text:
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

NEW! Review of Ada Limón

This Big Fake World by Ada Limón. Pearl Editions, $14.95.

Reviewed by M. Roberts

In a world increasingly cynical about love and where form seems to dominate function, Ada Limón argues for sincerity. She conceives a man in a gray suit and makes him her hero, navigating his battle against artificiality in life and love (and even hardware). In her storybook in poetry This Big Fake World, Limón weaves a hopeful narrative about finding purpose in a dysfunctional world, begging the question: why not write a story?

Broken into three sections and sandwiched between a prologue and epilogue, This Big Fake World bears a clear narrative arc, requiring an investment (even on re-reading) similar to that of a short story. Limón’s prologue prepares readers to meet her characters, and reveals her hand from the beginning:
and let these small people rise up
and recover, let the man in the gray suit
be our hero for once, the woman
at the hardware store, the drunk,
and make each one of them remind us
that we have all come out of basic need,
some gnawing thing, some hunger.

Keep in mind, though, that the woman at the hardware store is not a drunk. Rather the drunk is a separate character (Lewis, who in an injection of absurdity into Limón’s work, mainly appears through letters to Ronald Reagan). Limón prepares us for a story of love and angst, where the domestic-heroic man in the gray suit’s failing marriage keeps him at arm’s length from his attraction to the equally damaged hardware store lady.

The three parts of the story follow typical narrative pattern: our characters are introduced, their crisis revealed, their solutions found. To do this, Limón invokes a familiar tone, inviting readers into her community of observers. The man in the gray suit is “our hero,” and thus the story becomes universal. The drama is familiar, Limón’s insights not singular. This works both for and against Limón. Her story is ultimately accessible, her call for meaning answerable, but at the same time the poetry itself in This Big Fake World risks being overshadowed by its own sense of allegory.

Limón does an excellent job weaving the theme of appearance and reality, questioning notions of form and function. For the man in the gray suit, it seems a matter of control. Nails become a recurring image in Limón’s book, as our hero uses his purchase of nails as an opportunity to get close to the hardware store lady. In “Between Her and Her Friends He Was Known as Mr. Hammer,” the man in the gray suit pretends to do work on his roof while watching her:
He wondered why he needed
to pretend to hammer,
and not just hammer.
One made him feel dirtier than the other,
the hammer noiselessly
avoiding the nail.

At the beginning of the third part, where the hero’s marriage unravels to his benefit, Limón reveals his growing inner-tension:
Our leading man is worried about the number of nails he keeps
buying from the lady at the hardware store. His garage is full of
every kind of nail you can imagine, and he with nothing to fix, but
maybe himself. He starts a note to his wife that he later crumples.
It starts, “Being I have so many nails, I wish to be useful to

Here Limón tries to show us what it means to find function in a world composed of facades.

The strength of Limón’s voice is its familiarity. She is casual in her diction, which at its best enables her reader access to powerfully simple images. Her most beautiful moments come from brief observations that keep the mind’s eye moving and allow the story to progress without becoming predictable. For instance, as the hero and Lewis sit at the bar discussing his wife’s leaving, Limón takes us to the streetscape with deceptively simple but captivating beauty:
Our hero watches a small yellow dog
outside, its leash wrapped too tightly
around the No Something sign.

It begins to snow as a banjo plays
from the radio and the dog looks up
awfully surprised at his luck.

Simple moments like these capture the best of Limón’s conversational style, creating an artful image with rhythmic texture distinctive from her more expository moments.

This Big Fake World wraps up nicely, giving it a storybook feel that jaded adults might find soothing. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, Limón tells us in an epilogue that seems a little heavy-handed:
The object is to not simply exist in this world
of radio clocks and moon pies, where holidays
and lunch breaks bring the only relief from
the machine that is our mind humming inside . . .

She begins, then calling for all of us to “make a fire out of / everyday things . . .” Limón wants us to revel in this world, in its seeming junk and clutter. In the end, she says, “Somewhere along the banks of this liquid world / let all of us hold close to the lost and the unclear, / and, in our own odd little way, find some refuge here.” This is good enough, but what of the reader? With the hero finally approaching the hardware store lady and his friend finally safe at rehab, things seem nicely wrapped up, leaving us to wonder where the lost and the unclear might actually be found in This Big Fake World. For its moments of beauty and universal insights, Limón’s book still seems driven by its overarching narrative message rather than the poetry itself.

No comments:


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Type: response

text:
US Heading for a Depression?

Thursday, 11 Sep 2008 | 4:00 AM ET

The economic slowdown in the US could lead to national bankruptcy as the government can not afford all the bailouts, and the stock markets will not bail out the US government as they are already facing a funding crisis, Martin Hennecke from Tyche said Thursday.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-09
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for February 2017
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Want better video quality? Sign in to access HD streaming!

Want to watch better-quality PBS Video? Sign in to access HD streaming!

When you sign in, you'll become a PBS Insider and we'll share your contact information with your local PBS station. You may receive updates to help you stay connected with what's happening online and in your community. Privacy Policy

INL Scholastic Tournament 2011

  • Aired: 03/26/2011
  • 01:28:53
  • Rating: TV-G
The tournament begins with 69 high school teams competing for one of three state championships in the largest National Science Bowl regional competition in the U.S. Each division winner travels to US Department of Energy's National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C.
Embed Options
Close ×
INL Scholastic Tournament 2011
INL Scholastic Tournament 2011
Idaho high school regional winners test their science and mathematics knowledge.
Please copy this text to your clipboard.
Problems Playing Video ?
Major funding provided by Idaho National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho Public Television Endowment and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
PBS Anywhere - funder area
Related Links:

Watch videos from your favorite PBS KIDS shows with the PBS KIDS Video app for your tablet or phone.

Downton Abbey Collection

Bring home the complete collection: DVDs, Blu-rays, books, gifts and more. Visit ShopPBS.

Idaho Public Television helps all of us explore new worlds and ideas. Give Now


text:
Time Out Live: Ed Sheeran performs "The A Team" (Acoustic)

In case you were in any doubt as to the superhot status of Ed Sheeran, the soulful British singer and rapper sold out his September show at Terminal 5 in mere minutes. Yep. That big. We were thrilled, then, that Sheeran found time today to swing by the Time Out New York office and play "The A Team" from his brand-new album, +, which just hit No. 1 on iTunes. Sheeran played the Bowery Ballroom last night, and hits Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight.

For more Time Out Live performances, visit:

For more NYC music coverage, visit:


text:
Follow Us

Terms of Use Privacy Policy

Sheriff's Office: Darrin Campbell shot family, torched Avila mansion, killed himself

Darrin Campbell shot his son, daughter and wife in the head before setting his leased Avila mansion ablaze early Wednesday and killing himself, authorities said Friday afternoon. In a news briefing, sheriff's Col. Donna Lusczynski officially confirmed what had been widely thought for days. [James Borchuck |]

Source: Tampa Bay Times

Top Trending Videos


text:
Subscribe to 'Teen Vogue'
on YouTube to keep up with all of
our latest videos and shows.

Wear Psychedelic Colors for a Bold Style Statement

Alia Penner is an artist who works with brands like Diane von Furstenberg and Opening Ceremony and has always liked to stand out with her style choices. Alia's bright yellow jacket dotted with UFOs and colorful patterned tights have just that effect—what do you think of her look?

Show Credits
Outfit of the Day
Released on 11/18/2014
Starring: Alia Penner


text:
Fandom Video Library

Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller (1988) - Clip He's back

18pages on
this wiki
Add New Page

From Screenplay

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

current19:44, May 24, 2012Thumbnail for version as of 19:44, May 24, 201201:38250 × 140 (5 KB)Wikia Video Library (wall | contribs)created video

Ad blocker interference detected!

Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers

Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected.


text:
Alchemist Dark Prague (2012) torrent download

Posted: 30-07-2015, 11:46 | Downloads: 429
You come in the case of inheritance to the legendary Prague, full of dark secrets and mysteries, and immediately find yourself in the thick of things.The mistress of the house where you stop behaving strangely enough, interfering with your investigation.Throughout the house you will find strange objects, letters, the contents of which scares you ... When you turn away from the sunny window, past you, no, no yes and flashes angular shadow ... Wanderbusy streets, sneak at night in the cemetery, develop magical seals dangerous alchemist, which prevents to know the truth ... And, as always, even the people close to you may not be who they say they say they are.

Publication Type: pirates
Genre: Hidden Object
Developer: NevoSoft
Year: 2012
Platform: PC
Language: Multilingual
Language: Multilingual

System requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: 1.0 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
DirectX: 9.0 or higher
HDD: 400 Mb

Download Alchemist Dark Prague (2012) torrent:


text:
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Cepas De Familia Gimenez Riili Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Mendoza Argentina

Aromas of figs, balsamic, smoke, oak, vanilla and ripe blackberries, combined with rich strong flavors of prunes, cherries, and powdered chocolate, augmented by a dash of pepper and definite leather nuances converging on the finish. Complex and nicely structured. 13.5% alcohol.

No comments:


text:
Villains Wikia

37,102pages on
this wiki
Add New Page
Talk0 Share
 is one of Psaro's most powerful henchmen and a guardian of one of its barrier towers in Dragon Quest IV. He resembles a short, blue, muscular humanoid demon with wings, horns, a beard and haired legs and hooves, like a satyr. In short, he looks a lot like a blue Moosifer or Abulldon but a lot more powerful. He drops the Miracle Sword when defeated.

Barbatos can attack twice, use Kaboom and has strong raw power, but its most devastating attack is definitely its blistering flames breath, which is better if the player uses Insulade to protect from it. He is also immune to Frizz and Sizz attacks.

Even stronger pallete swaps of this monster exist called Master Moosifers.

Ad blocker interference detected!

Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers

Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected.


text:
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Michelin Star Chef Alex Stratta Is Back And Plating Up Artistry At Tapas By Alex In Summerlin.

Alex Stratta is a name synonymous with excellence.
This Michelin award winning Chef is now bringing his culinary magic to the common diner via his newly opened Tapas by Stratta restaurant. The Tapas concept although seemingly the recent rage in bringing an affordability and approachability to the masses here in Las Vegas, has been around for a very long time.

The word “tapas” is derived from the Spanish verb tapar, “to cover.” According to The Joy of Cooking, “the original tapas were the slices of bread or meat which sherry drinkers in Andalusian taverns used to cover their glasses between sips. This was a practical measure meant to prevent fruit flies from hovering over the sweet sherry. The meat used to cover the sherry was normally ham or chorizo, which are both very salty and activate thirst. Because of this, bartenders and restaurant owners began creating a variety of snacks or appetizers to serve with sherry, thus increasing their alcohol sales. The tapas eventually became as important as the sherry.”

Far removed for those days of practical culinary improvisation, we see this concept of small plates popping up from many major culinary Chefs who are bridging the gap between fine dining and affordability. The concept is to share and create an experience with conversation and various small plates instead of focusing on one main entrée. And…We don’t have to worry about the fruit flies invading our sherry, since Chef Alex has honed his culinary skills to now bring a much more sophisticated approach to the Tapas style dining experience.

Nestled amongst the myriad of restaurants in the rustic faux Italian town square of Tivoli Village, Chef Stratta has opened his version of a Spanish Tapas style restaurant that has transformed the now defunct PoppyDen with bright warm beige yellow walls, eye catching red-orange seating, décor highlighted with an eclectic mix of white framed mirrors and lively original Chef Stratta paintings.

As we relaxed into the seats, we were anticipating our turn to try some of the Tapas offered by this amazing Chef. He stated, “This is a labor of love.” And by creating everything from the artwork on the walls to the artwork on the plate, we are thrilled that he has poured his creative soul into this new venture.

We took a look at the menu and found the food to be pleasantly thought out and superbly executed. Starting with the Slow Roasted beet salad with cheese, candied walnuts. The the creamy and pungent taste of the cheese provided an inviting contrast to the dense-semi sweet beets along with the crunch and texture of the candies walnuts to get us off to a great start.

Next on the plate was the Jamon Iberico Spanish ham with tiny cigar shaped crackers. These crunchy treats are paper thin and delicate with a mild saltiness, which provided us a true taste of Spain. A nice sharable plate we highly suggest are the charred Padrón peppers with garlic chips, and onion crisps. Although not too hot, they were an perfect companion to our Tapas line up.

Our favorite of the evening was the special beef cheeks. They were meltingly tender with a deep rich flavor highlighted even further with little bits of Medjool dates,spiced with jalapeno, sprinkled with sesame seed, on a bed of pureed chic peas and braised red wine sauce. Each bite was exquisitely prepared and the meat melted with the spicy sweetness of the sauce. We had to reboot and to halt the motion of the fork in order to try our next dish that was the special Paella of the evening.

Highly recommended was the Paella with squid ink that created an inky blackness, and fresh seafood flavor. It’s cooked to order in shallow pans using bomba rice, dense rice that is similar to Arborio rice. Rice is the most important ingredient in paella, which is the reason many paellas are called "arroces" in spain.

The rice is cooked to a socarrat. Socorrat, from the Spanish verb socarrar (meaning to singe), is an intrinsic part of paella, which when done properly creates a crisp bottom crust that needs to be scraped from the metal pan. The deeply toasted texture lends the dish its signature quality.

We were glad we saved this dish to share later in our culinary journey. Although Tapas is known as small plates, there was nothing small about the flavors and textures of each dish. With several of these plates, we were well satisfied.

Amid, our tasting and conversation, we indulged in the house sangria, of wine and fresh fruit mingled together that was refreshing and thirst quenching. Of course we had to indulge in a glass of Tempranillo to further our “Spanish” cuisine experience. Although the wines by the glass were very reasonable we felt the wine list needed more flexibility in price and range.

Last but now least, was the Flan. Being a native Miamian, Flan was something that was the dessert of choice while growing up. Not just any Flan will do, this one has a firm, dense,creamy texture, layered with a caramel sauce that adds to the sweetness but doesn’t overwhelm with too much sugar.

Growing pains are normal in any new restaurant, and we believe Chef Stratta ‘s depth of culinary excellence far exceeds any beginning hiccups. Adjusting to a more approachable dining experience creates a learning curve for everyone involved. We can only hope that many will come by to share several outstanding Tapas crafted by one of our cities greatest chefs. Having this caliber of restaurant aside from the glare of the neon, is both refreshing and exciting.

Tapas by Alex Stratta is open Dinner:
5:30PM to 9:30PM (Sunday-Thursday)
5:30PM to 10:30PM (Friday & Saturday)With a seven day happy hour menu available from 4:30-6:00 pm.For reservations call 702-483-3555 or visit tapasalexstratta.com

No comments:

Elaine and Scott

Elaine and Scott
Elaine and Scott


text:
Vintage Sewing Patterns

Simplicity 3445 B

84,285pages on
this wiki
Add New Page
Comments0 Share

Simplicity 3445; ©1940; Misses' Dress. Blouse fitted at shoulders with darts and at waistline with soft pleats. Center front has a slide fastener and pockets turn down to form flaps. Skirt is cut in six pieces. Short sleeve; slashed and fastened with link buttons, is darted in armhole.

Scan 12

Links to reviews/blog postsEdit

Add a photo to the gallery by clicking the "modify" button below.

[insert your username, and make sure your preferences allow for people to contact you via e-mail. Do not list your email address here!]

Ad blocker interference detected!

Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers

Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected.


text:
{"API Virtualization"}

API Virtualization Blog Posts

These are posts from the API Evangelist blog that are focused on API virtualization, allowing for a filtered look at my analysis on the topic. I rely on these posts, along with the curated, organizations, APIs, and tools to help paint me a picture of what is going on.

Running Synthetic Data And Content Through Your APIs

I was profiling the New Relic API and came across their Synthetics service,which is a testing and monitoring solution that lets you "send calls to your APIs to make sure each output and system response are successfully returned from multiple locations around the world"--pretty straight forward monitoring stuff. The name is what caught my attention, and got me thinking the data and content that we run through our APIs.

Virtualization feels like it defines the levers and gears our API-driven systems, and synthetics feels like it speaks to the data and content that flows through flows through these systems. It feels like everything in the API stack should be able to be virtualized, and sandboxes, including the data and content, which is the lifeblood--allowing us to test and monitor everything.

It also seems like another reason we'd want to share our data schemas, as well as employ common ones like schema.org, so that others can create synthetic data and content sets for variety of scenarios--then API providers could put these sets to work in testing and monitoring their operations. A sort of synthetic data and content marketplace for the growing world of API testing and monitoring.

I see that New Relic has the name Synthetics trademarked, so I'll have to play around with variations to describe the data and the content portion of my API virtualization research. I'll use virtualization to describe gears of the engine, and something along the lines of synthetic data and content to describe everything that we run through it. I am just looking for ways to better describe the different approaches I am seeing, and tell more stories about API virtualization, and sandboxing in ways that resonate with folks.

Providing A Dedicated Test User API As Part Of Your API Virtualization Strategy

I was profiling the Facebook API as part of my API Stack work. While I only use a handful of the endpoints available to me via the Facebook API, as the API Evangelist, I feel like I should have an awareness of the popular social API. Additionally, the number of great stories I find dramatically increase with the number of API profiles that I complete.

One story I extracted from my Facebook API research is about providing a dedicated test user API. Using the test user API you can add, manage and delete test users, which you can use throughout the developing and testing of your API integration. Facebook is user- centric, but it seems like the concept applies equally to any other valuable resource made available via APIs today.

I'd file this under virtualization, when it comes to organizing as part of my overall research. Providing virtualization options for API consumers is something that is only going to grow with the Internet of Things, and privacy concerns. API providers should be looking at how they virtualize entire APIs using modern approaches to containerization, so they can be used in dev, qa, and production environments, but they should also be looking at providing data and content virtualization solutions like Facebook does with a test user API.

The Growing Need For API Virtualization Solutions

This conversation has come up over 10 times this month, at Defrag, APIStrat, and online conversations via Skype and GHangouts. The concept of API virtualization solutions. I am not talking about virtualization in the cloud computing and Docker sense, although that will play a fundamental role in the solutions I am trying to articulate. What I am focusing on is about providing sandbox, QA environments, and other specialized virtualization solutions for API providers, that make API consumers worlds much easier.

I've touched on examples of this in the wild, with my earlier post on API sandbox and simulator from Carvoyant, which is an example of the need for virtualization solutions that are tailored for the connected automobile solution. Think of this, but for every aspect of the fast growing Internet of Things space. The IoT demand is about the future opportunity, I've talked about the current need, when I published, I Wish All APIs Had Sandbox Environment By Default.

I see envision 1/3 of these solutions being about deploying Docker containers on demand, 1/3 being about virtualizing the API using common API definitions, and the final 1/3 being about the data provided with the solutions. This is where I think the right team(s) could develop some pretty unique skills when it comes to delivering specialized simulations tailored for testing home, automobile, agriculture, industrial, transportation, and other unique API solutions.

We are going to need "virtualized" versions of our APIs, whether or not it is for web, mobile, devices, or just for managing APIs throughout their life cycle. You can see a handful of the current API virtualizations out there on my research in this area, but I predict the demand for more robust, and specialized API virtualization solutions is going to dramatically increase as the space continues its rapid expansion. I just wanted to put it out there, and encourage all y'all to think more about this area, and push forward the concept of API virtualization as you are building all the bitch'n tooling you are working on.

To Incentivize API Performance, Load, And Security Testing, Providers Should Reduce Bandwidth And Compute Costs Asscociated

I love that AWS is baking monitoring testing by default in the new Amazon API Gateway. I am also seeing new service from AWS, and Google providing security and testing services for your APIs, and other infrastructure. It just makes sense for cloud platforms to incentivize security of their platforms, but also ensure wider success through the performance and load testing of APIs as well.

As I'm reading through recent releases, and posts, I'm thinking about the growth in monitoring, testing, and performance services targeting APIs, and the convergence with a growth in the number of approaches to API virtualization, and what containers are doing to the API space. I feel like Amazon baking in monitoring and testing into API deployment and management because it is in their best interest, but is also something I think providers could go even further when it comes to investment in this area.

What if you could establish a stage of your operations, such as QA, or maybe production testing, and the compute and bandwidth costs associated with operations in these stages were significantly discounted? Kind of like the difference in storage levels between Amazon S3 and Glacier, but designed specifically to encourage monitoring, testing, and performance on API deployments.

Maybe AWS is already doing this and I've missed it. Regardless it seems like an interesting way that any API service provider could encourage customers to deliver better quality APIs, as well as help give a boost to the overall API testing, monitoring, and performance layer of the sector. #JustAThought

How Open Source API Proxies, And Other API Services And Tooling Can Strategically Partner

I was gathering my thoughts today around API management solutions can better work together, in response to an industry discussion going on between several creators of open source tooling. The Github thread is focused on proxies, and how they can work more closely together to facilitate interoperability in this potentially federated layer of the API economy, but as I do, I wanted to step back and look at bigger picture before I responded.

As I was gathering my thoughts, I also had an interesting conversation with the creator of API Garage, in which one of the topics was around how we encourage API service providers to want to work closer, but this time from the perspective of a API client workspace. This made me think, that the thoughts I was gathering about how open source proxies can better work together, should be universally applied to every step along the API lifecycle.

Open APIs
It should be a no-brainer for API service providers--have an API! One of the best examples of this, is with 3Scale API management--they have a very robust API, that represents every aspect of the API management layer. Other service providers like API Science, and APIMATIC, who server other stops along the API life-cycle, also have their own APIs. If you want your API tooling to work with other API tooling, have an API--think about Docker, and their API interface, and make your tools behave this way

Open Source
Provide openly licensed tooling around any service you provide. Make your tooling as modular as you can, and apply open source licenses wherever it makes sense. Open licenses, facilitate people working together, and breaks down silos. This is obvious to the folks on the API proxy thread I'm referencing, but will not be as obvious to other service providers looking to break into the market.

Open Definitions
Speak common API definition formats like Swagger, API Blueprint, and in Postman Collections, and provide indexes using APIs.json. If consumers can import and export in their preferred definition format they will be able to get up and running much quicker, share patterns between the various proprietary services, and the open tooling they are putting to work. There are a lot of opportunities to partner around common API definitions for API deployment, and management, which would open up a potentially new world of API services that aggregate, integrate, and sync between common API platforms throughout the life-cycle.

Open Plugins
Developers never want their tooling to be a silo. Allow the extensibility of any tooling or services, from design, to management, or client, using common approaches to connectors, plugins, etc. Make plugins be API first, so that other API service providers can easily take their own APIs, craft a plugin, and quickly bring their value to another platform's ecosystem. Plugins are the doorway to the interoperability that open APIs, source code, and definitions bring to the table for platform providers.

Open Partnerships
Open APIs, source code, definitions, and plugins all set the stage for ever deeper levels of partnership. APIs are the pipes, with open source code and definitions providing the grease, and if all API design, deployment, management, monitoring, testing, performance, security, virtualization, and discovery providers allow for plugins, strategic partners can occur organically.

All of this really sounds familiar? It really sounds like what the API space is telling the rest of the business world, so I can't help but see the irony in giving API service and tooling providers this same advice. If you want more partnerships to happen, expose all your resources as APIs, providing open tooling and definitions, allow other companies to plug their features into your solutions, and a whole new world of business development will emerge.

With the mainstream growth we are seeing in the API space in 2015, there are some pretty significant opportunities for partnership between API service providers right now--that is, if we follow the same API-first approach, currently being recommended to API providers.

The Potential When You Are Able To Spawn Virtualized Environments For Your API

I was made aware of the Citi Mobile Challenge during a conversation last week with the Anypresence team about their new JustAPIs offering. The conversation with them has triggered several potential stories, but one that stood out for me, was the API virtualization opportunities that emerge when you use solutions like the JustAPIs gateway

To support the Citi Mobile Challenge, the bank launched a set of virtual APIs to support the event. I think their descriptions tells a lot of the story:

The APIs made available through Citi® Mobile Challenge power some of Citi's latest digital offerings around the globe. These APIs will give developers an opportunity to create solutions that could function with existing Citi technology. No customer data will be shared. Citi encourages developers to also use APIs outside of Citi to support and add additional features to their innovations.

The bank needed to mimic their production environment, but in a way that developers can still build meaningful mobile apps,without the immediate security and privacy concerns that are present when working with live systems. While I wish sandbox environments were default via all API platforms, which unfortunately is not a reality, however I think when it comes to fintech, the stakes are much higher--which smells like an opportunity for API definitions to me.

It can be a lot of work to establish and maintain both sandbox and production environments, but is something that if you do, can open up even more opportunity when it comes to supporting hackathons, providing QA environments, and much more. Additionally, if you embrace modern API definition formats like Swagger and API Blueprint in this process, as well as approaches to containerization like Docker, a whole new agility and flexibility can be realized as well.

Like API monitoring, performance, security, and other growing incentives for embracing modern API definition formats, I see the demand for API virtualization growing. When your APIs are well defined, a new world of API definition driven services emerges, making things like virtualization for hackathons, QA, load testing, simulation, as well as just a permanent sandbox possible

I have an API virtualization research area started, I just need to spend the time organizing the companies who are doing interesting things in the space, and consider some of the possible building blocks, before it is ready for prime time--stay tuned!

Launching A Data Visualization API Into Your Own Infrastructure With Lightning

I was reviewing one of the many entries in my review queue of companies who are doing interesting things with APIs, and stumbled across the data visualization API—Lightning. Their implementation grabs my attention on several fronts, but their focus on delivering their API within your own infrastructure via a Heroku button, is one of the most relevant aspects.

This approach reflects a seismic shift occurring in how we deploy APIs, and how we deploy architecture overall. You need a data visualization API, let me deploy my API into your cloud, or on-premise infrastructure using popular approaches to virtualization—developers do not need to go to the API, the API will now come to you, and live within your existing infrastructure stack.

I’ve been talking about wholesale APIs a lot lately, showcasing the white label approach by some API providers, and exploring within the evolution of my own infrastructure, and as more savvy API providers jump in on this opportunity, you’ll see more stories emerge trying to understand the shift going on. Lightning is accomplishing this with Heroku, and their embeddable button, but companies who embrace a containerized micro-service centered approach to API deployment, will have a wide open playing field for buying and selling of the wholesale API driven technology being deployed across the emerging API economy.

Virtualized API Stacks

Up until now we tend to think of APIs individually--we approach integration in terms of the Twilio API, Twitter API or the Facebook API. But as the number of public APIs has grown beyond 8K, and an unknown amount of internal and partner APIs become available, we are seeing new patterns of aggregation and interoperability emerge from companies like Singly, but also seeing automation be added into the mix by companies like Temboo, and entire backend stacks from providers like Parse.

These new aggregated or backend stacks of API driven resources can be as general as object and key-value stores, user management and other developer commodities we see backend as a service providers (BaaS) bring to the table, or they can be very personal like the photos Singly is aggregating across Flickr, Facebook and Instagram and with friends and followers across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

As I see these new aggregate and BaaS providers emerge, at an ever increasing pace, I can’t help but think--this still isn’t fast enough (its my nature, you should try being me). If I want common mobile developer resources I can adopt one of these new BaaS platforms like Kinvey or Parse, or if I need personal and social resources, which have become part of the fabric of web and mobile apps, I can go to Singly. But what if I want a more specialized network, say just for education? I might need user management, object storage, key-value storage, access to commons social tools like friends and photos across multiple social networks, but I also need access to open courseware, teacher and student directories all via a very secure, auditable, efficient stack tailored just for K-12? I will have to wait, for the next wave of startups to emerge.

While in NYC on Friday I had a great discussion with Temboo about virtualization. Not just the virtualization we’ve come to depend on with cloud computing--which is the virtualization of compute, storage, and database resources, but the virtualization of network resources and software defined networking. Companies like Nicira, Pluribus Networks, Anuta Networks, Arista, and Vyatta are emerging with new products that are allowing the virtualization of networking resource into new and meaningful network stacks for any possible implementation that you can imagine.

After these conversation with the Temboo team, over the weekend I continued to think about the potential of virtualized API stacks. Why can’t I assemble my own API stack? Why do I have to go to each API individually, or wait for new Singlys' to emerge in other verticals? Why can’t I assemble Parse, Singly, Twilio, Schoology, SendGrid into a virtualized API stack that provides not just ease of use, but the security I need to deploy a backend tailored just for K-12 education?

In this vision of the future, API providers could focus on what they do best, and not worry about every use case out there. Providers like Singly, Temboo, Parse can build abstracted layers on top of this. With this abstraction I wouldn’t be limited to just the friends and followers features on Twitter or Facebook, I could take advantage of the next generation of friend discovery tools like what Singly is delivering--in addition to the value of individual API providers.

With a virtualized approach, I could build the stack that is most meaningful for my internal, partner or public developers and if one piece of my stack is proving unreliable, I can replace it with another. APIs resources would be further commoditized, required to provide JSON definitions of their interfaces (or die a quick death), which virtual API stack platforms could use to discover and offer API resources. API ranking algorithms would emerge allowing anyone to make sure they were discovering, selecting and using the best of breed API resources in the areas that matter for any vertical.

With a virtualized API stack I could launch any specialized set of resources that I desired from the best of breed providers out there. I could blend private and public resources together and in return offer them for use in private or public environments, further blurring the lines of what is an API and how they are consumed.

As we see APIs continue to become a driving force in government, healthcare and education and bridge the online and physical worlds via our automobiles, homes, buildings and further grow within healthcare via the quantified self, potentially disrupt manufacturing with 3D printing and drive everything around us with the internet of things--the manual assembling of individual or even aggregated API stacks won’t be enough. We will need the ability to virtualize APIs stacks for any purpose within hours, not months or years.

Virtual Servers Are Better Than Shared or Dedicated Servers


text:
Haze over Eastern China

Haze over Eastern China

Thick haze hovered over eastern China on October 20, 2012. The haze stretched from Beijing southward, covering much of the coastal plain bordering Bo Hai and the Yellow Sea. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image the same day.

In many places, the haze was thick enough to completely hide the land or water surface below. A wide band of haze extended eastward over Bo Hai. In the west, isolated mountain peaks poked above the haze, which clogged valleys between the peaks.

Airborne particles are often measured in microns (also micrometers): one-millionth of a meter. Particles with diameters of 2.5 microns or smaller—about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair—are believed to pose the greatest health risks because they can lodge deeply in the lungs, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing measures fine particles, known as PM2.5, and reports the measurements though the BeijingAir Twitter feed. On October 20, the same day that MODIS took this picture, reported air quality ratings ranged from “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Hazardous.”

In addition to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, another site, China Air Daily, provides satellite images, ground-based photos, PM2.5 readings, and other air quality readings for multiple cities in China. The ground-based photo of Beijing showed thick smog on October 20, consistent with the heavy haze in the MODIS image shown above. Developed in in response to a growing desire for more information on air quality, China Air Daily is a project of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society.

  1. References

  2. AirNow. (2011, December 9) Air Quality Index. Accessed October 22, 2012.
  3. U.S. Embassy in Beijing. (2012, October 22) BeijingAir. Accessed October 22, 2012.
  4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012, July 19). Fine Particle Designations: Frequently Asked Questions. Accessed October 22, 2012.
  5. Zhu, C. (2012, October 17) A visual guide to Chinese air pollution. The Atlantic. Accessed October 23, 2012.

Images & Animations

File Dimensions

  • 720x480
  • JPEG
  • 6200x4800
  • JPEG 6 MB
  • GeoTIFF 43 MB
  • KMZ 2 KB

Note: Often times, due to the size, browsers have a difficult time opening and displaying images. If you experiece an error when clicking on an image link, please try directly downloading the image (using a right click, save as method) to view it locally.

  • Data Date:

    October 20, 2012
  • Visualization Date:

    October 22, 2012
  • Sensor(s):

    Aqua - MODIS
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration


text:
Group and Event Planners

Midwest hospitality and service can be found in Kearney, boasting more than 300,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.  Affordability, central location and professional staff are just a few reasons to hold your next meeting in Kearney.  Kearney is mid-sized and located in south-central Nebraska. It is served by Interstate 80 and is 3 hours west of Omaha, Nebraska, and 5 hours east of Denver.  Kearney is assessable by air transportation, with direct flights daily to Denver, shuttle service from Lincoln and Omaha airports and train service via Amtrak-Holdrege.

Kearney provides over 1,700 rooms offering leisure and business travelers a variety ranging from quaint limited-stay properties to full-service convention hotels.  A majority of the hotels are located within a half-mile of each other and are surrounded by restaurants, nightlife and walking trails.  A pedestrian bridge spans the Kearney Canal which parallels the west side of Second Avenue.  The bridge connects the south hotel area to the retailareas, which includes Cinema 8 and the Big Apple Fun Center and a variety of restaurants and hotels.

Service is our Business!
The Kearney Visitors Bureau offers a variety of complimentary services and material to help you plan your conference with ease:

  • Online Proposal Request
  • Facility Consultation
  • Speakers & Entertainment Listing
  • Step-on-Guide Service
  • Arrangement of tours to area attractions
  • Information Resource
  • City-wide Room Availability Pre-promotion Assistance
  • Unlimited On-Site Registration Assistance
  • Name Badges / Ribbons
  • Assistance with Pre-registration
  • Press Releases
  • Media Resource
  • Visitor Information Display
  • Visitor Guide Brochures / Maps
  • Brochures Available for Pre-Mailings
  • Table Tents
  • Cabela’s Bags
  • City Dignitary Representative
  • Visitors Bureau Representative

Our dedicated staff is waiting to assist you with your next event.  Contact us today!
Tools for the Meeting Planner
Convention & Event Centers Floor Plans
Quick Guide Meeting Profile Sheet
Download Entertainment/Speaker Listings
Entertainment Listing
Speaker listing

“Kearney’s central location is convenient for all of our exhibitors and attendees and hosts all of the amenities that we could possibly need.  The services and hospitality are a Mid-Western treasure!”  –  Barb Kinnan, Executive Director of the Nebraska Alfalfa Marketing Association

Kearney Meeting Venue Photo Gallery

Sport and Special Event Planner

If you can kick it, throw it, shoot it, hit it or ride it…we can host it!  One of the Heartland’s most progressive and successful cities, Kearney lies in the center of America, 1,733 miles from San Francisco and Boston.  Whether you take one of our daily flights to/from Denver or drive in on Interstate 80, Kearney is where you want to be!  Kearney is the perfect location for your next event and when it comes to sports…Kearney has so much to offer!  We have fantastic venues including facilities equipped for wrestling, hockey, BMX, soccer, basketball, golf, drag racing, equestrian and much, much more!
In Kearney you get the advantages of big city venues without the big city price!Kearney is proudly the home of the University of Nebraska at Kearney Lopers (DII)USHL Tri-City Storm and Mr. Basketball.  As well as, the host city of multiple Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) High School State Championships including cross country, play production, duals wrestling, state speech and golf.  Kearney was recently announced as the new host community of the Nebraska Shrine Bowl!
Our convenient location, amenities, affordability and professional staff are just a few reasons you should

host your next big event in Kearney!

Kearney Visitors Bureau offers a variety of complimentary services to help assist you in planning your next event.

Organization Services

  • Welcome packets
  • Experienced volunteers
  • Facility consultation
  • Event listing on website
  • On-site Kearney booth
  • Follow-Up/Evaluation
  • Event planning assistance
  • Press realeases/media resource
  • On-site registration/name tags
  • Hotel room rate solicitation
  • Hospitality rooms

*Each event varies in necessary services, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Group Tour Operator

Kearney is filled with a variety of historical and cultural museums, including the award-winning Archway.

An assortment of lodging can be found within the 1,700 rooms Kearney has to offer.  You will find quaint limited-stay properties to full-service convention hotels. A majority of the hotels are located within a half-mile of each other and are surrounded by group-friendly restaurants, nightlife and walking trails.

Looking to entertain your group with a special performance or entertainment, check out our events calendar to see what’s happening in the area.

We offer a variety of complimentary services for your group tour:
Group Welcome upon Arrival
Step-on-Guide Service
Custom Itineraries
Marketing Material (including brochures, pictures)

Download our Group Tour Profile Sheet.
If your group is staying overnight, print our It Pays To Stay Rebate!


text:
Westernculture hero

Visit Nice: Western Culture

Nebraska Tourism

  • State Parks
  • Cowboys
  • Archeological
  • Rodeo
  • Educational
  • Horseback Riding
  • Museums
  • Native American
  • Historic
  • Farm
  • Ranch
  • Wildlife
  • Western
  • Nature
  • There’s a distinct moment when time stands still. At his brother’s side, he peels back the curtain to uncertainty, satisfying his hunger for exploration. Out here, a desire to discover finds its way into the pit of his stomach. It fills his mind full of wonder. Out here, it’s the good life - where imagination is free to roam and curiosity runs wild. Spend a day in a wide open place with moments waiting to be uncovered. Wouldn’t that be nice?

    Visit Nebraska. Visit Nice.

    Frontst shootout2008 19
    Oregontrailwagontrain 78
    Photo %281%29
    Crawford, NE
    Furtrademuseum 7.12 080
    Scoutsrest roadtrip 49
    Ftkearneymuseum glassbottomboat 021
    Page 10
    Gothenburg, NE


text:
Vixora Labs

Share on Pinterest

Vixora Labs Vixora Will Help Erase Wrinkles

Do you struggle with wrinkles and blemishes on your skin? If your skin is starting to become wrinkled and obtaining fine lines, then it is time for you to start to look for a solution that will heal your skin and make it tight and firm. Vixora Labs is the best new skin cream that will help to heal your skin and make it wrinkle free with an all-natural formula! Clinically proven, this skin cream will eliminate wrinkles from your face and neck in an instant! Click on the image to the left to order your own bottle!

Wrinkles, fine lines, and blemishes can age you far past your actual age. This is extremely frustrating. Vixora Labs will help you to feel comfortable and beautiful in your own skin. Gain back your confidence by erasing the wrinkles and fine lines on your skin! All you need to do is apply Vixora Labs to your skin twice a day! It is that simple and easy to eliminate wrinkles from your skin. Vixora Labs is pain free, procedure free, and affordable! Interested to see what Vixora Labs can do for your skin? Click on the button below to browse Vixora Labs products and see what this line of skin creams and serums can do for you!

Vixora Labs Ingredients

The dermatologists that made Vixora Labs used only natural and organic ingredients that will help your skin to heal at its base layer. It reverses years of damage by using vitamin E oil as well as important oils to moisturize and hydrate your skin. This is unlike other skin cream products, because in many cases they use harsh chemicals that can harm your skin and leave it irritated and dry. This is counteractive as dry skin tends to wrinkle more easily. Do not take any chances and order Vixora Labs today!

How Vixora Labs Works

This top of the line skin cream is filled with ingredients that will reverse years of damage and heal your skin completely. The ingredients help your skin to heal as well as rebuild a healthy and strong base for new skin. The essential oils and vitamins help your skin to recover and be healthy, while the collagen cells are another important main ingredient. The collagen cells are extremely important to making your skin firm and completely wrinkle free! Collagen cells also help your skin to become resistant and elastic!

Vixora Labs Benefits:

  • All Natural Formula!
  • Heals Skin From Past Damages!
  • Firmer And Smoother Skin!
  • Erases Wrinkles!
  • Free From Side Effects!

How To Order Vixora Labs

If you are ready to take your skin to the next level in quality and get rid of wrinkles and fine lines, you need to order Vixora Labs! To order a bottle of this new skin cream all you need to do is click on any image that is located on this page. You will be brought to a form. Fill out the form with some basic information and a bottle will be shipped straight to your door! It is that simple! Click on the image below to get started!

Vixora Labs Review

Incoming Vixora Labs search terms:

  • vixora (2)
  • vixora labs (1)
  • vixora labs deleware (1)


text:
Vocaloid Wiki

Melody of Snow 3.png

8,105pages on
this wiki
Add New Page
Melody_of_Snow_3.png (download) (187 × 190 pixels, file size: 56 KB, MIME type: image/png)

Summary Edit

Art by yuukichi

Licensing Edit

75px-Red copyright.svg

This image is regarded as VOCALOID related. It is used on a Album page

This image is / relates to Vocaloid technology, and the copyright for it is owned by the artist,photographer,contributor of said image which is not affiliated with Vocaloid Wiki.

It is believed that the use of this image:

is believed to fall under the fair use clause of United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image, Vocaloid Wiki or elsewhere, may be Copyright Infringement. See Non-free content for more information. If you are the copyright holder of this image and you feel that its use here does not fall under "fair use," please contact one of the Administrators.

VOCALOID and all related titles, logos, images and characters are ™ and © of their respective companies, Yamaha Corporation, Pompeu Fabra University. 2004–2017. All Rights Reserved. Original Presentation 2004–2017 YAMAHA.

Appears on these pages

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

current13:32, July 5, 2014Thumbnail for version as of 13:32, July 5, 2014187 × 190 (56 KB)Chevsapher (Talk | contribs)Art by yuukichi

Ad blocker interference detected!

Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers

Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected.


text:
14 Steps/Level for Applying

1. Communicate with Vocation Promotion Ministry
2. Accomplish an Information Sheet (A1).
3. Attend at least 3 Vocation Search-ins.
4. Answer 5 Essays.
5. Undergo initial interview by the Vocation Director.
6. Submit application and recommendation letter. (Here requirements will be presented to the aspirants)
7. Be interviewed with some friars or OCD brother(s).
8. Take an I.Q. and Personality Test followed by the Medical Examination.
9. Allowed to be home visited.
10. Stay for at least 3 days in the Student House as live-in exposure.
11. Submit requirements.
12. Attend a retreat/recollection.
13. Final interview.
14. Deliberated by the Admissions Board.

Discalced Carmelite Order

The Discalced Carmelite Order is a community of Priest and Brothers who center their lives on Jesus. With Mary as their Model and Guide, they mutually enrich and transform each other in prayer and community life. The early hermits of Mt. Carmel and reforming charism of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross inspire them to an intimate friendship with God that will move them to be in solidarity with the people.
Inspired by the missoinary spirit of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the Church in contemporary times needs those who would dare... men who would give their lives for Jesus and accept its consequent challenges.
Receptive to the Spirit, Discalced Carmelite becomes open to varried apostolic and pastoral ministries. His intimate relationship with God moves him to become immersed in the events that affect society. Prayer and contemplation thus bring him to the center of every human activity.
For the Discalced Carmelite, following Jesus means intimacy with God and concern for the welfare of God's people.
1. Does the idea of becoming a brother or a priest keep coming back time and again even though you thought you had moved on in your life and forgotten about it?
2. Do you hide vocation or spiritual literature under you bed or tuck it away in the closet?
3. Do you long for MORE?
4. Do you feel called to give more, to be more?
5. Does your relationship with God sustain you, enliven you, and invigorate you in such a way that you want to share the good news to others?
6. Do you find your encounter with others more life giving and nourishing than your career?
7. Do you have a sneaking suspicion that you are on brink of a major life decision?
8. Are you afraid to tell family and friends that you are thinking about Church vocation?
9. Does the idea of becoming a brother or priest excite you and at the same time frighten you because you feel unworthy?
10. Do apostolic service, community life, and silent personal prayer appeal to you?
11. Do you have a great love and devotion to Our Lady and have the deisre to make others love and devoted to her as well? Do you find yourselves frequenting the sacraments?
If you have answered YES to two or three of the above, then you may have a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
1. Priesthood: College graduate of any four-year course.
2. Brotherhood: College graduate of any two-year course or at least two academic years of college.
3. 21 to 35 years of age.
4. Physically and emotinally fit.
5. Average intelligence quotient.
6. Show signs of capacity to live chaste commitment in religious life.
1. Postulancy (Iloilo City), 10 months
2. Novitiate (Davao City), 12 months
3. First Profession of Vows
4. Academic Studies (Quezon City)
Philosophy for 1 year
Theology for 4 years
Pastoral for 1 year
Philosophy for 1 year
Theology at least 2 years
5. Second Novitiate (Davao City), 3 months
6. Solemn Profession of Vows
7. Ordination to Diaconate
8. Ordination to Priesthood


text:
Contest Galaxy
Welcome to Contest Galaxy.To access our site register for free and enjoy talking to a friendly community. Once registered you will have access to our vote trading section. Our friendly staff will also help you with any questions you may have. Thanks for visiting! If you have any doubts about our site check out our winners lounge!

Your Contest and sweepstake headquarters.

Welcome to the Official Vote Exchange. Our address is Please read our rules before posting.
Earning Your % Bar Back

Sat Mar 16, 2013 5:07 am by Tiramisu

Earning Your % Back:

1. 10% restore for 10 votes without Asking …

Comments: 1

Top posting users this week

Who is online?
In total there are 10 users online :: 0 Registered, 0 Hidden and 10 Guests :: 1 Bot

Most users ever online was 194 on Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:52 am

You are not connected. Please login or register

Stephen Wade Honda Sweepstakes *usa only*

View previous topic View next topic Go down  Message [Page 1 of 1]

1 Stephen Wade Honda Sweepstakes *usa only* on Wed Jul 20, 2011 5:44 am

Prize Details

Garmin Nuvi 255W

Prize Eligibility
Only persons residing in United States who are at least 13 years of age can enter.
Sweepstakes Starts
July 20, 2011 @ 10:14 am (MDT)
Sweepstakes Ends
August 05, 2011 @ 12:30 pm (MDT)
Need more Details?
Read the Official Rules

How to NOT have your topic locked:
- post the ending date of the contest in your topic title
- return the votes you have been offered
- come back on the forum every day and don't be away more than 2 days.

View previous topic View next topic Back to top  Message [Page 1 of 1]

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum


text:
Search Form
First, enter a politician or zip code
Now, choose a category

Key Votes

2012 New Hampshire Gambling and Gaming Key Votes

Date State Bill No. Bill Title Outcome
March 28, 2012 NH H Amdt 917h Authorizing the Establishment of 4 Casinos Amendment Rejected - House (154 - 195)
March 28, 2012 NH HB 593 Expands Gambling Bill Failed - House (118 - 226)

About the Selection and Description of Key Votes

Vote Smart provides easy access to Congressional and state voting records and maintains a collection of key votes grouped by issue. Vote Smart uses the following criteria to select key votes:

  1. The vote should be helpful in portraying how a member stands on a particular issue
  2. The vote should be clear for any person to understand
  3. The vote has received media attention
  4. The vote was passed or defeated by a very close margin
  5. Occasionally, if a specific bill is consistently inquired about on the Voter's Research Hotline, the vote will be added

Vote Smart provides a summary of the version of the bill text associated with each selected key vote. The summary does not necessarily reflect the content of the final version of the bill. Summaries are written by Vote Smart's staff and interns, who adhere to the project's strict policies and procedures in order to guarantee absolute impartiality and accuracy. Each key vote selection is reviewed by the project's community of advisors, who are political scientists and journalists from all fifty states.

Skip to top

Help us stay free for all your Fellow Americans

Just $5 from everyone reading this would do it.

Back to top


text:
In a new ‘reliability test’ video, Samsung bakes, shocks, drowns and drops its Galaxy S4. Point noted.

Samsung Galaxy S4 torture test

Samsung is known to put their smartphones through torture-tests before release, but seldom does the company release the video showing the torture being inflicted. Mind you, this video is not for the faint-hearted:

Although the video language is Korean, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on. The phone is put through a series of ordeals ranging from hundreds of drop tests to a dip in a water sink. The conclusion of the video is that the Galaxy S4 is ”strong enough for the wear and tear of daily life”, although the video strongly advises customers to refrain from replicating the actions seen in the video as “these tests are run by trained professionals”.


text:
2010年1月31日 星期日

What makes a city attractive ?

1. Amount of sunlight
London is a great city with history, but it is never a good place to sunbath. The sun just simpy directly the mood I leave home to work.

2. Diversities of leisure resources
Sometimes, getting out for a wargame, playing grass tennis, fishing in park, staying in national parks for the weekend help you to prepare for another week of work.

3. Friends, and the interactions with them
Friends has been a very important determinants on the stay in the city. They trigger your creativity with their expertise, their knowledge, or simply their styles of living.

4. Small business availability
It is never fun to get into the same chain shops in a city, and it is never fun to sing karoake and watch movies for all the 52 weekends.

2010年1月20日 星期三

Finally handed in the application of rotation.

After the long long half year I have realised that my work does not only provide me money but unmeasurable value that cannot be found in current post.

Undoubtedly working under a lower workload environment has some positives, yet this isn't my cup of tea at this age. I prefer to be busy, to see a lot more on life/death, to get involved into the worst.

This is the value of work. This largely supports me to work.

2010年1月14日 星期四

Incomplete assessment

Do you accept the fact that when you are admitted into a hospital, the doctor shall only assess only problems that they are specialize in ?

It's my job to be care all aspects of a patient, but as a layman, do you think the doctors should also do ?

This is ridiculous that doctor does not assess the patient in all aspects. Even more ridiculous, this really happens in HK public hospitals.

Doctors, you are caring the patients !!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010年1月11日 星期一

Common interest

What is your common interest ? What is our common interest ? You may say photoshooting, football, tennis or even shopping. But when the question changes a bit to ' What is our common trigger to life?' it suddenly made so much complexity.

We are not used to create, we are supposed to live in a pre-set lifestyles where you work either 9-5 or shift, companies or schools; we are not supposed to find the trigger right ?

2010年1月3日 星期日

09 | 10

Was a year half with happiness half with frustration;
Travelled to USA to meet you; Travelled to Kyoto alone;
Worked endlessly in the first half year, and worked more endlessly in the second half;
Picked up the tennis racket, bought soccer boots

Should be a year of pursue.


text:
Donald Trump says U.S. interest rates must change as Fed weighs rate hike

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has previously accused the Federal Reserve of keeping interest rates low to help President Barack Obama, said on Monday that the U.S. central bank has created a “false economy” and that interest rates should change.

“They’re keeping the rates down so that everything else doesn’t go down,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s request to address a potential rate hike by the Federal Reserve in September. “We have a very false economy,” he said.

“At some point the rates are going to have to change,” Trump, who was campaigning in Ohio on Monday, added. “The only thing that is strong is the artificial stock market,” he said.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last month that the U.S. central bank was getting closer to raising interest rates, possibly as early as September, saying that the Fed sees the economy as close to meeting its goals of maximum employment and stable prices.

The Fed raised interest rates last December for the first time in nearly a decade, and at that time projected four more hikes in 2016. The Fed later scaled back that projection to two rate hikes this year in the wake of a slowdown in global growth and continued financial market volatility.

Trump, during the primary campaign, as he took on 16 Republican rivals, had called Yellen’s tenure “highly political” and said the Fed should raise interest rates but would not do so for “political reasons.”

The Fed has been a target of some conservative critics in the U.S. Congress, who say the bank risked sparking inflation with its easy monetary policies in response to the global financial crisis.

Fed officials say their independence is critical to making sound policy decisions.

729 Total Views 1 Views Today

By Sydney Chesterfield on September 5, 2016 · Posted in Reports, Trends

Sorry, comments are closed on this post.


text:
Walking Dead Wiki

Liza Ortiz S1.jpg

6,455pages on
this wiki
Add New Page
Liza_Ortiz_S1.jpg (download) (128 × 185 pixels, file size: 9 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

There is no description yet. Add a description.

Appears on these pages

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

current15:49, October 9, 2015Thumbnail for version as of 15:49, October 9, 2015128 × 185 (9 KB)Jaesim (Talk | contribs)

Ad blocker interference detected!

Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers

Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected.


text:
Fallacies of the Left and Right

I’ve been surprised how much discussion has occurred in response to my neoliberalism post.  Perhaps that was because Paul Krugman responded.  In any case, I’d like to briefly discuss what I regard as some fallacies of the left and right on the subject of market reforms.  I’ll start with the left:

1.  Forgetting that things were even worse in the past. Many developing countries have deplorable working conditions, environmental standards, income inequality, human rights abuses, etc.  If these countries have adopted free market reforms, it is easy to look at these problems and forget that conditions were even worse before the reforms occurred.  It is hard for someone who grew up in a rich country to understand just how difficult life is in a developing country.  When you see deplorable conditions, it is hard to imagine how they could have been much worse in previous decades.  But all one has to do is walk across the border from China to North Korea, to see what China was like before the reforms.  As big as China’s problems are (and they are huge) North Korea is far worse off.  China’s living standards aren’t just higher than North Korea, they are dramatically higher.  Most don’t recall that China was poorer than India before the reforms began in 1979.

2.  Assuming that Dickensian conditions implies a country must be capitalist. Many people on the left seem to create left/right mental boxes for countries based on their perception of working conditions.  Thus a country with poor working conditions and low wages (again China is a good example) is assumed to be “capitalist” and a country with good working conditions and a high level of equality (such as Denmark) is assumed to be “socialist.”  Actually it is much more complicated.  Economically speaking, China is a half-communist country with low levels of social insurance, whereas Denmark is an extremely free market economy with a large welfare state.

3.  Assuming that economic reforms failed because real GDP growth didn’t increase after 1980. I’ve already addressed that in another post.  Growth slowed everywhere, but the neoliberal reformers saw growth slow less than the non-reformers

4.  Assuming the Soviet Union went into a depression after economic reforms began. Actually the real GDP of the Soviet Union collapsed before economic reforms began in 1992.  And the places that reformed the most slowly, recovered the most slowly.  Those that didn’t reform at all (such as North Korea) saw an almost complete collapse of their economies.  Economic reforms didn’t cause a Depression in the Soviet bloc.  Rather a “Great Depression” in the Soviet bloc caused economic reforms to occur.  This misconception occurred because conditions continued to deteriorate for some time after the reforms began in 1992, and this is when people began to focus on the issue in the West.  So they saw horrific economic problems, and assumed they were caused by the reforms.  In Russia, people probably had trouble distinguishing between Gorbachev’s reforms (which weren’t market reforms but rather attempts to make communism work better) and true market reforms.

5.  Assuming neoliberal reforms are associated with authoritarian governments. Many people seem to think China adopted free market reforms after the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen.  Exactly the reverse; the free market reformers were discredited by the protesters (who supported reform) and thus the Chinese government moved back toward statist policies.  In Argentina, the generals who ruled the country adopted statist policies, and market reforms were associated with the movement toward democracy in the 1990s.  In Chile, the generals that overthrew Allende opposed free market reforms, and only turned toward them (out of desperation) in 1975 when their statist policies put Chile into a depression.  There is an EXTREMELY strong correlation between neoliberalism and democracy.  Look at the Heritage list of economic freedom and you will see that most of the high scorers are democratic (although the top 2 countries are not, or at least not entirely.)  I plan to read Naomi Klein’s book this summer–I’m told it has some of these misconceptions.

6.  Capitalism is based on greed. In fact, it is almost impossible to make capitalism work without altruism.  If people are not civic-minded you will not get free markets.  This is because individual producers are much better off if protected from competition.  Businesses generally do not support capitalism in their own industry.  To get a free market system you need people willing to put aside their special interests and support open and transparent economic governance.  After 1980, the countries that moved most rapidly toward free markets (Denmark, New Zealand, etc) were the countries whose citizens score highest on polls of civic-minded attitudes (and generally lowest on corruption indices.)  The most statist of the developed economies (i.e. Greece) also exhibit the least civic-minded attitudes in surveys.  If neoliberalism was a right-wing plot to enrich capitalists, you’d expect exactly the opposite pattern–you’d expect the most civic-minded or idealistic countries to be the least like to adopt neoliberal reforms.

7.  Assuming increased income inequality negates the gains from freer markets. I’m not saying this can never occur (deregulating the gains in finance while the government continues to socialize the losses might be one counterexample) but in general there is little evidence that free markets produce lots of inequality.  If you look at the 8 categories in the Heritage index other than size of government, then Denmark is actually the most free market economy on earth.  Yet it also has the most equal distribution of income.  International differences in income equality are strongly correlated with ethnic diversity.  Even in relative equal Europe, inequality is associated with the presence of ethnic groups like the Roma (aka gypsies.)  In Australia the greatest inequality is associated with the presence of  indigenous people (aka aborigines.)

8.  European countries have more progressive tax systems than the US. Not true.  Because supply-side problems are REAL, the more social democratic countries of Europe have found it necessary to have much more regressive taxes than the US.  They need highly efficient tax systems to raise enough revenue for their extensive social insurance programs.

Here are some fallacies on the right:

1.  Countries with big government tend to be poorer. As Statsguy showed in a recent post, it is just the opposite.  In developed countries governments tend to spend a higher share of GDP.  I do think that, ceteris paribus, beyond 20% of GDP larger government lowers GDP.  But the effect isn’t strong enough to prevent countries like Denmark and Sweden from having high living standards, despite their large governments.

2.  Denmark and Sweden are socialist countries. I’ve already indicated that they are capitalist countries with high levels of social insurance.  Denmark has freer markets than the USA.

3.  Singapore and Hong Kong are not really capitalist. This is the opposite from point two.  Just as some on the right focus too much on size of government, others focus too much on  a few deviations from free markets that they have read about in these two countries.  There is a tendency to forget that in every single country in the world the government plays a major role in the economy, including the US.  Singapore and HK do some things we don’t do (for instance their governments control much of the housing stock) but we do lots of things they don’t.  There is always a tendency to notice flaws in others that we don’t notice in ourselves.  I am amazed how often people mention the $500 fine for throwing gum on the sidewalk in Singapore, but I rarely see people mention that we have 500,000 people in prison for using drugs.  Which is the greater outrage?  This isn’t to excuse abuses in other countries (I’d still rather live here), but merely to point out that no country comes close to being the sort of libertarian paradise than many on the right would like to see.  You can have a lot of markets and still be rigidly communist.  Even North Korea occasionally allows farmer’s markets.  And you can have a lot of statism and still be one of the most free market countries in the world.  The US deviates from pure capitalism in literally 1000s of ways.  You can’t even be a hairdresser or a taxi driver w/o a government permit.

4.  Europe/Canada/Australia, etc, are much more socialist than the US. This is not true.  In the Heritage rankings the US is right in the mix, slightly more capitalist than most, but less capitalist than a few of these countries.  Bryan Caplan recently linked to a survey that showed the US government spends more dollars (PPP) on health care (per capita) than all other countries save oil -rich Norway.  Many of these countries have privatized industries and services that are still traditionally done by government in the US.  (BTW, if we are already spending so much, why do we have to spend even more to pay for Obama-care?  Answer:  It doesn’t include meaningful cost controls.)

5.  Capitalism is based on individualism. Actually just the opposite.  Fukuyama showed that large private corporations thrive in cultures where people work well in groups, and don’t do well in cultures where people are distrustful of those outside the family.  This is why the Nordic economies are the most multinational corporation-dominated economies on earth.  The industries that are privately-owned in the Nordic countries are often state-run in less group-oriented cultures.  I admit to knowing little about Ayn Rand (and assume I’ll get pushback here) but based on what I have read about her prickly and individualistic personality, I wonder of a country of Ayn Rands could produce a successful capitalist system.

About Scott Sumner 491 Articles

Affiliation: Bentley University

Scott Sumner has taught economics at Bentley University for the past 27 years.

He earned a BA in economics at Wisconsin and a PhD at University of Chicago.

Professor Sumner's current research topics include monetary policy targets and the Great Depression. His areas of interest are macroeconomics, monetary theory and policy, and history of economic thought.

Professor Sumner has published articles in the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and the Bulletin of Economic Research.

Visit: TheMoneyIllusion

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


text:
Pittsfield And North Adams Councils To Vote On Budgets

Jun 24, 2014

Credit wikipedia commons

Two Berkshire County city councils vote tonight on their annual budgets.

The Pittsfield City Council will vote on Mayor Dan Bianchi’s proposed fiscal 2015 budget. Bianchi calls the $141 million dollar spending plan a maintenance budget proposing a 2.7 percent increase over the previous one of $138 million. It would fund SUVs for the fire department to decrease use of larger trucks and a new public works garage to replace a facility damaged in a 2012 fire.

Meanwhile, the North Adams City Council will vote on Mayor Richard Alcombright’s $37.7 million budget. Proposing cuts to city hall and the police department, the spending plan is an increase of $1.2 million, driven largely by veterans’ benefits.

Pittsfield’s meeting begins at 7 p.m., North Adams’ starts at 7:30 p.m.


text:
Dominican republic company Fundacion Solo Cristo was given a rating of 4.29 out of 5 (17 voters)
Company Fundacion Solo Cristo was has a rating of 4.29 based on 17 votes
Status of the company in general:ACTIVE
Name of the company:FUNDACION SOLO CRISTO
Dominican republic company code:266735
Physical addresses:
  1. AVE. 27 DE FEBRERO, NO. 674, EDIF. EL SA
Directors / owners:
Phone numbers:
Fax numbers:
Internet websites:
Date of registration:2009-02-17
Date of dissolution:2019-02-17
Type of the company:NO/NO
Tags and keywords:

Dominican republic company FUNDACION SOLO CRISTO was found on our site with thses phrases:

sassaavefundacion de samncaribsol sa
If information is not correct and you want to update it or have any questions about it, kindly please contact us by clicking here or via e-mail
Thank you!
[ Try full desktop version ]
2017 © – Free business directory of Dominican republic
This is public information provided by official company registers and other public data sources. Materials about companies have been prepared only for information purposes. They are not intended to be nor do they constitute legal advice. Data could have changed since the last update! The ratings are calculated from votes given by website visitors. Because of our privacy policy, we can not provide who and when voted on specific company and what rating was given. People can vote by pressing on the stars on company page.
17.9ms | 2ms |


text:
Hyundai Lines Up Two New Ads For Super Bowl XLVIII

http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnc/20131002/LA90771LOGO-bFOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Jan. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai, in its seventh consecutive year as a Super Bowl advertiser, will showcase two new spots for Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click ...

Feb 10, 2017

Volvo V60 Polestar 2.0L Turbo/Supercharged DOHC 4-cyl. -- 2017 Award Acceptance

Stefan Hermelin, general manager-Monitoring & Concept Center, accepts Volvo Cars' award at the 2017 Wards 10 Best Engines ceremony....More

Follow Us

Sponsored Introduction Continue on to (or wait seconds) ×


text:
'Canes start fast, but Titans surge to win

Because of two postponements in the first week of the season, the Warwick Vets lacrosse team had to wait longer than any team in the state to take the field. When the Hurricanes finally did last Wednesday, they were chomping at the bit and they took 1-0 and 2-1 leads over cross-town rival Toll Gate.

The Titans weathered that storm, though – and then created one of their own.

After falling behind 2-1 with 10:20 left in the second quarter, the Titans out-scored Vets 8-1 the rest of the way and cruised to a 9-3 victory.

“This is always a tough Vets team,” said Toll Gate head coach Mike Vadney. “This is their first game and they came out ready to play. We just couldn’t get anything going at first, and then all of a sudden, the offense seemed to wake up.”

Toll Gate improved to 2-1 with the win. Vets fell to 0-1 but returned to action Friday and evened its record with an 8-6 victory over Westerly.

The offensive surge in Wednesday’s game allowed the Titans to put up their best numbers of the young season. They scored three goals in a 4-3 loss to Narragansett before putting seven on the board in a victory over Coventry.

Senior Kevin Vittum led the way for the Titans on Wednesday with five goals and two assists, while Casey Correia had two goals. Kyle Ellis and Mitch Howkins had one each.

“We came off a win on Monday and I feel like we’re getting stronger and stronger every game,” said Vittum, a senior attacker.

On Wednesday, it just took the Titans a while to show that strength.

Vets got a goal from Cody Sullivan less than four minutes into the game to go up 1-0. Toll Gate tied it at 1-1 on a goal by Vittum late in the period, but Vets went back on top 1:40 into the second quarter when Nathan Brotman found the net.

For an inexperienced Vets team, it was quite a start.

“I was very impressed with what I saw from the beginning because I didn’t know what to expect,” said Vets coach Fred Schweizer. “We have a ton of new guys and we had a month of preseason. They really impressed me in the first half. They moved the ball well. The defense played with their feet well. We just ran out of gas. Toll Gate has some very talented attackmen and we just couldn’t keep up.”

Just two minutes after Brotman’s goal, Vittum tied the game again. The teams then went almost eight minutes without a goal before the Titans grabbed their first lead on a Correia goal with 55 seconds left in the first half.

In the second half, the Titans really turned it on.

Correia and Vittum scored midway through the second period to make it 5-2. Vets momentarily stopped the bleeding on a goal by Dan Pickering, but Toll Gate scored four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“They broke out of that funk and just settled in and relaxed,” Vadney said. “I think once they relaxed they started handling the ball better. They just had more fun. You could see that. The ball movement was faster and that’s something we’ve been emphasizing. We don’t want to hold the ball. We want to move it.”

One of the biggest keys for Toll Gate was pulling away when Vets threatened. Pickering’s goal came with plenty of time still left and made it a two-goal game. But the Titans dominated the action from there and got goals from Vittum, Howkins and Ellis to put the game on ice.

“This is a tough Vets team,” Vadney said. “They don’t give up. The key is you’ve got to put it to them and bury them. You can’t give them that chance. They took one from us last year and the two after that were very close. It’s very important. I always tell these guys, ‘Put a lot in the net and don’t look back.’”

Vadney was happy to see that come to fruition. With goalie Josh Giarrantano anchoring the defense, the Titans should be able to control teams. If they can score at the other end, they’ll be a contender.

“The defense did their usual good job,” Vadney said. “It was nice to see the offense become very productive today. I’m very happy with what they were able to accomplish. Hopefully we can continue to push that.”

On the other side, Vets took plenty of positives out of the loss and has already built on them with the win Friday. Now that the ’Canes are finally on the field, they’ll only pick up speed.

“It would be one thing if I walked away from this not knowing what we needed to work on,” Schweizer said Wednesday. “But we as a coaching staff know where to go from here. The fact that we saw what we did in the first half speaks volumes about these kids and the potential they have.”

Vets will be back in action Wednesday when it visits Narragansett at 3:45 p.m. Toll Gate also plays Wednesday at home against Westerly at 4 p.m.

No comments on this story | Please log in to comment by clicking here
Please log in or register to add your comment


text:
Hawks flash potential in D-I opener

Fifty-eight points does not constitute an offensive explosion, but the Bishop Hendricken basketball team needed only to look back at its last meeting with Mt. Pleasant to see that it was a step in the right direction.

The Hawks gave up 44 points to the Kilties in Friday’s season opener, exactly the same number they allowed to Mt. Pleasant in a January meeting last season. They lost that game 44-36. On Friday, they won 58-44. It’s early, but it was an indication that the Hawks have turned last season’s Achilles heel into much less of a weakness – and maybe the beginning of a strength.

“Our teams the last few years have been grind-it-out, defensive teams because we couldn’t score in bunches,” said head coach Jamal Gomes. “We can do that this year. Last year, we averaged 49 a game. This year, in our two games, we’re up around 58, 59. That was with 13 missed free throws tonight. You make some of those, now we’re up in the 60’s. If we can get up to that point consistently, we’re going to be in great shape.”

Junior Matt Duffie and freshman Justin Mazzulla led the Hawks with 12 points each. The Hawks never suffered through the kind of long drought that was common last season, with persistence in getting to the basket creating consistent opportunities. On the downside, they committed 23 turnovers, but that didn’t override the general feeling of improvement.

“I understand it’s early and we’ve got a lot of things to work on, especially handling pressure,” Gomes said. “This year, we’ve got guys who are getting to the basket. We haven’t had that in a couple of years. When you have that, it opens up a world of things.”

While the Hawks made just one of their first nine field goal attempts, they got to the basket and forced the issue, getting themselves to the free-throw line five times in the game’s first six minutes.

In the meantime, the defense didn’t miss a beat in its quest to match last year’s squad. Playing a 2-3 zone, the Hawks held the Kilties scoreless for the first 5:25 of the game.

“I wasn’t expecting us to play perfect,” Gomes said. “I told them prior to the game, I expect three things – effort, energy and enthusiasm. I thought all were very good.”

Hendricken led 7-0 but saw the deficit cut to one at 9-8 when the Kilties finally settled in. The Hawks responded, though, going on an 8-0 run to regain control. Six of the points came on fast breaks.

The Hawks led by as many as 12 before the Kilties scored the final seven points of the half. Hendricken led 26-21 at the break.

At the start of the second half, the Kilties made their run. Three Hendricken turnovers set the stage for a 9-0 burst that gave Mt. Pleasant its first lead of the game.

The danger for the young Hawks was panic, but they never let it set in. Ira Lough hit a jumper from the elbow to tie the game. After the Kilties went in front again, Lough scored inside to make it 32-32. Garfield Coustard then scored on the break, stole the ball and passed it ahead to Mazzulla for another bucket. Chris O’Brien then buried a three, and just like that the Hawks were back up by seven. The run came in 1:16.

They never trailed again.

“We showed some character because we didn’t get off to a good start in the second half,” Gomes said. “We battled back and we scored in bunches in the second half. We haven’t done that in a couple of years.”

The Kilties got as close as three before the Hawks pulled away again thanks to a 7-0 run. A dunk by Will Parmlee with 3:18 left put Hendricken up by 10 and the lead never dipped below double digits.

“I think we’re back to playing Hendricken basketball – tough defense with solid offense,” Gomes said.

Parmlee tallied nine points to go with the 12 points from Duffie and Mazzulla. Kyle Henseler chipped in eight.

All in all, it was a solid first step.

“I really like the potential of this group,” Gomes said. “I’ve been telling them that since the beginning of the season. But I’ve also been telling them potential and a bag of chips equals a bag of chips. Potential is only good if you reach it.”

The Hawks will have an opportunity for more growth this week. They’ll travel to Boston for the BABC Holiday Classic, with a game against Dorchester (Mass.) High School on Friday and a matchup with perennial Connecticut powerhouse Windsor on Saturday.

“They’ll be good, quality games for us,” Gomes said. “Then it’s back to league play.”

The D-I slate resumes Dec. 30 with a 7 p.m. home game against Smithfield.

No comments on this story | Please log in to comment by clicking here
Please log in or register to add your comment


text:
How to become a bibliomaniac

He looks like a typical suburban retiree, with his home in Edgewood showing the desultory affect of a homeowner who didn’t do landscaping for a living. But it is a respectable unkemptness and certainly not the sort of property that has his neighbors complaining to minimal housing about.

In short, Sam Hough’s Edgewood home shows all the signs of a home that focuses more on what happens on the other side of the threshold.

Sam Hough is a bookseller and his living room is a wonderland of books and relic-like gewgaws that people of that profession are inclined to accrue. True, there are owls about the place, in prints, as figurines and by other representation but that is not why he calls his business The Owl at the Bridge.

“Obviously, we like owls but the name came from being near the Pawtuxet Bridge and the image of an owl at the bridge appealed to me,” said Hough (pronounced “huff”).

Although he once did have a small space on Broad Street when he started selling books in the 1980s, the brave new world of inflated real estate costs and diminished foot traffic made maintaining the space impractical.

“I do keep some of my stock here in the house but I also have 2,500 square feet of storage on Wellington Avenue,” he said. “Our book shop was always much too small for the space we needed.”

Like most booksellers in the digital age, Hough has adapted to the world of online bookselling. In fact, very few used bookstores could sustain themselves by walk-in sales alone. Catalogs and mail order have been a major part of the rare book business for centuries but Goodspeed’s, The Brattle Book Shop and other small stores in Boston made good money catering to leisurely walk-ins or the lunching masses that haunted the 25
and 50 cent tables everyday. Now, if Sam Hough wants to get his hands on a good book, he has to go to a public or private library. He won’t find the bookstores of his youth in Philadelphia, or his salad days of acquiring books for college libraries. There are no easy fixes for a bibliomaniac these days. Everyone is waiting for the mail, or, as some would have it, the “snail mail.” We must wait, anxiously and tensely, for our junk to come from the Post Office or UPS.

These are bad times for book addicts.

But that was how I met Sam Hough. I was nostalgic for Goodspeed’s, as I frequently am, and ordered two copies of the 75th Anniversary catalog online. I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived in my mailbox with Cranston as a return address. Needless to say, I was pleased to know there was a local “dealer” I could turn to when I had the urge to own a rare book: my connection.

I have a disorder that has not been publicly discussed much. I am neither proud nor ashamed of it. If I have been reluctant to speak of it publicly before, it was because that may draw more people and competition for what we desperately crave; old, rare and special interest books. For we are bibliomaniacs:
“Bibliomania or Book-Madness; from the Greek biblion=book +
mania=madness. Behavioral disorder…Common symptoms include the uncontrollable urge to acquire and hoard books; indiscriminate bookstore hopping…which alone or in combination may result in prolonged disruption of daily life. The more severe forms of bibliomania may involve recurring incidents of bibliokleptomania (book theft)…No cure is known to exist…”

The Gutenberg Project’s definition may be a little too broad. We usually are more selective and prone to specialize: First editions, Americana, early printing or incunabula; military history, exploration, any subjects that have engendered a number of cool books. I’m more of a generalist; having spent many idle hours hiding out from truant officers in the Boston Public Library as a youth and having idled even more as an apprentice bookseller at Goodspeed’s. Sam Hough’s specialty is Italian books and printers, with formidable digressions into other areas.

“One of the very first books I bought was a 1847 edition of ‘The Book of the Courtier’,” said Hough, as he explains his early descent into bibliomania. “What I liked was the sheer physicality of old books, of old paper.”

Hough’s interest in books lead him to more esoteric areas of expertise that have served him well. He is an acknowledged expert on Gorham Silver, as well as Italian printers and books. He was a consultant to the Johnson and Wales Culinary Arts Museum, to help them flesh out their collection. That was after he did acquisitions for the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and was an archivist at The University of Pennsylvania after studying library science at Columbia. He has published definitive reprints of Gorham catalogs and regularly speaks to groups about books and libraries and Gorham. He has done what he had to do to stay close to sources that feed his bibliomania. But Hough has done it in a benign way. Others have not been as reasonable.

For instance, there was a Methodist pastor of the Mathewson Street Methodist Church in Providence who brought shame to booklovers in 1881 when he was exposed as a book thief and a liar. He pilfered from the Providence Athenaeum. He would steal the books, rebind them and claim he “found” them at incredibly bargain prices locally and in Boston. He took the rare “Key into the Language of America” by Roger Williams, had it rebound and announced that he found it in a trashy heap in a bookstore in Boston and got if for $1. Eventually, his knack for finding bargain books aroused suspicion. A search of his collection returned at least 10 books to the Athenaeum with their library markings clumsily removed or disguised. Unfortunately, I only found one story about Rev. W.F. Whicher’s crimes and absolutely nothing about where it brought him criminally and socially.

There were more unhappy tales of bibliomania.

In his 1944 article, “Book Row,” in the Saturday Evening Post, Don Samson gives a brief history of a bibliomaniac that haunted the area.

“A shoe clerk from Brooklyn wandered into one of the secondhand bookshops on Book Row. He had never bought a book in his life, but picking up a musty volume, he liked the feel of it and bought it. The more he handled it, the more he liked it. He began buying books…Finally, his wife couldn’t take a bath because the tub was full of books…and threatened to go home to mother unless he got rid of them. He did. But within two weeks he was buying books again…She went home to mother.”

In 1994, Harper’s Magazine profiled a modern Rev. Whicher taken to the extreme.

In “The Book Thief: A True Tale of Bibliomania,” Philip Weiss described Stephen Blumberg, who was convicted of stealing over 20,000 books, manuscripts and papers from public and college libraries:

“The West Coast thefts had the effect of bringing into the Blumberg case its most approachable figure, a rangy, good-looking Washington State University campus police detective named J. Stephen Huntsberry. In February 1988, librarians at WSU discovered that precious Mexican manuscripts were missing. Sergeant Huntsberry was sent over to investigate. When a librarian used the term ‘incunabula,’ Huntsberry
frowned. The librarian explained that it referred to the infancy of printing, and to demonstrate handed him a book printed in 1493. It occurred to Huntsberry, as he turned its pages and smelled the mold of ages, that Columbus could have read that book.

“‘That's when I got hooked,’ he [Huntsberry] told me.”

As for Sam Hough, you can discuss such bibliomaniacal oddities when you go to him to get your fix of rare books, right here in the West Bay.

“Books are easy,” Hough will reassure you. “It’s people who can be difficult.”

The Owl at the Bridge in Cranston can be reached at 467-7362 or by e-mail at Call for an appointment, inquiry or appraisal.

No comments on this story | Please log in to comment by clicking here
Please log in or register to add your comment


text:
Below is an advertisement.

SPHOTM Hall of Fame

Each month, a new Season Plan Holder of the Month is named and the previous winner moves to the Hall of Fame.

Below you can find all of the past winners and current members of the Hall - submit your entry today and you could be the next Season Plan Holder of the Month!

Read More » Donald Rucker
Read More » Paul Thaler
John Almand Read More » John Almand
Nathan Morello Read More » September 2013: Nathan Morello
Joan Sullivan Read More » August 2013: Joan Sullivan
Sid Simmons Read More » July 2013: Sid Simmonds
Dave Raglin Read More » June 2013: Dave Raglin
Jim Hazam Read More » May 2013: Jim Hazam
Melissa Cramer Read More » April 2013: Melissa Cramer
John Burke Read More » September 2012: John Burke
Sue Small Read More » June 2012: Sue Small
Ted Leavengood Read More » May 2012: Ted Leavengood
Chris & Lisa Jollay Read More » April 2012: Chris & Lisa Jollay
Paul Sanner Read More » September 2011: Paul Sanner
Graham Armstrong Read More » August 2011: Graham Armstrong
Debbie McGinn Read More » July 2011: Debbie McGinn
Steve Froehlich Read More » June 2011: Steve Froehlich
Ann Looper Pryor Read More » May 2011: Ann Looper Pryor
Alex Bryant Read More » April 2011: Alex Bryant
Robert Butto Read More » September 2010: Robert Butto
Michele Clarke Read More » August 2010: Michele Clarke
Butch Sevila Read More » July 2010: Butch Sevila
Stephanie Brown Read More » June 2010: Stephanie Brown
Jerry and Amy Manheim Read More » May 2010: Jerry & Amy Manheim
John Shackelford Read More » April 2010: John Shackelford
Alva Pace Read More » September 2009: Alva Pace
John Christakos Read More » August 2009: John Christakos
Craig Stevens Read More » July 2009: Craig Stevens
Ray Mitten Read More » June 2009: Ray Mitten
Mary Thorne Read More » May 2009: Mary Thorne
Colleen & Jeff Sherman Read more » April 2009: Colleen & Jeff Sherman