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The Urbz: Sims in the City - Various cheats

Total votes: 15

Various cheats

Unlock All Socials- L2, R2, UP, TRIANGLE, L3, X
Unlock the Cheat Gnome - CIRCLE L1 L2 R2 R1
Acquire Skill - L1 R2 RIGHT SQUARE L3
Max Phystical - L1 R1 DOWN X L3
Max Mental - L1 R1 X CIRCLE UP
Max Artistic - L3 R3 R1 R2 CIRCLE
Power Social - TRIANGLE R2 L1 X SQUARE
Team Photo - UP DOWN CIRCLE UP DOWN on credits screen

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Rage3D Tweak v.3.7

Total votes: 0

Rage3D Tweak is a Radeon Tweaker designed to fit right in with the other ATI option tabs in the Advanced Display Properties accessed through the Control Panel. It allows access to Registry Tweak options, Custom Display Modes, Refresh Rates, and Overclocking all through an easy to use interface. For those requiring instant access to all the tweak options, a handy icon on the task bar can be enabled for quick access to all three tweaker tabs. Comprehensive html, outline based help is available through the standard "?" icon in the display tabs and the help button.

Main Features:

Tabbed interface accessible through display properties or system tray for easy navigation.
Full right-click context sensitive help as well as html outline based help.
Core and Memory overclocking support for all Radeon series cards.
Support for per-game profiles and per-game clock speed settings.
Refresh rate force capabilities for standard and custom display modes.
Multiple skin options for the tweaker.
User configurable sound events for GameUtil functions.
Extensive list of tweaks for 2D and 3D as well as display, multimedia, windows and more.
Operating Systems Supported:
Windows 98/98SE/ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows NT 4.0 (minimal functionality)
ATI Cards Supported:
Radeon 7000/7200/7500/AIW 7500/7800
Radeon 8500(LE/LELE)/8500DV/8500eXP/8800
Radeon 9xxx series
Mobility Radeon series

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description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2016
publisher: CommonCrawl
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Monday, January 7, 2013

Monkey Madness Monday: Balancing Act

"Rhesus Monkey" by James Barker
Keeping my life balanced is one of my New Year's resolutions, and perhaps the hardest one for me to keep. I have all these different aspects of my life that have to fit into the box that constitute my 15-16 daily waking hours.

I need to balance work, writing, marketing, household cleaning and maintenance, kids, boyfriend, friends and family, exercise, and the time in which my life is slowly slipping from me on my way to and from these tasks.

How do I do it? Well, right now I don't. That's the point. I WANT to, but I've never been good with balance. Multi-tasking? Yes. Complete and utter exhaustion? Sure. But balance? Nope.

Step one: Advice from my boyfriend, say no. Of course I know this, I've told myself I need to stop doing for others until I've got my own shit together. But I can't seem to do it.  Megan, come over early and help me set up for the party? Sure! Megan, could you review my book for me? Great! No problem! Megan, can I get you to read my query letter/synopsis/partofmymanuscrip/etc? You bet!

Don't get me wrong, there are people I will ALWAYS say yes too. My parents, people I'm mentoring, people who have helped me out, but I don't have to say yes to everyone, which I find myself doing more often than not. Sigh.

by David Castillo Dominici
Step two: Make a list. I need to list all the things on my to do list. And I mean ALL of them. It will be extensive, but whether it's something I need/want to do tomorrow or next year, I need to keep track of it.

Step three: Prioritize. Okay, maybe buying all new towels for my bathroom isn't as important that getting my manuscript to my editor. And perhaps that manuscript isn't as important as say, feeding my children. Or maybe it is? No matter, I need to figure out what is important and what can be put on the back burner.

Step four: As Yoda says, "Do or do not. There is no try." Uh, yeah. Okay, no try, I have to do. Without the "do", I will have spent all these waking hours on making lists and prioritizing for naught, and believe me, I have no waking hours to waste. It's going to take a schedule. Deadlines. Fortitude. Diligence. Things I try to ignore, but can no longer.

How are you at the balancing act? Do you find yourself swimming in the shallow end trying to ignore those tsunamis heading your way that are bound to drown you?

Yeah, that's me. So here I go. Wish me luck. If you never see my head above water again, it's been nice knowing you. Keep it real.
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My Dad. He's awesome.

John Messina, Personal Injury Attorney

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We provide fun, challenge and adventure to
over 400,000 girls and boys across the UK
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Training Advisers

Training Advisers have an essential job in providing support to those undertaking training for their appointment in Scouting.

Training Adviser's Guide

The Training Adviser's Guide introduces the role and responsibilities of a training adviser and acts as a reference for key aspects of the role.

Training Advisers Guide (PDF)

Update pages

The following document contains the recent changes between the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Training Adviser's Guide.

Key changes to the Training Adviser's Guide

Becoming a Training Adviser

The processes and structures to follow to ensure that adults are getting the training support that they need.

Personal learning plans

Every learner will formulate a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) during one-to-one sessions with their training adviser.

Personal Learning Plan (Word doc)

Personal Learning Plan (PDF)

Questions for training advisers

Suggested questions that training advisers can ask learners to check their knowledge and understanding of the topics contained in the module advising on adult appointments

Module completion form

A form used to help maintain local training records.

Completion forms

Validation processes and guidelines

Whether or not the adult is using the skills learned to the required standard in practice is measured through a process called validation. Decisions can then be made as to how the adult might be managed or developed.

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Geneva ScrumBeer

19 Dec 2012
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Location Pub Lord Jim
Rue de Lausanne 32
Geneva, Geneva 1201

Contact Information
Alexandre Cuva
Email Alexandre Cuva

If you are a Lean/Agilist come and share your experience and your thoughts with the rest of us! Tell us about what happened to you.

If you are new to Scrum, XP, Lean, ... you are more than welcome as well. Come and have a drink with us. Meeting people is the most fun way to learn about something new!

Let's come together for a beer or two at the Pub "Lord Jim" near the Geneva train station.


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Since before my brain was hijacked by baby stuff, I’ve been thinking a lot about how many third party Web 2.0 vendors libraries are dependent upon (not to mention all the ones we’re dependent on personally!). I actually wrote a column for American Libraries on the subject, but 600 words could not reflect the whole of my concerns. Nor probably can this email since I will most certainly be interrupted a half dozen times by an adorable baby who I find even more fun than blogging (so give me the benefit of the doubt if I write something that doesn’t quite make sense).

In just the past few weeks, I’ve received two emails from companies whose services I’ve tried out who are now shutting their doors. Another one is changing its focus and will no longer be hosting the very thing I was using it for. Luckily these were tools/services that I’d tried out but wasn’t dependent on for providing services to my patrons. But what if I had been dependent? Would I have been able to move my content easily to another provider? Would I have had to find a way to host the content myself? Or would the content have simply gone up in smoke with no way to ever get it back?

While going with hosted solutions for one’s 2.0 services is cheap or free and is often the only option for a library with a tight budget, it’s not always the prudent way to go. Even if the service is free, the time library staff spend creating content on that service isn’t, and we don’t want all that effort (and content) going down the drain. We often put way too much trust in many of these services, having no backups for the content we’re putting on their servers. One great example of what can happen when you trust a company too much is Ma.gnolia, which was a very popular social bookmarking company that had a catastrophic server failure in January and lost everyone’s data. While they tried to restore the database, they failed, and now they’re going to start from scratch (though I can’t imagine who would trust them with their bookmarks now!). I don’t know if Ma.gnolia allowed people to back up their own bookmarks to their hard drive, but even if they did, I’d wager that a lot of people rarely, if ever, remembered to do it (she writes sheepishly, wondering when the last time was that she backed up her own bookmarksdone!).

My friend Stephen Francoeur created two of the best 2.0 tools for library staff that I’m aware of — an active and useful reference blog and reference wiki. For these tools which he created four years ago or so, he used Blogger and PBWiki. The blog and wiki are vital to their reference staff since they contain so much staff knowledge collected over many years. In his most recent blog post, Stephen describes how he decided that home is the safest place for all that data and how he had to move the blog from Blogger to a locally hosted version of WordPress MU, and the wiki from PBWiki (now PBWorks) to a locally installed version of Confluence. He discussed how difficult the transition was, especially with the wiki since he had to literally copy and paste the content from the old wiki into the new. Had either of these companies gone bust before they could move that content to a local server, it might possibly have been gone forever. This just highlighted again to me how important it is that we gauge how vital the things we’ve created with these 2.0 tools are to our library (or to us personally if we use them outside of work) and take steps to protect that content or functionality accordingly. If the Google Custom Searches that I’ve created for several subject areas were to disappear, it wouldn’t be a grave tragedy. Were our subject guide wiki to disappear, we’d have lost content that is vital to our students and faculty and took us years to develop. That’s why our subject guide wiki lives on our own server.

We utilize the services of so many of these 2.0 companies because they provide services and space for free. However those services cost someone money, and if they aren’t making enough from pro accounts or ads, then they’re losing money on the bandwidth and server space it costs to run a successful site. Many of these companies lack any sort of a revenue model and while they may be funded by venture capitalists or big companies like Google and Yahoo! now, they may not be forever if they can’t find a way to make money for their benefactors. It scares me how dependent Iranians are on Twitter to get the word out about what the government is doing there when the company is losing money hand over fist. And many of the other big 2.0 companies we know and love are in the same boat.

There’s also the issue of their infrastructure. When I put things on our library’s server, I know that there are daily backups of the content. So if something goes kablooey, I can always roll it back to what it looked like the previous day. Not too bad. But do we know much about the server infrastructure of the companies we’re dependent on? Often we don’t know anything because that information isn’t provided to us. And this can even be a problem when you’re paying a company to run a service for you. Our Voyager ILS installation is hosted by Ex Libris, and a year or two ago they had too high a load on their servers and, as a result, we had a lot of problems with Voyager going down for a few months. It’s important, whether we’re paying or not, that when we’re trusting a mission critical service to a third party we know about their server infrastructure.

Another big issue is when a company decides to suddenly change how it operates, which may leave you high and dry or might at least force you to change the way you operate. A great case in point is PBWiki, now known as PBWorks. I really thought a great deal of PBWiki early on, so much so that I was on their Educational Advisory Board. Then they managed to alienate much of their original fanbase, me included. First they created a new version of their wiki software (PBWiki 2.0) which completely changed the way that authentication into the wiki worked. But you still had the choice of whether or not you wanted to create a 1.0 or 2.0 wiki. And in spite of a huge wave of negative feedback they received about PBWiki 2.0, they not only kept it the way it was, but forced people to switch their original PBWikis to 2.0. Now, they’re called PBWorks and I have no idea if the wikis (or workspaces) still look the same as the 2.0 wiki, because I wouldn’t touch a PBWiki at this point with a 10-foot pole. I don’t like companies that don’t listen to their users.

I don’t have a good solution for what libraries should do if they can’t afford to host their own content (or if the only technology providing that functionality is externally hosted), but I do think it’s critical that we should think critically about these companies with which we’re entrusting our content and whether our content is safe enough relative to its value. While your Twitter posts may not be super-valuable to you later on, your bookmarks or blog posts probably are. If your content is important to your library, consider whether or not you think that service that’s hosting your content is stable. Who hosts your content? A large, stable company that is making enough to at least cover its expenses, a start-up with venture funding and no revenue model, or some individual for whom this service is a hobby (though they hope to sell it to Google one day — and btw, it’s scary that “selling to Google” seems to have become a revenue model in itself)? Can you easily back up that content? Can you easily move it to another service? And do other services exist that provide the same or similar functionality? And equally important, what claims do these companies make on your content (always read their Terms of Service!). We need to consider all these things because I’d hate to see the hard work of librarians go up in smoke because it didn’t occur to them that these free 2.0 services might not be here forever.

Have any of you had disasters with hosted services? Have you moved your stuff from a hosted service to your own server and why? What do you consider before you put content on some third party’s servers? Do you feel like the your content is safe in all of the 2.0 services you use online?

My little guy is sick of beating up the animals hanging from his activity gym and seems to want some cuddle time now. Talk amongst yourselves.


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THQ has confirmed that work on a new Saints Row sequel is already underway, despite Saints Row: The Third not being out until next week.

Saints Row 4 in development, promises to be ‘wilder’
Saints Row: The Third – already pretty wild

‘I already know what Saints Row 4 is about, and it is wilder than this one. It’s a good example of how you take what you have and you say, ‘What can happen in the next?’ said THQ’s Danny Bilson.His comments were part of a so-far unaired interview with website X-Play , so it’s not clear if he said anything more specific. We suspect that was probably it though. We also suspect Bilson probably wasn’t meant to say that yet, as he has a reputation for revealing secrets too early.

Saints Row 4 has already been rumoured before though, but as an Xbox 720 title. That was only according to a magazine though and as you can see THQ havenât said, or even implied, anything about what formats a new game could come out on.

Saints Row started life as a blatant Grand Theft Auto clone, with better controls and worse dialogue and variety. Although the second one became ever more outrageous in terms of action it still had a relatively serious storyline, but Saints Row: The Third has thrown caution to the wind and gone full-on bug-eyed crazy.From a van that can suck up pedestrians and fire them out of cannon, to a high tech VTOL jet aircraft and explosive Hulk hands Saints Row: The Third seems the perfect antidote to those that thought Grand Theft Auto IV was too serious.However, there have some concerns amongst both fans and analysts that, no matter how good it is, the game will be the highest profile casualty of the ongoing Christmas rush. But clearly THQ have faith in it, although we do wonder whether the next game will still come out at the same time of the yearâ¦Thoughts? Email or leave a comment below


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Tuesday 12th February - Evening Inbox
King Of Kong – could you take the pressure of public competition?

Today’s evening Inbox reopens the debate on selling second-hand video games, as one reader asks for help with Little Acorns.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk.

Public humiliation
I’m sure somebody’s praised it before but I’d just like to recommend the film the King Of Kong which I saw on Netflix. I have only admiration for the Twin Galaxies record holders, because I’m old enough to remember how hard coin-op machines were.

I recall Defender especially used to give me a right good spanking after only a couple of minutes. And don’t get me started on Dragon’s Lair, which was basically a cruel collection of quick time events pretending to be a game.

I was quite good at Paperboy, but I think playing in a public space takes you out of your comfort zone, and you’ve just dropped real money into the game, so there’s an added anxiety as the player strives to stay on the machine for more than a few moments.
msv858 (Twitter)

Gaming exceptionalism
So the argument of second-hand sales is back again. Would’ve commented directly in the comments but alas getting it to work is harder than Dark Souls.

I always find it weird when people argue for DRM or ways of stopping second-hand sales, saying that developers/publishers deserve all the money. What about the consumer’s right to sell on their product? Viewtifuljim argued in the comment section that stopping second-hand sales wouldn’t be a problem in any other business… I’d love for him to name any other business minus application software and downloads that stops second-hand sales.

Last time I checked I could sell everything I owned from DVDs, CDs, TVs, fridge, cars, houses, etc. The argument of depreciation on things like cars is void for me because games lose value too. That’s why some people wait till they drop in price these days.

I agree with him an artist should get the money the work deserves but not at the expense of the rights of the people who buy the work and ultimately pay for the artist to continue.

Offensive praise
I thought the readers feature this weekend by andy_b720 made plenty of reasonable points, however, he fell into exactly the irritating kind of trap I wrote in about last week.

‘People often wonder how Nintendo games continue to sell well years after launch. They do so simply because they are head and shoulders above their rivals’.

He could have simply said their first party games sell so well because they are so consistently excellent – why try to bait people? Subjective flexibility when expressing an opinion is fine, but if you put out sweeping statements that may (unintentionally) trivialise other’s preferences the claims need to be qualified to some extent.

For example, if I was bigging up Sega, I would focus on their arcade hits and their success at replicating this in the home, as well as the mixed but often great results of niche gaming gambles (Rez being my favourite). These are the things that distinguished and defined them in my opinion. It does not mean they did not do anything else really well, or that others that produced similar games were not as good.

People often moan about fanboy arguments but if people voiced their opinions more carefully in the first place most of it would never even come about.
albavar (PSN ID)

GC: You do have a point, but it’s also rather odd to want to not praise something – in case that praise offends others.

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

Nutty suggestion
Whilst looking through Xbox Live Marketplace I saw a game highlighted on the Indie page called Little Acorns. I thought the cute squirrel character would appeal to my girlfriend and the fact the game supported co-op made me download the trial.

We ended up thoroughly enjoying it and the simple nature and controls of it meant my girlfriend, who isn’t a gamer, could get to grips with it easily. The game is a simple platform game in which you have to collect a certain amount of nuts in the time set with each level gradually throwing more enemies and actions at you. It is set out over four years and each year consists of four seasons, each season has five stages and the last stage of the year is a boss stage. These are similar to the chase levels in Rayman Origins, where a big creature chases you and you have to finish the level before it does.

The trial timed out and I bought the full game for a measly 80 Microsoft Points. I would recommend it as a game to get a non-gamer playing games as it is a great introduction to platform games but for one thing. We completed year 2 after a tricky chase against a giant spider but could not access year 3. It claims we need 50 more nuts but we’ve collected every nut on every level. Replaying a level doesn’t contribute to our nut total. I had a quick look online but couldn’t see much about the game. Has anyone played this game and know what is going on? I hope so because we enjoyed the first half of it.
REBROCK (gamertag)/Rebrock (PSN ID)

Value is in the eye of the beholder
I had heard that the 3DS Fire Emblem was a little special but I am still surprised by the 9. Based on past entries I have always thought of Fire Emblem as a second tier series behind Advance Wars, Disgaea, and Final Fantasy Tactics. I am glad that the series has finally fulfilled its potential.

So April is looking like the time I will finally dust off the 3DS, assuming Nintendo finally decide to release the game in Europe. That is unless you guys convince me that Tactics Ogre at £16 (GC 8/10 in 2011) is better value than Fire Emblem at £40 (GC 9/10 in 2013)? I have been waiting for Ogre to appear in a PS Vita sale but alas it seems to be holding its price.

GC: Both are very good games, and quite similar in nature, but we’d say Fire Emblem Awakening was the better of the twoValue for money is always subjective but both games will last you dozens of hours.

Racing hero
I would think by the time this letter publishes it will mainly be full of disgust/hate directed toward Aliens: Colonial Marines, which yes I did pre-order for PC and it’s currently pre-loaded on Steam. So I can’t add anything yet. However what I do want to say I’ve just completed the excellent Forza Horizon.

I know a lot of people dismissed it because of the change of direction but I for one think that was a good thing. It’s the only racing game that’s kept me interested from start to finish, cars look amazing, loads of different tracks/areas, zero to hero story. I would urge anyone who missed this game to give it a go.
sritony (gamertag)/Geordietony (Steam ID)

Slow down
I’m not surprised to see sales of Dead Space 3 down compared to the previous sequel. I’m one of those people who didn’t buy the game this time around. The original Dead Space was excellent and one of my favourite games, but Dead Space 2 had a different atmosphere (no pun intended!). It had its moments, but didn’t feel quite the same game, had lost its spark and seemed a rather routine game with an increased emphasis on combat. As a result, I lost interest after a few hours of play.

For me to be interested in Dead Space 3, it would need to have returned to a more considered, oppressive approach, where long moments of calm would be just as tense, if not more so, than the alien encounters. But all the signs pointed to even more emphasis on combat, and once I watched a large amount of YouTube footage of almost incessant, predictable shooting of waves of enemies, I was done. It’s also precisely this approach to combat that spoils much of the Uncharted series.
Jon Edwards

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

Dead good
I got Dead Space 3 on Saturday and am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I have managed to put four hours into the game and am just about to start Chapter 5. Whilst I agree with the points raised in your review GC about the game being more action driven than the first two games it still isn’t as far removed from the original games as the likes of Resident Evil 5 or 6 and still is atmospheric, claustrophobic and has its fair share of scares. The shrill shrieks of the necromorphs still send shivers down my spine and due to it usually being very dark the fact of not knowing where they are going to come from makes it all the more tense.

I really like the new weapon crafting, trying out different combinations of the parts I have collected to create different weapons is great fun and it is great when you find new parts and there is two or three different combinations you can make. I think the fact there is plenty of ammo and med packs, etc. is a necessary sacrifice to enable you to use your spare ones to craft more resources to create new weapons or upgrade your RIG. The microtransactions are entirely unnecessary as there is plenty of resources available.

As for the 11 pieces of downloadable content, it’s just the usual extra guns and suits for those who want the best equipment straight away – which games have done now for years and I haven’t bothered with any of them so Dead Space 3 is no different. I am much more interested in the story expansion Awakened, which is due out some time in March. The visuals are amazing, as you say, and the sound is still as atmospheric and haunting as previous entries. I can’t wait to see more of the ice world of Tau Volantis than the short prologue section and the colossal boss monsters shown in the previews. The puzzles and zero gravity sections are as awesome as ever. The story is nothing remarkable but is a decent enough tale as video games go and keeps you playing.

To reader Aem 72, given that you say you don’t have a lot of time to play games then the Mass Effect games however excellent they are, are huge games that require huge amounts of time and the fact its more story driven wouldn’t be great to dip in and out of. I can’t really speak for Borderlands as I am not a fan myself but I imagine it to be quite time consuming to collect enough cash for the best guns and from what I hear they are huge games.

I would go with Dead Space 2 because although you are looking at a 15-20 hour campaign, you can easily jump in and out of the game if you are going a few days or a week at a time between play sessions as the story is fairly easy to follow so you can pick up where you left off easily enough.
Big Angry Dad82 (gamertag)

Inbox also-rans
RE: shiltsypantsNo2 and Wii games that you may have missed, this list is far from definitive but here goes: Battalion Wars 2, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, MadWorld, Red Steel 2, Excite Truck, Resident Evil 4 (only if you’ve not had the pleasure before) and my personal favourite Metroid Prime 3.
Aaron Philip

Just read this news story about ‘Space Marine’ being a trademarked term owned by Games Workshop. I wonder if ‘Bald Space Marine’ has been trademarked yet?
ttfp saylow (gamertag)

In GC’s opinion what are the best racing games for the PlayStation 3?
Tooad Borse

GC: We’d say Split/Second: Velocity, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Burnout Paradise, DiRT 3, and WipEout HD. There’s Gran Turismo 5 as well of course, but even Mr Pinkerton finds that one a bit tedious.

I’m holding off for the Hasbro version of Masterpiece Soundwave. Comes with all the cassettes packed in.
Martin Smith

GC: We don’t trust the American versions; they often remove extras or add unwanted paint apps.

This week’s Hot Topic
It’s Valentine’s Day this week, so for this weekend’s Hot Topic we want to know what you think are the most convincing love stories in video games – and the most eligible romantic partners.

A romantic subplot is not something most people buy a video game for and yet most games with a story do have some sort of relationship angle, so we want to know which you’ve found the most convincing – and which the most absurd and silly.

Do you think video games focus enough on the romantic relationships of its characters or do you feel there’s already too much of that sort of thing? If you were able to take a video games character out for a romantic evening which one would you choose, and what do you think you’d have to do to win them over?

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

The small print
New Inbox updates appear twice daily, every weekday morning and afternoon. Letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word 4Player viewer features at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

If you need quick access to the GameCentral channel page please use: www.metro.co.uk/games


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A1 promise fans more drama in The Big Reunion 2
Back and loving it: A1 have reunited for The Big Reunion 2 (Picture: ITV)

What an awesome night! We’ve finally come down from the massive high we were on after Friday’s show to be able to say our thanks to everyone involved.

We were proud to open the show with Take On Me and go ‘old school’ dusting off some dance moves we hadn’t done for over 10 years – it meant so much to us to be back performing on the big stage in the UK after so many years away.

The response from the crowd was amazing and it was great to see everyone putting so much into what I’m sure you’ll agree was a fantastic show all round. The feedback has been really positive and the reaction on Twitter has been overwhelming – our fans are still buzzing.

Huge thanks to all the other bands too – Damage, Eternal, 5th Story, 3T and Girl Thing for making it such a fun experience over the last few weeks. We’re looking forward to more to come throughout the rest of 2014.

Massive thanks to everyone in the media who came out to show their support for The Big Reunion and all the bands as well – hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane with us!

Keep watching as there are many more exciting moments to come. All the best and hope to see you soon.

Christian, Mark and Ben.


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Done deal! How Arsenal have pulled off the signing of the summer
Arsenal’s Theo Walcott missed the final months of the season injured (Picture:  AP Photo)

Arsenal have made their first signing of the new season.

Is he a striker?

Is he a defensive midfielder with explosive power?

Is he a footballer?

The most important signing of the Summer is a guy called Shad Forsythe. He’s coming in to head up our fitness department because Tony Colbert, the current incumbent, has done such a tragic job over the past 10 years. After years of fatigued and damaged players, the club finally recognised the need to upweight in a department that has undoubtedly cost us trophies.

A famous American sports coach I forget the name of once said:  ‘Get the best talent at your club, then keep it on the pitch.’

Arsenal had the most injured players last year, which cost us points, which cost us major honours. Shad Forsythe isn’t the ideal candidate. He’s mainly knocked around in international football, but the point is, he’s young, he’s dynamic and he’ll undoubtedly push down the amount of injuries we have. Finally, we have an expert in our fitness department.

The interesting point of the signing is whether he’s an Arsene signing or an Ivan Gazidis signings.

If he’s an Arsene signing, he’ll have no problem breaking into the set up and driving change. If he’s an Ivan signing, he might have difficulties manourvering the politics he’ll no doubt face taking on the dinosaur back room staff.

There’s no point in bringing him in if we don’t listen to him. Hoepfully Ivan has put things in place to make sure he gets all the help he needs. A culture of change isn’t something you’d associate with Arsenal. It looks like Ivan is trying to instill that into the club. How will we now if he’s successful? Let injuries, less lethargic performances and more points is how…

Over to you Shad, you could be the real start signing this summer.

MORE: Is Lukas Podolski the right man to replace Marco Reus in Germany team?

MORE: Club Metro


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Master of Your Cascade

The CSS1 support chart known as the mastergrid disappeared when Web Review’s servers got shut off, which has apparently caused some anguish in the community.  Anguish no more!  It’s back online now, thanks to Netscape DevEdge.  Actually, there are three charts now, with more planned for the future.

There are also plans afoot to (finally!) get the charts expanded to include browsers that have been released since the end of 2000.  You know, like two three major releases of Opera, three of Netscape, Mozilla 1.0, IE6, and so on.  I don’t know if Linux browsers will be added or not, but I’ll see what can be done.  Also, I’d really like to add Safari, but since I don’t have Jaguar, I’m kind of stuck until I can find time to upgrade my laptop.

The charts are also now licensed under a Creative Commons license (specifically, Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 1.0) so that they can always be available to the community, regardless of what happens in the future.  They can also be extended, should somebody wish to undertake the effort, without removing the extended works from the community.  I’d like to thank the folks at Netscape for not only giving the charts a home, but also for being very supportive of this licensing approach.

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April 2003
March May


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Insurers seek shelter from the storms

Damaging storms are hitting the country more often as summer temperatures rise. (Gallo)

Damaging storms are hitting the country more often as summer temperatures rise. (Gallo)

In March, late summer rain saw hailstones hammering down on people’s cars and homes, so local insurer Santam shipped in 25 extra “hail pushing technicians” – experts at fixing dents – from around the world for a month.

They were needed after the insurer received 2 000 claims for hail damage to cars and homes in Gauteng alone during a 48-hour period of storms. Four hundred more claims were lodged in Port Elizabeth, with the cost to Santam from claims estimated at R35-million.

Hailstones as big as 7cm in diameter had fallen, and the insurer said these could cause “irreparable” damage to cars.

Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau said at a climate change conference in Sandton last month that the devastation caused by the rain was owed to climate change. “We are seeing a clear shift in our summer season, where it lasts longer and we get more frequent and damaging storms.”

The city is already 0.8˚C warmer than half a decade ago, with predictions that it will be up to 6˚C warmer by the middle of the century. “None of our infrastructure is ready to handle this,” said Tau.

Vanetia Thakule, a senior forecaster at the South African Weather Service, said at the time that “those are the types of thunderstorms we will be getting in the summer”.

Johannesburg experienced its entire annual average rainfall for March in one week.

Storm-related claims
Standard Bank’s insurance division had a 402% increase in storm-related claims for March. As a whole, the insurance industry received 56% more claims this March than for March last year, the bank said.

The environment department’s own plans say the interior of the country will face increased temperatures and, because of this, a change in rainfall patterns. This will see a greater frequency of severe storms with hail and lightning, and more damage. Along the coast, rising sea levels – the United Nations’ environment body predicts a rise of as much as a metre by 2100 – will batter the country’s other major cities. Storm surges will travel further into the cities and cause damage where property is the most expensive.

All this damage will have to be covered by the insurance industry and, rather than leaving it to catch them unprepared, they are already raising premiums and excess fees.

Last week the local branch of global insurer AON told customers that their premiums would be increasing. Typically, excess has increased by up to 20%. This was in response to a trend of increasing claims being lodged with short-term insurers, it said. “This is directly attributable to the high incidence of weather-related claims, and the depreciation of the rand.”

Other insurers have undertaken similar adjustments, with Mutual & Federal saying the past two years were “unexpectedly bad”. “Another trend we are picking up in personal lines is the increase in the frequency of damage caused by extreme weather,” said Coenraad de Jager, its executive of personal lines.

Catastrophic payouts
The annual KPMG insurance survey said last year that catastrophic payouts had significantly affected the short-term insurance industry locally. “Catastrophic events are predicted to continue as a result of climate change and extreme weather events,” it said.

Growing climate change has also seen local insurers join the industry’s global body, ClimateWise, the body representing insurers at international climate negotiations. It said the number of weather-related catastrophes had tripled since the 1980s.

Research published in the journal Nature last year said climate change costs the world economy $1.2-trillion a year. Loss of productivity and damage to property was the main part of this, with the insurance industry having to pick up the tab.

This has prompted Lloyds, the largest and oldest insurance market in the world, to call on insurers to include climate change in their projections. Most insurers were investing in the future without factoring in climate change, it said.

With global climate negotiations seeking to cut back massively on fossil fuels, this meant that up to 80% of fossil fuels would have to be left in the ground. Insurers that did not factor this in would not be able to cover claims, it said.

In its Catastrophic Modelling and Climate Change research paper last year, Lloyds said the industry faces a huge problem with how climate change will create more extreme weather events.

The past few years had seen events such as Superstorm Sandy, which hit the eastern seaboard of the United States. The damage to New York was increased by 30% because sea levels there were 20cm higher than historical levels, thanks to climate change, it said. Sandy cost the industry $25-billion, making it the second-most expensive storm after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Claims amounted to payouts of $300-million for fine art lost in expensive beachfront homes alone.

The World Bank’s authoritative report from 2013 on the insurance industry and climate change said the greatest risk was in developing countries. Local companies were not big enough to face repeated catastrophic events – a hallmark of climate change, when events that would happen once a century occur once a decade, or even more frequently.

Countries therefore have to take money for other projects out of their fiscus, or borrow. The report warned that when catastrophe becomes the “new normal” it will be hard for insurance companies to get back on their feet.

The South African Insurance Association said the impact of climate change on the local industry was “starting to become significant”. It has recommended that insurers invest in renewable energy and technology. This would lower carbon emissions and the impact of climate change. It would put their money in industries that would survive if there was a cut-back in fossil fuels from international climate negotiations.

Peter Hoppe, head of Munich Re’s corporate climate centre, said: “The insurance industry is directly affected [by climate change] and therefore assumes a leading role in devising solutions.”

Sipho Kings

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Hey guys!! I’m so excited for San Diego Comic-Con this year. Team Unicorn merchandise will be available the entire time at the California Browncoats Booth (A7/A8) this year, so swing buy to pick up your sparklies! I’ll be signing every day somewhere at the Con, so come by and say hi! We’ll also be giving out this awesome new Team Unicorn Floppet for FREE (made by the fantastic Greg Aronowitz) at each signing! Make sure to grab one!

Here’s where you can find me:

1pm to 2pm – Voltron: Form Blazing Fans! Panel @ Hilton Bayfront Hotel (Indigo Ballroom) –
I’ll be joining the rest of my girls from Team Unicorn as we talk about our love for all things Voltron.

4pm to 5pm – Signing at the California Browncoats Booth (A7/A8) – Clare Grant, Milynn Sarley, Rileah Vanderbilt and I will all be at the Browncoats booth sharing the love for Firefly and signing whatever merch your heart desires. No, we don’t charge for either autographs or photos.

11am to 3pm – Cosplay Time! – You didn’t actually think Team Unicorn would show up to the biggest comic convention in the world and not get some cosplay time in? We’re keeping our identities secret, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find us on the floor!

2pm to 3pm – Team Unicorn Signing at the Qmx Booth (2944/2946/2948/2950) – Did you make it through the Firefly Reunion Panel alive? All your pieces intact and shiny? Celebrate by coming to say hi to the girls (who will still be in cosplay costume) for this signing at the QMX Booth!

12pm to 1pm – Signing at the California Browncoats Booth (A7/A8) – So happy we get to spend so much time with fellow Browncoats at the Con, plus we always have snacks. ;)

11am to 12pm – Signing @ Roddenberry Booth (2532/2545/2642/2644) - Our last appearance at the Con! Team Unicorn joins the amazing Greg Aronowitz at his booth where you can pick up signed posters and lots of his adorable Floppets!


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Did You Know...

Gloves off: Now, Obama calls for prosecuting GOP donor; Update: AIP responds

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 26, 2008 04:41 PM

Scroll down for updates…

I noted this morning that the Obama campaign’s Chicago-style thug effort to shut down the independent ad on Bill Ayers is part of the larger effort to intimidate conservative donors and curtail the free speech of The One’s critics.

It’s getting uglier, people.

Obama’s lawyer has sent a second letter to the Justice Department calling for the head of Dallas billionare Harold Simmons, who funded the Ayers ad that the Obama campaign doesn’t want the public to see.

Feel the chill:

Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice Department, directly attacking the Dallas billionaire funding a harsh attack ad, Harold Simmons.

“We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard (sic) Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits,” he wrote.

He called the group’s activities “patently illegal.”

Bauer made the case that Simmons’ group [is not] fulfilling its […] nonprofit charter because it hasn’t spent any money on anything other than attacking Obama. Simmons’ spokesman, Christian Pinkston, told me yesterday that plans to, and dismissed the complaints as an effort to lawyer away charges the campaign can’t rebut.

I posted AIP’s rebuttal here yesterday. And as I’ve noted today and will note again: Obama has some nerve whining about campaign finance integrity after getting caught hiding $800,000 in ACORN payments.

What’s going on? Simple: The Left has its George Soros sugar daddy and can’t stand that conservatives have their own committed benefactors. They’ve got a massive non-profit infrastructure funded with taxpayers and operating flagrantly in an illegal, partisan manner (hello, ACORN Watch!). They want the playing field all to themselves. And they are fighting for that turf by any means necessary.

Can they do it?

No, they can’t. Not if you don’t let them.

AIP responds again:

American Issues Project Calls Obama Campaign Efforts to Prosecute Political Opponents “Bullying” and “Censorship”

AIP Responds to Second DOJ Letter from

Obama Campaign Demanding Donor Prosecution

Washington, DC – August 26, 2008 – The Barack Obama campaign has now sent a second letter to the Department of Justice calling for the prosecution of one of American Issues Project’s donors for his role in funding a political advertisement in full compliance with all election laws.

“Having failed in its attempts to get our legal, factual and fully-supported ad off the air, Barack Obama’s campaign now wants to put our donors in prison for exercising their right to free speech,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Project’s president. “These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail.”

In addition to two letters sent to the Department of Justice asking the government to investigate American Issues Project, its officers, board of directors, and donors, the Obama campaign has been contacting stations running American Issues Project’s ad in an unsuccessful attempt to compel them to pull the spot. With no success on either front, the campaign has also begun running its own ad in response. Notably, this ad fails to dispute a single fact in the American Issues Project’s initial ad.

American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 organization, similar in structure to NARAL and the League of Conservation Voters, two liberal organizations that have claimed status as “qualified nonprofit corporations” for two decades. In accordance with federal law, American Issues Project only solicits and accepts contributions from individuals and not from any business corporation. The FEC also sets out specific regulations for the activities of a qualified nonprofit corporation, which American Issues Project follows.

The American Issues Project’s ad began airing Thursday, August 21, and will continue through the Democratic Convention. An electronic version of the ad and full documentation of all statements made are available at American Issues Project’s website: www.americanissuesproject.org.

About American Issues Project

American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 organization representing a coalition of conservative activists committed to raising important issues that deserve deeper examination given their impact on policy and politics. In accordance with federal law, American Issues Project only solicits and accepts contributions from individuals and not from any business corporation. For more information, visit: www.americanissuesproject.org.

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Posted in: Bill Ayers

What Obama’s Ferguson sermon left out

November 25, 2014 09:44 PM by Michelle Malkin

Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers denied emeritus status

September 23, 2010 10:06 PM by Michelle Malkin

Left-wing campus embraces unapologetic, murdering peacenik bomber

August 23, 2010 11:06 AM by Michelle Malkin

How do you say “You lie!” in Mandarin?

November 18, 2009 09:20 AM by Michelle Malkin

Obama’s double-talk on dissent.

Categories: Barack Obama, Bill Ayers

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Citizenship question easiest one to answer when I vote

Aug 10, 2012

When I voted on Tuesday, there were several things I needed to know.

The toughest thing was figuring out who to vote for among all of the candidates for several obscure township boards and lower-level county offices.  These people do important things, but their work is almost entirely below the radar-level of most media.  Their names, and even the offices they hold, are relatively unknown.  It is sometimes hard to even know, without help from the ballot, whether I’m voting for just one candidate, or “two of five” names, or even all four of just four names on the ballot.

Next hardest was remembering my precinct. There were two, at opposite ends of the large community room in the church where I have regularly voted for more than ten years. Was I supposed to be in Precinct 8 or Precinct 9?  That one turned out to be easy; a glance at my voter registration card, supplied to me automatically and without charge, gave me the answer.  The backup plan would have been to just ask.

It might have been hard to remember to bring my driver’s license, which is required for a regular ballot (but not required to vote) since the church is close enough for me to walk.  But since I came from work in my car, I had my license with me.  No problem.  It almost never is.

Now, let me tell you the absolute easiest thing about voting. There was a question on the ballot application: “Are you a U.S. citizen?”  There were two possible answers: “Yes,” and “No.”  I knew the right answer.  I was already most of the way through filling in the circle next to “Yes,” as the poll worker said to me, “The citizenship question is voluntary.”

You probably now know the story behind the controversy over the citizenship question. My favorite story – I am guessing the best personal story of election day – is the story of Rich Robinson, the bright and engaging director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, who was presented with the same ballot application.  Being an extraordinarily bright fellow, and probably knowing more about election law and campaign finance rules than any poll worker anywhere in the state, Rich made an interesting decision; he refused to answer the citizenship question.

Assuredly, it wasn’t ignorance or fear that prompted Rich’s refusal; it was his profound and up-to-date knowledge that prompted him to create a test case.  There were, or should have been, other options to avoid any media-ready kerfuffle in Rich’s case. In the end, there were options, and Rich voted.

Because the headline story will never be, “Rich Robinson Voted,” and instead will be “Voter Turned Away for Refusing Citizenship Question,” I’d like to examine the case more closely.

First, the unfortunate poll worker who encountered “Rich Robinson, election expert” was mistaken if she or he told Robinson that his refusal to state whether or not he was a citizen would allow them to deny him a ballot.  That was wrong information, and Rich Robinson undoubtedly knew that.  It should never have been stated as a voting requirement.  Poll workers sometimes make mistakes. When there are late-breaking changes in election laws (or even things that aren’t technically changes, as with Gov. Snyder’s surprising veto of the citizenship-question provision), poll workers sometimes make mistakes.  They did, in Robinson’s case.

But no matter what, Robinson shouldn’t have been denied a ballot under any circumstances. He should have been given a provisional ballot under the Help America Vote Act of 2002; why he didn’t ask for, or accept, a provisional ballot is unknown to me.  Perhaps Robinson will be asked more about his case, if he is going to become the world’s most unlikely poster child for “voter suppression expert.”

What we do know is that having been refused a ballot, Robinson left the polling place, called the local election clerk, got the (correct) answer that he wanted, and later returned to the polling place where he successfully voted and received an apology from the precinct captain.  “A happy ending,” Robinson told the Detroit News.

So far, Rich Robinson’s story is the one we know the most about.  If we learn of large numbers of serious ballot-denial problems, I will be surprised.  If we learn about any actual evidence of wide-scale voter suppression, I will be more than amazed.

I will be looking to the usual suspects on the Democrat-left side of the electioneering debate for real proof.  That includes the Democrats’ last failed candidate for Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson and her Michigan Center for Election Law and Administration. The “Center” is a project that Ms. Benson runs when she is not otherwise occupied in her day job as a Wayne State University law professor or directing the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights on the Wayne State campus.

Practically every recent change in Michigan voter identification rules and regulations has prompted some new complaint of “voter suppression.”  Those complaints are customarily accompanied by questions as to whether there exists any real evidence of voter fraud in the first place, and claims that there haven’t been any convictions for vote-fraud and indeed very few prosecutions.  "Why do we need laws strengthening voter identification rules if no one is committing fraud at the polls?" the argument goes.

Now, I shall be looking for the same sort of evidence on the other side of the coin.  I suspect that cases of real “voter suppression” are rarer than the supposedly-nonexistent cases of “voter fraud.”  Whether there is any real evidence of any “voter suppression” will make for a very interesting search.  And in the case of Rich Robinson, that search has started off by going nowhere.

Charles Brown is an attorney from Livonia. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.


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Owners of M-22 logo promise to "go down fighting"

Sep 5, 2012

Several years ago, brothers Matt and Keegan Myers had an idea - capitalize on the love people have for the Leelanau County area by selling t-shirts, hats, coffee cups, bumper stickers, wine, and other items with the state highway M-22 logo on them.

State highway M-22 winds through the scenic coastal areas northwest of Traverse City, and along the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan's "pinkie."

The idea took off. The brothers trademarked the logo. And annual sales continue to increase ($2 million this year, according to the WSJ).

But as other retailers began to use the idea, the Myer's brothers fought to protect their trademark rights, saying they had exclusive rights to all other state-highway signs in Michigan.

The Wall Street Journal's Matt Dolan reports their trademark claim has hit a roadblock with Michigan's Attorney General Bill Schuette.

This spring, Michigan's attorney general ruled that all state road signs, including M-22, are in the public domain, and widely available to citizens to use as they wish—especially in service of the state's tourist trade.

"They didn't build it," says Carolyn Sutherland, owner of the Good Hart General Store, who sought the ruling on behalf of her souvenir shop along Highway M-119 in Good Hart, Mich., using a familiar campaign refrain this year. Pointing at her store, she added: "I built that, and I should be able to sell my own address."

In the opinion, Attorney General Schuette stated:

Both federal and Michigan law support the conclusion that no entity may lawfully commandeer the Michigan route marker design as its exclusive trademark because the design is in the public domain.

The Myers brothers, who also own and operate a kiteboarding business - Broneah, say Schuette's decision jeopardizes a business they've spent more than $1 million building, and they promise to "go down fighting."

Trademarks on images or logos that are in the public domain are common, reports Dolan.

But the M-22 logo might be in uncharted territory.

Federal records show at least 794 registered trademarks on stylized versions of road signs, but it is unclear how many unadulterated road signs like M-22 have trademark protection, says Brendan Way, a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in intellectual property.

Dolan reports cease and desist orders from the Myers brothers' lawyer have stopped most other vendors from selling merchandise with a Michigan state highway sign logo, but Schuette's ruling may have opened the door for these vendors.


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Friday, June 22, 2007

Event Equality for Big Ten Network: Good Idea or Just PC?

On a media teleconference yesterday outlining the progress of the Big 10 Network, Commissioner Jim Delany announced that the Big Ten Network will become the first national network to commit to "event equality" for men's and women's sports on all network-controlled media within the first three years of launch. Basically, this means the network will broadcast an equal number of men's and women's events by the targeted date.

Politically correct? You bet. Good for sports fans? Nope.

The fact of the matter is - in general - most men are bigger sports fans than most women. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. Are there women who are not only bigger fans than most men and know more about sports? Absolutely.

But they are in the minority. And most men - and even most women who are sports fans - don't care about the sports that will be shown in order to have this "event equality" on the Big 10 Network.

Look, when the women's softball team made their run at the NCAA title a few years ago, I not only watched but was glued to the set. In fact, I'll watch any U-M team playing for a title. Hell, if we had a women's hopscotch team and they were in the NCAA tournament, I'm setting my TiVo.

But that doesn't mean there is "watch equality" that justifies "event equality" for the Big 10 Network.

Hey, is there an important women's basketball game being played? Put it on! Is some female tennis player in the conference shooting for some record? Air the damn thing! But for the Big 10 Network to arbitrarily say that they're going to put on an equal number of men's and women's sports is silly. It's a PC solution that ignores reality. Which is:

Men and women aren't equal in their lust for sports. And, for those of each gender that are equally passionate about sports, the agreement comes in the college sports they watch more regularly - and those happen to be sports played by men.

Suppose the BTN proposed that they were going to have "event equality" of a different sort: instead of it being based on gender, they said that there had to be "event equality" between college football and men's basketball (the two most popular collegiate sports) on one side and all other collegiate sports, male and female, on the other. Folks would laugh and say, "How silly." Why? Because those other sports aren't as popular. The fan bases aren't equal.

Or what if we were talking about something called the Big 10 College Basketball Network and they said they were going to show a 50/50 split of men's and women's college basketball games. Would that make sense? Of course not. More sports fans - male and female - follow men's college basketball. It's not sexist, it's just a fact.

Look, I personally don't care about men's gymnastics or women's gymnastics. I, along with most people, don't follow the sport, male or female. It's not about gender, it's about the sports people watch.

Now, I'm sure those that disagree with me are going to not only disagree strongly but, as is the way "debate" occurs in this day and age when someone offers a differing viewpoint, probably call me names. C'est la vie...in 21st century America.

Then again, maybe I'm preaching to the choir. Because while we have some fantastic, smart, female sports nuts who regularly read the MZone, the overwhelming majority of our readers are male.

What do you think of the Big Ten Network's "Event Equality?"
Great idea!
PC police run amok
pollcode.com free polls

And leave your thoughts in the comments section. Would love to know what people think on this one.

(Pic HT: LaughNet)

TitleIX said...

I'm confused. The photos you posted would argue FOR televising female sports....

Here's a question for the PC-haters: if your daughter played organized sports would you want her to have equipment, playing fields, court time, ice time, pool availability just like the boys? Or would you tell her that most people ( ie men )don't like girls' sports anyway so don't be a baby about crappy facilities, no uniforms, and no fan support?

Actually, not televising women's sports would save everyone a whole bunch of trouble....little girls wouldn't have the opportunity to see strong female role models whom they wanted to emulate. They wouldn't be interested in learning the fabulous lessons that sports provides regarding teamwork, effort, success, hardship, committment, coming up short but trying again none-the-less.

Yep, providing a wider venue for girlie sports is a stupid idea. We wouldn't have all this attention on soccer if those darned girls didn't win the world cup...
Ok, back to the kitchen with me. ;-)

TitleIX said...

Truthfully, I don't think it's about being PC but really about programming. ESPN did the same thing when it started---NASCAR races around the clock. (and LOOK what happened!)
No way a women's event will pre-empt a men's event. But they've got to fill the air time. It actually is a great programming and marketing idea. Female sports viewers are an untapped (pardon the entendre) market and if you can get soccer moms and their kids watching college athletics...well, you do the math.

One could argue that ALL non-revenue sports need the exposure to increase revenue for the teams. Although it is strange to me that Men's LAX is now televised by ESPN. I'm sure a salacious rape case had nothing to do with it? right!?

So, it's unfortunate that this tactic by the Big Ten Network is seen by some thru the warped lens of PC-hating. No one will make you sit in front of the TV to watch Women's Volleyball, or Women's Swimming and Diving, or Women's Crew. Hell, Comcast may not even put the dang network on so the discussion may be moot.

god of the whoppers said...

Not completely related, but seems important enough
Big Ten, Comcast battle over new network's costs

Out of Conference said...

Without airing 12 hours of infomercials (which I bet they will have to anyway) and 8 hours of history of the Big 10-type shows (where are they now, old Mich-OSU games, etc.), I don't see how they will be able to not air women's sporting events just to come up with programming each day.
T9 is right - while I voted that this is PC run amok, the facts are the BTN will need women viewership, and Big 10 schools could certainly do worse than try to lure better women atrhletes and students. Now if they could carry a show that stresses that ladies wearing sweats to football games are a definite NO-NO, we'd be better off!

Blue (and White) Fan said...

You make great point T9. However, women have the Lifetime and Oxygen networks. Yet I don't see them making any efforts to broadcast sporting events. Maybe that's not their format so to speak. My feeling though is if women's sports were profitable they would find a way to broadcast them. Just like stations like TNT broadcasts NASCAR. I think that station also airs NBA games.

Hey, I am all in favor of equality. But this is a PC move, hands down.

Blue (and White) Fan said...

Off Topic -

Even though this is a Michigan site I read it often. I must admit this is the funniest blog I have ever seen! You guys always make me laugh.

And I promise you this. Penn State WILL beat Michigan again. Notice I didn't what century that would be, but it will happen.

Thanks again!

25 said...

The Big ten is just trying to look proactive because in all actuality they will have to show women's sports just to fill programing. The major networks already have contracts to broadcast the college football and men's basketball games so what else is there in the way of men sports to show besides baseball.

25 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MGoBlue93 said...

I'm sure a salacious rape case had nothing to do with it? right!?

T9... don't you think it's a bit disingenuous to start your rant out with "Here's a question for the PC-haters" and then use a incident where rumor and innuendo ruled the day and the prosecuting attorney got himself disbarred?

Quite frankly, I have no opinion one way or another regarding the telecast of women's sports... but it appears that you call people out for being PC and you make a PC comment yourself.

BTW, I coach girls soccer; your more cogent points are not lost on this poster.

CrimeNotes said...

I rarely (okay, never) watch women's sports but I don't think this is a PC move. This network is going to be desperate for content. They'll need to broadcast a lot of women's sports in order to fill dead air. My guess is that they're trying to make it sound like a programming choice and not what it is: filler. This channel will feature second-tier games in major sports and a bunch of junk nobody cares about.

Devil said...

We're talking about Jim Delaney, so, definitionally, this is about the money. As others have noted, this network will be crying out for content. If they can produce women's games on the cheap and try to build an audience for women's sports (i.e., turn them into less of a net revenue drain on ADs) and meanwhile claim to be good people for doing so, it's worth a shot.

BaggyPantsDevil said...

I’m going to go with “great idea” if only for the prurient interest angle demonstrated so well by the pictures accompanying this post. As a heterosexual male, if I have to watch a sport I otherwise have no interest in, I’d rather it be played by fit, young women.

I think TitleIX nails it and this is a case of the network trying to kill two birds with one stone. Since they’ve got to find some way to fill all that air time, why not sound enlightened by proclaiming themselves the first network ever committed to equal time for women’s sports. Hopefully, the most attractive games in any sport will be on a more available networks.

My biggest worry with the Big Ten Network isn’t that the Michigan-Ohio State game won’t be shown in lieu of women’s synchronized swimming but that a game like Michigan-Wisconsin will be shown on the BTN, which--since I live in the heart of ACC basketball country--I won’t ever get, instead of ESPN or ESPN2, both of which I do get. I can see the BTN--and the chance that it won’t be available in many parts of the country--actually decreasing the number of Michigan football games available to fans outside of the state of Michigan.

As far as I’m concerned, the less Michigan football games shown on the BTN the better. Last season, in spite of living in a desert wasteland that’s kind of, sort of PAC-10 country--yeah, I move around a lot--I was able to watch nine out of thirteen Michigan football games on NBC, ABC, or ESPN. To me, that isn’t bad and if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. I don’t want to see every Michigan game except those against Notre Dame and Ohio State banished to a cable network that is not even available to me.

harry hasselhoff said...

So a network that already seems destined to fail given it will not be carried by the country's largest cable operator and will probably be a pay channel on most others is now further sinking itself by pledging to broadcast not the most popular sports, but the sports that suit the political motivations of the Big Ten powers-that-be????

Yost said...

Was hoping you'd offer comments and your POV on this subject due to your blogger handle.

While we're on opposite sides here, as stated in the original post, this isn't about giving women second-hand gear for their sports. Wasn't advocating that.

Most importantly, this also wasn't an either or thing as stated in your first comment -- as in televising half women's sports on the BTN or none at all. Again, wasn't advocating that, either.

My issue is with arbitrarily mandating that there will be an even split of male/female sports. That, imho, is silly.

As so many people have said, they're going to be starved - especially outside of football/b.ball season for content. There is - and should be - plenty of air time for ALL the non-rev sports, male and female.

Finally, yeah, you're right about the pic. But when I was searching for something to put up w/ the post, that was just too good to pass up even if it muddles the point.

CrimeNotes said...

The link from God of Whoppers is great -- it puts into relief the hubris and retardedness of Jim Delaney and this entire dumb idea.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said cable TV giant Comcast should apologize for remarks that he claimed were "intended to denigrate institutions and teams" in his conference.

And the company responded emphatically: Forget it.

The conference and Comcast are at odds over the price of the new Big Ten Network and whether it should be offered on basic cable. And they're also feuding over the wording of a press release in which Comcast said the Big Ten network will show "second and third-tier sporting events," called it "a niche sports channel" and added: "Indiana basketball fans don't want to watch Iowa volleyball, but the Big Ten wants everyone to pay for their new network."

"In the Midwest, when you're talking about a women's sports team, you talk about them with respect," Delany said. "They're not second tier. ..."

Delany, a Comcast subscriber, remains hopeful a deal can be reached.

"But if I read again about the second-rate, second-tier women's volleyball team from Iowa as the centerpiece of our programming, I'm going to say the same thing I'm saying now," Delany said. "That is, I think it's inappropriate."

Shades of Fox Sports Detroit precuror PASS, only without the excitement of Live from Ladbroke DRC.

John said...

in the eyes of the NCAA, aren't all college sports created equal? shouldn't the big X(+1) reflect that? I hear your argument yost, but this is the same body that uses the term "student athletes." if the network broadcast grabbed all the events that would get the most viewers (i.e. most big X football games) and had football analysis shows, classic games, etc., you'd be making a post on how the big X is making even more money off the football players.

For a league and sanctioning body that prides itself about being about "student athletes" and their accomplishments, I think this move is the best. You've seen the commercial: "hundreds of student athletes are going professional in something other than sports." So what if you lose money on broadcasting womens field hockey, the NCAA and big X is about providing a forum for these sports. Its not necessarily being PC, its not being hypocritical.

Yost said...

If you think this network is anything but a money making venture, you're sadly mistaken. It's not about showcasing the downtrodden "student athlete" to the world. If it was, Jim Delany would be giving it to Comcast for free and not locked in a bitter dispute over pricing.

It's about putting on things people want to watch. People - especially if the BTN is not on basic cable - who will be charged. And if they don't watch, it fails.

The Big 10 provides the sports - equally - for men and women, to participate in. Now they're supposed to provide a "forum" on TV as well? Even if nobody watches? It's one thing to provide equal opportunities for men and women to play sports. It's another to also try to mandate to the viewer they have to watch in equal doses as well, even if they have no interest.

Brad Coe said...

Here is my point. If you want Big 10 Network to last, they have to make their money. If they are not getting enough viewers, then the network will not last long. So I think the bigger games and sports should have priority over other events so the viewer ratings are much higher. To keep the viewer ratings high, it would most likey be male sports and also the dominating sports such as football and baketball that would be showing. Those are facts that those sports are viewed the most. It is also fact that it is the male sports that are viewed more often than female sports. I see it both ways just as the article said. Politicaly its correct. To sport viewers it stinks. Sorry I rather watch Football over soccer, or tennis. I would also rather watch male basketball over female basketball. Im not sexest either, I just find the games more interesting and I think the facts show that most people agree. Now if I was the owner of the Big 10 Network station, my priorities would be how to make the channel successful and how to bring in the money to be able to help out all big 10 teams to be able to support them. In my view I would be trying to capture as many viewers as possible. That isn't going to happen if the network is showing tennis while another network is showing NCAA basketball championships. That is my view and im sticking to it.

John said...

i agree its a business and they want to make money, but you'll never here delay say that. broadcasting a disproportionate amount of fball and bball would do everything but validate what college critics have been saying for years, its about the $$$. Imagine what the WWL would say. of course, they are as hypocritical (using OSU and UM games to whore their ESPNU network).

I'm just saying, if you go as far as making ads and coming down hard on players who get some benefits, protecting the sanctity of the "student athlete," isn't this the move you have to make with your network?

we know there is a unspoken hierarchy among college sports, are you expecting the big X to acknowledge it by how they program their network?

zen wizard said...

I am thinking that we should take activities which are truly a sport--like map folding, Macy's sale shopping cart navigation, cake decoration, and Bedazzler T-shirt creation--that women tend to be more proficient at, and make them into sports, then broadcast the women's events for equal time.

This would boost women's collective self-esteem, as some misguided man would try to compete, in drag, in the Women's Division of, say, "Competitive Speed Bedazzling"--and summarily get his ass kicked. Especially when he models his resultant baby doll Bedazzler shirt that says, "Foxey Lady" and the letters are all uneven.

Erik said...

I like it. I'd much rather watch real actual sports (even if it's women's tennis or something) than watch some lame-ass bullshit "insider" program on some team or another in which I want to punch the host in the throat for giving me such profoundly worthless insight.

Consider the sad crap that regional FSN's have to do, and then make that into half of an entire network. It doesn't sound like much fun to me.

TitleIX said...

What I meant is that the 'attractiveness' of a salacious rape case: ie, rich white Duke men accused of raping black female strippers is what got LAX on the nation's radar screen. Obviously there was no rape and Nifong completely abused his authority etc etc etc.
Guilty or innocent, the publicity around the whole thing is what now has LAX on ESPN in my humble opinion. Otherwise, who would be watching???
It's the great american redemption story.....

Ram61 said...

Ive been watching ESPN for a while, and way before the Duke case I remember them having Lacrosse games on ESPN and ESPN2. The rape case gave it some publicity yeah, and probably a few extra viewers for 10 minutes or so, but people arent going to become Lacrosse fans just because of the case. For you to say that the only reason Lacrosse is on ESPN is because of this Duke case is moronic. I never watched lacrosse in my life, but i know teams like Syracuse and Duke because ESPN has advertised it before. Get your shit straight before talking.

TitleIX said...

I'll be sure to straighten out my moronic shit before I engage in an enlightened public discussion with MZone regulars.
Thanks for the heads up.

lane said...

most everyone's hit the nail - hard - on the head.

too much air time - not nearly enough programing to justify itself to these big cable companies for the $ they're asking for - great ploy to pass it off as 'PC'.

hey, i've got directv and it's bundled with its basic service - i'll flip by it to see what's on.

lljbone4 said...

this is ridiculous. i've only ran across no more than 10 girls in my life that absolutely LOVE to sit down and watch ANY type of game. the count for guys that i've met is countless. this shouldnt be an argument and that's it.

TitleIX said...

you should get out more and meet some real women....

when I was a little girl, my MOTHER and I watched Wide World of Sports religiously. I'm a huge Muhammed Ali fan as a result. In addition, we were ALL about the Steelers in the 70s. In fact, I wanted to be Lynn Swann when I grew up. Dad would come into the TV room looking all morose wondering, "what's for dinner?" and my mom would say, "I don't know, we are watching the game, what are you making???"

Girls RULE! :-)

Out of Conference said...

Ram61 - wtf dude?
T9 is on the mark. The Duke rape case put men's LAX in the spotlight. Sure, the women's LAX postseason always made ESPN year and after year, and I remember always seeing Duke, UNC, 'Cuse, etc always in the championship games, but men's college LAX didn't get much airtime- maybe the Mothership carried the men's championship game, but I seemed to recall it being relegated to the Deuce. They never carried men's playoff matches that I recall, just the championship game. To say that the Duke rape case didn't bring the men's sport to people's minds everywhere is simply not correct.

Yost said...

Easy, tiger. Differences of opinions are not only fine, but what make a good comments section interesting. No need to get ugly.

shawn said...

As a fan I'm tired of getting screwed.
It started with the NFL network then ESPNU. Why should we have to pay extra for games that were previously on over-the-air free stations?

I think as a fanbase we should voice our concerns.

A link to the Big Ten Network is listed below.

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/ man...ticleSource=420


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Friday, January 14, 2011

A $2.5M buyout ain't what it used to be

MZone reader SiC sends us the pic below that's making the inbox rounds in C-bus.  Thus, there is no truth to the rumor that this was taken at the State St. exit off I-94 this week.

ED. NOTE: The pic above will make no sense at all if you're not familiar with this story.

ED. NOTE II:  As noted, SiC got this via email and thus wasn't sure of the attribution.  But if anybody knows, email me to I can HT.

Mike said...

Awesome. I spit Diet Pepsi through my nose just now...

Bigasshammm said...

Thought it was a 1.5 million buyout since it was after January 1st? Thus the whole reason he made it to the bowl game.

Chad said...

Mikoyan said...

Why does he look like Mozart (or Bach or one of htose guys)?

James said...

Bigasshammm - it went down by $1.5M after New Year's, from $4M to $2.5M.

Ramona said...

C'mon guys!! You have to admit it was pretty darn cool of the guy to donate all that stuff to the Salvation Army!! Seriously, give him some credit for being decent!!

IamCris said...

agreed, was a classy move.

Crock said...

I agree that the Goodwill donation was beyond decent. I have to say the only things I would've been interested in were from the Wisconsin game in 08'.


text:
Friday, March 26, 2010

Paul Krugman on the Republican Party

The New York Times opinion piece by Paul Krugman provided a wonderfully brief description of what the Republican Party has become in recent years.

What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the G.O.P., coming not from some radical fringe but from the party’s leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was “Armageddon.” The Republican National Committee put out a fund-raising appeal that included a picture of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, surrounded by flames, while the committee’s chairman declared that it was time to put Ms. Pelosi on “the firing line.” And Sarah Palin put out a map literally putting Democratic lawmakers in the cross hairs of a rifle sight.

All of this goes far beyond politics as usual. Democrats had a lot of harsh things to say about former President George W. Bush — but you’ll search in vain for anything comparably menacing, anything that even hinted at an appeal to violence, from members of Congress, let alone senior party officials.

No, to find anything like what we’re seeing now you have to go back to the last time a Democrat was president. Like President Obama, Bill Clinton faced a G.O.P. that denied his legitimacy — Dick Armey, the second-ranking House Republican (and now a Tea Party leader) referred to him as “your president.” Threats were common: President Clinton, declared Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, “better watch out if he comes down here. He’d better have a bodyguard.” (Helms later expressed regrets over the remark — but only after a media firestorm.) And once they controlled Congress, Republicans tried to govern as if they held the White House, too, eventually shutting down the federal government in an attempt to bully Mr. Clinton into submission.

I suppose some will challenge the fact that Bush didn't get the same kind of treatment, but for there have been two glaring examples of the all-too-prevalent attitude towards Obama, and by extension, to all Democrats. One was when Joe Wilson yelled out "liar," and the other was the Bret Baier interview.

Krugman's point is that it's not a few voices from which it would be a mistake to judge the whole group. He says it's the Republican Party as a whole.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

  1. What else can you expect from a political party that welcomes in wingnuts of every kind?

    The Party of Angry White Men. I wonder why they missed that growing-up phase where they were supposed to learn how to control their anger?

  2. That tu quoque argument is as big a fallacy as any other. It's also about a childish as they come: "You did it, too"... like a petulant child shirking responsibility for batting practice on neighborhood mailboxes with a Louisville Slugger on a Saturday night with a group of friends.

    Where were these protesters for the last eight years? Oh, that's right... stocking up their bunkers and staking out federal buildings with child day cares. Seems like they are getting all frothed up to party like its 1995.

  3. I wonder why they missed that growing-up phase where they were supposed to learn how to control their anger?

    You mean like liberals do? haha.

    Skye - So it's OK when the left does it but oh so evil when the right does?

    The left is WAY out front when it comes to violent, uncivil protest.

    That doesn't excuse these actions, but it does expose you as more than a little hypocritical.

  4. Apparently, Mike W., you do not understand the term "tu quoque". Look it least be sure you are up to speed on the terms being used if you want to continue to belittle me while flagrantly showing your own ignorance.

  5. I have serious issues with all the imagery and buzzwords being used and BY WHOM they are being used. People with money and power and - most importantly - a large following of folks who look to them to "tell the truth," many of whom don't know better. Not very responsible.

    e.g., Ms. Palin and the "Reload, not Retreat," and the map with the cross-hairs. Don't give me some bullshit excuse that it's a metaphor for the 2010 election - 3 of the people on that list aren't even running again. And really? What percentage of the American people know what a METAPHOR is?

    Seriously. All you have to do is troll through my local on-line newspaper to see how many folk take these sorts of 'metaphors' literally.

    And I am NOT saying that all the smart, metaphor-lovin' folk are on the left. I am simply saying that BOTH sides have a bell curve of intelligence in their adherents. You CANNOT assume that everyone on your side knows as much or is as responsible as you.

  6. Way to play the victim Skye (as usual) Perhaps you're so sensitive and consider anything I say a personal attack because YOU have engaged in personal attacks against me like a petulant child?

    BTW - You're the last person qualified to tell anyone they're ignorant given how badly I've taken you to the woodshed in the past.

    (Do a search for "skyewriter" on my blog, You'll see a woman who revels in her own ignorance)

  7. skyewriter:

    Be extra careful around mikey. He'
    s extremely badass. He tells a few little fibs oncet in a while. Thank GOD he's telling the truth when he talks about his support of teh GAY (he supports them AS MUCH as he supports the rights of gunboyz like himself. Don't believe me? I didn't say it, he did.

  8. Demo, you really need to learn how to write correctly. I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to fix your lack of reasoning skills, but work on the easy stuff first big boy.

  9. Thanks, Democommie:
    I actually have been acquainted with the circumlogononsensicaljibberjabber from the Mikester comment-person for a while now... he regularly stalks my blog and is a wuss hiding behind the smokey ad hominem.

    He's a bit of a ganger-upper, too. But that's what I have come to anticipate from Beckerheads who *always* have to have the last word... wait for it... wait for it... he won't be able to resist commenting and *has* to have the last word. Always...

    Tee hee...

  10. (....*running to check out skyewriter's blog*...)

  11. I used to think mikey was a tough guy. Then I came to realize that he's a coward who needs his guns to feel like a man. It's quite sad, actually.

  12. More on Krugman's column:

    Sun Rises In East; Krugman Makes Fool Of Himself

    March 26, 2010

    One thing about Paul Krugman, he always gets the memo. You can count on his column in the New York Times to echo the Democratic Party's talking points of the moment, whatever they are. Thus, his current column accuses Republicans of threatening violence against those poor little Democrats. It's a dumb claim, so it suits Krugman perfectly. His "evidence" is lame beyond belief.

    (read the rest at the link)

  13. Gotta love demo & skye's continued ignorance and massive projection issues.

  14. southernfemalelawyer writes: (....*running to check out skyewriter's blog*...)

    Don't bother. Skyewriter deleted all comments made by all pro-gun positions, regardless of whether or not they were inflammatory.

  15. Yup, cowardice and reasoned discourse at it's finest.

    Now, if SFL actually wants to see some of the discussion she's free to search for Skyewriter on my blog.

    Some of us are actually interested in civil discussion. Skyewriter is not among those ranks.


text:
Saturday, 26 April 2014

It's rarity season

We've started into what is arguably one of the most exciting times of the year for birding in Ontario. It's exciting because over the next week or two we should see about 1/3 of our Ontario bird species arrive back into the province. But from a birding perspective it is also really exciting because this is one of the best times of the year to find rare birds. Just check out this list from the last week or so:
Greater White-fronted Goose in Durham, Lambton, Dufferin, Kawartha Lakes, and York
Eurasian Wigeon in Durham, Elgin, and Ottawa
Eared Grebe in Chatham-Kent
Cattle Egret in Essex
Snowy Egret in Perth
Swainson's Hawk in Hamilton
Black Vulture in Northumberland and Essex
Marbled Godwit in Essex
A very early Acadian Flycatcher in Essex
Fish Crow in Hamilton and Toronto
Bell's Vireo in Middlesex
Worm-eating Warbler in Essex
Yellow Palm Warbler in Essex
Yellow-throated Warbler in Essex and Niagara
Prairie Warbler in Niagara and Norfolk
Blue Grosbeak in Perth
Spotted Towhee in Toronto
Yellow-headed Blackbird in Ottawa and Norfolk
Painted Bunting in Muskoka and Ottawa (sight report submitted to OBRC)

(species in bold are OBRC review list species)
remember this guy from last year?
And that's just the one's I know about, I'm sure there are more out there plus even more that haven't been found yet. We're prime time for all sorts of rarities, including a Swallow-tailed Kite, like the one I saw last year.

And there are lots of goodies outside of Ontario too, with European Golden-Plover and Black-tailed Godwit in Newfoundland today and a Willow Ptarmigan in New York.

Anyways, that's a pretty nice list from the past week, what will the next weeks bring? It looks like we won't be back to south winds until the 29th when we should get the next push of birds, but the nice thing about this time of year is birds move in pretty well any conditions. On schedule for the next week are the following birds:
27 April -
Wilson's Phalarope
White-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Northern Waterthrush
28 April -
Sedge Wren
Grasshopper Sparrow
30 April -
Common Gallinule
Chimney Swift
Red-headed Woodpecker
American Pipit
Black-and-white Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
01 May -
Eastern Whip-poor-will
Warbling Vireo
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Blue-winged Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
02 May -
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Yellow-throated Vireo
Golden-winged Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Orchad Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
03 May -
Great Crested Flycatcher
Prothonotary Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Parula
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Clay-colored Sparrow
Scarlet Tanager
Indigo Bunting
04 May -
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Least Sandpiper
Swainson's Thrush
Cerulean Warbler
Magnolia Warbler

That's a hefty list! Get out there and see what you can find!!!

1 comment:


text:
Thursday, February 28, 2013

KTVT 11 claims 2013 February sweeps victory

Weekday KTVT CBS 11 News at 6 is #1 in Viewers for Second Consecutive Major “Sweep”

Dallas/Fort Worth – In the most recent February “sweep” rating period, more North Texans watched the weekday edition of the CBS 11 News at 6 than any other newscast in the time period. CBS 11 is up 21% year-to-year with an average of 166,270 viewers at 6 p.m., which is 8,750 viewers more than second-place WFAA.

This marks the sixth time in the last eight major sweeps that CBS 11 News at 6 has been number one. (It was also the most-watched newscast in the time period in November 2012, February 2012, November 2011, February 2011 and November 2010.)

“We are pleased that the CBS 11 News at 6 not only continues to be number one, but it is also growing faster than any other newscast in the time period,” said CBS 11 and TXA 21 President and General Manager Gary Schneider. “In addition, it’s exciting to see significant increases in our morning news, as well.”

Other highlights from the November sweep include:

CBS 11 is number one among viewers in network prime, with 16 of the top 20 shows, including The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Person of Interest and NCIS: Los Angeles.

The Late Show with David Letterman is the most-watched network talk show in the time period (10:30 p.m.), beating The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

In the late news, CBS 11 is an extremely close second, with an average of just 1,910 viewers separating CBS 11 News at 10 and News 8 Update at 10.

Wheel of Fortune remains the most-watched program in the time period (6:30 p.m.), with an average of 297,350 viewers, well more than double Entertainment Tonight on WFAA.

CBS 11 News experienced year-to-year gains in viewers at 4 p.m. (up 11%) and 5 p.m. (up 25%), as did the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley (up 16%).

CBS 11 is the most-watched station in daytime (9 a.m. – 3 p.m.), with significant year-to-year gains in viewers for The Talk (1 p.m.), The Bold and the Beautiful (12:30 p.m.) and Let’s Make a Deal (9 a.m.).

CBS This Morning (7- 9 a.m.) is up 72% in viewers versus last February.

CBS 11 News This Morning with Brendan Higgins and Adrienne Bankert (4:30-7 a.m.) is up 40% in viewers year-to-year, making it the fastest-growing morning news in Dallas-Fort Worth.

CBS 11 is online at

Source: Nielsen Media Research; DFW DMA Feb’13 Live+SD data; Percent increase based on decimals to the thousandth (; M-Su Prime Rank EXCLUDES OTO’s; English language broadcast stations

- Texas TV 2013 February sweeps full coverage

(This post was taken from a release sent to me by CBS Dallas - Fort Worth)

  1. Uh, that is Dallas more than four hours from here. Why do we care about this? We want to know about HOUSTON, TEXAS!

    1. I'm actually very interested in Dallas happenings as well, so speak for yourself. That being said I would like to see Houston ratings.

  2. I am speaking for myself! Give us Houston first before Dallas.

    1. Don't you think if I had the Houston ratings, I'd post them? The Dallas stations are just on the ball.

  3. Of course you would! Duh?!?!


text:
Baller Stout

Baller Stout is a blend of 4 different beers. Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch, Struise Black Albert, Surly Darkness and Three Floyd’s Dark Lord all blended together and Baller Stout is made.

In this video you can see what happens when two beer geeks decide to find out who blended these four beers together and how it works.

It turns out that Albert Einstein mixed Beer Geek Brunch and Black Albert. It’s a zombie who pours Darkness in the pot, and finally the devil herself, with her alluring violin possesses our beer geek and gets him to pour Dark Lord in, thus completing this beer.

The film is not suitable for people with sensitive nerves. Strong scenes may occur.

Watch the video here:

Posted in Beer, Brewing, Crazy Shit, Friends


text:
Everything you need to know about PRISM

Posted: July 25th, 2013 by Militant Libertarian

from Verge

1984Since September 11th, 2001, the United States government has dramatically increased the ability of its intelligence agencies to collect and investigate information on both foreign subjects and US citizens. Some of these surveillance programs, including a secret program called PRISM, capture the private data of citizens who are not suspected of any connection to terrorism or any wrongdoing.

In June, a private contractor working for Booz Allen Hamilton leaked classified presentation slides that detailed the existence and the operations of PRISM: a mechanism that allows the government to collect user data from companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Yahoo, and others. While much of the program — and the rest of the NSA’s surveillance efforts — are still shrouded in secrecy, more details are coming to light as the public, as well as its advocates and representatives, pressure the government to come clean about domestic spying.

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