text:
The Affect Effect: Notes on Sherlock and Hannibal
Last night, viewers in the US got to see what viewers in other parts of the world have already seen: the first episode of the third season of the phenomenally successful BBC show Sherlock. I've already seen it — twice, in fact — because I enjoyed previous seasons of the show enough to work around the BBC website's geographical limitations and watch the episode when it first aired, and then I saw it again at a local cinema's preview showing, where my friend Ann McClellan gave a presentation on Conan Doyle and Sherlock. I've also seen the other two episodes of the season, watching episode 2 twice and episode 3 once.
Recently, I watched the 13-episode first season of NBC's Hannibal, based on Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter character, and I've been thinking about certain overlaps and significant contrasts between the two shows in their approach to their material. The comparison first occurred to me after I re-watched the first episode of Sherlock in preparation for the new season and heard, again, Sherlock refer to himself as a "high-functioning sociopath" — immediately, I thought, "No you're not. But Mads Mikkelsen in Hannibal is..."* That then got me thinking about connections between the two shows.
As I thought about the shows together, and as I watched the new episodes of Sherlock, I kept falling back on my own feelings, and feelings began to seem more and more important to the shows' successes. Sherlock especially succeeds through affectual production, letting the feelings it creates in viewers overcome all questions of plot, plausibility, consistency, etc. Why do we watch Sherlock? Because it feels good to do so. For instance, despite having various reservations about aspects of the show, I remain amused by it, entertained — and in such a way that I put forth the effort to be able to see the new episodes before they aired in the U.S. Why is this? Unlike some of my friends, I don't find any of the actors especially physically attractive, so it's not a matter of tuning in for the hotties. The mystery plots are generally ridiculous, and more and more the writers seem to emulate Conan Doyle himself in just not caring much about the plotting. Series creator Steven Moffat really does seem to be a douchebag, and his limitations sprout up throughout the show. But still I watch, still I enjoy.
For one thing, I'm a sucker for fast, clever dialogue, and Sherlock has a lot of that. (Or, to qualify: Sherlock has a lot of dialogue that is fast, and sometimes it is clever, and just as often it works very hard to make you think it's clever by being fast enough that you don't really notice or mind, much like a Gilbert & Sullivan patter song.) But the fast dialogue is not quite enough, or I'd be mainlining Aaron Sorkin shows.
Mostly, what carries me through Sherlock, and keeps me quite happily coming back, is the casting. (The speed of the dialogue also allows the show to play to this greatest strength. The talented, committed cast of actors work very well with each other.) Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes almost rivals the great Jeremy Brett's in the specificity of his eccentricities, and the chemistry between Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Watson is marvelous. Even actors who get relatively little screen time give such well-defined, thoughtful, entertaining performances that there is a sense of them being more present than they actually are. The pleasure is in watching talented actors who enjoy their work ... enjoying their work. Though at first I found Andrew Scott's portrayal of Moriarty deeply annoying and mannered, even it won me over eventually.
Watching season 3, particularly the first and last episodes, what struck me is just how much the show's writers and directors enjoy manipulating their audience — and how much the audience enjoys being manipulated. Arguably, this is a fundamental pleasure of all commercial entertainment. But I think there's something else to the manipulation in Sherlock, and it's become something I'm growing to dislike in the show.
(After this point, plot elements of Sherlock season 3 will be revealed. I know how ... sensitive ... some Sherlock viewers are to anything they can smack with the label of "spoiler", so here is your warning, even though I generally think such things are idiotic.)
In an insightful review of the third season, Abigail Nussbaum argues that "Moffat's writing has always been characterized by a desire to hit the big emotional payoff without doing any of the work of earning it, and Sherlock's stylistic quirks only intensify that flaw." I'm not sure it's stylistic quirks that allow the creators of Sherlock to hit a lot of emotional moments in what might most charitably be described as an efficient or sketchy way as it is their real skill at training a receptive audience into pavlovian responses. Such a way of evoking emotion in a receptive audience is a matter of training that audience and then employing the narrative patterns that lead to the response. It's the technique of popular fictions since the dawn of popular fictions, and television writers in particular have refined the techniques masterfully. We, the happy viewers, are like John in the hands of Derren Brown: our feelings are programmed, controlled. The emotional responses that we are supposed to have moment by moment during the show are obvious and predictable. (Tingly joy at Sherlock's return! Teary laughter at how awkwardly he reveals himself to John!)
That the emotions the first episode evokes are predictable is part of the receptive viewer's pleasure: the emotions are predictable because they are desired. Sherlock would in many ways be more interesting if it refused those pleasures and frustrated its audience, but frustrated audiences don't tend to keep coming back for more. The dedicated viewer of Sherlock is an emotional masochist, but not a serious or incurable one, and certainly not a masochist who desires real surprise. The possible ways Sherlock can both surprise and satisfy its core audience grow less and less varied. Sherlock shooting Charles Augustus Magnussen at the end of episode 3 may be surprising in that we generally think of Sherlock as less violent than John, but it makes sense within the limitations of the show's world (it destroys Magnussen's knowledge, and Sherlock knows Mycroft won't allow him to be killed, so it's a perfectly acceptable solution), and even the title has prepared us: at John's wedding, Sherlock said that his first and last vow was to protect John and Mary at any cost. (It all but screamed, "Foreshadowing!", particularly if you knew the title of the third episode.) By the third episode, the creators seem to know that though their faithful viewers are well programmed, the program is not infinitely malleable. They play with the knowledge, pushing against — but never breaking — the limitations. Were Sherlock to shoot Mary or, even more shockingly, Watson instead of Magnussen, we faithful viewers would be aghast. Moffat & Co. know this, of course, and enjoy teasing our desire for surprise while never actually delivering a surprise that is a shock. (There was never even any pretense of Sherlock actually being dead at the end of Season 2. In this respect, Conan Doyle delivered a true shock to his fans when he killed Holmes — he really wanted "The Final Problem" to be final!) It's as if they are sadistically saying to their massed masochists, "How'd that feel? Sherlock's got a girlfriend! Still like it? How'd that feel? Mary's not who she said she is! Still like it? Still? Hey, look, Moriarty!" But of course, Sherlock doesn't really have a girlfriend, and though Mary isn't who she said she is, she does love John and her background story becomes another way to actually heighten the emotional effect of the marriage, because not only do we get the pleasant sentiments that marriage and pregnancy produce, but we then get to have even more feelings when John forgives Mary. (This being a Moffat show, the man gets to forgive, the woman gets forgiven.) We know there's no legal trouble Sherlock could ever really get into, because his brother is all the power of the government and will look after him. Any jeopardy in Sherlock is always shallow, but the creators work against this by ramping it up, testing-teasing the fans much as Sherlock himself tests-teases John in the underground with the bomb: Ha ha! Made you feel something! Ha ha! Gotcha! You thought it wasn't safe! Ha ha!
|popular meme among Sherlock fans (the man is Moffat)
At their most obvious, the emotional manipulations of Sherlock are tiresome, but there is still fun to be had in being manipulated when it works well. Hitchcock reputedly said he enjoyed playing the audience like a piano, and part of the pleasure of Hitchcock's best films is that the viewer gets to be a piano played by a virtuoso. Now and then, Moffat & Co. achieve virtuosity with Sherlock. For me, the height of that virtuosity in the third season is the second episode, "The Sign of Three", which may be my favorite of all the show's episodes so far. I watched it twice, and the first time through I got a bit restless, because I expected it to be a more typical episode, but instead it is much more carefully tuned — one seemingly stray element after another ends up becoming important to what is happening, and so by the end we can feel the pleasures of a mystery story put together like clockwork. The emotional manipulation is shameless, yet not quite overwrought.
One of the things that makes Hannibal's first season so effective is its ability to surprise, shock, and fascinate. Like Sherlock, Hannibal is based on a previously-existing canon of texts that have solidified in the public's mind — Hannibal Lecter hasn't been around as long as Sherlock Holmes, but he's nearly as well-known, especially via Anthony Hopkins' performance in The Silence of the Lambs. Thomas Harris's novels have sold a gazillion copies, but they haven't yet fostered the sort of fan community that Conan Doyle's Holmes stories did almost immediately. (Sherlock Holmes fandom is not a new thing.) Nonetheless, the creators of Hannibal knew they had a challenging job, because they couldn't just invent the character from scratch, and, like the creators of Sherlock, they wanted to be faithful to the spirit of the original, and they didn't want to deviate too much from, especially, the first novel, Red Dragon, though some changes were necessary in order to have any room from which to create episodes.
In tone, Hannibal is vastly different from Sherlock — at its heart, Sherlock is a comedy, while Hannibal is a surreal tragedy. In traditional comedies, we expect and revel in the sort of shallow jeopardy that Sherlock thrives on; we don't expect or desire to be really scared or hurt, and we trust that order, happiness, and hope will be restored at the end. Hannibal is more King Lear than Much Ado About Nothing, promising that whatever order is restored at the end will be more exhausted than consoling. But the surreal elements bring Hannibal into a post-Woyzeck modernity. Matt Zoller Seitz is right to see Hannibal as "a dream show, or a nightmare show, one in which nothing that happens can be taken literally or judged by the standards of what could plausibly happen in life." The endless implausibilities of Sherlock are goofy and absurd; the implausibilities of Hannibal are unsettling. Indeed, unsettling is the best adjective I have for the show, and it helps indicate why Hannibal is not, at least in its first season, as starkly manipulative as Sherlock or, for that matter, many other shows. The ground of Hannibal grows less and less settled with every episode.
Sherlock's narrative moves train our expectations and program our emotions; Hannibal's narrative trains us to mistrust our expectations, which then sets our emotional response to the material on edge. Because of the novels and movies, we know how this story ends: Hannibal Lecter goes to jail (for a while) after almost killing, and permanently disfiguring, Will Graham, who ends up, according to the novel of The Silence of the Lambs, "a drunk in Florida now with a face that's hard to look at." There is no reason to believe that Hannibal will violate those end points, and so our expectations are primed. Some of the suspense of the early episodes comes from our knowledge of Lecter: we expect him to start killing the nice people, and we feel wary for the characters who place trust in him. But as the character develops, we question our knowledge, and if we really give ourselves over to the show, we place trust in him. One of the most unsettling things for me was that I discovered, a few episodes in, that I really liked the character of Lecter as Mads Mikkelson performs him.** Certainly, in other versions, I have liked the performances, but Lecter is always alien and often horrifying. Mikkelson keeps the alienating horror — it's in the sharp deadness of his eyes — but covers it with a disorienting charisma and charm. One of the achievements of Hannibal is to help us understand just how Dr. Lecter could be so successful at winning over his prey. Indeed, half or three quarters of the way through the season, the show almost feels like a buddy-cop story, a 48 Hours for a new era, the Will & Hannibal show. Or, for that matter: Sherlock.
The Sherlock Holmes stories have always thrived because audiences love stories that fit a certain post-Enlightenment, pre-Modernism rationality. (It's the same desire that spawned science fiction.) Sherlock Holmes may be smarter than we will ever be, but he reassures us that the world can be figured out, that there is sense within what seems like chaos. We can fantasize about what fun it would be to be Sherlock, but that's not the fantasy we really respond to. What we love is the fantasy that somebody out there can figure it all out. It's the same desire that leads to various determinisms and essentialisms, to the reduction of the complexities and mysteries of a world beyond the scope of our comprehension. If we just know which clues to look for, then we can make sense of it all...
Hannibal is more pre-Enlightenment and post-Modernist. The world does not add up; its forces and flows can only be glimpsed, and those glimpses often redirect what they glimpse, and shards of reality are all that can be perceived. Compare Will to Sherlock — both have extraordinary powers of figuring out why particular events happen, but Sherlock knows how he does it and Will does not. For Will, it's simply a mysterious and torturous talent; for Sherlock, it is a skill. Will's ability to reconstruct murder scenes is mystical; Sherlock's ability to "deduce" all the details of a person's life is sold to us as rational. But from the days of Conan Doyle to now, most of Sherlock's deductions have been fanciful, even quite obviously ridiculous, because the world of the Sherlock Holmes stories is a world where reason rules and human behavior is, like the emotional behavior of the dedicated Sherlock fan, patterned, predictable, determined, scrutable.
In Hannibal, the world is truly chaotic, and no clues will tame the chaos to any point of satisfaction. The danger for such a show is to make the chaos into a predictable pattern — this was the fate of Spooks/MI-5, where after a few seasons it became clear that main characters existed to be killed off. Chaos can be just as manipulative, predictable, and tiresome as order.
I have hope that this won't be the effect of chaos in the future seasons of Hannibal partly because the difference between the manipulations of Sherlock and the manipulations of Hannibal is that the latter are primarily carried out by the title character. Certainly, the Sherlock of Sherlock is manipulative and, in his own way, charming, but the affective work of seduction within the show is done by plot structures and character traits — our emotions are trained to respond to Mrs. Hudson in particular ways, for instance, that are not fundamentally a result of the character herself trying to beguile us. In Hannibal, we are all Hannibal Lecter's prey. In fact, as audience members, we're worse than the characters, because we know better. We know his feelings are not as he represents them. We know he is a master of making people do and feel what he wants. We know he is the Chesapeake Ripper. We know what is in his meals. And yet, still, I found it difficult not to want his friendship with Will to succeed.
The trajectory of Will's character is atypical for a protagonist in a mainstream story (never mind a network TV show!) — he starts out somewhat unstable and becomes a complete basket case. Here, the show benefits from our expectation that he will get better, that he will become more competent rather than less. We keep hoping and wanting him to snap out of it, to pull himself together, to wake up and realize some of the truth ... but instead, he only gets worse and worse. Hugh Dancy plays the character at a rarely-relieved pitch of tension and anxiety, and yet the performance is impressive because Dancy is able to find range within a very narrow spectrum. Basic advice to any actor playing a character who is given to emotion is to establish a calm baseline, something for the emotion to contrast from; Dancy's baseline is where many emotional characters end up, and then he builds from there. The show's surrealism helps it here, allowing more stylization of performance than a determinedly realistic show can get away with.
The great horror of the show, for me at least — the horror that is deep, that is beyond shock or disgust and somehow, perhaps, even into the realm of metaphysics — came in the final episodes, where the extent of Hannibal's manipulations became clear, and where my own desire for him to have had some ordinary human feelings got fully exposed for the naive fantasy it was.
That is Hitchcock-at-the-piano territory. Unsettling, disturbing — a nightmare. Beside it, Sherlock feels light and insubstantial. But Sherlock is, more often than not (for me, at least), satisfying. Fun. Hannibal is never satisfying and seldom fun. Alongside its powerful visual construction, its careful writing, its excellent performances, Hannibal offers something much more rare: wrenching epiphany. It constructs a strange world, sets up our expectations, manipulates our desires, and then tears those desires and expectations open, forcing us to gaze at the steaming grotesquerie of our guts. (That is what I most desire from art, Kafka's axe against the frozen sea within us.) Both shows are manipulative, as just about all stories are — the storyteller seeks to evoke responses in an audience — but Hannibal uses its manipulative power toward something beyond the basic joy of manipulation. In that, it is a rare TV show, indeed.
*I'm neither a psychologist nor a sociologist, so I can offer only an amateur's armchair diagnosis, which could be as trustworthy as a child's rocket science. But it seems to me Sherlock is not a sociopath/psychopath in any meaningful sense of those terms. (An actual psychologist has said the same thing.)
**In "His Last Vow", the villain is played by Lars Mikkelsen, Mads Mikkelsen's brother. It's an effective performance, enough to make me wish the character had been woven through more episodes instead of dispatched so quickly.


text:
Confocal immunofluorescent analysis of mouse small intestine (left) and skeletal muscle (right) using α-Smooth Muscle Actin (D4K9N) XP® Rabbit mAb (Alexa Fluor® 555 Conjugate) (red). Actin filaments were labeled with DyLight™ 488 Phalloidin #12935 (green). Samples were mounted in ProLong® Gold Antifade Reagent with DAPI #8961 (blue).
|100 µl (50 tests)
|MW (kDa)
|Rabbit IgG
Product Information
This Cell Signaling Technology antibody is conjugated to Alexa Fluor® 555 fluorescent dye and tested in-house for direct immunofluorescent analysis in mouse tissue. This antibody is expected to exhibit the same species cross-reactivity as the unconjugated α-Smooth Muscle Actin (D4K9N) XP® Rabbit mAb #19245.
|Immunofluorescence (Frozen)
Supplied in PBS (pH 7.2), less than 0.1% sodium azide and 2 mg/ml BSA. Store at 4°C. Do not aliquot the antibody. Protect from light. Do not freeze.
NOTE: Prepare solutions with reverse osmosis deionized (RODI) or equivalent grade water.
Cover sections with 4% formaldehyde dilute in 1X PBS.
NOTE: Formaldehyde is toxic, use only in fume hood.
NOTE: All subsequent incubations should be carried out at room temperature unless otherwise noted in a humid light-tight box or covered dish/plate to prevent drying and fluorochrome fading.
posted November 2006
revised November 2013
Protocol Id: 222
α-Smooth Muscle Actin (D4K9N) XP® Rabbit mAb (Alexa Fluor® 555 Conjugate) recognizes endogenous levels of total α-smooth muscle actin protein.
Human, Mouse, Rat
Monoclonal antibody is produced by immunizing animals with a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues near the amino terminus of human α-smooth muscle actin protein.
Actin proteins are major components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. At least six vertebrate actin isoforms have been identified. The cytoplasmic β- and γ-actin proteins are referred to as "non-muscle" actin proteins as they are predominantly expressed in non-muscle cells where they control cell structure and motility (1). The α-cardiac and α-skeletal actin proteins are expressed in striated cardiac and skeletal muscles, respectively. The smooth muscle α-actin and γ-actin proteins are found primarily in vascular smooth muscle and enteric smooth muscle, respectively. The α-smooth muscle actin (ACTA2) is also known as aortic smooth muscle actin. These actin isoforms regulate the contractile potential of muscle cells (1).
Explore pathways + proteins related to this product.
UniProt ID: P62736
Entrez-Gene Id: 59
Cell Signaling Technology is a trademark of Cell Signaling Technology, Inc.
XP is a registered trademark of Cell Signaling Technology, Inc.
DyLight is a trademark of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
ProLong is a registered trademark of Life Technologies Corporation.
This product is provided under an intellectual property license from Life Technologies Corporation. The transfer of this product is conditioned on the buyer using the purchased product solely in research conducted by the buyer, excluding contract research or any fee for service research, and the buyer must not (1) use this product or its components for (a) diagnostic, therapeutic or prophylactic purposes; (b) testing, analysis or screening services, or information in return for compensation on a per-test basis; or (c) manufacturing or quality assurance or quality control, and/or (2) sell or transfer this product or its components for resale, whether or not resold for use in research. For information on purchasing a license to this product for purposes other than as described above, contact Life Technologies Corporation, 5791 Van Allen Way, Carlsbad, CA 92008 USA or [email protected]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Warning: By posting in this thread you are automatically taking-out a subscription for life-membership to the Society.
Such contracts should not be entered into lightly and all members would much prefer that our fellows be optional subscribers not kicking-and-screaming ones! Thee poor souls who wish to debate the merits of the 20-over game, please take care to do so elsewhere.
Right, that's the disclaimer out the way: here it is, guys, our very own Society is born. I'm stoked we've come this far, it wouldn't have been possible without you - I'd like to give particular thanks to 16toS and sp713 for the gentle prodding in this direction.
Anyhow, my central message is this: to spread the gospel, I'd love you all to carry the legend "Member of Twenty20 Is Boring Society" (preferably in our characteristic - courtesty once more of 16toS - red lettering) or something similar. This does not have to be perminant, I understand some of us of times like a complete purge of sig, but it would be truly wonderful if so. 'S long, however, as you can have it for a few days, it'll do, I just need to get a screenshot of a post - probably in here - from you, complete with sig, so as to forever preserve the spirit even if expressed only briefly.
To date, I have several confirmed subscribers, and several unconfirmed... including:
Rich Dickinson (my good self - President)
16toS (?) (Honourary Vice-President)
shortpitched713 (?) (Honourary Assistant Vice-President)
Swaranjeet Singh (proud and most enthusiastic member)
Liam Camps
Zac Gelman
Fraz ?
Rich Edmunds
THE Sean
Turbinator (?)
Nemesis27 (?)
crickhowell (?)
PLEASE JOIN UP! There is no subscription fee! All it takes is a post in here and a small sig-addition!
Yours in great gratitude,


text:
Tesla in Quebec ?
Tesla in Quebec ?
Here's the thought: "when time and MONEY allow".
I believe a service center is slated for Quebec at some point in the near future, but I don't know when or where exactly.
Un centre de cervice est prevu a mtl bientot selon ce qu'on m'a dit au "get amped tour" de toronto
joe says a service center is projected for the Mtl. area, which I believe is correct.
Hi guys,
-I confirm, there will be a Montreal service center. Probably next year. Here the link:
-There will be also a supercharger in Montreal
-The only thing that we need is the adaptor for the installed electrical outlet to model S. And wait... since there are not build for the model S capacity
-Je peux confirmer qu'il va y avoir un centre de service à Montréal. Surement l'année prochaine. Voici le lien :http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/locations
-Il va y avoir aussi un supercharger à Montréal jusqu'en Floride.
La seule chose qui manque pour utiliser les bornes déjà installées est un adaptateur pour le brancher dans le model S. Et attendre... car les bornes n'ont pas été conçu pour le model S.
I just forget the link fo the supercharger you will see one in Montreal.
I want one in Québec city, Sherbrooke and Gatineau and I will be more than happy
J'ai oublier le lien pour le supercharger et vous pouvez voir un point à Montréal
Il manque juste à Québec, Sherbrook et Gatineau et je vais être bien content.
Pour le service center :
Va sur le premier lien que j'ai mis et va voir en bas de la carte. Il y a une liste avec le nom de Montréal. J'ai entendu dire que cela va être en mars-avril qu'il va ouvrir.
Pour le supercharger :
Voici ce que j'ai retrouvé : The six California locations unveiled today are just the beginning. By next year, we plan to install Superchargers in high traffic corridors across the continental United States, enabling fast, purely electric travel from Vancouver to San Diego, Miami to Montreal and Los Angeles to New York. Tesla will also begin installing Superchargers in Europe and Asia in the second half of 2013.
Voici le lien de ce texte http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-motors-launches-re...
Si tu vas a 12:00 de ce video tu vas voir la map de ce qu'il prévoit dans 4-5 ans
We have been warned not to examine the SuperCharger maps too closely; the locations are approximations and guesstimates, at the time the maps were prepared.
Sorry Brian,
If you want I can translate what I have written.
It has been announced that a Service center will open in Montreal in March 2013.
RE Supercharger, from the official announcement and the event script, Elon states that it will take 4-6 years to get a Supercharger in/around Montreal (he said Canada) if ever TM gets there. Remember they have to partner with the Hydro-Quebec which are sponsoring the Circuit Électrique...
In fact, that is why i still hesitate between the 60kwh w/o supercharge option and the 85kwh. we might not have access to the free supercharging for a while plus the fact that Tesla Model S will likely not be compatible with the 400 volts DC chargers that will be rollet out by Hydro Quebec in Quebec
@pbrulot It will depend of how much time you want to stay with this car. Supercharger is not there right now, but if you consider to have the car for 10 years and you travel a couple of time in the US. It might be interesting to pay 2k$. Also the supercharger cannot be insert after building...
what is interesting about the model S is there should be not corrosion since it is made of aluminum and everything can be updated with the software. I see this car with a change and update of the battery each 10 years.
Mais non, je puis lire la français assez bien pour tout cela.
Even on the 2013 map there is one each in BC, Ont., and PQ. More later.
Thanks guys, i certainly intend to keep the car 10 years (had to commit to the wife because of the price tag ;-)).
Any idea if Supercharger hardware could be compatible with the DC chargers CHAdeMO? If that is the case then, no need to wait for TM Superchargers as I believe Hydro-quebec has plans to roll that out.
No, highly incompatible. SAE and CHAdeMO and Superchargers are all totally different. A converter cable is apparently difficult or impossible. CHAdeMO is the Japanese standard, and is very limited. SAE is the American-EU standard and is very limited. They are fighting it out to see who is less limited.
If you want to use CHAdeMO you'll have to trade the S in on a Leaf. Or MiEv. Or SLT.
I just saw that the gouvernment is paying 1k$ for the installation of an 240V with SAEJ1772 connector.
Here the link in french : http://www.vehiculeselectriques.gouv.qc.ca/particuliers/remboursement.asp
It is also said in the circuit electrique web site in the question area that they will put 400V station in 2012...
What's nice with those stations is cost of 2.5$ and it is not depending of the time you stay at the station
@ Brian H
no way this will happen. will have to settle for the 1772 chargers which will take forever. anyway I am going to charge home. As you can see I have really little hope for a SC in Montreal anytime soon.
Ing_Qc, be carefull of the $1K charging installation and $8K price subsidee they might disappear with the new PQ budget coming. In fact, the worst that could happen is to get my "It's time to Build" notice. having to commit to buying the car and then by the time I get it and ask for the refund, the program is exhausted. I'm trying to get a letter from Minisstère des Ressources Naturelles du Québec to have a proof.
I really hope they won't touch to the subsidee. They want to be independant of gas. I think it is a good start if we do not take gas for our cars.
Could you tell us if you get that letter since it might be useful for other people. Good luck also.
Well, the 2013 map shows a station in the area. Of course, TM could be simply hoping for approval there.
I was told that the Tesla Service Center for the Montreal area would be located in Laval.
A person at Tesla also hinted to me that the Model S will most likely be available in AWD in the future.
First they should get themselves properly spread out in the 50 states first. We still lack a store here in Las Vegas.
Tesla dealer or service center will be in Laval, on Boul. Des Laurentides(a bit south from corner with Richard street.).
they are renovating one building there, and there is already a Tesla logo on the doors.
It was said earlier:
Ing_Qc | 7 Novembre 2012
Hi guys,
-I confirm, there will be a Montreal service center. Probably next year. Here the link:
-There will be also a supercharger in Montreal
-The only thing that we need is the adaptor for the installed electrical outlet to model S. And wait... since there are not build for the model S capacity
-Je peux confirmer qu'il va y avoir un centre de service à Montréal. Surement l'année prochaine. Voici le lien :http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/locations
-Il va y avoir aussi un supercharger à Montréal jusqu'en Floride.
La seule chose qui manque pour utiliser les bornes déjà installées est un adaptateur pour le brancher dans le model S. Et attendre... car les bornes n'ont pas été conçu pour le model S.
I thought there was already an adaptor coming with the car for the J1772 chargers?
Hello fellow electric car enthusiasts....
I have great news, the new dealer/service centre long awaited in Quebec is located at 2020 boul. Des Laurentides in chomedey, Laval.....south of Richard street. (between St. Martin and autoroute 440) next door to Enterprise car rentals.....The Tesla signs are up and I saw them unloading seven model S cars from a covered transport van... what an exciting event.....no rumbling motor, no smoking exhaust...it was very nice to watch....
Y a-t-il un endroit où ils ont indiqué que le volant des tesla pourrait être chauffant comme BMW?
Avec nos hiver ce serait apprécié comme option!
Is there a place where they indicated that the tesla steering wheel could be heated as BMW?
With our winter this option would be appreciated!
None yet.
@ Brian H
Thank you !


text:
A GDP trigger is something that has an effect on the rate of GDP. Moreover, a trigger can be direct or indirect. For example, direct triggers are the four components of GDP: consumer spending, industry spending, government spending and net exports. An indirect trigger is something that has an effect on a direct trigger and might include such items as interest rates or bank lending standards.
The most important direct trigger is consumer spending. When consumers spend, businesses hire, production rises to meet demand and the economy grows. Then, as the unemployment rate falls, more wage earners enter the fray and economic expansion gains traction.
To combat our weakened economy, the Fed has been highly accommodative. The problem, however, is that consumers are not taking the bait to any large degree. In fact, much of this monetary explosion is sitting at various Federal Reserve banks and commercial banks. Even though the cost of borrowing is at historic lows, lending activity is weak. Individual loans at commercial banks are down from their April 2010 peak and real estate loans have been trending downward since May 2009. One bright spot may be found in the level of refinancing activity. As consumers trade in their higher interest loans for a new lower interest model, positive cash flow results, which may encourage additional spending.
After 20-plus years of accumulating debt leading up to the Great Recession, consumers remain overleveraged. Before robust spending can return, they must reduce their debt, build up savings and feel good about the economy and the direction of this country. Until then, adding more money to the system or maintaining historically low interest rates will have little effect. Even if consumers were well-positioned to resume their borrowing binge, lending standards remain tight. The days of fogging up a mirror to qualify for a loan are over.
The most important economic issue we face is weak consumer demand. If we can stimulate this everything else will fall in place—assuming Washington regains some measure of fiscal discipline. Therefore, the key question is, "How do you stimulate consumer demand?" Until this happens, unemployment will remain stubbornly high.
Dollar Daze
One of the most often tweaked indirect triggers is the value of the U.S. dollar. When the dollar weakens, U.S. exports rise unless global demand is extremely weak. Therefore, a weak dollar policy provides support for the large U.S. multinational exporting companies, which in turn boosts GDP, assuming exports exceed imports. If the goal is to support these large corporations, then a weak dollar policy is good bait.
Recently, the U.S. dollar has been strengthening, which is a headwind to net exports. Conversely, a strong dollar is also anti-inflationary, which is good for the consumer. Could this policy revive the deflation discussion? It's possible, especially if global demand continues to weaken.
Government: A Growth Buster?
Government regulation is a powerful indirect trigger that can stimulate or stymie business growth. The more regulatory burden placed on business, the greater the headwind. Historically, regulation has ebbed and flowed. However, since 2008 it has increased rather substantially. Proper regulation necessitates a balance between law and grace. Too much regulation hinders business growth, while too little may promote the wrong behavior. Government regulation has been out of control for years. As a result, many companies have opted to relocate operations outside the U.S. where the business climate is friendlier. Moreover, employers are understandably concerned about the additional costs related to Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, etc. Potential tax increases are only adding fuel to the fire.
It's no secret that our government has been on a spending binge over the past few years. Clearly, the benefit of all of this economic "stimulus" has been tepid at best. When government allocates resources it frequently lacks focus and efficiency. For example, the government bailed out several failing banks in 2008. Today, these same banks are saddled with additional regulatory burdens and excess fees. Also, when the U.S. government enters into global agreements, it's often to the chagrin of U.S. companies. A good case in point is the Basel accords. Recently, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase called Basel III "anti-American." Many believe Basel I and II were not much better.
This has created an atmosphere of uncertainty and is a chief reason why owners of small businesses are reluctant to hire.
The Global Influence
I certainly don't need to remind you of the seriousness of the problems facing Europe. Why are Europe's problems so important to our economy? First, Europe is a large consumer block and one of our most important trading partners. When their economy slows, we feel the effect. Second, the subprime contagion between our financial institutions and their banks is largely unknown.
The eurozone faces many challenges beyond the extreme indebtedness of its members. Although they are united on paper, unlike the United States, Europe has a fragmented fiscal policy. Under this structure, there is no central authority to enforce fiscal prudency. Therefore, if a country believes they will be bailed out if they get in trouble, they may be inclined to assume more risk. Additionally, their labor force is less mobile than here at home. It's much more difficult to move from Italy to Ireland than from California to Connecticut. Each country also has its own legal system. Finally, there's the issue of the language barrier.
Japan, another developed country, is in serious trouble. They are struggling with massive government debt, an aging population and the aftermath of devastating natural disasters. At well over 200%, Japan has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any nation. It's going to take a lot of time and money to restore economic prominence.
With the developed economies in slowdown mode, the role of global growth rests on the shoulders of the emerging countries. Although these economies have experienced robust growth over the past several years, many are showing signs of slowing. Besides, even if the engines of the emerging economies were humming along, would it be enough to power the rest of the world?
Economic Levers
It's important to understand that government does not produce or create. Government provides services for its people and can create an environment in which the private sector flourishes. Though we may debate the specific functions of government, when it comes to economic issues, the lines of demarcation are clear. Government has two primary levers with which they can stimulate an economy. These levers are monetary and fiscal policy.
Monetary policy is managed by the Federal Reserve. Established in 1913, this "central bank" has been tweaking the economy for nearly a century. Although its mandate calls for full employment and stable prices, it has recently ventured beyond this in an attempt to pull us back from the abyss.
The Fed has specific tools at its disposal, including adjusting the Fed funds rate, regulating the nation's money supply and setting bank reserve requirements. Lowering reserve requirements is a method of expanding the money supply. Our economy operates under a fractional monetary system. This is highly relevant during periods of debt expansion. Here's how it works: Let's say you deposited $10,000 in your bank. If the reserve requirement was 10%, then the bank would be required to hold $1,000 in reserve, but could loan the excess $9,000. This loan would appear as a deposit and another 10%, or $900, would be held in reserve, leaving $8,100 to lend. This process is repeated over and over; from an initial deposit of $10,000, money could grow a total of 10 times. Although the topic of reserve requirements is beyond the scope of this article, reserve requirements today range between 0% and 10%.
The Fed: Did They Venture Out of Bounds?
Normally, the Fed only lends to member banks. However, as provided for in Section 13(3)—a rather obscure clause in the Federal Reserve Act—the Fed may lend to, "any individual, partnership or corporation" if five members of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington declare the circumstances to be "unusual and exigent." This was the basis for the Fed's actions in 2008 when it bailed out the auto manufacturers, banks, brokerage firms, etc.
QE III, IV or More?
Quantitative easing occurs when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) purchases U.S. Treasury securities. As you are probably aware, the Fed has greatly expanded the money supply in recent years. However, much of this expansion remains on the sideline. Even though monetary expansion may help reduce interest rates, it also fosters inflation which has a negative effect on cash flow.
The Fed has recently lengthened the duration of its portfolio by selling short-term Treasuries and buying Treasuries with maturities of five years or greater. This could cause short-term rates to rise and long-term rates to fall. The result would be a flatter yield curve which would ostensibly put downward pressure on mortgage rates. All this translates to low savings rates and compels investors to seek riskier assets, a goal of the Fed. More bubbles and busts ahead? I'd say, "yes."
To summarize monetary policy thus far, interest rates are essentially at 0%, the money supply has exploded (although much of it is on the sideline) and bank reserve requirements are very low. Additional quantitative easing would be like putting a pacemaker into a heart patient and then removing it—the problem is the weak heart. Thus, monetary policy has been exhausted and there is little more the Fed can do. It's now up to Congress.
Fiscal policy is managed by Congress and may be divided into two categories: government expenditures and tax policy.
Government expenditures have reached record levels. Our nation's debt, slightly under $15 trillion, increased by nearly $5 trillion under President Bush and another $5 trillion under President Obama. When you factor in the "off balance sheet" debt, the number is closer to $100 trillion. As a result, America's credit rating was downgraded in August. As already discussed, due to inefficiencies and politics, much of this spending has been wasted. I suspect Americans will not embrace much additional spending, and Congress will be forced to make some tough choices. We're well past the time for "shovel-ready" projects. Besides, if we could have done this effectively, would we be having this discussion?
Tax Policy
There have been a few small tax breaks enacted since 2008. We've witnessed the extension of the Bush tax cuts, the reduction of the Social Security payroll tax and a few other fringe tax breaks. However, this is like attempting to put out Nero's fire with a squirt gun or bringing a knife to a gun fight.
What's the solution? In the spirit of the game show "Let's Make a Deal," there are four doors from which to choose:
Door No. One: Reduce Interest Rates
Door No. Two: Expand the Money Supply
Door No. Three: Increase Government Spending to Create Jobs
Door No. Four: Reduce Taxes
Doors One and Two have been exhausted. Door No. Three has been attempted and has failed. The only remaining option is Door No. Four, which is precisely what President Reagan did following the economic malaise of the 1970s. By putting more money in taxpayers' pockets, consumers will pay down their debt, increase their savings and investments and resume spending. We also need to create a business-friendly environment through reasonable regulation and lower corporate tax rates. Why? Because when jobs are plentiful somewhere, the unemployed move to those areas. And there are certainly a lot of unemployed people these days.
We are in a global competition. If America can become business friendly, we could attract companies from all over the globe. Then, instead of outsourcing jobs, we could experience the reverse. We need change, but not the change we have been experiencing. Winston Churchill once said, "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities." I hope his sentiment is proved wrong this time.


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1 million Twitter users
On January 6, 2008, I predicted that Twitter would reach 1 million public uers before April 1, 2008. Twitdir reports the number of public Twitter users it has detected. Around mid February it seemed that the Twitter user base was growing faster than I expected. In the beginning of March however the growth slowed down. This reduced growth has continued until now, see the graph below.
If this reduced growth continues at the same speed, the 1 million mark of public Twitter users according to Twitdir will be reached only around June 2008. There is no explanation why the growth of the Twitter user base suddenly changed from 3,500 new users per day to 750 new users per day.
As mentioned in one of the previous posts on this blog, the number of private Twitter users could be around 15%. This implies that the total number of Twitter accounts at this very moment already exceeds 1 million.


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About IACL
The Image Analysis and Communications Lab (IACL) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University is led by Professor Jerry Prince. Research focuses on image and signal processing in medical imaging and video processing. Specific areas of technical interest include filter banks, wavelets, multivariate systems, signal decomposition, time-frequency and time-scale analysis, active contours and deformable geometry, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and optical flow. Research projects involve faculty, post-docs, and both graduate and undergraduate students from several departments. IACL members have access to high-performance workstations, a computational cluster, and a variety of additional resources. Research is supported in part by: the National Science Foundation; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke; the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Siemens Corporation; and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders.


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Philadelphia: Details on Pizza Brain Museum Opening
Pizza Brain, Philadelphia's combination art project, restaurant, and Guinness—certified largest collection of pizza memorabilia in the world that we first told you about last year is gearing up to open this summer. Renovations at Pizza Brain HQ in Fishtown—a big space with plenty of room for arcade games, seating, and even a back yard—are running smoothly and they're looking to open around June.
One surprise about Pizza Brain is that they're putting just as much thought into the food as the museum concept. Chefs Joe Hunter (formerly of Dellasando's Pizza in Charleston, South Carolina) and Auston Adams have been working around the clock in the test kitchen experimenting with dough recipes and some wild, original creations.
The menu is going to be in the "true American pizzeria style", meaning gas deck ovens, standard (but perfected) pizzeria-style crust, made with locally sourced ingredients from nearby urban farms. They'll have your standard Margherita and pepperoni options, as well as some awesome sounding specialty pies, including a carmelized onion, gruyere and thyme french onion soup pizza. Instead of slices sitting under heat lamps all day, Pizza Brain plans to offer freshly made to order personal pizzas for around $5 along with their 18-inch large pies.
Other possibilities for the future of Pizza Brain include delivery by skateboard, and some sort of collaboration with Little Baby's Ice Cream, purveyor of flavors such as Earl Grey Sriracha and Cardamom Caramel.
If you want to be a part of the world's first pizza museum, a $15 contribution to their kickstarter campaign gets you a free personal pizza and drink after they open; $500 earns you the title of Ultimate Pizza Warrior, 3 days worth of free pizza, an art print by Brian Dwyer, your name carved into a brick, and a private party for 8 people including champagne and live music performed by the owners!
Pizza Brain
Pizza Brain Kickstarter campaign
@mypizzabrain on twitter; pizzabrain.org
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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For years the folks at Team Ninja have been making poor game reviewers battle their way through some of the most ninja battles in gaming history. With the release of Ninja Gaiden 3 the tables are finally turned.
In order for the tables to be turned the game critics would have to make their game reviews incredibly difficult to survive. Using that criteria, at least three of the reviews featured in the Ninja Gaiden 3 Frankenreview fit the bill, delivering some of the lowest scores in franchise history. The other three seem to cut the latest entry a bit more slack, but still don't hold back when it comes to heavy-hitting criticism.
Last week I joked that the Dead or Alive 5 demo might be the best reason to buy Ninja Gaiden 3. Was I right?
Ninja Gaiden used to be about careful combat for skilled players. Knowing the skill-set inside and out was as important as understanding individual opponents, and digging into the complex mechanics was necessary to succeed. One basic enemy could kill Ryu Hayabusa, and getting him out of each encounter alive was an accomplishment. Ninja Gaiden 3 rejects this identity in an attempt to do something fresh and interesting with its hero.
This is an admirable ambition that's ultimately responsible for many of the sequel's numerous failures. Shallow combat, a misguided narrative focus, and awful pacing cripple what could have been the most interesting entry in the series' history. With Ninja Gaiden 3, Team Ninja displays an obsession with new-found emptiness that anchors the action, betrays fans, and repels newcomers.
NOW Gamer
With Itagaki no longer working at Team Ninja, ninja extraordinaire Ryu Hayabusa has been placed in the hands of new director Yosuke Hayashi. Sadly Tecmo Koei's trust has been misplaced, because Ninja Gaiden 3, in an attempt to forge a brand new identity, ignores everything that made the franchise so great in the first place.
This is most notable in Ninja Gaiden 3's combat, which constantly feels wooly and unsatisfying. The first two games had elegantly designed combat mechanics that really made you feel like a powerful ninja. Enemies were just as powerful as Ryu, so that even two or three foes could be a suitable challenge for the hardened sword master. There's no such intelligence on display in Gaiden 3, with Ryu's foes simply attacking en masse and continually respawning until you can push forward to the next encounter.
And what of the challenge? You can pretty much get through most of the game's standard normal difficulty by just mashing your regular attack button over and over. While Ninja Gaiden's option for precise, reflexive play is still available, it's certainly not required. Higher difficulties are still there to really put you to the test, but Ninja Gaiden 3's greatest failing is that it's balanced and constructed in such a way that it never incentivises players to tackle these more challenging modes. It's an especially tragic realisation when compared to the heyday of the original, where I immediately started a second playthrough on a higher difficulty as soon as the credits stopped rolling.
Instead you get a bevy of QTEs, from the regular occurrence of having to climb walls using your kunai to the occasional upset of having to finish off a boss with the occasional tap of the face buttons. These sequences drag on and on, effortlessly proving that Team Ninja understands the intricacies of the QTE about as much as I do computational mechanics.
Official PlayStation Magazine UK (OPM)
Solo play is as forgettable as it is fun, then, but there's a razor-sharp silver lining in the form of multiplayer. In deathmatch mode, seasoned players bring that level of difficulty fans will crave – it's merciless, especially in one-on-ones where invisibility (triggered by moving super-slow) and sneak attacks are key.
With eight players all diligently trying to make sashimi out of each other, the action's distinctly un-stealthy but every bit as fun, and you're rewarded with increasingly bizarre customisation options as you hone your skills. Who hasn't wanted to gut someone dressed as a pink cat? Co-op challenge modes are easily digestible, too, and encourage you to learn the combos (like /r/ /r/ /r/ /r/ – seriously) and be as freakin' ninja as possible.
In terms of the overall difficultly level the Normal setting is just about average, if a little higher, than most normal action games. Series veterans should probably start on Hard mode though and Master Ninja mode is at least as difficult as the earlier games; with more enemies on screen at once, harder ones appearing earlier in the game, and Ryu taking more damage from all of them.
Apparently there's to be another difficulty level beyond even that, to be released as downloadable content, so being too easy really isn't a complaint that can be thrown at the game. The only one that really sticks is the lack of variety and customisation in the weapons. We do feel this has been pared down too much, although if you didn't know about the earlier games we're not sure you'd necessarily complain.
Official Xbox Magazine (OXM)
If all of this reads like the evisceration of a horrible game, that's definitely not the case. It's a matter of context. Compared to its predecessors, Ninja Gaiden 3 is a noticeable step back due largely to all the gameplay decisions that are taken out of your hands. Stacked up against its contemporaries, however, it still stands among the finest fast-action experiences on Xbox (Bayonetta excepted). Ryu is a card-carrying member of the Badass Club, and the time spent both behind and without his mask is riveting. Two-player co-op in the Ninja Trials is a treat, while the eight-player Ninja Battle is refreshingly different from other modern online offerings, even if it's ultimately not compelling enough to keep you playing for months on end.
Given the rare and tumultuous circumstances that led to such turnover at Team Ninja, it's fair to wonder what Itagaki's Ninja Gaiden 3 would've been like. Still, this version of Ninja Gaiden 3 - the one created by Yosuke Hayashi and his crew - is what we get, and it deserves praise for being a great way an Xbox action fan can spend $60. It may not live up to the series' impossibly high standards, but it's still a gem in its own right.
I'm scared. Ryu. Hold me. Not with the demon arm.


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A new Officine Panerai offering always arouses great intrigue among collectors. Never in their deep sea dreams would Italian divers have believed it possible. That the watch they wore on their wrist, made by Panerai, the company that also supplied their depth gauges and compasses, would one day become a legendary luxury watch brand worn by celebrities and watch aficionados the world over. At the time the British navy were far more interested in their re-breathers than their watches.
In the 1930s and 1940s the names Radiomir and Luminor identified the luminous materials used by Officine Panerai to increase the night-time and underwater visibility of the dials of the watches designed for the commandos of the Italian Navy. Let's not forget, at this stage the Italians were fighting against the Allies, their Navy was built up by Benito Mussolini yet it was still overstretched as it needed to patrol the entire Mediterranean, Aegean and Red Seas, as well as the Suez canal. So those commandoes would have been kept very busy and life in the Italian navy tended to be brutal and short; all told, the Italian navy lost 36,000 men and 700,000 tons of equipment.
Over the years, the two terms Radiomir and Luminor have come to identify the two different case shapes of the watches of the brand, one of which is a development of the other. In fact, the Luminor case came into being as a result of the need to make the Radiomir case still more water-resistant. To this end, the bridge device with clamping lever was added, protecting the winding crown and making it more water-resistant, while the large, straight lugs, milled with the case from a single block of metal, replaced the wire strap attachments, welded in place.
Now a new model uses a unique case to mark the historic development of the Radiomir case: The Luminor 1950 3 Days – 47 mm. The Luminor 1950 is made of polished steel in an impressively large 47 mm with a rounded, cusp-shaped case band, directly descended from the classic cushion design of the case still used by Radiomir watches today.
While the new model reflects the past it also has a nod to the future; the flat back with the large sapphire crystal window and the slightly narrower lugs which helps to emphasis the watch as a whole. However the dial reflects Officine Panerai's commitment to authenticity by employing the sandwich construction famed for providing excellent visibility under all conditions.
The powerful luminosity of the watch underwater and in dark conditions is achieved by a large quantity of luminous material applied between the two thin sheets forming the dial. It appears through the figures and the hour markers cut through the upper plate. The hour and minute hands are also covered with the same ecru-coloured luminous material.
The new Luminor 1950 3 Days – 47 mm is fitted with the P.3000 calibre, a hand-wound mechanical movement designed and developed by the Officine Panerai manufacture in Neuchatel. The P.3000 has large bridges and two spring barrels providing a power reserve of three days.
With reference number PAM00372, there will be a limited edition of 3,000 units of the Luminor 1950 3 Days – 47 mm released. It comes on a leather strap with a vintage finish to make it as close as possible to the straps on the original models of the time complete with the classic Panerai buckle in brushed steel.
Movement: hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.3000 calibre, executed entirely by Panerai, 16½ lignes, 5.3 mm thick, 21 jewels. Power reserve 3 days, two barrels. 160 components
Functions: fours, minutes
Case: diameter 47 mm, polished steel
Bezel: polished steel
Back: see-through sapphire crystal
Device protecting the crown:
Dial: Black with luminous Arabic numerals and hour markers
Crystal: Plexiglas®, 3 mm thick
Water-resistance: 10 bar (~100 meters)
Strap: Panerai personalised leather strap and large-size brushed steel buckle. With second interchangeable strap and steel screwdriver


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In the "Oh… Canada" rap by Canadian rapper Classified, the white Nova Scotian dispels many stereotypes about Canada. The actual lyrics are great, but the video is 100% white.
One really annoying stereotype that non-Canadians have about Canadians is that "Canadian" means "white", and Classified's video ends up perpetuating this stereotype. Understandably, Classified is representing his home province Nova Scotia, when most Canadian rappers are from Toronto or Vancouver. However, for someone living in Toronto and accustomed to racial diversity, the framing of Classified's video as a neo-national-anthem looks like an erasure of Canadians of colour.


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With New York Comic-Con starting tomorrow, Hasbro invited a number of reporters to a private reception where they showed off some of their upcoming toys that will be on the convention floor. Included were toys from Iron Man 3, Angry Birds Star Wars, Kre-o Star Trek and Kre-o G.I. Joe (Hasbro's version of LEGO), a Transformers: Prime – Beast Hunters toy, and they even had some My Little Pony stuff.
While I would have liked to have seen more Iron Man 3 and Marvel toys, I'll admit it's a bit early to be pushing IM3. In addition, with everyone really busy once Comic-Con starts, this preview is a smart way to get early press. Hit the jump for over 50 images including pictures of the party.
click on any image for high-res


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Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Dead flies
9 comments:
- Ribs said...
Doesn't sounds likely? Compared to what?
- June 1, 2010 at 5:29 PM
- Bitter Animator said...
I'm not really comparing it to anything. It just doesn't sound all that likely.
I'm not sure I believe it. I'm beginning to think our existence may be just some crackpot theory.
- June 1, 2010 at 5:50 PM
- Red Pill Junkie said...
I don't know if I have mentioned this already but... I wise friend of mine once came up to the epiphany:
The fact that we humans are aware of our own irrelevance, is *precisely* what makes us relevant.
How is it we have come so far and not one of those millions of other life forms on our planet haven't?
Well —Dennis, the brother of Terence McKenna, once received a rather humbling message from the supposed 'hyper-intelligence' coming from the Ayahuasca entheogenic potion he tried:
"You monkeys only think you're running things"
- June 1, 2010 at 7:16 PM
- Bitter Animator said...
There's a quote on that page that describes the issue I have here. It's from Stanislav Grof -
"The probability that human intelligence developed all the way from the chemical ooze of the primeval ocean solely through random sequences of random mechanical processes has been aptly compared to the probability of a tornado blowing through a gigantic junkyard and assembling by accident a 747 jumbo jet."
That's it there. But that doesn't quite represent the magnitude of it. It's much, much bigger than that and far less likely.
- June 2, 2010 at 8:36 AM
- Red Pill Junkie said...
As far as I'm concerned, the Universe was set in motion with a specific number of rules that favored the appearance of organized life forms, and in some instances, intelligence.
But it's all a test. The Universe is continually —one might even say that brutally— testing those experiments to see if they are fit to survive. The dinosaurs became extinct, because they didn't have a space program —like Arthur C. Clarke said.
So I don't know if that could be called Intelligent Design. Maybe... Intelligent Management?
Maybe God it's not so much like a prepotent Walt Disney, always reviewing personally every single aspect of His creation; maybe the bearded dude is more like Brad Bird or John Lasseter: leaving enough room for independent spontaneity ;)
- June 2, 2010 at 4:14 PM
- Ribs said...
...compared to the probability of a tornado blowing through a gigantic junkyard and assembling by accident a 747 jumbo jet.
See, here's what I was getting at with the comparison. What if there is a bajillion universes with a bajillion earthlike planets with a bajillion tornadoes happening every day. Wouldn't the odds of one of those tornados assembling a jumbo jet go up?
All I know is that we know nothing.
- June 2, 2010 at 5:41 PM
- Red Pill Junkie said...
"See, here's what I was getting at with the comparison. What if there is a bajillion universes with a bajillion earthlike planets with a bajillion tornadoes happening every day. Wouldn't the odds of one of those tornados assembling a jumbo jet go up?"
That's basically the answer of mainstream Science to the current evidence of the Anthropic principle that we keep uncovering: how any tiny difference in the energy of neutrons or electrons or in other major physical constant would prevent the formation of stars and ergo us hairless monkeys.
So, the cosmologists borrow a bit of quantum juju from their particle physicists compadres and Voilá: Infinite Multiverse, and we're still just a happy accident without purpose.
It seems like an easy sleight of hand, if you ask me. But I'm just a layman; anyway, an Infinite Multiverse seems as mind-boggling as the bearded dude they tried so hard to eliminate out of the equation :)
- June 2, 2010 at 6:37 PM
- Bitter Animator said...
Yeah, I'm not sure I buy that. I never bought into the bearded dude thing either so it leaves me sort of with nothing.
If it's a random accident in space, then that brings up the question of what space is - where the boundary is and what is beyond it. How big does it go? And, as we keep on discovering smaller parts, how small does it go?
And then my brain explodes.
In all of that, we may well be the result of freak chance but then... is everything? All the planets? Galaxies? Neutrons?
- June 3, 2010 at 8:55 AM
- susan said...
Depends on how you look at things. I could look at flies at those horrible nasty things you swat and if you live in a place like Florida you have to put bug guards on your car certain times of the year to avoid them going all over your grill and into your lights and messing the car up because they are attracted to the lights and mate that way.
Or... I could take the writer in me. Make it real romantic. (cue soft music in background). We are the stuff of moonbeams and stardust . And when we die, we return to moonbeams and stardust to whence we came, traveling the skies for all eternity.
And then, Martha Stewart goes and ruins it all by dusting off the end table where I am laying!
Good piece Bitter!
- June 3, 2010 at 12:46 PM


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Well, because the only thing that makes him stop crying is the original Star Wars opening theme by John Williams. So unless you walk around screaming all day in misery until you too hear the Star Wars theme — which would be much less socially acceptable from an adult than an infant — then this baby has the edge.
[Via Geeks Are Sexy]


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The Nov/Dec issue of the Ottawa Branch News arrived yesterday and it's a good one - at 52 pages!
The FEATURES articles include "Early Carleton County Settlers", sub-titled 'Early Medical Practitioners in Carleton County' (note that in 1847, the total number of people looked after by the doctors was 664 - the largest number to date); "Early Residents of Ottawa's Sandy Hill Neighbourhood"; and "Irish Threads - A New Look at the Tapestry of Life".
The NEWS section includes "Upcoming Events"; "OGS Conference 2009"; and a "Message from the Chair". DEPARTMENTS includes "Electronic Notebook"; "Conferences, Meetings, Workshops"; and "Historic Plaques and Monuments".
The Ottawa Branch News—along with the website <www.ogsottawa.on.ca>—is an excellent addition to your membership. It takes many volunteer hours to put together, and Ottawa has one of the better newsletters. It is published five times a year.
On the title page is a photo of the monument erected in Beechwood Cemetery, listing the 26 Canadians who were killed September 11, 2001.


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The early 20th Century was, it seems, the age of contraptions, due in no small part to the genius of people like W. Heath Robinson, whose imagination knew no bounds. In the household of my formative years the term "gold-plated Heath Robinson" – somewhere in that vague area between noun and adjective - came to signify not just any old complicated what-you-ma-call-it, generally constructed from recycled bits and pieces that happened to be lying around, but a device put together with some flair and panache. If it actually did the job intended this was, of course, handy, but incidental. One of his more famous cartoons was the potato peeler, shown above, no doubt designed to the free hundreds – nay, thousands - of bored staff from their tedious tasks in field kitchens behind the lines all along the Western Front, for the far more stimulating duties which awaited them in the trenches.
A great many of these contraptions, unsurprisingly, never amounted to much, and only n0w see the light of day due to the penchant for people like yours truly for pointless dwelling on the past, and an unexplainable desire to unearth such curiosities from dusty archives.
This rather unusually shaped bicycle may not have been designed, or even owned, by my great-grandfather Frans Smit (1865-1955), but there are no obvious scuff marks or gaping tears in the elbows or knees of his suit, so presumably he had mastered the required technique. The otherwise friendly Friesian cow seems to be showing a little alarm, and may be concerned that it's some new-fangled milking machine, rather than a human plaything. According to a note on the reverse, the photo was taken at Sneek on "Pinksteren 24," which my mother interprets for me as Pentecost or Whitsunday, 1924, and my trusty Calisto calendar utility tells me was on 20 May.
By this time Frans Smit and his wife Akke de Jager (1863-1951) were living in Amsterdam, but he was born in nearby Leeuwarden, and they returned frequently to south-west Friesland on holiday, often with children and grandchildren in tow. Judging by the frequency of its appearance in family albums, and in spite of the apparently rather featureless landscape, Sneek was a favourite destination.
Apart from a frame of roughly conventional, if low slung, shape and vertically-extended handlebar, the apparatus appears to have the usual wire-spoked wheels with pneumatic tyres, mud guards, cable-or rod-operated rim brakes and forks. When examined in detail, however, the absence of the normal rotary pedals becomes evident, replaced by two sets of what appear to be lever-style pedals. I think they might operate in a similar manner to those of children's pedal cars – drive rods and crank axle - but the method of linkage to the back wheel/hub is hidden, so I can't be sure. The thought briefly occurred, both to my wife and to myself, that it might have been designed without any propelling mechanism – in other words, a push bike in the true sense of the word – but I think that even in Holland where a rise of a couple of metres might be regarded as significant topography, that might be a little pointless.
However the contraption worked, I hope he carried a supply of Elliman's Universal Embrocation (or whatever the local equivalent was at that time), and didn't venture too far afield. It doesn't look a very easy bike to push for miles, in the event of a puncture or some other misadventure.
Sepia Saturday this week has a photograph of an early aerial contraption which looks as though it might have benefited from having the pedal design from Frans Smit's velocipede. I'm keen to head off and see what delights other contributors have unearthed. I'm also hopeful that visitors brought here by said meme, presumably also folk with a keen interest in the esoteric and irrelevant, might have come across something similar in their wanderings, and can enlighten us further.


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Welcome to the Love LIVE Channel on SpiritAnnex. Here, we have gathered the best spirituality experts to share their knowledge on all things love, sex, and relationship related. Start on the road to a more spiritual union today!
Check out our Upcoming Shows schedule below, or watch a Recent Video you may have missed!
It's all available, here for you on SpiritAnnex:


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Check out the latest RPG news | Podcasts | Twitch Streams
More proof Japan's cartoon's are fucked... not that we need more proof.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IS2O7MUJtQ
My friend showed me this link earlier. It kicks ass on over 9000 levels. I managed to reconize a few of the songs in this link too.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIRCzbBB99E
Thank you for the most awesome 11 minutes of my life.I recognized the forest theme from Super Mario RPG and Dr. Wily's Castle from MM2. Super Mario World theme was there for a few seconds. A few others sounded familiar but I can't place them. Anyway, that video rocks.
PS - you knew the Daft Hands guy before Daft Hands existed?


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And now...a brief excursion into the world of the sublime....
At this point, I don't really recall why DA no longer mentions my name on his blog, but rather writes about me using an insulting name he's created. I think, if I recall correctly, he's doing it as some sort of punishment. I'm a little fuzzy on all the facts at this point, but if I recall, after his negations via the telephone with Tim Enloe, they both decided to play nice together, and both removed the "DA is [insert slander] " and the "Tim is [insert slander]" posts from their respective blogs. Of course, that peace only lasts as long as DA can tolerate. He's recently re-posted his "Tim is [insert slander]" diatribes from long ago. Yes, turning the other check only can last so long in the world of DA. It is very reminiscent of junior high school.
A while back, DA offered the same olive branch to me. He asked that I go through my entire blog, and remove any nasties I may have uttered against the DA empire. Go through my entire blog and edit? That's stuff for people with time to do. Perhaps a full time professional Catholic apologist tapping away on his computer somewhere has time for that, but I don't. But DA, decided to delete all the "James Swan is [insert slander]" material from his blog.
Yes, such great efforts showed me the great moral high road... for a little while. He then began using an insulting name for me he made up..."John Q. "Deadhead." Now maybe he explained this ostensive title, if he did, I don't recall what the point is. So, he continued writing the same nasties against me, though without using my real name. Such is Catholic morality 101. This to me seems even worse than before he edited his nasty posts about me and sent me candy and flowers.
Now recently DA stopped by and left a few comments, which surprised me as well, because he vowed to never waste his time over here with me. I admit, I did leave a stray comment on one of DA's recent Luther entries when he posted he had recently "discovered an entire online translation of Martin Luther's tract, Against Henry VIII." I think my comment was "LOL". Discovered? No, he found it....by reading my blog. LOL.
But then DA appeared over here, which was very surprising.
Anyway, both he and Paul Hoffer seemed a bit befuddled by my comment about Gregory of Nyssa: "his language reflects his understanding of sacred scripture. The arguments I would have with him would be over his interpretation of the Biblical text, not his use of words that may not be found in the Bible." Both DA and Paul thought this comment implied that in some sense, a modern day Roman Catholic (like DA or Paul) could be considered as to adhering to sola scriptura. I was actually amazed by this sentiment- because, at least with these guys, I assumed each understood sola scriptura. I then recommended a few books for these guys to pick up.
This though was another opportunity for DA to continue breaking his vow to never interact with me again. He posted, yet again, another one of those "James Swan is [insert slander]" posts. I actually tried to listen to it via his new MP3 feature, but it says "Sorry, this article is not available yet." I can only speculate it's a technical issue, or DA isn't quite finished either adding or deleting more nasties to it. He tends to post and then edit. Anyway, I didn't save a copy, so whatever form it takes-mudless or mud throwing, is all up to DA.
Anyway, this isn't all too difficult to explain. One aspect of Sola Scriptura says that the Scriptures are the sole infallible authority for the church. That is, the only evidence of God's infallible special revelation extant in the world today are the sacred scriptures. When Hoffer and DA thought my comments in regard to Gregory of Nyssa's interpretation of the Bible could likewise be applied across the board to all Catholics, they in essence, missed this fundamental point. To my knowledge, DA and Hoffer believe that God's infallible voice of special revelation is not only found in the Bible, but in the teaching magisterium and Sacred Tradition. My math isn't that good, but that's 3 vehicles of infallible special revelation, not 1. Therefore, it would be impossible to say any modern Romanist holding to 3 vehicles of infallible special revelation in any sense held to sola scriptura.
The counter to comment about Gregory of Nyssa would be to prove Gregory of Nyssa held that God's infallible voice of special revelation was found elsewhere. All the material I've seen so far shows that Gregory of Nyssa considered the Scriptures to be the infallible voice of God. I'm no expert on Gregory of Nyssa. Perhaps one could present interesting counter evidence showing at least, Gregory of Nyssa was inconsistent (recall he wasn't infallible). I'm sure Gregory of Nyssa believed the church has authority, well so do I. Sola scriptura does not deny the church has authority. I bet Gregory of Nyssa thought that there have been times in which God's infallible revelation was transmitted orally, well, so do I. Sola Scriptura does not deny there have been such times. I bet Gregory of Nyssa believed in tradition. Well, so do I. Sola scriptura is not a denial of all tradition. Some traditions can be God honoring and useful in the church. They are though, not infallible, and must be tested and scrutinized by the Scriptures. I bet Gregory of Nyssa believed the Holy Spirit guides the church, well so do I. The Holy Spirit can guide the church without her being infallible.


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June 30, 2005 - Psychology and Organized Crime
by Jeff Moss
Sometimes we're so stuck on the screen that we forget to look beyond it. Mudge and Geers are here to remind us of the security angles we seldom explore, but that have an effect on what we do daily. On today's page we keep in mind economics, psychology, and the Russian mob when thinking about security.
The Security Disconnect
by Mudge posted June 30, 2005
In all of my years engaged in computer and network security, from the L0pht, @Stake, BBN, and the government - there has always seemed to be a disconnect between the attack, defense, research, and commercial worlds. While my talk does not pretend to be THE answer, it offers several novel ways to approach attacks, defense, and other fields. Culled from my work regarding Intelligence Communities, Economics principles, physics, and human nature the talk can be used for both offensive and/or defensive purposes (just like L0phtCrack, AntiSniff, etc.). It is not my position to presume who or what is good or bad, but instead to hopefully offer new and novel ways of engaging in information security (or the lack thereof).
From Russia With Love
by Kenneth Geers posted June 30, 2005
Oh shit. Another email from Citibank San Francisco! I have never been to San Francisco. I open the email header to check the IP address, and it again resolves to Moscow, Russia. Enough is enough. This time I will track Boris and Natasha down. I don't know Russian, but that's not a problem. I boldly log on to one of the most informative Russian hacker sites, go to the forum, open a second window, and translate my questions and answers in real-time. I feel like I could beat Garry Kasparov at chess right now. Preliminary research done. Now I have some decent information to compare my problem set against. OK, here we go. Number one on my list of questions for Russian law enforcement, cut and paste:
Response received, and double-secret Russian encryption broken. Anna Kournikova, I will soon have your e-mail address (Paris Hilton's was too easy). Now I have all the information I need in order to rat on at least this one group. Soon, I will script this, and flood Russia with abuse complaints. OK, my log entry and notes are in the right format, and it's ready to send. Linguistically, culturally, and politically lamer hackers could never have pulled this off. Pass the vodka.
Above the Law
A popular issue for the world's top security researchers is the unique relationship between security practices and their legal implications. Every aspect of today's security involves some form of legality. The justice system has allowed governments to enforce encryption bans, corporations to file mass lawsuits for identity thefts, and the U.S. Congress to debate the need for federal preemption. Jennifer Granick and Robert Clark continuously offer fresh perspectives on the ever changing legal landscape. This Black Page is dedicated to why I miss crime... read more
Smile, You're on P2P
If you've logged on to your favorite file sharing peer-to-peer network recently there is a good chance a node is waiting to log your every download. Securing and providing anonymity on p2p systems is a critical step in protecting the free flow of digital information. Luckily, Ian Clarke and Oskar Sandberg are the kind of guys that can pull something like this off. On today's page, Ian takes a look on how to keep peer-to-peer networks dark, searchable, secure and efficient. Whether it is Freenet or their work on the free music-sharing client, Indy, Ian and Oskar have the lockdown on p2p. Word... read more
The Black Page is always looking for concise and interesting comments from researchers and experts about issues that affect the security community. Contact us here to learn more about submission rules


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Investors are in the mood to take more risk in return for higher rewards. They are in "risk on" mode.
Recently, the Baltic Dry Index has fallen to a 25-year-low (since then it has risen by 1.9%) prompting concern that history is about to repeat itself. In the past, say 2008, a weak index foretold a recession, or at least an economic slowdown.But this time there been some special factors at play, according to conventional wisdom. The boom in the Baltic Dry seen before the financial crash and recession was in large part the result of a shortage of ships, which pushed up the cost of carrying freight. There are now far more ships with greater capacity and, because it has taken time for the vessels to be built, the extra capacity has become available when ship owners least want it. A, short-term factor, has been that the Chinese New Year holidays fell early this year, depressing trade in Asia.
Still a 2.9% fall in German industrial production in December suggests that the index might have collapsed due to both increased supply of shipping and weak demand. Germany is the world's biggest exporter and the hefty slump in output at the tail end of 2011 coincided with the intensification of the crisis in the euro zone. Remember, too, that Germany exports machines to make goods to China.
Update on !0 februart 2012 at 7.05am:
Imports into China fell by 15.3% In January, and this cannot be all due to the Chinese New Year holiday factor. Exports dipped 0.5% from a year earlier hurt by sluggish demand and factories being shut during the Lunar New Year.
This resulted in a trade surplus of $27.3bn which was a six-month high.


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AXIS P5522 PTZ Dome Network Camera
Affordable day/night PTZ dome with 18x zoom for broad indoor application
Discontinued product. Supported until 2020-10-01.After this date, please see the support documentation.
As long as the product is within the warranty period you will be supported.
Recommended replacement: AXIS P5654-E
Note: Check the recommended replacement product data sheet for full specification
- 18x optical zoom with autofocus
- D1 resolution, day/night and H.264
- IP51-rated protection against dust and dripping water
- Advanced Gatekeeper
- Easy installation including PoE+ (IEEE 802.3at)
Easy-to-install PTZ dome for indoor video surveillance
The indoor AXIS P5522 PTZ Dome Network Camera is affordably priced and easy to install.
The camera is powered using Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+), which facilitates installation since only one network cable is needed for carrying power, video/audio and PTZ commands. It is perfect for wide ranging surveillance applications, such as in stores, offices, hotels and warehouses.
Pan/tilt/zoom capabilities
The camera enables users at a remote location to pan 360° for overview surveillance, tilt 180° and zoom in 18x with autofocus for detailed views. The Advanced Gatekeeper functionality enables the camera to automatically move to a preset position when motion is detected in a pre-defined area.
High video quality
High video quality is maintained even in low light conditions, thanks to the camera's day/night functionality. Support for wide dynamic range enables objects in both dark and light areas of a scene to be visible. AXIS P5522 provides H.264 and Motion JPEG streams at full frame rate in all resolutions up to D1 (720x480 in 60 Hz, 720x576 in 50 Hz).
Protection in tough environments
AXIS P5522 has an IP51 rating, which ensures protection against dust and dripping water. The camera can operate even when a sprinkler system is activated.
Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port
50% reduction in larceny and vandalism cases at Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port with video surveillance system driven by Axis network camerasRead the full story
All software isn't compatible with all products, please refer to the data sheets for compatibility information.
AXIS Companion
The market's easiest video surveillance solution optimized for small systems
AXIS Camera Station
The ideal solution to meet the needs for active surveillance of mid-sized installations
Security as a service
A full range of cloud-based surveillance and security services from Axis partners
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Customized and specialized solutions from Axis partners, for any system complexity and size
Surge protectors
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Media Converters
PoE+ over Coax
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Installation Tools
Control Boards and Joystick
Press release
Declaration & statement
Third party software licenses INTEGRITY CHECKSUM


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Goralion - Wednesday 21/11/2012, 12:06
Admin - Polit Night Club
While working on Urban Rivals, since several months we are developing our new title : Fantasy Rivals, a trading card game taking place in a fantasy universe. You will find the game type you like again, but with new game mechanics and an original universe. To be notified when the game is available and to sign in the private Beta which is going to start in the next few days, check out this page now.
_2015_ - Monday 25/02/2013, 04:27
Senior - Time Conquers All
I think the paying players would like to have a word with you...
star brute - Monday 25/02/2013, 05:48
I'm a free player and loving FR. see the trick is not to focus on the bad but on the good, good cards and clan setup is a plus. game play is mostly a plus except a few bugs. market is a plus for most people (let's be honest people you have the opportunity to even sextuplet or more on your investment) and the only major problem is moving up in leagues and when you think about it that's not as big a deal as most people think. right now I'm in bronze league and it's possible for me to get 100 credits a week if i work hard enough. i don't know what it is for the higher levels put complaining that you can't get from platinum to diamond is ridiculous. the league are made to divide so the players with bad card's/skill are in the lower leagues and the people with the better skill/cards are in the higher leagues. also it will take 2-4 week's if you get 100 creds a week to buy most epics and thats the bronze leauge, that's about a month to get some pretty sick cards without paying a dime so stop complaining
Goralion - Monday 25/02/2013, 11:31
Admin - Polit Night Club
Please don't post your email addresses in public.
Goralion - Monday 25/02/2013, 11:41
Admin - Polit Night Club
No Cr's on Fantasy Rivals. Also, a Market has been added.
edited by Goralion monday 25/02/2013, 11:41


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UCSB Teacher Education Program Information Meeting
Free Event
The UCSB Teacher Education Program offers a M.Ed. with emphasis in Teaching and Credential Programs for elementary, secondary and special education teaching.
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RSVP is encouraged. If you have further questions, please contact the TEP Office: email@example.com or (805) 893-2084.
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More Links: https://education.ucsb.edu/tep, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ucsb-teacher-education-program-information-meeting-tickets-41530854905


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When you need a replacement Snapper Idler, Jack's has them to help get your Snapper lawn mower or tractor repair project started. We've been selling lawn mower parts and small engine parts online since 1997, so when you need replacement Snapper flat idlers, heavy duty flat idlers, heavy duty v idlers, no flange flat idlers or v idlers, just come to Jack's! It is important to know that idlers are not the same as pulleys. There are parts called idler pulleys, but they are actually pulleys. The difference is that a pulley will have a notch (or some other device) to fix it to a shaft that it rotates around, while an idler rotates freely around bearings at its center. Replacement Snapper Pulleys
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Plan the Honeymoon of Your Dreams
- 2007 16 Jun
There's much more to do beyond just booking reservations for the trip, because your honeymoon isn't just a vacation – it's a critical time that lays the foundation for your new life as a married couple.
Here's how you can plan the honeymoon of your dreams:
Deal with tough issues ahead of time. Discuss issues like money, in-laws and the division of household chores well before your honeymoon so they don't surprise you by popping up during your conversations on the trip, turning into arguments, and ruining your honeymoon. Make sure you and your future spouse take a premarital inventory test that reveals valuable information about your personalities and helps you understand each other better. Go through premarital counseling from the pastor who will marry you, or another trusted source. Learn about each other's finances, and meet with a financial counselor to discuss how best to merge your finances after you're married. Find a couple (perhaps through your church) you admire who have been married a long time and are willing to mentor you and your new spouse.
Save sex for later. If you've kept your relationship sexually pure throughout your engagement, keep up the great work and continue to wait until after your wedding to consummate your marriage. If you've already had sex, stop doing so and commit to being chaste until you're married. Understand that it's crucial to wait until you're married to have sex for many reasons, such as being faithful to God's design for marriage, developing the self-control you each need to be faithful after you're married, building trust in your relationship, and making sure your relationship is truly based on love instead of just on lust.
Know that research shows religious married couples have the best sex lives – by far – of any other types of couples, in terms of frequency, satisfaction, fun, and duration of their sex lives together. Realize that research shows that living together before marriage dramatically harms couples' relationships and makes them statistically far more likely to either break up before marriage or divorce after marriage than couples who choose not to live together before they get married. Recognize that it's worth it to save sex for after you're married. Abstain from all types of sexual activity until you're married. Ask God to help both you and your future spouse keep your thoughts pure and control your media habits so you don't fall prey to temptation to have premarital sex.
If you're having trouble remaining pure and are facing a long engagement, consider moving up your wedding date so you can get married sooner. Remember that your sexual purity is more important than a fancy ceremony. Talk with your future spouse openly and honestly about whatever fears you each have about your sex life together, and pray for God to help you overcome each one. Pursue healing from God for any painful sexual issues from in your past, such as sexual assault, promiscuity, immorality, fornication, pornography, and sexual abuse. Enlist help from a professional counselor or clergy person if you need it. If either you or your future spouse has had any prior sexual relationships with other people, be sure to get a thorough medical exam and tests to check for sexually transmitted diseases. Share the test results completely with each other; never hide crucial health information. Pray for God to help you forgive each other for past mistakes and not carry bitterness and anger that can poison your relationship over into your marriage. Discuss your family planning options thoroughly and think and pray carefully about which option is best for you and your future spouse.
Get your health in order. Don't let physical exhaustion ruin your honeymoon. Develop healthy habits during your engagement that will set a strong foundation for your marriage, as well as give you stamina during your honeymoon. Eat healthy foods. Get plenty of sleep and exercise. Schedule regular medical checkups. If you smoke, quit. Update your immunizations. Plan to deal with special health concerns that relate to your specific honeymoon destination, such as altitude sickness, malaria prevention, seasickness, water and diving safety, jet lag, and sun and heat safety. Talk with your future spouse about what health goals you each have, and how you can best help each other reach those goals.
Make travel plans wisely. Keep your honeymoon simple so you'll have a minimum amount of potential complications and can relax and focus on each other as much as possible. Don't strive for the most exotic location, the most extravagant vacation package, or the most packed itinerary. Instead, plan for a trip that allows you plenty of quiet and privacy, allows you to get to your destination without hassles and stay there for the whole trip, and features activities you and your future spouse both enjoy while also providing the downtime you'll need to relax together. Remember that you'll have plenty of time later for fancy vacations, but your honeymoon will help you get your marriage started best if it's simple. Don't go into debt for your honeymoon; make sure your trip is affordable. Instead of leaving for your honeymoon right after your wedding, consider giving yourselves at least several days to rest at home and recover from the stress of your wedding and reception before taking a trip. Consider spending some downtime between your wedding and honeymoon with close family and friends who will support you as a married couple. But don't bring anyone along with you on your honeymoon; focus on each other alone, without distractions from others.
Pack a honeymoon kit. Include first aid items (like pain relievers, upset stomach relief, multivitamins, cold relief, and band-aids), prescriptions that either of you take, female health items, and items to help set a romantic mood (like love letters to each other, a book of poetry, candles, lotions, massage oils, and bubble bath liquid).
Celebrate intimacy together. Relax when it comes time to consummate your marriage. Take the pressure off yourselves to perform sexually in a certain way; understand that it will likely take some time to get to know how to best please each other. Expect your sex life to get better as you grow in your marriage. Talk openly and honestly about each other's sexual concerns and desires, and be sensitive to that information. Know that it's common for couples to vary on the frequency that they each desire sex. Don't pressure or rush each other. Instead of focusing on your own needs, focus on what your spouse needs and ask him or her to do the same. Do your best to meet each other's needs and expect everything to work out fine in the process. Keep sex in perspective, realizing that you can (and should) bond on your honeymoon in non-sexual ways as well. Plan to talk, pray, eat, laugh, etc. together as well, to build intimacy.
Start sharing daily devotional time as a couple. Use your honeymoon to begin the habit of praying together every day (if you're not doing so already). Bring along a couple's devotional book that you can continue after your honeymoon. Consider celebrating Communion together to share even more spiritual intimacy.
Adapted from The Honeymoon of Your Dreams, copyright 2007 by Walt Larimore, M.D. and Susan A. Crockett, M.D. Published by Regal Books, a division of Gospel Light,Ventura, Ca., http://www.regalbooks.com/.
Walt Larimore, M.D. is one of America's best-known family physicians and is listed in the Best Doctors in America and Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare. He received his MD from Louisiana State University School of Medicine and his Family Medicine and Sports Medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center. After practicing medicine for more than 20 years, he turned his attention to medical journalism. A nationally known television journalist who hosted Fox's Health Network program, Ask the Family Doctor, Dr. Larimore has been a guest on television programs such as The Today Show, and CBS's Morning Show. He is the author of several previous books, including Alternative Medicine and Going Public with Your Faith. He has been married to his childhood sweetheart, Barb, for more than 30 years and has two adult children. Susan A. Crockett, M.D. is a nationally recognized board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who spent several years in private practice preparing patients for the honeymoon and marriage. Dr. Crockett received her medical degree from Texas A&M University and her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgetown University Hospital. She is the founder of MediHOME, Inc., a medical management company providing services for the underserved and poor and Medical Home Builders, dedicated to planting medical homes for primary care in underserved communities. She and her husband Dale have four children and reside in San Antonio, Texas.