in memory, split into 500 lines chunks. If the chunks are too small, the mappers will receive too many messages, which makes the code go slow. If the chunks are too big, the job will not be split evenly among the mappers[5].
start = nil values = Hash.new 0 linesToRead = input.size reduceActor = actor do |message| linesToRead -= 1 hash = message hash.each do |key, value| values[key] += value end if linesToRead == 0 puts ">> All over: Just to say we used any computed value: #{values['shakespeare']}" finish = Time.now puts ">> Total time: #{finish - start}s" Akka::ActorRegistry.shutdownAll() end end
The reducer actor is pretty straightforward. When all chunks are read, he shutdowns all actors and outputs the result and the time it took for the whole map-reduce chain to take place.
mapActorsSize = 2 mapActors = [] wordCount = WordCount.new workStealer = AkkaDispatcher.workStealer 'mappers' mapActorsSize.times do mapActor = actor do |message| reduceActor.sendOneWay wordCount.count message end mapActor.setDispatcher workStealer mapActors.push mapActor end
The mappers delegate the actual work to an immutable WordCount class. The important part is the one that sets the same dispatcher on the actors. More on how this work on Akka's documentation.
mapActor = mapActors.first producer = actor do |message| for line in input mapActor.sendOneWay line end end allActors = [reduceActor, producer] + mapActors allActors.each do |a| a.start end start = Time.now producer.sendOneWay :start
These lines define the producer, start all actors, set the start time, and send the producer actor a message, which begins the map-reduce chain. It is important to note that the program's main thread finishes on the last line. This example shows how It is possible to make it wait for the result and then resume the main thread (it requires using the other types of message sending methods, thus I'll not cover it in detail).
Results: The sequential version runs on my machine (which has 2 cores) in about 4 seconds. This one with map-reduce actors take about 3 seconds, which yields a 25% improvement[6].
This post showed how it is easy to use Akka actors with JRuby and that they can easily enable thread-safe and easy to reason multicore programming. The Akka project has many other tools to help with distributed/parallel programming, such as remote actors, software transactional memory, and integrations with all sorts of persistence/queue systems. This post barely scratches the surface.
All the code on this blog post can be found on github, where all dependencies are easily available, and instructions on how to easily run the code. Give it a try, and see if you agree (or not) with others that writing parallel code can be much easier and fun.
[1] As Daniel Spiewak showed it on his Integrating Scala into JRuby post.
[2] Incidentally Akka was started by Jonas Bonér, who is also one of the creators of the java AOP tool AspectWerkz, which is included in Aspectj nowadays.
[3] From a interview with Joe Armstrong, the creator of Erlang:
Actually it's a kind of 180 degree turn because I wrote a blog article that said "Why object-oriented programming is silly" or "Why it sucks". I wrote that years ago and I sort of believed that for years. Then, my thesis supervisor, Seif Haridi, stopped me one day and he said "You're wrong! Erlang is object oriented!"
[4] In general, you need to create a UntypedActorFactory to pass arguments to the constructor, which we already do (implicitly, using JRuby's closure to interface coercion), but even then Ruby's Actors will not work. This could be worked around by changing the Actors module and invoking another hook method that is not initialize.
[5] Thanks to the Akka committers Viktor Klang and Peter Veentjer for the hint.
[6] This is not a real benchmark. Making a real one requires a lot more attention to details like jvm warm-up, jiting from ruby to java, jiting on java bytecode, and so on.


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The Engage Expo, formerly Virtual Worlds, took place this year at the Jacob Javitz Center, New York. Begun in 2007, this conference is an opportunity for those involved with virtual (computer) worlds, social media, toys, games, and virtual goods to share information and network.
Think games and social interaction with avatars, but don't forget the cha-ching of selling virtual products linked not only to virtual worlds but also linked to products and people in the "real" world. Add the sale of tangible product through these same virtual/3D web sites, and you have a dynamic marketing, branding and sales combination.
Show founder Christopher Sherman feels the show is a particularly important gathering this year. "When times are as tight as they are," he stated in his welcoming letter to attendees, "it becomes all the more important to innovate." And innovating they are. Of special interest to those of us in the marketing world- irrespective of our understanding and appreciation for 3D and Virtual Worlds- is how this media can be used to fully exploit intellectual property by fully engaging the consumer.
"The optimum combination for fully engaging the consumer," Jouni Keranen of iLemon ( www.iLemon.com ) offered, "is to provide the very best in virtual product and also combine products that might actually be received in the home." Think a special virtual item that is contained in the users virtual room that ties to that same item sent via snail mail to the same individual's home (like a poster, for example). Related, show topic tracks focused on how technology providers can help with engaging children, exploring virtual goods and gifts, and engaging youth.
Keranen was part of a panel of speakers titled "Music Goes 3D: The Music Industry's Next Great Frontier." Keranen was pinch-hitting for one of the speakers who'd had to cancel, last-minute. However, he was a great choice since, due to his prior experience with Habbo Hotel, the worlds largest virtual world, he was able to fully tie in the cross-pollination aspect. "In sports, gaming, religion, or music, this technology is very popular," Keranen said. "As far as in the world of music, there is the opportunity for users to be 'stars,' holding singing parties (virtually), and also becoming contest winners just like one might see on the television show "American Idol"- only without any travel."
Sibley Verbeck, founder and CEO of The Electric Sheep Company (www.electricsheepcompany.com), also participated in this panel as a last-minute request. He and Thom Kidrin, president/CEO of Worlds.com Inc., rounded out the panel with moderator and industry consultant John Swords. ( www.johnswords.com ).
"The exciting thing about sites like MySpace was that teens were sharing their music," Verbeck said. "The (virtual and 3D environments) will allow users to play bigger roles in this sharing, such as "dancing" with virtual partners." Verbeck knows a thing or two about being on the cutting edge; his firm worked with the creators of the television show CSI- New York to produce two back-to-back episodes that involved audience virtual interaction to solve a murder.
"For performing artists and record companies, we see opportunities for really reaching fans directly," Kidron offered, describing past ventures with recording artists such as David Bowie. "With new technologies available, we're no longer limited as before, back in those days, when we had 25 meg files and (users were on) dial-up (Internet connections). We've seen so many developments even, say, during the time we were working with Lennie Kravitz. Now the expectations are even higher for mass market- particularly with users matriculating out of videogames."
Kidron's firm helps create additional revenue streams and fan experiences for music industry clients. He described Worlds.com as having the philosophy that the virtual environment is a performer's tool for not only promotion but also fan engagement- and that participation in this environment requires constant interaction or virtual "appearances" by the celebrity. "You can't just slap up a site and let anyone be on it," he said. "The celebrity needs to 'be' there on a regular basis."
Kidron's firm's just-announced strategic partnership with famed rapper Darryl "DMC" McDaniels ( www.me-dmc.com ) certainly fits that bill since the site they've designed for him replicates the actual venues from DMC's personal and professional life as a Hip Hop artist- parties on a New York City rooftop, backstage at a concert, a night at a Hip Hop club, etc. And McDaniels, himself, confirmed his commitment with delight. (Look for the site launch March 31st 2009.)
"I am just buggin'!" McDaniels told me as he described his role with his new virtual site. "There's so many possibilities to (this site) now. When the developers first brought it to me, it was only a few plain rooms with nothing going on. Now (and he'd just seen it that day) it has a room where I can show off (visitors') graffiti. I can have a whole room for that. I have a poetry slam room. We're going to do a contest for that. And I have a history room
And McDaniels truly was buggin'- his enthusiasm was obvious as we talked further about the possibilities of the site also promoting the Felix Organization, a group he co-founded to support orphaned/adopted children. Additionally, from a fan engagement standpoint, the site is stellar in that the performer can also actually collaborate with would-be musicians.
"I can put a call out for new music," McDaniels beamed, "and I can invite people to send in tracks. If the tracks are good, I could even (market) them." As well, McDaniels can collaborate with other professional musicians without even traveling. "If I needed a drummer, say, who was (on the West Coast) we could still 'play' together," he added, tapping me on the leg. Gotta say, this excites the Green part of my brain since, if everyone "rehearsed" virtually, we'd make huge advances in reducing quite a few carbon footprints. Of course, from a sales and marketing standpoint, the site will also provide the performer with a certain degree of independence.
"Even without a recording contract," Kidron advised, " RUN DMC can sell product directly while also offering continual interaction." Those of us not yet fully initiated to the virtual community and media can nevertheless understand the value in cross-promotion of people and goods by way of youngsters' attachment to items they see on-screen. And while, for some, the virtual community might have a bad rap to overcome (via "nerdy" labels or assumptions of ease of inclusion of pornography), this media is also widely deployed for educational purposes.
"Our customers include the United Nations, Cornell University, the Canadian Ministry of Education, Loyola University and many many others," JP McCormick, CFO of Activeworlds.com told me. Activeworlds ( www.Activeworlds.com ) provides interactive software products and services to provide user access and use of Internet 3D environments. McCormick had much to say regarding any negative image of virtual worlds. "While we cannot guarantee that everyone purchasing our products will not be creating a site that has any type of activity considered 'pornographic,'" he said, "we would never align ourselves with anyone doing something like that," adding that, unfortunately, "but it's just like no one knows what a customer is doing with, say, a purchase of a software program like PhotoShop." Activeworlds, Inc. has received accolades from Industry Standard, Bloomberg TV, Time magazine and others, and their strong presence at the show would indicate that this media is something to be on everyone's radar screen. Although this is not a "new idea," more and more established companies are now looking with greater interest into this media avenue (and selling machine) as a way to gain footholds in their markets.
"The (Virtual Worlds) industry didn't 'make it' the first time around," David Post, chairman of Nextpert News Network ( www.nextpert.com ) told me. He should know. Post had dipped his big toe into the pool a few years ago, contemplating starting a children's site. He's subsequently changed his target market- to "experienced male users," newbies, and what he calls "Amazons," women who have a certain "something." Sounds mysterious, sure, but his approach to business doesn't. Post and his firm announced at the conference the launch of their " Next Island" virtual world. And timing, as they say, is everything.
Remember Diet Rite Cola? Bet not, but I'm sure you remember Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, brands that were armed and ready for launch once they'd let competitor spend their marketing and advertising dollars trying to create a demand for something called a "diet soda." Same thing here: Virtual World creators have slogged for years, engendering Internet users' fondness for the 3D and virtual communities. Now that other, "bigger" media are taking a gander at what is becoming very "hot" in the children's and teen's market (think virtual pets and the like) - and by "bigger" media I mean television and film- VW marketing is becoming a respectable entity in which even players like Sony and Columbia Pictures are involved, and in which networks like CBS are making investments.
The excitement at the conference was definitely contagious. After a day with these deep-thinking computer pioneers, even this dyed-in-the-wool book-loving (as in the paper variety) author gave a second thought to taking another look at the Kindle. As Amazon honcho Jeff Bizos was trying to convey recently (as a support to doing away with the book), "we have, as book readers, an association with all those worlds these authors have created. Those are only virtual worlds…" which, I suppose, can be replicated anywhere including a computer screen.
It will be interesting to see where the "virtual" might take us.
copyright 2009 M. D. Caprario
M.D. Caprario is a writer/editor working in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco covering all that is good in the world of entertainment (books, film, television). Reach her at [email protected].
Published on Apr 03, 2011


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The Fountains
It's like summer vacation year-round at this 54-acre resort with barbecue pits, a kids' clubhouse, and a pool area with waterslides and campfire circles.
The Fountains
12400 S. International Dr.
Orlando, Florida, United States 32821
- The Fountains website
About this Hotel
Price From $119
'Hood Flanked on one side by bustling International Drive's shops and restaurants; on the other by picturesque Lake Eve, home to paddleboats, playgrounds, and fishing sites. The Fountains is 15 minutes from Universal Studios, 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, and eight minutes from Sea World and other minor attractions.
The Vibe Summer vacation year-round. There are 54 acres of grounds with paved walkways winding around the lake, and DIY barbecue pits impart a sense of being on your own, away from it all. Kids are catered to with a 20,000-square-foot "clubhouse," complete with centers for teens and kids as well as the popular 75,000-square-foot Wakoola Springs outdoor pool complex, with waterslides, interactive fountains, and two campfire circles.
Rooms Decked out in cream with subtle jewel-toned accents, villas have fully equipped kitchens, ceiling fans, flat-screen TVs, washers and dryers, and Jacuzzi tubs—all for a very reasonable price. While the decor is fairly standard—fluffy white beds, muted beige walls—rooms are bright and airy, and many villas have screened-in porches overlooking the lake.
Plus There is an indoor pool as well as a massive outdoor pool/play area, and the H20 restaurant is true to theme with unique running-water art and accents. Bike and fishing-boat rentals are available.
Minus The staff can be less than attentive. Villas are all nonsmoking, but there are occasional reports of a stale smoke smell. Outdoor breezeways have bare concrete floors that are slick when wet. There's an extra fee for housekeeping.
Free Wi-Fi? No; free hardwired Internet access.
Credit Cards Accepted All.
Details A two-bedroom, two-bath villa from $119. Mandatory resort fee of $11.75 daily.


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Sigh. Our pre-Valentine's Day dinner was a complete bust this year. We wanted to have an intimate VD dinner a little earlier because we had plans for a double dinner date on the actual day. So we got all dressed up and headed to our favorite "special occasions" restaurant.
The food and service was exceptional as always. However, after the 3rd course of our 5-course prix fixe menu, I started to get clammy, diaphoretic (sweating perfusely), tachycardic (heart racing), dizzy, lightheaded, vision/hearing was fading. I started to get anxious because I didn't want to make a scene in a busy, full house restaurant. So I decided to excuse myself from the table to get some fresh air. Well, the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor of the dining room asking everyone hovered over me , "what happened?" to which they replied with, "you passed out." So much for not making a scene in a busy restaurant, right?
I was brought to the ED [while protesting the whole way there when my partner drove me], and ended up being admitted into the hospital. I spent my entire weekend holed up on a hospital bed watching a marathon rerun of Law and Order: SVU (which I love!), waiting for more exams and exam results. I was finally discharged yesterday, and have this new found appreciation for my bed, couch, and being able to shower whenever I want.
My partner stayed with me the entire time I was in the ED. Before all this happened, she was planning to paint at her artist studio, but those plans were foiled when I just had to pass out in the middle of a restaurant. She was extremely patient when I was being difficult, brought me things from home to keep me occupied, clean clothes to change into, and food so that I wouldn't have to eat the hospital food. As a way to show her how much I appreciate her, I baked her a vegan brownie for Valentine's Day. This may not seem like such a huge gesture, but let me just preface this by saying that I am, by no means, a baker.
Fudgy Vegan Brownie for My Valentine
1 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1/2 cup hot water
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon powder
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch round pan with vegan butter or canola oil spray.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, sugar, vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup of the hot water.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the ground flaxseed with the remaining 1/4 cup of hot water. Add the flax egg to the large mixing bowl, and combine until well incorporated. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean (for the most part, since this is supposed to be fudgy). Remove from oven and cool slightly before serving.
Makes 8 servings.


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The change in the rule — it's called "bottle-to-throttle" in the airline business — comes several days after two United pilots were arrested in Scotland and charged with suspicion of being under the influence before a flight to the U.S.
Weak economic data around the world also unnerved investors, who flipped back into selling mode after driving a rally Tuesday on hopeful signals that the U.S.-China trade war may not be worsening so much.
In a report released Wednesday, top U.S. science experts said annual cases of Legionnaires' disease jumped more than fivefold from 2000 to 2017, and that as many as 70,000 Americans get the disease every year.
After a night out with friends in River North, off-duty Chicago police Officer John Rivera apparently realized a dangerous situation was unfolding. Moments later, the 23-year-old was fatally shot inside his vehicle.
Stunt planes, Italian fare, vintage finds and hummingbirds usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago.
The Trump administration's move to effectively weaken protections under the landmark law could have stark consequences for the 480 plant and animal species classified as endangered or threatened within Illinois.
Watch the Aug. 14, 2019 full episode of "Chicago Tonight."
Until this week, 18 documents from the landmark case had remained under seal, even though the former officer was convicted 10 months ago for the murder of Laquan McDonald.
Sometimes, the very thing that brings a person the most trouble in life can become a source of joy and inspiration. Meet local singer – and mentor – Keya Trammell.
Long the subject of federal scrutiny, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown explains why she will not seek re-election.
Amid workplace raids, what responsibilities do employers have to verify immigration status? And what rights do workers have?
Democrats take the stage for Governor's Day at the state fair in Springfield. Our politics team tackles the 2020 election and more in our weekly roundtable.
Coins and cash are the focus the annual World's Fair of Money. It's in the Chicago area this year and we visited to get a load of all the loot.


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Harbor-UCLA Medical Center »
LAC+USC Medical Center »
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center »
Welcome to the Department of Urology at LAC+USC. We welcome you to our website and we look forward to participating in your care! We are a state-of-the-art treatment and research facility associated with the Keck School of Medicine/ USC Institute of Urology.
We are committed to achieving excellence in patient care, advancing medicine, and educating the physicians of tomorrow through resident and fellowship programs. Our urology department is ranked among the best in the nation by US News and World Report.
Conditions We Treat:
Surgeries We Specialize In:
Meet Our Surgeons
Urologists at LAC+USC are internationally recognized leaders in the treatment of urologic cancers, kidney stones, BPH, trauma and reconstruction, and female pelvic medicine and are faculty of the Keck School of Medicine
Our faculty are assisted by Residents and Fellows in the Department of Urology. The urology residency is a comprehensive 5-year program aimed at training the leaders and surgeons of tomorrow.
Please see our residency urology website for more details:
Dr. Leo Doumanian
Dr. Sia Daneshmand
Dr. Hooman Djaladat
Dr. Mike Nguyen
Dr. Anne Schuckman
Dr. Mary Samplaski
Dr. Andre Abreu
Dr. Andrew Hung
Dr. Richard Hurwitz
Dr. Shilo Rosenburg
Dr. Sumeet Bhanvadia
Dr. Jeffrey Loh-Doyle
Our Clinic
Our nurses and urology clinic staff are experts in caring for urologic conditions.
Our clinic is equipped with the latest technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of all urologic conditions.
Directions to Our Clinics
Both of our clinics are located in the new, state-of-the-art LAC+USC Hospital.
2051 Marengo Street
Los Angeles, CA 90033
Our Procedure Clinic (B4J) is located in the Diagnostic and Treatment Building on the 4th floor. Look for the Green Signs!
Our Outpatient Clinic (A4A) is located in the Clinic Building on the 4th Floor
Please Park in the Visitor Parking Lot 5 Off of State Street or Lot 9-D Visitors Parking
Clinic Telephone Number:
(323) 409-5787
Meet Our Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants
Martha Romero, Lupe Gonzalez, Nikki Choa, Maria Lau
Our urology physician assistants and nurse practitioners provide comprehensive, coordinated, and individualized care to patients with all urologic conditions. They have over 20 years of combined experience in treating urologic conditions.
Patient Pamphlets and Handouts
HydroceleOrchiectomy Patient Info Sheet
Laparoscopic Nephrectomy Patient Info Sheet
Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy Patient Info Sheet | Spanish
Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy Patient Info Sheet | Spanish
TURBT Patient Info Sheet | Spanish
TURP Patient Info Sheet | Spanish
Ureteroscopy and Laser Lithotripsy Patient Info Sheet | Spanish


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"A stylistic, low-poly 3D short that sees the Gods of Olympus descend upon central London to battle it out in a trial of athleticism to light the torch."
Friday, August 30, 2013
Short Film: The Olympians
Short Film: Little Kaiju
"Little Kaiju." directed by TWiN (Jonathan & Josh Baker)
"The whimsical journey of a mysterious vending machine dwelling creature who explores the shadowy corners of Tokyo after dark.
Kaiju (怪獣 kai-jū) is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster"."
Labels: cute, short film, video
Short Film: Golden Age - Simulation
"Golden Age - Simulation" by directed and produced by Paul Nicholls
Winner of best film on CG architect awards 2011, "The Golden Age" is a film that speculates on a simulated architecture. It is concerned with technology, synthetic programmed spaces, and the temporality of our immediate conceived environment, physical or otherwise. It is part of a wider project which looks at a 'downloaded' architecture, radically changing the consumerist lifestyle we are all used to.
"Memory is a fleeting thing, often constructed with fragments of objects and places in a nonsensical arrangement in the mind. Golden Age - Simulation attempts to visualise this development of memory from the very abstract to the construction of whole environments in a single strand of memory (translated as one long camera shot)."
Labels: short film, video
Short Film: Star Drunk
Star Drunk is a short sci-fi film that was written and acted by drunk people. Unabashedly drunk.
"Star Drunk is the sequel to the viral short film 'Cleverbot: Do You Love Me.' Star Drunk is an experiment in writing a short film while drunk; several writers from Portland got together one night to write the script. We promised each other that whatever we wrote that night, we'd produce as a short film. We ended up creating a Star Trek-Star Wars-Battlestar Galactica'esque parody with laser gun fights and space battles.
Taking the concept a step further (and stranger), we asked our cast to be drunk on the night of filming."
Labels: humor, parody, science fiction, short film, video
Sweets: Star Trek Cookies
Sugarbelle used a star cookie cutter to form little Trek insignia and then followed Bakingdom's awesome cookie tutorial to create some matching crew members.
Photography: Game Forever
"Game Forever" by Jean Yves Lemoigne
Labels: photography, video games
Event: On the Grind
"On The Grind" a solo show by Francisco Perez (Pac23)
On exhibit through the end of August at Kidrobot Miami.
Sculpture: Upcycled Darth Vader Mask
Upcycled Darth Vader Sculptures by Gabriel Dishaw
[Previously: Darth Vader Upcycled Mask]
[Previously: Darth Vader Upcycled Mask]
Posters: Khaleesi
"Khaleesi" by Adriana Melo
Labels: game of thrones, posters, prints
Posters: 10th
"10th" by Adriana Melo
"I'm not quite sure if Doctor's home planet was featured in it's second season(I watched the whole series in a month LOL). This pinup was colored specific for a Doctor Who convention here in Brazil("GallifreyCon"), so I was asked to add Gallifrey's skyline somewhere. The original is a tiny bit different."
Labels: doctor who, posters, prints, science fiction, television
Posters: The Hobbit
Labels: lord of the rings, movie posters, posters, prints
Posters: Classic NES Triptych
Classic NES Triptych by Mexican illustrator Carlos Lerma
Labels: posters, video games
Posters: Back to the Future
"Back to the Future" by Spain-based Duke Doks
Prints available for purchase from Society6. US$15.60
Labels: movie posters, posters, prints
Mash-Up: My Neighbor Titan
"My Neighbor Titan" by Ron Chan
"It appears I drew another Attack on Titan mashup. Not sorry. These guys are just way too fun to stick into inappropriate situations."
Labels: anime, Illustration, mash-up
Infographic: Stealing Images
Posted by Pipedreamergrey at 8:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: infographics
Merchandise: Doctor Who Shot Glasses
Doctor Who 50th Anniversary 12 Pack Shot Glasses
This set is available for purchase from ThinkGeek.com. US$59.99
- Set of glasses with the first 11 doctors and one TARDIS with color changing logo on all
- For collectors, fans, or people who like small quantities of liquid
- Officially licensed Doctor Who collectible
- Capacity: each shot glass holds 2 oz.
Labels: doctor who, merchandise, television
Link Round-Up: August 30, 2013
"Let the Wookie Win" by PJ McQuade
Limited edition prints available for purchase from Etsy.
Limited edition prints available for purchase from Etsy.
News: Hasbro took a vote, and the internet has spoken. Not content to simply remove the losing token from the game, Hasbro will send the offending piece directly—and permanently—to jail. The ballots have been counted, and the people have said F the iron—the new Monopoly token will be a cat. Purists of the board game might not like the move, but game-maker Hasbro let the cat -- in huge form -- roam around London this week.
News: The Smithsonian Just Added a Chunk of Code to Its Permanent Collection
The Art of NASA: Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, Annie Leibovitz, and other icons celebrate space exploration and translate NASA's mission "to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown" into stunning images.
Astronaut Bedding for those who dream of traveling to the stars.
How to Explain Game of Thrones
How to Robot: Your Guide to LEGO Mindstorms EV3
How Video Games Revived The Dying Art Of Japanese Woodprinting
San Francisco freelance artist Scott Petterson has custom created a realistic series of photo realistic twelve-inch Blade Runner action figures.
Labels: link round-up, posters, prints, round-up, star wars
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Short Film: Contr Temps
"Contre Temps" Created by Jérémi Boutelet, Thibaud Clergue, Tristan Ménard,
Short Film: Walter: The Gathering
This beautiful, shadowy short film follows a man on the run from a government in the midst of a war zone.
Short Film: The Guardians Tale
This short is a well-told twist on the classic tale of "Beauty and the Beast."
"On a lonely alien planet shrouded in mystery, an ominous beast guards a powerful treasure. One day he receives an unexpected guest - A seemingly innocent girl crash lands on his world. The two will forge an unusual friendship, and teach one another that looks can indeed be deceiving."
Labels: animation, science fiction, video
Video: Adventure Time In Lego
"Our friends at Adventure Time hired us to play with LEGO for a couple months. It was one of the most MATHEMATICAL-EST projects we've gotten to do."
Labels: adventure time, legos, video
Link Round-Up: Gallifreyan Language
BrittanBGood has gone ahead and created a who language system based on the Gallifreyan symbols seen on the Doctor's crib in "A Good Man Goes to War." It was inspired by Sherman's Circular Gallifreyan, which you can learn online. The idea intrigued me, so I looked around and discovered that a sizable community formed around the past-time of re-creating the language. Check out some of the best sites below.
Labels: doctor who, infographics, link round-up, round-up
Sculpture: Natural Engine
"V12 Laraki" by Eric van Hove
Van Hove was granted a Cda-Projects Grant to re-create a Mercedes v12 engine entirely from natural materials, including bone, fossils, terra cotta, a wide range of exotic woods, and more. The piece was hand-crafted by thirty-five craftsman in Morocco over a nine-month period.
Labels: carvings, sculpture, technology
Papercraft: The Human Body
The Human Body by Kelli Andersen of design studio Tinybop
Andersen created over two hundred illustrations of bones, veins, muscles and other anatomy for this stop motion video and an interactive app.
Labels: anatomy, papercraft, video
Papercraft: The Heart
Labels: anatomy, papercraft
Posters: NES Classics
Mario, Metroid & Link Posters by Jorsh Pena
Created for the 3NES art show at the Bottleneck Gallery
Created for the 3NES art show at the Bottleneck Gallery
Labels: mario, posters, video games
Photography: Yiming Hu
Labels: landscape, photography, space
Photography: Microcities
"Microcities" by Matteo Procaccioli
Matteo Procaccioli's most recent project changes perspective by capturing cities on film from a bird's eye view. Observed from above, the cities take on a different aspect in which the buildings dominate, enabling the viewer to understand the rational geometry that characterizes them, their relationship with the surrounding countryside, and to see the wide streets or the rivers running through them.
Labels: cityscape, photography
Link Round-Up: August 29, 2013
Photoshopped Carbonite Refrigerator by Quentin Devine
Quentin's "Hanasonic" fridge was made for the "Fridges" image challenge at B3TA.
Quentin's "Hanasonic" fridge was made for the "Fridges" image challenge at B3TA.
The Beautiful Klingon Designs JJ Abrams Rejected for Star Trek 2
The Coen Brothers' Storyboard Artist Gives a Fun Lesson on the Proper Usage of Storyboards
Covariance is a particle detector-inspired art installation in the London Canal Museum's ice wells. It is part of the Superposition: physicists and artists in conversation project.
PBS Game/Show is a new webseries from PBS Digital Studios written and hosted by Jamin Warren of Kill Screen that focuses on video games and modern culture. The first episode examines the question "Will Mario, Link, and Sonic Last Forever?"
Labels: link round-up, photoshop, round-up
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Short Film: Silent Moon
"Silent Moon" by Monsterobot
Labels: short film, stop motion, video
Sweets: The Wind Waker Cake
"An adorable Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker cake I made for a 1st Birthday last week! I am totally in love with it, even if Link's cocky eyebrow pissed me off at 4 am from lack of sleep. The whole ship is cake, while the King of Red Lions is carved foam and chocolate.
I tried to stay true to the games' style with it's boxy shapes and smooth finishes. There's that Rolled fondant technique from last week in the form of dozens of rolled fondant waves!"
Labels: legend of zelda, sweets, video games
Sweets: Game of Thrones Cookies
Game of Thrones Cookies by 1Nerd1
"I have spent just over 10 hours on these Game of Thrones house sigil cookies - I am exhausted! There are 15 cookies in total, each cookie is 3 inches wide and 4 inches long.This is my second time baking cookies from a stiff dough (I only ever make drop cookies because I'm lazy) and only my second time piping. I cut the shapes free-hand and iced with a #2 piping tip. I have no idea if that was even the right tip to use, I really am an amateur. Patience was the key here basically and I sure did need a lot of it.I am very happy with how they have turned out - okay so they are not professional quality, but I still love them. I'm just excited that I managed to finish them in time for the season premier tonight! :DEdit: Yes, I know that the Greyjoy's banner has a black background. I ran out of black dye at 11pm and couldn't be bothered to head out to get more so the icing turned out grey instead of darkening to black."
Labels: game of thrones, sweets
Sweets: Game of Thrones Cookies
Labels: game of thrones, sweets
Video: OnlyLeigh
OnlyLeigh is my new favorite YouTube channel this week. Her hilarious short animated films portray the trials and tribulations of life as an internet fan girl.
Video: Google Saber
Google Introduces Experimental Lightsabers
Labels: humor, short film, star wars, video
Posters: Consolation
"Consolation" by Simon Gould
Labels: posters, video games
Posters: The Hobbit
"The Hobbit" by Matt Ferguson
Labels: lord of the rings, posters
Fresh Take: Retro Vault Hunters
Posted by Pipedreamergrey at 8:30 AM 1 comments
Labels: fresh take, video games
Fresh Take: Adventure Time
Via: Reddit
Labels: adventure time, fresh take, Illustration
Advice: A Cartoonist's Advice
"A Cartoonist's Advice" a Bill Watterson quote
Illustrated by Gavin Aung Than of Zen Pencils
Illustrated by Gavin Aung Than of Zen Pencils
Link Round-Up: August 28, 2013
Star Wars: A New Hope by Chris Roberts
News: Working with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, FujiFilm has developed a 3D scanning and printing process that accurately reproduces Van Gogh's most famous pieces. Including the frames, the canvases, and right down to the individual brush strokes. All for a slightly cheaper $34,000 price tag. Via
The Full presentation of John Lasseter accepting the Disney Legends Award on Steve Jobs' behalf has been posted to YouTube.
Han Solo In Carbonite As a Ring For Your Finger
Tim Noble & Sue Webster make art (NSFW), including an ongoing series of abstract sculpture which, when spot-lit, throw very human shadows. Larry Kagen, former chair of the art department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute makes similar works you might also enjoy.
The Full presentation of John Lasseter accepting the Disney Legends Award on Steve Jobs' behalf has been posted to YouTube.
Han Solo In Carbonite As a Ring For Your Finger
Tim Noble & Sue Webster make art (NSFW), including an ongoing series of abstract sculpture which, when spot-lit, throw very human shadows. Larry Kagen, former chair of the art department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute makes similar works you might also enjoy.
Labels: link round-up, posters, round-up, star wars
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Fan Film: The Last of Us
This movie is called Furthest Reaches. It's an original story set in the world of the PS3 video game The Last of Us, and it is an intense film.
Labels: fan film, short film, video, video games, zombies
Short Film: Eleven
"Eleven" by Joshua Marvel
Eleven is a sci-fi comedy about a space marine who reminiscent of Buzz Lightyear who finds himself outnumbered on an alien planet.
"Operative 4511 is a space marine on his own and outnumbered. Sometimes the voice you reach at the other end of the comm can mean the difference between life and death! 'Eleven' plays with the visual style of fps video game cut scenes."
Labels: animation, comedy, science fiction, short film, video
Monday, August 26, 2013
Tech: MakerBot 3D Scanner
MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis introduces the MakerBot Digitizer, a consumer-grade 3D scanner!
Labels: 3d printing, gadgets, tech, technology
Documentary: Art of Portrait Photography
"The Art of Portrait Photography" by PBSoffbook
A well-composed portrait is the height of art. It can capture depths of meaning and evoke deep wells of emotion that transcend most any other type of subject. This installment of OffBook examines portrait photography through a discussion of its history and an examination of several recent modern projects.
Labels: documentary, photography, video
Lecture: Pixar's Story Process
"Pixar's Story Process" by SHSK9Studios
My former student Pixar Animator and Story Artist Austin Madison, comes home to give a lecture on the process of how Pixar creates a story.
Short Film: Skyrim: Into the Void
"Skyrim: Into the Void" by Warialasky of MachinimaPrime
Read an interview with one of the short film's creators, Landon Sperry.
This astonishingly well-made fan film for Skyrim could very well be a trailer for an HBO adaptation of the game.
"Dovahkiin, the noble dragonborn hero, is cursed in a fight with a vampire. He spends a considerable time wandering the realm before being captured by the Dark Brotherhood, who offer him a deal. Dovahkiin agrees to help the Brotherhood save a captured member from the Necromancers, in exchange for a cure to his vampirism."
Labels: fan film, fantasy, skyrim, video, video games
Short Film: Beyond
"Beyond" directed by Raphael Rogers
"Arya is the last remaining member of her family, a lineage with a unique genetic code that grants the ability to survive the folding of temporal and spatial boundaries... In short, she can teleport. Tasked with exploring new planets, she is in search of something that will explain who exactly she is and where she comes from."
Labels: science fiction, short film, video
Sweets: Star Wars Cookies
Star Wars Cookies by Hello Naomi
Photographed by Leighton Wallis
Video: Dungeons & Dragons with Siri
Papercraft: Lifesize Jack Model
Lifesize Jack Model (from Mass Effect 3) by Tankball
Labels: papercraft, video games
Papercraft: Hand-Cut Typography
When I first saw this, I would have bet money it was done digitally, but Pablo Alfieri took the time to do this all by hand. Also, like so many photos posted to this blog, the organization of the items in the photos caught my eye. Let's just call it OCD porn.
Labels: papercraft, typography
Papercraft: Quilled Anatomy
Quilled Anatomy by Sarah YakawonisAvailable for purchase from Etsy. US$17
This poster is printed in full color on 100 lb cover weight paper, with an aqueous sheen. There is a .5 inch white border around the image allowing for easy framing. The total size of the image is 13 x 11 in. The prints feature the paper quilling of Sarah Yakawonis.
Labels: anatomy, papercraft
Papercraft: Paper Quilling Typography
Labels: papercraft, typography
Mural: Graffiti Site Specific
"Graffiti Site Specific" by Italian graffiti crew Truly Design
Italian graffiti crew Truly Design has hand-painted this anamorphic installation for the 2013 Architettura in Citta festival. When viewed from the correct angle, the installation reveals an eye and paintbrush to spectators.
Labels: installation, mural, optical illusion
Crafts: Bridge Yarn Bombing
Knit the Bridge is a large-scale public art project with the goal of co-ordinating yarn-bombing the Andy Warhol Bridge in Pittsburgh with over 600 pre-knitted panels, each created by a separate artist. Eighteen hundred volunteers worked with the support of (and approval) of the Allegheny County Executive's Office to complete the project.
Paintings: Star Trek Ink Paintings
Chinese ink paintings.
Labels: paintings, science fiction, star trek
Posters: Google Events
"Google x Collabo Arts" by Seattle-based graphic designer Junichi Tsuneoka
If Google's services were events, these might be the posters they used to promote those events. They look like something out of a Target ad campaign.
"I was hired by Collabo Arts, the artist representetive agency to design a series of posters to be used for Google events. These posters were designed in many different sizes for different locations and applications. Each poster represents Google's particular product/service and I came up with a certain look to tie different products together. The challenge was to come up with the common visual style theme since each product is very different in the nature of the service. Art direction by William Rowan at Collabo Arts."
Posters: See You Space Cowboy
"See You, Space Cowboy" by Iowa-based illustrator Alexander Iaccarino
Prints available for purchase as the artist's website.
Prints available for purchase as the artist's website.
Labels: anime, Illustration, posters
Mash-Up: Angry Brands!
"Angry Brands!" by Russian graphic designer Yakushev Grigory
"In the future, on the Earth far, far away... It is a period of brands war... Most of them have been forgotten. The only noticeble brand-weapon that they could use - birds..."
Labels: angry birds, Illustration, mash-up
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