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Best Retail Sign

Gold Winner Freak Lunchbox, Barrington Street

Silver Winner Biscuit General Store

Bronze Winner J&R Grimsmo

There’s something downright sweet about Freak Lunchbox. Yes, yes, the store is full of sweet candy, but there’s also a funhouse atmosphere reminiscent of Willy Wonka fantasies and that crazy Oompa-Loompa out on the sidewalk. All this sweetness is perfectly encapsulated in the multi-coloured Freak Lunchbox sign (which regularly hypnotizes us into the store with that psychedelic spiral) not to mention the slew of goofy hand-painted creations from the store's owner Jeremy Smith. A candy-craving Popeye, those colourful gummy bears and that burly weightlifter and his missing face are what make Freak memorable.
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Apple’s Cart: Should Nvidia Be Apple’s Next Acquisition?

Last quarter, Apple blithely announced that it held close to $29 billion dollars in cash reserves, an amount greater than most silicon valley giants, including Microsoft.

As Mel Brooks once said, “It’s good to be the king!”

The question is, aside from providing a hedge in these dark economic times, what should Apple do with all this money? There have been lots of ideas about which companies that would best compliment Apple’s core business and to that lengthy list, I’d like to add another name, Nvidia . With a market cap of just over $5 billion and their stock at a 3 year low, the time might never be better for Apple to quietly make a strategic acquisition.

Why should Apple want Nvidia? For the same reason it wanted P.A. Semi last year, for the talent. The acquisition of P.A. Semi gave Apple a complete team of engineers and designers who specialized in designing high performance, high efficiency processors. Such a group would be the very people you would need to build a new mobile CPU from scratch or design custom chips to add a unique blend of features not found elsewhere. Adding Nvidia to the mix would also add expertise with high-end graphics processors, mobile GPU’s and even system-on-a-chip designs like the Tegra. Together, these teams would form the collective expertise necessary to create a new generation of chips exclusively for Apple’s use. Such a move would give Apple a tactical advantage in the marketplace as would serve Apple’s well-known desire for secrecy.
In the last few years, we’ve seen the once clear-cut division of labor between the central processor and the graphics subsystem starting to blur. Tasks once reserved for the CPU like decoding video are now being offloaded onto the graphics subsystem. OpenCL, a new technology in Apple’s forthcoming OS, is a way for developers to tap into the processing power of the GPU within their own applications. Even Windows 7 uses the GPU to help drive its new GUI. Everywhere you look, the importance of graphics performance is growing. And that growth isn’t reserved for desktop systems. The incredible popularity of the iPod touch and iPhone as gaming platforms is made possible, in part, by the raw graphics capabilities of the hardware.

Nvidia and Apple

Purchasing Nvidia would not only serve Apple in the mobile/handheld space but could potentially help them in the pro market as well. Traditionally Apple has been a bit player in areas like 3D and CAD and one of the reasons why has been the a series of performance limitations, especially in the graphics subsystems. In fairness, this situation has gotten better in recent years but with the debut of OS X 10.6 on the horizon, there is an opportunity to take Mac performance to a whole new level. A true 64bit kernel will mean that Macs will finally be able to access vast amounts of RAM as well as handle their multi-core processors more efficiently. Adding a state of the art custom GPU that was available only on the Mac would not only boost the performance of Apple’s pro apps that utilize GPU offloading like Final Cut Studio, but would also give developers of high-performance apps a new reason to support the Mac. It’s been a long time since the Macworld keynote address has contained a performance “bakeoff” between Windows and Macs. It would be great to be able to add performance as another talking point in the Mac ROI discussion.

Apple is well aware that any processors they can buy from intel or Samsung are chips their competition can buy as well. The only way to gain a measure of competitive advantage in the hardware arena is to have something inside that your competition does not. I can think of no more compelling arena for Apple to invest in than graphics technology. It drives the iPhone and its success in gaming. It drives high-end computing and helps to provide more features for handheld and portable computing devices. It sounds like everywhere Apple wants to be right now. They have the money.

I say it’s time to go shopping for the future.

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Mackeeper antivirus full protection for your system

23 Feb

There are several users are surfing on the Internet on a daily basis and there are harmful malware coded is forthcoming through the new techniques to taint the computer system with damaging code. There are various types of harmful viruses available on the Internet and those are very hard to neglect and those types of virus can increase very fast in your system. This kind of virus can damage your external media, immediate chatting function, and other executable files. Providentially, there are additional software developers and the software making companies that struggle to enhance the desktop safety by manufacture the antivirus resolution. There is the best antivirus software which can provide you complete security from the harmful virus attacks. The Mackeeper program is specially designed for the both online and offline protection.

The computer security fundamental is measured only by the most excellent antivirus program. And this antivirus program has a perfect amalgamation with the computer operating system so that it can perform very effectively. The service of this software is updated every day so that there is no chance of the latest virus affect of your computer system. This program is also making sure to the users that the engine and the definition of the virus is the newest. This program is not taking too much space on your hard drive and didn’t take too much memory. The appearance of the software is very easy to utilize. As per the Mackeeper review this program provides the silent gaming utility to the customer. That means the scanning process is running while you are working on your computer system. One of the most powerful operating system also uses the Mackeeper Mac antivirus protection for the computer system. This program has the various kinds of utilities that the user cannot identify.

This antivirus program also provides the firewall security to the user. With the help of this feature no harmful application can attack on your system. Providentially, the antivirus system works rapidly to recognize and remove the threats sooner than they damage your computer system. It’s simple to become polluted with a bug or frustrating adware like that slow performance of the computer or corrupted files as well as damages all the confidential detail. By choosing this antivirus security for your computer system your system will be fully secure from the unnecessary problems. All and sundry are in danger to download several types of malicious virus or else additional hazard as of the internet. There are several viruses and harmful application is accepted from one computer to another computer so that the regular security is very necessary for the computer system.

On one occasion your computer is damaged by the virus attack, the Mackeeper antivirus software provides you complete security to remove the virus from your computer. For any type of virus protection this software is the very best idea. This software provides the total protection for the online and offline virus. It protects you from the harmful malware and spyware when you are online.

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Wishful Bird Necklace

$ 59.99

This silver-plated necklace is made with light blue agate leads and grey freshwater peals. The bird pendant is made of pewter and inscribed with "wish" on the backside.

The necklace measures 21" in length from the bottom of the stone to the end of the clasp.

Related products


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Monthly Archives: March 2014

Addiction & Living

Lately I came across a video from a previously run late night show Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. I found it interesting what Slash said about drugs being deeply enmeshed in our society, that it’s everywhere. You can watch the conversation below, the comments from Slash about drugs being throughout society start around 2:50.

I also liked a line that Slash said Keith Richards once said, “I slept in a chandelier last night, but I still showed up on time.” Kind of an odd place to sleep, but it shows you have to be dedicated and be punctual in your work. People like others to be able to be counted on, to know they will keep their word and be there when they said they would be there. But that leads to some questions too.

Can you really truly be there, if you regularly do drugs or have a dependence on some kind of substance such that part of your mind is focused on getting your next drink or next fix? You’re looking forward to having the effects of the substance again once they have worn off, part of your mind (perhaps you could call it your egoic mind) is focused on covering up that suffering such that you have the effects again from the substance, no longer suffering withdrawal from the lack of effects. It’s difficult to be psychologically present with others if your mind is in a pattern of use, withdraw, need to use again. I would think that these different focuses take away from a sense of presence with people in the present moment, to use some of Eckhart Tolle’s terminology. It seems to me that it could take away from the strength of relationships because others inevitably come to realize you’re not truly “with them” when your mind is elsewhere with other goals than to truly connect with the people around you. Relationships are different in families with substance abuse and addiction, and it would totally make sense to me as to why this can be the case given what I’ve just stated. There is also the question of whether or not a person can function properly the next day or any time soon after mind altering substance use, whether or not they are punctual. Should they continue on with life as usual, or attempt to do so soon after substance abuse? Is it safe for surrounding people in their lives? Will being punctual pose dangers to other individuals or property in the event that the user is not fully present in the moment due to substance use?

In the above video clip as well, Slash mentions not having rock ‘n’ roll without drugs. That may be the case, but at the same time it’s interesting that in the first of 10 webcasts between Oprah and Eckhart Tolle about his book A New Earth, he indicates he tried acid one time and admits that his new awareness that he discusses in The Power of Now, and A New Earth, is much better than the experience he found with acid, even though there are similarities. The experience is more “violent” according to Tolle in comparing the acid trip to a natural trip into presence. He states that there is “no room for thinking anymore” as the acid trip magnifies the sense perceptions so strongly. Whereas in the perceptions Tolle describes naturally coming with the dissolving of the ego, they gradually come more clearly over time as opposed to violently and suddenly appearing. There seems to be a difference of force vs. allowing space for things to happen. You can jump right into the plot, or you can set the stage for the show to commence.

What are your thoughts? Would you say that substance use/addiction are ingrained in society? Is it best to try and take control of life? Is it helpful to try and set the stage for what you feel is right, and let things unfold?


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[Mailman3-dev] Problem with the schema

J C Lawrence claw at kanga.nu
Fri Apr 1 07:36:16 CEST 2005

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:22:31 -0500
Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-03-29 at 23:12, J C Lawrence wrote:

>> No.  Rosters as first class objects have a set of expiry semantics
>> which are unique to themselves.  Those semantics may be the super-set
>> of the expiry semantics of the lists which reference them, or some
>> other arbitrary set (which may cause them to be expired before their
>> dependent lists expire).

> To accomplish this, I think Rosters have to be named, or otherwise
> identified with a human readable label.  "Roster 17" or "the Roster
> containing these 17,000 addresses" won't be a good way to identify a
> Roster whose linkage to a MailingList has been broken.

Absolutely.  Of course that can be the human readable version of a
machine friendly numeric primary key.

>> I don't know what LanguageTextCollections are yet.

> They're things like "the welcome message in the 7 different languages
> this list supports".  Each contains a set of LanguageTexts for a
> particular message in a specific language.

Ahh, thanks.

>> There are multiple levels of "deletion": - Doesn't accept or send
>> mail any more

> I might call these "dormant".  For example, dormant lists can be
> easily resurrected (I'm thinking Python's SIGs as an example).

Yup.  I'd like to note, and not just to be pedantic but because I really
don't feel that I've thought through it fully, that it feels like
there's a larger set of "partial" states for mailing lists than I

>> - List is invisible to external view but still exists as a set of
>> meta-data configurations.

> Such as?  Can you provide more detail in what you're thinking here?

The need is to take a list into a state where it appears to have been
deleted to everyone involved but me as SysAdm/ListMaster, I then keep
the list configuration around as an audit trail, a set of configuration
details (eg headers/footers) to copy from when instantiating a new list,
etc.  This is something I've wanted here and have accomplished under
Mailman v2 by turning off password reminders for the list, disabling the
email aliases, and flagging the list to not be shown on the listinfo

> I think we have at least a good start on that.  I'll try to find some
> time to describe what we've got.

Cool.  Hope I'm not jumping in too hard here Barry.

J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.

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[pypy-dev] Stuff that already exists in Python

RIGO Armin arigo at tunes.org
Thu Jan 16 16:58:33 CET 2003

Hello Christian,

On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 04:00:37AM +0100, Christian Tismer wrote:
> This also touches one of my weak points:
> Is it good to replace C code by something
> which is depending on another special module
> like sre?
> This makes sre into something crucial to this
> re-implementation. But I'm not sure if this
> is a good way to go.

As far as performance is concerned, it could be at some stage
re-implemented in pure Python.  Character handling may be slow but
it is a good target for Psyco optimization.

> I'm also not sure if it is good to re-implement
> certain modules using the common Python tricks
> and optimizations. To some extent, I have the
> impression that doing it the simple way, basically
> as done in C, would fit the optimizations of
> Psyco better. But that is an open question
> until we get some feedback from Armin Rigo.

That's right; the "simple way" is what Psyco can best work with.
It does not prevent the definition of abstract classes that
encapsulate the common data structures; on the other hand, these
classes (with suitable information like types and mutability) are
quite useful for Psyco, as you already mentionned.

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Hey everyone! I guess by now you’re wondering where I am. At least that’s the hope anyway. Well, I’ve been very busy lately writing, and interning, and planning, and trying to squeeze in some summer fun, so blogging hasn’t been on the top of my list. I’ve decided to take a break from blogging indefinitely, but at some point I might return to this wordpress.

In the meantime, I’ll still be posting my photos and inspirations on my tumblr, which you can check out here. I’ll also be busy updating all my social networks and you can follow along by clicking any of the links and buttons on my sidebar. Plus you can peep my published work and info here. So I’ll still be all over the interwebs just not in this particular corner.

I want to thank everyone who’s followed this blog and liked my posts, especially recently. For about 3 years, I’ve documented all of my fashion and culture obsessions here, worked with some cool people, and really had fun sharing that part of my life with you.

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Mobile Captures

New York

Independence Hall

Mondrian Soho

1. New York from a Chelsea Rooftop, 2. Philadelphia City Hall, 3. Trees in a Philly Suburb, 4. Entrance to the Mondrian Soho

Hey everyone. It’s that time of year again–finals. Please excuse the lack of posts. I have some great stuff planned, but until I crawl out of my little hole in the library, you’ll just have to look at these Instagram photos. In fact, if you really want to stay up to date with Mainstream Misfit, follow me on Instagram; my username is carolinenel. Or you could click on over to my Statigram with that handy dandy little button I set up on the sidebar. If you follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, chances are you’ve seen a couple of my Istagrams and you know that I’m addicted. The ones above are just of few of those many photos taken in and around my two favorite cities, the places I call home, and yes, you can expect to find more photos of buildings and trees in my feed–don’t judge me.

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Filed under Photography

Latest Import: Cambridge Satchel Co.

Photo by Camilla Mayer

If you picked up the April Issue of W27 last week, you would have surely noticed the Q&A with the founder of Cambridge Satchel Company, Julia Deane and the beautiful photo of the The Metallic bag in silver shot by our photo editor, Camilla. While she kindly snapped the shot of me above, I took a few pics of my own by the Comme de Garcons store in Chelsea. What do you think? What Cambridge Satchel line is your favorite?

Metallic Cambridge Satchel

Cambridge Satchel Silver

Check out some more photos from the shoot on my Tumblr and check out all of the great Cambridge Satchel Co. bags at cambridgesatchel.co.uk

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Filed under Photography, Shopping

Wear the Pants: Flower Power Edition Part II

Jacket: Kenneth Cole Reaction, Shirt: Joe Fresh, Pants: H&M, Shoes: JS Jessica Simpson, Bag: Vintage Coach, Sunglasses: Target, Necklace: J. Crew

Remember back in August when I ranted about my strange obsession with cropped floral pants? You don’t? Then please refresh your memory. I didn’t exactly style them the way that I outlined in that post, nor did I find street style shutterbugs following my every move, but I did get an unexpected boost of confidence from my latest purchase in the pants department. Not only are these babies inexpensive, but they also fit very well, and have editorial cred: I’ve seen them in Lucky and a couple other publications.  They also contain the colors of practically ever spring/summer top I own so the possibilities are endless.  Well that concludes my little ode to the H&M floral wonders, expect me in some similarly blooming pieces as the season continues. What do you think of the floral trend and how would you wear it? Feel free to discuss in the comments.

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Filed under Outfits, Shopping

God Save My Shoes

God Save My Shoes Poster

via The Hollywood Reporter

Yesterday, I attended the New York premiere of God Save My Shoes, a documentary in which director Julie Benasra gives audiences a look into the shoe closets of the rich and famous, including Dita Von Teese, Kelly Rowland, and poker champ Beth Shak. This film studies why women are obsessed with heels and what emotions and messages these shoes convey by featuring not only the women who buy shoes, but also shoe and physiology experts including: prominent shoe designers like Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin, and Pierre Hardy, a psychoanalyst, and Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

While the film itself is entertaining, especially for a girl like me who appreciates expensive footwear (though I can’t afford it), it’s a bit one sided. It touches on the impossibility of walking in five inch heels and some of the physical aliments that result from wearing heels, but doesn’t delve too deeply into the more serious long term problems heels can cause. (But we shoe fiends don’t think much about those anyway, do we?)  Furthermore, all the people profiled can afford their fancy footwear; there isn’t any mention of shopaholics whose purchases drive them into debt.

That being said, God Save My Shoes is a fun film, one that many fashionistas will enjoy for its great imagery, brief history of heels, and information and opinions straight from the designer’s mouths.

God Save My Shoes is playing at the Quad Theater in New York City through Thursday April 5th.

Filed under Events, Reviews


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Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush Review

rati beauty 7 days self makeup course

Skin Tone: Medium fair, warm undertones

Hello Pretty Ladies,

I had read some mixed reviews on these bouncy blushes from Maybelline. So, I wanted to try them to check them out myself. I decided to pick this gorgeous pink blush from Maybelline’s Bouncy range “Pink Frosting.” Read on for more details on this product 🙂

Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush Review

Product Description:
The unique bouncy texture gives you the freshest flush ever! The revolutionary powder-gel formula is lightweight like a powder, yet it melts seamlessly into skin like a cream, for a sheer wash of bouncy-fresh color that lasts!  This blush feels lightweight like a powder, yet melts into skin like a cream. Bouncy fresh color lasts all day and gives skin a natural glow. Dermatologist tested. Allergy tested. Non-comedogenic.  Dream Bouncy Blush gives skin luminous color and a natural glow.
How To Use:
Step 1:  Using the fingertips, apply a small amount of blush onto the apples of cheeks and blend from the cheekbones to temples.
Step 2:  To build color intensity, apply more blush.

Price and Quantity:
399 PHP or 550 INR approx. for 5.6 gm.

Maybelline Pink Frosting shade name

My Experience with Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush:

The blush comes in a small circular pan with a clear lid on it, which helps to spot the shade easily from makeup stash. The golden beige round plastic pan bears a label at its base bearing the shade name, number and other product-related information. The lid has the brand’s tagline printed on it in white fonts. This lid shuts tightly with a satisfactory click and makes the packaging travel friendly.

Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush packaging

The shade “Pink Frosting” is a soft, natural pink shade with slightly cool undertones. The blush contains fine micro shimmers in it, which are not much noticeable on the skin and adds soft sheen. So, this blush can be used both at day and nighttime. The blush has average pigmentation. So, it needs to be layered on to make it really pop. It does not have that insanely pigmented formula.

Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy open

So, you will not end up getting those clown cheeks in a single swipe. The color is definitely buildable with a few swipes. Therefore, I would not consider this as a con since the blush is buildable. I like this one over those insanely pigmented blushes as they might give you clown cheeks if you apply the product with a heavy hand, but with this bouncy blush, you can easily build up the color intensity according to your choice without the fear of going over the top. This makes it a great option for beginners too.

Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy full

Since, this is a dream bouncy blush, it has a bouncy texture. Even, if I poke my fingers on the blush, it comes back to its original dome shape. The texture is definitely something, which is very interesting. It almost feels like moulding clay. The texture is very soft and smooth. It is kind of fluffy and very easy to blend. It blends amazingly into the skin, giving a natural flush of color to the cheeks. It never emphasizes my skin pore or dry patches.

Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush

The blush sets to a dewy kind of finish. It adds a healthy pink glow to my skin. I love how it melts on my skin. I do not have to put much effort to blend it. The blush is non comedogenic. It does not irritate my skin, does not cause breakouts either. Though, it is somewhere between crème and mousse, but it never makes my skin oily. It gives the finish of a powder blush.

Maybelline Pink Frosting Bouncy blush swatch on hand

Maybelline bouncy blended swatch

I like this blush in all aspects except one i.e. its longevity. The blush hardly survives 3 hours approximately on my oily skin. The color fades away completely after that and I have to reapply.

Pros of Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush:

  • Good packaging.
  • Pretty shade.
  • Would look good on fair to medium skin tones.
  • Dewy finish.
  • Non-chunky shimmers.
  • Lovely texture.
  • Easy to blend.
  • Does not make skin oily.
  • Average pigmentation.
  • Color is buildable.
  • Perfect for daytime use.
  • Shimmers are not much noticeable.

Cons of Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush:

  • Staying power is low.

IMBB Rating:
Would I Repurchase/Recommend Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush?
Yes to both. I will try more shade from this range.

Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in 05 Fresh Pink
Maybelline Glistening Sun Dream Bouncy Bronzer
Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush – Candy Coral
Maybelline Hot Tamale Dream Bouncy Blush
Maybelline Orchid Hush Dream Bouncy Blush
Maybelline Plum Wine Dream Bouncy Blush
Maybelline #01 Pop Pink Blush Studio Jelly Glow Blush

rati beauty 7 day self makeup course

Maybelline Pink Frosting Dream Bouncy Blush Review Overall rating: 4 out of 5 based on 1 reviews.

Maybelline Pink Frosting Blush

4 5 1
As its name suggests, it is soft frosty pink shade of blush having micro shimmers and soft sheen in it. Decently pigmented formula which blends nicely into the skin giving natural flush of color the skin.
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Research projects are encouraged and we have several programs to support student research.

Research experience can help you define your career goals as well as forge long-lasting professional relationships with faculty members. Opportunities range from collaborating with faculty members on case studies, to business consulting projects, to analyzing data for a journal or conference publication. Manhattan College offers several research programs:

  • Jasper Summer Research Scholars: a competitive program that funds student research during the summer.
  • Summer Fellows: a fellowship that is awarded to one star School of Business student a year. This competitive program supports big dreams by helping students connect their academics with experiential learning opportunities.

Past student research topics have included:

  • For the Game. For the World. For the Economy?: The Sports Economics of FIFA World Cups
  • Sex and Candy: The Influence of Sexual Content and Consumer Trait Perceptions on Ad Evaluations
  • The Correlation Between Sports and Entrepreneurial Success


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Latest products and reports

Zuma’s battle with Treasury to spook investors

Zuma’s battle with Treasury to spook investors

Jacob Zuma’s sudden interest in making tertiary education free for all students has dealt a blow to South Africa’s economy – before any change in policy has even been announced. The rand plummeted to a 16-month low after rumours of the policy shift emerged last week, while one of the Treasury’s most senior officials resigned in protest at the president’s interference in the budget process. The fiasco comes at the worst possible time, with a decision on the downgrade of rand-denominated debt just weeks away.

Abolishing fees altogether would increase the country’s budget deficit by around 20%, unless the government raises taxes or makes major spending cuts to other programmes. Such a radical measure therefore seems entirely impractical given the current fiscal reality, as was made clear by a government-commissioned report released on Monday. If Zuma does scrap fees, he will further undermine investor confidence and leave another major headache for his successor.

The Presidency versus the Treasury

Funding is the biggest obstacle to abolishing university fees. Finance minister Malusi Gigaba made it clear in last month’s medium-term budget, that with the fiscal deficit running at 4.3% of GDP, any new spending projects will have to be financed through cuts elsewhere. In theory, taxes could be increased, but the Treasury opposes this solution because it would be likely to constrain economic growth.

Meanwhile, the Treasury’s budget director Michael Sachs has resigned in protest at how Zuma has bypassed the usual budget channels and ignored the Treasury’s insistence on fiscal restraint. The Treasury is widely respected as a technically competent institution, and Zuma’s moves to undermine its control of public finances will be a red flag for credit ratings agencies. A downgrade of rand-denominated debt to junk status was already highly likely, and is now virtually certain.

The real financial cost of abolishing fees is highly uncertain, not least because it is difficult to predict how free access will affect student numbers. Reports suggest Zuma is looking for ZAR40 billion (USD2.8 billion) to fund the policy. Even assuming that this conservative estimate is sufficient, the extra annual cost would be equivalent to around 2.5% of total public spending. The policy would require more money than the government spends on several priority areas, including agriculture.

A pre-election stunt

Zuma’s move is most probably a ploy designed to benefit Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his preferred successor, ahead of next month’s vote to choose the next ANC leader. By endorsing the populist policy, she will be able to clearly differentiate herself from Cyril Ramaphosa and boost her popularity among young voters. In particular, she will gain momentum by attracting supporters of last year’s student-led ‘FeesMustFall’ campaign.

The danger is that Ramaphosa, who generally maintains a more pragmatic fiscal outlook, might also commit to free education to avoid being outflanked. If he does so, it is almost certain that the next ANC president would be tied to a policy that would generate fiscal chaos. It is of course possible that either Ramaphosa or Dlamini-Zuma would backtrack once in office, but doing so would be problematic politically.

Slashing fees misses the point

There is no doubt that the failure to expand the skills base of the workforce is seriously damaging South Africa’s attractiveness as an investment destination. But abolishing fees altogether for tertiary education would do little to solve the problem. Students from the lowest income brackets already receive subsidies. If these grants were to expand so that current recipients paid no fees, the cost would be far lower, if still significant, at around ZAR11 billion in 2018 (USD770 million).

A far larger problem is the often abysmal quality of basic education. Such poor standards mean that few school-leavers are capable of entering university (regardless of whether or not fees are charged). If Zuma goes ahead with his promise to abolish fees, he will be doing little to solve one of the biggest factors in undermining the country’s competitiveness. Moreover, he will leave an expensive legacy for his successor and aggravate an already deteriorating fiscal situation.

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Friday, December 23, 2016

Berlin terrorist shot dead by rookie Italian cop

While German police--who first arrested the wrong man for Berlin Christmas market bombing--believed that the assailint, Tunisian refugee Anis Amri, was still in or near the German capital, the killer crossed into France and then Italy.

Open borders have their downside.

In Milan, while shouting "Allahu akbar," the murderer was shot to death by a rookie cop. Another officer was wounded, it appears he'll make a full recovery.

However, Germany's prime minister, Angela Merkel, has blood on her hands.

The Islamic State has taken responsibilty for the twelve murders in Berlin and the terror group confirmed that Amri was one of its killers.

Related post:

(Video) German refugee policy has been a 'complete disaster'

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Category Archives: My Blog

Goodbye Delicious. Hello Shaarli

Those of you who subscribe to The MKX® (via email or RSS) or pay attention to that list of links on the website’s sidebar know that I’ve been using a service called Delicious for link sharing. I started in 2005 back when they were known as Web 2.0 pioneers “”. I’m stopping now.

Delicious was a great, promising service for “Social Bookmarking”. They were “cool”. Then Yahoo bought it in their own desperate bid for relevance only to proceed to neglect it almost to the point of irrelevance. So they sold it to AVOS Systems, who then sold it to Science Inc. I don’t know who either is.

In the meantime, the website improved somewhat, an unusable iPhone app was released – not in the sense that it was hard to use but in the sense that it truly didn’t work at all, and the bookmarklet stopped working. The latest owners, before making any improvements, decided to stick ads to user’s RSS feeds without any warning. Monetizing is fine but not warning your users before such change is not. This was the straw. I myself subscribe to Delicious feeds for about 7 people who share maybe one link every six months. Yet I get one ad foe each of them daily!

So I decided to make a change. Introducing:

The MKX® Links

I am using a OSS system called Shaarli. I am self-hosting it which means that it cannot get sold to Yahoo without making me rich. Right now, I’m using the stock version, which sports a design only a mother could love. That’s ok – if I find time for it I may tweak it to be less offensive. All 1875 links were imported. Getting a combined RSS feed for The MKX® and The MKX® Links wasn’t so easy. I used ChimpFeedr (by MailChimp), then I put that through FeedBurner (which gives me both usage statistics and the email subscription service and risks joining Google’s Graveyard at any point). I hope it works out.

In the meantime, I apologize for any ads or RSS oddness. Let me know of any problems.

2015 Annual Report

WordPress puts together these neat annual reports for us bloggers.
The one for The MKX® is here.

The highlights:

  • It was a sad year with few posts. I blame parenthood.
  • The top post is from 2004: yes, the M&Ms one.

I make no resolution to post more in 2016, but it may just happen.

Happy 2015

This website is now 12 years old. That means we have quite a bit of readers for whom The MKX has always been around. Kind of how cars and airplanes already existed when I was born, just more significant.

Have a great year!

The MKX® 11th Anniversary Party

Graceful hosts The MKX® Editor and Chief and The MKX® Hummus Maker in Chief.

We had a small (who am I kidding? HUGE!) gathering to celebrate the 11th anniversary of The MKX®. Several famous celebrities attended, including some but not all of the following: Rihanna, prince William, the artist formerly known as Prince,, Michael Jackson.

We had a fully functional disco ball and enough homemade hummus for all of the Middle East. Total success.

Happy 2014!

View of motorized disco ball in the techno music hall.
Our most important guests: Amaresh, Emily, and our friends on the table.

The MKX® has moved!

Notice anything different? Look up. As in the URL bar of your browser. Yes, that’s right. After The MKX® has moved. We have dropped the .com!

Our team of economists determined that given 2 million daily page views, and the fact that typing .com takes about 0.67 seconds in average, we are saving the world economy about 372.2 hours of lost productivity every day!

Since we have way less hits, the productivity increase is not nearly as dramatic. But still, the new URL is cooler. Visit us at from now on! Or just use the old address which will just transparently redirect you… but wouldn’t you want to save 0.67 seconds of your day?

Cease and desist

It’s fairly common for large blogs to receive “cease and desist” letters threatening legal action unless some content is removed. Usually this happens when a website posts photos of an unreleased iPhone lost in a bar.

The MKX® recently received such a letter from an individual claiming that our popular “English with Andy” series slandered his persona due to the physical resemblance between a recurring character used in the images and his persona; given the possibility that someone may stumble upon one of the images and mistakenly believe that the depicted situation happened in real life and that the individual in question may actually confuse the terms “mushroom” with “much room” or “tissue” with “teach you”, to quote two examples.

In order to eliminate all possibility of said mistake, we:

  1. Stress that the situations shown in the series are not real. Some were invented by our team of writers but most were lifted directly from unfunny mass emails that were forwarded to us. All the characters are fictional and any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental. Names were not changed to protect any identities, because there are no identities to protect.
  2. Don’t actually know of anyone who speaks English like that; but would like to meet him/her.
  3. Added a disclaimer to all posts.
  4. Modified all the images using a face from the more crude yet widely known Rage Comics. This image is in the public domain.

The MKX® staff hopes that these actions are sufficient to satisfy all the parties involved. No further entries to the series are planned.


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Maritime Resident Doctors Staff

The Maritime Resident Doctors staff is here to help members with any issues that arise during their residency.

The Maritime Resident Doctors office is located in Suite 1150 of the Halifax Professional Centre, 5991 Spring Garden Road in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Our toll-free number is 1-877-972-7467.

Sandi Carew

Sandi is responsible for the negotiations and enforcement of the resident collective agreement, resident advocacy, liaising with related organizations such as RDoC (Resident Doctors of Canada), the medical societies, colleges, etc., developing our operational and strategic plans, organizing the Board of Directors through monthly and annual meetings, managing the resident Trust Fund and overseeing projects and the day-to-day operations of the office.

Daniel Bonner
Manager, Communications

Daniel is responsible for all communications to residents via email blast, and our quarterly electronic newsletter. He is also responsible for the content and updating of the Maritime Resident Doctors website and our various social media channels. Daniel assists the CEO with other special projects and communication initiatives. Contact Daniel if you need any further information about Maritime Resident Doctors.

Leanne Bryan
Manager, Health & Wellness

Leanne is responsible for the administration of the resident benefits plan, including medical coverage, dental coverage, travel insurance, life insurance and disability insurance. She works behind the scenes liaising with Manulife Financial, Dalhousie and the NSHA regarding billing, leaves of absence, etc. She is also responsible for planning all resident events such as the Annual General Meeting, Board retreats, well-being, social and recreational events.

Cristy Atwood
Financial Coordinator

Cristy ensures a smooth running of the office finances by maintaining accurate financial records including payroll, accounts payable and receivable, banking, record keeping of all accounts and projects, and any other duties to ensure an accurate account of Maritime Resident Doctors' finances.

Verlie Tyson
Administrative Coordinator

Verlie is the first point of contact for day-to-day general inquiries, corporate travel arrangements, maintaining an accurate membership database and the overall reception for the Maritime Resident Doctors office.

© 2015 Maritime Resident Doctors | Toll-free: 1-877-972-7467 | Site Map


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Who’s King of Media? Here are my top choices…

Media coverage of national and world events has become a wasteland, with talking and shouting heads spouting a great deal of hot air. That’s why it becomes important to recognize radio and television broadcasts that bring new and different perspectives to media consumers. So many people tell me they have no idea who is telling them the truth, and who is pulling their leg.

There is one television program that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Bill Moyers Journal represents many things to many people. To some, Moyers’ style is boring and his program doesn’t contain enough bells and whistles. To the right wing, he’s a clear and present danger, spouting socialist ideas on TV stations paid for with public money.

To me, Bill Moyers is an oasis in a media desert. His show airs here in New York and Friday and Sunday nights on the local PBS station. To anyone wanting serious journalism and commentary, he is must see tv. He took on the weighty issue of Pakistan in this week’s program. Historian Juan Cole and journalist Shahan Mufti made me look at the situation in the region in a whole new way.

Maybe that’s why conservatives fear him so much. It can’t be his style. He’s laid back, he doesn’t raise his voice the way so many TV personalities do. He also doesn’t give the impression that if you disagree with him or one of his guests there must be something wrong with you. If you haven’t watched Bill Moyers Journal in awhile, or maybe even never, check it out.

There is very little informed news on the radio these days. Like the cable TV trash talkers, radio is filled with speculators and dimwits masquerading as oracles. Then there’s Free Speech Radio News. It’s a half hour daily newscast aired mostly on non commercial stations across the country. Like Bill Moyers, FSRN tackles issues in a substantive way, giving voice to the voiceless on issues that the mainstream chooses to ignore.

There’s almost never an occasion when, after listening to an FSRN cast, I don’t think to myself, how come nobody else is covering that?

As is the case with Bill Moyers, you don’t have to agree with every conclusion or every voice you hear.

Yet the difference between FSRN and the mainstream is such that you feel your brain has been scrubbed by an eco-friendly cleanser when the half hour is up.

I write about these two programs because I’m constantly surprised how many people who follow news on cable either don’t know about them or don’t consume them regularly.

“Didn’t Bill Moyers retire? Free Speech Radio What?” So I decided to take this first day of the week to spread their gospel.

Have you listened or watched either lately? If not, what are you watching?

1 Comment

  1. I listen to Free Speech Radio News weekday evenings on WBAI 99.5FM. I think it’s good.
    I don’t “do” tv. I also listen weekdays, daily to DemocracyNow, same radio station. I sometimes followup by reading the transcript on the website http://www.democracynow.org
    or watching the video. Do you read any online newspapers?

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Real Thread Shirt Type

Real Thread is the undisputed champion of soft, smartly designed tees, so when asked to work together on a gig, I jumped at the opportunity. We opted to use the existing concrete at the Orlando headquarters and brought 25 tee shirts of varying sizes together in a twisty, draping jumble. We covered 8 feet of floor, making quick work of these pieces over the course of an afternoon.

Over the weekend, I gave a workshop on dimensional type as part of this project, garnering just under 100 participants. Together we twisted, fashioned, and licked our way through various items on #createwow via Instagram.

To learn more about workshop opportunities, visit my blog post on food type beginnings or Podcasts & Lectures.

Photography // Patrick Chin


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Interview: Ben Heck Explains Modding at World Maker Faire [VIDEO]

Our Mashable Tech field trip to the World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science was a kid-in-a-candy-store scenario for the crew. With so much incredible modded mayhem, it was, as Sarah Kessler pointed out, easy to get overwhelmed.

It was clear that we needed someone to walk us through this world where every device is more than meets the eye, and Benjamin J. Heckendorn (a.k.a. Ben Heck) was that someone.

Ben Heck is a rock star of the modding community, having made everything from special one-handed gaming controller for an injured soldier, to a Bill Paxton-themed pinball machine built from the scratch.

We sat down with Ben to discuss the Xbox 360 laptop project that he's working on, his new show about modding and, most importantly, what modding is all about:

The Ben Heck Show runs every other Monday on Revision3.

[Video by Evan Wexler]


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Hey, Howbout One More '#HeyUSA' Trailer Before Tonight's Debut

The Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart summer travel show is on the road, and just in time for the debut of #HeyUSA on YouTube comes this brand-new trailer from the duo that spent last summer making Camp Takota.

Vidcon got a bit of a sneak peep before the weekend, when Helbig took a minute of her keynote to announce the new show, set for three uploads a week. Every week finds the YouTube stars in different cities, with fan tweets and other social interactions showing the way.

SEE ALSO: Being a YouTuber Is Now a Real Business

First stop is Alaska, location of the Vidcon teaser:

Episodes will roll out starting Tuesday night on YouTube and AstronautsWanted.com. And like they did during Camp Takota, Grace and Mamrie will still be cranking out regular content for their respective YouTube channels, as well as Twitter, Instagram and Vine.

Whew, suddenly a summer road trip sounds like a lot of work.

BONUS: 5 Facts You Didn't Know About YouTube — With Guest Star Grace Helbig

Image: YouTube


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Facebook is testing multiple, interest-based news feeds

Your Facebook News Feed might become a whole lot more diverse soon.

The company is testing customizable, topical feeds. The new feature, currently available only to a small subset of users, lets you choose between a general News Feed as well as a feed focused on travel, style or recent news headlines, for example.

First noticed by Jason Stein, who tweeted about it Tuesday, the feature is only available on Facebook's mobile app.

According to Facebook, users wanted to see more conversations around specific topics in their News Feed, and the company obliged.

"We are testing feeds for people to view different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas," a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge.

At this point, the new feeds are just a test, and there's no word on when — or if — they will become widely available.

The Verge reports that Facebook is also testing its new Marketplace feature, which enables users to buy products immediately after clicking on an ad. In these tests, a Marketplace icon replaces the Messenger icon on the mobile app (the Messenger gets pushed to the top left), enabling users to quickly reach a shopping page based on the products sold by Pages you've liked. That feature is currently available to a small subset of users in the U.S.

Image: Lukas Schulze/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images/Associated Press


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SchadenCoin: Why you love to celebrate cryptocurrency crashes

Image: Vicky leta / mashable

Remember, remember, the third week of January 2018, during which Bitcoin just fell on its face, worth half of what it was a month ago, down over $10,000 per coin in value. On Tuesday night, the top post on Reddit's r/Cryptocurrency page was a link to a suicide help hotline.

No doubt: Anyone who got in on Cryptocurrency a month ago, compelled by the sudden surge of got-rich-quick wealth that seemingly emerged from this newfangled digital currency? They've just lost a lot of money.

And some people...are absolutely loving it.

What you're seeing (or perhaps, experiencing) is SchadenCoin, the distinct sensation of taking joy in watching cryptocurrencies crash.

What you're seeing (or perhaps, experiencing) is SchadenCoin, the distinct sensation of taking pleasure in watching cryptocurrencies crash and burn.

Let's be clear: Whether it's a Dutch tulip mogul, a gold investor, or a Beanie Baby collector, a Supreme sneaker reseller, or a hedge fund billionaire becoming a hedge fund millionaire, people have always taken pleasure in watching other people lose vast fortunes seemingly gained overnight that was invested in the face of otherwise conventional wisdom.

But SchadenCoin has so much else potentially fueling it besides the basic emotions of watching suddenly-rich people's wealth (which, of course, is larger than your own) take a sudden and absolute faceplant.

Maybe, for example, it's the density of understanding it takes to supposedly unpack the true value of cryptocurrency — and how the blockchain technologies powering them operate — that frustrated some people to no end, making otherwise intelligent people feel like maybe they just didn't get it.

Or maybe it was the added punchline, there, the people who supposedly understand cryptocurrencies it are actually just mumbling words (a now-viral ClickHole video: "Don’t Understand Bitcoin? This Man Will Mumble An Explanation At You").

It could’ve been the way all the familiar hucksters and snake-oil salesmen and always-up-to-somethings in your life — like, famously, the star of too many YouTube commercials, talking-seven-o-clock-shadow-with-glasses and self-styled financial self-help guru, Tai Lopez — all seemed to jump on BitCoin at once, telling you to invest, invest, invest, whether they tried to tell you directly, or take a more subtle (read: sleazy) tack:

Or maybe it was the way conversations about cryptocurrencies overtook all of the ambient noise around you, from your favorite coffee shops to once ostensibly-decent Brooklyn bars, normally spouted from the mouths of surly men who know better about money things than you, as was the case with a friend just this past Saturday:

Or maybe it truly is the fault of the loudest cryptocurrency cheerleaders, whose perceived smugness over their investing acumen and genius wasn't so perceived?

Take, for example, some choice cuts from a recent, hilarious, utterly cringeworthy New York Times story that ran in the Styles section just this last weekend, the title of which was "Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not.

A sampling (emphasis ours):

They talk about buying Lamborghinis, the single acceptable way to spend money in the Ethereum cryptocurrency community. The currency’s founder frequently appears in fan art as Jesus with a Lamborghini. Mr. Buttram says he’s renting an orange Lambo for the weekend. And he wears a solid gold Bitcoin “B” necklace encrusted with diamonds that he had made.

Oh, and also:

As the holiday party filled up, a cryptocurrency rapper called CoinDaddy — Arya Bahmanyar, 28 — was getting ready to perform. [...] He pointed to his outfit — a long white fake mink coat, gold-heeled shoes — and said, “It’s gold, right? It’s gold. It’s a niche, and I’m going to fill it.” He says he is going to shoot a music video soon for a song called “Lambo Party” and another called “Cryptomom,” about “all these moms are pumping in their children’s savings accounts.”

Maybe the cryptocurrency rapper with the gold-heeled shoes helped do it.

Whatever it is, SchadenCoin is real. Jackson Palmer, who invented the started-as-a-joke-but-then-became-a-whole-thing cryptocurrency Dogecoin, is someone who understands the feeling. "I think it's partly people who didn't invest in the thing feeling justified in their previous decision," he surmised, "and partly the fact that people online just love a bit of drama."

That said, Palmer's also empathetic to those on the rougher side of things.

"Sadly, I think most of these people forget the fact that real people are losing out in a big way when these events," he continued, "I try to remind myself of that before gloating or saying 'called it.'"

And it's not like those who own cryptocurrencies are oblivious to it. If anything, they're pretty aware of it. Some of them even experience it, themselves, too.

"I think being able to laugh at a pile of burning money is  a life-affirming experience."

"I've been thinking about this myself," noted Aaron Lammer, the Longform co-founder who (along with New York Times and Vice News contributor Jay Caspian Kang) recently launched a podcast on cryptocurrencies called Coin Talk (as you can tell from the show's art, it's a hilarious, fun listen whether you own cryptocurrencies or not).

"Even if you're a perma-bull," Lammer explained, referring to people forever cheering on the rise of cryptocurrencies, "you're aware that a significant portion of crypto is a thinly veiled scam. So while it sucks getting 'rekt' personally, I'll admit to a certain glee watching newbie Ripple-fanatics get crushed."

That said, these crashes could have real, negative implications beyond money for those who, like Palmer, are true believers in the technological capabilities of cryptocurrencies, even if they don't buy into the financial euphoria of new riches. "These kind of major downturns will sour the public's opinion of the technology," worried Palmer, "which could be detrimental to its long term future." SchadenCoin, let loose, could only make these crashes worse for this technology's future.

And if that's indeed the case, then maybe it's not cryptocurrencies that have to change, but the people who won't stop talking about them. "Everyone participating in the market could do with a healthy dose of rationalism and skepticism when it comes to what they're pouring their money into," said Palmer. "If [these people] took a less aggressive position and stopped yelling 'blockchain' at everyone they meet, maybe they'd get some more sympathy when this kind of thing happens."

"If [these people] stopped yelling 'blockchain' at everyone they meet, maybe they'd get some more sympathy when this happens."

Until then, the crashes — and the SchadenCoin that comes with it — will keep happening. And maybe, whether the people who put their financial fortunes into cryptocurrencies or not change their behaviors, the people who watch them fail will be there to enjoy it. Which prompts the question: What's really, emotionally and eternally, at the core of enjoying the loss of cryptocurrency money?

"The same thing that motivates people to watch NASCAR just for the crashes, or boxing: to see people beat one another to a bloody pulp," surmised Palmer.

"I guess it's a universal human story—someone's pain is someone's joy," Lammer, who himself owns some cryptocurrencies, concluded. "I think being able to laugh at a pile of burning money is also a life affirming experience."

"That said," he added, "fuuuuuuuuuck."


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Download this: YouTube Go is here to save your data plan

Image: youtube

YouTube doesn't have to be a data hog.

At least, not if you're using YouTube Go, the company's data-saving version alternative for video streaming. First released in India in 2016, the Android app has now expanded to 130 countries.

YouTube Go is designed to give users more control over how and when their data is used. The app lets you preview a video before you commit to watching the whole clip. If you do want to watch a full video, you can choose how much data you want to use at any given time. You can also download clips you want to save for later.

The latest version of the service also includes a new way to share videos with friends that doesn't require any additional data. Similar to Apple's AirDrop, YouTube Go's sharing feature lets people who are near one another exchange videos without a Wi-Fi or data connection.

Though it's meant for areas that lack access to inexpensive high-speed data, it can still be of use to any YouTube addict who wants to use less data. Last year, Google launched Datally, another data-saving app that helps Android users control their total data use.

WATCH: Yamaha developed an AI system that translates a dancer’s motion into music

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Mashable m 1665aedc821eba710dec05363a1b18338b852b544314a5b00256814df1dd4df7

Toy Hall of Fame Announces 2013 Finalists

From Hot Wheels to Mr. Potato Head, every good toy deserves its proper recognition, and the folks at the Toy Hall of Fame take this task very seriously. That's why the organization convenes every year to put together a list of possible new inductees ...


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Tag Archives: Stimg

Oscar Nominated Song, The Empty Chair, Is My Pick To Win Best Song.

When I heard about the backstory surrounding  J Ralph and Sting’s musical composition, “The Empty Chair“,  I was moved to tears before I had even listened to the song.  Based on the heroic life of American journalist, James Foley, this song captures the sadness  and the heartbreak everyone felt when this brave young man lost […]

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Week 1 2015 post still rings true…I will add Fall is my FAVORITE season, it’s a season of beginnings, anticipation hangs in the air…as Chicago puts its best Fall foot forward…

Made it through getting the blog up and running gauntlet after I asked my Counselor for help, a few thoughts came to mind, I pushed a few keys, and voila, I was in business!!! WooHoo.

Short lived victory…lost my Week 1 2016 entry just as it was almost finished. Lesson #1: save as you go along. It was rather pithy, never again to be recreated.

New…year, new group, completely new mindset MKMMA2016, I’m ready!!!

Week 1 – Anticipation – Master keys Mastermind Alliance – 2015

I am truly excited to be a part of the  Sept 2015 Cohort!  My DMP has been submitted and I look forward to reaching input from my guide! Life has been changing since I obeyed a very clear directive from God to return to the city where I grew up. Every single day regardless of the season, I am in awe of this city and that I am once again walking these streets.

I haven’t set many goals through the years. However, long ago, I told myself I would live by the lake after my (not even a speck in my eyes at the time) children were grown. And here I am! What a blessings it is to be back, to walk these streets, and to enjoy all Chicago has to offer.

I am just a concrete, tall buildings, lake, and changing seasons kinda woman!


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A tribute to Frank Sfarzo

Frank Sfarzo

Frank Sfarzo

The Meredith Kercher murder case has, if nothing else, brought a fascinating cast of characters into the full glare of the Internet. Most prominent is Amanda Knox, our “did-she-didn’t-she” heroine. Then we have the homeless, drug-dealing, anarchist eyewitness, Antonio Curatolo. There’s a host of talking-head sideshow compères, such as the confused Steve Moore, complete with irrepressible wife, and film noir gunboat diplomat Paul Ciolino. Let’s not ignore the chief prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, either “a sincere man and an honest and incorruptible judge” or “a prosecutor who just falls in love with conspiracy theories“, depending on what writer Douglas Preston (himself a leading light in this tragicomedy) has decided to believe today.

Frank Sfarzo certainly has a place in this pantheon. He’s an Italian blogger who first started to write about the Kercher case in 2007, soon after the murder. At first, his blog, Perugia Shock was dedicated to general musings on the case in Italian but, over the next year, he became convinced of the innocence of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito and was blogging exclusively in English. He also became friendly with the Knox family on their visits to Perugia, and so he became a source for inside information.

And not just trivial stuff. You want pictures of the knife? Frank’s your guy. Something about starch? Non c’è problema. A printout of Meredith Kercher’s DNA? Click here.

But it would be incautious to assume that Frank was always nothing more than a passive conduit for leaks favourable to the defence. Back in 2008, he leaked the phonetap transcript where Knox tells her mother “I was there”, a full two years before the mainstream media. He was also the first on the scene with the counter-argument: “there” needn’t mean “at the crime scene” – it could mean anywhere. That was one of the lamest, in quite a competitive field, to be put forward during the trial.

No, I don’t share Frank’s perspective on the case. But his blog, whilst frequently ludicrous and infuriating, was informative. It was also capable of being entertaining. Often intentionally so. Was it journalism? No, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth looking at.

It is fair to say that Frank didn’t always maintain good taste. Picking out a tracklist of love songs for Meredith struck some as a bit creepy, and his offhand comments appearing to defend the morality of grown men having sex with 14 year-old girls raised quite a few eyebrows.

But I digress.

His take on the case became more and more idiosyncratic as time passed. He wasn’t at all in step with the received wisdom amongst Amanda Knox’s supporters on the other side of the Atlantic. For example, he eventually took the view that the DNA testing in the case was sound. Because he had spoken to her himself, he believed that the testimony of Nara Capazeli, which went towards establishing time of death in the case, was reliable. He even began to drift towards the idea that not only Knox and Sollecito, but also their alleged accomplice Rudy Guede, may be innocent, an anathema to most Knox supporters.

This led his blog in an increasingly strange direction. If you are committed to the innocence of Knox and Sollecito but you have faith in the evidence that convicted them, where is there to go?

And so, most recently, Frank has begun to formulate his most bizarre conspiracy theories. Guiliano Mignini and his ever obedient acolytes in the police must have deliberately fabricated and planted the evidence. Why? Well, history tells us that police corruption is not inconceivable, the police in this case had the opportunity if they wanted to, and Amanda and Raffaele are innocent.

Unless you’ve been busy reading the news for the past month, you are probably already aware of how this story develops. According to what Frank is saying, some months ago Mignini filed a defamation lawsuit against him, but he says he is in the dark as to what the substance of the complaint is. One report suggests it may be to do with a claim that Mignini was in cahoots with a drugs gang. Who knows?

Anyway, Mignini’s above-mentioned arch-nemesis (depending on what day it is) Doug Preston seems to have then approached a US-based organisation called the Committee to Protect Journalists, to which he gives a substantial amount of money, asking them to help (do you really think so, Doug?) Frank by posting a character-assassination of Mignini on their website. They duly do so, adding claims of Frank twice being seriously assaulted for no apparent reason by the police. There turns out to be footage on the Internet (still – you might want to look into that, Frank) of one of the incidents, which shows Frank being a bit of dickhead and getting pulled to one side by someone who quite possibly has no idea who he is. The other claim is still unassessed by anyone.

Frank’s blog disappeared yesterday, according to him pulled by Google, who hosted it, as a result of Mignini’s lawsuit. This has been hailed as good riddance to bad rubbish by people who believe Knox and Sollecito to be guilty and, by others, as conclusive proof that the diabolical Mignini is determined to suppress the truth about the case.

So, who wins?

Unless the story gets a lot bigger so he can pick up some celebrity in the long-run, certainly not Frank. Knox’s supporters get some satisfaction in having something new to vainly wave in the faces of citizens of the wrong country. Doug Preston is a tiny step closer to destroying Mignini and may end up with some decent publicity if he’s lucky.

And what of Mignini? Well, there’s little doubt that he would be within his rights to have brought a defamation suit against Frank and, if he’s after more than just putting him temporarily out of action, he may well get it.

But Mignini’s real problem is a campaign against him emanating from the US. Shutting down one blog isn’t going to affect that at all. It’s just going to add more grist to the mill. Not only is Mignini a corrupt, maniacal madman, but he also doesn’t like it when people tell that simple truth in public. I think he’s made a tactical error in pursuing this.

The loss of Perugia Shock will take a little colour out of reading about the Kercher case on the Internet. But, worry not, it won’t stop the leaks. No sooner was Frank’s blog felled than the Seattle-based blogger Candace Dempsey got her first scoop on the case à la Frank (I’ll post thoughts on that soon-ish). Candace will be a safer pair of hands, I think, but given the possibly litigious way things may be headed, someone might wish to note that it may be easier to force an American to reveal her sources than it is a European.

14 Responses to A tribute to Frank Sfarzo

  1. christiana says:

    Frank would do well to present his case to his friends in the various media. There appears to be no shortage of those who would be willing to help him advertise his plight and it would definitely be to his advantage to back up the recent developments with documentation.

    I think I like the writing of this blog.

  2. Ted says:

    Frank isn’t going anywhere. His blog will move to word press format by this weekend.

  3. Bruce Fisher says:

    Perugia Shock will not be silenced. The site is currently being formatted on WordPress. You can view the new blog here: http://www.perugiashock.com

    In your attempt at sarcasm you completely neglect to discuss free speech. You write as if this is all a game. The truth is a real live human being is being harassed in an attempt to silence him. I find it very interesting that the Anti-Knox groups claim to be attacked by those who want to silence them, they are always playing the victim, when a real attempt to silence someone occurs right before their eyes, they mock that person and say good riddance for the simple reason that they disagree with his message. What a bunch of hypocrites. When they come to silence you, there will be no one left to stand up and defend your free speech.

    • maundy says:

      Hi Bruce.

      Assuming Frank’s legal problems are as they are made out to be, obviously I’m not unconcerned for him.

      What I’m most worried about, though, is who he’s taking advice from. He should be listening to a lawyer, but it would be a tragedy if he is instead persuaded into a bid for martyrdom in the name of an intercontinental bitchfight. I don’t think that’s likely to be in his best interests.

      I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t mind reading things I disagree with. I would, though, draw a distinction between fair comment and libel. If Frank’s on the wrong side of that, then maybe you reap what you sow. It’s up to him how he proceeds, I guess.

      BTW, seems to me the site will look nicer in WordPress once it’s finished.

  4. CodyJoeBibby says:

    Re: your final paragraph. Are you suggesting Mignini would be able to force Candace Dempsey to either take her blog offline or reveal her sources?

    Mignini’s already tried to attack news sources in the US, and failed.

    • maundy says:

      Hi Cody. That was really just a throwaway comment. I don’t think Candace is anything like as reckless as Frank and I wouldn’t expect her to be getting sued by anyone any time soon.

      I’m not aware that Mignini has launched any actions in the US, but maybe there are things I don’t know about.

  5. Peggy Ganong says:

    As always, your take on unfolding events is global, intelligent and even-handed. I’m not sure I find Frank as consistently entertaining as you do, but to each his own.

    A few observations/clarifications:

    I can’t speak for everyone who thinks the first instance ruling against Knox and Sollecito was the right one, but I don’t think most of these people are necessarily delighted that Google has apparently pulled the plug on Frank’s blog – if indeed this is what happened. It would be helpful, however, for Frank the “investigative reporter” to do some investigation into his own case and let followers of the case in Perugia know what’s going on. Frank told CPJ that he learned in an email from Google on May 9, 2011 that a court order had been issued on February 23, 2011 and that from this court order he learned of a lawsuit filed by Mignini against him for defamation. Was the Florentine court sitting on the paperwork or something? Why was Frank arrested on September 28, 2010, during which incident he allegedly resisted arrest? Is there a relationship between the lawsuit and the earlier arrest? These and other questions remain unanswered, making it difficult to come to any conclusions.

    And on the entertainment side, you forgot to mention Frank’s “scoop” in the form of what he billed as an “exclusive” interview with Amanda Knox in prison. When that interview was published, rife with the usual grammatical and other errors, people started wondering what exactly he meant by “interview”. After lots of hemming and hawing and almost flirtatious obfuscation, which included Frank claiming that in a past life he had been a crime, theater and sports reporter, we finally learned that Frank had in fact not interviewed Amanda Knox, He had slipped written questions to an inside contact from the bowels of Capanne, who in turn had slipped these questions to Knox and then either reported her answers back verbally to Frank, who wrote them down, or wrote them down and then delivered them to Frank. Or maybe they were dropped on his ledge by a carrier pigeon. And by the next day, the biographical tidbit about the past life in journalism that Frank had let slip was quietly removed from the blog, presumably by the blogger. It reminds me of a line from an old Talking Heads song: “the less we say about it, the better, make it up as we go along…”

    • RoseMontague says:

      Thanks Peggy. It is a pretty inventive way to conduct an interview. I don’t really care if Frank was a sports reporter, cookbook and travel writer, food blogger, Film professor, or perpetual student. I enjoy the way he writes, errors and all. I also think he was a valuable resource for reporting on the events of the trial and although I don’t always agree with his opinions on the case, I think he gets it right much of the time.

      The real issue here is if he is being censored and/or harassed, threatened, and falsely charged in attempt to stifle his reporting and opinions regarding the Kercher case. I believe he is telling the truth.

      • maundy says:

        I don’t think Frank is telling the whole truth, Rose. For example, I don’t think it is plausible that Frank has had libel proceedings active against him since at least February but never knew about them or what the alleged libel is.

        But I do agree that the real issue is whether or not he is being censored or harassed. I think that if Mignini has been libelled and wants to bring an action against the libeller then he is perfectly within his rights. And I think no-one familiar with Frank’s blog would deny that it contains material which is less than perfectly cautious with regards to making weakly-founded claims of criminality.

        As with his last complaint, Frank avoids the central piece of information that is needed in order to tell who is in the right. Why has Mignini chosen to be so beastly to him?

      • Peggy Ganong says:

        I beg to differ slightly:
        It is true that the question is whether or not Frank Sfarzo being censored in an attempt to stifle his opinions on the Kercher case; the problem is that the only one making this claim so far is Frank Sfarzo. As you indicate by your own stated belief, this leaves people in the position of having no choice but to make or not make a leap of faith.

        Personally, I can find good reasons for not making that leap and will wait for more ample information in light of the troubling elements Maundy and others have already explained very well.

        It would be easy enough for Frank to answer the questions that are now floating around out there. So I’m content to wait for that to happen or not happen. It’s up to Frank.

        As for the interview I mentioned, you miss the central point: in this particular case, Frank tried initially to pass it off as a live interview and even used quotation marks. When questioned about it, he was quite coy and only came clean under extreme duress. An inventive way to conduct an interview? Sure. But if you want to be taken seriously as an “investigative reporter”, there are standards of disclosure that need to be upheld. And if you don’t uphold them, then you have to expect certain members of the public not to extend credibility to you automatically. This goes to the heart of why I won’t be making that leap of faith just yet.

  6. RoseMontague says:

    It will be interesting to go back to Jan/Feb again to review the comments. IIRC, Frank said Mignini wanted his source for some information and Frank was unable to remember. LOL.

    BTW, the article that Christiani posted at JREF would seem to indicate that blogs don’t have much in the way of protection under Italian Law that the print media may have.

    I saw the report about a claim of a drug connection as well and also saw one that indicated it was defamation by website that Frank was charged with. I have been following Frank’s blog closely but i don’t recall a comment about this. Does anyone else?

  7. Reingold says:

    I think the question with Mignini is, why is the lion acting like the lamb? I don’t think he’d bother with all this blog crap if he thought things were going his way.

  8. Rose says:

    I am not sure what quotation marks have to do with if it was a “real” interview or not. I could quote a poster but not talk to them. I have often wondered if the infamous Kate Mansey article that is referred to so often as an interview with Raffaele was really a real one or one that was very inventive like Frank’s. Nowhere in the article does she indicate that she actually spoke with him or conversed by phone or e-mail. Lot’s of quotes, however.

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This Treadmill Wheel Washes your Clothes using Energy Generated on your Workout

Washing Machine Treadmill named Wheel uses kinetic power to wash clothes. This washing machine will be beneficial for the people in urban areas. This innovative design wheel has been presented  by the Korean designer Si Hyeong Ryu at the Electrolux Design Lab 2014.
Electrolux Threadmill Washing Machine
Kinetic energy generated from this treadmill can be used to wash clothes and the unused energy can be used as electricity in the future.
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Vinodh Reddy is an Editor-in-chief of ME Mechanical. He holds Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS-Pilani. He also writes for and EduGeneral.

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Discover EOL

  • Emperor penguins by Glenn Grant, National Science Foundation, Public Domain
  • Fungi by Arthur Chapman ,
  • Adansonia grandidieri by Rita Willaert, cc by-nc
  • Sea Turtle by Brocken Inaglory, cc by-sa

Animal: A member of the kingdom Animalia. A multicellular eukaryote that undergoes tissue-layer development and obtains its food by ingestion. (1)

Binomial name: The two-part Latin name assigned to a species under the system of binomial nomenclature established in the 1700s by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus Species.The first name is the name of the genus the species belongs to, the second name is the species name. For example: Anolis carolinensis. (3)

BioBlitz: An event in which teams of scientists, volunteers, and community members join together to find, identify, and learn about as many local plant and animal species as possible in a set amount of time (often 24 hours). (4)

Biodiversity: The variety of all living things (species), including plants, animals, microorganisms; their interrelationships; the genes they contain; and, the ecosystems they form.

Citizen science: Activities in which volunteers, such as students, the general public and enthusiasts partner with scientists to collect information and answer real-world questions.

Classification: Taxonomic classification refers to the organization of organisms by traits, such as size, color, or form, or by their degree of genetic relatedness.  Most scientists have agreed on a scheme that classifies all life on Earth into three Domains; each Domain is further divided into Kingdoms, Phyla, Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, and Species.

Collections: The EOL Collections feature allows you to organize content (species information, images, video, sound, maps, etc.) on EOL for your purposes. You can organize, annotate and share your collection with others.

Common name:  Any of (often several) nonscientific names for a species used in everyday speech by nonscientists, such as domestic dog for Canis familiaris

Cryptic:  Having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect. (3)

Curator:  An EOL member, usually a scientist by training, responsible for quality control of the information or content (these are known as data objects) on an EOL species page.

Data Object: One of several types of content on a species page in the form of a text block (such as a species description), map, image, or other media that is imported from an EOL content provider or added directly by an EOL member. Data objects combined together under a scientific name make up an EOL taxon page.

Domain: A taxonomic classification category above Kingdom.  The three domains are Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryota. (See Classification).

Ecology: The study of the interrelationships among plants, animals and other organisms and their interaction with all aspects of their natural environment. (3)

Ecosystem: A community of plants, animals and microorganisms that are linked by energy and nutrient flows and that interact with each other and with the physical environment. Rainforests, deserts, coral reefs, grasslands and rotting saguaro cactus are all examples of ecosystems. (1)

Endangered species: Species which are threatened with immediate extinction or extirpation if the factors which are threatening them continue to operate. Included are species whose numbers have been reduced to a critical level or whose habitats have been so drastically reduced that they are deemed to be in immediate danger of extinction. (2)

Endemic species: Native to, and naturally restricted to, one specific region. (1)

Evolution: The change in the inherited traits (both genetic and phenotypic, or observable) of biological populations over successive generations.

Evolutionary tree: A branching diagram, also known as a phylogenetic tree, is that shows the evolutionary relationships (or ancestry) between species or higher taxa based on available evidence.

Fauna: The animals found in a given area. (1)

Flora: The plants found in a given area. (1)

Gene: A section of a chromosome containing enough DNA to control the formation of one protein; a gene controls the transmission of a hereditary character. (1)

Gene pool: The total number of genes (or alleles) in a population of organisms. (1)

Habitat: The place or environment where a plant or animal naturally lives and grows; a group of particular environmental conditions. (1)

Indicator species: A species whose presence or absence is known to be indicative of a particular habitat or environmental condition. (1)

Indigenous species: A species that occurs naturally in an area or habitat.  A species that originated in, and grows or lives naturally in a particular region or environment. (= native). (1)

Introduced species: A species that has been transported by humans across a geographic barrier to a location where it previously did not exist. (= exotic, non-native, alien.)  Introduced species can compete with and cause problems for native species, i.e. become invasive exotic species. (1)

Invasive species: An aggressive alien species that displaces native species; most commonly in disturbed habitats, although the most destructive invasive species also displace natives in intact communities. (1)

Invertebrates: Animals lacking backbones (i.e., vertebral columns). (1)

Keystone species: A species that exerts a major influence on the composition and dynamics of the community in which it lives; species which influence many other taxa by their presence. (1)

Life cycle: The span of the life of an organism, from the moment of fertilization (or asexual generation) to the time it reproduces. (1)

Mammal: Any animal of the class Mammalia, characterized (in part) by the production of milk by the female mammary glands and the possession of hair for body covering. (1)

Micro-organisms: Any organism that can be seen only with the aid of a microscope. (2)

Migration: The movement of animals in response to seasonal changes or changes in the food supply. Examples of animals that migrate include ruby-throated hummingbirds, salmon, monarch butterflies and elephants. (1)

Model organism: A model organism is a non-human species that is widely studied and used to understand particular biological functions or systems.

Natural selection: The natural process by which biological traits that affect survival and/or reproduction become more or less common in a population.

Omnivore: An animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals. (3)

Organism: A living thing (plant, animal, or microbe). (3)

Plants: A member of the kingdom Plantae. Characterized by being multicellular, having cells specialized as distinct tissues, and gaining its nutrition by photosynthesis. (1)

Population: Any group of organisms, belonging to the same species, coexisting at the same time and in the same place and capable of interbreeding with one another. (1)

Range: The geographical area over which an animal is distributed.of things, including plants and animal. (3)

Reproduction: The process of producing offspring. (3)

Speciation: Evolution of reproductive isolation within population (or group of populations), resulting in two or more descendant species. (1)

Species: A group of individuals that naturally (or potentially) interbreed in the wild to produce fertile offspring and their own evolutionary trajectory separate from other species.  Species are typically recognizable by their possession of a unique set of characteristics that distinguishes them from other species.  Species have a birth (speciation), life (anagenesis), and death (extinction). (1)

Synonym: In taxonomy, different names used for the same species (or other taxon).  In such cases, one or more are deemed invalid because another valid name previously existed for the taxon (and thus has priority).  The “senior synonym” has priority over the “junior synonym.” (1)

Taxon:  plural: taxa  (1) Any group or rank in a biological classification into which related organisms are classified.; or (2) A taxonomic unit in the biological system of classification of organisms, for example: a phylum, order, family, genus, or species. (4)

Taxon page: A single webpage of the Encyclopedia of Life, presenting peer-reviewed information about a taxa or taxon in a standard format.  Content (i.e., images, text) submitted by other EOL members will also appear on a species page, but will appear as "unreviewed" until an EOL curator has marked it as “trusted”.

Taxonomy: The science of naming and classifying organisms. (1)

  1. Brusca, R. C., W. Moore and S. Shuster.  Invertebrates, 3ed.  Sinauer Associates. (In preparation).
  2. Encyclopedia of Earth. Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment, Boston University. CC BY-SA
  3. Animal Diversity Web. Regents of the University of Michigan, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
  4. Biology Online. Accessed 8/19/13


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