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The is called the Lantern Post because it lights the way to the "What is happening" thread
The "What is Happening" thread can be accessed directly. It is at the following address:
Chris, Alan or I have cursorily checked many recent posts but the forum has become much too large to do this properly so I am concentrating mainly on answering member questions on and checking member answers and giving members the points and ticks that they rightly deserve. There is not always even time to do this. :(
Up to: Questions page 2571 - with 25 per page
and Answers page 4188
There may be some that do not have answers - Usually it is just too busy to get through all of them.
Instructions on reposting:
(Remember: All answerers intend to give correct answers but no answer comes with guarantees!)
I encourage everyone to read "What is Happening"
It is how I communicate with the forum and sometimes it contains important information.
This recurring thread has been renamed. In the past it was called "End of Day Wrap" or just "The Wrap"
All the old wraps can be accessed. They are in a Sticky Thread which are located in the bottom right hand corner of the forum.
Previous Wrap Lantern:
Future Wrap Lantern:


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Rush to the Cloud
This is a time when it's natural to recap 2010 and wonder what milestones during the past year might be a game-changer for computing, software and information technology (IT). At the beginning of 2010, one could easily forecast there would be a steady stream of news about cloud computing. As expected, there were new product offerings and movement on the merger and acquisition front. But perhaps the most important news was the U.S. government's embrace of cloud computing.
In December 2010, the government's CIO, Vivek Kundra, released a 25-point plan for an overhaul of Federal IT that emphasizes a cloud-first policy for federal agencies. Currently the federal government is on pace to spend $79 billion on IT this year, with more than 20% going to infrastructure spending. Because the US government has spent $600 billion on IT over the past decade, the plan's intent is to reduce IT spending by the federal government.
In February 2010, the government announced the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) that required agencies to do an inventory of IT assets. It was believed the government operated 1,100 data centers but the FDCCI effort revealed there were 2,100 data centers.
The new 25-point plan establishes a Data Center Consolidation Task Force with a goal of reducing the number of data centers by 800 as of 2015. The plan also touts scalability as a reason for embracing the cloud over traditional solutions. It cited the example of a private-sector company doing video editing that experienced a surge of demand and was able, using the cloud, to scale from 50 to 4,000 virtual machines in three days.
The Kundra plan calls for each government agency to identify three services that must move to the cloud, enabling them to benefit from "commodity IT funding". There's an expectation that moving applications such as e-mail to the cloud will facilitate data center consolidation and reduce IT budgets. Some federal agencies have already awarded contracts to move e-mail to the cloud. In addition, the government has selected a dozen vendors to supply Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas).
Google and Microsoft want the government's cloud business and they've undertaken a PR campaign including announcements of high-profile contract awards. The General Services Administration (GSA) recently awarded Unisys and Google a contract to host e-mail in the cloud. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) selected Dell to supply Microsoft Online Services for the migration of 120,000 users and 21 e-mail systems to the cloud.
Microsoft was the winner of a Department of the Interior contract for moving e-mail to the cloud, a selection that Google protested. Google and its reseller, Onix Networking Corp, have filed suit against the Department of the Interior to overturn that selection (Google vs. US complaint).
A major factor in the selection process for government agencies is whether they have a preference for Google Apps for Government or Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal (BPOS). Microsoft BPOS includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online. Both Google Apps for Government and BPOS have been certified as being compliant with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Being given FISMA Authority to Operate (ATO) is a certification the cloud infrastructure is a secure, trusted environment for government applications and databases they use.
The federal contracts for hosting e-mail in the cloud are not the first Big Government embrace of hosted e-mail. Microsoft reportedly has several hundred state and local agencies using its cloud services. New York City recently announced it will adopt Microsoft BPOS for 30,000 city users. The State of California awarded a contract to Microsoft and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) for the migration of 130 of e-mail systems to Microsoft BPOS. The State of Minnesota Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) announced an agreement with Microsoft to migrate Exchange e-mail and other communications services to BPOS in a private cloud. BPOS will be accessible via Minnesota's secure network and Minnesota CIO Gopal Khanna has said it will not be accessible to Microsoft employees.
In October 2009, the city of Los Angeles selected Google Apps for Government and it experienced problems in making the transition to hosted services. Google and CSC missed a June 2010 deadline for full implementation. The primary reason for the delay was security issues raised by the California Department of Justice and the Los Angeles Police Department. Those agencies had concerns about encryption and data segregation. They requested background checks of Google employees who will have access to law enforcement data and communications. There were also concerns about the e-mail system generating confirmation of delivery of important documents such as subpoenas.
Service Level Agreements and Uptime With BPOS and Google Apps for Government competing for new contracts, it's no surprise that service level agreements and uptime have been put under the microscope. Microsoft BPOS experienced outages in August and September 2010 that reduced uptime for some to 98.07%, less than advertised 99.9% uptime specified by the Microsoft BPOS service level agreement. Lars Tønnesen of Astrofarm AS in Norway reported serious uptime problems with BPOS EMEA over a 4-month period.
The Google Apps Premier Edition Agreement also has an uptime guarantee of 99.9%. Gmail had six outages in an eight month period of 2008 but Google said it still averaged 99.9% uptime. In February 2009, Google Apps Premier Edition paying customers received a service credit because uptime dropped to 95% due to a February 24 outage. Google reported Google Mail service interruptions in November, 2010, with the most recent outage being on December 3, 2010.
Cloud Security In a prime example of putting the cart before the horse, the federal government has been awarding contracts to cloud vendors before identifying the security requirements their platforms must satisfy.
One of the announced goals of the FDCCI was to "Increase the overall IT security posture of the government". It will be interesting to see how that plays out with organizations such as Microsoft and Google hosting government applications and being responsible for the security of sensitive government data.
Update January 5, 2010 A federal judge has ordered the Department of the Interior to hold off on awarding the contract to Microsoft for migration of Interior's e-mail to the cloud.
Next: FISMA, sensitive data and cloud securityThe Kundra plan calls for each government agency to identify three services that must move to the cloud, enabling them to benefit from "commodity IT funding". There's an expectation that moving applications such as e-mail to the cloud will facilitate data center consolidation and reduce IT budgets.

subset: commoncrawl


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Today Microsoft announced three new Windows Live products for use with mobile devices. The first two consist of one idea, Live Search, which is available for both Windows Mobile and Java platforms, although I imagine that Live Search will probably work best on Windows Mobile devices.
Live Search can be used for category-based local searching, giving you the ability to search for hotels, restaurants, and shopping areas based on your area and the distance you'd like to travel, giving you no excuses for not being able to book a decent meal on Valentine's Day. Global positioning capabilities are also built into the Live Search software which provides maps and directions based on your location or any other location you're traveling to, provided that you have a GPS supported device.
Like Google Maps, the Live Search software also provides turn-by-turn diretions, as well as road and aerial views of your location using Microsoft's Virtual Earth software. It looks as though the aerial imagery is only available to Windows Mobile customers. So you've got a classy restaurant booked and you have your directions, but in order to get to the restaurant in time, you're going to need to avoid that LA traffic. That's where Live Search traffic comes in, providing you data on over 25 US cities, showing traffic patterns with green, red, and yellow gradients. Other than these "touristy" features, you'll also be able to search the web for news, weather, etc. If you're in the UK or the US chatting away on a Windows Mobile device, Nokia Series 40 or Series 60, Motorola RAZR/SLVR or on various LG and Samsung devices, then you're in luck.
That covers the first two announcements, so what's the third? Windows Live for Windows Mobile. Windows Live will bring Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Live Search, and Windows Live Spaces to Windows Mobile-powered devices. This means you'll be able to access Windows Live as well as Microsoft Windows Outlook contacts on your mobile device. Windows Live Mail will let you check your Live mail account (obviously) as well as your Hotmail account, but with Windows Mobile 6, you'll also be able to view HTML and graphical e-mails. Windows Live Spaces will bring Microsoft's photo and blog services to your mobile device, so you can send and receive pictures, videos, and contact cards to and from your friends' phones.
There's the news, now let's get some feedback. If you've recently downloaded it, what do you think about Microsoft's Windows Live Search?


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Hello to the country club of gyms. And let me clarify, I grew up going to a country club as a kid (and adult if I want to be honest about my mooching) and nothing compares to this. I would like to say a personal thank you to the United States of America Military for providing a facility such as this where lazy asses such as myself should drag themselves every day! Now let me curse you for a minute. How can I possibly tell my husband that I don't feel like working out today in our crummy gym when the GYM LOOKS LIKE THIS??? I am afraid that I am now bound to three years of constant working out with no excuse to get out of it. We thought that our gym at home in Atlanta was pretty great. It was practically in a dungeon but it was close to the condo and it offered a great class schedule. It was a steal at $100 a month for both our memberships. This place has classes that pretty much start every 3 minutes and the best part is........IT IS FREE!! Here are some shots of the rest of the place!I know, I know. One hardly has an excuse to not be physically fit when they have this place to go everyday. Unfortunately, it doesn't make me want to workout any more than normal!! Which is typically NONE.
Change of subject. In case some of y'all don't know, one of my favorite foods is STEAK. I could eat a good steak at pretty much ANY TIME. Deaner's dad makes a mean filet mignon (my fave) as does my favorite restaurant of all time, Rathbuns. I only have a slight problem here in Germany. The fact that steak is called "Rumpsteak" is a big problem for me. Every time I order I feel like I might as well be saying "I will have your best BUTT STEAK"!!! To make matters worse, it just isn't as good here. I think that once we have our own apartment and grill that we will be able to buy good steak at the commissary but until then, I will be forced to order butt steak for dinner in restaurants. It just doesn't sound okay.
In other news, thanks for all those who entered the giveaway! It will be going on for almost two weeks so definitely leave me a comment on the post beneath this one. Emory has some really cute stuff and the winner will definitely be able to find something cute! Some people seem a little bit confused about being a follower. In order to be a follower you have to click on the "Follow The Blog" button on the right hand side of the page. This is what will earn an extra entry into the giveaway! And people who post anonymously unless you leave all your information, we might have a problem. Which brings me to another topic of my mother-in-law. Whom I love to death. If anyone ever sees a comment on my blog that is from Anonymous and that utilizes AT LEAST 45 or so punctuation marks, that is from my mother-in-law! :) One of these days I will show her how to get a profile name but for now.............If I see 30 periods in a row.........I am nearly certain.......it is her............love you Kathy...........
I'm off to meet Steph and get my hair highlighted!! Woooo-hooooo!! What better way to spend a Friday afternoon! Tonight we are having Mexican and beer night and having dinner at Steph and Jon's house. I can't wait! More later! Don't forget the giveaway!!!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Country Club of Gyms
Hello to the country club of gyms. And let me clarify, I grew up going to a country club as a kid (and adult if I want to be honest about my mooching) and nothing compares to this. I would like to say a personal thank you to the United States of America Military for providing a facility such as this where lazy asses such as myself should drag themselves every day! Now let me curse you for a minute. How can I possibly tell my husband that I don't feel like working out today in our crummy gym when the GYM LOOKS LIKE THIS??? I am afraid that I am now bound to three years of constant working out with no excuse to get out of it. We thought that our gym at home in Atlanta was pretty great. It was practically in a dungeon but it was close to the condo and it offered a great class schedule. It was a steal at $100 a month for both our memberships. This place has classes that pretty much start every 3 minutes and the best part is........IT IS FREE!! Here are some shots of the rest of the place!I know, I know. One hardly has an excuse to not be physically fit when they have this place to go everyday. Unfortunately, it doesn't make me want to workout any more than normal!! Which is typically NONE.
Posted by Gleatie at 3:18 PM 6 comments
I have been wanting to do a give-a-way for some time now but I really couldn't decide what I wanted to give! I told Deaner the other night that I wished I was super rich and could give away a My Best Friend, Jr. but I don't think my husband would appreciate me buying a laptop computer for one of my readers! I promise though that if I ever hit the lottery jackpot, I will give-a-way 10 MBF, Jr.'s!!
My next instinct was to give-a-way something that was unique to Germany but to be quite honest, there is no one "German" product that I have found that I cannot live without OR that I couldn't get in the States. SO, I compromised. Here in Germany when one goes grocery shopping (anywhere besides the commissary!) you have to either bring your own grocery bags or pay approximately 50 cents per plastic bag that you use. RIP OFF! I recently discovered Emma's Closet which is a new business which specializes in custom baby and gift item's! I ordered the Essential Tote in Red with a White monogram for days when I want to hit up the Wiesbaden farmers market and need to bring along my own tote bag!I can't wait to get it!! Emory Eison, owner of Emma's Closet, has graciously agreed to let one lucky reader pick a gift from her new inventory of gifts! Whatever gift the reader chooses will be monogrammed in whatever initials the winner chooses and sent to them! There are some seriously cute things on this web page such as........these super cute towel wraps. Personally, this is on of my favorite things on Emory's web page. I loved my towel wrap in college and I'm thinking eventually I will have to get another one. Sometimes wearing a bathrobe just gets too hot, especially in the summer. Think about how cute this would look with a monogram on bottom corner!? Another favorite is.....this waffle weave cosmetic bag! I go through makeup bags quickly because I can't stand them once they get dirty. Maybe I should buy several of these! I also love this medium sized terry cloth cosmetic bag!She also has really cute throw blankets that would look cute with a monogram on the corner!I would love to have ALL these things! If you are the winner Emory will work with you to pick the perfect gift for yourself or someone else! So, here is how it works. I will draw the winner and post it on Wednesday May 13th because this will ROUGHLY be around my 100th post. There are 3 ways to enter.
1. Leave me a comment for 1 entry
2. Leave me a comment and become a blog follower (or let me know if you already are!) for 2 entries.
3. Leave me a comment, become a follower, AND post a link to my giveaway on your blog for 3 entries!
Make sure to tell me if you became a follower/already were one AND if you are going to post a link on your blog so I can check it out. Good luck to everyone!! I am really excited about this!!
Posted by Gleatie at 7:39 AM 65 comments
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
This must be a joke
I am watching the Today's show right now (I know, I know, I need to get a life) but the headline news right now is "Pregnant Woman Hit By A Car While Being Chased By A Bear". Seriously? Is this the only news that we have to report? Isn't there some sort of swine flu outbreak going on right now? Perhaps a war to report? This pregnant lady claims that she wasn't hurt during this bear chase and hit and run but I think she might want to get her head checked again since she has decided to give her child the middle name LITTLE BEAR!! No way.
On another Today's Show note, Casey at The Ever Changing Life of a Military Wife told me this morning that when Al Roker cut away to local weather reports that he said "Hello to all those watching on AFN"!! Does anyone think this means he read my blog!? I am sure he would be a loyal follower if only he knew about me! :)
So we actually did it last night! We haven't necessarily signed our lives away (yet)but we did pay our earnest money to our architect and as long as our bank financing comes through, we are going to be the proud owners of our THIRD house/condo/apartment! God, if you are listening, please let the condo in Atlanta sell BEFORE this purchase occurs! So as we were wrapping things up last night I asked when we would hear back from the bank, innocently thinking that it would probably be about 24 to 48 hours at the most, if the bank was experiencing an extremely high volume! I almost fell out of my chair when she said between 2-4 weeks! WTF? How do people wait that long?! Maybe being an American makes me impatient but does this seem like a long time to anyone else? It was explained to me that it takes this long because we are Americans in a foreign country. BOO!! Luckily, the financing person said she was running about 2 weeks on getting answers back to people. So, sit back and relax! If it does work out, we would close in about a month. The complete renovation will take 3 months if all goes according to plan. While I am pretty excited about it, I am not excited about trying to figure out how to get our temporary housing allowance extended.
So, on the last cut to local weather, Al Roker sang a song about Willard Scott that went like this:
Everybody loves my Wiiiiiiiilllllly!
Everybody loves my Willy Scott!
Everybody loves my WiiiiiiiiLLY!
I can only imagine what you might have thought if you didn't know his song was about Willard Scott!
Anyways, my husband has decided that he can now be picked up from work at 4pm. This would normally make me really happy because I love that he gets home early. Unfortunately this means that I have to leave to get him around 3:45 or 3:50pm and this translates to having to miss the last 10 minutes a day of Days of our Lives! Oh well, I'm pretty sure that I won't miss anything that won't be replayed 80 times. The other bad news is that Deaner wants to check out the gym at the airbase today. That means that I am going to be forced to workout. I am already dreading it! It was one of the first things I thought about when I woke up this morning! But, I promised. And god knows, I never break my workout promises! (hee hee).
One more funny thing before I sign off for the day. I got an e-mail from a friend of mine in the States that told me that she couldn't believe that I drove here all by myself. She said she was sure she would somehow manage to kill herself if she had to drive on the left hand side of the road. I assured her that yes, she would manage to kill herself if she came over here and drove on the left hand side since that would be straight into ONCOMING traffic! Y'all, people only drive on the left hand side of the road in England and Australia! :) It did make me laugh though!
Posted by Gleatie at 8:13 AM 7 comments
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
One more hilarious thing!
Last night Deaner and I braved the yucky weather and since it has stopped raining for about an hour, we decided to eat dinner outside. We went to this great German restaurant called The Backerbrunnen. We were the only table not underneath the large patio umbrella but it wasn't raining anymore so we decided to take our chances. After getting settled into our table and ordering our dinner and drinks I happened to look straight up into the tree above (I was afraid it would be hard to see them so I circled them in white!). I nearly freaked out when I saw the birds in the tree because the one on the far left was perched DIRECTLY above Deaner. He was a little concerned himself because he was not in the mood to be pooped on! I kept waiting for that damn bird to fly away while we discussed whether or not we needed to try and change tables. That was when I noticed birds #2 and #3. Which looked exactly like bird #1. None of the three birds were moving. We started to watch VERY CLOSELY before coming to the conclusion that these were FAKE birds that were attached to the branches with plastic legs! HA HA HA!! We must have discussed Deaner's imminent danger for at least 5 minutes. Thank god we didn't make the mistake of getting up and moving and trying to explain to the waitress why we were moving!
Posted by Gleatie at 3:54 PM 1 comments
I have to admit
I feel like I have a confession to make. I have had all these comments (well, let's be real, only 5) congratulating me on my bravery for driving here in Germany. I feel the need to clarify that the drive to Deaner's office is only about 4-5 miles and it is completely a straight shot. I mean, I turn out of the hotel, drive straight for several miles, and then turn into the base. It really isn't that difficult and it certainly isn't the Autobahn! And I am wimpy enough that when I went to pick him up I got in the passenger seat and let him drive home! Ha ha! I think I would be okay driving here if I actually had SOMEWHERE to go! You can only run so many pointless errands before they become ridiculous.
SO, I'm glad that I let Deaner drive home last night when we left the base. As we were leisurely cruising through an intersection BAM! No, we didn't get hit but an insanely bright light flashed in our eyes which we can only assume means that we got a ticket for running a yellow light! The real killer is that Deaner admitted after it happened that at least 3 people have told him it was there!! Duh!! Oh well, I am sure that I would have done the same thing. I am just glad I was in the car so I was startled enough to remember it! I won't make the same mistake now!
I'm sitting here watching the Today's Show. I find it really funny that when they cut to the weather report and Al Roker says "Here's what's happenin' in your neck of the woods" that nothing comes on here in Germany. Obviously because only TV stations that are affiliates in the States get picked up and deliver local weather reports however instead of us hearing nothing here in Germany, we can hear all the private conversations that occur on the TV set for about 15-20 seconds. It can be pretty funny! Right now someone just told Al he is looking a "little bit disheveled"!
On another note. I want to know how the United States government could be so stupid and so outrageous that they thought it was acceptable to fly a 747 plane being tailed by a fighter jet through the Manhattan harbor heading towards downtown Manhattan sky scrapers? Seriously? What where they possibly thinking?? The videos that are on TV are bone chilling showing people running through the streets screaming. How awful. Can you imagine how these people felt? I have multiple friends in New York and I have already heard some of their stories of their office buildings being evacuated ect. One friend ran down 50 flights of stairs with every other person in the building. I can imagine that this must have been a horribly terrifying moment and I feel like there is no excuse for such behavior. How did the government FORGET to mention it? Inexcusable. Who is working in this clown administration? Enough about that.
Days of our Lives is coming on in 6 minutes. Not that I am waiting for it or anything! :) Deaner and I have our meeting at 5:30 this afternoon and I am nervous about it! We have to decide if we are willing to hand over our earnest money check tonight! I don't think we will know immediately if the financing will work out but it shouldn't take long. I'm off to make sure that we have all the needed documents to take tonight. Wish us luck!
Above is just a random wedding photo. I hate posting without some sort of picture nowadays!!
Posted by Gleatie at 7:58 AM 5 comments
Monday, April 27, 2009
I finally did it!
I drove today for the first time ever in Europe!! Moving here was my 6th trip overseas but before today I have never attempted to drive a car. I figured it was now or never plus I wanted to put that hard earned license to use! :) Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to take Deaner to work and bring the car back with me I let him drive to work and then I took the shuttle to the base to meet him for lunch. He showed me how to check our APO box (we of course had zero mail) and then I took the car home with me. When we left the states we knew we had a headlight out. We tried to get it fixed right before we shipped the car but unfortunately the mechanic said that there was something wrong with the wiring and that it couldn't be fixed by just replacing the bulb. This was particularly irritating to me because I knew it was going to be a huge pain to take care of that here. Anyways, somehow some way Deaner found a Chrysler Jeep dealership and it is less than a mile away from the hotel! Being the perfect wife that I am I took the car over there after lunch and got the headlight fixed. This was interesting but thankfully there was someone there that spoke English and it only took about an hour! Turns out that NOTHING was wrong with the wiring and they fixed TWO lights for 40 euro. The bad news is that they said something else needs to be done to the headlights and it will cost 1400 euro. Hmmmmm, I think we will take our chances and pretend we didn't hear that recommendation! :) They are out of their minds!
On a totally different note, I am dying over the cheesiness of Days of our Lives. I don't remember this show being so bad when I was in high school and college. First, Nicole and E.J. have been having their wedding ceremony for at least 3 shows now. There is way too much talking and chatting and interrupting to possibly be a real wedding. And Phillip has been in bed with that girl in a hotel for 3 shows with a man holding a gun to the door waiting to kill him. Knock on the door already and just shoot him if you want to! The real question is, why do I find myself watching it everyday!?
Besides the victory of fixing the headlight, this has been a pretty boring day. The weather here is supposed to be crummy all week and I am hoping that the forecast is wrong! Holy crap, the killer really did just shoot Phillip in the chest! I'm not sure how he can recover from this! And just as Nicole and E.J. were going to take their vows, here comes Sammie busting up the ceremony. I should have expected nothing less! Now Oprah is on and rather than subject myself to that garbage I think I will leave to pick Deaner up from work! I have the latest Grey's Anatomy downloaded from itunes so we have a show to watch tonight! Wooo-hooo!
Posted by Gleatie at 9:11 AM 5 comments
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Happenings in Heidelberg
Sorry for no post on Friday! I don't even remember why I wasn't able to write anything! Dinner on Thursday night with Jon and Steph was super fun. We ate at this brewery, called Brauhaus Castel. I of course had the same thing I eat in every restaurant (steak) and it was really good. Since J&S were leaving at the crack of dawn for Dublin it was an early night. Friday was pretty uneventful. I did laundry, met Deaner for lunch, and spent the afternoon ironing his work shirts and watching TV. So domestic. Friday we went to dinner and came home early because we wanted to get an early start to Heidelberg!!
We got to Heidelberg around 11:30 or so on Saturday morning. It only takes about an hour to get to this wonderful little city! I loved it! I had never been before but Deaner had been. This is the hotel that we stayed in.It was so great! We had the suite because a normal double was not available. I can't believe we were right over this Irish Pub! The balcony that you see on the top floor was off of our bedroom. The Dubliner was located PERFECTLY, was super spacious, clean, and reasonably priced. We may or may not do another overnight trip here but if we did, we would definitely stay here.We laughed at first about what a waste of space this little sitting area was because because it was sort of an odd place to go chill because there wasn't any TV or anything but it turned out to be the perfect place for me to put on my makeup and dry my hair ect. As I was blow drying my hair Saturday night I turned my head to look out the skylight and nearly screamed bloody murder. Here is what I was looking at...Crrrrrrap. That thing was practically staring at me! Anyways, once we got checked into the hotel we went to lunch here.I had delicious tomato soup and french fries. As soon as I ordered I realized by looking around that this place was famous for making sandwiches on their home baked pretzels! Ooops! I wish I could have changed my order! After lunch we headed up the funicular to the top of the Konigstuhl. It carried us up 1700ft to spectacular views of Heidelberg. Deaner and I have really perfected the hold the camera out and take our on picture shot.After enjoying these views we rode the funicular down to the castle. The Castle was HUGE and definitely beautiful. It is also home to the largest wine cask in the world and it holds 58,500 gallons of wine! Holy crap! It was too big for me to even take a picture of it! Here are some shots of the castle grounds and the views from above Heidelberg.Instead of taking the funicular back down from the castle we decided to walk back. It was a beautiful day and we just wanted to enjoy the down hill stroll. On the way down I noticed several Europeans in the most inappropriate shoes for this type of walking! First of all we are on a huge decline and secondly the walkway is COBBLESTONE. This is not the worst pair (heel wise) that I saw but they were definitely the most hideous!The church that can be seen in the background of most of these pictures is right in the center of Heidelberg and the main shopping/dining area in town. I was actually able to take a picture inside this church (yes, they were allowed!) because it was very light inside. Typically my small camera doesn't have a powerful enough flash and most churches are too dark to photo properly. Since the church is smack in the middle of the city there is no way to take a picture of the entire church while standing by it. Thank goodness for the arial views!I think we pretty much saw it all in one day! Here are a few shots of the view off our balcony. We didn't spend too much time at our hotel since we were out sight seeing all day. The last picture is a shot of the castle from a bridge in town. It sort of gives a better idea of what it looks like as a whole!As a whole, the overnight trip was a huge hit! We will definitely be taking guests here in the future because it was easy to get to and manageable in one day. Of course we enjoyed staying the night, consuming several beers, and arguing about whether it was right or wrong for Matthew Stafford to leave UGA before his senior year. That is another whole story but I don't believe my husband for a second when he says that he would have stayed to get his degree instead of taking the 80 million! :) This morning we could not figure out why there was such a raquet going on in the street below. Church bells were ringing, people were shouting, crowds of people were clapping. When one of us finally got up to see what all the commotion was we realized that it was the Heidelberg Half Marathon that we had seen signs up for! There were thousands of runners running through town and the rest of the city was out cheering for them! It was pretty neat to see!Now we are back in Wiesbaden and getting ready to start another week. We have a meeting on Tuesday with our banker and architect regarding the apartment we are thinking about buying. Keep your fingers crossed! I really really want it! Hope that everyone has a good week!!
Posted by Gleatie at 9:08 AM 5 comments
Thursday, April 23, 2009
This and That.....
Isn't my husband handy!? Somehow he managed to install license plate holders on both sides of our car! I was pretty surprised! That might sound insulting since he is an engineer but still....And both of them are so straight! Well done Deaner! We were just happy that the European license plate fit on our car and we didn't have to get the American/European plate. I know that the car looks nice and clean in this picture but don't worry, it is covered in POLLEN by now! I had no idea that spring in Germany would have just as much, if not MORE, pollen than Atlanta. It is killing us. Thankfully we just managed to get some Zyrtec and I am really hoping that it helps. Only one side of my nose is stuffed up and that is pretty obnoxious! Another shot of the car, pollen free and clean. It probably won't be this clean again until the next few months pass and we rid ourselves of the pollen.Deaner just dropped me off back at the hotel from lunch. He picked me up and we went up to the Exchange to do some errands during lunch. He had to get our gas ration card (I know that sounds weird but we have to have it to get gas on base!) and I had some stuff to pick up at the Exchange. I was excited to find out that we were able to prepay on our ration card and it will insure when we travel that we can buy gas at Esso stations through out Europe at our military base price! It is roughly HALF of what other Europeans pay. It definitely makes traveling cheaper!
Why didn't anyone tell me how delicious Taco Bell really is? :) I never ate at Taco Bell at home but man it was good today in the Exchange food court! Deaner got in the line for Subway acting all healthy but quickly saw the error in his ways and switched over to the dark side! YUM!! Bean burritos ROCK my world!
We went to the Shopette after we ate lunch and obtained the ration card so that we could fill up with gas. This is also where Americans can buy liquor and beer at a reduced rate. I always have fun browsing the beer aisle! I was laughing though when I came across this liquor.I am pretty sure that this is what my mother would refer to as ROT GUT. I think that the "Military Special" was about ten bucks whatever FLAVOR you want! Think about how you would feel the morning after drinking a bottle of that!
Tonight we are going out to dinner with our friends Jon and Steph to celebrate Steph's 26th birthday. Her birthday is actually on Saturday but Jon surprised her with a trip to Dublin for the weekend! How fun is that? We are going to a beer brewery for dinner and some authentic German food. Deaner will be sure to love it! I just hope he doesn't eat that albino sausage again! I wanted to get Steph a little something for her birthday since she has been my ONLY friend since we got here. I decided that my olive oil and crushed red pepper might be ready to test out so I am going to give her a bottle of it. That and a bottle of wine. Nothing big but something fun at least! And I think that the wrapping turned out cute! Check out how red the olive oil looks now!Also, about as soon as I posted yesterday I got an e-mail from my mom saying that Captain Jack got the results of his PET scan (you know, for his Salmonella/melanoma issue!). Apparently the news is good and his scans were clean. Basically it means that he has to have another surgery to remove his lymph nodes under his arms but that there is a chance that that might get all the cancer. We are really keeping our fingers crossed. My mom pointed out that at the LEAST this gives good ole Captain a few more years to tell us how much he loves us EVERY DAY! :) We promise to do the same!! Love you Captain! If you are reading (which I hear he frequently does) I better get a comment for this!Does anyone else think that it is odd that it is 2:40pm in the afternoon here and I am watching The Today's Show which comes on at like 6:00am at home! The shows are reversed here. Oprah and Dr. Phil are on in the mornings and The Today's Show is on in the afternoon! God help the people that watch those two regularly. They will kill you, one self-help brain cell at a time.
Tomorrow I will post about our upcoming weekend getaway! We are going to spend the day on Saturday and Saturday night in Heidelberg! I can't wait!
Posted by Gleatie at 7:33 AM 4 comments
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It's Official!!!!
I am now a licensed driver in Germany! Watch out roads! Here I come! And I really didn't understand much of what was on that test! After a 2.5 hour class, in which keeping my eyes open was extremely difficult, we finally got to take our 100 question test. We had to get at least 85 correct to pass. Deaner missed 10 questions and I desperately wanted to beat him. Unfortunately I missed 10 too so we only tied! I thought for a split second about telling him I only missed 9 but I know I would have eventually caved in and told the truth! :) Boo!
Besides taking the drivers test this morning, today had been pretty uneventful. I met Deaner for lunch by his office after the test and then headed back here to the hotel where I promptly fell asleep. I guess I am out of practice at getting up that early!
Hmmmmm, what else? Last night we booked our flight to go to Rome over Memorial Day weekend! Deaner has a friend from UVA that is living there with his wife and two children and they invited us to stay with them for the weekend. I am super excited! We are leaving Friday night after Deaner gets off work and coming back late on Monday night. So we will have almost 3 full days of sight seeing!! Does anyone have any suggestions of what we MUST see while we are there? I am a bit apprehensive because we booked flights on RyanAir but it was by far the cheapest way to go. Does anyone have any tips on flying this airline? I know we are not able to bring much with us at all and that we must follow all the rules or get nailed with fees so any tips would be much appreciated. My biggest fear is that we will get on a nasty airplane where all the seats are covered in other people's grossness. But for Rome, I will try and manage!
We are also trying to think of a place to go this weekend. Steph and Jon are going to Dublin for Steph's birthday and we are thinking about trying to take an overnight trip somewhere fun and not too far away.
Alright, I know that this is a boring post but it was a pretty boring day. Didn't walk into any concrete posts or anything! Above is a picture of my grandfather, Captain Jack, and me. If you have a second, send up a little prayer for him today! The results of his melanoma removal were not the best. The only slightly humorous tidbit that has come out of this is that we heard someone had been telling people to pray for the Gleaton's grandfather, who had a terrible case of Salmonella!! HA HA!! So not the same thing! :)
Posted by Gleatie at 11:54 AM 5 comments
Monday, April 20, 2009
Note to self......
Dear Self, Please remember in the future not to walk out of the elevator doors while looking down reading the classifieds in the Stars & Stripes newspaper. See that pole? It isn't movable, it doesn't get out of the way for you, and it is made out of CONCRETE. Yes, that's right, somehow I managed to walk right into it. And the worst part was that I looked up at the exact time I walked into it so for a split second, I knew it was going to happen! Deaner and I were totally cracking up. This happened on Sunday but I forgot to tell y'all about it. At least I wasn't hurt! :)
Wow. I asked for comments yesterday and only got 9!!! That is just sad. BUT, I got several from readers that I didn't know about so it made me very happy! Thanks to everyone who did comment! I was happy to hear from y'all!
I had a few comments yesterday from readers asking me to piece together a few details about myself and how I ended up here in Germany. I am 28 years old and from Atlanta, Georgia. I lived in Atlanta my entire life besides an all too short stint in Oxford, Mississippi at Ole Miss for four years. I did try to prolong my time there a bit by telling my parents that I was planning on staying an extra semester. I got a response that went something like this..........
Mom: "Honey, we think that is a GREAT idea if you want to stay in Oxford for an extra year if you want to!! WE pay for FOUR".
Unfortunately I had to come home. :) I met my husband, Deaner, on New Year's Eve 2005 and we got married this past March 7th. Three weeks later we moved to Wiesbaden, Germany for his job. He is not in the service (although we do get the perks) rather, he is a civilian employee of the Department of Defense School System. He is also not a teacher! He is a civil engineer and will be building schools on American Military bases through out Europe. We are going to be in Germany for a minimum of THREE years but potentially longer. I'm not really thinking about that longer part year. As far as I am concerned we are moving back to Atlanta in March 2012!
I think that is about it in a nutshell. I'm not sure if I ever wrote this but Deaner somehow managed to win a basketball pool that he entered. The prize was a Wii and a Wii fit!! Awesome! It arrived yesterday and I think that Deaner was excited!Honestly dude, what is up with that hair!?! I swear it doesn't look like that normally! I think that the Wii will probably stay in the box until we move out of the hotel. At least until we get a transformer so we don't fry it!
Not much else is going on here. Deaner picked up our car today!! For some reason the guy on the airbase let it pass inspection even though we have a head light out. He said that since Deaner was nice and not a jerk like all the other people that take their cars there, that he would pass it! Now Deaner is going to be talking about how nice he is for the next few days. He is already fond of saying things like "I'm the nice one, you're the mean one"!! At least we have a car now and he can drive me to my drivers test tomorrow! Wooo-hooo! I hope I don't fail. It takes like 3 hours! I suppose I should be off to study! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Also, Happy Birthday to one of my best friends in the whole world, Sarah Kate!! If you are reading, I miss ya and can't wait to see you in July!And yes, I am sitting in a laundry basket. It was a blast!
Posted by Gleatie at 8:30 AM 6 comments
I'm up way too early
Why God, why? Why did you allow me to wake up at 6:15am this morning and stay awake? My husband is going to pay for announcing that his wedding ring was "GONE" while he was getting ready for work this morning. Ugh. As if that didn't wake me up to aide in the search. Fortunately it was in the pocket of his pajamas pants (I didn't even ask) and that crisis was averted but I was wide awake. Last night before going to bed I got to chat on Facebook with a friend of mine in San Francisco. We said good night because it was time for me to go to bed. At 6:30am when I reached for my iPhone and got on Facebook, she was on and it was still only 9:30pm there! It is so weird to me that I already had a whole night sleep and she was still awake at a decent hour. I hate not having contact with people at home until early afternoon.
So, this post is coming earlier today than it normally would so if you haven't seen the one from yesterday don't forget to go back and read it. It has all the pictures from the weekend excursions. I have had lots of people commenting on Facebook (and I wonder where all my time goes!) that they really enjoy reading my blog. Even people that I would have had zero idea read my blog have been sending sweet messages about it. I've read several blogs before that constantly encourage people to comment on their posts or to become a follower. I have never done a post like that because I know how it goes and I know that I am not always the best commenter on other people's blogs. However, I do try. And now I will shameless ask for people that are reading to comment and/or follow along! I love getting comments and it makes me feel like people are actually reading what I am writing! Those who have blogs will know what I mean! So, thank you to all my regular commenters! I love hearing from y'all and I will try and be better about returning the favor! For new readers, I'd love to hear from y'all too!!
I know I told y'all but I recently made a wedding album on Shutterfly. I wanted to do it on Kodak Gallery but the resolution of my pictures was way too high and it was taking forever to load. It still took forever on Shutterfly but I finally got it done. This book is sort of the "highlights" from the wedding. I can show it to people and they get the IDEA instead of having to look through my professional pictures that contain over 1,000 photos in three different albums. I'm sure my friends will appreciate it! Here is a picture of what the album looks like.Sorry for the glare. I paid extra to have the leather cover on the album but I think if I did it again I would choose a different cover. Not that I don't like it, but I think that one of the other fabric covers might have been cuter and less expensive. The album isn't very formal so the leather isn't necessary. Here are some shots of the inside pages.I was definitely happy about how it turned out. I would suggest taking advantage of the pictures that take up the whole page. They all turned out really great. Obviously you can't have a whole book with those large photos but they do look great every few pages or so.
I also got our moving cards last week from Vista Print. I ordered 60 of them and thought that they turned out great. They went quickly! I normally wouldn't be able to post this since it would have my home address on it but since we put our APO address on it I don't see the issue. Plus I blocked out other information.I think that the picture I used might have been a little bit too far away and we should have used one that was closer up but it still turned out great. I love Vista Print and I would order anything from them! These cards were only like $35 for 60 of them. That included printing, shipping, and envelopes!
The first picture that I posted really has nothing to do with this post. I just like it and wish that I was back in Costa Rica doing those zip lines again! I think I am about to go workout. Pay off at least 1 day of the lost bet. Plus I have nothing else to do! I had all the laundry done and all of Deaner's shirts ironed by 8:30 this morning! Yuck! I wasn't looking forward to ironing at all because I didn't have any starch. However, I found that if you use Downy Wrinkle Releaser when you iron, it works MIRACLES! I highly suggest it! I know I know, I am so domestic! :)
Posted by Gleatie at 4:37 AM 11 comments
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Weekend Update
This weekend didn't show a lot of promise on Friday afternoon but things started to look up quickly! The weather on Friday was rainy, nasty, and cold. I met Deaner for lunch on base but we found a little pizza place right out the back gate of the base that was warm and cozy. We were supposed to meet at the hotel at 2:30pm to head to a meeting that we had set up with a builder. Unfortunately Deaner missed his shuttle and he called to tell me that I was going to have to go alone. Needless to say I was not pleased about this turn of events. When he called the builder to tell her she said it wasn't a problem and that she would have someone pick him up at the base. Sweet, that meant that they could then swing by and pick me up and I didn't have to take a cab! So, we met with these people and now have a very promising lead on an apartment to purchase. The man we met with bought/owns the entire building and the lady is the architect that is renovating the building in keeping with the Wiesbaden Historic Registry. If everything works out and the financing part comes through than we would start working immediately. We got to see two finished apartments and then the apartment that MIGHT be ours. It is a DUMP right now and will take three months to gut and renovate. The great part would be that I get to pick out all appliances, tiles, counter tops ect. It would be incredible. I'm trying not to get my hopes up yet but as you can probably tell, I already have. Deaner is going to call the architect tomorrow and tell her we would like to go forward with checking out financing options. Keep your fingers crossed!
Friday evening we met Jon and Steph here for dinner.We have eaten here several times before but Friday was my best meal there ever! It was delicious. The weather was crummy but we were able to sit outside under the awning and heater. The food and beer were awesome! Afterwards we headed to an Irish Pub called Scrooges. We had a great table by the window so we could look out at the crappy wet weather! Multiple rounds later we called it a night and headed home. I wasn't up at the crack of dawn on Saturday (duh). The weather was crap again and I was moving pretty slowly! Deaner went on a walk by himself in the afternoon and then we ate at an awesome Italian restaurant up the street from the hotel. Deaner had lamb that he said was great and I had gnocci. Yum!! Then we went bowling! Turns out that there is a really nice bowling alley across the street from the hotel and we enjoyed a few games and a few beers! Unfortunately I lost the bet and now I have to work out every day this week! Crrrrrrrrap.
This morning we woke up to a beautiful day! Whooo-hoooo! After showering and getting dressed we walked into town. We ate lunch at a German restaurant that was outside of the Rathaus which is the old town hall (I think, and actually I could be dead wrong). Here is what I looked at while we ate.I had my German favorite, Kasespatzle, and Deaner had this disgusting looking thing.It was served in that giant bowl full of hot water and nearly made me barf to look at it. He claimed to like it but when I asked him if he would order it next time he said he might try something else. I'm going to call his bluff!
After lunch we wanted to walk to the edge of town and ride a funicular up to the top of this hill that overlooks the city. On the way there we passed the Kochbrunnen which is a fountain that dates back to 1366. 15 different springs meet here and it gushes out 346 liters of mineral water per minute. The water tastes NASTY (from what I hear) and it is really hot. Legend has it that the water has special healing powers for those who drink it but there are warnings on the fountain that say not to drink more than 1 liter a day or else it can have bad effects. I guess so since the water has traces of arsenic and cyanide! Thank goodness Deaner brought his own water bottle to fill up.The walk to the funicular was a bit lengthy for my liking but we finally made it. We rode this car up the steep hill for some awesome views of Wiesbaden.Deaner and I can see this church out of our hotel room window. It is really pretty from afar but even better up close. It is a Russian Orthodox Church and it still holds services today.We stopped for a beer at an outdoor restaurant before the long trek back. As always, the beer was quite tasty! I know this is mean but the lady at the table next to me had on the most hideous shoes I have ever seen. First of all, it is not okay to roll your jeans like this, wear (what I assume were) knee highs, and these witch shoes!! Ha ha ha ha!!Now we are home and winding down from a long day. Of course Deaner is starting to fall asleep on the couch and it is only 8:45pm. I have no plans tomorrow besides ironing some of Deaner's work shirts. Hopefully Steph and I will find some fun things to do this week. I think we are going to hit up Ikea at some point and I am going to get some picture frames for the wedding pictures I just ordered from Shutterfly. I have some pictures to post of my wedding album that just came from Shutterfly and our moving cards! Stay tuned!
Posted by Gleatie at 12:18 PM 3 comments


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Firstly I must apologise for my very long absence from blogging, for which I have no real reason. I have been making as much stuff as ever, but I just haven't felt the need to document it. The reason for today's post is a dress which I felt compelled to create because of another blogger who is getting married in May this year and in whose honour a sew-along was created.
I have been reading Roisin's blog for a while now and it always makes me smile, plus, she makes A LOT of pretty awesome dresses. Seriously, does she have a second home for her clothes?
Coming back to my blogger programme, I see that I had first intended to post about the Anna dress back in August of last year. I had bought the pattern after seeing some lovely versions made up by sewing bloggers and I duly completed my very first dress. The fit of this dress is great straight out of the packet but unfortunately the cheap-ish cotton I used to make it looked fine on the bolt but, I think has the unfortunate appearance of a hospital gown when made into an Anna.
Buoyed by it's sort of success, I then went on to make another for my daughter when she needed a frock for a wedding she was going to. At first I was really sceptical about the print that she insisted upon but I think it looks brilliant as a dress and had to concede that my daughter was right. So, apparently my fabric-choosing skills are sadly lacking when it comes to dress making. Unfortunately, my computer has decided to hide my old pictures away in an as-yet undiscovered file so you will have to make do with a hanger shot and a picture of a photo!
I love how you can't tell what the print is until you get close and then suddenly you think 'Oh, Pandas!' Note to readers: my daughter looks decidedly unimpressed with her frock, but actually, she loves it. That's the closest thing you'll get to a smile from her.
Fabric-wise, I had read about the sew-along and had toyed with the idea of participating, but then, browsing through some home-furnishing fabrics whilst looking for some fabric to make a present with, I came across this fabric which immediately shouted 'Roisin' at me. May I present 'Anna in Paris'.
Because of the print, I knew that the seven-piece Anna skirt would look very odd unless I was prepared to pattern match and waste metres and metres of fabric (I wasn't) so a gathered skirt it was to be. As a complete dress-making novice, I now realise that pleats might have been a better choice as they would not only have been more flattering, but they wouldn't have taken a whole morning to do because of repeatedly snapped gathering threads.
The waist seam was also bias-bound although the gathers made this a bit tricky, but the dress sits well on me so no harm done.
I was just going to do a bias-finished hem too but I really liked the contrast so I decided to show the binding on the outside. It was also a perfect match for my purple shoes, which I bought years ago but have never had an outfit to match.
I can even twirl like a princess and not feel remotely stupid as a middle aged woman doing so. Ahem.
I'm not quite sure where I will wear this dress (although I will most likely be heading to Paris over the next twelve months) but I really enjoyed the challenge of making it and learned some new techniques along the way.


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Jitendra P. Khurana
Friday Seminar by Dr. Neelam Sarkar
Title: Protein Quality Control: A to Z of the PQC
Protein quality control, known as proteostasis, is fundamental aspect of the health of the cellular proteome. It constitutes the regulation of protein synthesis, folding, unfolding and turnover. It is mediated by chaperones and proteases along with cellular clearance mechanisms such as autophagy and lysosomal degradation. Proteostasis is an evolutionary conserved process in cells from bacteria to humans. Imbalance in proteostasis leads to protein aggregation and successful proteostasis is the detection and removal of misfolded proteins by quality control pathways. The Casein lytic proteinase/heat shock protein100 (Clp/Hsp100) proteins are ATP dependent chaperones belonging to the AAA family of proteins that act to remodel/disassemble protein complexes and/or protein aggregates. Cytosolic AtHsp101 has a unique role in acquired thermotolerance and that a chloroplast-targeted ClpB is essential for chloroplast development and seedling viability. ZEITLUPE (ZTL) E3 ubiquitin ligase, a central circadian clock component in Arabidopsis mediates the clearance of denatured protein aggregates under heat stress conditions, thereby enhancing thermotolerance and the thermal stability of the circadian clock.


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Nestlé blames horsemeat on 'widespread fraud by a few'
Speaking at the City Food Lecture in London's Guildhall on Monday (February 25), Bulcke said: "Widespread fraud is being committed by a few across Europe. I understand that many consumers and many of you in the industry feel misled. I feel the same. This should not happen, it is unforgivable. We have let our consumers down."
The Nestlé ceo said it was "wrong and unacceptable" that a minority had put the whole food industry and all the people involved in it in "a bad light".
'Most important asset'
Bulcke added that the scandal compromised the food sector's most important asset. "The success of the food industry in general, and of companies such as Nestlé, is built on trust. Trust is our most important asset and we should all work hard not to lose it."
Yet trust was being jeopardised by the contamination scandal, which was fuelling the fears of sometimes sceptical consumers.
"Food has never been safer and yet the perception is sometimes the opposite. But the current [horsemeat] issue is not a food safety issue, it is a trust issue."
Bulcke pointed out that the food industry had played a key role in the global development of society in feeding millions of people with safe and nutritious products, yet was often "criticised unfairly".
Last week (February 19) Nestlé was forced to remove beef pasta products in France, Spain and Italy when they were revealed to contain horse DNA.
More than 1% of horse DNA was found in two products, only days after Nestlé bosses said the giant was unaffected by the horsemeat crisis.
Bulcke used his lecture, 'Water – the linchpin of food security', to highlight the need for co-ordinated action to safeguard the water, food and energy needed to feed a further 2.3bn people on the planet by 2050.
Halal beef burgers
Meanwhile, the discovery of horse DNA in halal beef burgers has led to the removal of frozen beef products from Lancashire schools.
County council tests revealed horse DNA in halal beef burgers delivered to four schools.
Earlier this month the Food Standards Agency revealed that horsemeat had been discovered in the cottage pies supplied to schools in the county.
Hanif Dudhwala, from the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the revelations.
"We have no confidence whatsoever left in Lancashire County Council," he told BBC News.
A council spokesman said the affected burgers were supplied only to four schools and all had been contacted.
For more breaking news, subscribe to our free newsletter delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.


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Hi Marcos, Actually, it is exactly the plan to formulate an XForms transitional tag set that can be used in XHTML as XML and to have the same tagset and overall design also be available to tag soup HTML. HTML5 is really supposed to be [X]HTML5, if you take my meaning. Please see the vision document that accompanied the working group charters: http://www.w3.org/2007/03/html-forms-vision.html. Based on this, I am sure I don't know what you mean when you claim that XForms is incompatible with the web. The working groups are chartered by the W3C to do these things, not to do whatever they want with no regard for the charters and their intent as expressed by the director and the W3C management team. But wait, there's more. If you read the Forms WG charter (http://www.w3.org/2007/03/forms-charter.html), it does call out the fact that the group is compelled by charter to seek common ground with Web Forms 2 where it makes sense to do so. A lot of good work has gone into WF2, and we want to harvest that into XForms transitional. Better still, the new HTML is also chartered (http://www.w3.org/2007/03/HTML-WG-charter) to develop the HTML Forms technology via a joint task force with the Forms WG. In other words, both groups are cross-compelled to work with one another collegially and cooperatively to solve the forms problem together rather than diverging off into separate technical directions. And with the amount of mail being generated in the new HTML group, I can only guess there is enough spare bandwidth to really make a positive difference in the world by making this work. To be absolutely clear, XForms transitional is something new for people to work on. It is not set in stone. There has been some work on it so far, which has included adoption of ideas and tags from Web Forms 2 as well as from XForms. XForms transitional is the XML serialization of the overall W3C forms technology. There's still lots of design work to do and ways to get involved and contribute. Best regards, John M. Boyer, Ph.D. STSM: Lotus Forms Architect and Researcher Chair, W3C Forms Working Group Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software IBM Victoria Software Lab E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/JohnBoyer "Marcos Caceres" <email@example.com> Sent by: email@example.com 04/17/2007 03:00 PM To "José Manuel Cantera Fonseca" <email@example.com> cc "WAF WG (public)" <firstname.lastname@example.com> Subject Re: [XBL Primer] new scenarios Hi Jose, On 4/16/07, José Manuel Cantera Fonseca <firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: > + You talk about Web Forms 2. As far as I know it is not clear that Web > Forms 2 is something to be adopted by W3C. The Forms Task Force is > working on XFORMS Transitional [1]. I think the example should avoid > using any Web Forms 2 syntax. AFAIK, the HTML working group will be working on Web Forms 2.0 so there probably more chance of it becoming a part of HTML5 (and actually being implemented into browsers). Seems illogical to me to have transitional technology to something that will be incompatible with the web (XForms). > + You talk about HTML 5. The former comment also applies here. At the > moment it is not clear if the W3C is going to adopt the WHATWG proposal > or not. So, IMHO, the examples should be neutral and be built upon HTML > 4.01 or XHTML 1.1. You are right, at this point HTML 5 has not been adopted. However, we expect it will be adopted in the next week or so. Given that HTML 5 is backwards compatible with HTML4.01 I don't see it as a big problem. Also, also I'm fairly sure XHTML5 will be backwards compatible with XHTML1.0 so no harm is done. > + Example 4 is something within the domain of a content adaptation tool > and not in the domain of XBL. This comment may be applied to other > examples, I think the Primer should not create confusion in authors and > lead them to think that XBL is something intended to avoid the usage of > a content adaptation platform. XBL is a real-time content adaptation tool. In fact, it's seems to me way more flexible and easier to use than something like XSLT. I think most developers would want content adaptation based on media queries or user input without having to defer processing to a content adaptation platform. > + I miss an example devoted to the extension of an existing UI > component. IMHO, this is an important application of XBL, IMHO even more > important that the content adaptation applications you are suggesting. Scenario 2 will cover this. > Thanks and best wishes Thanks! -- Marcos Caceres http://datadriven.com.auReceived on Tuesday, 17 April 2007 23:39:13 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:15:19 UTC


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Fall is here and just as it happens every year, the fall drinks that we all know and love are back at Starbucks Coffee. This year they seem to have brought a few surprises with them! There are a few new drinks this fall that seem to be a huge hit with people who love drinks such as the familiar Pumpkin Spice Latte. This year they have introduced the Salted Caramel Mocha.
Something about the fall season draws people to coffee, tea, and hot chocolate more so than any other time of the year. It only makes sense that the fall season at Starbucks should be a grand time of celebration for new drinks, old favorites to return, and a cup of coffee to aid in the unwinding of this beautiful time of year. Starbucks is the perfect place to spend time this fall, so go try their new selection of fall drinks and enjoy some old favorites!


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Come to Flash and the City 2010 in New York, NY
As I have said earlier, I am on a speaking engagement diet for a few months now and am sticking to a fewer number of conferences than I have in the last few years. The place I appear next is in a conference at my home base — New York City. Thanks to Elad Elrom, we have a great Flash conference, appropriately called — "Flash and the City", right here in our city. Its a conference that has not only attracted a stunning lineup of speakers (including yours truly, just kidding :)) and includes some of the most relevant topics that would interest any and every Flash developer and architect but is also a conference that promises a lot of fun in the very amazing city. There are city tours, bar hopping events and dinner on the hudson. Doesn't that sound attractive?
The event is scheduled to take place between May 13 and May 16 at the 3LD Technology Center in downtown Manhattan. You can look-up the schedule to get more details on who speaks on what and when.
My session titled — "Flash amid the cool and the futuristic web" covers a number of different emerging aspects of the Flash platform that are shaping and will be relevant for the web of the future. So, if you care about the future of the web, do stop by.
See you at Flash and the City!


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Unpredictable. Like a hurricane. This lovely, leggy "girl next door" first caught the eye of the adult entertainment world when she won the Topless Dancer World Championship in Las Vegas. Since then, she's danced her way into the hearts (and fantasies) of countless devoted fans. Serenity began her X-rated on-camera career by doing only girl/girl scenes. But since signing an exclusive contract with Wicked Pictures, she's had sizzling on-screen sex with the hottest studs and starlets in the business. Serenity always delivers a scorching performance - giving Wickedly climactic performances in such AVN Editor's Choice, award-winning movies as Indigo Delta and Crazed, and she's been nominated for several AVN and XRCO Awards for both her acting and sex performances. One of her most ambitious roles to date is in Jonathan Morgan's Pornogothic, a vampire tale that uses Hollywood-style makeup magic to create a XXX-thriller. Serenity's Double Feature is an AVN Editor's Choice and has received rave reviews, nominations, and awards. The multi-talented Serenity can also be seen on E!- Channel specials, including the top-rated, Sex on the Riviera , and the popular Wild On... series. She was also the hostess for E!'s Howard Stern's Birthday Bash. Serenity is also the publisher of Déjà Vu Showgirls Magazine, and has made guest appearances on The Jerry Springer Show, Playboy TV Nightcalls, and Playboy TV Hotrocks. Serenity received the "Best Actress Award" at the Nightmoves Award Show in Tampa, Florida, and was voted "Best Adult Film Entertainer of the Year" at the Exotic Dancer Awards Show in Las Vegas. Serenity is friendly, hard working, easy-going and accessible. When Serenity does manage to find a little time for herself, she enjoys swimming, sailing, snorkeling, all types of music, wandering around the Renaissance Faire and sex - not necessarily in that order! Though she is constantly on the road, Serenity's favorite getaway is Hawaii. She is also a vegetarian, and always tries the local vegetarian cuisine wherever her busy travel schedule takes her.
c/o WickedPictures


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Yesterday, Research In Motion hinted at some up coming changes for their Blackberry Messenger application. They wanted to make sure that everyone was using Blackberry Messenger version 188.8.131.52 and said you would notice the changes very soon. It was also said that you would not need to upgrade your BBM to see the changes.
The first change is here. Well, this is not really much of a change however it is something. Using your Blackberry Messenger Device PIN, you can now create custom 2D Barcodes using a new Blackberry Messenger Barcode Facebook application. To do this you must have a facebook and log into it. Then, using the new 2D Barcode designer you can color code these barcodes and customize them to meet your personal styles. Then generate your fully colored and customized BBM barcode after which you could place it into your facebook. NO MORE BLACK AND WHITE!
After testing this new application on facebook, I have found that there is a way to email the barcode to yourself and NOT have to put it on facebook. Essentially you could go their to create your custom barcode and then put that code onto any website, blog, Twitter, LinkedIN other then facebook.
I am not sure this is something that we all were expecting as one of the new features RIM had spoken of, but it is kinda cool. Check it out and be sure to let us know what you think. Do you like it? Were you expecting this?


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After seven years on the IPPF Board of Directors with two and a half years in the role of president, it will be time for me to step down this summer. I am very pleased with how the Foundation has grown and improved in the last two and a half years. We have improved our finances, tightened operations, and introduced new programs and initiatives. The latter includes, among others, launching an awareness campaign, establishing interactions and programs with biopharmaceutical companies, creating a multitiered volunteer program, and establishing an endowment fund. The Foundation is in a better position now than when I took on the role of president.
As I have done several times in the last few years, I once again want to encourage members of our community to get involved in Foundation activities. Your expertise, time, and professional and personal networks will enable the Foundation to better serve our patients. We can create roles with responsibilities and time commitments that fit each individual's interests, capabilities, and time constraints. Volunteering is a great way for new patients to accelerate their learning and be in a better position to take charge of their lives. It is also a great way for patients in remission to serve as models for our new patients. Please contact the Foundation and explore how you can contribute. Please do get involved.
I want to thank my Board colleagues, medical advisors, and CEO and staff. It has been a pleasure to work with you in advancing the Foundation. I want to also thank our patients and caregivers. Your courage and persistence are inspiring. It has been an honor to work with you.
I will still be involved with the Foundation in a volunteer capacity, likely in the area of research and development, a topic of great interest to me. I look forward to watching the IPPF continue on its upward trajectory.
Best wishes to everyone.


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We previously brought you these six new clips from the upcoming 3D, stop-motion animated film, ParaNorman, but now we can give you a quick look at how the feature came together. This behind-the-scenes featurette gives you an idea of the technology involved (3D printing of character molds), the meticulous nature of filming each individual scene and the sheer manpower involved with pulling off a feature of this complexity.
ParaNorman, directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell, and starring the vocal talents of Kodi Smit-McPhee, John Goodman, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann and Jeff Garlin, opens in 3D on August 17th. Hit the jump to check out the behind-the-scenes time-lapse video.
The time-lapse, "making of" featurette follows after the official synopsis for ParaNorman:
The new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA, reteaming the company with Focus Features after the groundbreaking Academy Award-nominated Coraline. ParaNorman is, following Coraline, the company's second stop-motion animated feature to be made in 3D.
In ParaNorman, a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he'll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst, of all, grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.


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Good Ideas Come From Sharing, Random Collisions And Openness, Not Hoarding And Bursts Of Inspiration
from the once-again deptThis is a point that we've been making for years (and often highlighting the research that proves this), but innovation and good ideas tend not to come from the proverbial "spark of genius." Study after study after study has shown that's almost never the case. Almost all good ideas come from people building on the works of others, with a minor tweak here or there, or a random decision based on a suggestion from someone new, after an idea percolates for months or years. The more open systems are to sharing ideas and spreading information and allowing those collisions to happen, the more likely that new good ideas and new innovations occur. That's why it's so harmful that today's intellectual property systems are built on the false assumption that innovation really does happen through that "spark of genius."
Entrepreneur and author Steven Johnson is about to come out with a new book on this particular topic, Where Good Ideas Come From and has been writing and speaking about some of what's in the book -- which highlights these same points. People have been submitting both his recent TED talk and his recent WSJ piece that makes these points clear:
The key thing is to allow those hunches to connect with other people's hunches. That's what often happens. You have half of an idea and someone else has the other half, and if you're in the right environment, they turn into something larger than the sum of their parts. So, in a sense, we often talk about the value of protecting intellectual property. You know, building barricades, having secretive R&D labs, patenting everything that we have, so that those ideas will 'remain valuable' and people will be incentivized to come up with more ideas. But I think there's a case to be made that we should spend at least as much time, if not more, valuing the premise of connecting ideas and not just protecting them.In the WSJ piece, he highlights an example of this in action:
Earlier this year, Nike announced a new Web-based marketplace it calls the GreenXchange, where it has publicly released more than 400 of its patents that involve environmentally friendly materials or technologies. The marketplace is a kind of hybrid of commercial self-interest and civic good. This makes it possible for outside firms to improve on those innovations, creating new value that Nike might ultimately be able to put to use itself in its own products.Of course, I think an even better example is the recent research on Alzheimer's that really only took off when everyone involved opened up their data and agreed to avoid patents. Or, how about the research on the human genome that compared patented and public domain gene research, and showed that the patents limited commercial viability. But when the genes were opened up to the public, much more value came out of it. The more you look, the more you find these results pretty much everywhere you look. And it's nearly impossible to find any evidence to support the idea of a "flash of genius" for key innovations in history. In fact, almost every key innovation in history has been shown to have come about to multiple people at once, as ideas are shared and the general progress of knowledge and innovation pushes forward.
In a sense, Nike is widening the network of minds who are actively thinking about how to make its ideas more useful, without adding any more employees. But some of its innovations might well turn out to be advantageous to industries or markets in which it has no competitive involvement whatsoever. By keeping its eco-friendly ideas behind a veil of secrecy, Nike was holding back ideas that might, in another context, contribute to a sustainable future--without any real commercial justification.
This is important if you believe and support innovation. The fact that our entire regulatory system for innovation is based on a disproved theory that makes innovation more difficult should be seen as a serious problem and one worth fixing as quickly as possible.
Filed Under: good ideas, innovation, openness, sharing, steven johnson


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Wikia has hundreds of thousands of individual fan communities, and thus community cohesion and practices vary greatly from site to site. New users are encouraged to browse the Wikia community they have just joined to identify policies for user behavior as well as the tone and position of the wikia's culture.
This article does not attempt to dictate how culture or practices should be on wikias, instead outlining some common and consistent points that most wikias have in common.
You're a part of the community!
When you first see a wikia, it doesn't seem like it could possibly work. If anybody can come along and change things, then how can the information be trusted? Doesn't it just get vandalized, or fall into chaos?
Once you start participating, you see that this "weakness" is actually a wikia's greatest strength. Sure, anybody can add anything, and then everybody else gets to proofread it and fix mistakes. Information that looks suspicious can be verified. Vandalism is almost always fixed within minutes. It's possible for someone to post errors, or nonsense — but over time, the best wins out.
If you're reading these words, then you're a wikia editor. If you see a problem on one of the pages, don't roll your eyes and complain about it. Just fix it!
Create a user name
Log in and create a user name — it'll help you (and everybody) keep track of your contributions. It's possible to post anonymously on many wikias, but be advised that anonymous posters can be treated more skeptically. If we can see the pages you've added to, then we'll be more impressed with you, and more likely to trust.
You're also invited to post your name on your user page — either your full name or just a first name and an initial. It's not required, but it helps everyone get to know you and trust you.
Show your sources
Other readers should be able to verify the information that you post. Cite episode numbers wherever possible, and give sources for quotes. If you find information in a book or on a website, tell us the title or the URL. If it's clumsy to put that information in the article, then add a "References" heading at the bottom of the page. Behind the scenes information is especially important to source; we don't want to spread unfounded rumors.
Nothing is ever lost on a wikia! You can see all of the changes that have been made to a page — and who made them — by clicking on the "History" tab on the page's "Edit" menu drop-down. For the most recent changes, you can simply click the "Wiki Activity" option on the top navigation menu.
Signing talk page posts
When you post on a talk page, put an asterisk (*) at the front of your post to make a bullet. Sign talk posts with four tildes -- ~~~~ -- to automatically add your user name and a timestamp. If you'd like to sign your post without a timestamp (though we don't recommend doing so) you can use just three tildes: ~~~ to do so.
Uploading and formatting pictures
To upload a picture, click on "Add a Photo" on the "Contribute" button at the top right of the page. You can add your image to any page using the editor's photo tool.
You can put an article into a category by using the category tools at the bottom of an article, or within the editor.
Before you create a category, check the wikia's Category list (found at Special:Categories) to see if there's a similar category that already exists. If the category doesn't exist yet, then adding that code will create the category. Be sure to add some text to the new Category page, or the link from your new article won't work properly.
External links
You can add links to other websites by putting one bracket around the site's address, like this: [http://www.google.com]. That will look like this: [1]
You can add a description to the link by adding a space before the description, like this: [http://www.google.com Google website]. That comes out like this: Google website
The link tool within the editor can also be used to add internal and external links.
No shopping links
Please don't add links to Amazon or other commercial sites. It's nice to help other users of this wikia to find the cool products that are available, but Wikia does not permit the use of communities as commercial tools. If a related product is currently available for sale somewhere, you can note that in the article. If that inspires a reader to buy the product, then they can find it themselves.
Setting your preferences
There's lots of useful stuff on your Preferences page.
You can change your display so that links show up as blue or red words, without the underlining. You can also change your time zone, and the number of items you see on the Recent Changes page or the Category list.
Keyboard shortcuts
Review some helpful shortcuts to navigate around within a page at Help:Keyboard shortcuts.
Dealing with vandalism
See the Reverting help page for instructions on how to fix vandalized pages.
Also read the 'don't feed the trolls' article for more information about how to properly handle vandals when they strike and how to discourage them from continuing to vandalize.
Contact administrators
See Special:Listadmins for a list of admins on any wikia community.
If you have questions or comments about the wikia, you can leave a message on an admin's Message Wall or talk page.
If you don't like something on your wikia, or you really like something, give your feedback to everyone else in the community. The forums (usually at Special:Forum or Forum:Index) are typically a great place to discuss how things are going. Stay in touch and communicate!
Nothing on a wikia has to be permanent, the community can always reanalyze any aspect of it. Share your feelings among your fellow editors to see if they feel the same way about something and what you should do about it! Talking never hurt anyone.
Develop policies
Many of the vastly popular communities have very in-depth, detailed policies and guidelines that declare what is OK to do, what isn't, and what to do if someone did something they weren't supposed to. Regardless of whether it's a blocking policy or a manual of style, policies and guidelines give everyone, especially the new people, a chance to understand what they should do. People can't read your mind to know what is okay and what is not; document what your wiki thinks is best practice.
Stay visual!
Readers love visual content relevant to the article they're reading. Always consider adding images or videos to your articles to help with the overall presentation of your article. A big wall of text can be scary, boring, and uninteresting! At the same time, a big wall of images looks unprofessional and messy. The key is to balance your visuals with your content to create the greatest experience you can share with your readers. Help:Galleries and slideshows are also a really neat way to connect with your audience.
Use everything you got
Being a part of the Wikia community means you get the benefits and features of Wikia, including lots of cool extensions from Help:Galleries and slideshows to add color to your articles, to blogs to announce news and other important things, and everything under the rainbow! If you're starting a new community of your own, browse Category:Extensions to see most of these features and their documentation so you can learn how to utilize them to better your wikia. Know about the tools you have, so you can better use them.
Start customizing
The default Wikia skin is highly customizable. You can change the colors, add images or banners, change font colors, sizes, and font faces, and anything else under the moon. MediaWiki pages also allow for customization of the user interface, allowing you to modify the text items shown on the site.
By customizing the skin or messages you can truly give your wikia a unique design that's attractive and remembered by readers. Giving your wikia style will easily make it look more friendlier, professional, and well-developed. It's definitely worth trying out. Please refer to Wikia's customization policy to learn more about what's permitted in this area.


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In efforts to rekindle the passion that has subsided after a disappointing summer, the Twins hosted yet another one of their fan forums. This time, it was general manager Terry Ryan's turn to attempt to talk the disgruntled down from their ledge.
Howard Sinker listened in on the conference call, one that allowed season ticketholders to interact with the man in charge of the team's roster construction, and Sinker relayed to his non-season ticketholding twitter followers the talking points in 140-characters or less. In outlining his offseason plans, Ryan said that two of the immediate priorities were finding a closer as well as another starting pitcher.
Ryan has made several mentions of his plans when it comes to addressing the closer's role. He told listeners on 1500 ESPN that Glen Perkins was not going to inherit the role and that he is looking for an "experienced closer." Last night, Ryan commented that the Twins are currently targeting pitchers outside of the organization, mentioning that that person could come in the form of a free agent or possibly through a trade.
The question is, why are the Twins making finding a closer such a high priority?
It's easy to understand from the team's perspective. Last year the Twins had 52 save opportunities and the back of the bullpen managed to hold on to just 62% of those. That was the lowest save conversion rate for the franchise since the 1997 season team converted on just 61% of their save chances.
This was clearly a black-eye for the organization that had prided itself on securing games for most of the century. After all, since 2002, they have recorded more saves than Billy Graham.
But here's the thing: those 52 save opportunities were also tied with the Boston Red Sox for fourth fewest in baseball. Boston's lack of save opportunities only stems from having baseball's most potent offense which averaged 5.4 runs per game. The Twins, unlike their Red Sox counterparts, were not afforded the same luxury of running away with ballgames considering they average the second fewest runs per game in the American League (3.82 runs per game) and the fifth-lowest in all of baseball.
And therein lies the problem.
The front office is seemingly trying to stop the bleeding where the team blew a handful of save opportunities when the real problem is that the majority of their games played did not require a closer because the bats were flaccid or the starting rotation failed to keep the game within reach (they allowed 4.96 runs per game, second-most in baseball) or both. Focusing on a closer now would be like putting a tourniquet on a paper cut on one leg while the other leg is lopped off at the knee and still hemorrhaging blood everywhere.
Yes, the anticipated return of Denard Span, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer along with the addition of Ryan Doumit should assist in a modest uptick in offensive production. Yes, the acquisition of Jamey Carroll should hopefully fortify the middle infield and support the pitching staff. And perhaps the future addition of someone like Chris Capuano, who the Twins have expressed interest in, will help solidify the rotation as Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn all regain their health. Still, is all of that enough to raise the runs scored and shave off the pitching staff's runs allowed – at least to the point where you may be creating more save opportunities?
To me, that is not enough to do so. As Joe Christensen wrote about earlier this week, the team is growing perilously close to that $100 million mark that was estimated to be the 2012 budget capacity. At an approximate $87.7 million now, sinking $7 million or more for the going rate of an "experienced closer" would leave the team front office with $6 million or less to address the other outstanding issues (starting pitcher, outfielder, bullpen depth, etc).
Building a strong bullpen is one thing; doing so by throwing money at a closer with an extensive resume is the wrong way. Rather than sink money into an experience closer, the Twins should be taking a cue from the Tampa Bay Rays, who have been very successful at compiling a relief staff on a shoestring budget. They coaxed some of the best work out of retreads in Troy Percival and Kyle Farnsworth while landing Rafael Soriano from Atlanta in a severely lopsided trade in their favor.
Ultimately, the Twins will need someone to close but they do not need to land a budget-buster to do so. Instead of trying to reel in the big closer fish, the Twins should be targeting the likes of Takashi Saito, who pitched well in the set-up role for the Brewers after closing for the Dodgers from 2006-2008. Or taking a look Joel Zumaya who is scheduled to pitch for scouts in mid-December and find out if he can be this year's Joaquin Benoit, a recovering power arm in need of a one-year deal. Heck, find out if the Rangers will part with Koji Uehara, who had a brief stint as a closer in Baltimore and has the highest K/BB ratio (10.00) among relievers since 2009 as well as the second highest strikeout percentage (33.6%), now that Texas has signed Joe Nathan.
Instead of allocating a high percentage of what's left of the 2012 budget on a player whose contributions may be minimal, the Twins should rededicate that funding towards the starting rotation, grabbing an outfielder and buttressing the rest of the bullpen while spending what is leftover on a closer.
In the end, if you don't have save opportunities, what good is a closer anyway?
DiamondCentric has a special deal for the holidays - $15 for all Game Six, Nothing Runs Like Revere and The Killer shirts. Get yours for the baseball fan in your life!


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Version checking errors on 3.4.4 and 3.4.5 Issues have disabled version checking on these versions, rendering auto upgrade broken. We give our apologies for this and have fixed the issue, all those running either one of these versions will not be informed of new versions and will have to upgrade manually to 3.4.6 as detailed on the download page Download Page Here
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By: TTR press office
Three-Year Strategic Deal Includes 250,000USD End Of Season Prize Purse
In one of the most significant partnerships in winter sports to date, Swatch, the world-renown Swiss watch brand, confirms its three-year participation as title partner of the leading global snowboard initiative, the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, from 2007-2010.
The SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is an umbrella organisation for the most important freestyle snowboard contests around the globe. The world's best snowboarders compete through the ten-month Tour with the aim to be crowned the male or female SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion, tallied by the SWATCH TTR World Ranking System. Apart from prize money totalling over 2,000,000USD from participating events, the SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour will present the top men and women in the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List a share of 250,000USD - the largest end-of-season prize purse in the history of snowboarding.
Hayek(Swatch) and Stevenson(TTR) Shaking hands
'Swatch has always been looking for exciting partnerships in the field of extreme and action sports. The TTR organisation and its new ways of defining modern snowboarding fits well to our brand's core values such as constant innovation, joy of life and positive provocation. We are very happy to partner with the TTR World Snowboard Tour for three more years,' states Nicolas G. Hayek, Chairman and Delegate of the Board of Directors of the Swatch Group.
'After a very successful first year's collaboration with Swatch, we are excited to take an historic step for the future of snowboarding and the progression of the sport. Swatch, one of the original brands involved in snowboarding, is the perfect partner to develop the TTR concept further. Our three-year partnership creates a solid base for us to build the most dynamic, recognized snowboard platform worldwide. This is a fantastic development for the Tour, the sport and, essentially, the riders,' comments Hannes Schoenegger, Sponsorship Manager, SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour.
Swatch, part of the international Swatch Group based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, enjoys a long history within snowboarding. From its capacity as Official Timekeeper of events, to the creation of Swatch Snowboard Pro Team, to product innovations, including the Swatch Fun Boarder Collection equipped with the revolutionary Swatch Snowpass system - a built-in access function for use as a lift-pass in more than 600 winter resorts worldwide.
TTR: Wendy Woo www.ttrworldtour.com; wendy (at) ttrworldtour.com
Swatch: Peter Mager www.swatch.com; [email protected]


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Men's Final Concludes at World Cup #1
Sam Sacksen (Somerset, Pa.) was the top U.S. finisher on Saturday during the men's final round of competition at World Cup #1 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Sacksen placed 19th with 5464 points.
Other U.S. finishers included Will Brady (Howell, Mich.) in 31st place with 5292 points and Dennis Bowsher (Dallas, Texas) who placed 35th with a total of 5092.
The gold medal went to David Svoboda of the Czech Republic who tallied 5868 points. He was joined on the podium by Russia's Serguei Karyakin who won the silver medal with 5724 points, and bronze medalist Andrejus Zadneprovskis who totaled 5720.
The women's final will take place on Sunday with American Margaux Isaksen (Fayetteville, Ark.) in action.
Check out the live results from the World Cup at http://www.pentathlon.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=126.