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Kurt Nimmo
March 1, 2013
California Democrat senator and dedicated gun-grabber Dianne Feinstein went on the Piers Morgan Show earlier this week and blamed the "gun culture," the NRA and Wayne LaPierre for mass shootings like Sandy Hook.
After shamelessly exploiting dead children and grieving parents to push her anti-Second Amendment agenda, Feinstein attacked LaPierre, who said last weekend:
I've been amazed at how rapidly this debate deteriorated from what has proven to work to what has proven to be the political agenda of those bent on attacking the Second Amendment to our Constitution. Dianne Feinstein herself commented that she has had her gun ban legislation in her desk for over a year – waiting for the right time to introduce it. Really? Waiting for an unspeakable act to occur so the American people could be persuaded to buy into her political agenda? It's not about making our kids or our streets safer, it's all about their decades-old agenda.
"I don't really expect to agree with much that Mr. LaPierre says," Feinstein told Morgan. "Of course, he has the right to say it, and I have the right" to attack the Second Amendment.
After going after the NRA and LaPierre, Feinstein blamed the so-called "gun culture" for the alleged carnage at Sandy Hook.
"It's gun culture…. that gun culture is letting bad things happen," she said.
British citizen Morgan said Feinstein and the gun-grabbers dedicated to eviscerating the Second Amendment are "doing a fantastic job" and concluded the interview by saying "I absolutely applaud you."
"Piers, thank you," Feinstein gushed, "You have been wonderful. Thank you so much for your help. It is uphill all the way."
We are in the FINAL HOURS of our 4th of July Super Sale! Get double Patriot Points and free shipping on the hottest items!


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In Defence Of The DSLR
Posted by Stuart Herbert on August 15th, 2015 in Opinion.
This afternoon, I've seen several folks on Twitter sharing a well-meaning story called Please Don't Buy A DSLR. Each time, the tweet echoed the same sentiments: DSLRs are too difficult to use, and they're too large and bulky.
And that got me thinking.
You see, the SLR as a platform is one that I've grown up with. I've been shooting with SLRs for the best part of 20 years now. The SLR isn't just my camera of choice, it's the one that I know best. Hopefully some of that comes through in the photos I've posted here over the years.
But it also means that I don't see the SLR in the same way that you do, if you've been using your camera phone or point-and-shoot compact to date. I've never seen the SLR that way, because it was my first kind of camera.
I'm not sure if I've ever given much thought to whether a DSLR is too bulky, or too difficult to use. Well, there was that one time I was shooting with a monster Sigma 400mm lens …
Are DSLRs Too Large And Bulky?
Well, the fact that I need a dedicated camera bag alone makes it hard to argue against the idea that it's bulky. The camera and lens straddle the entire width of the backpack. There's nowhere for a dedicated macro lens to fit. And the 400mm zoom lens that I have my eye on? I'll need to find a bigger backpack before I can buy that. My camera bag is already much bigger than my hiking rucksack.
This thing is heavy too. I hurt my right arm earlier this year moving an old amp that I was getting ready to sell on. Until a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't handle my DSLR camera body and lens because of the weight. I'm not sure how long it will be until I can try an all-day shoot again.
So yes, DSLRs are undeniably large and bulky. But are they too large and bulky? I think that depends on whether you see yourself as a photographer, or whether you prefer to take photos.
When I go out with the camera, I'm going out specifically to do photography. The camera isn't tagging along on some other adventure. The camera is the reason why I'm going out in the first place.
The majority of my camera bag is taken up by my lens collection. With the DSLR, I can switch lenses to suit my subject and my distance from the subject. I get real zoom, not a fake digital one where you're losing detail or image quality. I get precise control over what's in focus in the shot, and what's out of focus – a key part of the artistic side of photography.
A perfect example of what I mean is this shot taken last year in the Brecon Beacons.
In this photo, I've been able to make Mike the subject of this photo by making him the only part of the shot that's in focus. At the same time, the photo works because you can still see what he's doing – trying to capture Llyn Cwm Llwch on his camera phone. That was possible because I could use the zoom the frame the photo.
The rest of the bulk is the camera body itself. Combined with my lenses, I can shoot handheld in moonlight …
… or handheld in a conference hall (it's so dark the laptop screen is the main source of light!)
… or I can take shots like this.
When it comes to challenging conditions like these, you can't overcome physics. You need to gather enough light to have an image to capture. You need large lenses to gather that light, and you need a large sensor to capture that light without capturing too much visual noise at the same time.
Try and replicate these shots yourself on your camera phone to see for yourself.
Are DSLRs Too Difficult To Use?
To deliberately take a great shot with a DSLR, you need both technical mastery of your camera and artistic mastery of the medium. Of the top of my head, this includes:
- ISO speed – sensitivity setting of your sensor
- aperture size – controlling the amount and angle of light hitting the sensor
- shutter speed – controlling the length of the exposure when you take your picture
- focal length – to frame your shot
- focal length combined with distance to subject – to control visual distortion
- focal length combined with distance to subject and aperture size – to control depth of field
- focal length combined with ISO speed and shutter speed – to control camera shake
- height of the sun – to influence the colours in the photo
- angle of the sun – to control the blue of the sky
- angle of sunlight reflecting off the subject – to control highlights and shadows
- the histogram in the camera – to check for good contrast and exposure without over-exposing the shot
- image composition – who or what is the focus of the photo?
- image background – what else is visible in-frame?
- timing – what is moving? where is it moving to? where do you want it to be when you click that shutter release button?
- breathing – keeping the camera still so that the shot isn't blurry
… and so on. Boy, does that seem like a lot of things to be juggling at once when taking a photo. No wonder photography seems hard!
I'm going to let you in on a secret. The whole time I've been taking photos, I've only once managed to capture exactly the photo that I wanted to. Once. Here it is.
That's a shot from the end of the road I live on, taken during one of the rare winters where we actually had enough snow to be worthy of the name. Previous weekend, we'd driven along the road on the way to do Christmas shopping, and I'd pictured that exact scene as we carefully made our way out. It's the one and only time that the final image is 100% what I wanted to capture.
If you're interested, that's a success rate of less than 1 in 10,000. It might be closer to 1 in 50,000.
It doesn't mean that the other 99.99% of my photos aren't good. With well over 1,000,000 views on Flickr to date, I must be doing something that you like. But yeah, taking photos is hard. Here's some examples to show why.
That shot was taken (handheld again!) one evening in London. There was the technical challenge of shooting at night, where one stable primary light source (the sun) is replaced by lots of competing and sometimes chaotic primary light sources (street lights, shop displays, passing vehicle headlights). The subject is a silhouette of a passerby, reflected in the window of the Museum of London. I had to frame the shot, work out the required exposure, find an angle to manage reflections, all before the passerby had walked by.
That shot was taken on a walk through the woods at Beyond the Border one year. The main technical challenge was getting precisely focused on the light whilst throwing the leaves behind out of focus. Then there's the need to find an angle to show the electric cable. It's black, and could easily disappear because I'm reducing the amount of light that hits the sensor in order to show up the filament of the bulb.
Some flowers planted in a display at the Eden Project. Should be very simple, right? But what about the shadow being cast by that low sun? The shadow means that the part of the flower that's nearest the lens is much darker than the leaf on the other side of the plant – and that's reflecting the sun quite brightly. What's the best angle to capture the flowers and their stems? Did you notice the building's wall in the background? Did you notice the lines running along the wall? They're as much a part of the photo as the flowers are.
My last example – a wing walker putting on a show at the Bristol Balloon Festival one year. Any time there's sky in the photo, I'm thinking about where the sun is. The camera sees a different shade of blue depending on the angle between the sun and the lens. I need to hold the camera steady enough whilst tracking a moving object. Empty blue skies make for boring photos. I need to wait until there's clouds in shot to make the background more interesting. I need to wait until the moment the wing walker is doing something that will look interesting in a still photo.
In each and every photo that's worth publishing, from the simplicity of some flowers in a display to the complexity of one of the world's leading cities at night, there's always a lot that the photographer has to do to get the shot. Some of it is technical, and some of it is artistic.
If you replace a DSLR with a different kind of camera, does anything become easier? Well, in a word, no. At no time in any of those photos was the DSLR adding any complexity to the shot. If anything, the DSLR often made these shots easier. I'm not sure that any of them could have been duplicated on a camera phone, or on a compact camera that didn't offer full control over shutter and aperture speed. And several of those shots benefitted from being able to use lenses that you can't get on camera phones or compact cameras.
The complexity is inherent to photography as an art medium, and is down to physics (light) and composition (artistic taste). All that the DSLR does is expose you to that complexity. Nothing more.
Other Points In Favour Of DSLRs
The DSLR platform brings some important advantages over other types of camera.
I've already mentioned physics – the gathering of light, and the capture of light whilst controlling noise. Indoors, late at night, or more northernly or southernly you go, this becomes more and more important. It's nearly always very dark indoors, and by definition it's dark outside late at night. No surprises there. But, if you live in Canada or the States, you might not realise that it's much brighter outdoors there than it is here in Europe. We're much further north than you are. That makes it much harder to take good photos with smaller kit.
Phase detection auto-focus systems are, for me, the next advantage of the DSLR platform. This is an old technology, but it works almost flawlessly. And it's fast. By contrast, contrast-based auto-focus systems are slow, inaccurate, and struggle to track subjects well or work in low-light. I'm sure that one day there'll be enough computing power in cameras to overcome these problems, but right now they're very hit-and-miss systems.
I must not forget manual focus. The ability to switch the motor off, and dial in the focus entirely by hand is an important artistic tool when combined with manual aperture control. Works best if you're lugging around a tripod (more bulk!).
Inter-changeable lenses are important. Other platforms (notably micro four-thirds) also have inter-changeable lenses, but only the two leading DSLR platforms (Nikon and Canon) have an extensive range of lenses both from the manufacturer and from third parties such as Sigma. And the quality of those lenses … oh my.
I haven't mentioned flash photography, as it isn't something I do. But it's another area where the DSLR platform offers a major advantage over other camera types.
DSLRs are very versatile tools. You can mix and match bodies and lenses to optimise for the kind of photography that you enjoy the most.
This is all good stuff, but it isn't what prompted me to post in defence of the humble DSLR.
Final Thoughts
I work in tech, and it pays for my photography hobby. Over the last few years, there's been a steady rise of a culture that I wasn't aware of before. Somehow, it's become acceptable not to know what you're doing or how anything works. Sometimes it's presented slightly differently – that's there's far too much for anyone to know – but the sentiment is the same. We're moving from the days of the meta-ignorant to an active cult of the ignorant.
As many of the people I follow on Twitter work in tech, it is this culture spilling over into photography that I saw this afternoon. And honestly, I'm deeply deeply uncomfortable with the notion. It isn't a culture that I grok.
Because I don't understand it, I don't want to call "bullshit" on it, and I don't want to call people out who promote this culture. I don't walk in their shoes, and I don't see things through their eyes. I don't know what the barriers are that are stopping you from learning the things that I have been able to learn.
The best I can do is offer to teach what I know. So, if there's enough interest, I'll make the time to put together an easy step-by-step course to the humble DSLR and basic digital photography. It'll be a group course, run online, and there will be plenty of homework involved.
Just let me know if this is something you want.Be the first to leave a comment »

subset: commoncrawl


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Court orders use of "negative keywords"
Orion Bancorp, Inc. v. Orion Residential Finance, LLC, No. 07-1753, 2008 WL 816794 (M.D. Fla., March 25, 2008)
Plaintiff Orion Bancorp, Inc. is a bank operating under the ORION name and registered trademark since 2002. Defendant Orion Residential Finance, LLC provides financial and real estate related services, and used the term "Orion" in interstate advertising and in the domain name "orionresidentialfinance.com" without Orion Bancorp's authorization or consent.
The court entered an agreed permanent injunction, ordering Orion Residential Finance to refrain from any and all use of the term "Orion". The defendant was prohibited from purchasing the word "Orion" as a keyword to trigger sponsored advertising. Moreover, it was required to activate "Orion" as a "negative keyword" (specifically preventing Orion Residential Finance's ads from appearing when one searches using the terms "Orion").
N.D. Cal.: Competitor's trademark as keyword causes initial interest confusion
Storus Corp. v. Aroa Marketing Inc., 2008 WL 449835 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 15, 2008).
Plaintiff Storus Corporation ("Storus") sued Defendants Aroa Marketing, Inc. ("Aroa") and Skymall, Inc. ("Skymall") for trademark infringement based on the defendants' use of Storus' mark "Smart Money Clip" to trigger sponsored listings. Storus sells its patented Smart Money Clip, and Aroa sold competing products under its Steinhausen mark which were marketed as the "Smart Money Clip". Aroa tried unsuccessfully to argue that Storus' mark was a descriptive term not entitled to protection (but offered no evidence of lack of secondary meaning, i.e., it did not prove consumers do not think of Storus when they see the Smart Money Clip mark).
The Court found that Aroa's use of Storus' mark in the sponsored ad caused initial interest confusion. In 11 months, the ad was displayed 36,164 times in response to a search for "smart money clip," resulting in 1,374 clicks on Aroa's ad. The court found that the marks were identical, were used on the same type of product, and were marketed via the Internet. (Even though Aroa's mark appeared in the ad, Storus' mark appeared first, was larger, and was underlined).
11th Circuit: Competitor's Trademark as Keyword Likely to Cause Confusion
North American Medical Corp. v. Axiom Worldwide, Inc., 2008 WL 918411 (11th Cir. April 7, 2008)
Eric Goldman has a thorough report on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog of a case where the defendant's use of the plaintiff's ACCU-SPINA and IDD THERAPY trademarks in metatags constituted use in commerce, and thus trademark infringement where a Google search listed the defendant as the second most relevant organic search result (below the plaintiff). In a footnote, the court did hint that if the defendant's website included an explicit comparative advertisement, things might have come out differently.
Possible Class Action Suit against Google and PPC Groups
Finally, Sarah Bird reports on SEOmoz.org that a class action trademark and ACPA lawsuit against Google and other domain parking agencies will move ahead. (Goolge's adsense program contributes to the pay-per-click links on "parked", i.e., recently acquired, or tasted domain names). The Plaintiff's are seeking to hold them liable for these PPC links which may offer competing goods. Though for Google's part, it notes on its FAQ that it is not responsible for the domain names on which its adsense ads appear, it seems disingenuous to suggest that their algorithms are not behind the PPC links that appear. Google's method for trademark owners to object to sponsored links places the burden for policing this practice on mark owners.


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"Obamacare is racist"
When I think of elderly people, including the ones naive enough to have believed Obama's lies (at their age, they should have known better), my heart bleeds as I try to imagine them navigating Obamacare, and that's true whether the system works or is broken. No matter what, a generation that wasn't raised on computers, and that may be further hampered by physical disabilities, is not going to find even the best possible site easy to navigate.
My mother, who was born in the very early 1920s, is a very bright woman, but she was never able to master computers. The is true for all of her friends, both the ones I've known my whole life and the ones I've met since she moved into a retirement community. My father, my mother-in-law, and my father-in-law, alav ha-shalom, all had the same problem. They were old dogs, and computers were a new trick. This cartoon pretty much sums it up:
If you're laughing, it's because you know someone — probably a person over 70 — who views the computer precisely that way. Obviously, this isn't true for all older people, but it's certainly true for a greater number of them than you'd find in the 50-70 cohort. Moreover, in the under 50 cohort, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't have at least some familiarity and comfort with computers.
For the older people, dealing with Obamacare is going to be a nightmare — and they are the some of the ones who will be most intimately connected with it. After all, I doubt that many, if any, of them have insurance with pregnancy benefits. That means that, if they don't get insurance through some retirement fund, their policies will be cancelled and they'll be pitched into the Obamacare marketplace. Once there, they're going to have to figure out the Obamacare exchange.
Robert Avrech, at Seraphic Secret, reminds me that I've forgotten another cohort of people who can't handle the difficulties of Obamacare. Unlike the elderly, who are limited by vision problems or arthritis or dementia or unfamiliarity with a new technology, these people are limited by . . . race, and only by race.
Yes, race. To see why, check this out.


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Here's a good reason to leave early or just take the whole day off: The Yankees are throwing a house party.
The Bombers will open the Stadium up to the public, for free, Monday afternoon so that fans can watch the game three of the ALCS, broadcast from Anaheim, California.
"We wanted to provide a place for our fans to come together to cheer for our team even if the game itself is taking place across the country," team managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, son of George, said in a press release. "This is a way of of saying thank you for their continued support."
Turnstiles between gates 4 and 6 will open at 3:30 p.m. for the 4:13 p.m. game. Fans will be able to watch in the Great Hall or on the Field Level. Food and concession stands, as well as the NYY Steak restaurant and the Hard Rock Cafe will be open as well.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. played a part in getting the Yankees to open the stadium for the game.
"I hope that people from all over the city will come out to cheer for the Yankees and share in what's sure to be a great night right here in the Bronx," Diaz said in the release.
There is no word yet on the plan for games 4 and 5.


text:
I am reading the header of a file and I know to use an unsigned char of 8 bits but what about an 8 byte portion of the header? Do I use an unsigned char[8] or unsigned unsigned char* for data types. I would think if I know the specific size I use an array and if it changes during runtime to dynamically allocate it, but generally what should I use.
Also I see that the fread function from the C standard library reads into a (void *) data type while the fstream class reads it into a char*. Is it safe to cast an unsigned char* into a char* or should I start off using a char* from the beginning even if it might affect the reading of the byte.


text:
Salivary glands produce saliva, which moistens the mouth to help a
person chew and swallow food. Saliva also contains substances (enzymes) that
begin the breakdown of food.
There are four pairs of salivary glands:
Last Revised:
April 27, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine & E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Best Buy Cuts 2,400 More Jobs
Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. electronics retailer, is cutting 2,400 jobs, or 1.4 percent of its total, as the retailer seeks to cut costs amid increased competition from online retailers and lower sales of its bread-and-butter televisions and notebook computers.
About 600 of the jobs will be from its 20,000-person Geek Squad service and repair unit with the other 1,800 coming from store staff. Best Buy has a total of 167,000 employees.


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Car Pa Car
At Car Pa Car we strive and pride ourselves on providing the best possible service to every clients. If you are looking to purchase Quality Used Cars
Request a Callback
What They Say
SVG Media
'We were looking for a Mobile App Solution, and Alif Technologies provided us with best possible solution in the Mobile Application Development' They were very good in Hybrid Mobile Application we are satisfied with their skills… 🙂
'We have appreciated the level of service and would be keen to recommend you to others as a professional organisation who consistently deliver.'
Ladeo Consults CEO
'I have utilized the services of Alif Technologies for the past 3 years . There response is always very fast. They always come-up with a better resolution to our queries. I am in a contract with them and feels happy and satisfied with their services and customer handling…..
Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
Getting the Job done is the basic priority of developers at Alif Technologies. Kudos ! to ATPL, and wishing them Best of Luck ahead.


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#RSL Tweets of the Day (@RealSaltLake)
Nick Rimando @NickRimando
Don't be fooled the photographer was amazing. Haha cheers man "@kylemartino: @NickRimando looking very dapper my man!pic.twitter.com/NpxNhPow"
jonny steele @jonnysteele22
Rabbit food @NickRimandopic.twitter.com/0mg8cB5R
SeBasTian VeLasQueZ @TiaN_Futbol
Yooo This Storm Is Crazy! No Power In The Hotel And Everything!#RemindsMeOfSC #HottHumidTropicalStorms
Jillanie Marcon @JillanieMarcon
So glad for a #RSL game tomorrow totally need a pick me up work was terrible! #3pts will be even better then just a game!
Marianne Norris @cleatsup10
Wow @ColumbusCrew will do anything to freak out #RSL!!@NickRimando @jonnysteele22 #3points
Suryanshu Rai @SuryanshuRai
Lost in the world of #RSL... Its amazing.. #renderMan
RSL News Stand "A/V Club"
(AUDIO) ESPN700Sports: RSL MF Will Johnson in the "Bill and Hans Show" – Friday June 29, 2012
(AUDIO) USsoccer.com: WNT vs. Canada Preview Podcast
(AUDIO) USsoccer.com: Q&A with Kelley O'Hara in Salt Lake City
(VIDEO) USsoccer.com: Studio 90: WNT vs. Canada Preview
(VIDEO) Soccer By Ives: Steve Nash's Showdown in Chinatown: Match Highlights
RSL & MLS News and Notes
RealSaltLake.com: RSL Match Preview and Notes @ Columbus Crew - June 30, 2012
The Salt Lake Tribune: Soccer: RSL getting defensive as pressure mounts
Deseret News: Struggling Real Salt Lake hopes for rebound in Columbus
KSL.com: Real Salt Lake looks to redeem winning ways against Columbus Crew
MLSsoccer.com: RSL looking to fortify defense before Crew showdown
MLSsoccer.com: Crew vets have long memories when it comes to RSL
Fox Soccer: Real Salt Lake-Crew Preview
RSL Soapbox: Real Salt Lake vs. Columbus Crew - Match Preview
Under The Crossbar: Squad tinkering, trades unnecessary: Our defense isn't crocked
OKEspanol: Real se refuerza para salir del atasco
MLSsoccer.com: MLS TV Listings (Wk 17): Where to catch all the action
Soccer By Ives: MLS Week 17: A Look Ahead
Soccer Without Limits: Ranking The MLS Stadiums
US and International News and Notes
USsoccer.com: U.S. WNT and Canada Set to Kickoff at 12 p.m. MT in Sandy, Utah
USsoccer.com: The WNT Blog: Morgan Wins Euro Pool
USsoccer.com: The WNT Blog: Shenbaum, You are a Funny Guy…
USsoccer.com: The WNT Blog: Thank you Panasonic!
USsoccer.com: The WNT Blog: Three days in Utah
NBC Sports: ProSoccerTalk: Talking out women's soccer's future, with U.S. Soccer at the head of the table
KSL.com: U.S. Soccer Women's National Team brings Olympic sized opportunity to Utahns
Standard-Examiner: U.S. women's soccer squad faces tune-up at Rio Tinto Stadium
Soccer America: Spain-Portugal breaks viewership record
Soccer America: Spain braces for Balotelli
Soccer America: Italy coach says Spain still favorite
Soccer By Ives: This Weekend's Soccer on TV
Soccer By Ives: Spain, Italy duel for Euro 2012 title
Prost Amerika: USWNT prepares for Olympic send-off match


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I have to admit, I almost never quick release, but as I have been progressing in the sport I realize that I need to change that.
So when do I quick release?
1. If the kite is looping uncontrollably. This hasn't really happened to me.
2. Lines are tangled or twisted and have the potential to start looping.
3. Dangerous sharp and or hard objects nearby. (possibly use secondary as well)
4. Sudden scary weather approaches.
What about?
1. If (while on water) lines cross (But do not tangle) with another kite? Assume both kites fall to the water harmlessly? Should you quick release the moment you see this happening? In my mind QR in this would increase the odds of the lines tangling and creating the dangerous looping effect. The three times this has happened to me, nobody quick released and kite lines stayed taught but went to the ground.
2. If after a relaunch you are flying and notice that the lines aren't perfect but the kite still flies more or less soundly. I've had this happen a few times with my cabrinha and have body dragged to the beach keeping the kite low and signaled for help or quick released once the kite reached the land if nobody present.
3. Anything else?
Also could anyone comment on the difference between modern kites and c-kites on this issue? A lot of the safety posts I'm finding on this are dealing with kites from back in the day which I believe were very different.
Finally, I check my quick release before each transition as well as my chick loop and donkey penis.


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I spent the day photographing the snow this week and looking at how the wildlife is coping with the cold when I came across this perfectly round patch of uncovered grass where a fox had curled up the night the first snows fell.
I thought it must have been left by a deer at first but then I spotted the tracks. The snow must have fallen whilst he slept.


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Guicing Up Your Testing
Simple Dependency Injection
The simplest solution is to get rid of the reliance on that singleton. To test the invoice class, there is no reason you need a real database to back it (even if it is a fast one). Look at what you need out of the DbTaxRateManager. There are only two methods you need: setTaxRateForCustomer, and getTaxRateForCustomer. These take a customer ID and return a double. That sort of functionality can be supplied by a hashmap just as easily as a database, and it's faster and lighter too.
Producing a class implemented like this that simulates the desired functionality from the database implementation is known as faking the object (rather than mocking the object, which is more akin to providing a script that the mock object is expecting to follow, and then following it). Either way, the point here is to test the Invoice class and its calculation of sales tax on a number of items rather than the TaxRateManager, so if you assume that the TaxRateManager just stores and retrieves sales tax percentages based on a customer ID, you end up with something like this:
public class FakeTaxRateManager implements TaxRateManager { private Map<Integer,BigDecimal> taxRates; public FakeTaxRateManager() { taxRates = new HashMap<Integer, BigDecimal>(); } public void setTaxRateForCustomer(int customerId, BigDecimal taxRate) { taxRates.put(customerId, taxRate); } public void setTaxRateForCustomer(int customerId, double taxRate) { this.setTaxRateForCustomer(customerId, new BigDecimal(taxRate)); } public BigDecimal getTaxRateForCustomer(int customerId) { BigDecimal taxRate = taxRates.get(customerId); if (taxRate == null) taxRate = new BigDecimal(0; return taxRate; } }
The second thing to notice is that your new FakeTaxRateManager implements an interface called TaxRateManager. For your dependency injection to work, you need to create an interface that the Invoice class uses, rather than a specific implementation. The interface can be refactored out by most modern IDEs with just a few clicks, and should look something like this:
public interface TaxRateManager { public void setTaxRateForCustomer(int customerId, BigDecimal taxRate); public void setTaxRateForCustomer(int customerId, double taxRate); public BigDecimal getTaxRateForCustomer(int customerId); }
Now, you just run through the Invoice class and replace references to DbTaxRateManager with references to the TaxRateManager interface.
Doing this brings all sorts of benefits beyond easy testability, and I will cover some of these in future articles, but in a nutshell, what you have done here is to eliminate an implementation dependency. Invoice no longer relies on a class that uses the Database. Instead it uses an interface, the implementation of which you don't care about as long as it fulfills the contract.
Of course, you can't run against an interface—somewhere along the way you need to have a specific implementation for TaxRateManager that does the work. For real life usage, that will be the DbTaxRateManager implementation, but for your testing you want to use the FakeTaxRateManager instead.
The easiest thing to do (without using something like Guice anyway) is to just pass the TaxRateManager implementation you want to use for the Invoice in to the constructor whenever you create a new Invoice object, something like this:
private final Customer customer; private List<Item> lineItems; private final TaxRateManager taxRateManager; /** Creates a new instance of Invoice */ public Invoice(Customer customer, TaxRateManager taxRateManager) { this.customer = customer; this.taxRateManager = taxRateManager; // set up the line item list this.lineItems = new ArrayList<Item>(); }
So now, when you create an invoice, in the real life situation you can pass in the database implementation of the TaxRateManager, and for testing you can pass in your fake one that is much faster.
If you can understand the above concept, you know all you need to know to grasp dependency injection. It's just a fancy way of saying "I will tell you what to use when I configure you".
So, if that's all there is to dependency injection, why do you need something like Guice?
Well, think about this. If you use this trick everywhere, in most instances of most classes in your application, what will that do to your code overall? For one thing, you are going to be doing a lot of passing around of injectable items throughout the application. When I want to make an Invoice somewhere in my application, I need a TaxRateManager implementation to pass in. I can either go and find one somehow (which is likely to cause the same kind of inflexibility as looking it up from within the Invoice class itself), or I can pass the TaxRateManager implementation I want to use in to the code that creates the Invoice, which means that needs to be either looked up or passed in from somewhere else, and so on. Pretty soon, all of our code is going to be dominated by loads of parameters being passed into constructors or method calls all over the place, and the code is going to get ugly.Also, although the singleton implementation that most people use in Java applications is a nuisance, the concept of re-using a single TaxRateManager rather than creating a brand new one for each Invoice is still probably a good one. Barring concerns about thread safety or being a performance bottleneck, it is probably wasteful of memory (not to mention database connections in the case of the database implementation) to have a new DbTaxRateManager for every Invoice. You could pass around the exact same instance among all of the constructor and method calls, but no one can drop the ball or you will end up with multiple instances.
So, although passing in parameters solves one problem, that of concrete dependencies between class implementations, it introduces a lot more and is not really practical in a large scale application. This is why other patterns such as factories, directories, and so on have become popular; they provide you with some organized way to find and use an object instance that you require.
The problem with directories and factories is that they are heavy and usually a little complicated to set up. They are great in large, enterprise systems, but might be too heavy or bulky for small and light applications. Most of them use string naming lookup too, which carries its own risks (strings that are incorrect can't be caught by a compiler and will only show up at run time).
What you need is some easy and light way to "wire up" all of these inter-object dependencies at runtime. You should be able to specify the intent of what implementation is used under what circumstances in a configuration somewhere, and then let some library do the work of getting everything hooked up, be it for testing or a production run.
Page 2 of 5
This article was originally published on June 21, 2007
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I continue to be interested in the challenges of developing forms that give a good experience for visually impaired users using screen readers. Previously we have focussed on checking accessibility properties at design time. However, analysing the form design template doesn't always fit the user workflow. There are cases where accessibility properties are populated at runtime by script or by data binding. In this case, these properties are un-populated in the design version and consequently, the design-time accessibility checker will give warnings — yet at runtime the accessibility experience may be just fine.
In addition, we want to make sure that the accessibility experience adapts to changes in dynamic forms. We need to be able to test accessibility in various states — e.g. after subforms are added or removed.
The obvious answer is to perform accessibility checking at runtime — while the form is open in Reader or Acrobat. Today we'll look at a solution to that problem. A mechanism for instrumenting your forms to allow you to analyse the state of accessibility information at runtime.
The Solution
For those of you who want to use the solution without necessarily understanding how it works, follow these steps:
- Drag this fragment anywhere onto your form. It will add a hidden subform with no fields (just script)
- With the form open in Reader/Acrobat, paste the value "AccCheck" into any field on the form
- From the resulting dialog, select which accessibility checks to run
- Copy the results from the report dialog for future reference
- All elements with accessibility issues will be re-drawn with a 2pt red border. If the element is a field or draw, it will also be shaded light red and the accessibility error text will be assigned to the tooltip.
- Close your form and go back to Designer to fix any identified issues
Try it out with this sample form. Note that this form dynamically populates some properties. The Designer-based accessibility checker will report twice the number of errors.
Hopefully the embedded checker is innocuous enough that you could leave it in a production form. But if not, you should be able to inject it during your testing phase and remove it when you're ready to deploy your form.
The Deep End
For those who want to know how this works…
The challenge is to add something to your form without introducing an observer effect — i.e. analytics that can run without changes to your form UI and without impacting normal form processing.
The runtime accessibility checker is designed as a form fragment that you can drag onto any form. The fragment is a single, hidden subform with no fields, no data binding — just script.
We want to trigger the analysis script without requiring the user add a "check accessibility" button to their form. In this case, I added a propagating change event to the fragment subform. This script checks the xfa.event.change event property. If the change text is equal to "AccCheck", we launch the accessibility checker.
The checker uses JavaScript dialogs to prompt for checks to perform and has a second dialog to display the results.
The JavaScript performing the checks is adapted from the Designer version of the accessibility checker. The main difference is that it analyses the Form DOM (the runtime) instead of the Template DOM (the design).


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These Folks Go Ape Sh*t When Kanye & Jay-Z Perform "Niggas In Paris" At Victoria's Secret 2011! [Unedited Version]
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There are many fantastic blogs on the Internet, and the Weblog Awards are a way to honor them. If you think this blog is worth nominating for an award, I would be grateful. You can pick the category you think Duck Duck Gray Duck falls under, but "Best-Kept Secret" might be the most fitting as I am a more underrepresented blog. Click here to vote. It's really easy and only takes a minute. Nominations close on January 27th. You will need to verify the entry with your email and mine went to SPAM, so please check your junk folder.
Thank you for voting!!!!


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Ghyslain at Westport Village
Hiring line cook with experience working in a full service restaurant. Must have open availability for days and weekends. Restaurant is open five days a week serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hours of business are 9:00 am to 9:00 pm.
-Works consistently to improve guest satisfaction and ensure a high quality product is served
-Working knowledge of health and safety guidelines
-2+ years restaurant experience
-High school diploma/GED
-Culinary education preferred
Apply in person at:
Ghyslain at Westport Village
1215 Herr Lane
Suite 101
Louisville, KY 40222
A new quick casual dining experience serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Patrons can enjoy shopping in the boutique which features pastries, homemade gelato, and a wide assortment of Ghyslain's gourmet chocolates.
Learn more about our company at http://www.ghyslain.com


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- Share
VBAC births carry more risks
Weighing up numbers Women who had a Caesarean section for their first child's birth face more health risks if they attempt a vaginal birth with their second, say Australian researchers.
The study included more than 2300 women at 14 hospitals in Australia who were preparing for their second child. About half signed up for a vaginal birth after C-section, or VBAC, and the other half chose to repeat the surgery.
Women who planned a repeat Caesarean had a significantly lower rate of complications than women who chose to deliver vaginally the second time - 2.4 per cent risk of death or serious complication compared to 0.9 per cent in the surgery group.
Similarly, the risk of complications to the mother, such as major bleeding or haemorrhage, was 2.3 per cent for women who delivered vaginally compared to 0.8 per cent for a planned repeat Caesarean.
The study, published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, aimed to compare women who were eligible to try either option and assess the risks of each.
"Until now there has been a lack of high-quality evidence comparing the benefits and harms of the two planned modes of birth after previous Caesarean," says lead author Caroline Crowther from the Australian Research Centre for the Health of Women and Babies at the University of Adelaide.
"The information from this study will help women, clinicians and policy makers to develop health advice and make decisions about care for women who have had a previous Caesarean."
Caesarean births are on the rise worldwide, and they account for nearly a third of all births in Australia. Most second time mothers, some 83 per cent, in Australia opt for a repeat Caesarean the second time around.
Among women in the study who wanted to try a vaginal birth, only 57 per cent were able to proceed with it while the rest ended up having a Caesarean for medical reasons.
May sway mothers away from VBAC
While both options presented relatively low risks for women in Australia, the research is likely to convince more women to avoid an attempt at a vaginal birth after a Caesarean, writes Catherine Spong of the US National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development.
"Mothers are unlikely to choose to await labour regardless of the counselling or the risk to the mother," she said in an accompanying editorial.
"In the end, the onus falls on the clinicians," adds Spong, who was not involved in the research.
"Neither the patient nor the clinician would have to fret about whether to attempt a trial of labour or choose a repeat Caesarean if the first Caesarean had been prevented."


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Everybody is comfortable with the concept of apps on their mobile devices nowadays. Indeed, what exactly would an iPhone or iPad actually be without apps? But the concept is growing rapidly, and spreading to other forms of home entertainment kit. Pure radios now sport them, as do Logitech Squeezebox radios, and the sort.
However, one area where apps are on the cusp of taking a firm foothold is the good, old fashioned telly. We're already au fait with the concept of the connected TV, now all we need are the applications to download onto our humble sets, and we'd be as happy as puppies in a toilet roll factory. This, dear friends, is the start of something big...
- Format
- Samsung Internet@TV
- Price
- Free (with Lovefilm Unlimited rental subscription)
- Where
- Internet@TV on C7000, C8000, C9000 series LED TVs, some plasma TVs and Blu-ray decks
You might think that you're being spoiled with Freeview HD and the plethora of channels on offer, but, to be honest, you can often flick through all of them and still find absolutely nothing worth watching. That's where VOD comes in.
Video on demand is not exactly a new concept, and some Virgin Media customers are too young to remember when that specific provider added catch up services to its platform, but it's definitely a novelty to have it on your TV without the need for a set-top-box. Or, at least, it's not often you can have access to over 2000 movies, without the need for any other kit save a broadband connection and router.
That's what Lovefilm offers owners of Samsung's current range of connected TVs and Blu-ray decks. And, for all intents and purposes, it's a completely free service.
The film rental company has a permanently stored app on all Internet@TV equipment which, when accessed, offers a portal to a vast array of film titles, some old, some new, some borrowed, and not so many blue (although...).
There is a catch though, you do need to be a subscriber to Lovefilm's Unlimited DVD rental scheme in order to get into the system, but if you are every film is available whenever you want to watch it. They start almost the moment you click on "Play", and, for such things, are decent quality (clearly the higher up Samsung's kit food chain you go, the better they will look).
The only thing that's lacking is high definition. In the US, Netflix runs a similar service, and streams HD content, but the broadband speeds over there are universally better. Lovefilm will probably step up a grade when the UK's networks hasten, but until then, it's SD all the way.
Nonetheless, it's a tidy, tasty streaming setup that rewards owners of Samsung kit. And for that, it's Pocket-lint's App of the Day.


text: >> At least, there is actually a TS where all channels (with different >> sid) point to the same PMT. > Strictly speaking service ID is unique within a transponder.. But there > could be cases of violation too.. > But in this case, how do you proceed ? based upon program number ? Having multiple services with different SIDs and same PMT-PIDs is not a problem at all. The PMT has the sid (or "program number") in their "table id extension" field, so you should filter for it (in any case). Then you get the correct PMT. It's even allowed in the standard, i think (though i have no quote to proove it at the moment) Felix


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The prospect of U.S. and Japanese troops fighting side by side in the next land war in Asia — and heaven forbid the need for either — comes a step closer with a little-noted provision in U.S. realignment plans announced last week. The agreement to shift 9,000 Marines from Okinawa to other locations in the Pacific also includes plans to build joint U.S.-Japan training bases on American territory in the Northern Mariana Islands and perhaps elsewhere.
This would mark the first time that U.S. and Japanese troops routinely train together for combat operations and would dramatically deepen the connection between those forces. "This is a historic shift in the relationship," says Noboru Yamaguchi, a retired lieutenant general in Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and now a professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan. "The fact that these will be joint facilities on U.S. soil makes the relationship much more of a two-way street. This is not just renting land to the Marines."
(MORE: Okinawa Troop Withdrawal: Why the U.S. and Japan Have a Lot More Talking to Do)
The plan also calls for joint U.S.-Japan surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Japan's southern islands — which include territory claimed by China and Taiwan — as well as transfer of patrol boats and other military equipment from Japan to "coastal" nations like the Philippines.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and President Barack Obama are expected to endorse closer cooperation and coordination between U.S. and Japanese forces following their meeting in Washington on Monday. (Noda and Obama endorsed the agreement during a joint appearance after their Oval Office meeting. "We have agreed to a new joint vision to guide our alliance and help shape the Asia-Pacific for decades to come," Obama said.)
Although plans have not been finalized, a joint Japan-U.S. inspection team last week visited potential training sites on Tinian, Pagan and other islands in the Northern Mariana chain. It was the latest in a series of inspection trips to the islands in recent months. Negotiators have already agreed that some of the $3.1 billion that Japan has pledged to help pay for relocation of the Okinawa Marines can be used to build the joint facilities. Specific sites in the Marianas, which could include Guam, are to be identified by the end of the year.
The joint facilities would allow U.S. and Japanese forces to train together for combat operations on a regular basis and coordinate key battlefield issues like communications, logistics and artillery and air support.
(PHOTOS: The U.S. Military in the Pacific)
"This really creates an opportunity for significant deepening in our operational relationship together," a senior U.S. defense official said at a Pentagon background briefing. The plan must be approved by Congress, which has commissioned an independent study of U.S. basing requirements in the Pacific; that study is expected to be completed in June.
About 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan, but because of political sensitivities and lack of space, most U.S. and Japanese forces do not routinely train together, nor have command and control structures been tightly integrated. But that is beginning to change.
Japanese ground troops began training with Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., two years ago, and Japanese F-15 pilots began using U.S. training ranges in Guam last summer. A joint U.S.-Japan air-defense headquarters opened at Yokota Air Base, near Tokyo, last month and a joint headquarters for the U.S. Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces is scheduled to open at Camp Zama, also near Tokyo, later this year.
The realignment plan also represents a significant shift in U.S. strategy. The Marines in Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii and Australia would be organized as largely autonomous "air-ground task forces" that could be dispatched individually or collectively to trouble spots in the region.
(MORE: Why Okinawa Won't Be Celebrating if 4,700 U.S. Marines Move to Guam)
Currently, the Marines in Okinawa are organized largely as the vanguard of a U.S.-based force that would reinforce the Korean Peninsula in the event of a major land war. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which conducts routine, ship-based patrols of the Asia-Pacific region, would continue to be based in Okinawa.
Tinian Island is located about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) southeast of Japan. It served as the launching point for U.S. air raids on Japan during World War II, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. About two-thirds of the island is leased by the Department of Defense but is largely unused.
The first of about 200 Marines from Iwakuni Air Station, Japan, are currently on Tinian for a monthlong training exercise — the first there in more than a decade. No Japanese troops are participating, for now.
So far there has been little public discussion of the broadening military posture in Japan, which includes the easing of arms exports last December. The U.S. is committed by treaty to defending Japan, but Japan's pacifist constitution bars the use of force outside Japanese territory.
Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba dodged questions about potential conflicts last week, saying only that Japan must keep up with changes in the global security environment.
Whether U.S. and Japanese troops end up fighting side by side remains to be seen. Says Yamaguchi, a former lieutenant general in Japan's ground forces, "You never know."
PHOTOS: Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945


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USDA Animal Care, a unit within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, administers the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). This federal law establishes requirements concerning the transportation, sale, and handling of certain animals and includes restrictions on the importation of live dogs for purposes of resale, prohibitions on animal fighting ventures, and provisions intended to prevent the theft of personal pets. Regulations established under the AWA set standards for the humane care and treatment for certain animals that are exhibited to the public, sold for use as pets, used in research, or transported commercially. Facilities using regulated animals for regulated purposes must provide their animals with adequate housing, sanitation, nutrition, water and veterinary care, and they must protect their animals from extreme weather and temperatures. The regulations also establish specific requirements that must be met prior to the importation of dogs for resale purposes.
Highly-trained USDA inspectors located throughout the United States conduct routine, unannounced inspections of all facilities licensed or registered under the AWA to assess these facilities compliance with AWA. Inspectors are classified as veterinary medical officers (VMOs) or Animal Care inspectors (ACIs). All VMOs have graduated from a veterinary medical college, and many have been private-practice veterinarians prior to joining USDA Animal Care. ACIs have education in the biological sciences and/or extensive experience in the care and handling of animals. USDA Animal Care also employs veterinarians who specialize in the care of particular animal species as well as those with a specific area of animal expertise such as research or transportation.
Inspectors use the AWA standards and regulations as the baseline by which they assess a facility's level of care provided to animals. If a facility is meeting the federal standards, USDA knows the animals there are receiving humane care and treatment. Conversely, when inspectors identify items that are not in compliance with the federal standards, USDA Animal Care holds those facilities responsible for properly addressing and correcting those items within a set timeframe. If the noncompliance is not corrected, or if it is of a serious enough nature, USDA has the option to pursue appropriate regulatory compliance and enforcement actions.
The AWA, which became law in 1966, does not cover every type of animal used in every type of activity. The following animals are not covered: farm animals used for food or fiber (fur, hide, etc.); coldblooded species (amphibians and reptiles); horses not used for research purposes; fish; invertebrates (crustaceans, insects, etc.); or birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus that are bred for use in research. Birds (other than those bred for research) are covered under the AWA but the regulatory standards have not yet been established.


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Video Sculpture of Survivor Testimony to Be Installed at L.A. Museum of the Holocaust (Jewish Journal)
Video Sculpture of Survivor Testimony to Be Installed at L.A. Museum of the Holocaust
By Jonah Lowenfeld
The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, which opened its new building in Pan Pacific Park in October 2010, has announced plans to install a $1 million "video sculpture" using interview footage from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.
Composed of 65 flat screens of various sizes, the sculpture will occupy one entire wall of the last gallery a typical visitor sees. Using the handheld audio guides that direct them through the rest of the museum, visitors will be able to listen to audio from any of the interviews being displayed at any given moment.
To make this possible, every one of the nearly 52,000 videotaped testimonies by survivors of and witnesses to the Holocaust in the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute will be transferred to the museum. With the testimonies' combined running time of about 105,000 hours, it is estimated that the 65 screens, running continuously every day the museum is open, will present the entirety of the institute's video archive every 10 months.
Each visitor to the museum already receives a personal touch-screen audio guide, and the displays include many interactive elements. But just managing the data from the Shoah Foundation Institute — about 650 terabytes, nearly three times the data holdings of the Library of Congress — presented a remarkable technological challenge.
"The biggest trick is going to be delivering video on demand with streaming audio on demand, which is what the experience needs to be in the space," Mark Rothman, the museum's executive director, said.
The testimonies will be presented in their native languages, without subtitles. "That wall is going to be impressionistic," Rothman said. "It will be an aesthetic and informational experience." Computers placed elsewhere in the museum will be available for visitors interested in digging deeper into the institute's archive, Rothman said.
For the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, founded by Steven Spielberg in 1994, the survivor video wall will make the archive of video content available to a wider audience. "This is the first time ever that the entire archive will be displayed in public as a whole, and we are delighted to have it here, in Los Angeles," Stephen D. Smith, the institute's executive director, said in a statement.
The project, expected to be up and running by spring 2012, is being funded in large part by a donation from the New Jersey-based Wilf Family Foundation. The museum is working to raise additional funds to cover the rest.
Please read more at jewishjournal.com.


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Christ Is Risen!
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Same here.Btw I'd post on all of you, how much I enjoyed your posts, both Orthodox and those with Rome, but I'm afraid I would have to do so so often I'd be accused of bloating my posting number.
It's a shame, really. I'm not banned, but that's because I'm Catholic. I've always said that I'm in more agreement with the Orthodox than the Latin church and just the other day, I got asked why I'm not Orthodox then. Probably because I haven't had the chance, yet. It will happen, though. I have already alerted my parents who have mixed feelings (they're evangelicals) that I will become Orthodox.
Sad to say, but the new Eastern Catholicism forum appears to be designed to force Eastern Catholics -- like me -- to conform to Latin doctrinal formulations.
I want to second wynd's impression. Your postings, Apotheoun, were so edifying to me.Many, many so informative posts - not only from the Orthodox posters headed by Fr Ambrose, Isa Almisry, Heracliades, Hesychios, Orthodoc, Reader Arsenios, StMarkofE, Montalban, ICXC NIKA, but also of RC and U-(forbidden - I'm really puzzled why) - Apotheoun being the first "among equals", Ghosty, Mardukm, Catholig, and many, many others.A real treasury deleted!
Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
I think this sums up this whole sorry situation. But lets see how your Koine is: "μη δωτε το αγιον τοις κυσιν μηδε βαλητε τους μαργαριτας υμων εμπροσθεν των χοιρων μηποτε καταπατησουσιν αυτους εν τοις ποσιν αυτων και στραφεντες ρηξωσιν υμας" Welcome to our new and renewed forum members!
καὶ ὃς ἂν μὴ δέξηται ὑμᾶς μηδὲ ἀκούσῃ τοὺς λόγους ὑμῶν, ἐξερχόμενοι ἔξω τῆς οἰκίας ἢ τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης ἐκτινάξατε τὸν κονιορτὸν ἐκ τῶν ποδῶν ὑμῶν. ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀνεκτότερον ἔσται γῇ Σοδόμων καὶ Γομόρρων ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως ἢ τῇ πόλει ἐκείνῃ.
I was sorry to see the closing of the Eastern Christianity forum at CAF. Almost all of my posts have been deleted.
Hello, It's Greek to me.
It's Greek to me.
I notice that you are Armenian. A frequent complaint I had on ECF (of course, it wasn't their fault) was that the number of non-Chalcedonians Orthodox was nearly non-existent. In fact, I think we only had a few Copts and Syriacs who had submitted to Rome. I always felt a little queasy speaking for the Copts, Mar Thoma, Armenians, etc., but I wanted make sure their views were heard too.
I notice your last name is Almisry. Doesn't that mean Egyptian in Arabic? Are you Coptic?
Just a warm welcome to all the new folks on the site! Please make yourselves at home! If you have any suggestions or comments about the site, feel free to PM me.Also, if you are in the mood for much more polemical debate, send me a PM and we can add you to our special "Private" forums where you can debate to heart's content.Thanks and welcome!Robert
Catholic answers forum,, removed the eastern christian sub -forum renamed it eastern catholic ,,,accused the orthodox of proselytizing the eastern catholics /roman catholic ,,,orthodox may be able to defend the faith in the non catholic sub-forum still not sure about that thought...i was banned for some reason.. in the new eastern catholic sub -forum if orthodox participate the cant call them selfs catholic or orthodox catholic acording to the moderator Therese martin stashko
I just used the "Contact Us" form at CAF and very politely asked what happened to EC 2007 archive and all the posts therein. It will be very interesting to see what they say in reply. That is, if they even reply at all!Maybe some of the folks here who are still in "good standing" there could also ask, that is, if you felt like taking the time and trouble to do so. Maybe I'm delusional, but perhaps there's a way to retrieve some of those great posts. And then again, maybe not .
It may be confusing for Roman Catholics, but the Eastern Orthodox are Catholics.
But they are free to call themselves Orthodox. Using the term Catholic was just two confusing for new people coming into the Forum for the first time.
Please let me know what the response is...perhaps there is some way we could help preserve these threads...the amateur historian/archivist in me is horrified at the thought of the destruction of knowledge and attempt to re-write history that is being undertaken.
The more I think about their actions the more they seems like a "book burning".
God bless!I think they were afraid of the orthodox and their arguments !What can they say against the Holy Truth ? Nothing, so they had to stop the discussion.In CHRIST
I'm sure, however, that they would say, "It's our web-site and we'll do with it what we want!"
Well, yes, they certainly are free to do so. But what kind of company are they in when they undertake a bibliocaust?"Where one burns books, one will soon burn people." -Heinrich Heine
Just look at the discussions I have had over there and you will see this pretty clearly. I have already been called a heretic and uncatholic. Atleast though there might be some thoroughly eastern Catholics beginning to post again. LakaYaRabb is a friend of mine from Steubenville and I can tell you he has no intent on submitting to the western views.
LakaYaRabb is a friend of mine from Steubenville and I can tell you he has no intent on submitting to the western views.
I just posted on CA that I will not accept these either. It appears that the administration is preparing a response on the staff chat, but I can't be sure. It also seems that Joe Monahan is no longer a moderator...
I am very close to hitting my final barrier with CAF. I can not believe how stark it is now, not even the helpful Latin Catholics are showing themselves out in full (though to his credit, Ghosty has done some good). No matter how hard we show and discuss and prove how valid experiences, it's not good enough, which should be of no surprise. Anyway, forgive my vent. I came to announce I probably will not be participating on CAF anymore, if at all be a casual lurker. I just feel this responsibility to step in when someone suddenly starts defending Latinizations. But why bother if everyone in the room agrees with the sentiment.
I've never been an EC so I can't comment, but it seems weird to me that some of the staunchest defenders of Latinizations are the ECs themselves. Is that common?
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Coming up at Gilbert House Children's Museum
Coding for Kids Club
February 2, 2019 –
Our Coding for Kids Club will offer expert instruction in a group-learning dynamic with a specialized coding focus each month. Club registration is offered on a monthly basis, allowing you to participate during the months that work for you! You may also choose between our Friday or Saturday groups. Join the club to learn the basics of computer programming, build friendships, and engage your love of technology while learning life-long skills.


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Did The Publisher's Own Insistence On DRM Inevitably Lead To The Antitrust Lawsuit Against Them?
from the the-DRM-they-required deptWe've discussed in the past how it was the book publishers' own stupidity that put them in a position of demanding DRM from Amazon when Amazon wanted to launch the Kindle. The end result, of course, went exactly against the publishers' best interests, because it locked everyone in to Amazon as the platform. Because buyers can't easily switch to another platform and take their books with them, they have to keep using the Kindle (or Kindle app) if they want to continue to have access to the books they've bought in the past (because, remember, you don't own what you think you "buy" with ebooks).
Making Amazon such a dominant player in the market was a huge mistake -- and it was totally avoidable. We'd already seen the exact same thing happen with music and iTunes, where the labels originally required DRM, and Apple complied, locking many people into iTunes (a lock-in that was eventually taken away). We couldn't figure out why the publishers were so stupid to give Amazon such power, but it sounds as though it was a combination of technological illiteracy and an irrational fear of "piracy" trumping business sense.
Author Charlie Stross has a great blog post discussing a variety of issues around the history of Amazon and how it became such a dominant player in the market, in which he notes:
However, as subsidiaries of large media conglomerates, the executives who ran the big six had all been given their marching orders about the internet: DRM restrictions would be mandatory on all ebook sales, lest rampant piracy cannibalize their sales of paper books.Once the publishers realized (way too late) that they'd turned Amazon into something of a monopsonistic buying power, they struggled to figure out what to do -- and the end result appears to look something quite like collusion -- which is why they're being sued today by the Justice Department. As the details of the lawsuit make clear, the deal with Apple wasn't just a deal to bring another competitor into the market, but one that was explicitly designed to increase prices for consumers.
(This fear is of course an idiotic shibboleth—we've had studies since 2000 proving that Napster users back in the bad old days spent more money on CDs than their non-pirate peers. The real driver for piracy is the lack of convenient access to desirable content at a competitive price. But if your boss is a 70 year old billionaire who also owns a movie studio and listens to the MPAA, you don't get a vote. Speaking out against DRM was, as more than one editor told me over the past decade, potentially a career-limiting move.)
As Stross notes, this was plan B. And it has now failed. That means that it's time for Plan C -- and the only reasonable plan C to get out from under Amazon's thumb is to drop DRM:
It doesn't matter whether Macmillan wins the price-fixing lawsuit bought by the Department of Justice. The point is, the big six publishers' Plan B for fighting the emerging Amazon monopsony has failed (insofar as it has been painted as a price-fixing ring, whether or not it was one in fact). This means that they need a Plan C. And the only viable Plan C, for breaking Amazon's death-grip on the consumers, is to break DRM.I know there's been some talk about whether or not Apple or Amazon is the more "evil" party in the ebook world -- but it really seems like the publishers dug their own graves here. In their desperation to avoid the dreaded word "piracy," they never bothered to understand the real issues or the obvious results of focusing so strongly on DRM. Handing Amazon so much power was stupid. Colluding with Apple to try to get away from that original stupid decision was potentially even more stupid. The only real path to fixing things is to go back and fix the original stupid decision, and recognize that piracy is a hell of a lot less of a "threat" than handing over the entire market to a single player (or even just two major players).
If the major publishers switch to selling ebooks without DRM, then they can enable customers to buy books from a variety of outlets and move away from the walled garden of the Kindle store. They see DRM as a defense against piracy, but piracy is a much less immediate threat than a gigantic multinational with revenue of $48 Billion in 2011 (more than the entire global publishing industry) that has expressed its intention to "disrupt" them, and whose chief executive said recently "even well-meaning gatekeepers slow innovation" (where "innovation" is code-speak for "opportunities for me to turn a profit").
And so they will deep-six their existing commitment to DRM and use the terms of the DoJ-imposed settlement to wiggle out of the most-favoured-nation terms imposed by Amazon, in order to sell their wares as widely as possible.
If only they'd realized this originally -- just as tons of people had warned them.
Filed Under: antitrust, charlie stross, doj, drm, ebooks, kindle, publishing
Companies: amazon, apple, macmillan


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Yoga as panacea: We've all
heard it, espoused by passionately devoted practitioners. Practiced as a whole
system in context—including meditation, pranayama, and the
ethical/philosophical principles—yoga is likely to be very effective in
fostering improved health and well-being. But let's be honest. Most "modern
yoga" dispenses with the spiritual fluff, going straight for what Americans
(and an increasingly global population of practitioners) crave most: vigor, sweat,
and "yoga butt."
Meeting this demand, most
current asana classes feature one-size-fits-all calisthentics linked to breath,
largely dispensing with more esoteric teachings. Modern
postural yoga originated among the highly fit and flexible (in this case,
primarily Indian males and European gymnasts), although today it is popular
among millions who lack the same cultural or genetic heritage. While yoga postures
indisputably have the potential to foster positive change, the current
free-for-all may not be optimal.
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For instance, a western
deskbound population with excruciatingly tight hips, hamstrings, low backs, and
shoulders may be better served by tailored practices than a standard yoga flow
class. Yet this choice is rarely given; "yoga" tends to be stereotyped as the
woman with her legs around her head, rather than the prop-supported,
middle-aged office worker unwinding in a restorative or gentle pose. This has
implications for who is drawn to the practice, what they think their options
are, and whether they'll try a different class after being potentially turned
off by one inappropriate for their needs or level. It also has clear
implications for injury prevention.
modern postural yoga has spread from the west to the east, similar concerns
apply. Indigenous practices such as tai chi, qigong, and martial arts are
strongly integrated into Asian cultures, creating an inborn receptivity to
yoga. Yet modern yoga was not initially developed in Asia, and modifications
should be offered when teaching yoga in these cultural contexts.
Chinese-American yoga instructor Cora Wen has written on her experience leading
teacher trainings in Thailand where she observed that while her students
were hypermobile relative to westerners and could easily master "advanced"
asana poses, it was damaging to joints and ligaments, leading to a high injury
rate. This notion gains preliminary support with a recent study suggesting increased injury
in the menisci (knee joints) of Chinese women following yoga practice.
Like Wen, I don't suggest
postural yoga is bad, but rather that bodies evolve out of specific cultural
contexts and thus have different needs. The globalization of modern postural
yoga, a relatively homogenous, rigid, and linear sequence of poses, should thus
be disseminated with care. Ayurveda, the
5,000 year-old system of Indian medicine, notes the importance of matching
lifestyle practices to constitution and environment.
Modern yoga—especially the
intense, fiery flow variant—reflects the driven, sometimes chaotic race to the
finish line that's a hallmark of industrialization. Yet contextually tailored
mind-body practices may better support health and overall balance. For
instance, a white-collar workforce could be better served by practices that
reduce stress, correct sedentary- and sitting-related postural imbalances, and
balance strength/flexibility.
Have you found that certain
types of yoga are better suited for you?
Editor's Note: This is Part Two of a two-part series. Read Part One here.


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Lindsay Lohan's dad Michael brought some cops along to help check up on her and 16-year-old sister Ali yesterday, but the police found that everything was OK inside the troubled actress' apartment.
"I went to the police department concerned about Ali's welfare," Michael Lohan told Hollyscoop.com. "I wanted to check on Ali. I want to make sure she's OK. She's 16 and she doesn't belong there! She's a minor."
The elder Lohan, who has had troubles of his own, said he became concerned because he heard the sisters drove home from the Coachella music festival together at 115 miles per hour. He also said he thinks Lindsay has been taking underage Ali out partying with her.
U.S. & World
"Ali is being exposed to nightlife and the people Lindsay is surrounding herself with," he said.
Lindsay was not pleased with the surprise visit and took to Twitter to lash out at her father.
"I have no choice but to make this public, due to my sister's safety, as well as my own. My ex-dad just WALKED INTO MY APT like the devil's advocate with officers," she tweeted.
"Let's not forget, that my father KIDNAPPED me from a COURT ROOM when I was 4 years old and is CRAZY," she continued.
She went on to chastise her apartment building for letting him in, saying he had no warrant and no right to be there. Her string of tweets went on for several hours while she called him a pathological liar and a stalker, and defended her sister's well-being.
"Ali IS IN SCHOOL! It's called HOME SCHOOL! IT'S NOT EASY in public school when YOU are PUBLICLY humiliating your OWN CHILDREN AND MOTHER OF THEM!!!"
Ali was allowed to stay with her older sister.
"We were there. We found no evidence of abuse," a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesperson told Us magazine.


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***Arbor and pilot bit NOT INCLUDED*** IMPORTANT: We do not recommend using a corded heavy duty drill with these hole cutters nor are they needed. With no sidewall friction to overcome even the largest diameter hole cutters can be used with a cordless drill. These new highly efficient hole cutters require a different approach to maximize their life. They should be used with a 18v cordless drill with the screw setting when available. It will not slow down the cutting operation. With a 3-speed range cordless drill the middle setting works the best for all sizes.


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A passion for perfect surfaces
We produce electrolytes and anodes for:
- Electronics: Connectors, LED/Leadframe, sliprings, smartcards, relays.
- Decorative surfaces: Jewellery, fittings, clothing accessories, spectacle frames, writing utensils, cosmetics packaging.
- Industrial applications: Hydraulic components and automotive.
- Printed Circuit Boards: Final finish, solder resist, Thru Hole & Via Filling.


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What's that, looming on the horizon? Why, it's another new festival, threatening to steal custom away from the other 3,459 day-long-or-more events clogging up the calendars of music lovers nationwide. But before you run the other way, fearing cold stir-fry noodles, ankle-deep slurry and yet another go-nowhere set from Damian Fucking Rice, wait a second: Field Day is a) pretty blimmin' special, and b) right on your doorstep. Well, so long as your doorstep's in London, anyway. DiS's is. Get in.
Field Day – billed as 'London's new psychedelic summer fete' – takes place at Victoria Park, E9 (that's over Hackney way… Radiohead once played in a tent there… I went!), on August 11. That's this Saturday! Tickets are all but gone for the noon-'til-10.30pm event – a search, just now, revealed nowt but 'check back later' messages. So what we're saying is: if you've not got a ticket by now, you're never getting one. Which is a shame as the line-up includes:
1990s, Adem, Alberta Cross, Archie Bronson Outfit, Bat For Lashes, Battles, Caribou, Chromeo, Electrelane, Erol Alkan, Euros Childs, Fanfarlo, Fence Collective present 3 Craws, Foals, Four Tet, Fridge, GoodBooks, Gruff Rhys, James Yorkston, Justice, Kid Harpoon, Late Of The Pier, Laura Marling, Liars, Matthew Dear, Mystery Jets, Pull Tiger Tail, The Aliens, The Concretes, The Earlies, Vetiver… and more
The Eat Your Own Ears-organised all-dayer is something of a treat, then. It sure as heck pishes all over London's other single-day 'festival', the hugely branded mediocrity bash that was Wireless (White Stripes and Daft Punk aside, the 2007 edition of the annual Hyde Park do was a bit of a non-event). DiS caught up with Field Day head-honcho Tom Baker – he who also runs EYOE – for a little Q&A ahead of the event.
Hi Tom. When did the idea for Field Day first spring to mind, and is this event the first of what will become an annual fixture in your opinion? Just how long has it taken, in total, to pull this whole thing together?
Me and my girlfriend put together a free event a few years back outside the Griffin pub in Old Street for 1,000 people a day over a summer weekend called Return Of The Rural. It was a village fete with live acoustic acts like James Yorkston and Beth Orton alongside acts like Clinic and Four Tet. Marcus Weedon, who ran the Griffin, was very much involved in making the event happen, so after the success of this we all thought we should do something bigger and on a grander scale.
A year later Marcus confirmed the use of Victoria Park and I drew up a list of people I thought should be involved - Adventures In The Beetroot Field, Bugged Out, Bloggers Delight and Homefires - so we have a strong network to promote the event through. I then started drawing up all the bands I wanted to play and started talking to agents. Field Day was announced and it has now sold out, which is incredible.
Were there any other festivals – be they day-long or otherwise – that set something of a model for Field Day? Or do you see the event as something wholly new and unique?
No, not really. I felt there is a thirst for live music events which don't just follow the usual obvious programming, and that have a twist. I have tried to be open to booking new acts, and to mix genres and musical styles a bit more than usual. And then the village fete vibe brings something different as well.
The line-up's eclectic to say the least – was there any particular theme to the event you wanted, or is it something of an excuse to bring some of your favourite acts together in one place?
I wanted to bring as many of the acts I love and work with to one event and do it for a cheap as possible ticket.
Were there any acts you really wanted but missed out on this year?
Bright Eyes would have been amazing. Also Björk, The Mars Volta and Aphex Twin. Next year, next year!
What confirmed acts, in particular, are you really excited about seeing on a Field Day stage?
Battles, Liars and the Fence guys are always brilliant. And we've got Fridge's first show in five years!
Field Day is billed as a 'Psychedelic Summer Fete' – just what other attractions, bands aside, can you promise punters, then? And will we all have to be blotto to enjoy them…?!
There's a hog roast, and you can try your luck on the coconut shy or tombola. Or, you can get befuddled mixing pear cider with barn dancing by the Band Stand. We've also got our own jumble sale, a tug of war competition and Welly Golf...
What are your favourite festivals right now? There seems to be more of them than ever this summer, which you can either see as a blessing or a curse, I guess. Do you believe the market for medium-sized festivals – the End of the Road-sized events – is becoming rather saturated, what with the arrival of events like Latitude and (the recently cancelled) Lodestar, not to mention the increased profile of Bestival…?
I agree - Glastonbury is always special and it's another world. And Manchester International Festival was really exciting this year with some really innovative events and new works. It was very brave and did a lot of things most festivals would not dare to do.
Is Field Day an event that you could see expanding if this year's debut offering is a success? Whether it be size-wise or a move to make the event a two or three day festival…
I would hope so, yes. I would like to see it grow in size and maybe happen regionally. I like the fact it's one day: it's just focused on an intense musical experience.
Finally, if there's anyone out there yet to buy a ticket but considering it, what can you say to them to twist their arm into making the (relatively inexpensive) purchase they should?
Well it's sold out now, but just the mix of acts and being able to see Pictish Trail then Justice then Four Tet and more for £22.50 is a steal!
Visit the Field Day MySpace page here; visit the EYOE site here.


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Daniel S. White Letters
Daniel S. White was born around 1848. He enlisted as a sergeant in Company I, 2nd Vermont Volunteers on May 7, 1861, in Cavendish, Vermont. He was promoted to lieutenant January 8, 1863, and was commissioned as captain on January 26, 1863. He was discharged on October 24, 1864 because of wounds received at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864.
The collection consists of seven letters written to Marie E. Howe of Ludlow, Vermont. Daniel and Marie married sometime between September 1863 and May 1864, since the letters are addressed to Mrs. D. S. White after that date. The letters describe events such as the execution of a soldier for murder and the taking of civilian prisoners. He also writes about the tragedy of the Civil War and about the fear of dying in battle. The final letter on May 10, 1864 describes a wound he received at the Battle of the Wilderness.


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The cost of living these days is quiet high and individuals are on the look out for ways to save some funds at the same time are searching for ways to make some extra income. Keeping your own livestock is a nice way to provide your family with fresh quality products like meat plus milk. Alternatively livestock farming is a great way to make some money because you can sell the produce for great profits.
>> Click Here For A Complete Guide To Raising Livestock for Beginners…
In this article we will cover how to raise goats and cattle for easy income in your own livestock farm.
– Keeping Goats for Income
Keeping goats is quiet profitable and can be pursued by almost anyone who has the passion of keeping this animal. Humans are beginning to enjoy goat meat more than beef and pork. This is because goat meat has a lot of nutrients and taste better.
Goat milk is also high in demand, but not only for its nutritious value but since it can be used to produce ice cream and cheese. Thus as a goat raiser you can produce the items and sell them to make some extra income.
The moment when starting out in bringing up goats you have to have the land to keep the animals. The land should have enough space for the animals to graze and should include some shelter for them to rest. The shelter should be well roofed and you will put some hay on the ground so that the goats are comfortable and are warm in the winter season.
You should also make sure that you choose the right breed of goat that is suited to what you want to make. Some goats are good for producing meat whilst others are ideal for producing milk. Once you have made your decision on the breed, all you have to do is to manage the animals and ensure they are properly fed.
– Keeping Cattle For Income
Bringing up cattle is as profitable as bringing up goats. Cow meat is the most in demand domestic animals meats and the milk the most drank as well. So if you position you to supply some beef and milk then you could make lots of cash from being a cattle farmer.
Just like goats, when raising cattle you have to first choose the breed that is right for the product you want to produce. In the event you want to produce beef then choose a breed that is right for producing lots of meat and if you need to produce milk then get a breed that produces tons of milk.
You should also prepare some land for your livestock to graze and feed on green grass. And in addition build a well secure shelter for your livestock to unwind and be milked if they are milk producing cows. When ever you put the cows in the house make an effort to separate the bulls from the females and there ought to be enough space for them to move around freely.
In order to make a lot of profits from your animals you have to keep in touch with the marketplace news. You have to make a research to learn if it's more profitable to trade your livestock to direct customers or butcheries. You may also ask other animal farmers close to you or look at online livestock discussion boards.
>> Click Here For A Complete Guide To Raising Livestock for Beginners…
>> Click Here For A Complete Guide To Raising Livestock for Beginners…