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SRTM Processing

1. SRTM Digital Surface Model (DSM) Processing
2. SRTM Digital Terrain Model (DTM) Processing

If you want know what a DEM, DSM or DEM is, please visit the Definitions Section.

First the processing of an enhanced SRTM Digital Surface Model (DSM) is explained. This step is also necessary for the following processing of a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) on the basis of OpenStreetMap vector data. For detailed information see the Howtos.

The Shuttle Radar Topography (SRTM) mission explored the structure of the earth surface in February 2000. The earth surface height was recorded between 60°N and 56°S. The data is available in 1*1 deegree (SRTM-1) for the USA and 3*3 degree (SRTM-3) tiles for the rest of the world. The resolution is for SRTM-3 three-arc-seconds, which is about 90 meters.

The SRTM data (Level 2.1, the most advanced processing state) can be downloaded at USGS.

1. SRTM Digital Surface Model (DSM) Processing

Due to the side-looking radar technique used by SRTM voids occur in mountainous regions as you see on Figure 1.

side_looking_radar voids_in_the_alps

Fig.1: Voids resulting from side looking radar technique (left) and void pixels in the Alps are presented as black pixels (right).

These voids have the value "-32.768" and were filled with DEM data provided by Jonathan de Ferranti for the OpenDEM project. Many thanks for that. The data could be downloaded from the Viewfinders Panorama Homepage. Beside voids in mountainous regions, voids occur also near water bodies. A watermask was already applied for Level 2.1 SRTM data by the USGS (Link). These voids were filled by a 3*3 Matrix with the mean value (zero values were ignored). The process was performed 3 times inn order to eliminate all voids.

The data can be downloaded in the Download SRTM section under the Open Database License.

2. SRTM Digital Terrain Model (DTM) Processing

The SRTM mission mapped the structure of the earth´s surface including builtings and vegetation. OpenStreetMap data was used to correct the height values for forested and built up areas.

The resulting DTM is only an approximation, depending on many factors:

1. Time: The SRTM dataset is from February 2000 and many changes have occured since this time, especially in the built up regions

2. Quality of the OSM data: Completeness & accuracy

3. Accuracy of the SRTM dataset

4. Structure of the built up areas

5. Development stage and type of the forested areas

At first all land areas with zero values were set to a value of 1. This was done for a better visual discrimination between land and sea areas.

Fig. 2: Land values set to 1 (left) and the original dataset on the right for the German North Sea Coast (zeros in blue).

The OSM land tiles can be downloaded here (stamp 8/2017).

For the built up and forested areas a computed value was subtracted. The computation of the values is described in detail in the following

Built up areas are in general very heterogeneous. The question was: is itpossible to enhance the dataset by a subtracted constant value for the built up areas?

The following OSM tags were used to identify the built up areas:

highway: pedestrian
highway: residential
highway: living_street
man made:building

Forested areas should be not be as heterogeneous through as a more homogeneous canopy cover. But the recording of the data was in February. So in the northern hemisphere the structure of the forested areas was quite heterogeneous for the deciduous forests. The radar backscatter was reflected from the trunks and branches due to the absence of the leaves. Unfortunately, also for the coniferous forests the structure was not as homogeneous as expected.

The following OSM tags were was used to identify the forested areas:

natural: wood
landuse: forest

Whereas natural:wood is a tag used for natural woods the tag landuse:forest is used for forested woods. Please be aware that the usage varies from country to country.

The vector data was intersected with the SRTM raster data and two datasets were derived with the landuse classes of forest and urban. To compare these landuse classes with bare soils, also OSM vector data associated with moderate vegetation landuse:meadow and landuse:farm were intersected with the SRTM dataset.

Difference images from SRTM and an official 5 meter Digital Terrain Model were computed (vertical RMS error < 0.5 m). For the computation an Elevation Query Services (EQS) developed at the Department of Geoinformatics at the University of Heidelberg was used. The service calculates a local Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) for the desired point coordinates. This is much more precise than just using a raster image for that purpose (Sorry,. the EQS is not available under a free software license).

Three test areas in North-Rhine Westphalia where chosen, representing different landscapes and landuse characteristics (see Figure below, click image to enlarge it).

Cologne Region

Flat Cologne-Bonn Bay with the greater Cologne urban area and surrounding rural areas
(122.625 Pixels).

Ruhr Basin

Old metropolitan region with old coal mining areas and renaturalisation (54.579 Pixels).

Rhineland Slate Mountains

Forested mountainous area. (262.171 Pixels)

Fig. 3: built-Up areas were marked in pink and forested areas were marked in green (click to enlarge).

Have a look at the original data:

Table 1: Results of the computed difference images for the three test regions.

Nr. Difference Image:  SRTM – DGM5 Mean Standard Deviation
Region Cologne
(1) All (abs*) 3.485 4.094
(2) Built Up 2.548 2.362
(3) Built Up (abs) 2.924 3.119
(4) Grassland/Farmland 0.453 2.436
(5) Grassland/Farmland (abs) 1.486 1.882
(6) Forest 7.115 5.803
(7) Forest (abs) 7.125 5.376
(8) Forest & Built Up areas (abs) 4.405 4.362
Ruhr Basin
(9) All (abs*) 2.750 2.653
(10) Built Up 2.716 3.163
(11) Built Up (abs) 3.283 2.570
(12) Grassland/Farmland 0.143 1.232
(13) Grassland/Farmland (abs) 3.033 2.608
(14) Forest 2.511 4.379
(15) Forest (abs) 3.770 3.356
(16) Forest & Built Up aereas (abs) 3.397 2.780
Rhenish Slate Mountains
(17) All (abs*) 10.433 8.521
(18) Built Up 4.55 8.298
(19) Built Up (abs) 5.934 7.372
(20) Grassland/Farmland 3.934 7.438
(21) Grassland/Farmland (abs) 6.164 5.762
(22) Forest 11.674 10.255
(23) Forest (abs) 12.671 8.699
(24) Built Up and Forest (abs) 12.425 8.640

* abs: computed absolute mean values

The calculated absolute mean value for the areas associated with bare soils or spare vegetation was between +/- 0.5 meters ( Cologne Region) and +/- 6 meters in the Rhineland Slate Mountains. This fits to the studies from Czegka et. al. (2004) which derived an absolute vertical error of the SRTM dataset for Germany about +/- 2 meter to +/- 7 meters, depending on the surface structure.
For the associated built up areas the SRTM DSM dataset is in average about 2.5 meters higher than the official DTM for the Cologne Region and the Ruhr Basin. Depending on the relief the overestimation is higher for the Rhineland Slate Mountains.

The computed mean value for the associated forested areas was very different. Especially the mean value for the Ruhr Basin is, at about 2.5 meters very low. The forested areas in that region are in average quite small and errors due to georeferencing are more likely to affect small areas more greatly.

Margot Mayhofer (2007) estimated in her unpublished Master Thesis for the SRTM dataset (on the basis of CORINE landcover) an average RMS error for the forested areas of about 8-10 meters.

Forested Areas Correction

Table 2: Forested Areas Correction: Results of the computed difference images

Nr. Difference Image:  SRTM – DGM5 Mean Standard Deviation
Region Cologne
(1) Forest (Original Dataset) 7.115 5.803
(2) Forest (Original Dataset) (abs) 7.125 5.376
(3) Forest -7 meters 4.695 3.536
(4) Forest Filter (max value) 11.735 8.086
(5) Forest Filter (max value) - 12 meters (abs) 5.696 5.702
(6) Forest Filter (max value) 2. pass 14.814 10.290
(7) Forest Filter (max value) 2. pass - 15 m (abs) 6.807 7.674
(8) Forest: 8 Neighbours 8.499 5.584
(9) Forest: 8 Neighbours – 8 meters (abs) 4.329 3.564
Ruhr Basin
(10) Forest (Original Dataset) 2.511 4.379
(11) Forest (Original Dataset) (abs) 3.770 3.356
(12) Forest: 8 Neighbours – 8 meters (abs) 6.023 3.920
Rhenish Slate Mountains
(13) Forest (Original Dataset) 11.674 10.255
(14) Forest (abs) 12.671 8.699
(15) Forest -7 (abs) 8.712 7.16
(16) Forest – 12 (abs)                  8.509 6.844
(17) Forest: 8 Neighbours – 8 meters (abs) 8.664 7.157

For the Cologne Region a simple subtraction of the calculated mean value (3) results only in an error which was about 1/3 better than the original deviation (2). One explanation is the timeperiod of the data collection. In February the canopy cover of the deciduous forest is not homogeneous. The effect is also reported by Maryhofer (2007).The forest type is only sparsely tagged by the OSM community. Therefore the forest type could not be recognized by the correction.

Table 3: Mean Value and Standard Deviation of the SRTM data for different forest types in Austria with the 2-? Method (Mayrhofer 2007):

Forest Type Mean Value Standard Deviation
Deciduous 8.09 6.24
Coniferous 10.49     6.59
Mixed 10.13 6.93

To compute a closed canopy cover a 3*3 Matrix were used to calculate the maximal value within the matrix for the pixel (4). After that the resulting deviation was subtracted (5). Also a second pass was tried (6 & 7). The results were not as good as the simple subtraction (3). Especially on the edges of the forested areas the error increases through the applied intersection processing and georeferencing errors. To avoid that only the forest pixels were used which have also 8 Neighbours, which are classified as forest. For that pixels the deviation decreases (8) and the resulting subtraction is better than the original subtraction (7). The overall enhancement does not look very impressive at a first glance, but when you have a look at the histograms this makes much more sense.

cologne forest original cologne forest corrected

Fig. 4: Histograms of the difference images for the forested areas of the Cologne Region before (left) and after the correction (right) - click to enlarge.

The centre of the normal distribution is shifted to zero with the correction. The zero values are not included in the histograms and the calculated mean values (red line) are scaled in the visualisation to integer values which gives a wrong picture at the first glance. Nevertheless the distribution of the values is obviously better and no further work was done regarding adjustment.

The forested areas of the Ruhr Basin are very special. In this region renaturalisation of the old mining areas are wide spread as you see in the following Figure.

Fig. 5: Renaturalisation of mining areas in the Ruhr Basin. Potlatch Screenshot. Aerial Image (c) by YAHOO!

The height of the young trees is in fact very low. In 2000 perhaps there would not be trees anyway. The resulting deviation is in this case even more worse than the original data values. Nevertheless developing forested areas with low trees are usually only a small percentage of the total forested area.

The third case was the forest in the Rhineland Slate Mountains. In this mountainious area the difference image for the bare soils and grasslands differs for about 4 meters (Table 1 (20)). This is much more than in the other regions. This difference increases also for the forested areas. Astonishingly the results of the absolute difference images for the parameters -7 meters (15). -8 meters (17) and -12 meters (16) were almost the same.

In general the correction of the forested areas with a simple subtraction makes sense, but regionally the deviation could be even greater than in the original dataset. The following factors affect the results:

  1. development state
  2. forest type
  3. relief

built Up Areas Correction

Table 4: built Up Areas Correction: Results of the computed difference images

Nr. Difference Image:  SRTM – DGM5 Mean Standard Deviation
Cologne Region
(1) Built Up         2.548 2.362
(2) Built Up (abs) 2.924 3.119
(3) Built Up Filter Minimum (3*3) 2.734 2.776
(4) Built Up: -3 meters (abs) 2.215 2.242
(5) Built Up: -2 meters (abs) 2.088 2.380
(6) Built Up: -1 meter (abs) 2.343 2.575
(7) Built Up: 8 Neighbours 2.541 2.541
(8) Built Up: 7 Neighbours 2.438 3.619
(9) Built Up: 6 Neighbours 2.579 4.123
(10) Built Up: 5 Neighbours 2.624 4.075
(11) Built Up: 4 Neighbours 2.593 4.512
(12) Built Up: 3 Neighbours 2.686 5.683
(13) Built Up: 2 Neighbours 4.179 5.683
(14) Built Up: 1 & 0 Neighbours < 50 Pixels
(15) Built Up: 8 Neighbours -3 meters (abs) 1.839 1.812
(16) Built Up: 8 Neighbours -2 meters (abs) 1.758 1.913
(17) Built Up: 8 Neighbours with focal min 2.007 2.345
(18) Built Up: 8 N. with focal min + 1 SRTM 1.244 3.077
Ruhr Basin
(19) Built Up 2.716 3.163
(20) Built Up (abs) 3.283 2.570
(21) Built Up -3 meters (abs) 2.280 2.195
(23) Built Up: -2 meters (abs) 2.906 2.667
(24) Built Up: 8 Neighbours 3.218 3.145
(25) Built Up: 7 Neighbours 2.886 3.198
(26) Built Up: 6 Neighbours 2.761 3.145
(27) Built Up: 5 Neighbours 2.529 3.307
(28) Built Up: 4 Neighbours 2.293 2.850
(29) Built Up: 3 Neighbours 2.181 3.078
(30) Built Up: 2 Neighbours 2.109 3.049
(31) Built Up: 1 Neighbours 1.896 2.976
(32) Built Up: 8 Neighbours -3 meters (abs) 2.241 2.216
(33) Built Up: 8 Neighbours focal min (abs) 2.929 2.769
(34) Built Up: 8 N. with focal min + 1 SRTM 3.166 2.840
Rhinland Slate Mountains
(35) Built Up 4.55 8.298
(36) Built Up (abs) 5.934 7.372
(37) Built Up -3 meters (abs) 4.843 6.915
(38) Built Up -2 meters (abs) 4.955 5.195
(39) Built Up: 8 Neighbours 3.738 5.138
(40) Built Up: 7 Neighbours 3.273 5.155
(41) Built Up: 6 Neighbours 3.741 8.471
(42) Built Up: 5 Neighbours 4.280 7.788
(43) Built Up: 4 Neighbours 4.507 7.108
(44) Built Up: 3 Neighbours 5.156 8.722
(45) Built Up: 2 Neighbours 5.995 11.656
(46) Built Up: 1 Neighbours 5.672 8.127
(47) Built Up: 0 Neighbours < 50 Neighbours
(48) Built Up: 8 Neighbours -3 meters (abs) 3.868 3.459
(49) Built Up: 8 Neighbours focal min (abs) 5.598 6.58
(50) Built Up: 8 N. with focal min + 1 SRTM 6.429 5.244

The first try for correction was a filter with a 3*3 Matrix, which computed the minimum value as the result (3). The assumption was that in the heterogeneous structure of built up areas always bare surface pixels could be found. Nevertheless a simple subtraction seems more effective with the subtraction parameters three, two and even one meter (4,5,6). Strong negative deviations seem to occur at the edges of the built up structures.

Fig. 6: City of Cologne- absolute difference image – 3 meters (4) with deviations greater than 3 meters in green and less than -3 meters in red (click to enlage)).

One reason for the deviations observed is the intersection processing. Also if only a small part of a vector is covering the raster cell, the whole raster cell will be mapped as a built up area. To avoid this deviations a kind of urban index was tested. All built up pixels were set to 1. Afterwards a focal analysis with the computation of the sum was applied (3*3 matrix, zeros were ignored). The resulting difference images show that also for the pixels with less than 4 neighbours (Tabl 4: 12-13, 29-31, 44-46) the value was in average not much lower than for the pixels with more than 5 neighbours (Tab. 4: 6-8, 23-25, 38-40). In the case of the Cologne Region and the Rhineland Slate Mountains the opposite was the case.
But for all three regions the best result was when the subtraction was applied only to the pixels with 8 neighbours (Table 4: 15, 32, 48). But because all other pixels with less than 8 neighbours show in average also positive deviations of about 3 meters, no focal filtering were applied in the end.

Another try was to compute a focal minimum (3*3 matrix) for all pixels with 8 neighbours (Table 4: 17, 33, 49). But the result was not better than the simple subtraction. Because it seems that that method leads to an underestimation of the height. 1 meter was added to the SRTM data before the computing of the difference images (Table 4: 18, 34, 50). The result for the Cologne Region was good (Table 4: 18), but not for the other test sites (Table 4: 34, 50).

The simple subtraction of 3 meters for all built up pixels results in an improvement of the absolute mean values from about 20 % (Rhineland Slate Mountains) to 30 % (Ruhr Basin). Again this is not a very impressive percentage but the following figures show that the centre of the distribution is shifted near to zero, as it should be.

cologne_histogram_original_build_up cologne_histogram_cor_build_up

Fig. 7: Histograms of the difference images for the built up  areas of the Region Cologne before (left) and after the correction (right) - click to enlarge.

Table 5: Results of the computed original and corrected absolute difference images for the three test regions.

Nr. Difference Image:  SRTM – DGM5 Mean Standard Deviation Histogram*
Region Cologne
(1) Forest/Built Up areas original (abs) 4.405 4.362 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(2) Forest/Built Up areas corrected (abs) 2.636 2.716 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(3) Grassland/Farmland (abs) 1.486 1.882 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(4) All original   (abs) 3.485 4.094 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(5) All corrected (abs) 2.597 3.122 histogram_click_to_enlarge
Ruhr Basin
(6) Forest/Built Up areas original (abs) 3.397 2.780 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(7) Forest/Built Up areas corrected (abs) 2.683 2.141 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(8) Grassland/Farmland (abs) 3.033 2.608 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(9) All original   (abs) 2.750 2.653 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(10) All corrected (abs) 2.251 2.802 histogram_click_to_enlarge
Rhenish Slate Mountains
(11) Forest/Built Up areas original (abs) 12.425 8.640 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(12) Forest/Built Up areas corrected (abs) 8.292 7.046 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(13) Grassland/Farmland (abs) 6.164 5.762 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(14) All original  (abs) 10.433 8.521 histogram_click_to_enlarge
(15) All corrected (abs) 8.043 7.141 histogram_click_to_enlarge

* Click to enlarge, for the histogramms of course no absolute values were used.

It could occur that the forested and built up areas overlap. In this case it was slightly better to overlap the forested areas over the built up areas (Cologne Region 2.636 vs. 2.661 and Rhineland Slate Mountains 7.046 vs. 7.015). The Ruhr Basin is an exception anyway due to the newly forested areas.

The processing was partly done with proprietary software at the Cartography Research Group of the University of Bonn. The research team around Prof. Dr. Zipf is now located at the University of Heidelberg (GIScience). The processed data is available under the Open Databas License at the Download SRTM Section.

A tutorial for the processing with free software is under development (Howto Section).

Czegka, W.. Behrends, K. & Braune, S. (2004). Die Qualität der SRTM-90m Höhendaten und ihre Verwendbarkeit in GIS. 24. Wissenschaftlich-Technische Tagung der DGPF. 15.-17.9.2004 Halle.

Mayrhofer. M. (2007):  Erstellung eines Geländemodells für Mitteleuropa unter der Verwendung eines globalen Oberflächenmodells (SRTM), eines regionalen Geländemodells und eines überregionalen Landbedeckungsmodells (Corine Landcover 2000). Unpublished Master Thesis. Graz University of Technology. Austia.


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The No Asshole Rule & Legal Organization Design

Over winter break, I got through a stack of books — including two by Stanford Management Science & Engineering professor Bob Sutton.  I read his new one with Huggy Rao, Scaling Up Excellence, and an older volume — The No Asshole Rule.  In that book, Sutton calls out that certain type of professional who acts like an asshole — treating co-workers with disrespect and belittlement (if not outright cruelty), in particular those in positions of less power.

Sutton gives the reader ways to spot assholes, to deal with them, and even to diagnose and treat their own asshole behavior. He advises companies to rid themselves of assholes on their staff to dramatically improve the culture of their workplace.

The No Asshole Rule & Law FIrms

And Sutton (whose wife is a lawyer, and was formerly a managing partner of a law firm here in the Bay Area) pays some special attention to assholes in the world of law.  In the book, he doesn’t say that the law has more assholes than other professions, though he does acknowledge that this reputation might exist.

On his blog, Sutton outlines some of the ‘Asshole’ challenges that law firms in particular can have:

  1. Law firms’ structure leads to large power differentials. Power differentials tend to increase asshole-ish behavior. Even if lawyers don’t go into a firm as a ‘bad co-worker’, as they get more power inside the organization, they may begin to display these traits of demeaning others and using nasty tactics.
  2. Law firm partnerships that divide up profits each year in a zero-sum manner leads to more internal competition in the organization. This can translate into severe competition among the individuals in the firm. And severe competition, Sutton points out, leads to asshole behavior (if not an entire culture of assholes).
  3. Clients often demand asshole behavior from their lawyers. They want to hire advocates who will demean, belittle, intimidate, and disrespect their opponents.  Sutton predicts that it may be hard for a lawyer to turn off this asshole-like behavior inside the law firm, if lawyers are rewarded for it in the courtroom or at the negotiating table.

Sutton’s prescription generally in the book is that if your organization has an asshole — fire him, remove as quickly as you can from the workplace, and then try to repair your organization’s culture to make up for the damage that an asshole can cause.

What does this all mean for law firms? If we want to think of how law firms can be better places to work, for partners, for associates, for paralegals & office administrators — how can we tamp down on asshole behavior and improve the culture of the workplace?

Sutton’s observations about what leads to bad behavior and toxic work cultures point to structural problems of the law firm. How partnerships are structured and profits are divided are not easy things to change or uproot. What kind of behavior produces more victories or better deals also is not easily changed.  There are no quick fixes to any of the three challenges Sutton points to with law firms’ organizational design. At least not in the status quo scheme of how most law firms are designed & what the law allows in terms of law firm ownership and investment.

But if we were to depart from the status quo of how law firms are set up — what would a better legal organizational design look like?  What kind of hierarchy structure, compensation scheme, or outcome metrics would push lawyers to be more respectful, collaborative, and invested in their co-workers’ successes (as well as that of the organization in the long term)?

Even if it seems that law firms will always exist as they do now, change may be on the horizon — and we should be thinking of what an ideal legal firm design would look like. The new generation of lawyers seem to be demanding a less hierarchical, more collaborative way of working.  They are not currently in decision-making power at law firms, but that will be changing as the generations shift.  And as more countries (most notably the UK), change the laws about how legal organizations can operate, we may see some loosening of the regulations here in the US too.

So in the meantime, it’s worthwhile to start the conversation about what a better legal organizational design might be.  Here are some of my quick thoughts:

  • Can we break down silos between partners’ groups or practice groups with more ‘rotating tours of duty’? I heard the head of design at LinkedIn speak, and he has all of the employees in his group rotate on a regular basis among teams. It allows for more cross-pollination and knowledge sharing among otherwise siloed groups. What would that look like in a law firm?
  • How do we soften the strict and severe hierarchies inside the law firm? Can we provide more positions of power and influence other than partner? Even if we can’t make the law firm ‘flat’, can we at least make it a little more horizontal rather than so steeply vertical?
  • What incentives can we give to have lawyers invested in the long term of a firm, as well as the organization as a whole rather than their own group? Is the key — as many have discussed informally with me — all about changing the compensation structure?

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Intro to Legal Design class website

I’m more than halfway through my first full-quarter class on Legal Design. I’ve built a website for the students, to have all the assignments & resources in one place. I haven’t it updated it much for the general public, with documentation of the students’ process and deliverables yet — but that will be coming soon.

Intro to Legal Design

It’s an experiment for me, to see what kind of platform is best for getting the students working together & connected to the resources, assignments, and readings in an easy way. Still we end up relying primarily on email for communication, but it’s helpful for me to then pare out the takeaways from the emails & have them on the website in a clear way.

Hopefully it will also allow for more curriculum-sharing & scaling off of this current class to future ones.


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American Financial Services Assn

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Client Profile: Summary, 2000

A special interest's lobbying activity may go up or down over time, depending on how much attention the federal government is giving their issues. Particularly active clients often retain multiple lobbying firms, each with a team of lobbyists, to press their case for them.

Total Lobbying Expenditures: $1,810,000
   Subtotal for Parent American Financial Services Assn: $1,810,000

American Financial Services Assn Lobbying by Industry
Finance/Credit Companies$1,810,000

Itemized Lobbying Expenses for American Financial Services Assn
Firms HiredTotal Reported by Filer Reported Contract Expenses (included in Total Reported by Filer)
American Financial Services Assn$1,810,000-
Timmons & Co-$320,000
Eckert, Seamans et al-$300,000
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius-$80,000
Tiner, Michael E-$40,000
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers-$0

Italicized records not included in Total Reported by Filer

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Loading Chart

Client Profile: Summary, 2007

A special interest's lobbying activity may go up or down over time, depending on how much attention the federal government is giving their issues. Particularly active clients often retain multiple lobbying firms, each with a team of lobbyists, to press their case for them.

Total Lobbying Expenditures: $360,000
   Subtotal for Parent FMC Technologies: $360,000

FMC Technologies Lobbying by Industry
Oil & Gas$360,000

Itemized Lobbying Expenses for FMC Technologies
Firms HiredTotal Reported by Filer Reported Contract Expenses (included in Total Reported by Filer)
Holland & Knight-$240,000
P3 Consulting-$120,000

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Menendez Senate Victory 2012

Expenditures, 2012 cycle

Election cycle:

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SectorDescriptionTotal Expenditures
AdministrativeAdministrative travel & lodging$33,810
Accountants, compliance & legal services$21,367
Administrative data & technology$3,500
FundraisingFundraising events$64,648
Fundraising mailings & calls$37,430
Fundraising fees$17,168
MediaBroadcast ads$300
TransfersTransfers to state & local parties$474,003
Transfers to candidates$382,668

Top Vendors/Recipients

RankVendor/RecipientTotal Expenditures
1New Jersey Democratic State Cmte$474,003
2Menendez for Senate$382,668
3Sodexo Inc$50,176
4Royal Printing Service$35,231
5DNC/Travel Offset Account$29,000
6Perkins Coie$21,367
7Express Emps$17,168
8Food Co Catering & Special Events$13,494
9NGP VAN$3,500
10Katz Watson Group$3,095

How does classify campaign expenditures?

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2012 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on August 22, 2013.

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Select a Cycle:

Individual donors gave 88 large ($200+) contributions to this PAC in 2011-2012. See them.

Top 20 Contributors to Leadership PAC

1Goldman Sachs$6,500$6,500$0
2American College of Radiology$5,000$0$5,000
2Boeing Co$5,000$0$5,000
2Every Republican is Crucial PAC$5,000$0$5,000
2Home Depot$5,000$0$5,000
2Indep Insurance Agents & Brokers/America$5,000$0$5,000
2Intertech Group$5,000$5,000$0
2Lauder Investments$5,000$5,000$0
2New York Life Insurance$5,000$0$5,000
2PSD of New York City $5,000$5,000$0
2Rail Logistics$5,000$5,000$0
13Bouchard, Margules et al$2,500$2,500$0
13DLA Piper$2,500$2,500$0
13Primus Metals$2,500$2,500$0
16American Trucking Assns$2,000$0$2,000
16Scholastic Bus Co$2,000$2,000$0
16Skadden, Arps et al$2,000$2,000$0
20NGN Capital$1,500$1,500$0
20Seqsr LLC$1,500$1,500$0
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METHODOLOGY: The numbers on this page are based on contributions from individuals giving $200 or more, as reported to the Federal Election Commission.

The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations' PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Why (and How) We Use Donors' Employer/Occupation Information

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2012 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data .

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center:

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text:
Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2012 cycle

Select a Cycle:

Total Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates
(46% to Democrats, 54% to Republicans)
Total to Democrats: $0
Total to Republicans: $1,000
Pawlenty, Tim (R)$1,000
Total to Democrats: $88,125
Total to Republicans: $91,000
Amodei, Mark (R-NV)$1,000
Bachus, Spencer (R-AL)$1,000
Barton, Joe (R-TX)$2,500
Bass, Karen (D-CA)$2,500
Becerra, Xavier (D-CA)$2,500
Biggert, Judy (R-IL)$1,500
Bilbray, Brian P (R-CA)$1,000
Blumenauer, Earl (D-OR)$1,500
Bono Mack, Mary (R-CA)$1,000
Brady, Kevin (R-TX)$1,000
Cantor, Eric (R-VA)$10,000
Cardenas, Tony (D-CA)$1,000
Clyburn, James E (D-SC)$7,500
Costa, Jim (D-CA)$1,000
Crowley, Joseph (D-NY)$1,500
Culberson, John (R-TX)$1,000
Davis, Danny K (D-IL)$1,000
Denham, Jeff (R-CA)$4,000
Dingell, John D (D-MI)$2,500
Dold, Bob (R-IL)$1,000
Emerson, Jo Ann (R-MO)$2,500
Eshoo, Anna (D-CA)$1,000
Farr, Sam (D-CA)$1,000
Garamendi, John (D-CA)$2,500
Gerlach, Jim (R-PA)$1,500
Goodlatte, Bob (R-VA)$2,500
Hahn, Janice (D-CA)$1,000
Hastings, Doc (R-WA)$2,500
Holden, Tim (D-PA)$1,000
Honda, Mike (D-CA)$1,000
Hoyer, Steny H (D-MD)$5,000
Hunter, Duncan D (R-CA)$1,000
Jackson, Jesse Jr (D-IL)$2,500
Johnson, Sam (R-TX)$1,500
Kingston, Jack (R-GA)$1,000
Kinzinger, Adam (R-IL)$1,000
Kline, John (R-MN)$2,500
Larsen, Rick (D-WA)$1,000
Latham, Tom (R-IA)$3,500
Lee, Barbara (D-CA)$1,125
Lucas, Frank D (R-OK)$3,500
Lungren, Dan (R-CA)$10,000
Maffei, Dan (D-NY)$1,000
Matsui, Doris O (D-CA)$2,000
McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA)$4,000
McNerney, Jerry (D-CA)$5,000
Miller, George (D-CA)$1,000
Murphy, Tim (R-PA)$3,500
Noem, Kristi (R-SD)$1,000
Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA)$7,500
Perlmutter, Ed (D-CO)$7,500
Peterson, Collin (D-MN)$1,500
Richardson, Laura (D-CA)$1,000
Roby, Martha (R-AL)($2,500)
Rodgers, Cathy McMorris (R-WA)$2,500
Royce, Ed (R-CA)$1,000
Ryan, Paul (R-WI)$10,000
Sanchez, Linda (D-CA)$2,500
Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA)$2,500
Schock, Aaron (R-IL)$1,000
Schrader, Kurt (D-OR)$1,000
Sessions, Pete (R-TX)$2,500
Shimkus, John M (R-IL)$2,500
Smith, Adrian (R-NE)$2,000
Smith, Lamar (R-TX)$1,000
Speier, Jackie (D-CA)$6,000
Swalwell, Eric (D-CA)$5,000
Terry, Lee (R-NE)$1,000
Thompson, Mike (D-CA)$2,000
Tiberi, Patrick J (R-OH)$2,500
Van Hollen, Chris (D-MD)$2,500
Vargas, Juan (D-CA)$1,000
Walden, Greg (R-OR)$1,000
Welch, Peter (D-VT)$1,000
Total to Democrats: $35,500
Total to Republicans: $52,000
Allen, George (R-VA)$2,500
Barrasso, John A (R-WY)$1,000
Baucus, Max (D-MT)$1,000
Bennett, Robert F (R-UT)$10,000
Berg, Rick (R-ND)$1,500
Brown, Scott (R-MA)$5,000
Brown, Sherrod (D-OH)$2,000
Cardin, Ben (D-MD)$2,500
Carper, Tom (D-DE)$5,000
Casey, Bob (D-PA)$2,500
Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA)$1,000
Coons, Chris (D-DE)$1,000
Corker, Bob (R-TN)$1,000
Cornyn, John (R-TX)$1,000
Durbin, Dick (D-IL)$1,000
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA)$5,000
Fischer, Deb (R-NE)$1,000
Flake, Jeff (R-AZ)$5,000
Gillibrand, Kirsten (D-NY)$2,000
Hatch, Orrin G (R-UT)$5,000
Heitkamp, Heidi (D-ND)$2,500
Heller, Dean (R-NV)$2,500
Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN)$2,500
Kyl, Jon (R-AZ)$1,000
Lugar, Richard G (R-IN)$2,000
Manchin, Joe (D-WV)$1,000
McCaskill, Claire (D-MO)$1,000
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ)$2,500
Rehberg, Denny (R-MT)$2,500
Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI)$1,000
Tester, Jon (D-MT)$2,000
Thompson, Tommy G (R-WI)$2,500
Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)$1,000
Wicker, Roger (R-MS)$2,500
Wilson, Heather A (R-NM)$5,000

Based on data released by the FEC on March 25, 2013.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center:

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text:
Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2012 cycle

Select a Cycle:

Total Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates
(87% to Democrats, 0% to Republicans)
Total to Democrats: $46,999
Total to Republicans: $0
Bera, Ami (D-CA)$3,500
Bowen, Debra (D-CA)$5,000
Ellison, Keith (D-MN)$6,000
Garamendi, John (D-CA)$3,000
Gill, David (D-IL)$4,999
Grijalva, Raul M (D-AZ)$3,500
Hahn, Janice (D-CA)$1,000
Horsford, Steven (D-NV)$2,500
Kennedy, Joe III (D-MA)$1,000
Kucinich, Dennis (D-OH)$1,000
Lee, Barbara (D-CA)$2,500
McDowell, Gary J (D-MI)$2,000
McGovern, James P (D-MA)$1,000
Pocan, Mark (D-WI)$500
Saldana, Lori (D-CA)$1,000
Stark, Pete (D-CA)$2,500
Taj, Syed (D-MI)$2,500
Takano, Mark (D-CA)$2,500
Tetalman, Jerry (D-CA)$1,000
Total to Democrats: $15,000
Total to Republicans: $0
Baldwin, Tammy (D-WI)$5,000
Sanders, Bernie (I-VT)$9,000
Warren, Elizabeth (D-MA)$10,000

Based on data released by the FEC on March 25, 2013.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center:

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9811 Hamilton Rd, Eden Prairie, MN 55344
(612) 643-1696
2011 Toyota Prius
Price : $6,295
2011 Toyota Prius 1.8L 4 cyl FWD 51mpg!!!! ***Hybrid***
Classic Silver Metallic
196,387 Miles / VIN: JTDKN3DUXB1465570

Contact Original Owner Autos at ORIGINAL OWNER AUTOS, INC.

Phone : (612) 643-1696
9811 Hamilton Rd , Eden Prairie, MN 55344

2011 Toyota Prius

Classic Silver Metallic 2011 Toyota Prius 1.8L 4 cyl FWD 51mpg!!!! ***Hybrid*** VIN: JTDKN3DUXB1465570
Hatchback, 4 Doors, Front Wheel Drive, 2, Stock: 1727

Vehicle Description

2011 Toyota Prius 1.8L 4-Cylinder DOHC 16V VVT-i FWD 51/48mpg

When you buy a Prius, life changes for the better. You become more free to roam far and wide without the need to budget half a paycheck for fuel! You also get peace of mind knowing your precious cargo is safe and secure, given the multiple safety awards the Prius has been awarded. This car isn't just bursting with personality, it pours out practicality onto whomever is lucky enough to take the wheel!

With no rust and very little wear and tear, the exterior is in excellent shape. The engineers at Toyota did everything they could to mold the entire car for fuel economy. Right down to the hubcaps, it all plays a part in getting you the most mileage for your money! The uniquely imagined interior feels comfortably futuristic, yet remains user-friendly for you or any of your passengers. The center entertainment cluster provides both driver and passenger with easy to operate controls. With a comfortable cabin and best-in-class economy, the downsides are zilch! Oh, other than how missed you'll be by your favorite attendants at the local petrol shop. Come take a better look, you'll see why you, too, need a Prius!

This vehicle qualifies for an optional 5yr/100,000 mile warranty! Ask us for details. Feel free to stop by during our scheduled hours for a test drive. We are happy to answer any questions you have. Our honest & hassle free philosophy will earn your business. We thank all of our past customers in helping us achieve our A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Click the "APPLY NOW" link on our website if you need financing. We Hope to see you soon!

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10.Our service contracts can be canceled at any time but you can also spread the love and increase the resale value of your vehicle by transferring your service contract when you sell your car.

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text:
AMD "Last year when AMD announced their acquisition of ATI it led many to wonder how this would impact the quality of their Linux support and driver. Some had even speculated that AMD would be opening the code to at least a subset of their graphics drivers, and while this issue has come up again more recently, we will cover this particular topic in a different article. In this article we will be exposing what truly consists of the ATI/AMD driver development cycle and ultimately what they are really doing to improve their image in the Linux community."
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RE[2]: ATI Drivers
by marcus0263 on Sun 3rd Jun 2007 03:12 UTC in reply to "RE: ATI Drivers "
Member since:

"I almost hate to rain on all this feel good "we may be small in numbers but we have a lot of influence" parade but this does not hold water either. Have you ever worked in IT in the SMB or Enterprise markets?"

Worked in the Enterprise for close to 15 Years, what you're saying is true with the Vendors. But are you saying we don't have a choice on the hardware spec's?

Reply Parent Score: 1


text:
Legal Yesterday, we were treated to another preliminary injunction on a product due to patent trolling. Over the past few years, some companies have resorted to patent trolling instead of competing on merit, using frivolous and obvious software and design patents to block competitors - even though this obviously shouldn't be legal. The fact that this is, in fact, legal, is baffling, and up until a few months ago, a regular topic here on OSNews. At some point - I stopped reporting on the matter. The reason for this is simple: I realised that intellectual property law exists outside of regular democratic processes and is, in fact, wholly and utterly totalitarian. What's the point in reporting on something we can't change via legal means?
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RE[2]: copying is anti innovation
by Netfun81 on Sun 1st Jul 2012 20:37 UTC in reply to "RE: copying is anti innovation"
Member since:

ok then maybe we agree partially. I'm not fond of gay marriage but I do believe we should be able to marry animals. Its not fair that geeks have been so repressed ;)

Reply Parent Score: 1


text:
Google Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
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google is profitable
by unclefester on Mon 20th May 2013 08:29 UTC
Member since:

Google is one of the very few startups of the last decade to actually make a profit. That is one reason why people resepct it.

In contrast Facebook, Amazon, Twitter etc are basically sophisticated Ponzi schemes with no real prospect of being successful businesses.

Edited 2013-05-20 08:35 UTC

Reply Score: 2


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Movie Summary

Frank Adler is a single man raising a child prodigy - his spirited young niece Mary - in a coastal town in Florida. Frank's plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when the 7-year-old's mathematical abilities come to the attention of Frank's formidable mother, Evelyn, whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Frank and Mary.

Starring: , , .

Release Date: April 7, 2016

Official Movie Website

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Extending Overbury School for the future

Overbury First School is adding a brilliant new extension that will almost double the size of its footprint and ensure that the building is fit for purpose for many years to come.   When, in the 1870s, the school was first designed by then top architect, Richard Norman Shaw, it was probably the last word in modern, spacious accommodation.  However, education for today’s 5-10 year old pupils needs much more room and the building has been bursting at the seams.   The new development will provide a hall for PE, lunches and assemblies etc (hurray - no more having to cross the increasingly dangerous main road to go to the village hall!) and there is also a fully equipped kitchen, a brilliant outside space for Reception and Year 1 children, cleverly contained within the building, extra teaching space and offices etc.

Work started in August and, fingers tightly crossed, will be completed in time for the summer term 2014.   In the meantime, there is a frantic fundraising drive to equip and furnish the new building.    Current parents are working their socks off and support is urgently sought from former pupils, local companies and anybody else who would like to support a really worthwhile project.

The exciting news at Christmas was that due to the enormous efforts of staff and parents (as well as a few substantial grants recently received) over £20,000 towards Overbury School’s development project has been raised. There is still quite a way to go to ensure that the new building is fully equipped but this is a huge achievement. project.

To see photographs of progress on the building see our School Hall Construction Gallery


text: Common in Palestine, and often mentioned in the Bible from Gen. 3: 14 onwards. There existed cobras and vipers. In Malta Paul is said to have been bitten by a snake (Acts 28: 3). Not surprisingly, snakes feature also as symbols of evil (Ps. 58: 4) and the Devil is called ‘that old serpent’ (Rev. 20: 2). Nevertheless snakes are credited with an enviable wisdom (Matt. 10: 16).


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AS310 Bricks

DYNASTY SMALTI - traditional BRICK size and cut.
100gms (approx 38 pieces)

Size: 18mm x 6mm x 7mm approx.
Some colours also available in Dynasty Smalti BLOCKS. Refer to shop product categories.

Add to Cart:

  • Shipping Weight: 0.12kilos

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    Pacific hosts chapters of distinguished national honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Lambda, and Phi Kappa Phi. In addition, many departments are connected to honor societies for their disciplines. more

    A recording of the Moscone tribute from March 26, 2015 featuring a panel discussion with Willie L. Brown Jr., John L. Burton, Belva Davis and Jonathan Moscone and moderated by California State Librarian Greg Lucas. more


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Home ::  Womens Clothing ::  Womens Jackets ::  Womens Rain & Wind Jackets ::  Womens Rain Jackets ::  Arc'teryx Codetta Coat | Women's | Black Sapphire

Arc'teryx Codetta Coat | Women's | Black Sapphire

NZ$393.30  NZ$268.88
  • Model: Womens Clothing #vw5QnfGtD7
  • 276 Units in Stock

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From dodging showers in downtown Seattle to combating coastal mist on Cape Cod, the Arc'teryx Women's Codetta Coat offers impenetrable protection from the wettest conditions with the help of 3-layer Gore-Tex construction. The Gore-Tex membrane not only seals out raging rainstorms and passing showers, but just as importantly in damp climates, it offers impressive breathability to prevent the clammy sensation inside of the jacket. Fully sealed seams and WaterTight zippers prevent outside moisture from sneaking inside the jacket's most vulnerable areas. Also, there's an adjustable hood with laminated brim that keeps rain from dripping inside.

Not content on being merely a technical piece, the Codetta Coat is designed with a street-savvy aesthetic to help you maintain your sense of style during urban commutes and daily errands in nasty weather. The regular fit allows ample room for layering in colder conditions. It sits at the upper thigh for extra coverage during inclement conditions. Gusseted underarms and articulated patterning promote full range of motion. Low-profile, elasticized cuffs fit tightly to seal out the elements. Another cool feature, the double back vent allows you to ride your bike without the hem snagging on the bike's seat.

  • Street-savvy jacket with impressive waterproofing
  • Gore-Tex 3-layer membrane keeps you pleasantly dry
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  • Adjustable hood with a laminated brim
  • Double kick pleat fits over a bike seat
  • Arc'teryx emphasizes performance with a function-first ethos

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1 Ford, Colin (introduction); Porter, Allan (afterword and design) National Portrait Gallery: People in Camera 1839-1914
U.K. Granada Television 1979 Paperback Very Good
Published for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery Exhibition Rooms, London, August 1979.
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Dance with The High Rollers April 21

Mark your calendars and get your friends and family together for a great night out — a dance with The High Rollers on April 21.

The full version of this story is available in the print edition and e-edition of the Pagosa Springs SUN. Subscribe today by calling (970)264-2100 or click here.

This story was posted on April 13, 2017.


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Event Description

Bringing Charles Dickens’ beloved novel to life, Lionel Bart’s Oliver! takes audiences on a wild adventure through Victorian England. Join young, orphaned Oliver Twist as he navigates the London’s underworld of theft and violence, searching for a home, a family, and - most importantly - for love. When Oliver is picked up on the street by a boy named the Artful Dodger, he is welcomed into a gang of child pickpockets led by the conniving, but charismatic, Fagin.

When Oliver is falsely accused of a theft he didn’t commit, he is rescued by a kind and wealthy gentleman, to the dismay of Fagin’s violent sidekick, Bill Sykes. Caught in the middle is the warm-hearted Nancy, who is trapped under Bill’s thumb, but desperate to help Oliver, with tragic results. With spirited, timeless songs like “As Long as He Needs Me,” “Food, Glorious Food,” and “Where is Love,” Oliver! is a musical classic.

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Tickets: Children (6-12): $25 Adults $39-$45 There is no official rating system for live theatre. We encourage you to use your judgment based on your child's age and maturity level.

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Manchester, NH 03101


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Home Posts Tagged "Cute Pallets Units"

Cute Pallets Units

Outdoor pallets units means to have any creation made of pallets wood to place in your courtyard, garden, park or farmhouse. This may be …


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Friday, May 10, 2013

Music VIDEO!: Lana Del Rey in 'Young and Beautiful'

SIDE NOTE: ...Talk about beautiful! Lana Del Rey, you and "The Great Gatsby" have started my summer off right. YES!

The two teardrops under Lana's eyes did throw me off a bit, but when is she not being controversial? ...Oh, Lana.

Source via Lana Del Rey

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Jobs In Po Box No 8450 - Government - PaperPk4u

Po Box No 8450 published in Dawn newspaper on 9-January-2017 Monday. This job Ad have various particular skill set categories including IT, accounting, engineering, medical, clerical, government, technical, teaching, administrative jobs and for different cities of Pakistan including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Faislabad, Peshawar, Jhang and various more.


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Jobs In Punjab Food Authority - Clerical - PaperPk4u

Punjab Food Authority published in Nawaiwaqt newspaper on 11-January-2017 Wednesday. This job Ad have various particular skill set categories including IT, accounting, engineering, medical, clerical, government, technical, teaching, administrative jobs and for different cities of Pakistan including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Faislabad, Peshawar, Jhang and various more.


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Jobs In Sheikh Zayed Medical College - Other cities - PaperPk4u

Sheikh Zayed Medical College published in Dawn newspaper on 11-January-2017 Wednesday. This job Ad have various particular skill set categories including IT, accounting, engineering, medical, clerical, government, technical, teaching, administrative jobs and for different cities of Pakistan including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Faislabad, Peshawar, Jhang and various more.


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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Dessert: Chocolate - Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Reading this recipe from Nigella Lawson's new book ‘Kitchen’, I felt a bit taken aback. As much as I love chocolate and peanut butter together, incorporating it into a cheesecake seemed over the top. Even Nigella herself had reservations about it. She writes: I feel a bit apologetic for the overindulgent vulgarity that is this cheesecake here. But, really, why should I be sorry? You won’t be once you’ve eaten it; though perhaps I should warn that it’s not for the faint-hearted. Unashamed indulgence, wallowingly so, is what this recipe is all about.”

Chocolate - Peanut Butter Cheesecake

So why did I try it anyway? Well, it's Thanksgiving day (which is not celebrated in Europe, but I can't resist making a Thanksgiving dessert each year) and a cheesecake seemed like the perfect Thanks Day dessert. I always like making cheesecakes, or should I say, I like serving them, because the people around me seem to get high off the cheesecakes I bake and shower me with compliments. And I am 100% sure I'll get them this time as well, because this cheesecake is a dessert-lover's dream! Rating: 5 out of 5.

Chocolate - Peanut Butter Cheesecake: Nigella Lawson - Kitchen

Ingredients for base:
- ½ (14-ounce) box graham crackers (2 cups crumbs)
- ½ cup salted peanuts
- ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
- 4 tablespoons soft unsalted butter

Ingredients for filling:
- 2 (8-ounce) bars cream cheese
- 3 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter

Ingredients for topping:
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 9-inch springform pan

*All the ingredients should be at room temperature before you start.

- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Process the crackers, peanuts, bittersweet chocolate chips, and butter in a food processor. Once it comes together in a clump, turn it into a springform pan and press into the bottom and up the sides to make the crunchy crust. Put it in the refrigerator while you make the filling.
- Add all the filling ingredients to a food processor and pulse until it becomes a smooth mixture.
- Pour and scrape the filling into the crust and bake for 1 hour, checking after 45 minutes. The top, only, should feel set and dry.
- Take the cheesecakes out of the oven and set aside while you make the topping. Warm the sour cream and milk chocolate with the brown sugar in a small saucepan over a low heat. Gently whisk to blend in the chocolate as it melts, then take the pan off the heat.
- Spoon and spread the topping very gently over the top of the cheesecake, being as careful as you so as not to break the surface. (Not that anything bad will happen; you'll just have chocolate marbling the cake a bit.) Put it back in the oven for a final 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and cool. (My cheesecake topping took about 8 hours overnight to set.) Slice and serve.
- Make Ahead: Make the cheesecake up to 2 days ahead. Cool and chill as directed. Do not cover until completely cold, then cover with a plate or plastic wrap, making sure that the covering does not touch the surface. Unmold and serve as directed in the recipe. This will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days total.
- Freeze Note: The cheesecake can be frozen for 1 month. Make sure it is thoroughly chilled then wrap, still in its pan, in a double layer of plastic wrap and layer of aluminum foil. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and eat within 2 days. A small amount of condensation may appear on surface of the cheesecake after thawing, but it is still fine to eat.

Chocolate - Peanut Butter Cheesecake

If you have any concerns or reservations about making a cheesecake that is
so overindulgent, just watch Nigella Lawson making it. She'll win you over.

Danielle said...

I love cheesecake too. I made one for Thanksgiving but the top cracked/: I'll just cover it up with cool whip though(: Yours looks amazing! I love the topping on it. And the candy on top.

petit fournil de paris said...

Gorgeous recipe. Love your choice; It sounds wonderful, and looks like this, too. :)
And, I like the video.
Lovely regards,

xx, Jana from petit fournil de paris

Love From Eden said...

Yummmm! This looks so delicious xx

cakeje van eigen deeg said...

that looks perrrrfect!! wow. amazing. haven't had cheesecake in a while.

Becca said...

mmmm this looks really really good. i'll have to make this sometime!

High Heeled Life said...

Peatnut butter ~ chocolate ... cheese cake .. I'm in love... scrumptious recipe...xo HHL

Shareena said...

Very rich and your cheesecake looks amazing! once a year harm..right? :D happy thanksgiving!

Chele said...

Oh this would just be perfect fro Christmas day dessert (we're not big fans of Christmas pud!)

The Eternal Intern said...

Oh. My. Goodness. That looks too delicious for words! My parisian kitchen is too petit to make such fabulous desserts, but I will definitely be testing this recipe when I go home for the holdays! Thanks for sharing! x Ophelia

How To Be Perfect said...

This looks amazing a must try for sure. I too make a thanksgiving dessert every year, I wish we had another holiday like it, Christmas just isn't enough for me. x

Lucie said...

Definitely looks super indulgent! But oh so yummy...

bubbles on my planet said...

it looks delicious! although I never made cheesecake before, and mr bubbles loves it, so maybe this time I'll make one after seeing this great recipe!!

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

LOL I love your quote from Nigella. She is a queen of the kitchen. I've made a cheesecake with these flavors and remember loving it.

ABowlOfMush said...

Yum!! I wish I made this for Thanksgiving!!

farfalla said...

one question: How much percent of fat should that sour cream contain? it looks really delicious:-)

Paris Pastry said...

@farfella: The recipe doesn't specify, but I used a 15% fat sour cream.

Eliana said...

I would have never thought of combining chocolate, peanut butter and cheesecake! But this sounds sinfully delicious.

Kitty M said...

Lol Im so pleased you tried this recipe and it looks fantastic! My mouth is watering looking at the pictures and it was watching Nigella cook this on tv a few weeks ago as well. Yum combination :-)

Anonymous said...

whoa, decadent for sure! i should make this for my birthday. i don't know when else it would be appropriate lol xx :)

Jamie said...

Wow! I've never been a cheesecake fan and I think the over-the-top richness is one reason. But I trust Nigella and I love chocolate and peanut butter so if I had guests to help me eat this I would make it as well. It looks absolutely amazing! What a treat!

Anonymous said...

J'aime beaucoup votre site. Excellent contenu. S'il vous plaît continuer à afficher ces cotent profonde.


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Weather Forecast

Hubbard County jailer/dispatcher charged with three felonies

Lana O'Bannon

A longtime Hubbard County jailer/dispatcher is facing three felony charges in connection with her ex-husband's bank accounts and has been placed on administrative leave.

Lana Jo-Lynn O'Bannon, 44, of Park Rapids, known as Lana Jo Yliniemi, was placed on paid administrative leave March 18, one day after being charged by Becker County.

She is accused of check forgery and theft of property, both punishable by a maximum of 5 years and/or a $10,000 fine and fraudulent use of a financial transaction card, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years and/or a $20,000 fine upon conviction.

The charges stem from complaints made by Dale Yliniemi, a Becker County resident, of a suspected theft and forgery that occurred on his Hubbard County bank account during the summer of 2010.

According to the complaint, Lana O'Bannon is accused of writing 11 checks worth $1,477.78 on her ex-husband's account and using his financial transaction card to withdraw $4,293.27 from his account. The transactions took place between June and September 2010, according to the complaint.

She has been summoned to a court appearance April 25 in Hubbard County. The Hubbard County Attorney's office turned the case over to Becker County for investigation and prosecution because of a conflict of interest.

O'Bannon's paid leave is the second in the last month in the Sheriff's Department. Jeremiah Johnson, the K-9 deputy, was terminated effective April 1 for unspecified reasons after initially being placed on leave weeks earlier.

Although the reasons for Johnson's termination were not provided by the county, a source told the Enterprise Johnson had evaded a question on his job application for a minor criminal conviction he received in Beltrami County a decade ago. He began his career with the county March 30, 2005.

The possession of stolen property charge was not a deterrent to Johnson holding a peace officer license, the state standards board said.

Johnson was initially also a target of the Becker County probe but no charges have been filed against him.

The two absences have dealt a blow to a department recovering from a brutal election and a critical manpower shortage. One sergeant has been off duty for months with back problems.

"Basically we're utilizing the staff we have, which means we're paying out some overtime to cover some shifts and we're also utilizing our part-time officers as well," Sheriff Cory Aukes said.

The status of the department's K-9 officer Vulcan, a German shepherd purchased from the Czech Republic 2½ years ago, is uncertain.

He is temporarily being taken care of by city K-9 officer Dan Kruchowski.

"Anytime you take a person who's not been trained in it you're sending the officer to school as well," Aukes said. "In this particular case with Vulcan, he is already a trained canine officer but currently we don't have anyone that's trained in it."

Aukes said sale of the dog is one possibility being considered.

"He's six years old and there's still a few years left in an animal so there's value there absolutely," Aukes said.

Kruchowski's K-9 partner Pax recently retired. The Park Rapids Police Department will begin fundraising for a new dog. Taking Vulcan is not an option, Police Chief Terry Eilers said, because the dogs bond so closely with their human partners.

Aside from the dog dilemma, both Johnson and O'Bannon were early supporters of Aukes when he launched his campaign for sheriff last year.

"Any time you're dealing with somebody's future and their career, it's a very hard decision," Aukes said. "They were supporters of mine. But as a supervisor I need to look beyond who supported who in an election and I have to do what I believe is right and what's the best thing for the department.

"Some of the decisions that are made, we do consult with our labor attorney, they do make recommendations based on certain things that have taken place so that is taken into consideration as well as the things that have truly taken place," Aukes added.

"As a supervisor in this career there's certain things that law enforcement officers cannot do and the decision was made on that partially as well."

O'Bannon's career began at the Hubbard County Sheriff's Department in July 2002, where she has served as a jailer and dispatcher.

Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith is the outdoors editor. She covers courts, business and breaking news in addition to outdoors events.

(218) 732-3364


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Wikipedia and Student Writing

If you’ve read anything on this blog before, chances are you know that I’m pretty interested in Wikipedia. I’ve built Wikipedia-related assignments into a couple previous literature courses, and right now am teaching a first-year writing class for which our theme is “Wikipedia.” I’ve just returned my students’ second assignment, wherein they added to a Wikipedia page of their own choosing (topics ranged from the Peruvian indigenous people and European art trends to American cars and Puerto Rican rum).

As a teacher of writing who’s fairly active on social media, I heard a lot last week (while grading papers about Wikipedia) about two articles lamenting the quality of student writing. Slate blamed the SATs, while David Mikics at The Daily Dot targeted Wikipedia. The two reveal a wide gap in just what we mean by “writing.”

Matthew J. X. Malady, No test material on this pagewriting for Slate, chastises the SATs for training students to write B.S., boringly-structured five-paragraph essays with no thought to content, or evidence. That seems pretty dead on, and when Anne Ruggles Gere (whom Malady quotes) says that college instructors spend time undoing what students had learned in high school, this is surely what she means. In my view, good writing means thinking about someone else, and something else, and necessitates at least some attention to the real world — to evidence and to other people’s arguments. The SAT doesn’t reward that, and so students don’t learn it.

Mikics has different quibbles. In his view, the Internet has by and large been good for scholarship: we can turn to JSTOR or Google Books, rather than waiting weeks for Interlibrary Loan. This helps students too, since they can more easily locate the kind of evidence they need — once they un-learn what they studied for the SAT, of course. My students experienced this, and as they added to Wikipedia several commented that they actually enjoyed tracking down sources to make their points, in Wikipedia-lingo, “verifiable.

As Mikics notes, this abundance of resources brings its own challenges: “The Internet blends fact with fiction, the crazy with the conventional, and all too often the result looks like an endless—and tasteless—mass of information.”  He acknowledges this blending to be a bigger problem for students than for professors: because the Internet encourages us to jump between articles, students don’t usually spend much time evaluating their quality (this evaluation is one of the skills they must develop in their college courses). This is one major reason why I’ve turned to Wikipedia as a subject for a course: students in my class spend a great deal of time evaluating sources, and for these skills Wikipedia is, in its guidelines if not always in its execution, quite useful (even its failures provide a starting point for discussion).

But Mikics also identifies a subtler and, in his view, more pernicious quality to online reading in general, and Wikipedia in particular. “The worst effect of the Internet,” he claims “is its consequences for student writing.” He doesn’t mean to say that student writing is insulated or lacking evidence, nor does he refer merely to plagiarism and the sown-together nature of a student paper obviously lifted from Wikipedia and Sparknotes. Rather, he’s concerned with style:

even when students don’t plagiarize, the damage has been done. They knuckle under to the dull, one-size-fits-all version of knowledge that is embodied, more than anywhere else, in Wikipedia, [where] lumps of facts have been licked into shape by a thousand anonymous tongues, draining them of any vestige of personality.

For all its superiority to print encyclopedias (Maria Bustillos makes this point very well), Wikipedia lacks the personal style of its predecessors.

Fine. I certainly agree that the prose on Wikipedia tends towards bland mediocrity, and I wouldn’t want my students using it as a stylistic model, mimicking its sentences as Benjamin Franklin mimicked Addison’s from the Spectator. But Mikics’s solution seems something of a pipe dream:SteacieLibrary

I tell my students, to turn yourself loose in the library. Spend a long afternoon in the stacks and see what strikes you; look for the most intriguing, most quietly promising books on your subject, even if you have to work at them.

Suggesting students improve their writing by spending “a long afternoon in the stacks” is tantamount to suggesting they learn survival skills by being dropped off in the Amazonian rainforest. Sure, it’s possible for an expert (I’m sure David Mikics derives great benefit from the stacks, as Bear Grylls derives nutrition from jungle plants). But in the absence of some guidance, the advice seems almost cruel.

Of course, the dichotomy is a false one: it’s not “Wikipedia or the library.” If we want to talk about style instead of facts and evidence, we needn’t read Wikipedia articles. What about The Oatmeal? Or countless online news sites and quality blogs? The Internet is good for many things. Want to learn about style? A modern-day Benjamin Franklin can read the Spectator papers at Project Gutenberg, and all of Jane Austen’s novels are in the public domain. Want to know when Franklin was born, or the name of Jane Austen’s sister? Go to Wikipedia.

Adrienne LaFrance, a writer The Atlantic who wrote recently about fact-checking Snapple caps, offers this insight:

The Internet is lambasted as an abyss of lies, when really it’s a place to organize around the question of what’s real … a bottle cap with a one-liner on it might be the closest thing we have to the physical manifestation of the tweet. The real lesson Snapple teaches us isn’t about how many eyelids a bee has or the first food eaten in space, it’s that the Internet’s not inherently a place for lies any more than a bottle cap is a place for truth.

Wikipedia is no more a model for style than it is a place for medical advice (which I’ll talk about next week). But that doesn’t mean it’s pedagogically useless, or that it’s responsible for a generation’s bland writing. Like the rest of the Internet, Wikipedia is a tool, and it’s up to us to show students how to use it — and how not to.

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Feb 22

Corporate Periodization, INCS conference preview

The Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies conference is March 10-13, in Asheville, NC, and I’ll be presenting part of my current book project about the Victorians and the Walt Disney Company. The paper argues that literary and corporate periodization are analogous, each stemming from particular institutional objectives, and demonstrates the analogy by examining the history of the Walt Disney Company.

In fitting the paper to its necessary length I wrote two sections that don’t fit exactly into the argument, and I decided to post them here as a preview of (or complement to) the paper. The first part explores the imagined contrast between making art and making money. The second very briefly identifies different periods in the management of the Lyceum Theater, which I see as a historical example of the kind of periodization I’m claiming for Disney.

Making Art and Making Money

The imagined corporate ethos is encapsulated in an internal memo written by Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2005. The memo is famous enough that it has become a meme:

We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective. - Michael Eisner

I first encountered this memo in Henry Giroux’s The Mouse That Roared. Giroux argues that Disney is a cultural icon, but its profit-centered motivation makes it a threat to Democratic values (Giroux 25). For those who value making art, history, and statements over making money, Eisner’s memo raises eyebrows. And it’s easy to imagine a corporate executive spouting claims like this. It’s a too-perfect encapsulation of the neoliberal values we fear are encroaching into the university.

But the next sentence of the memo changes things a bit, at least for me. And it tends to be left out of the memes. Here is the slightly extended version:

We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make a statement. But to make money, it is often important to make history, to make art, to make some significant statement. (Stewart 23; Eisner)

Eisner is a corporate CEO, and clear about his priorities. But he is also aware of the kind of company he’s leading. In his 1998 memoir he doubles down on the idea, and claims to be riffing on Woody Allen’s claim that “if show business weren’t a business, it would have been called ‘show show’” (Eisner).

It’s the contrast between these different values that interests me most, and the way they are too often framed as a zero-sum game. Professors are often caricatured as being out of touch, as if our only objective is to teach students and produce research. And I don’t necessarily disagree that that is our objective as faculty. But imagine a university president adapting Eisner’s words:

We have no obligation to make money. To make art, to study history, to make statements is our only objective. But to make art, study history, and make significant statements it is sometimes necessary to make money.

I don’t think that statement is a slippery slope that leads all universities to become like Corinthian Colleges. To insist on a contrast between universities and corporations is to insist on different priorities. It doesn’t mean we remove ourselves entirely from the financial system. When we push for state or federal funding, for student loan reform, for alumni donations, or for higher wages for contingent faculty, we recognize that universities do need to be funded. My paper takes seriously the shared motivations among academics, artists, and corporations.

The Lyceum Theater

The division between corporate and academic ethos is less stark than news coverage makes it out to be. But it nonetheless exists, and does affect the moves we make in our own scholarship. In her book on Gilbert and Sullivan, for example, Carolyn Williams argues that

Genre formation is not only an aesthetic and historical, but also an economic, process, and genre was important to Gilbert and Sullivan’s effort to carve out their own market niche. They distinguished their productions from other theatrical fare through their genre parody and their particular treatments of gender. Their success at capital accumulation supported unusually high production values, which led, in turn, to further capital growth. (Williams 5)

That’s an insightful point, recognizing the link between profit and aesthetics. Williams then emphasizes that capital accumulation “does not reduce the aesthetic dimension of their success” (6). Even when acknowledging the link, she recognizes the need to guard against a backlash that would insist on a divide between art and the marketplace. In arguing that English departments and the Walt Disney Company follow similar institutional drives to periodize, I aim to further bridge that divide.

Theater scholars tend to be especially attuned to financial questions: Williams is just one example, and Shakespeare critics have long been invested in learning about his financial involvement in his companies. For my purposes, the Lyceum Theatre provides an index to theatrical trends, and its operational history demonstrates how an institutional brand can turn a profit by keeping up with the rhythms of popular culture. Built by the Society of Artists in 1772, the Lyceum hosted a variety of exhibitions in the late eighteenth century, including “astronomical demonstrations, air balloons, waxworks, ‘philosophical fireworks,’ boxing matches, circuses, programs  of humorous recitations, and concerts”  (Altick 54). The site took advantage of fads like waxworks and tableaux vivants as they emerged: Madame Tussaud began her British career at the Lyceum in 1802 (Altick 333) and William Dimond’s The Peasant Boy (1811) featured one of the earliest tableaux (Altick 342).

After hosting operas and fairy extravaganzas around mid-century, the Lyceum later came to be associated with Henry Irving, and especially with Shakespeare: Irving’s 1874 Hamlet has been called “one of the most influential and talked about theatrical roles in the latter part of the nineteenth century” (Young 3). As these examples demonstrate, the Lyceum shifted its strategy to keep up with popular culture, its different stages analogous to literary periods. Today, I would suggest, the Lyceum continues its Victorian legacy: since 1999 it has hosted Disney’s The Lion King, an adaptation of Hamlet that takes combines two distinct trends of twentieth-century pop culture: the animated musical and the Broadway musical.

In the INCS paper, and in the book towards which these arguments are building, I continue developing these analogies to explore how a global media corporation can helps us understand Victorian culture and its reception.

Works Cited

Nov 04

Translating, Performing, and Exhibiting Alice

This month is the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. I’ve written two recent posts about the Alice books (on Google and in Disney’s 1951 cartoon), which have been close to my heart for a long time now. In college I wrote my math thesis about Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the Oxford don who wrote the Alice books under his more famous pseudonym. Researching that thesis led me to claims like, “Lewis Carroll invented children’s literature.” Curiosity and skepticism about those claims spurred my interest in graduate studies, and in many ways led to my forthcoming book The Legacy of the Moral Tale (which has only a few pages about Alice).

The sesquicentennial has been a big deal. Scholars, fans, and collectors have been celebrating the books’ un-birthday for most of the year, especially in New York City. I was there for a brief trip last weekend, and had a chance to visit two fantastic exhibits about Alice.

Alice Translation Exhibit ProgramThrough November 21st the Grolier Club is hosting “Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The Translations of Lewis Carroll’s Masterpiece.” Curated by Jon A. Lindseth and Alan Tannenbaum, the exhibit includes materials from their book of the same title. It is housed in a single room on the ground floor, below a 360° library on the second floor. The first few cases cover Carroll himself (including his letters, photographs, and mathematics), translations during his lifetime, and theories of translation. The latter display was a nice touch, giving some theoretical background to the choices made and comparing Alice in Wonderland to Pilgrim’s Progress, the only English novel that exists in more translations than Alice. The case includes example translations from chapter 7, “A Mad Tea Party,” which includes Carroll’s parody of Jane Taylor’s “The Star.” They  include a a copy of Taylor’s Rhymes for the Nursery, and explain some of the challenges to translating the poem in particular and Alice in Wonderland in general.

The rest of the exhibit is organized by geography or language group, with cases focusing on Great Britain and Ireland, Spanish (the language with the most translated editions), Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa. A final case focuses on Disney’s books (even the company has lost count of how many there are). Also included throughout the exhibit are translations in shorthand, braille, computer code, and experimental alphabets. In the corner of the room, a television is set up showing clips of multimedia translations, including a Japanese version of Disney’s 1951 Alice, a preview for their 2010 film subtitled in Arabic, Svankmajer’s experimental Czech film (1988), and the video game American McGee’s Alice, dubbed (if I recall) in German.

The Grolier Club has a formal, exclusive feel. Only one other couple was present when my wife and I visited, and the room was silent. The “Alice Live” exhibit, held at the New York Library for the Performing Arts, was a different world entirely. The library branch is located at Lincoln Center, which when we visited (on Halloween) was hosting kids’ a trick-or-treating party. We navigated a crowd of superheroes and princesses (and one elaborate Little Red Riding Hood family, complete with a wolfish grandmother in a wheeled bed), many of whom made their way into the exhibit, which includes a scavenger hunt to find images in the displays. Costumed children raced to complete it.

Alice Performance ExhibitThe exhibit was no less interesting for that additional madness which, frankly, added to the “performance” aspects on which the exhibition focused. At the front of the exhibit are materials related to Dodgson, including his games for children, his fondness for theater and friendships with actresses, and his collaboration with Henry Savile Clarke.

On the NYPL blog Charles Lovett, curator of the exhibit and author of Alice on Stage (1989), describes his personal history collecting Alice-related items, especially theatrical memorabilia, and gives a good overview of the exhibit. One of the highlights not mentioned  is a series of photographs of actresses who have played Alice, from Phoebe Carlo and Isa Bowman (who starred in Clarke’s production in 1886 and 1888, respectively), through Vivian Tobin (in the first Broadway production, 1915), Josephine Hutchinson (who starred in Eva Le Gallienne’s 1932 production), Meryl Streep (who played Alice in 1981), and ballerina Janessa Touchet (from 2015).

Le Gallienne’s play, revived in 1947 and again in 1982, with Le Gallienne playing the White Queen each time, features prominently in the exhibit, but it includes not just famous mainstays like Clarke’s and Le Gallienne’s adaptations but also Andre Gregory’s 1970s play (the result, the exhibit tells us, of two years of improvisation and experimentation) and dozens of musicals, puppet shows, and dances. One image even documents an underwater Alice in Wonderland, performed by the Weeki Wachee mermaids. (Not mentioned in the exhibit but evident in this video: the show adopts one of the mermaids’ signature tricks, drinking a bottle of coke underwater).

Overall I found “Alice Live” rather overwhelming. Even the most extensive coverage of a performance was limited to a description, a few pictures, and (at best) a short video. The Grolier Club, in my view, had the slightly easier task: they convey a lot about a translation with just a page and a short description, and the theoretical background was a nice touch. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about the performances, and learned about several I hadn’t known about. If you find yourself in New York in the next couple months, both exhibits are well worth the time.

Jul 08

Alice’s Adventures in Google-Land

This year marks the sesquicentennial of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — or, as it’s more typically referred to, Alice in Wonderland. I’ve been thinking a lot about the history and reception of the Alice books lately. This week I was pondering the two titles, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice in Wonderland. The difference matters. Google searches are an index to the popular lexis, and Google Image searches for the two titles look really different. This is immediately visible in the categories Google suggests:

Google Image CategoriesAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland is on the right. The first four categories are book covers, characters, quotes, and movies. The most prominent image for “characters” is Jessie Wilcox Smith’s 1923 illustration, and the top two movie posters are for the forgettable 1972 film, which starred Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit. If we look past the categories, we see a mix of book covers and the Tenniel drawings (click the picture to enlarge it):Screenshot 2015-07-07 15.22.43 Disney is recommended as a category, but doesn’t otherwise appear in the top images. Searching Alice in Wonderland, though, gives us something different (again, click the image to enlarge it):

Screenshot 2015-07-07 15.28.37

The first two categories are “cast” and “Disney” (and the cast is not of 1972 film but of the 2010 Tim Burton one — produced by Disney). In this search “characters” pretty much means “characters as depicted in Disney’s 1951 cartoon,” an emphasis reflected in the costumes, too. Even the “drawings” category shows Disney’s, not Tenniel’s, and most of the images are from the Tim Burton film, with a smattering of Tenniel and of the 1951 cartoon.

Disney has pretty successfully appropriated Carroll’s text, and his adaptation arguably looms larger than Carroll’s in the popular imagination. Disney dominates the popular visuals for Alice in Wonderland, despite being essentially absent from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. So is Disney’s 1951 cartoon, Alice in Wonderland, responsible for the truncated title?

The short answer is no. Paramount’s 1933 film used the shortened title, and in their recent study of the publishing history of the Alice books, Zoe Jacques and Eugene Giddens note that the “diminutive version had circulated in the popular imagination almost since the original publication” (205). Their bibliography includes a 1903 film, Alice in Wonderland, though not until 1910 did a book use the truncation.

Just as Google’s search results give us some insight into the popular perception of the culture text, Google’s Ngram Viewer give us a broad historical picture. Ngrams chart the occurrence of words in the Google Books corpus. Here is the search for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from 1860 to 2008:

Screenshot 2015-07-07 15.42.00As is typically the case with ngrams, the trends are easily explained. We see a sharp rise beginning with the initial publication, when reviews would have begun, then negative slope until the mid-1870s, when Looking-Glass bumped Wonderland back into the spotlight, and a sharp spike in the late 1880s, corresponding to Henry Saville Clarke’s popular stage production. The second rise corresponds to the first centenary of the book but is more likely explained by the adoption of Carroll’s text, with its references to size- and mind-altering substances, by the counter-culture of the 1960s (think Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” or the Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus”).

Keeping in mind the difference in scale, here is the ngram for the truncated title:

Screenshot 2015-07-07 15.49.56The graph confirms Jacques and Giddens’s claim that the truncated title showed up pretty quickly. This graph differs from the above: it has a steadier rise, peaking in the mid-1930s, presumably with Paramount’s Alice in Wonderland (1933). The title got a slight bump during the war years, but the slope in the years following Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) is negative, not picking up again until the 1960s. Disney’s film may now dominate the Google results for Alice in Wonderland, but the studio adopted rather than introduced the shortened title — and their cultural dominance doesn’t show up until later, at least not in the (admittedly limited) ngram results.


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CS:GO coaches banned from helping teams during competitive matches

Deemed to give certain teams greater advantage over others, Valve has introduced new rules which limit coach communication during Valve-sponsored esports matches.

Although still permitted to converse with players during pre-game warm ups, 30-second timeouts, and during halftime, the new rules—which have been endorsed by the ESL—state coaches are now banned from interacting with their teams when actual rounds are underway.

Posted by HLTV, the email—signed by Valve’s Ido Magal—reads as follows:

"With unrestricted communication with their players, coaches can currently function as a sixth player, and not solely as a source of guidance or training. Activities such as keeping track of the economy, calling plays, and general situational awareness are important components of CS gameplay. If a person is performing these actions, we consider them a player.

“Since the goal of our events is to identify the best five-player CS teams that exhibit the best combination of all CS skills, the current participation of coaches in the game is not compatible with that goal. To address this problem, future Valve sponsored events will enforce the following coaching rules:

“During a match, the coach may only communicate with the players during warm up, half-time, or during one of four 30 second timeouts that the coach or player can call. Obviously, third party events can use whatever rules they want but if you want to align your events with ours then we recommend using this coaching rule."

According to HLTV, the first major event to implement the new rules will be ESL One New York which kicks off towards the end of September. In light of the ruleset change, there’s already murmurs among top players of inter-squad discussions on how to proceed, strike action and even union formations.


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Guild Wars 2 trailer and screenshots show off the Asura

[bcvideo id="1161362337001"]

The Asura are the tiniest of Guild Wars 2's races, and the most likely to frolic around the place making merriment. They seem to live in a giant stone Rubik's Cube held together by magic and giggles. They do demand some respect, however, on account of their exceptional intelligence, engineering talent and tendency to roll around battlefields in giant magical mech suits with golem companions.

They've got quite a torrid history, too, detailed in the updated Asura page on the Guild Wars 2 website . The Asura used to live underground, until they accidentally burrowed into the home of an Elder Dragon champion known as The Great Destroyer. That did not end well. Now they live in gravity-warping palaces that hang above the planet and use their high-tech portals to travel from land to land.

ArenaNet reveal more about how they set about creating the Asura's extraordinary homelands in their Asura environments blog post . You can see how the concept art turned out in the five screenshots below, which also show some of their pleasingly stompy magical golems.


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Is Alien: Isolation’s Nostromo DLC worth buying?

ripley last survivor

These downloadable missions faithfully recreate two key scenes from Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic, but with a few subtle twists. The premise is that MOTHER, the Nostromo’s supercomputer, is simulating these events to determine the best way to defeat the alien, which has allowed The Creative Assembly to play with the story in a way that isn’t strictly canon.

The first, Crew Expendable, focuses on the crew’s attempts to trap the xenomorph in the ship’s airlock and blow it out into space. In the film it was captain Dallas who bravely volunteered to climb into the ventilation system with the beast, but here you can choose who does it: Dallas, Ripley, or Parker. Your choice doesn’t affect the game in any way—only dialogue—but it’s a cool idea.

The sedate opening sets the scene. You’re free to explore the Nostromo before you climb to the lower decks and begin the mission. The ship has been beautifully, painstakingly realised, and it’s like stepping onto the set of Scott’s film. The dining table where the infamous ‘birth’ scene took place, the dimly-lit bridge, and the blinking lights of the MOTHER computer are all superbly authentic—although, as I discovered in this feature I wrote, not everything is 100% accurate.

Eventually you descend to the engineering deck and have to avoid the alien as you seal a series of vent covers scattered around the level. This is the least inspiring of the two missions in terms of level design, and you won’t find it particularly challenging if you’ve already finished the main game. It’s a notably smaller, more claustrophobic space than anywhere on Sevastopol, and you’ll need to make ample use of ducts and side-rooms to carefully manoeuvre around the creature.

The last sequence is better, replicating the film’s brilliant vent scene. You’re trapped in a dark metal maze with the alien, lit only by the burning tip of your flamethrower. Lambert monitors a motion tracker and shouts directions over the radio as you try to reach the exit. If you thought this moment was tense in the film, just wait until you’re in there with the creature yourself.

Last Survivor is the second, and best, of the DLC missions. It’s based on the last scenes of the film, in which Ripley attempts to engage the Nostromo’s self destruct and escape on a shuttle. In the film, Lambert’s death is left horribly ambiguous, but here you get to see the grisly aftermath of her and Parker’s last moments. Hunted by the alien, you must make your way through the belly of the ship and trigger the self-destruct as alarms wail and jets of steam suddenly burst from pipes.

This is a tough, tightly-designed mission—probably one of the best in the game—and does a great job of replicating the final, desperate moments of the film. You’re limited to basic supplies and a small amount of flamethrower fuel, forcing you to rely almost entirely on pure stealth, which is a nice contrast to the main game’s abundance of gadgets and weapons.

It’s clear these missions have been made especially for Alien fans. They’re a lovingly-crafted homage to the film, and they even managed to reunite most of the original cast including, crucially, Sigourney Weaver, who reprises her role as Ellen Ripley for the first time since the woeful Alien: Resurrection. Ash is voiced by a soundalike, but he really, really sounds like Ian Holm.

There’s a nice moment in an audio log that ties the DLC to Ripley's daughter Amanda's story in the main game, but otherwise they can be enjoyed as standalone experiences. The missions will cost you about £3/$4 each, which isn’t much considering how much love has been poured into them—although they aren’t that long, and you’ll be able to get through both of them in little over an hour. For an Alien fan, though, it’s a small price to pay to step inside a timeless science fiction classic.


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PC Gamer UK February issue: Total War – Attila

It's 2015 now, and that means we look forward unto the year ahead. We do this in our February issue, which is out now – in January – for reasons I've never quite been clear on.

This issue's cover star is also looking forward, but, judging from his unhinged stare and clenched teeth, he's seeing a very different future. Probably one involving death, pestilence and a hell of a lot of Huns. Total War: Attila is our lead game this month, is what I'm saying. We sent Dan Griliopoulus to discover how Creative Assembly's latest plans to raze your preconceptions.

How about a free game? This month, we're giving away Gun Monkeys. It's got guns, monkeys and The Actor Kevin Eldon. The issue, which is in shops now, can be ordered through My Favourite Magazines. Digitally, you'll find it on the App Store, Google Play, and Zinio, and you can subscribe to get issues delivered directly to your door. Read on for a look at the subs cover, and a round-up of the features to be found in issue 275.

This month we...

  • Investigate the series-spanning changes of Total War: Attila
  • Talk to Ninja Theory about Hellblade, their first independently made action game.
  • Explore the history of LucasArts—including the games that never made it.
  • Round up the best-looking games of the coming year in our ultimate guide to 2015.
  • Review Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, The Crew, Never Alone, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, PES 2015, Dead State, The Talos Principle and Game of Thrones: Episode 1.
  • Supertest the latest water coolers and find out which deserves a home in your overclocked PC.
  • Blast off to Kerbal Space Program to see how it's getting along.
  • Return to Spielberg classic The Dig in Reinstall.

Until next month!