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Preventing standards death march, plus augmenting RELAX NG to support variants

By Rick Jelliffe
February 11, 2009 | Comments: 12

ISO standards can, at committee request, be marked stable, which means they are not expected to change. That this is not the default may be surprising to some people, especially if you have some kind tablets of stone view of standards.

In the particular cases of OOXML and ODF, I think there is a strong need to find maintenance models that are both workable, don't disenfranchise their champions, give all stakeholders an equal voice, and prevent death marches. I suspect ODF and OOXML are both very prone to the death march (i.e. where a project just drags on, swamped by feature creep and committee paralysis.

I suggest there are two important practical issues, apart from the organizational behaviour of committees.

Schedule releases

The first is that I think the ODF and OOXML standards should move to a strictly timed release cycle. So ODF 2009, ODF 2010, ODF 2011, OOXML 2009, OOXML 2010, and so on. (ISO standards are already year stamped.)

At a particular deadline point in the year, all the maintenance items agreed to in the committee would get collected and rolled into a new version. Note I wrote agreed to: very typically committees choose the route of closing off new items for discussion, but sometimes items take years to resolve, which leaves any urgent and uncontroversial items waiting, pending resolution of the others. It becomes a waterfall process, with all the characteristic pathologies which waterfalls are prone to.

Such a regularly stage schedule would make life more predictable for vendors and their development cycle (OK, every year we schedule a service pack) and users (This fix was decided three years ago, why isn't it fixed in the standard yet?), gets fixes out faster, and also reduces the problem of bundling diverse fixes into a single ballot result.

The second thing that can help is for schema languages to support variants and evolution with first class constructs. Schematron's phase mechanism lead the way here, but I see no reason why grammars might not usefully have some other kind of mechanism.

For example, here is a possibility for RELAX NG: this could be implemented by a macro pre-processor of the schema, or combined with the language. Lets use the compact syntax: the idea is to allow two functions as particles in content models: true() and false(). (If the () notation is no good, then something else could be found.)

So that allows a pattern like the following:

book = element book {
( true(), subtitle)?,
( false(), author)?,

The logic would be interpreted so that these content models resolve to

book  =  element book {

Just using the built-in pattern definition mechanism, we can then have

has-subtitle = true()

book = element book {
( has-subtitle, subtitle)?,
(has-author, author)?,

version-2008 = true()

book = element book {
( version-2008, subtitle)?,
( version-2009, author)?,

Then, we allow patterns (on the condition that they only are true() or false()) to be specified in the command-line, overriding pattern values in the schema.

This gives us, in effect, a boolean conditional language. Dave Peterson was advocating that SGML needed something like this in the mid 1990s: I suppose that the variant issues that SGML DTD faced after 8 years or so of the release of SGML is similar to the problems we face now with schemas, 8 years or so after the release of XML and XSD.

This gives the ability to capture various different schemas in a single language, which makes the history of the changes more explicit.

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Rick I agree. Standard organizations and the specifications that are produced by these organizations need to become less waterfall like. At STAR we have adopted Agile development techniques and methodologies for producing our standard. We produce an official version once a year for general consumption, and members get access to Milestone and Draft releases throughout the year. We even have the ability to produce nightly realses of all repository artificats include guidelines. Standards development can be more agile, it just takes the willingness to change by the members and participants.

Rick, I'm not aware of any markup standards which have annual revisions. Can you suggest 3 or 4 examples as models for this?

It might work in some cases, in some industries, for example a standard that must track regulation or other business rules that change annually. But for an office document standard I think it is more natural to track the typical release-to-release interval of office applications, which tend to have major releases every 3 or so years.

Also, keep in mind the process overhead at consortium and JTC1 levels. If an approval cycle takes 9-14 months combined, annual releases are not going to happen.

As for death marches, how long exactly have we been waiting for DSDL to be completed? Since 2001? I think the two years we've been working on ODF 1.2 pales in comparison.

David: Thanks for the example. For readers who are not aware, STAR is the Standard for Technology in automative Retail. David is also an O'Reilly/XML.COM blogger.

Rob: If the question is whether standards organization's rules allow this, then certainly for ISO (and every other org I know) there is no procedural problem. Indeed, I recently heard a suggestion that a three month(!) amendment cycle would be best, to have a continual pipeline to respond to the market, and so that voting was more targetted.

[Also, remember that ISO in particular has a strong requirement that corrigenda get addressed in a timely fashion. So these (sometimes minor fixes, sometimes typos, sometimes hopeless SNAFUs) get accepted and published independent of any major version plans. ISO standards are already numbered by year, so yearly seems reasonable.]

Examples? Why is there any requirement to repeat the mistakes of the past? I can certainly name several standards where an open-ended collection process lead to a death march: indeed, XML grew out of the SGML death mark (the "five year revision" that was no where near completion after 10 years), XSD took forever, and I am sure you have been very frustrated by the delays in ODF 1.2. When you know you have a death march, relying on the poor project management of other standards is unnecessary.

Three year cycle? Microsoft may have that (and they also have a service pack systems), but if we look at OpenOffice (the Wikipedia page has a box on releases) we see a minor update (e.g. the n in m.n.v numbers) of 16 months, 10 months, 4 months, 2 months, 10 months, 13 months, 12 months, 3 months, 6 months, 6 months, 7 months. ( has some different numbers.)

The Wikipedia entry on OOXML says:
"As of the 2.0.3 release, changed its release cycle from 18-months to releasing updates, feature enhancements and bug fixes every three months.[9] Currently, new versions including new features are released every six months (so-called "feature releases") alternating with so-called "bug fix releases" which are being released between two feature releases (every three months)."

Indeed, Eric Raymond's Cathedral and Bazaar even has a section called "Relase Early, Release Often."

The trouble with the "fit in with major release cycle" approach (which is what I used to think was a reasonable approach) is that the more a standard is implemented or used by different applications and stakeholders, the less equitable or proper it is to tie things to a single product's development cycle.

So are you saying that standards groups should pick one implementation, and then time their release cycle around it? Are you going to nominate KOffice's release cycle? Are you really saying that it is OK if IS29500's update cycle should exactly follow MS Office, and that IS26300's update cycle should exactly follow OpenOffice? Surely not!

Rob #2: There is no requirement for one amendment cycle to finish before the next one starts at ISO, especially where the amendments or revisions cover different groups. Hence the comments about waterfall.

On the topic DSDL, do I sense some hostility?

The major parts of DSDL (Part 2, 3, 4) have been finished for years, and in widespread use, and indeed we are working on revisions. The minor parts have taken longer, and indeed we have cancelled two parts (well, in the case of the validation framework we are waiting until W3C gets XProc finished --and they are being very 'thorough'-- and in the case of complex integrity constraints it became clear that we should wait until the market/bazaar coughed up the technology and champions. ) But it is a multi-part standard; parts can come and go depending on market/bazaar requirements.

That is the nice thing about non-monolithic standards.

Rick, I think you misunderstand Raymond with respect to Release Early, Release Often. He is talking about Linus's early practice of having nearly _daily_ releases of the kernel. He's talking about realtime co-development, stimulating the community with new stuff continually, like a morphine drip.

And remember this was from the pre-commercial days of Linux, when the users and the community were the same and early release of the code and early release of the product were the same thing. It isn't that way today. But we can still release code early and often, do frequent developer builds, etc., while maintaining a level of stability in less frequent distro updates.

Standards development bears little resemblance to this process. We're obviously not going to release versions of a standards on a daily basis. A closer analogy would be to post frequent drafts at very short intervals (compared to typical ISO speeds), say weekly, to stimulate the community. But you would still want to have less frequent releases of the approved standard itself, since the release and adoption of a standard serves as a synchronization point between producers and consumers. In other words, neither of us care if you and I are using different versions of the Linux kernel. But we should care if we are using different and incompatible versions of HTTP, HTML, SMTP, etc.

Rob: Pretty much every standards group has, sooner or later, a death march problem. At its most severe, it shows up as paralysis where no change to a standard is possible (the long-term lack of internationalization of domain names is an example that comes to mind).

And there is also a problem that when a new version of a standard requires too much work to support, developers are reluctant to support it. Smaller, targetted changes may be more doable, especially for the small open source contributer.

If a committee prefers a three-year major release cycle for a particular project, that is fine. The issue is how to prevent this stretching into, say, a five year death march. I think even with a three year major release cycle, regularly scheduled yearly maintenance releases would still be useful.

The standards world tends to be very slapdash with its scheduling, in ways that would never be acceptable for software engineering. The release of a new version of a standard is a kind of crisis where all the implementers have to figure out whether they want to follow the new version or not. Moving to a more regular model where there are dependable milestone releases would make life more predictable for developers.

One of the troubles with ad hoc release cycles is that very often a committee will evaluate a feature request and say "We will do this in the subsequent version" (such as ODF 1.3 etc.) In effect this says "You will have to wait at least 5 years with no guarantee". A snaller, more regular release cycle would be more responsive to market needs and provide a better story for committees that decide to defer some decision from the immediate next version.

Let me be cynical. ISO Maintenance may be not essential in the strict sense. I understand that all standard consultants want the public to believe otherwise. The only purpose of having ISO standard adoption is the stamp. As Tim Bray put it concerning ISO-OOXML: "And just like your mother told you, when they get what they want and have their way with you, they’re probably not gonna call you in the morning."

If I want the public sector to adopt OOXML or ODF as their default format they don't care much if it is 1.0 or 1.3. Right now they embrace ODF without too much regard of contents and virtues because they know it it an open standard they trust. In a law you even find the "format of Openoffice". In reality governments will operate with "1.5" documents or in the case of OOXML Microsoft their pptx, xlsx, docx files. Despite that ISO OOXML has really earned a bad reputation and its official endorsement by a government agency would get people to yell at your administration, so you would better ask them to support docx than OOXML.

The standard consultant objective of maintenance and the commercial objectives differ. Maintenance is just pro-bono. How would it affect public adoption if ISO stamps 1.2 in 2015? From my experience I would argue, not at all. It is more like a Debian release, if it gets released it is also irrelevant.

In a strict ISO cult sense the situation may be different. The irrelevance of ISO is dictated by their slow process.

André: If the purpose of the standards is branding, then you are right. If the purpose of the standard it to allow interoperability, you are dead wrong. The ISO process is a nagging dog, demanding maintenance and allowing inconvenient issues to be raised and hard questions to be asked if there is interest.

Indeed, maintenance is a litmus test for whether the proponents of "interoperability" for each standard were talking complete crap. Interoperability is all about how the gaps (between versions, implementations, extensions) are handled in the least toxic ways.

I don't see how people can have it both ways: claim that the ISO process is inadequate then not even meet its standards!

By the way, where does 2015 come in: are you saying you don't expect OASIS ODF 1.2 until 2014. That would really be a death march.

ISO did not approach OASIS to make ODF a ISO standard, OASIS approached ISO. Ditto for ECMA and OOXMLM. And an ISO standard requires maintenance and scrutiny.

Why is maintenance a "standard consultant issue"? It is interesting that you pit "standard consultant" against "commercial interest" rather than "users" against "vendors". Maintenance is an interest for all stakeholders and we need to find ways to make the process and the implementability pallattable for the broadest range of stakeholders.

Rick and et al.: The problem here is the same thing that Agile development methodologies face when being introduced to software development. The feeling that their process is unique, and that doing it in iterations, and releasing early and often can't be done. Agile development can be applied to standards development, it takes a willingness of those doing the development to be willing to change the way they do it. Only develop for what you know now, not what might be needed in the future. Automate the build and publishing of the standards, implement where possible unit testing if you are producing a grammar no matter what format that is. Prioritize the backlog, set a development cycle of 4 weeks or less. Release Milestones for review, set a release candidate cycle. At STAR we have proven that this can be done. In most cases it's the process that needs tweaking and a willingness for those developing the standards to change.

I wrote a paper a while ago addressing this title "Agile XML Schema Development" and it can be found at:

BTW, slight correction the blog is at

No output of a process with a long or deep engagement graph can release early and often without causing apples to fall off the cart. It is precisely a complexity challenge where the dependencies determine the degree of noiselessness.

In human terms, it really depends on what you care the most about. Stimulating a community and irritating members are the same thing.

There is no cult of ISO. There is a cult of 'we are smarter and faster and entitled' and it has nothing to do with any particular organization. It is a cultural phenomenon with inexperienced parties on one end and slightly devious and occasionally disgruntled parties on the other end who have in common the trait that feathering their own nests is far more important than the community outcomes.

Pick a side but remember, the empty side (don't play) is always a member of the set.

RELAX NG already has the proposed feature.

has-subtitle = empty

has-author= notAllowed

book = element book {
( has-subtitle, subtitle)?,
(has-author, author)?,

Murata: I had missed that! Great! That opens up some exciting possibilities.

(The standard has no natural language describing the operation of . I think we should look at this.)

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Friday, February 12, 2010

Recent Oil paintings

i've been getting out regularly and painting from life on the weekends. here's the latest 2 i thought turned out. i've been experimenting with the sight-size method and i have to say i'm liking the results...a lot !!

Monday, February 08, 2010

CG Unit shout out

thanks to CG Unit for the shout out. a daily source of visual inspiration!

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Denver Broncos blog, news and rumors

[hype it up!]
[Share with Yardbarker]

Published on 05/24/2012 at Thu May 24 16:08.
Tagged: ,,.

Broncos iPad

One of 90 iPads the Denver Broncos distributed to players in 2012 for the team's playbook and video.

The Denver Broncos join the likes of the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers by digitizing their playbooks for 2012.

Want to plow Philip Rivers‘ helmet into the turf, or leave Troy Polamalu so torched on a long gain he’s left scratching his well-conditioned head? There’s an app for that.

Image via Elliot Coffey on Twitter.

  • Jon

    That’s pretty cool. It’s pretty dumb though that the NFL doesn’t allow teams to use them on the sidelines. That will probably change someday.

  • Josh Temple

  • Anonymous

    Bill Bellicheck is gonna hack our systems and others!


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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Sunday, August 14, 2016 12:30 am by M. in , ,    No comments
Parallel Spirals
Elspeth Rushbrook
What can a secret mermaid, Belgian beguines, Jane Eyre and a modern East Anglian vicar have in common?
Stories within stories within stories about the boundary between friendship and sexuality, the power of cinema, and a secret that risks everything in this world and the next.
Maybe I’d like you to be a little shocked — it’s what the world needs!
One of the 'stories within stories' is Eyres and Graces - A Twist on the Tale at Thornfield.

Check the author's website for more info:
Three time periods, three counties, two countries and two films that move on the lives of two women - or would that be six?
A story within a story within a story - each in a different time period, moving on the next strand.
A young woman in contemporary East Anglia faces a secret and realisation that changes the course of her destiny in this life and the next. The inner story is a subverted retelling of Jane Eyre, transposed to the Fens - but Rochester fans, beware! It also draws on the Bronte's juvenile worlds for the final story about a Flemish friendship of opposites which makes all three protagonists go up a tier in the spiral -
or fall into it.
It's about the power of cinema and story to hold up a mirror to what we will not see.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll crush your knees together.

Post a Comment


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There are two unique opportunities to engage directly with the DOE this week on issues specific to District 13.

The District 13 CEC hosts a Town Hall meeting with Chancellor Carmen Farina.  The gathering provides a unique, albeit brief opportunity to ask the Chancellor about the issues that matter most to you and your family.  The CEC is also soliciting input from parents ahead of the meeting as to what questions they should ask the Chancellor.  Submit comments, questions or feedback anonymously via their website, www.cec13.org.

6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
PS 256
144 Kosciuszko Street
Brooklyn, NY

Immediately following the Town Hall, the CEC will hold it’s May Working Session at the same location.  Click HERE for the meeting agenda.

7:45 – 9:00 pm (ish)
PS 256
144 Kosciuszko Street
Brooklyn, NY

As the end of the school year draws near, the District 13 Schools Community Working Group casts an eye toward the implementation of the rezoning of P.S. 8 and P.S. 307.   Join representatives of the DOE’s Office of District Planning and delegates from both schools as they discuss the rezoning rollout and the priorities for their respective schools in the coming 2016-17 academic school year.

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
District 13 Office
335 Park Place
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Have an idea for a great program at your school but no funds allocated in the budget?  The Brooklyn Heights-DUMBO Patch reports the Walentas Family Foundation is sponsoring grants of up to $25,000 for District 13 and 14 schools through their Neighborhood School Grants Program.

“The Walentas Family Foundation believes that individual schools themselves know best how to assess their needs and how to address them given their unique capabilities and resources. Through the Neighborhood School Grants program, we seek to support those projects that do the most to enrich students’ learning experiences and help a school to achieve its central mission.”

Each school may apply for one grant, applications must be submitted by a school Administrator by May 31st.  Click for the application.

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NBA Beer Prices

Last year, I posted about how high beer prices were at NFL Football stadiums, and, not surprisingly, the same is true for NBA Basketball games, as well. According to the Bleacher Report’s NBA Beer Prices Are Absurd, the price for a beer at an NBA game starts at $5 and can go for as much as $9, depending on the arena. The other interesting finding is that there doesn’t seem to be any logical reason for the price disparity and, naturally, team owners can charge whatever they want. Why people will actually pay that much … well, that’s a larger discussion. Below is a chart of NBA pricing across the league. It appears that between $7 and $7.50 is the average, which is, as the title of the piece suggests, a pretty absurd price for a small beer.

While the NBA story doesn’t break it down by ounces, as the NFL one did, is does say that the pricing is for “a small beer.” And while that’s not defined, the NFL average was $7.28 for 17 oz., I have to assume a “small” is less than that, probably closer to 12 or possibly 14 ounces. And if that’s true, that would make NBA beer even pricier than at an NFL game, which is pretty hard to swallow.

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Experiencing the Multiple Dimensions of Whitewater Kayaking

The multiple dimensions of kayaking have kept me interested in the sport for all these years. Rivers provide a dynamic environment, always moving, always changing, never the same from moment to moment. Whitewater river trips typically provide periods of frantic excitement interspersed with periods of calm. As captains of our own boats, kayakers get immediate rewards when things go right and immediate consequences when things go wrong. Whether running a whitewater river or playboating, kayaking provides many mental and physical challenges that always provide new things to learn and new things to do. Along the way there can be many other memorable things such as the weather, the geology of the river canyon, the wildlife, and the antics of our fellow kayakers. I like traveling to explore new rivers and revisiting favorite rivers. I enjoy the exercise and the fresh air, I like watching other whitewater kayakers and learning from them, and I like teaching what I know to others. Mark Twain said that rivers have "a new story to tell every day" and I couldn't agree more.

More about: Whitewater River Philosophy & River Quotes.

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Friday, February 23, 2007

Auburn Dam Opponents in the Blogosphere

Here is a list of bloggers opposing Auburn Dam and supporting river conservation. Please add these sites to your blogrolls. Let me know about any other blogs that should be added to this list. If we all link to each other and post comments on each others' blogs it will help us to get higher ranks in the search engines. This will get our message out to more readers and more voters.

River Blogs Opposing Auburn Dam.

Environmental Blogs Opposing Auburn Dam.

Political Blogs Opposing Auburn Dam.

Auburn Dam supporters currently have the highest ranks in the search engines.

Try searching for Auburn Dam in any of the search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. and you will see what I mean. Auburn Dam opponents will need to get smarter about putting our message out on the Internet if we want to compete better for the attention of our potential supporters. My Tips for Bloggers section describes what I know about publicizing a blog and earning higher ranks in the search engines. It starts with quality and quantity of content. Write about important things that other people will be interested to read. Make links to other sources of great info using the name Auburn Dam whenever appropriate in your hyperlink text. Put Auburn Dam in the titles and subtitles of your blog posts. Register your blog with online directories. Contact website owners and ask them to link to your blog. Install the Google toolbar into your web browser, enable display of PageRank information and work towards higher PageRank scores for your blog.

More about: Auburn Dam, Flood Control and River Conservation.

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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Mini Chocolate Chip Love Sandwiches.

I've never been one of those girls who hates Valentine's Day. I unashamedly love all the pink and the flowers and the teddy bears and having an excuse to bake heart-shaped things while watching The Notebook
I made these bite-size chocolate chip cookie sandwiches for my boyfriend this past week.
Because I love him.

And he loves chocolate chip cookies.
And because I really wanted to use these:

Thankfully they didn't explode all over my kitchen like certain other Valentine treats.
Aren't they cute?

Since my boyfriend's not too big on super-sugary frostings, I filled them with a marshmallow creme filling for a whoopie pie recipe instead of a buttercream frosting.
And, of course, I tinted it pink.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Mini Chocolate Chip Love Sandwiches

Printable Recipe

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/3 cups Marshmallow Fluff or marshmallow creme
1/4 teaspoon salt dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Food coloring

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream together the shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to the shortening mixture in batches, mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop out dough and roll into 3/4 or 1-inch balls. Place on a greased baking sheet two inches apart and bake for 9 minutes, or until done.

When the cookies are cool, make the filling. Beat together the butter, shortening, sugar, and marshmallow fluff until well combined.

Dissolve the salt in the water and add to the marshmallow mixture. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

If tinting the filling, carefully drop food coloring in and beat until color is evenly distributed and the color desired.

Pipe or spread filling onto the flat side of a cookie and press a second cookie on top, twisting it a little to squeeze some of the frosting out of the sides. Then roll the sides in sprinkles!

Source: Idea from Sing For Your Supper. Cookie filling recipe from The Novice Chef Blog.

  1. I love how your cookies are so cute and the bite-sized portion is definitely appealing. Somehow, when things are small, I'm able to convince myself that I can eat more of them. I have a sweet treat linky party that's going on at my blog until Monday evening and I'd like to invite you to stop by and link your cookies up.

  2. These are so gorgeous! And very adorable for V Day! I can see that you like Valentine's Day - it is a very cute holiday, after all.

  3. This is so pretty. Perfect timing too, since I've been wanting to make those tiny chocolate chip cookies. And I have those same sprinkles!

  4. what a great idea--frosting and chocolate chip cookies! can you imagine a better combination?!

  5. So adorable! The miniature size of the cookies means you can eat more than one, right? ;) Happy Valentine's Day!

  6. Yum! These look great. I want one right now! *sigh* Oh well, I will just content myself with looking at them. :)

  7. What a great way to make a choco chip cookie into Valentines treat. SO adorable. Any excuse for hearts has me going, too!

  8. Oh these are so cute, I'm diggin' them! I'm not too much of a marshmellow girl... I'd go for the super-de-duper sugary frosting!

  9. These are super cute! I love a good chocolate chip cookie.


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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

button, button, who's got the button?

 Last time I hung out with El, she showed me the most adorable button bracelets she’d made.  Then I saw this bracelet for kids on Martha’s site while doing some research for the CSI Project's latest theme.  I thought the button bracelet idea was adorable.  Then I thought it would be even more adorable for a kid if you used those huge buttons in primary colors.  THEN I thought, why stop at bracelet??  How about a toddler-sized button belt???  And then I thought I wonder if there’s any pistachio pie left.  (But that’s beside the point).
This is the easiest belt you’ll ever make.  (Well, that’s probably not true.  If you ever tie a scarf or sash around your waist and call it a belt, that’s way easier.  But this is pretty darn easy.)

Seriously, THAT’S IT!!  Isn’t it great?  Oh, you’ll need a pair of scissors too, or some other cutting implement.

First things first.  Measure the waist of the toddler.  If the toddler’s waist is not around, measure across the back of a pair of the toddler’s pants that fit well and multiply by two.  If a pair of the toddler’s pants is not around (i.e. you are making this for your niece) then measure around a different toddler’s (of the same approximate size - i.e. your son’s) pants.  (I was pretty sure bug couldn’t pull off the button belt thing... it seems a bit girly don’t you think?  So I made it for K, knowing full well that it will get handed down to mini - if it survives. (crosses fingers)
Now, lay out your tape measure and line up your buttons to the length you need - to make sure you have enough.
Now you can lay out the pattern you want (I used a color pattern, making the sizes of the buttons random).  You can combine the first two steps, I won’t mind.  In fact, it’s really the smart and efficient way to do things.
Take your elastic cord and measure how long you need it to be.
Then, double it.
Then add about two inches to give yourself room for tying a knot.
Now, take the first button and one end of the elastic.  Thread the elastic through a hole, back to front, then down through the hole next to it, front to back (so the elastic is going across the front of the button).
Slide the button down the the mid-point of the elastic.
Now, take the other end of the elastic and thread it through the bottom row of holes in the button, the same way you did the top holes.
Now you have two “threads.”  One for the top row of button holes and the other for the bottom.
Make sure to leave a little lax in the elastic, so you can pull it out to form a loop.
Continue threading buttons.

Keep threading.

Around the half way point, begin to wonder if making a bracelet wasn’t a much better idea?
If you have a button you want to use with just two holes, instead of four, take the top elastic and thread it front to back and the bottom elastic and thread it back to front.  This way, the button will stay oriented the way you want it to and the elastic will still be shown on the front of the button, like the other buttons.
When you’re done threading all of your buttons, tie a tight double knot in the two ends of elastic and trim the ends off.
To attach, just pull on the elastic at the end of the belt (the very first button you threaded) to create a “loop” and pull this over the button on the opposite end.  A belt!  (Or a necklace, really, looking at it now...)
Take it over and give it to your two yr old niece.
Coax her into trying it on.
And now, the most challenging part of the WHOLE PROJECT.  Try to get a good picture of her modeling the cute belt.  Good luck with that, it may be impossible.
(the belt in motion.  Literally.)
Can you guess what THIS pile of buttons will be?
When I finished the belt, I decided I needed to make my sister a bracelet, so she didn’t feel left out.  I used two hole buttons and threaded them the way I explained the two hole buttons above.  Perfect little present for that crafty someone in your life!  And so easy too!

She held much more still for the photos, but with the dreary weather, a good shot was still evasive.

Linked to:

Jenn @ Delicious Ambiguity said...

Very cool idea! Thanks for linking up to Tot Tuesdays!

Vanessa's Ventures said...

I have a ton of these big buttons, I'm totally going to try this, I think my daughter will love it. Great Idea!

Bethany @ The Paper Pony said...

Great idea- quick and easy! I love it!

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ARP 254-4314 Ford 351R Block, W/6049-N351 Heads, Hsk

ARP Part Number 254-4314 for the best price at

Brand: ARP
Part Number: 254-4314
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Description: Ford 351R Block, W/6049-N351 Heads, Hsk
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ARP or Automotive Racing Products History

They say that to be successful you must identify a need and satisfy it. Back in 1968 racing enthusiast Gary Holzapfel saw that many of his friends broken engines were caused by fastener failure.

At the time, there were no commercially available studs and bolts up to the challenge. So Holzapfel called upon his many years of fastener making experience for a leading aerospace subcontractor and founded ARP (Automotive Racing Products).

In the ensuing years, the firm has grown from what was literally a backyard garage workshop into a highly diversified manufacturer with five operational entities in Southern California with a combined area in excess of 200,000 square feet. These include forging, machining, finishing and packaging/warehousing facilities in Santa Paula and Ventura, California.

ARP Ford 351R Block, W/6049-N351 Heads, Hsk, Part Number 254-4314

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Yukon YSPTW-046 14T Pinion Gear Thrust Washer.

Brand: Yukon Gear & Axle
Part Number: YSPTW-046
Description: 14T Pinion Gear Thrust Washer.
Condition: Brand New
Part Type: Spider Gear Thrust Washers
Part Category: Cases & Spiders
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Yukon YSPTW-046 14T Pinion Gear Thrust Washer. on sale now at 14T pinion gear Thrust washer.

Yukon Gear & Axle is the leading US supplier for ring & pinions, axles, installation kits, third members, race anddifferential small parts, tools, lockers, and positractions. If you are looking for unsurpassed quality and ever lasting durabilty the Yukon Gear is the brand for you. is your one-stop solution to all of your differential needs. Yukon gear is know for insanely high stock inventory, vast parts selection, and top-notch industry expertise. works hand and hand with Yukon Gear and Randy's Ring and Pinion to stock a huge, huge inventory! Let us be your differential expert.

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TrendingDonald Trump | Canadian dollar | Family Finance | Taxes | Oil Prices

Cyberattack threat in Canada’s oil patch raises risk of disruptions, stolen data

More from Special to Financial Post

Even as worries grow about foreign investors encroaching on the Canadian oil patch, other fears are mounting: Cyberattacks targeting Canada’s oil-and-gas industry and other major energy firms around the globe are occurring with disquieting frequency.

Last March, three confidential ‘amber’ alerts were issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning of attacks against U.S. and Canadian natural gas pipeline companies.

Most Canadian companies … are taking this threat seriously

In September, Telvent Canada Ltd., a company that helps manage 60% of all oil and gas pipelines in the Western hemisphere, experienced a mysterious cyberattack that compromised its security systems and internal firewall.

The industry is acknowledging potential problems.

“Hacking groups of all sorts from different places attack the Canadian energy industry hoping to disrupt operations, steal intellectual property, commit fraud or steal services,” said Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

“Most Canadian companies … are taking this threat seriously. Many have specialized security personnel. CAPP has a cyber security working group where member companies that have robust security programs can share best practices and non-competitive intelligence with others that may not.”

The Telvent attack, thought to be the work of Chinese hackers known as the Comment Group, resulted in malicious software being installed on company machines and in project files being stolen. One of the stolen items helps energy firms mesh older IT assets with more advanced “smart grid” technologies, according to cyber security expert Brian Krebs.

A report released by the Toronto-based Citizen Lab three years ago found that Chinese cyber espionage is a major global concern. Chinese authorities have made it clear that they consider cyberspace an important strategic domain which helps offset the military imbalance between China and other countries.

“China is unmatched in its cyber watching activities,” said Dr. Ron Deibert, director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the University of Toronto. The Canadian government, however, has not blamed Chinese hackers for recent incidents.

Telvent reassured customers in a letter on Sept. 10 that “all virus or malware files have been eliminated.” The company later released a statement outlining that its customers had taken recommended actions “with the support of our Telvent teams” and that “Telvent is also actively working with law enforcement, security specialists and our affected customers to ensure this breach has been contained.”

'Electronic Pearly Harbour'

The phrase is a common refrain in U.S. intelligence circles — the hypothetical scenario in which a catastrophic attack on key U.S. economic interests in cyberspace, including energy and power infrastructure, that could cripple the U.S. economy.

However, the computer worm Stuxnet targeting Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010 shows that cyberattacks pose real dangers.

“Stuxnet is regarded as one of the most sophisticated, publicly known cyberattacks to date,” says a report by the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University. “It should send a clear message that most critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattack.”

In a white paper, anti-virus software company McAfee Inc. also highlighted the Night Dragon attack — co-ordinated covert and targeted cyberattacks that were conducted against global oil firms in 2009.

“Attackers using several locations in China have leveraged command and control servers on purchased hosted services in the United States and compromised servers in the Netherlands to wage attacks against global oil, gas, and petrochemical companies, as well as individuals and executives in Kazakhstan, Taiwan, Greece, and the United States to acquire proprietary and highly confidential information,” the white paper says.

Clearly, well co-ordinated, targeted attacks such as Night Dragon, orchestrated by a growing group of malicious attackers committed to their targets, are rapidly on the rise, McAfee said. “These targets have now moved beyond the defense industrial base, government, and military computers to include global corporate and commercial targets.”

Ulf Lindqvist, who manages research and development at SRI International, a research institute in California, said cyberattacks are a growing threat to the energy industry.

“I can’t speculate on threat actors or their motives, [but] a cyberattack of critical infrastructure could have serious consequences. An attack could have bad consequences for the company [even when] no one gets physically hurt,” Mr. Lindqvist said. “We’re seeing more collaboration by energy companies in the field of cyber security, which is good. It’s key because security is not their [the energy sector’s] core business — they’re not supposed to be experts on cyber security.”

Beyond North America, the international energy sector has been targeted through several attacks in recent months.

On Aug. 15, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil producer, was hit by a computer virus planted by the Arab Youth Group, a previously unknown activist organization that infected 30,000 computers and warned Saudi rulers that they will face “more severe action” if they “continue to betray the nation.”

The Saudi government’s perceived close ties to the U.S. and Israel were cited by the group as being the reason for targeting the Saudi company.

And on Aug. 27, RasGas Co., a Qatar-based producer and shipper of liquefied natural gas, was targeted by a malware attack that disabled the company’s email and website.

Both incidents are believed to be part of broader, growing activist campaigns against energy companies serving Western customers that may increase in the future.

The cyber threat in Canada’s oil patch could be exacerbated by a recent decline in IT and other capital spending. Though Canadian oil and gas companies will remain among the biggest capital spenders in the world, according to a Barclays Capital Inc. survey published last month, budgets were expected to fall about 9.5% in 2012 compared to 2011 levels, with 2013 spending forecast not to change.

Ottawa has recently acted against the growing threat of cyberattacks on companies and businesses here. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced in October that national spending on cyber security is to double to $155 million during the coming five years. The announcement preceded a report about cyber concerns in Canada by the auditor-general that found many government partnerships expected to have been established were not enacted and that coverage of networks is incomplete.

Jessica Slack, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Canada, which oversees the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre, said, “Of the $155 million [allocated], CCIRC received $13.4 million over five years.” The extra funding, she said, will enable CCIRC to extend its hours of full operation and ensure that at all times, experts from CCIRC are available to deal with emergency situations.

Stephen Starr is a journalism fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and the author of Revolt in Syria: Eye-Witness to the Uprising.

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Clark's Exxon

6627 Highway 63 Moss Point MS 39563
(228) 475-1063
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Clarks Exxon located at 6627 Highway 63 in Moss Point, MS services vehicles for Gas Stations, Convenience Stores. Call (228) 475-1063 to book an appointment or to hear more about the services of Clarks Exxon.

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Since 1994, Clark's Exxon has been providing Retail - Filling Stations, Gasoline from Moss Point. Clark's Exxon has estimated annual revenues of $360,000.00 and also employs an estimated 4 employees.

Clark's Exxon is located at 6627 Highway 63, Moss Point, MS. This business specializes in Banks and Auto Fuel & Oil.

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Film distribution witnesses musical chairs

MUMBAI: Film distribution has been attracting many a companies lately. As more and more corporates join the race with an aim to have 360 degree umbrella offerings under one roof, the individual and smaller distributors are slowly but steadily fading away from the scene. What’s more, the monies that are being spent by corporates to acquire distribution rights of movies are skyrocketing by the day.

Sample this: As UTV Motion Pictures’ home productions Jodhaa Akbar and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal are being readied for release, news floating in the trade circle is that UTV is open to selling the distribution rights of these two films to a third party. And this despite the fact that UTV has the necessary infrastructure to distribute their own films.

Jodhaa Akbar and Goal have been made on a budget of approximately Rs 40 crore and Rs 20-25 crore respectively. UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur says, â€œTo sell these movies we are looking for double the cost of production, that is, Rs 80 crore for Jodhaa Akbar and approximately Rs 45 crore for Goal.â€

If Jodhaa Akbar starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai is bought for Rs 80 crore, this would be the most expensive industry transaction by far, after the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Om Shanti Om, which was reportedly sold for Rs 75 crore to Eros.< Page Break >

Recently, Adlabs too sold the distribution rights of their home productions like Sarkar Raj, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag and Namastey London to Balaji Motion Pictures, Bharat Shah’s VIP and Eros International respectively. Adlabs has also been aggressive on this front by setting up distribution offices overseas and in India since 2006.

In April, Percept Picture Company bought the distribution rights of Sony Picturesâ€™ much touted release – Spider-Man 3 for approximately Rs 10.5 crores. In the last one year, the Indian film industry has witnessed many corporates plunging into the film distribution space, which includes companies like UTV Motion Pictures, Adlabs, Balaji Motion Pictures, Percept Picture Company, Studio 18, PVR Pictures, Shemaroo Entertainment, Zee, and Nimbus.

Most of these companies produce movies in-house, hence it’s logical for them to expand and step into distribution, in order to become a one-stop shop for the correct exploitation of content produced by them. The two fold objective is to rake in moolah and also to bring transparency into the system, which is otherwise missing with third parties being involved.

Veterans in the Indian film industry – Yash Raj Films successfully adopted the studio model. The powerhouse produces and exploits its content on all platforms by themselves. A similar model has also been implemented by AIM listed Eros International. The company acquires produces and distributes their content thus forming a strong distribution network. < Page Break >

â€œThe reason for YRFâ€™s success is that they give surety to multiplexes in terms of great content most of the time and guarantees high level of occupancy every year. They have mastered the distribution game, which is based on the strength of content. This is also a reason why they manage to get better terms than most people with exhibitors. Thatâ€™s the crux of their ball game,â€ says an industry observer.

Keeping this in mind, one thought the new entrants (read corporates) too would follow the model that Yash Raj Films operates on, i.e.: to produce content in-house and distribute it themselves. Whether it was Dhoom 2, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom or Chak De! India, the company bears the profits and / or losses.

While on the one hand, UTV Motion Pictures is open to selling the distribution rights of Jodhaa Akbar and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, on the other it has acquired Welcome for Rs 500 million (Rs 50 crores). â€œIf they sell their movies for an X amount, the fact is that at the exhibition level, they might lose credibility. Why sell your own movie and buy someone elseâ€™s?â€ says an industry veteran.

Explains the head of a media company, â€œThe production and distribution departments of corporate companies are recognized as separate profit-making entities, so after a movie production is complete, it first goes to the in-house distribution department and a price for the movie is quoted. Post this, if the producer still thinks that the movie has a potential of getting a better price, he speaks to other outside distributors.â€< Page Break >

Seconding this, UTV Motion Picturesâ€™ Siddharth Roy Kapur says, â€œWe look at each film on a case to case basis. If for Jodhaa Akbar and Goal we are offered a price that we think we may not be able to make and if we trust the bidder to do justice to the content, we will sell it.â€

If sources are to be believed, Vipul Shah and Adlabs’ home production Namaste London was offered a price of Rs 28 crore by the Adlabs distribution department whereas Eros offered Rs 32 crore for the film. Hence the film landed in Eros’ kitty. On the other hand, Ram Gopal Varmaâ€™s Sarkar Raj is budgeted at approximately Rs 25 crore and was sold to Balaji for Rs 36- 38 crore.

While distributors are getting into top gear, the movie acquisition costs too are rising steeply. Tips’ Race, which stars Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu and Sameera Reddy, will release in December. Reportedly the price being quoted by Tips for the distribution rights of the film is Rs 70 crores. The movie has been made on a budget of Rs 30 crores. However, Tips managing director Kumar Taurani justifies his stand. â€œWe had planned Race almost one and a half year back and had signed actors at that time. Today if any company will make this film it will cost them the same money that I am quoting. So why shouldn’t I ask for what the project is worth at this point in time?â€

Adds another source on condition of anonymity, â€œThe on-going bidding rates for movies are just too high. There is a dearth of quality content, so whatever seemingly good content comes up, is grabbed up at higher rates out of desperation. But this is actually spoiling industry economics.â€< Page Break >

So why are the corporates trading for content at such high rates then? It is because most of them are listed on the BSE, NSE or AIM and have approximately Rs 500 crore of public money to invest, which they do so by buying outside content? The game is such that while one listed company makes an investment (by buying), the other makes a profit (by selling).

Throwing light on how companies recover the high investment costs, a source explains, â€œIf a company does not make enough money in the theatrical distribution, they bank on the satellite and home video rights.â€

The source further adds, â€œThat is why more and more corporates are bidding for universal rights (includes theatrical, music, home video, satellite and digital) and that too for a period of 10 years, and not just three or five years. This may result in other means of content exploitation to work in the company’s favour. So we need to wait and watch if at all they end up recovering their monies.â€

With more and more players plunging into distribution of movies it’s a ‘wait ‘n watch’ and ‘play it right’ time for movie distribution.


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Shemaroo releases The Green Chic.. Finding Dad on home video

Mumbai: Shemaroo Entertainment has released The Green Chic.. Finding Dad on DVDs and VCDs.

The film moves around Chiclet and his journey of finding his dad. He crosses the safe boundaries of jungle and moves to the city where a hunter carries his dad away. His intelligence, determination and courage help him meet his father again and rescue him from the crowd of the town. In the mission to find his dad, he is supported by Quacky (Duck) & Ginger (Monkey).
The VCDs and DVDs are priced at Rs 99 and Rs 199 respectively.


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Sunday, February 22, 2015

ikea Philippines

The world loves Ikea, why is it not franchised yet in the Philippines?

Already in Asia Pacific but why not Philippines?

     (Hong Kong)

     (South Korea)
    ประเทศไทย (Thailand)

Could the Entire World Really Run on Solar Power?

At our house in Cebu we just finished installing 12 solar panels that generate 1200 watts of electric at maximum.  So far so good! Have you started saving energy and greenhouse gas too?

With the Philippines prone to regular brownouts it is much better to use quiet solar which needs no fuel standby by like generators require (and gas gets old and dangerous, noisy) and generators are hard to start and cost money to operate even after purchase while solar you can even hook up with electric company and sell them excess and keeps paying you back in contrast to generators!

It’s pretty safe to say that we all know that we have to find an alternative to fossil fuels as soon as possible, and the most viable answer to the planet’s energy needs is visible to us any time we look upward. The amount of solar energy that hits just 1 square mile of this planet over the course of a year is equal to 4 million barrels of oil, and the energy that hits the Earth in a mere 40 minutes can fuel all of humanity’s energy needs for a year. Isn’t that incredible? Check out the infographic below to learn more about all the ways that solar power is the way to go, and how we can go about making it a reality worldwide.

viewer comment
I come up with about 2500 square miles for the US. There are more than 40,000 square miles in the Mohave desert alone. Presumably about 50% could be used for solar.

solar news

Gorgeous Atmos LED Lamp Uses Water to Diffuse Light

You Can Turn A $2000 Shipping Container Into An Epic Off-Grid Home

Why not in the Philippines too as a quick way to move build and move in? Lots of shipping containers here and great business idea

 The shipping container prototype can sleep six and includes a bathroom unit, kitchen, living space, and an outdoor deck. The unit is also equipped with solar power, micro heat recovery units, back boilers, and hot water heating. Put some solar panels on top and use it anywhere in the Philippines.

 Check this blog out for more links and details for an excellent business in the Philippines all over the country and reasonable price and almost instant move in... Wonder why mobile homes couldn't be developed here as well?

The World’s Best–and Worst–Tax Rules for Expats

Read more at the source article click the link below

4 Ways to Boost E-commerce With Social Networking

Read more at the source article below

Facebook's group-based selling is now a quick post away

Facebook's group-based selling is now a quick post away

Facebook is clearly extra-serious about its efforts to beat internet sale sites at their own game through groups. As part of an update rolling out over the months ahead, the social network's For Sale Groups will let you tap a simple Sell button to hawk your wares -- from there, you'll just have to write a description and set basic details like the pick-up location and price. You'll also have an easy way to mark items as sold, or to sift through your history if you don't remember whether or not you sold that table lamp. Are these enough to make you ditch Craigslist?


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Welcome to Fall Giveaway!

Hello, friends!

I am *Just a Little Bit* excited about today’s post!  I’ve teamed up with some other amazing Bloggers to offer up an incredible giveaway!

Love Target? ME TOO Lets get our shopping on! Or, if you love makeup and pampering yourself, we’ve got a Sephora gift card too! This giveaway is winner’s pick, so be sure to take a few minutes and enter for a chance to win this Welcome to Fall Giveaway!!

This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL! You must be 18+ to enter or have a parents permission. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

There will be TWO winners! 1st Prize and 2nd Prize chosen by random draw.

1st Prize: $500 Sephora or Target Gift Card, winner chooses the store

2nd Prize: $250 Sephora or Target Gift Card, winner chooses the store

GIVEAWAY ENDS 9/27/2016 12:00 AM EST

Entering is so easy, just use the Rafflecopter below and show some love to this list of awesome gals. That’s it! If you don’t have time right now to sit and finish all of the entires, no worries! The giveaway is open until 9/27/2016 so you’ve got plenty of time to do a few entries per day!

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OH&S_Leaderboard 12/28/16

MST - Modern Safety Techniques

Rating: 0 - Write A Review
P.O. Box 87
Hicksville, OH 43526-0087
Phone: click for phone
About MST - Modern Safety Techniques
  • Welcome to MST, Inc. manufacturers of Respiratory Protector®that removes carbon monoxide, along with particulates, taste and odors. If you don't need 'CO' removal, we also carry a complete line of Breathing Air Systems for removal of particulates, taste and odors. 'CO' monitoring is standard with all systems, the 5700 monitor is CSA Approved for Instrinsic Safety Class 1, Div. I, Groups A, B, C and D hazardous locations when utilizing only 9 volt batteries.'CO/O2' monitoring is also available.

    Our one of kind Purification and Filtration Systems offer a 4-stage filtration that provides the extra protection to ensure the safety of your workers, while being cost effective for your company!
Competitors of MST - Modern Safety Techniques
  • Georgia Steel & Chemical Co., Inc.

    For over 39 Georgia Steel & Chemical Co., Inc has been the leading company in developing innovative and cost effective industrial respirator washers, respirator dryers, and respirator cleaning chemicals. Our goal is to protect personnel and to meet OSHA, ANSI, NFPA and CSA Standards by...
  • Chemteq

    Chemteq manufactures real-time cost effective filter replacement indicators for carbon filters and ductless fume hoods. We also manufacture water analysis kits, surface wipes, filters, and area monitors.
  • Micro Air Inc

Products by MST - Modern Safety Techniques
  • RP050BMST

    The only true portable, continuous-use CO removal systems available. Operators enjoy extra freedom while breathing cleaner air. MST's unique LTCAT low temperature catalyst offers significant benefits over all other CO removal systems. By eliminating dryers, our unique design removes more than... Read More


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OH&S_Leaderboard 12/28/16

Lighting Pro Technology COMPANY

Rating: 0 - Write A Review
20-28 Sargeant Street
Hartford, CT 06105
Competitors of Lighting Pro Technology COMPANY
  • Rockford Systems LLC

    Rockford Systems, LLC delivers innovative machine safeguarding solutions for organizations working with industrial machinery. As a trusted adviser since 1971, Rockford Systems helps organizations interpret and apply complex Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and... Read More
  • General Electric Company

  • Federal Signal Corporation


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  • Manufactured by: PEC

50 tabs each contains 10 mg Methandienone

Pharmaceutical Name: Methandrostenolone / methandienone
Chemical Names: 17a-methyl-17b-hydroxy-1, 4-androstadien-3-one 1-Dehydro-17a-methyltestosterone methandienone
Molecular Weight: 300.44
Formula: C20H28O2
Melting Point: 159-164 degrees Celsius
Active Life: 3-8hours
Detection Time: up to 6 weeks
Anabolic/Androgenic Ratio (Range): 90-210:40-60

Methandrostenolone has long been a favourite of strength athletes and bodybuilders since it's creation in 1956, with the explicit purpose of it's creation being for the use by athletes. It was the compound's ability to promote drastic protein synthesis, stimulate strength in a direct and fast-acting way, and it's ability to enhance glycogenolysis that made it so popular, and why it's popularity remains high today.

In terms of it's medical use, methandrostenolone was/is used in the treatment of conditions such as interstitial-pituitary insufficiency, chronic adrenocortical insufficiency, thyrotoxicosis, diabetic angiopathies (retinopathy and nephropathy), steroidal diabetes, and pituitary dwarfism among others (1). However, due to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's belief that the compound was being used inside of the bodybuilding community far more than in the treatment of medical conditions, it ordered that American companies discontinue it's manufacture in the early 1990's. Numerous drug companies outside of U.S. borders continue to make the drug however, and it's prevalence on the black market has remained very high.

It can be concluded that the best use for methandrostenolone is short-term with most users prefering to use the product for between four to six weeks, although some will prolong the use with limited consequences to health, despite its strong hepatoxic effects. For the most part, most recreational users begin admistering methandrostenolone at the start of a longer bulking stack to "jumpstart" gains in mass and strength. However, it's use prior to various sorts of competitions is also quite common so that it's effects are realized during a specific period.

Due to the active life, which is three to eight hours, multiple doses throughout the day of methandrostenolone should be utilized. It is best to maintain bloodlevels as evenly as possible, therefore dividing doses throughout the day at even amounts is required. Some argue that administration of the drug should cease a few hours before you sleep as it will cause further HPTA shut down, as the body's natural testosterone production during sleep could be affected. However, if you are taking other compounds along with methandrostenolone, these will already be shutting down your natural testosterone production, therefore this is not a concern. In terms of dosing, it has been reported that doses of 10 mg can increase androgen activity by five times, as well as have an effect of a 50 to 70% decrease in cortisol activity (2). Despite this, the majority of anecdotal evidence suggests that twenty to forty milligrams is the norm in terms of first time users (as ascertained from the anecdotal knowledge gleamed from various users). However, doses ranging from 100-150mg and higher have been reported by some experienced users. As with the majority of ananbolic drugs, the returns are seemingly diminished and the likelihood of side effects increase as the doses do.

Similar to nearly all oral steroids, the vast majority of users will recognize the fact that methandrostenolone should not be run alone and only stacked with other compounds. This is due to the fact that most users who have run methandrostenolone only cyles have reported anecdotally that it is extremely difficult to maintain gains post cycle. However, the same is true when discontinuing the drug and having your other compounds "kick in", if they are long ester. It is often the case that the water retention experienced while on methandrostenolone will be shed but the gains in strength and mass will remain due to the other compounds being present. It can be argued that therefore, the gains experienced while on methandrostenolone are short lived no matter what the circumstances and the compound should only be used as a quick fix for either competition or else simply as a motivator while waiting to notice the effects of long estered compounds. However, others will argue that the gains they make while using the compound are indeed maintainable. Therefore, personal experimentation is once again the only way to see how an individual reacts.

Risks/Side Effects

Estrogenic side effects can be a concern with methandrostenolone, as it converts to estradiol via aromatase, although this is quite modest at best. High blood pressure, water retention, gynocomastia, and acne are all possible undesireable side effects during use of methandrostenolone. As an aside, a high number of users have also reported experiencing nose bleeds while using the compound. Some attribute this to an increase in blood pressure, while others have not noticed a rise in their blood pressure but still experience an increase in the number of nose bleeds they have while using methandrostenolone.

Use of an aromatase inhibitor such as armidex or estrogen blocker such as nolvadex should help to counteract some of these side effects. As for potential hair loss, the androgenic metabolite 5-alpha dihydromethandrostenolone is only produced in trace amounts, and therefore hairloss should not be a concern(3). In women it is not uncommon for virilizing side effects to occur, including increased growth of androgen-sensitive hair and deepening the voice, amongst others. There are no ways to minimize these side effects in women if they are experienced other than to keep the dosage that one is taking to a minimum.

Like most oral steroids methandrostenolone is 17-alpha-alkylated so that it can't be broken down into a 17-ketosteroid, and therefore rendering the substance ineffective. However, this causes liver values to become elevated over a short period of time. It is for this reason that long-term use of any 17-alpha-alkylated steroid is considered dangerous. Despite this however, no long-term damage should be expected if use is kept to relatively short periods, with liver values returning to previous levels after use is discontinued in nearly all cases (4).

It should also be noted that methandrostenolone may be less useful to those competing in aerobic events as it also diminishes cell respiration(5). This may inhibit an individual's ability to perform at their maximum capacity.

Bridging with D-Bol: Is it possible?

A widely held belief among some in the steroid using community is that a small dose of methandrostenolone can be used to "bridge" between cycles. This is due to the fact, as explained above, 10mg taken at once will increase your average testosterone level by five times and decrease your endogeneous cosrtisone by 50-70%. This, along with the short active life of the drug, would suggest that by using a small dose first thing upon waking is thought by some to help to combat the problems asscociated with coming off of anabolic steroids. By coinciding the dose of methandrostenolone with the body's own natural testosterone spike upon waking, many advocates of "bridging" will suggest that the body will somehow be fooled into believing that this spike is natural and that LH function will remain only partially suppressed, as methandrostenolone has a comparably small influence on the natural endocrine system(6). The usual suggested dose for bridging is usually 10mg per day.

Despite appearances, this theory has very little evidence to back itself up with no real scientific evidence to suggest that a bridge is even possible, although granted that the majority of our working knowlege comes through trial and error. However, even the propnents of a "d-bol bridge" admit that complete restoration of LH fucntion will not be acheived until one is completely off of all compounds. With that said, it is unlikely that a "bridge" will help to maintain muscle mass while you are able to recover both HPTA and LH function. The only solution is to come completely off all substances and run a proper post-cycle therapy.

Methandrostenolone is an effective steroid, however, it's use must be directed at a specific goal as like most compounds it's use only fulfills a limited amount of desired effects. With this in mind, methandrostenolone can be used safely and effectively.

1. Metkinen Online Drug Profile, via internet, located at http://www.metkinen.fi/products/ferm...androstenolone
2. Rea, Author L., 2002, Chemical Muscle Enhancement: Bodybuilder’s Desk Reference
3. Llewellyn, William, Anabolics 2004, 2003-4, Molecular Nutrition, pp. 93-6
4. Harrison LM, Fennessey PV., Methandrostenolone metabolism in humans: potential problems associated with isolation and identification of metabolites, Steroid Biochem 1990 Aug 14;36(5):407-14
5. Blasberg ME, Langan CJ, Clark AS., The effects of 17 alpha-methyltestosterone, methandrostenolone, and nandrolone decanoate on the rat estrous cycle, Physiol Behav 1997 Feb;61(2)
6. Serakovskii S, Mats'koviak I., Effect of methanedienone (methandrostenolone) on energy processes and carbohydrate metabolism in rat liver cells, Farmakol Toksikol 1981 Mar-Apr;44(2):213-7

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Carrie Underwood Performs With Rolling Stones – This Is COOL!

How cool is this!?   Carrie Underwood on stage and performing with the Rolling Stones.  Shayne pointed out…how skinny is Mick Jagger if he looks skinnier than Carrie Underwood?

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Jones v. Dazo

March 23, 2010

The opinion of the court was delivered by: Gregory G. Hollows United States Magistrate Judge

Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se. He seeks relief pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and has requested authority pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915 to proceed in forma pauperis. This proceeding was referred to this court by Local Rule 302 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1).

Plaintiff has submitted a declaration that makes the showing required by 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). Accordingly, the request to proceed in forma pauperis will be granted.

Plaintiff is required to pay the statutory filing fee of $350.00 for this action. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914(a), 1915(b)(1). Plaintiff has been without funds for six months and is currently without funds. Accordingly, the court will not assess an initial partial filing fee. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). Plaintiff is obligated to make monthly payments of twenty percent of the preceding month's income credited to plaintiff's prison trust account. These payments shall be collected and forwarded by the appropriate agency to the Clerk of the Court each time the amount in plaintiff's account exceeds $10.00, until the filing fee is paid in full. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2).

The court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the prisoner has raised claims that are legally "frivolous or malicious," that fail to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1),(2).

A claim is legally frivolous when it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact. Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989); Franklin v. Murphy, 745 F.2d 1221, 1227-28 (9th Cir. 1984). The court may, therefore, dismiss a claim as frivolous where it is based on an indisputably meritless legal theory or where the factual contentions are clearly baseless. Neitzke, 490 U.S. at 327. The critical inquiry is whether a constitutional claim, however inartfully pleaded, has an arguable legal and factual basis. See Jackson v. Arizona, 885 F.2d 639, 640 (9th Cir. 1989); Franklin, 745 F.2d at 1227.

A complaint must contain more than a "formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action;" it must contain factual allegations sufficient to "raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1965 (2007). "The pleading must contain something more...than...a statement of facts that merely creates a suspicion [of] a legally cognizable right of action." Id., quoting 5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure 1216, pp. 235-235 (3d ed. 2004). "[A] complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 'state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Ashcroft v. Iqbal, __ U.S. __, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Id.

In reviewing a complaint under this standard, the court must accept as true the allegations of the complaint in question, Hospital Bldg. Co. v. Rex Hospital Trustees, 425 U.S. 738, 740, 96 S.Ct. 1848 (1976), construe the pleading in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and resolve all doubts in the plaintiff's favor. Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. 411, 421, 89 S.Ct. 1843 (1969).

The complaint states a colorable claim for relief against defendants Dr. A. Dazo; and Dr. S. Reddy, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b).

As to Correctional Officer (C/O) Holloway, however, plaintiff seeks to allege a constitutional deprivation on the basis of defendant Holloway (in another vehicle) having apparently rear-ended a prison van while plaintiff was seated in the rear of the van, shackled and without a seatbelt. Plaintiff does not allege that the incident was anything other than an accident. Complaint, p. 6.

Under the Eighth Amendment, "[c]onditions must not involve the wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain...." Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 2399 (1981). A prison official's deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to an inmate violates the Eighth Amendment. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. at 828, 114 S.Ct. at 1974. "Prison officials have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect inmates from physical abuse." Hoptowit v. Ray, 682 F.2d 1237, 1250 (9th Cir. 1982). "[A] prison official violates the Eighth Amendment only when two requirements are met. First, the deprivation alleged must be, objectively, 'sufficiently serious'.... For a claim (like the one here) based on a failure to prevent harm, the inmate must show that he is incarcerated under conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm." Farmer, supra, at 834, 114 S.Ct. at 1977. Second, "[t]o violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, a prison official must have a 'sufficiently culpable state of mind' ... [T]hat state of mind is one of 'deliberate indifference' to inmate health or safety." Id. The prison official will be liable only if "the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health and safety; the official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference." Id. at 837, 114 S.Ct. at 1979. In this instance, the circumstances plaintiff describes indicate that the rear-ending of the van was an accident, at most a case of negligence; there is no claim that defendant Holloway deliberately ran into the van in which plaintiff was seated. The claim as to defendant Holloway will be dismissed but plaintiff will be granted leave to amend.

As to defendants M. H. Casey, Jr.; I. Cardeno; T. Butler; and M. C. Kramer, whom plaintiff seeks to implicate for allegedly failing to appropriately process his administrative grievance timely, plaintiff is informed that prisoners do not have a "separate constitutional entitlement to a specific prison grievance procedure." Ramirez v. Galaza, 334 F.3d 850, 860 (9th Cir. 2003), citing Mann v. Adams, 855 F.2d 639, 640 (9th Cir. 1988). Even the nonexistence of, or the failure of prison officials to properly implement, an administrative appeals process within the prison system does not raise constitutional concerns. Mann v. Adams, 855 F.2d at 640. See also, Buckley v. Barlow, 997 F.2d 494, 495 (8th Cir. 1993); Flick v. Alba, 932 F.2d 728 (8th Cir. 1991). Azeez v. DeRobertis, 568 F. Supp. 8, 10 (N.D.Ill. 1982) ("[A prison] grievance procedure is a procedural right only, it does not confer any substantive right upon the inmates. Hence, it does not give rise to a protected liberty interest requiring the procedural protections envisioned by the fourteenth amendment"). Specifically, a failure to process a grievance does not state a constitutional violation. Buckley, supra. State regulations give rise to a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause of the federal constitution only if those regulations pertain to "freedom from restraint" that "imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life." Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 484, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 2300 (1995).*fn1 Plaintiff's due process claims against defendants Casey, Cardeno, Butler and Kramer will be dismissed but plaintiff will be granted leave to amend.

Nor does plaintiff adequately allege a claim for retaliation based on plaintiff's allegation that defendants Casey, Cardeno, Butler and Kramer refused to investigate the claims he raised in the grievance (not included), apparently regarding the therapy, or lack thereof, that he was receiving for the injuries plaintiff claims to have sustained during the prison van accident described above or that they failed to process the grievance within the time set forth for the processing of an inmate appeal in a state regulation. The filing of a grievance is regarded by the Ninth Circuit as a constitutionally protected right, Brodheim v. Cry, 484 F.3d 1262, 1269 (9th Cir. 2009), citing Rhodes v. Robinson, 408 F.3d 559, 566 (9th Cir. 2005), but in order to state a retaliation claim, a plaintiff must plead facts which suggest that retaliation for the exercise of protected conduct was the "substantial" or "motivating" factor behind the defendant's conduct. See Soranno's Gasco, Inc. v. Morgan, 874 F.2d 1310, 1314 (9th Cir. 1989). Mere conclusions of hypothetical retaliation will not suffice, a prisoner must "allege specific facts showing retaliation because of the exercise of the prisoner's constitutional rights." Frazier v. Dubois, 922 F.2d 560, 562 (n. 1) (10th Cir. 1990). Plaintiff's claim that the issues raised in his grievance were not adequately investigated or that the grievance response was not timely pursuant to a state regulatory provision does not make clear how such conduct was retaliatory and what constitutionally protected conduct it was in retaliation for. Plaintiff does not make clear how any delay in processing the appeal which may have impeded plaintiff's ability to process a claim for compensation to the state Board of Control implicates a federal constitutional right. This claim will be dismissed but plaintiff will be granted leave to amend.

Plaintiff also names as a defendant a correctional sergeant named Bradley, but the court cannot locate any allegations against this ...

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Sherman v. Haynes & Boone

United States District Court, N.D. California, San Jose Division

August 22, 2014

HAYNES & BOONE, ET AL., Defendants.

PAUL S. GREWAL, Magistrate Judge.

Before the court is Plaintiff Arthur Sherman and Sherman & Associates, Inc.'s motion to remand based on (1) improper removal prior to service and (2) lack of diversity jurisdiction.[1] Defendant Clark Stone opposes the motion, arguing the case was properly removed to federal court based on the "pro-removal" stance of this court and because complete diversity exists. Sherman and Stone both appeared for a hearing on the motion.[2] After considering the arguments, Plaintiffs' motion is DENIED.

Arthur Sherman is a citizen of Connecticut, and Sherman & Associates is a Delaware Corporation. On February 25, 2014, Plaintiffs filed a complaint in the Santa Clara Superior Court for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, and elder abuse. Plaintiffs named as defendants Haynes & Boone, MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP, Clark Stone, and Does 1-200.[3] No defendant has yet received proper service. On March 3, 2014, Stone removed the case to this court.[4]

A. Removal Prior to Service Was Proper

Section 1441, the removal statute, prohibits removal if any defendant "properly joined and served" is a citizen of the state in which the suit is filed.[5] Plaintiffs contend that as a citizen of California, Stone inappropriately removed this case to federal court prior to service.[6] Plaintiffs thus read into the statute a requirement that a defendant first be served before attempting to remove to federal court. While case law outside of this district is unsettled, [7] the Northern District of California has consistently held a defendant may remove an action prior to receiving proper service, even when the defendant resides in the state in which the plaintiff filed the state claim.[8] Like its predecessors in this district in analogous circumstances, the undersigned concludes that Stone did not contravene congressional intent by "rush[ing] to remove the action before plaintiff had any opportunity to serve them, thereby engaging in gamesmanship.'"[9] The timing of the removal was proper.

B. Stone Offers Sufficient Evidence to Show Diversity Jurisdiction Exists

Plaintiffs next argue Stone has not satisfied his burden of proving that diversity jurisdiction existed both at the time the action commenced in state court and at the time of removal.[10] However, Stone specified the citizenships of Sherman, Sherman & Associates, Inc., himself, MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid, LLP, and Haynes & Boone, LLP in his Notice of Removal of Action Under 28 U.S.C. 1441(b) (Diversity).[11] In his opposition to the motion at issue, Stone further clarified the citizenships of Defendants by submitting declarations of citizenship by Stacey L. Brainin for Haynes & Boone and Stone for MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid, LLP and himself.[12] The declarations are not specific as to each member of the defendant law firms, but they are sufficient because at this stage, Defendants need only allege sufficient facts to satisfy the jurisdiction requirement.[13]

In the Ninth Circuit "[a] district court is vested with broad discretion to permit or deny [jurisdictional] discovery.'[14] Such discovery should ordinarily be granted where pertinent facts bearing on the question of jurisdiction are controverted or where a more satisfactory showing of the facts is necessary.'"[15] And so to the extent that Plaintiffs here raise legitimate concerns regarding Stone's showing of diversity jurisdiction, the court will permit Plaintiffs to take discovery on the issue of diversity jurisdiction without delay. This discovery may proceed immediately, as opposed to general discovery, which may only be taken after the parties complete their Rule 26(b) conference.

Stone's removal prior to service was proper. While Stone's allegations regarding diversity jurisdiction are sufficient at this stage, Plaintiffs are hereby authorized to engage in immediate discovery as to the issue of diversity jurisdiction. The court will refrain from setting specific limits on the types or numbers of jurisdictional discovery procedures authorized by this order; the parties are nevertheless cautioned that such discovery is to be narrowly focused and ...

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BUZZ-U.S. STOCKS ON THE MOVE-Builders FirstSource, Arca, Arrowhead

Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:11am EDT
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(For faster updates on individual market-movers, Eikon users please use search string "STXBZ US"; for the Day Ahead newsletter,; for the Morning News Call newsletter, U.S. stocks were set for a slightly lower open after three straight days of gains, as the corporate earnings season was poised to kick into high gear with a slew of reports this week. Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 0.17 percent at 17,942, S&P 500 futures were down 0.16 percent at 2,092.25 and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.02 percent at 4,415.5.

** BUILDERS FIRSTSOURCE INC, Friday close $6.9, +56.52 pct premarket

The building products supplier said it will buy privately held ProBuild Holdings LLC for $1.63 billion in cash.

** QUALCOMM INC, Friday close $69.16, +4.29 pct premarket

Activist investor Jana Partners is asking the chipmaker to consider spinning off its chip unit from its patent-licensing business to boost the chipmaker's sagging stock price, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a quarterly letter that will be sent to Jana investors on Monday.

** ARROWHEAD RESEARCH CORP, Friday close $7.91, +12.77 pct premarket   Continued...


text:
Mickey Rourke to play Conan's father

Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:05am EST
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By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Mickey Rourke is in talks to play Conan's father in "Conan," a resurrection of the fantasy franchise that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star.

The Lionsgate project sees barbarian warrior Conan (Jason Momoa) embark on a quest to avenge the slaughter of his people including his father, Corin. Shooting is scheduled to start in Bulgaria in March. Marcus Nispel ("Friday the 13th") will direct.

Rourke, who had been tipped off to play the father by website Latino Review in January, was offered the role, but dealmaking fell apart. The two sides came back to the table in the last couple of weeks.

Rourke has been making the most from his Oscar nomination last year for "The Wrestler." In a similar path to John Travolta after his "Pulp Fiction" nomination, Rourke has signed on to a slew of projects, ranging from high-brow ("Passion Play" with Bill Murray and Megan Fox) to low-brow ("The Expendables" with 1980s action heroes) to big commercial plays ("Iron Man 2").

Schwarzenegger played the hero in 1982's "Conan the Barbarian" and its 1984 sequel "Conan the Detroyer."


text:
Modern Etiquette: A bit of netiquette will keep Christmas real

Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:04am EST
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By Jo Bryant

LONDON (Reuters) - Christmas is a convivial time of year when people get together for celebrations and conversation. It's all about human contact so it's important that you're discriminating about how you use your digital devices.

It's fine if they're used to facilitate get-togethers and spread seasonal cheer. But Christmas is a real, not a virtual event, so it's important to discard the phones, tablets and computers and enjoy festive celebrations in the real world.

Christmas cards are still an invaluable and personal way of keeping in touch with far-flung friends and relations.

In these straitened times, however, you might want to cut down the number of cards you send, so it's fine to explain to your nearest and dearest that you won't be sending them cards - a personalized seasonal message by text, phone call or email, sent out to individuals, is quite acceptable.

Avoid sending out generic e-cards. They're lazy and impersonal, and many people will find them lacking in Christmas spirit or just baffling.

If you're emailing instead of sending a Christmas card, make sure that you send out unique - and individual - messages to each of your recipients. Group emails, like round robins, are to be avoided.

It's fine to put general seasonal messages on social networking sites, but avoid posting compromising photos.

This is the time of year when we all let our hair down, but not everyone will appreciate the evidence being posted for all to see in cyberspace.   Continued...


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A Minute With: Sundance festival director John Cooper

Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:46am EST
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By Bob Tourtellotte

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - The Sundance Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, starting 10 days of movie screenings at the largest gathering of the year for U.S. independent filmmakers.

Movies screened here will become some of the hot titles of the year among low-budget and art house movies. Hollywood calls them "specialty" films. Last year's "The Kids Are All Right" screened here, as did "Blue Valentine" and "Winter's Bone."

Festival director John Cooper, Sundance's chief programer, spoke to Reuters about Sundance 2011, the tone of this year's movies, which were chosen from 3,812 entries, and current industry trends.

Q: When you pick films for Sundance, do you have themes in mind or particular types of movies you want to screen?

A: "No. We do the opposite. What we do is set categories like this year's "Next" section (for very low-budget work) or "Premieres" that movies fit into. That is how it works. We're not ever looking for a theme or expecting one because we'd always be chasing our tails."

Q: Then, from this year's selections, did any themes emerge? Put another way, what's on filmmakers' minds?

A "In the broadest sense, there seems to be a very eclectic and personal view of the world. We found the stories coming from an authentic place, very personal, and not so much worrying about commercial possibilities. They are sticking more to the truth within themselves and the stories they have to tell. That said, there are several films dealing with religion, faith and redemption, and we kind of can't help but think it has something to do with the world we are living in."

Q: Sundance is a huge event. Is it still a place where young filmmakers can get in without having a connection?   Continued...

Ticket buyers exit a box office before the start of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, January 19, 2011. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart