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Mountwest Multicultural Student Association

You are invited to a Sundae Social, hosted by the Mountwest Multicultural Student Association on Tuesday, April 24th from 2:00 to 4:00 in CA 101. There will be an organizational meeting from 2:00 to 3:00, during which time one may enroll as a member, run for office, elect officers and approve the consitution. From 3:00 to 4:00 we will enjoy a Sundae Social in which you can make your own sundae with brownies, ice cream, chocolate sauce, and all the tasty toppings you can think of. Can’t wait to see you there!

May 2012 Graduation

The Mountwest Community and Technical College commencement ceremony will be held on Friday, May 11th, 2012, at 7 p.m., at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center in downtown, Huntington, West Virginia. Graduates should be present by 6:15 p.m. and must be attired in academic caps and robes. These may be purchased at Stadium Bookstore located at 1949 Fifth Avenue, Huntington, WV 304-529-2665. Stadium will also have formal graduation invitations you can order.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, refreshments will be served in the lobby of The Fredrick, across the street from the Keith Albee. The faculty and staff are looking forward to helping you celebrate your academic achievement.

Assessment Day 2012

Please join your fellow MCTC students, staff, and faculty in our first ever Assessment Day.  Assessment Day will be Wednesday, April 4, 2012.  There are several ways that you may participate.  You may answer surveys online and/or attend sessions and town hall meetings in person.  For every activity that you participate in, you will be eligible to win one of many prizes.  The more activities that you participate in, the more chances you have to win! Information that you provide during the activities will help MCTC in the future to meet the needs of the students.  Lunch will also be provided on Assessment Day in Cabell Hall, Room 101 beginning at 11:30 am.  Please be sure to help us to provide our students with the best information and education by participating in Assessment Day 2012!

Online Surveys:

At the end of each survey you will be provided an opportunity to register for one of our giveaway’s, the information your provide is confidential and will not be used to connect your responses.

Academic Calendar Reminder:

Friday, March 16 is the last day to drop a full semester individual course.

Classes Delayed Monday, March 5

Marshall University’s Huntington campus will be on a two-hour delay, Code A, Monday, March 5. Code A affects the opening of classes only.

Mountwest Carnival of Cultures

Are you interested in meeting new friends who are international student from the MU LEAP program?  Come and celebrate the carnival of cultures with the Mountwest Multicultural Student Association!  FOOD, GAMES, and MORE!!

When:   Thursday, March 8th
Where: Cabell Hall Room 101
Time:    2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Banner/Self-Service Outage

This Sunday, February 5, 2012, we will be migrating our disk storage for Banner and Blackboard Learn from the current Clarion SAN to the new NetApps SAN.  This outage will start at 8:00am and will continue until they are finished.  We do not know exactly how long this will take, but all production systems should be back up by Monday morning.  Some services should be back up prior to that time, but the vendor can’t provide a good estimate on the migration time, because it depends on too many variables.

May 2012 Graduation Application Deadline

The application deadline for May 2012 graduates is Friday, March 16th. The application may be obtained from the front desk of the advising center, on the lower level of the Community and Technical College building. The Mountwest commencement ceremony will be held on Friday, May 11th, 2012, at 7 p.m., at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center in downtown, Huntington, West Virginia.

A letter will be forthcoming to all students who apply by the graduation application deadline with May 2012 commencement details. Caps and gowns will be available for purchase at a later date at the Stadium Bookstore located at 1949 Fifth Avenue, Huntington, WV.

Spring 2012 Payment Deadlines

Payment for Spring 2012 tuition must be received in full in the Cashier’s Office no later than Friday, January 6, 2012 for registered students. Your courses are subject to cancellation if tuition is not paid in full. You can view your balance by logging into your myMCTC Self-Service. Failure to receive a billing statement will not be accepted as a reason for missing the payment deadline.
Tuition can be paid by cash, check, or money order at the windows of the Cashier’s Office; credit card payments can be made by logging onto your myMCTC Self-Service; check payments can also be mailed to: MCTC Business Services, Attn: Cashier’s Office, P.O. Box 1539, Huntington, WV 25716-1539.
If your tuition should be covered by financial aid or a third party, please ensure with the Cashier’s Office that your tuition has been covered to avoid cancellation of your courses. If you no longer wish to attend Mountwest Community & Technical College for the Spring 2012 semester, it is your responsibility to meet with an Academic Advisor to drop your courses in order to avoid being charged for those courses.
If you have any questions regarding your account, please contact the Cashier’s Office at 304-696-3868 or by emailing cashier@mctc.edu.

Banner Services Interruption

On Saturday, December 24, 2011, WVNET technicians will be conducting important Banner system maintenance. During this time access to campus Banner production services, including but not limited to myMCTC Self-Service, will become unavailable.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.


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Startup Perils – The Unconvincible are Invincible (to your charms)

Entrepreneur = Optimist

That’s the simple truth. It is both the greatest power and the greatest weakness of any entrepreneur. Probably the best example is an entrepreneur’s temptation to try to convince the unconvinced.

Let me give you an example. I was talking to an investor. This was not someone I knew and not someone with experience in the space I was raising money for. I had sent an overview and he got a little lost in some of the jargon (my fault, obviously). I spent some time on the phone walking him through it. There was a fair amount of back and forth by email afterwards, but not in any particular direction. Every time I thought we were making progress, the investor would go quiet. I’d reach out, get a reply, but no action. When I finally thought I had answered all of his questions, I eventually went for the ask. It was a simple ask along the lines of “What are the next steps for you?”.

A few days later, I got a reply… “Not sure”.

This is a classic example of an Unconvincible.

Unconvincibles appear in every area of your business, from hiring to fund-raising to customers.

So how do you recognize an Unconvincible?

There are two primary traits

  1. They don’t easily say no. They like to talk. They ask questions. Sometimes a lot of questions. But when you look at their questions there is no particular pattern or focus. It’s just “more”.
  2. There are questions you expect that don’t get asked.

As a former mentor used to tell me about investors, “If they’re not writing checks, it’s all bullsh*t”. More broadly, if there’s no action, it’s bullsh*t.

Don’t mistake chatter for engagement. If there’s no progress, it’s not real.

So how do you convince an Unconvincible?

You don’t.

Seriously. This will frustrate every fiber of your entrepreneurial spirit, but there is nothing you can do. The only thing you can do with an Unconvincible is move on.

Consider yourself an unstoppable force and the Unconvincible an immovable object, and then watch this great video from One Minute Physics:

They are exactly right! And when it comes to Unconvincibles, the best thing you can do is develop good radar. Detect them early and move on fast.

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Posts tagged: Monarchist

Disrespecting The National Flag – Australia OK? Singapore, No Way!

By , September 19, 2011 9:51 am

This is something I wasn’t aware of – and just when I thought “I knew it all”!

In Singapore, it is quite a serious offence to disrespect the national flag in any way. But back down under, I have learned recently through reading about a TV satire about the current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, “At Home With Julia” that no such laws exist to protect the Aussie flag.

The controversial episode will screen on Australian TVs tomorrow night on the ABC – it shows (the character of) Ms Gillard with the Australian flag draped over her after having ‘sexual relations’ in her office.

The Controversial Scene From At Home With Julia

The Controversial Scene From At Home With Julia

Professor David Flint, a well-known monarchist, aired his opposition by saying, “This is probably going a bit far… I think a bit more discretion when using the flag is appropriate, even when you are trying to make a joke”.

In fact, although there have been previous attempts to create laws that would ban flag burning or “inappropriate” uses of the Australian national symbol… they have all failed. There are no laws against desecrating the Australian flag. Having said that, ‘government protocol’ states that the flag “should not fall or lie on the ground or be used as a cover (although it can be used to cover a coffin at a funeral)”.

An ABC spokesman for the comedy, defended the use of the flag, by saying “If it’s OK for others to drape themselves in our flag for all manner of occasions, I really don’t see why it can’t be draped over our prime minister as a symbol of love”.

In the scene, one of the characters knocks on the office door, and Ms Gillard says that she is “having an urgent de-briefing”. The same character also says, “John and Janette must have got away with it a few times in here” (referring to ex-PM John Howard and his wife).

(The real) Julia Gillard has apparently refused to comment on the episode or the TV show.

I cannot even begin to imagine the kind of harsh penalties that would be meted out her in Singapore for such a blatant disregard and disrespect of such an important national symbol (not to mention the leader of the nation)!

Read Full Article

Panorama Theme by Themocracy


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Jewelry Gifts for Grads!

Every year, as Spring turns to Summer, students turn into graduates. It’s the long awaited and well deserved break many of these hard-working pupils have been working towards for years. Many of us get stuck trying to think up thoughtful and creative presents to celebrate the amazing accomplishment of those we love. We search department store shelves, Pinterest boards, and fashion magazines, but of course you are looking for something a little more special and personal for your graduate.

That's where the team here at Peggy Li Creations jewelry would love to help! Here are a few sparkly pieces for your shining star:

Another great way to celebrate your grad with a gift is to give them something personalized. A personalized necklace featuring their initials or the date of their graduation will make your gift even more special.

Nameplate Necklace by Peggy Li Creations. Seen on Rachel Bilson on TV show Hart of Dixie!

Large Letter Initial Necklace by Peggy Li Creations.
What kind of gifts are you thinking of getting for your grad?

Jennette McCurdy in Peggy Li Creations Simple Dot Necklace

What a thrill to spot TV and music star Jennette McCurdy on the Nylon Magazine red carpet wearing a Peggy Li Creations necklace!

Jennette is best know for playing Sam Puckett on TV show iCarly (the Nickelodeon show also starring Miranda Cosgrove) and then in her own TV show Sam & Cat. She's currently starring in the Netflix series "Between", a mystery-thriller that will unfold over several episodes. You can learn more about Jennette by following her on Twitter @jennettemccurdy.  She's super cool and even sent me this sweet tweet:

Jennette Mccurdy wears Peggy Li Creations necklace

In the image above, Jennette is layering her look with a Peggy Li Creations Simple Dot Necklace in gold vermeil. Big thanks to her fab stylist, Audrey Brianne for putting together this look! I love Jennette's edgy but still young and fresh style!

Check out this delicate necklace and other pieces seen on TV and favorite celebrities on my website, Peggy Li Creations


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New species of terrestrial crab found climbing on trees in Hong Kong

  • March 21, 2017
  • Haberma tingkok male PR

    A new species of terrestrial crab has been found to climb trees on the eastern coast of Hong Kong. All specimens spotted during the survey have been collected at a height of approximately 1.5 – 1.8 m, walking on the bark of the branches at ebbing and low tides. The species is described in the […]

    New moth in Europe: A southern hemisphere species now resident in Portugal

  • January 25, 2017
  • img 1

    As travelling in the 21st century is easier than ever, so is for species to make their way to new areas, sometimes increasing their distributional range, or even establishing whole new habitats. On the other hand, when they leave their natural predators and competitors behind, and find abundance of suitable resources somewhere else, they are […]

    Twenty-five frogs added to the amphibian fauna of Mount Oku, Cameroon

  • January 12, 2017
  • Mount Oku

      While amphibians all over the world are undergoing a continuous decline, their status in certain regions, such as Central Africa, remains unknown due to incomplete information. New paper, published by two scientists in the open access journal ZooKeys, addresses the knowledge gap by providing an updated list of already 50 amphibian species living on […]

    Hidden diversity: 3 new species of land flatworms from the Brazilian Araucaria forest

  • January 9, 2017
  • fig_3_c_cryptolineata-blog

    A huge invertebrate diversity is hidden on the forest floor in areas of the Araucaria moist forest, Brazil. Land flatworms constitute a numerous group among these invertebrates occurring in the Neotropical region. Flatworms are considered to be top predators within the soil ecosystem, preying on other invertebrates. The Araucaria moist forest is part of the […]

    Iranian coastal waters: New home to a rarely seen venomous sea snake

  • October 10, 2016
  • image2

    Günther’s sea snake (Microcephalophis cantoris), a rarely seen venomous sea snake with distribution thought to stretch from the Malay Peninsula to Pakistan, has now been recorded from Iranian coastal waters off the western Gulf of Oman, more than 400 kilometers away from the westernmost boundary of its previously known range. In 1864, German-born British zoologist, Albert […]

    Celebration time: ZooKeys releases its 600th issue

  • June 22, 2016
  • zookeys 600 cover blog

    With what already sounds like an annual tradition at this time of the year, we are delighted to announce yet another milestone that ZooKeys just reached. Our 600th issue is now out and we are just as proud with it as we were exactly five years and a month ago, when we printed out our […]


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Nov 302011

On 30 November 2000 UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee formally inscribed Australia’s Greater Blue Mountains on the World Heritage List.

One of Australia’s most iconic regions, the blue-haze beauty of the Blue Mountains comprises one million hectares of tall forests, sandstone cliffs, canyons, waterfalls bushland – and endless potential for adventure!

The World Heritage Committee inscribed the Greater Blue Mountains Area on the basis of its natural criteria: “Australia’s eucalypt vegetation is worthy of recognition as of outstanding universal value, because of its adaptability and evolution in post-Gondwana isolation.Read more Blue Mountains facts from UNESCO.

For fans of coins portraying iconic Australian sites, we celebrated the Blue Mountains with this 2011-dated 1oz silver proof coin featuring a brightly-coloured image of the Three Sisters from Echo Point and a Blue Mountains tree frog.

With a total mintage of just 2,500, this is an extremely rare Australian collectable issue. Housed in special presentation packaging, the coin is part of the Celebrate Australia series depicting iconic Australian birds and animals, iconic landscapes and famous Australian locations.

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PSM3's Verdict On PES 2012

"Team work is what seperates the world's greatest teams from their peers", claims PES 2012 Producer Seabass, "and is the hub of everything within PES 2012". We outline PES 2012's key new features below, plus what we - as die-hard PES fans - think Konami are doing well, and not so well, when it comes to bringing PES 2012 up to speed, and providing realistic competition for FIFA 12.

So, what's new?

1) Teamwork

Seabass wants PES to 'match what people see when they go to a match or watch a big game on TV', so the game more closely resembles how real football is played. The essence of this is teamwork, and PES 2012 has undergone a huge AI overhaul.

The PES 2012 announcement video contains some new dribbles, including foot changing direction shifts, and nutmegs.

2) Attacking Play

Decribed as a 'more open' approach, players can dictate the pace of movement, with new AI so team mates make runs and support each other in one-on-one situations e.g. dummy runs to draw defenders, allowing the ball carrier greater options when they are being closed down. The team will work as a more cohesive unit, reacting to the movement of the player with the ball, and working to force the opposition into mistakes. See the screenshots attached for an example.

3) Enhanced Zonal Marking and Positioning

Konami claim you'll need to work harder to split the opposition defence. A new cursor system lets you use the right analogue stick to switch to any player on the pitch - though we're yet to see how this works/feels in action. This should allow you to control a team mate anywhere on the field and react quicker to danger, and close down more quickly. Defensive hold up play is being tweaked, so you can hold a tighter line, position yourself more accurately and track more efficiently. You can also do off-the-ball switching on set pieces like corner, free kicks and throw ins - allowing for quick breaks or closing of danger.

4) Enhanced physicality

The jostling system has been enhanced, so strong players rely more on strength and stature, and star players use their attributes (e.g. tight control, agility etc) to elude a tackle. Players will tumble and lose balance accurately, but can be brought back under control depending on their strength and balance - we're thinking Messi here.

The aim is to create a less predictable, more free form, passing game, with less solo-run super dribbles by the likes of Ronaldo. In short, a bit like they've been promising every year, and slowly (far too slowly for some) delivering on.

So, what are Konami doing well?

1) Focusing on gameplay

PES 2011 made some interesting strides, with advanced - if complex - dribbling permutations, plus the defender jockeying 'wait and hold' tackling - which was interesting, if muddled, and has been essentially copied by FIFA 12 this year. Seabass is tapping into the right language with teamwork, it's what elevates the Champions League finalists Man Utd and Barcelona above all other clubs in Europe. Even in PES 2011, it was too easy to 'spam' with Ronaldo and use brute power/speed to create trouble - and that's after years of Konami aiming to reduce the impact of star players. On the flip side, If Ronaldo/Messi were slow and indistinguishable from the other players, that'd be no good either. The key is making star players stand out for their unique attributes, achieved with mixed success in FIFA 11 - the first game to give Xavi and Berbatov, both touch players, a unique, worthwhile feel. Too many football games have valued power and pace above all other stats - let's see how PES 2012 compares.

2) Focusing on Seabass

The role of the auteur, the individual with vision, has been largely eroded in games, replaced by teams of 200 acting on decisions forged by compromise and focus groups. At core, we prefer the 'one vision' approach, as typified by Hideo Kojima. However, this has a flip side, but we'll get to that. Seabass used to be the cuddly human symbol of all that's right about the best football game in the world, and all that's wrong with the corporate FIFA - but that was 4/5 years ago.

3) Not promising the moon

Underpromise, underdeliver. It's the vintage customer service mantra. The biggest thing to take from today's PES 2012 announcement is... nothing too grand: simply an evolved, more team-focused, game of football. If the finished game turns out to be far in advance of claims, it's a big psychological win. If. We're still waiting on promised PES 2012 new game modes and edit functions, but these will need to be huge in order to grab the attention of the FIFA fanbase.

What are Konami doing less well?

1) Focusing on gameplay

We're being slightly facetious, but unless you've got something really remarkable to trumpet, bar sensible iteration, perhaps the best thing to do is to tackle FIFA 12 from a different angle - not 'we're as good, or better, a simulation as you', but 'our unique modes drop a large sh*t on anything you can offer'. PES have the unique Champions League licence - the world's most exciting football competitiion - but their inability to leverage it more succesfully needs to be noted. At core, CL mode in PES is like any cup competition, but with a new intro movie, *that* anthem, plus some nice colour menus. What we really need is a super authentic, atmosphere-rich, in-depth celebration of the CL, that really tracks your tournament progress. Have pre-match press conferences with multiple choice answers that affect player's morale, or even the tactics of your opposition if they're lulled into thinking, say, you'll play 4-4-2 away and go on the offensive, when you'll really play 4-5-1 and play on the counter. We want commentators that say 'Drogba got a brace in the last group game against Juvenus, can he maintain this form and push Chelsea into the last 16 in this momentous game?'. We want animated off-pitch scuffles, manager histrionics (can they licence Mourinho? We'd all love that), explicit stat tracking twinned to commentary/cut scenes, extensive post match highlights and analysis - you know, like the real thing. Ditto Master League. No more Ronaldo costs £15m and is going to Sunderland nonsense. Total reality. As far as is sane.

2) Focusing on Seabass

Seabass, however much we love him, can verge on a symbol of faded glories - easily lampooned by FIFA die hards. His passion is unarguable, but maybe the game needs a totally fresh brush? Keep Seabass on board, but bring in a new figurehead? It's pure symbolism of course, but this is the age we live in. FIFA has David Rutter, but Gary Patterson is also a key figure - and the game focuses more on its features, all clearly branded and sold, than its backroom personalities.

3) Not articulating points of change clearly enough

The super obvious thing: it looks almost the same as PES 2011, based on this early glimpse at least. After a year of PES players saying the animation was the thing that Konami had to change above anything else, this instantly puts PES on the back foot, certainly in FIFA comparisons which still looks the 'smoother' game - hence the old 'is it really 360 dribbling debate?', that should be a non issue. We know it's hard to bin a game engine overnight and start again, especially since PES 2011 was the first step on a new path, but the fluidity of animation was picked up by everyone.

What Seabass is promising in terms of team work and free pattern play could be immense - the biggest problem of all football games is that the CPU attacks you in a very predictable fashion, using his 'computer-ness' to cheese you with stats and logic, not, say, playing overwhelming, unpredictable and fluid passing like real-life Barcelona. We want the challenge in a top level difficulty game to be 'how can I stop this team?', not just 'how do I break down their iron AI defence?'.

If PES 2012's key features were being 'sold' by FIFA, they'd have clear brands and labels, so 'free form attacking play' wouldn't sound so nebulous, but be called something borderline stupid and clear like 'Attack-tics (tm)' or something less stupid than we can think of in three seconds.

PES 2011's biggest failure, above all others, was its inability to explain its changes - not just to newcomers, but to die-hards. It took us 30 hours to truly love and understand PES 2011, and that was still with caveats. How can FIFA converts and new players be expected to keep up? Konami need to introduce super clear, interactive, tutorials like FIFA, or even SFIV.

The PSM3 Verdict

In fairness, Seabass is saying the right things, but the changes are hard to translate to clear bullet points - and it's impossible to evaluate their impact without a hands-on. It's still completely possible they've cracked it, and this could be the most unpredictable, free form, football game yet. Still, years of hurt leads to understandable cyncism, and the lack of clear visual improvement kicks hard. We'd be very surpised if this video does anything to sway anyone but the converted - which seems to be Konami's strategy. Get closer to its existing community, listen hard and act. It's admirable, but won't help inevitable comparisons with FIFA anytime soon. The hope, of course, is to quietly, off radar, build something beautiful, that's not just liked, but adored by its hardcore fans. You know. Like how PES grew to prominence in the first place. We'll have hands-on impressions soon. As it stands, we're no more confident of PES rivalling FIFA, than Man U beating Barcelona in the CL final - but you never know.

Source: PSM3


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theme nights

Posts with the ‘theme nights’ tag

Top 8 Questions We Get About Youth Camp

Camper Arriving at Pine Cove

Here in the Pine Cove registration department, we love talking about camp! We thought it might be helpful to gather up the most common questions and list them here for you while you’re preparing your camper for summer! 1. What time do I drop off/pick up my camper? Each youth camp has unique drop-off and pick-up times. Please do not drop off your camper before the designated time. Be sure and plan to come to the Closing Celebrations to get a taste of what your camper has been doing all week! The Celebration includes singing, camper awards, a video presentation […]

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Theme Night Costume Tips and Tricks

Camper Theme Night Costume

Theme nights are one of the best parts of a week at Pine Cove. What makes theme nights so fun? It’s not just the epic games, competitions, or hilarious videos. It’s getting to dress up in a cool costume! We just released our theme nights for 2014, and since October is a month where many people are already thinking about costumes, we thought we would post some guidelines for how to have the best summer theme night costumes. Fit the costume to the theme night The main consideration with your costume must be the kind of theme night that you […]

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Outback Theme Night Costume Ideas

Campers Having Fun in Costumes

Possible questions that have crossed your mind when thinking about Theme Nights: 1. “What in the world is a ‘Twistery Mystery’ and how do you dress up for that? 2. “Where do you go to get ninja gear? And…is it going to be dangerous….? ☺ 3. “How can I get the PERFECT costume that my son/daughter will actually wear?” These questions, and I’m sure many more, have crossed all our minds when searching for the perfect gear for Pine Cove Outback’s Summer Theme Nights. As funny as some of these sound, the truth is the question still remains, “What do […]

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Shores Theme Night Costume Ideas

Shores Costume Girls

  Sunday – America’s Pastime Blast Time During this theme night we are going to be out and about. We will be playing baseball themed station games along with a little Home Run Derby. Make sure you wear clothes that you can run around in, because we will definitely be sweating for this theme night! There are a lot of places where you can find cheap baseball hats anywhere from $5-$20. You could go to any Goodwill or Salvation Army to find some sort of jersey as well. Monday – Surfin’ Safari Our Surfin’ Safari night will consist of one […]

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Dock Rock: A Camp Tradition

Girls on Banana Boat

“The Dock stinkin’ rocks my socks off!!!” Of all of the camp cheers and sayings we have here at the Shores, this has to be in my top five favorites! “The Dock stinkin’ rocks my socks off”! I didn’t know that someone could be able to put into words how I feel about this awesome Shores tradition in just seven simple words, but someone did. And whoever that someone is… I thank you! Dock Rock is held every Thursday night at the Shores on beautiful Lake Palestine. It all begins with a “fly by” by our awesome boat drivers. It […]

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Hunting Buffalo

The Towers without Buffalo Hunt is like corn dogs without macaroni and cheese. It just doesn’t make sense! Every week, campers and staff alike count down the days until the theme night of all theme nights: Buffalo Hunt. Occasionally, during a simplified explanation of the planned evening, any first-timer to the game will feel a bit anxious. A mud pit? Rubber bands on my wrists? All 270 campers coming at me at once? Potentially chanting my name? And yes, we were not exaggerating about the mud. You will be covered. My favorite part of the highlight video at closing celebration […]

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The Sixth Week

Week 6 is almost at its end today, and it has flown! To catch up from last week, let’s review: Remember last week when we had one epic adventure after another? First, we created a coalition of work crew members assigned the daunting task of painting the whole entire Rock, and they had to endure crazy-long hours of super tall ladders and confused comments about that white-ish color. At least there were plenty of quiet moments to be had… Then the lunch skit all week was a full-on musical, starring some of our most talented staffers, with the entire 30-person […]

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Having Fun Is My Job

Towers Opening Day

This is a guest post by on of our summer staff, “Thunder Showers”. It has been an exciting start to camp for the 2012 summer! Week 1 was probably the most eventful first week of camp that I have seen in the four years that I have been working at camp. As we opened the gate for Week 1, there were nerves paired with excitement in all of us – which resulted in an ecstatic staff! [Opening day is one of my favorite days of camp simply because we get to jump in the gauntlet and display a small picture […]

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SemanticMerge goes Visual

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 , 0 Comments

Edit:Thanks to Scott Hanselman and Jon Skeet for sharing the launch on Twitter.

Here we are, releasing again! Doing our best to follow the rule of “release early, release often”.

Today we’re publishing our latest feature in SemanticMerge: the “Visual Merge”. And since picture is worth a thousand words… here you are:

We’ve also added “difference rendering” to the SemanticDiff tool, so it is possible to use the new visual functionality not only during merge but also while looking for differences, which is a much more common operation:

You can download SemanticMerge, including Visual Merge and Visual Diff at It is available for C#, Java, and soon it will support C and JavaScript too. Don’t forget to follow us @semanticmerge

The full story behind visual conflict rendering

At the very beginning we explained semantic with diagrams like this:

We wanted to explain how something as complex as splitting a class into two different ones in parallel could be easily merged by SemanticMerge. Using figures (and Visio) was the better way we had.

Soon we started thinking on how cool it would be to teach Semantic to render the conflicts...

It is all about the icons

If you ever used SemanticMerge or if you visited the website then you’ve seen the way in which we render the conflicts:

As you can see each method in conflict is decorated with icons representing the type of change: “c” stands for changed, “m” for moved, “d” deleted and “a” added (we also use “r” for renamed as a special “moved” case).

Icons on the left mean differences with “source contributor” and the ones on the right mean differences with the “destination contributor” considering contributors as in the following picture:

The whole idea of putting the icons on the left and the right of the method came from this graphic (again powered by Visio):

Hence, when a method in the shape in the middle (ancestor or base) has icons at both sides it means it has a conflict. If it only has one icon it means it only has changes in one of the two contributors, so the merge will be automatic, and if it has no icons it means it was unchanged.

This is the idea behind the entire GUI and as you can see now, the originally Visio-drawn concept grew up to become a full GUI.

Some VisualMerge images

These are some of the merges you can display if you just install SemanticMerge and go to the samples directory.

Divergent move

This is the “Socket Deeper” example, in C# and rendering “hiding unchanged nodes” which greatly simplifies the entire graphic:

Group unchanged

Now an example, this time in Java, grouping unchanged parts:

The State of the Art of Merge Technology

We’ve recently posted what can be currently achieved chaining SemanticMerge into an advanced merge toolchain, which maybe is somehint you’re interested on :P

What’s next?

Stay tuned because next week we will come up with a top request in our UserVoice :P

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New Property Listing Details

New Property Listing Details
We have begun to rollout a brand new Property Listing Details layout. The new layout features a new, modern look, bigger photos, prominent property information across the top, and different tabs for Description, Comparable Listings, Google Map, Statistics, Photos, and Closing Cost estimator.

Please view the screenshots below.

To turn off the Closing Cost estimator, please disable this feature in the Preferences.
If you have any questions, please contact

5 Responses to “New Property Listing Details”

  1. Robert Felxi says:

    I love it ! Looks great! Question. Can we modify it at all? Like get rid of the mortgage calculator tab (for rental listings)

  2. RealEstateWebsites says:

    Glad you like it. I will put in a request to have an option to enable/disable that tab.

  3. RealEstateWebsites says:

    Robert, there is now an option in the Preferences to disable the closing cost estimator tool

  4. isabel smith says:

    why do we have to place our picture on it??
    That should be a choice, not a given -with a blank space where your picture ‘should’ be, as if something is missing or I needed or wanted every property page to be stamped with my face -ugh -tacky
    that should be an option. This isn’t a high-school year book.

    and its never been a part of my branding – so its an intrusion. Just like there are thousands of Agents that do not put their picture on their business cards. Its a deliberate marketing and design choice -not an oversight.

  5. RealEstateWebsites says:

    If you don’t have a personal photo, it will default to your company logo.

Leave a Reply


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Monday, April 30

Z is for Žaltys

Wow! It's the last day of the A to Z Challenge. Can you believe April has flown by so quickly? Thank you all for stopping by for my posts. I wish I'd been able to check out more A to Z bloggers this year, but I've been in a deadline crunch with my publisher. See you all next year!

Name: Žaltys (means "grass snake")

Type: household spirit

Origin: Lithuanian mythology

Description: The žaltys is a non-venomous snake, sacred to the sun goddess Saulė. It represents fertility and is a guardian of the home. Some people kept it in special places of their home, believing it could bring good harvest and wealth. If someone killed the žaltys, it brought about great misfortune, but if people found one and gave it milk, they could befriend it and take it in their home.

What "Z" creatures have you heard of?

  1. I've not heard of this one...Congrats on getting to the end of the challenge.

    1. Thanks, Savannah! There were a few times when I thought about quitting, for sure! lol :-)

Thanks for stopping by! I love getting new comments, and I hope to see yours soon.

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Angels in Disguise

PictureIt took us awhile to notice. Humans can be awfully dense sometimes. But our yellow cockatiel, Sunshine, continued to be patient. After awhile, we began to understand how he was teaching Linda to sing his birdsongs.

Every morning, we uncover the birdcage and Sunshine greets the day with his customary, “I love you, Sweet Baby.” While Linda makes breakfast, Sunshine whistles. Since his mate Sparkle died some years ago, Linda has become careful to return Sunshine’s whistles. The vet told us we’re Sunshine’s “flock” and we take our responsibility seriously. Birds whistle and expect their flock to whistle back.

Recently we figured out Sunshine’s loving way of training his whistle partner. First, he starts with a very simple whistle of only a few notes. Linda responds with exactly the same whistle. Gradually he escalates and makes the whistles a bit more complicated. Each time, Linda whistles back. She has to listen very carefully to get the tune just right. Finally, Sunshine cuts loose with some complex composition worthy of Mozart, trilling and riffing like a jazz singer. By this time, Linda is completely outclassed.

Unlike most humans, who would give up in disgust at the inferior ability of their partner, Sunshine grows very quiet while he waits for Linda to return his symphonic whistle. When she doesn’t, he goes back to basics. He starts all over with a simple, two or three-note whistle and waits for her to respond. These humans, they sure do need a lot of persistent coaching.

Sunshine reminds us that animals, our angels in disguise, often show by their examples how to treat others with kindness, respect, and yes, absolute patience.

Allen and Linda Anderson


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Breed Profile; The Akita

This stunning, fearless, intelligent, strong willed and powerful breed is a surprisingly calm dog. The Akita is protective and devoted to family, has an independent nature and most  are reserved around strangers.   The Akita was brought to America by Helen Keller in the late 1930s.

Meet Shaftoe; 4 year old male
cDiane Rich 2012

The Akita originated from Japan and was bred as a guard dog and also a hunter.    The breed can be aggressive with other dogs  especially dogs of same sex.  Small dogs or cats may appear as prey.

The Akita is best suited for the experienced dog family who will start training the puppy and acclimate this dog to life outside the home before the pup reaches 4 months of age.  Introduce the Akita to people, kids, and other pets outside the home when the dog is a pup and continue for the life of the dog.

Training must be taught using positive methods without harsh leash jerking techniques or other physical means of control. The breed will be less than tolerate of old school dominate training methods.  On the other side coddling and babying this breed is not recommended or the Akita will be happy to walk all over you.

Respect the Akita and earn the dog’s respect in return.  Some owners have problems with the Akita becoming possessive around food and toys.  Hire a professional trainer to help prevent this problem from  developing  if you are unfamiliar with current training techniques.

Exercise needs are moderate and daily exercise is recommended. The breed sheds quite a bit so brushing at least once a week if not more is recommended.

The Akita stands 24-28 inches at the shoulder and can weigh 75-120 pounds.

As with all breeds, buy an Akita from a reputable and experienced breeder who is hands on with
pups from day one.  Good breeders will educate you on temperament, training and potential health problems. Ask your breeder about medical conditions in their lines such as hip dysplasia, eye, thyroid and autoimmune problems to name a few conditions plaguing this purebred dog.  If you have the opportunity to be around the pup’s parents and know what to look for to get an idea of temperament that opportunity may be beneficial.

I do not recommend this breed for first time dog parents.  The Akita is a lot of dog.

cDiane Rich 2012

In home training can begin as early as 7 weeks of age. Some breeders do not sell their pups until 10 weeks of age so begin your training within a week the puppy comes home.

The Akita’s lifespan can be into the teenage years.

Diane Rich


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2014 Jeep Patriot — the car from yesteryear that should have stayed in yesteryear

This is one of those reviews where you strive to find something nice to say and so we shall say it up front, at the top of the broadcast. In a world of high-tech, optioned-up, automatic-everything, computer-controlled whiz-bang techno-geek sleds, the Jeep Patriot stands out as the car of yesteryear.

No frills. No thrills, either, but the no frills aspect was kind of endearing. Our first impression of the Jeep Patriot was that here is a retro car. Retro back to the Eighties, maybe even earlier. And how do we judge that?

The Patriot is a boxy, stand-alone not very modern SUV whose 2.4-liter four-banger engine is banger-banger noisy, whose six-speed automatic transmission sometimes has trouble finding the right gear and whose overall demeanor is one of throwback to the way cars used to be, assuming that is an attribute, which, for the most part, it is not.

Cars actually have improved over the past half century, with great strides in reliability, safety and electronics, among other things. Even the Patriot’s stable-mate, the Grand Cherokee SRT8 SUV, is leagues ahead of the Patriot (it’s also about three times the price, when loaded up with options.) But all these “advances” have made cars nightmarishly complicated that requires hundreds of pages in owner’s manuals to tell us how to operate our expensive new toys.

What we have in the Patriot is a car with a stark black interior and few of the modern gizmos we are starting to take for granted – no auto-headlight-on-and-off; no antenna buried in the glass (the Patriot had a standard metal antenna drilled into the right front fender, as God meant for cars to have ever since Marconi first started sending signals.)

Coming off road tests of cars loaded with technology (new Acura RLX SH-AWD hybrid; Infiniti QX70, for example), I found the Patriot refreshing in a weird, nostalgic kind of way. Yes, it did have doors that automatically locked, once the Patriot was moving down the road, but they did so with a big, loud clunk. Yes, there’s a modern navigation system, melded in with the modern stereo, but all of it is housed in a plain, stark black dashboard that is, well, timeless.

Stomping on the gas pedal gave us a huge loud roar as the 172-horsepower engine told this bucking bronco to git up and go. The six-speed AutoStick® transmission had a weird way of letting you manually shift gears – when it’s in Drive, you move the gearshift lever from side to side, for up and down shifting. Usually, you move it backward and forward. The side to side way of doing things meant that sometimes I inadvertently downshifted simply by grazing the top of the lever. It’s a work in progress.

If you want to use the Patriot as a true four-by-four, you should know that there is no low-range. It gets by, as many SUVs and crossovers do these days, on a four-wheel-drive system that’s fine for rainy and somewhat snowy roads, but it’s not going to do what its stablemate, the Jeep Wrangler, can do.

On the highway, the Patriot’s boxy, upright shape means that it moves through the air like a linebacker. No neat coefficient of drag in this big boy – the faster you go, the louder the gale gets, as it passes up the windshield and over the roof.

It’s not clear to me why Chrysler (Jeep’s parent) keeps the Patriot around. It’s based on the mundane Dodge Caliber chassis, it gets average mileage (21/27 mpg, city/highway) and it doesn’t stand out. In fact, it stands back. With its factory price of $28,630, optioned up the way our tester was, you could do better with a myriad of other cars – Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V come to mind.

Maybe the Patriot has a hidden kinship with the late Republican Senator from Nebraska, Roman Hruska. In 1970, when President Nixon’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, G. Harrold Carswell, was being criticized for being a mediocre judge, Hruska rushed to Carswell’s defense.

“Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers,” Hruska said in a Senate hearing. “They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance? We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos.” Carswell did not make it to the top.

And neither will the Patriot.

Seattle p_i_newmedia


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The “New and Improved” Justin Smoak

Last June, I publicly “gave up” on Justin Smoak. In that post, I presented a list of the first baseman in the last 30 years who had been given 1,000 Major League plate appearances before the end of their age-25 season. Justin Smoak was the worst hitter on that list when I published it. He is no longer the worst hitter on that list, because as you know, he had himself a pretty good September, and it was enough to push him to second worst on the list, passing Travis Lee so as to no longer be the least productive young first baseman of the last three decades.

You don’t need any reminders about Justin Smoak’s September. You might have seen it, if you were still paying attention to the Mariners last September, and if you didn’t, you certainly read about it all winter. The mechanical changes. The different approach. The adjustments. The confidence. Justin Smoak reinvented himself in September, you’ve been told.

Justin Smoak, September 1st of 2012 to April 21st of 2013:

179 11.7% 17.9% 0.146 0.336 0.275 0.363 0.421 0.342

Since the big change starting making itself manifest — remember, he didn’t come back up on September 1st, so it’s an arbitrary beginning point that simply eliminates a bunch of bad at-bats he had before he started hitting because they don’t fit the narrative, but that’s besides the point — Smoak has now racked up 179 plate appearances and has 12 extra base hits. Twelve. That projects out to 40 extra base hits per 600 plate appearances, or essentially a full season of regular playing time. To put that in context, Casey Kotchman has averaged 42 extra base hits per 600 plate appearances in his career. You remember Casey Kotchman, right? The underpowered first baseman who is in the big leagues for his contact rate and his glove?

That’s the kind of power that the revamped, new-and-improved Justin Smoak has shown since the beginning of last September. Overhauled Justin Smoak hits for about as much power as Casey Kotchman. You might look at the overall line and say “hey, a .342 wOBA, I’ll take that”, but note what’s driving that mark — a .336 BABIP which is simply not sustainable for a guy with Smoak’s profile. He’s extremely slow, he hits the ball in the air a decent amount, and he hits his fair share of pop-ups. That is not the profile of a guy who is going to post a high BABIP over any real length of time. Take the air out of those numbers, and you’re basically left with a guy who takes some walks and has gap power, but also strikes out at about an average rate, so he won’t hit for enough average to overcome the fact that he just doesn’t hit the ball very hard all that often.

This is, essentially, the inevitable conclusion that evidence forces us to draw: Justin Smoak is just not very strong. He’s never been very strong. He’s never really hit for power in any kind of extended sample. Even going back to the minors, he has a career .407 slugging percentage in Triple-A. That’s in 559 plate appearances, all of them in the PCL, which is the most hitter friendly league in organized baseball. In 50 games at Double-A as a 22-year-old, he had a whopping 16 extra base hits.

Justin Smoak has always been Casey Kotchman without the defense or the contact skills; it’s just taken us a while to realize it. But, at this point, there’s just no other conclusion to draw. If we look at the list of first baseman in the last 30 years that have been given 1,500 PAs through age-26, we find 49 names, and once again, Travis Lee is the worst hitter on the list. But he’s only going to be the worst hitter on that list for another day or two, because Justin Smoak has 1,495 career plate appearances, and he’s going to cross the 1,500 PA threshold at some point in Houston. And when he does, he’ll officially become the worst hitter on that list, as his start to the 2013 season has pushed his career wRC+ down to 88.

In fact, even if you double the time frame we’re looking at, and go back to 1953 so that we’re looking at 60 years of baseball history, you will find exactly two first baseman who received 1,500 PAs through their age-26 season and hit worse than Justin Smoak; Dan Meyer and Dalton Jones. They are two of the worst players to get substantial playing time in Major League history. Meyer finished with a career -5.6 WAR, while Jones finished with a career -3.6 WAR. They were artifacts of a time when talent evaluators weren’t so great at their jobs.

Now, Major League teams weed out players like Dan Meyer and Dalton Jones. They stop giving playing time to below replacement level players, because as the term suggests, there are equal or better players just hanging out in the minors, waiting for a shot at the big league level. Once it becomes fairly clear that a player is not substantially above replacement level, there’s no real reason to keep running him out there anymore.

Justin Smoak has 1,495 career plate appearances and is at -1.0 WAR. Maybe Justin Smoak made some real changes last September that he’ll be able to tap into occasionally, and maybe he’ll have a few more good months in the big leagues before his career is over. Guys develop at different paces. Baseball is weird, and bad players can become good players. It is not impossible for Justin Smoak to eventually become a decent Major League player.

But, at this point, there’s just no real reason for the Mariners to keep trying to squeeze blood out of this particular turnip. The mirage of hope that surrounds Justin Smoak is just that — a mirage. Until he magically develops some strength that he has never possessed before, nothing else he changes will really matter. There is a large mountain of evidence that Justin Smoak is just not strong enough to be a productive Major League first baseman.

He wasn’t strong enough before he made all those adjustments and he’s not strong enough now. At least with Jesus Montero we can point to his age and hope that maybe there’s some development time left that can make a difference. With Dustin Ackley, we can point to his contact skills, his speed, and his defense as reasons to think that he might still become a productive big league player.

With Justin Smoak, there’s nothing left to point to. He’s not young. He’s not improving. His mechanical adjustments haven’t made him any stronger, and he’s currently only making contact on 72% of his swings at pitches in the strike zone, about the same rate as guys like Mark Reynolds and Dan Uggla. This isn’t an approach issue. Justin Smoak can’t learn how to be strong. He simply lacks a physical skill necessary to make the rest of his physical skills worth playing.

I know a lot of people are questioning whether the Mariners have a developmental problem within the organization, given how the young core of hitters seem to be regressing and are nowhere close to living up to their minor league hype. And, I’m open to the idea that maybe the Mariners are doing something at the minor league level that is causing talented young players to underperform in the big leagues. But, with Justin Smoak, I think the reality is that we’re just seeing a physical flaw exposed. Scouts liked the swing, analysts liked the walks, and everyone — myself included — just ignored the fact that he was a bat-only player who lacked real power.

I don’t think the Mariners have failed to get the most out of Justin Smoak. I think we’ve seen the best Justin Smoak has to offer. It’s just not very good, and it’s time for the organization to move on and give someone else a chance. Or, at least, it would be if they had anyone at Triple-A or on the bench who deserved a promotion. They don’t, so we’ll get Justin Smoak a little while longer, maybe even for the rest of the year.

But, at this point, we can all give up on Justin Smoak now. He’s not part of the core. He’s not a long term answer to any question a Major League team should be asking.

This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.

The “New and Improved” Justin Smoak


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UPDATE: Tim Lincecum explains why he stayed with the SF Giants

Tim Lincecum passed his physical and he signed his two-year, $35 million contract.

We just had a conference call with Lincecum and team officials. Some highlights, in the order we discussed them:

Lincecum basically said the Giants made him an offer he couldn’t refuse by pushing so hard to get it done quickly.

“When they made the push it was hard for me not to respond,” Lincecum said. “The relationship kept pushing until it found us sitting here at two years, $35 million, and I’m really, really, really happy about that.”

Lincecum expressed confidence that he can succeed again, saying the Giants have “the right tools to make a push. Those are things you look for going to an organization. When you’re already plugged into one, you don’t have took too far to see what they’ve done, and that’s what I did with them.”

Lincecum said “familiarity” was a factor, “a lot of things here I’ve already grown to like. Other places, I might not necessarily have a connection with. I’m not sure if I’m necessarily ready for that on a professional level.”

In one of his more interesting comments, Lincecum said his struggles the past two seasons helped prod him to return.

“The last couple of years, with a collective 4.5 ERA, that’s not the way you want to go out,” he said. “That’s not the kind of guy I am. I looked at this as an opportunity to do something big in the same uniform.

“I know I didn’t have a great year, but I know I have the confidence I’m where I need to be.”

Asked about going home and playing for the Mariners, Lincecum said that’s something he might like to do toward the end of his career. His quote was, “I wasn’t ready for that kind of jump.”

On why he’s confident he’ll improve again in 2014: “Every year is kind of a springboard to the next. At the same time there’s a reset button. That gives me a lot to gauge and build perspective. With everything I’ve learned the last couple of years, that gives me the confidence that things are going to be a little easier and I don’t have to worry so much what I have to do, the differences. They were pointed out in games I did well. It’s hard not to fall back on those as examples to help me get out of this so-called hole I’m in. I’m excited about that prospect.”

Assistant general manager Bobby Evans said the final numbers on the deal were close to what the club anticipated and added, “Yes, we do have the flexibility to look outside the organization for outside options to solidify the rotation.”

But he cautioned that pitchers (and positions players) tied to draft compensation through qualifying offers would be problematic.”

The signing already has drawn criticism around baseball,up not only for its size but the perception that it was ownership-driven because Lincecum is so popular and he sells a lot of tickets and merchandise.

Giants president Larry Baer denied that, saying, “This was targeted as a baseball signing because of Tim’s performance. Everybody on the baseball side who was evaluating it said this was the right thing for the Giants to keep the rotation strong and keep the team’s chances of winning strong, with all he’s capable of doing and all he’s done over the years.

“Hey,” Baer said, “Timmy is a very popular guy. I don’t want it misinterpreted that this was done because he’s popular. It was done because he can excel and get us to where we need to be in the future.”

Henry Schulman


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Center for Creative Leadership to study innovative learning method of SMU Lyle School

Lyle School of EngineeringThe Innovation Gym in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering was buzzing and clanking on a recent morning as students tested robots they built for a specific task — collecting and remediating water samples. The strong work dynamic among members of the first-year design class and their embrace of the inter-disciplinary team approach has drawn the attention of the Center For Creative Leadership.


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It’s the beginning of the week, so we rounded up some of the most SPAtastic links for a little bit of Monday motivation. Find out what’s trending in the Spa Week world.

Why choose between a vacation and a spa day when you can do them both in our Staycation, Spacation Giveaway!

Did you know you can eat your way to more restful sleep? Simply eat one of these 5 superfoods before bed.

 Every day is a chance for better skin! Follow our skincare do’s and don’ts for glowing skin.

Basically, everyone views their salon or spa appointment as their chance to live out their favorite romcom makeover scene and while hairstylists and estheticians definitely have magical powers, they are plenty of things they wish you knew before your appointment.

When your junk food cravings kick in, what do you do? Do you tear into a bag of chips or candy, or do you hope eating an apple will absolve your hunger pains? Giving into your sweet tooth can derail your diet, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

One Response

  1. Natural Spa Factory

    Thanks for sharing these Jaclyn, just found your site today, lot’s of useful spa & wellness information. We have a Blog about natural skin care and other related spa topics. Feel free to have a look & let me know your thoughts!

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Random Acts of Inspiration: Tidying Up

Every Monday at Studio T we showcase fashion and art projects we find inspiring. Have a look at our previous Random Acts of Inspiration here.

It’s no secret that the inner obsessive-compulsive in me loves order (as evidenced by our previous post on Things Organized Neatly). My latest obsessions are created by Ursus Wehrli.

More images can be found at NPR here.

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Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Debian on a NetVista N2200

While Puppy Linux has been a solid base for this web server for quite some time now, before bringing up a second NetVista N2200 unit, I was looking to move OS to something a little more familiar - a Debian-based OS. I'd found myself wishing for the ease of the deb package management and cursing the way the entire Puppy OS was copied into RAM on startup - very clever and fast, but I don't really want my precious 256Mb filled up with unused instances of /usr/bin/xeyes ...*

I wasted an entire weekend hacking PusPus, which claimed to be able get Debian Etch onto the NetVista. This claim was true, but the OS was all but unusable - any attempt to apt-get install some useful components (like ssh), or even running apt-get update was enough for a segmentation fault and complete system halt. Tweaking the PusPus Makefiles to fetch and build a Debian Lenny image resulted in exactly the same problem.

The Single Point of Truth on all things N2200 is, rather bizarrely, the comment thread at the foot of This Guy's Blog Post, but there is some great stuff there. My saviour was the replacement boot loader and OS image by der_odenwaelder (username: NetVista, password N22008363). This guy has done a sterling job in papering over the nastiest deficiencies in the NetVista's quirky hardware.

Finally I have a (relatively) up-to-date Debian build (Lenny) on my new machine, and it goes beautifully. My local APT Cache is really starting to pay dividends now, and will be even more valuable once I migrate this machine to the same platform.

Now that I can run a more "conventional" Linux OS, I'm getting excited again about the server potential of this all-but-forgotten black box. You can pick them up from eBay's Workstations category all the time for a pittance, and with a suitable RAM and CF Card injection, you've got a handy-dandy general-purpose server that you can leave switched on 24/7 while it uses less power than your broadband router.

(*) Just an example - I removed all of the XWindows stuff from the Puppy image as soon as I got it working.

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Letters to the Editor

Your views in 200 words or less

Tag: US Supreme Court

ELECTIONS: McCutcheon ruling amounts to poll tax

The recent McCutcheon ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated limits on donations for candidates and political committees on the basis that they are limits on the free speech of wealthy people. What about the limits on free speech for the rest of us? We are all limited by the amount of money we can afford to give.

The courts have long recognized that a poll tax is a limit on one’s ability to vote. It is considered unconstitutional, because we all have the right to equal treatment under the law, i.e., we all have an equal right to vote,

Read more »


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SEFCU plans major presence in downtown Schenectady

SEFCU will move its commercial lending, business banking and insurance businesses in Clinton Square, a new commercial

The newly built SEFCU Square on State Street

building in downtown Schenectady, and rename the $4.5 million building SEFCU Square. The credit union also plans to move its branch currently at State and Broadway into the ground floor of the new office building. The other divisions will occupy the building’s second, third and fourth floors.

In all, the credit union will lease 20,000 square feet of space.

The announcement was made today by Schenectady County officials and SEFCU.

“This means new jobs and a growing economic base in Schenectady County,” said Susan E. Savage, chair of the Schenectady County Legislature. “Downtown Schenectady looks better than it has in a generation, and job creation is at the heart of our economic revival. We thank SEFCU for choosing Schenectady County.”

SEFCU also will sponsor a year-long program of Proctors Art Night celebrations highlighting the work of area schools and nonprofits.

“We’re excited about creating our Commercial Banking and Insurance headquarters in downtown Schenectady,” said Michael J. Castellana, SEFCU’s president and CEO.

The newly built office building is owned by Highbridge Development of Schenectady. Approximately 60 people will be employed by SEFCU at the new site.

SEFCU had planned a $10 million office building in downtown Troy in 2007, but that project hasn’t progressed. SEFCU officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

Eric Anderson

2 Responses

  1. Jimmy says:

    I wonder what tax breaks SEFCU’s landlord is getting for this? Interesting of course considering SEFCU does not pay income taxes, yet operates like a regular commercial bank/thrift?

  2. Ron says:

    Actually, the Insurance and Commercial Banking side of SEFCU does pay taxes.


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Monthly Archive for January, 2009

: January, 2009

NYC voters like Caroline, upstate, not so much

That’s the  conclusion of a poll from Public Policy Polling, which concludes: Voters in New York City like Caroline Kennedy a lot. Those upstate, not so much. Our New York poll last weekend found that

Budget hearings set for Senate, Assembly

The Senate Finance Committe and the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee have announced the joint legislative hearing schedule for consideration of the elements of the governor’s budget proposal. The

The movers are here

It’s moving day at the Capitol, with Senate Dems and Republicans switching offices. This shot is outside the majority office which is, as we speak, getting computers, desks and other furniture for

New congressional upstate caucus

The Ithaca Journal has a story today about a new caucus, formed by Rochester/Buffalo rep Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport. Our local congresspeople, Kirsten Gillibrand and Paul Tonko are members.

Friday open thread

But first, let’s take a moment to revisit the blog’s rules: No ad hominem attacks on other posters: Attacks on the policies and ideas are just fine, but don’t go after the person (e.g. there’s a

A.M. Roundup

Sorry for the delay: Irene is taking a well-deserved day off. Here now the news to end a busy week: As noted on this site all week, people are talking about Kirsten Gillibrand’s Senate chances. Think

Gillibrand, Tonko ask feds for ice storm relief

Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand and Paul Tonko have asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for the nine Capital Region counties affected by the Dec. 11 ice storm. In a letter to Bush on

Paterson once arrested over Rockefeller drug law reform

There’s a great deal of excitement over Gov. David Paterson’s call for Rockefeller Drug Law reform in his State of the State address yesterday. In his speech, Paterson said: “Since I got here in 1985,

Grumpy Goo-Goo

NYPIRG’s Blair Horner isn’t happy at all about Gov. David Paterson’s omission of government reform in his hour-long State of the State address. He articulates his discontent in the video above. This

Adjusting to the new Senate

It hasn’t even been 30 hours since Democrats took control of the Senate, but lobbyists and special interest groups have turned on a hairpin to adjust to the new world. One Democratic senate staffer


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Christmas Lights–Coldplay

Coldplay, arguably the world’s most popular band, released their first recording in over two years, last Sunday. “Christmas Lights”, a Holiday love song debuted online at 8 pm December 1st and has quickly become a hit among the groups world-wide following.

Photo courtesy of

“Christmas Lights” opens with one of Chris Martin’s famous piano solo’s. The introduction is solemn and cold, but as the song progresses the dark undertones disappear. Soon fellow band members Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, and Will Champion appear, on guitar, bass, and drums respectively. The group is accompanied by three violin playing Elvis’, and as the song enters it’s chorus finale, the band breaks into it’s signature four part harmony. Chris Martin has become a master of climactic finishes, and Christmas Lights is just another example of his mastery.

Photo courtesy of

Coldplay simply refuses to release a half-assed track, and “Christmas Lights” is a perfect example of their high standard. Whether they are recording a twelve track album or a Christmas single, Coldplay will polish and scrub away all imperfections until their production is perfect.

When I first listened to “Christmas Lights,” I sat back and enjoyed the music, with my thirst for a new Coldplay songs temporarily quenched. But, now as I listen and re-listen, my thirst returns, even stronger. Dear Santa, please bring a new Coldplay album!


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Breeders’ Cup will come back to New York … eventually

Sometime in the next six months, the Breeders’ Cup will announce where they will hold their end of the year Horse Party in 2011 and beyond.

It would only seem logical that Belmont Park would get it in 2011.  The Cup, which is being held at Santa Anita this year for the second consecutive time, will be at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. next fall.

“We have had some great Breeders’ Cups in New York,”  Greg Avioli, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Breeders’ Cup Limited, said by phone from Kentucky Wednesday.

The last time the Cup was in New York ws 2005 when it was at Belmont Park.  Since the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984, New York has been the host four other times (1990, 1995 and 2001 at Belmont and 1985 at Aqueduct).

It would make sense to me that the Cup rotates between Churchill, Belmont and Santa Anita for the forseeable future.

Tim Wilkin


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Zagat’s Top NYC Burgers

Click here to see what Zagat  thinks are the top burgers in NYC. The list includes:

Tavern on Jane (as seen above)

Oxcart Tavern and

Marc Burger.

And if you want to vote for your own favorite, click here.

Kim Stuart Swidler

Comments are closed.


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Monday, May 21, 2012

Toybank Summer Bash!

18 Toybankers eagerly awaited in UPG College on a Tuesday morning to welcome 200 children from Asha Kiran.

The children had a ball of a time in the Toybank Summer Bash! They were engaged in various activities from Origami to games, etc. They all were shown a fun movie – ‘Krish, Trish & Baltiboy’ which was sponsored by The Children’s Film Society India.
The event started at 9.30am, the children in both the classes were told about 3 core rules for the day:
  1. Not to make too much noise
  2. Not to litter the classes
  3. And to do masti!
Both the classes were filled with 100 children each! The event unfolded with the origami session in both the classes. One class was taught to make a rotating toy – ‘Flexagon’, and the other class was taught how to make a ‘Star Frisbee’.

In each of the classroom there were 8-10 volunteers helping out children to fold the papers and follow the instructor. At the end most of the children got the final toy made by themselves, and started helping their peers make the toy for themselves.

Both the classes took a short break after the fun origami session, some of them were playing with their new toys they made, and some of them were munching on the snacks provided to them.

After the break Toybank screened a movie for all the 200 children gathered at UPG College.  The children enjoyed the movie – ‘Krish, Trish & Baltiboy’. The movie went on for around 1hour and 10 minutes. The movie DVD was sponsored by The Children’s Film Society India.
Volunteer stirred a discussion with the children in both the classes after the movie. Here are some of the responses from the children who saw the movie:
  • Duriya Pande said that she liked movie because it was animated and her most favorite story was of lion and farmer because it shows how to take decision when we are faced with problems in life.
  • Sabiya said that she liked the story of deer and family because the family members love each other, and ready to die for each other. Due to the bonding seen in the deer’s family, the king in the story also learned a lesson and became good to all people.
  • Surender said that he liked all the three stories because they were animated. He also said that the queen was greedy. The last story of farmer and tiger interested him as he was impressed by the way the farmer’s wife solved the problems in her life..
  • Gopal said that he learned to study and progress in life from these stories, One of the stories also taught him that we should be together in difficult times.
  • Gaurav also learnt to smile in the face of difficulties and to solve problems happily, he also learnt that he should not condemn others and should not be greedy.
After the discussion of the movie, the children were served lunch, later we had a short interaction with the children, and some of them promised to give a written feedback about their experience of the day and the learning’s from the movie they has seen!

The NGO bus arrived at around 2pm to pick-up the kids from the College. The children went home very happy with smiles on their faces and a new toy made by them in their hands!

We thank Children Film Society India for lending us a copy of the DVD of Krish, Trish and Baltiboy.

We also thank Usha Pravin Gandhi College for letting us use their infrastructure for this event!

Toybank would also like to appreciate all the volunteers who attended this event and helped us execute the event smoothly.

Check out more pics of the event here

No comments:


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Travian – A Year in Review

Here we are at the end of another year. And what a year it was. 2016 will probably not be anyone’s favorite if we look back on global events but if we reflect on the world of Travian,… Read More

My impressions of Travian’s 2016 Christmas party

A brief review A successful 2016 filled with exciting tasks, experiences and new projects now lies (almost) behind us. Following an amazing Christmas party, we are now quickly approaching the most festive days of the year.


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Did You Owe This Tax Season? Seven Tips to Lessen the Burden Next Year

Tax Deductions and Credits Small business owner on the phone in her clothing boutique

It’s oh-so-nice to get a tax refund in the spring – but if you were unlucky enough to owe taxes on April 15, lowering your tax burden for next year may be your goal. Here are seven tips on how to do just that.

1. Increase your withholding. If you owed taxes this year, your employer may not be taking enough withholding from your paycheck. In that case, it is time to file a new W-4 tax form with your employer and reduce the number of exemptions you claim. Having a little more come out of each paycheck is far less painful than writing a big tax check next spring.  You can use TurboTax W-4 withholding calculator to help you.

 2. Contribute the maximum to your 401(k) or 403(b) retirement plans. In 2015, you can contribute up to $18,000 to your 401(k) and 403(b) plans. If you are 50 or over, don’t forget that you can contribute an additional $6,000 “catch-up” contribution in addition to the regular 401(k) or 403(b) $18,000 limit.

3. Own your own home. Mortgage interest and property tax deductions will cut your taxes enormously. When you buy your new home, review your settlement statement carefully for deductible items. You’ll find points, prepaid interest, property taxes, and other deductible items on your closing statement. Points paid when you acquire your home are deductible in that year. Points paid to refinance a loan must be written off over the length of the loan (1/30 each year on a 30-year loan). But if you refinance again, don’t forget to write off the remaining unamortized points in the year you refinance.

4. Clean out your closets and donate to charity. In addition to creating new space in your life, you can take a quick tax deduction for clothes, sporting goods, linens, and other household goods that you no longer use. Books and magazines can be given to the library. Make a list of the items at the time you donate them so you can deduct the thrift store or fair market value. TurboTax ItsDeductible can help you value and track your contributions all year long.

5. Go solar. The environment is constantly in the news, and Uncle Sam is willing to help you do your part. Because solar energy is so efficient, the government is offering a 30% tax credit for solar energy systems and geothermal heat pumps you install in your home, as well as small wind turbines. This credit is available through 2016.

6.  Get educated. If you want to go back to school to learn a new career, update skills in your existing career, or study a subject you are interested in just for the heck of it, and your income is moderate you may be eligible for the Lifetime Learning credit as well as college credits. You can claim a tax credit of 20% of all your tuition expenses, up to $2,000 in tax credits per tax return. You don’t need to be on track for a degree – the cost of any class that you take at the college level is eligible for the credit. . If you or a family member is pursuing a degree, you may be eligible for the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives you credit for 100% of the first $2,000 of qualified expenses plus 25 percent of excess expenses, up to a maximum annual credit per student of $2,500. TurboTax makes it easy to claim education tax benefits: just answer a few easy questions, and TurboTax will compute the tax deduction or credit that maximizes your tax savings.

7. Deduct your job-hunting expenses. If finding a better job is on your to-do list this year, keep track of the expenses you incur. You can deduct the cost of job-hunting travel, meals, telephone calls, resume preparation, career counseling, and employment agencies, to the extent that they exceed two percent of your income as long as the job is in your same profession. This is true even if you don’t actually change jobs.

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Watch Dogs 2

Mar 15

Mar 15

ModNation Racers Release Date, Pre-Orders and Box Art!

Chuck Lacson's Avatar Posted by Product Marketing Manager, SCEA

If you’ve been keeping up with the Blog or recent preview coverage, you know ModNation Racers is continuing the Play, Create and Share movement allowing both PS3 and PSP owners to design their own racers, karts and best of all, custom tracks! Creations can then be raced with friends (four-player split-screen confirmed!) and uploaded to the rest of the PlayStation Network! But the question is:

When will it hit store shelves?

Well it’s official! ModNation Racers on both PS3 and PSP releases May 25! On top of this, we kick off our official pre-order program today for the PS3 version with participating retailers.

ModNation Characters

That’s right! Ratchet and Clank, Nathan Drake, and Kratos have officially been Mod’ed! Depending on where you pre-order your copy, you’ll get to race with one of your favorite characters.

ModNation Racers Kratos Racing

Pre-order from GameStop and score Kratos and his Kart of Chaos!

ModNation Racers Ratchet Racing

Pre-order from Amazon and race as Ratchet or Clank!

ModNation Racers Nathan Drake Racing

Pre-order from Best Buy and score Nathan Drake and his Jungle Jeep!

On top of this, each pre-order gets an additional BONUS Mystery Mod and Kart package that include not just a special Mod and Kart, but additional accessories that you can use to make your own creations!

ModNation Racers DLC 1 ModNation Racers DLC 2

ModNation Racers DLC 3 ModNation Racers DLC 4

Four possibilities in total, and just like a vinyl figure you buy in stores, you won’t know which one you get until you download it and see for yourself. Wondering what they could be? We will reveal them soon enough! Just look for a future post right here on the Blog. :)

So there you go! Pre-order today and you might be racing with your favorite PlayStation character! To make sure you know which box to grab on May 25, here is a sneak peek at our packfront!

ModNation Racers PS3 Box

More updates to come right here on the PS.Blog! See you then.

Add Your Own

PAGE 1 2 3 4

Zardakin said:

March 16th, 8:26 pm

I’ve been wating for this game for a long time… I’m gona be one of the first to get it! THE RACE IS ON! WHO WANTS TO GO FOR PINKS!?

Shinra_Soilder said:

March 16th, 10:09 pm

Dang it all! The Nathan Drake skin is just tempting me to preorder this game!
Why must you taunt me with your witty remarks?

TopBanana0769 said:

March 18th, 5:32 am

I’m so excited for this game! Reserved it as soon as GameStop had it in their system. I’ve had it paid off since December!

RynoDaxter said:

March 18th, 1:33 pm

hey question can the ratchet and clank skin get both of them and also can it be somewhere else than amazon? i rather buy in stores than online

Elvick_ said:

March 18th, 8:40 pm

Great… I can’t get Kratos, we don’t have a gamestop. Wonder if has the deal.

If not I’ll settle for Ratchet and Clank as has it. But that Kratos Kart is epic

yodazon said:

March 18th, 9:21 pm

ive got a question since EBgames is a company ran by gamestop is it still possible to get kratos and his cart by orderin in ebgames?

Ballboy9687 said:

March 19th, 4:41 am

Does the Ratchet and Clank package come with a kart?

TheDarkKnight22 said:

March 20th, 1:30 am

Do the characters get any kind of special attack specifically designed for them or is it just the character and the cart?

fiskycatcha said:

March 20th, 11:59 am

ugh i hav to choose either psp or ps3 version i think ill go with ps3
my puppy ate the memory stick:( but thank god he’s alright:):):):):):):):):)

XviViASSACREvX said:

March 20th, 12:13 pm

Adyeniel said:

March 20th, 12:55 pm

TheXentertainer said:

March 20th, 1:12 pm

The ‘Last Kart Standing’ feature sounds good so why is it omitted from the PS3 version? Maybe it can be downloaded from PSN as an additional feature? Or a Hidden Bonus in the game itself, after designing 100 tracks or winning 20 online races for example?

TheXentertainer said:

March 20th, 1:16 pm

Either way, I’ll be getting this on the ps3. Anyone is welcome to add me! Speaking of which, my psn connection won’t load due to ‘failure of IP’. Any ideas what’s wrong because I have lost psn connection. Many thanks if anyone can help.

juanmtz said:

March 20th, 2:14 pm

my question is this, what is the exact release date cause i just reserved mine at gamestop and they said it comes out in june, and you guys say may. i’m confused and also, how will this game work with the playstation move?

redcell89 said:

March 20th, 2:39 pm

hmm maybe ill preorder from best buy but i really wanted to see cole mcgrath from infamous or jak and daxter or slys gang i love bently personaly

xXMop-a-topXx said:

March 20th, 3:20 pm

Are these preorder bonuses for the uk too?

AK-58 said:

March 21st, 5:41 pm

for the exclusives(ratchet,clank,kratos,nathan drake),will you get the kart and mod as a pre-made(one you can select)AND the parts used to make them?if you dont get them as both,thats gotta be changed,i personally think it would be awesome to have kratos’ arm plating on one of my custom mods.also, are the ‘mystery’ characters just pre-mades that come with special items? thats my guess anyway.

p.s. nathan drake looks completely ridicolous.good job!

BPatches701 said:

March 22nd, 7:07 am

Don’t choose between PS3 OR PSP either get both or just the PS3 one because frankly there is no comparison to the PS3 version because the PSP ALWAYS has a ton of missing features and crappy PS1.5 graphics. Playing the PSP version over the PS3 is like playing a sports game on the PS2 when there is a PS3 version (if the PS2 even still had online for new games.)

PeeeJaaay said:

March 22nd, 4:00 pm

jdcmemit said:

March 23rd, 2:38 pm

sweet looks like im gonna pre order it

jdcmemit said:

March 23rd, 2:39 pm

that box art is also cool

silverstag88 said:

March 24th, 8:21 am

Why can’t the PS3 version have Last Kart Standing too? It would be awesome if you add it.

silverstag88 said:

March 24th, 8:25 am

You should really considering making apps for iphone or ipad. That would be awesome!!!

starBlinky01 said:

March 25th, 8:19 pm

UGH!! I thought it was released on March 25th since this is what had on their release calendar. I was all ready to go to the store and everything..

Was this a PSU booboo? Or did the date change?

Randy-M47 said:

April 3rd, 8:51 am

I think i know what one of the mystery ones are! The bottom left one looks like… well… I will just say what its from: Tom and Jerry!

SergentChaz said:

April 6th, 8:16 pm

I hope i can make cavves in track studio, there are so many “creation” games whre you cant make a cave! (LBP DOESNT COUNT)

xXalverstoneXx said:

April 10th, 9:40 am

Looks amazing!
Now I just need to pick where to pre-order from.

Ibn_Elmeedan said:

April 10th, 11:29 am

I checked out, and they never mentioned a Nathan Drake + Mystery Pack as a Pre-Order Bonus. Is this an in–store deal (for Best Buy). I usually never reserve games via Best Buy, but Nate Drake + Modnation Racers = Paradise.

Ibn_Elmeedan said:

April 10th, 11:30 am

I kind of like the Amazon one, since the Ratchet and Clank bonus counts as 2 mods, not just Ratchet wearing Clank.

Edony8 said:

April 10th, 8:47 pm

I really want to race as Nathan Drake, but I don’t want to pre-order from Best Buy. Will it be possible later to get Drake through the Playstation Store?

Ibn_Elmeedan said:

April 11th, 10:09 am

@Edony8 I really hope they do. If they do, it will probably come to the Playstation Store like 6 months later

LayMeOnTheWater said:

April 12th, 5:43 am

Will there be a demo on the PSN?

Gunwing said:

April 12th, 7:33 am

I’m so getting this game when I get payed! But sadly that wont be for a copple months now because I just bought my brand new and kick butt VIZIO 1080p HDTV with SRSTruSurround HD speakers…… My PS3 games look better, run smoother and sound better with a true 1080p HDTV and on top of that a extremly fast black to white 6.5 MS response time means no ghosting ever! I look forward to watching some BD movies tonight, as well as playing my fav PS3 games all over again!

(Playing God of War 3, Ratchet A Crack in Time, and DarSkiders from the start again)

TwinDad said:

April 12th, 8:04 am

Game looks fun, but not more then $30 fun. I’ve seen a few sites have it for $40 to pre-order, but I haven’t played it yet and I’m not sold. So Demo?

gamingEnd said:

April 13th, 9:24 am

Will the PSP version get the same customization content in-game? Because I saw the videos on the PSN and I think that it’s just awesome how you can create almost everything you have in mind.

PAGE 1 2 3 4
Comments are closed. We close the comments for posts after 30 days

PlayStation Blog


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belVita breakfast biscuits Archives - Blog By DonnaBlog By Donna
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Blog By Donna

A Mom Navigating Life

Tag Archives: belVita breakfast biscuits

belVita Breakfast Biscuits for Busy Moms

By: Donna Chaffins | Date: January 3, 2017 | Categories: Food

One of my goals for the New Year is to eat breakfast. I’m guilty of skipping breakfast because I’m so busy. Being a busy mom, I’m bad about putting everything and everyone else before me. Thankfully, belVita Biscuits makes an excellent grab & go breakfast. Now I can grab belVita Biscuits as I’m going out […]


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Hidden viewstate is causing SEO issues

Topics: Business Logic Layer
Sep 5, 2013 at 5:03 PM
Edited Sep 5, 2013 at 5:24 PM
Is there a way to move the hidden view state field to the bottom of the page. The issue that I'm running into is an SEO best practice, where the goal is to get the crawler to access content as early as possible in the page. In the case of view-source:http://www.calibersi.com/page/vehicle-graphics I have a ton of state data before that happens.

Can this be moved down or out? I'm not using the SQL version, but I guess moving the state information to an SQL DB is a option?

Love to get some feedback.


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Tagged: archaeologist

The Life of [Kerin] Riley on quarter-life crises

The Life of [Kerin] Riley continues her musings on life abroad, turning 21, traveling the Irish countryside and a possible quarter-life crisis impending: A Hard Question “I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to […]


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Social Media and Time Management

TimeI’m currently poring over Ivan Walsh’s second iteration of free eBooks on social media. One that stood out for me is Amber Naslund’s “Social Media Time Management” (pdf), which I’m now reading through for a few new ideas.

When we sit down to consult with a school on their social media strategy, one of the biggest concerns is time management. Staff already have many different projects on their plates (and several waiting in the wings). How is it possible to keep up with not only 1) listening to what people are saying about them, but 2) remembering to allot time to all of these new tools, especially if they have to learn them first?

I often think of a marketer’s common concern: the switching cost hurdle. If the mental energy and effort expelled in making a switch in behavior is perceived as being greater than the benefit, the switch doesn’t occur. We also see this all the time in business with the adoption of social media — are the benefits of using social tools like Facebook worth the learning curve involved?

From what I’ve read so far, I agree with Amber — listen first, and come up with some solid goals. It shouldn’t be an exhaustive list, but maybe one or two things that you’d really like to get accomplished. Then, once you’ve been listening for a while, decide on what tools can help you the most. I also like to add that if you’re thinking of using more than one website to promote, get really good at one before moving on to a second. If you need to reserve your URLs, by all means do it, but make sure you have your goals outlined, and maybe a schedule if you’re sharing responsibilities with more than one person in your area.

How do you stay on top of social media on your team?

Image courtesy John-Morgan on Flickr.

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Micah Zenko

Politics, Power, and Preventive Action

Zenko covers the U.S. national security debate and offers insight on developments in international security and conflict prevention.

How Many Pakistani Civilians Have Been Killed by CIA Drones?

by Micah Zenko Wednesday, October 30, 2013

How many Pakistani civilians have been killed by CIA drone strikes? As I have noted, this is an inherently difficult question to answer due to the covert nature of the operations, the fact that some groups targeted by drones purposefully operate out of civilian facilities in an effort to avoid being killed, and the lack of reliable direct access for journalists who are threatened by the Pakistani army or targeted groups. To appreciate how contested the answer to this question is, consider three separate Pakistani government estimates of civilian casualties caused by drones. Read more »

You Might Have Missed: Drones, Syria, and Technology

by Micah Zenko Friday, October 25, 2013
Drone site People gather at the site of a drone strike in southern Yemen on August 11, 2013 (Stringer/Courtesy Reuters).

Allegation of U.S. Spying on Merkel Puts Obama at Crossroads,” New York Times, October 24, 2013.

“This was colossally bad judgment — doing something because you can, instead of asking if you should,” said one career American official with long experience in Europe. A senior administration official declined to say what Mr. Obama knew or did not know about monitoring of Ms. Merkel’s phone, but said the president “doesn’t think we are in the right place.” Read more »

You Might Have Missed: Drone Strikes, the CIA, and Polls on Syria and Iran

by Micah Zenko Friday, October 18, 2013
Afghan policemen keep watch during celebrations for Afghan New Year. (Sobhani/Courtesy Reuters)

Drop the Pilot,” Economist, October 19, 2013.

A 2009 poll in three of the tribal agencies found 52% of respondents believed drone strikes were accurate and 60% said they weakened militant groups. Other surveys have found much lower percentages in favour. But interviews by The Economist with twenty residents of the tribal areas confirmed that many see individual drone strikes as preferable to the artillery barrages of the Pakistani military. They also insisted that the drones do not kill many civilians—a view starkly at odds with mainstream Pakistani opinion. “No one dares tell the real picture,” says an elder from North Waziristan. “Drone attacks are killing the militants who are killing innocent people.” Read more »

What New Threats and Conflicts Will Emerge in 2014?

by Micah Zenko Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Child with Mortar Shell in Aleppo Issa, 10 years old, carries a mortar shell in a weapons factory of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, Syria on September 7, 2013 (Khatib/Courtesy Reuters).

In August 2009, President Obama declared in a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars: “One of the best ways to lead our troops wisely is to prevent the conflicts that cost American blood and treasure tomorrow.” As I previously noted, the U.S. military has a terrible record of predicting the locations and types of conflicts that it will face. For the past five years, in an effort to assist policymakers in anticipating and planning for thirty contingencies that threaten U.S. national interests, we at the Center for Preventive Action have conducted a Preventive Priorities Survey (PPS). Each year the PPS evaluates ongoing and potential violent conflicts based on the impact they could have on U.S. interests and their likelihood of occurring in the coming year. Read more »

You Might Have Missed: Special Operations Raids, European Drones, and CIA Detentions

by Micah Zenko Friday, October 11, 2013
USS San Antonio The USS San Antonio transits through the Gulf of Oman on February 4, 2009. An elite American interrogation team is now questioning the senior al-Qaeda figure Abu Anas al-Liby, who was seized by special operations forces in Libya, onboard the USS San Antonio in the Mediterranean Sea (Zalasky/Courtesy Reuters).

Hearing to consider the nominations of Mr. Michael D. Lumpkin, Honorable Jamie M. Morin, and Honorable Jo Ann Rooney, U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, October 10, 2013.

Lumpkin: We’re not going to be able to kill our way to victory. One at a time, doing one-eaches…

I would argue [al-Qaeda is] less capable to attack the homeland directly but U.S. interests – it still has the capability. Read more »

You Might Have Missed: Japanese Drones, Shutdown, CIA in Syria

by Micah Zenko Friday, October 4, 2013

John Hudson, “U.S. Rules Out a New Drone War in Iraq,” Foreign Policy Magazine, October 3, 2013.

In 2013 alone, Iraq is averaging 68 car bombings a month. The United Nations reports that 5,740 civilians were killed since January, which is almost two times more deaths than recorded in all of 2010. Read more »

The Federal Shutdown and Foreign Credibility

by Micah Zenko Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Boehner shutdown Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner at 1:00 am on October 1, 2013, after a vote by the House prompted a shutdown of portions of the U.S. government (Bourg/Courtesy Reuters).

At midnight last night, the U.S. federal government began partial shutdown procedures, which are mandated whenever Congress and the President do not appropriate funds at the start of a new fiscal year, either through an appropriations bill or a continuing resolution. Subsequently, all affected federal agencies have to stop any programs funded by annual appropriations which are not deemed “essential” under the law. This means that employees of these agencies are placed on emergency furlough, a time during which they cannot come to work, bring work home, or even check their work emails. Subsequently the Department of Commerce will lose 87 percent of its workforce, Department of Energy 81 percent, Health and Human Services 52 percent, and the Department of Defense roughly half of its eight-hundred thousand civilian employees. Read more »