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The Roblox Reporter

Posted in Place reviews by arnol1337 on May 17, 2008

I have just interviewed a place called “The Great Knights Of Robloxia ”

Place visits ( total ) – 17,000 , it has a good number of place visits, i guess people like this place 🙂

Player Happiness – 9.3 – there was lag but the players don’t mind.

Scripting Work – 9.4 – Very nice scripting work, BIG!!!! it had many areas for you the player to explore.. ( does it by levels)

Lag- 6/10 – Not exactly……. easy to move, it had some lag. its a so-so

Total Review – 8.3  A good , but not Great place. its fun for maybe a good 20 minutes. players enjoy this place and so do I. I’ll give it one thumb up…  -ARNOL1337

the great knights of robloxia RPG 92% done

Posted in Place reviews by arnol1337 on May 16, 2008

I have just interviwed the well known place ” Ultimate Paintball CTF “.

Place visits ( total ) – about, 260,000 visits/  😮

Player happyness – 8.4 , i got a lot of people saying about 8-10…

Scripting work- 10! , the whole place was excellent….

Laggness- 0.7- it was really BIG , but surprisinglly it had Hardly any lag!!!

Total review- 9.1 I really like this place. its fun and big.it’s one of the top places on Roblox!!! Thats why i give this place a 2 thumbs up. keep it up MIKED.     – ARNOL1337

✪Ultimate Paintball CTF

Reveiws galore!

Posted in Place reviews by builder88 on May 16, 2008

Wana place review? Well, there are some requirments.

Over 2,000 visits in a week

On popular page


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Hawaii Blues/Mandatory Trip Report

Is this the most gorgeous shade of blue you ever saw?!!!  And I took the picture!!  I know.  I’m no Clark Little.  Go ahead and say it.  I know you’re thinking it.

Background…we were in Hawaii.  The Big Island to be exact.  It was 2005 and Big Boss and I were ecstatic! We were finally getting the opportunity to explore the Pacific Ocean. Sort of.  It was possible because most of the expenses were paid for, even the rental car/Jeep.  We were traveling with some hometown friends and were pumped  and anticipating fabulous times.

The trip over was rough for me as I was coming off knee surgery about 4 months earlier and the night before we were to fly out of Denver, I got some kind of bug.  We were pretty sure that it was food poisoning.  Backing up further, that night before departure, BB took me to see the newly released “Phantom of the Opera”!!!  I was so excited to finally SEE the story for real.  About halfway through the movie, I didn’t feel quite right and by the time we left the theater, I was getting worse by the minute.  Around 3 am, I woke BB up while making my 6th trip to ladies room and he told me we were going to have to call the trip officials and cancel.  In my delirium, I grabbed him by his ears and told him very firmly, we WERE going if I had to crawl into the dadburned plane.  Period.  This was different from the usual upchucking virus and I was pretty sure it was “something I ate”.

You know the “crawl” thing? Almost had to do it.  If BB hadn’t been the he-man that he is, crawling was my next option.  I was going to Hawaii and nobody was stopping me! Once on the plane, I felt better and had only one “episode”! 🙂

Aren’t you glad I’m telling you all of this?!!

Anyway, this trip meant a lot to us.  You’re getting that picture right? So, after hours of flying, we get to this fancy schmancy hotel where BB drags me to our room and throws my pitiful body onto the closest bed.

And I don’t move for the next 12 hours.

Yeah, I’m in beautiful Hawaii with bazillions of Things To Do and SEE and I can’t move. Very frustrating. BB hangs in there with me and brings me a $24 bowl of chicken noodle soup and some Sprite around the 14th hour of my incapacitation.  That helped loads!  And by the second day of inhabiting the lovely tropical island, I am up and moving.  Slowly.  But I’ve missed the opening ceremonies, a fab banquet, meeting loads of other farmers as awe-struck as we are…yeah, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.

Our friends (the wife is a retired nurse) checked on me but I didn’t want them to cancel plans that we had made, so they departed for fun in the sun. Without ME.  Feeling even sorrier for self. But then I’m  one of those folks who, when sick, just “vant to be alone”. As in, let me crawl in a hole and please, shut the door cause I don’t want to talk, visit or think.

At an outdoor dinner complete with orchids dropped on us from helicopters and native dancers from various Polynesian islands. And fire dancers. Big Boss was literally holding me up.

But the Lord made it all better when I finally got OUT around the 4th day of the trip.  We decided to take a whale cruise off the Golden Coast of Hawaii.  Of course, making certain there were “facilities” aboard, just in case.  Sigh. Once we got out a mile or so, all was well.  I had worried that sea sickness would then slam its blue fist into my face, but no, I was fine!

With camera in hand I was clicking away while listening to the guide explain the life cycle of the whales, their seasonal migrations…and yes, the whale just swam under the boat.  Gulp.  And said whale popped up on the other side of the boat and the guide said “Wait!  Watch!  He’s going to dive down and then you’ll see a footprint!”

Huh?  A footprint? On the water?  This guy had obviously been hitting the Kahula stuff a bit too often?  Nope.  “The drag of his tail will create an underwater ‘funnel/vortex’ and will leave a circular footprint on top of the water.”

Sure enough.  There it was. A round and almost smooth whale footprint!! In blue water. With a blue sky above. God is good!!!!

 I took one shot of it and the above photo is the result.  Just one.  It may the best timed pic I ever took.  The footprints will last as long as a minute, which gave me the time to get set up and steady.

Not sure which was the best of the boat trip…seeing those mighty whale spouts in the distance or the footprints up close and personal.

Reminded me of something my Daddy always said when we were fishing or camping.  “Don’t leave anything behind but your footprints.”

The whales even take care of that! I want to go back…

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2 Responses to Hawaii Blues/Mandatory Trip Report

  1. Dianne says:

    Hawaii is a favorite of ours too. I broke my ankle on the first morning if our first trip and limped around on it for the duration. I was sure it was just a sprain. The bright side, Tommy took me back so I could really enjoy Hawaii. We’ve been several times now because it is a place that makes you let go of business and relax. I needed that before I retired. We’ve only been once since retirement, in February, and we went through a tsunami warning that turned out to be no problem.

    • The Queen says:

      So glad you got to go back. One of our classmates has a condo in Kaua’i and has offered it to us. Now to rake up the pennies for the plane ticket!! Did you fly over the volcanoes? Did you see a footprint? Or a whale?

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going where you fit

Last night I was involved in the last teaching session for this years MSM course which we ran in the Bluewater Management Suite.

The group have been great to work with and the last session always has a lot about reflection on what we have learnt and looking forward, and being commissioned, for the future.

msm learnI was encouraged last night with stuff that the students shared. You can read from the image what this years students felt were some of the important things that they learned.

I love reading them all … but I am particularly struck and challenged by the last comment on that flip chart … ‘going where you fit’.

For me … that kind of sums up Christian life and mission. Rather than trying to engineer or manipulate things … mission, and by that I mean ‘serving and loving people Jesus Style’, can only happen out of a context where one feels ‘at home’. By that I mean a place where you feel accepted, where you can see you are growing to love the people that inhabit that space and where you are welcomed by those that already make up that community.

Sometimes that acceptance can take a little while to appear, and I remember it took around 6 – 8 months to start to feel accepted in Wetherspoons at the start of my curacy. Before this acceptance, however, it was clear to me that I resonated with these people in some way. For a time that was enough. The same has been true of the locations and spaces I inhabit now.

So …. I often get asked by others starting or changing their ministry ‘how do I discern my calling?’, or ‘how do I know what God wants me to do in this town?’ …. my answer has now been simplified by these inspired words ….

simply go where you fit

I’m happy with that!

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This Won’t Solve the Age Question

If the IOC finally is willing to admit to doubt about the ages of Chinese gymnasts, asking the Chinese government or gymnastics federation is unlikely to resolve the issue in anyone’s mind. You don’t ask a liar if they are lying and expect them to say, “Oh, yeah, you caught me. I was lying.” DOH!

The only thing that might help, and even that is unlikely to bring resolution, is a hearing before The Court of Arbitration for Sport, with the doubters bringing forward the documentation and video that they offer as proof of the gymnasts’ true age. Won’t happen.

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Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey…Where do I even begin to talk about the devastation that they state of Texas has endured. I’ve lived in Houston all of my life just about and in the most recent years it just seems like the city itself can’t handle a heavy rain. I don’t know if it’s the drainage system or the constant building and growing of Houston but we really have a serious problem. In the video below by Chase Boogie, you see Highway 288, a major freeway looking like a lake.

This is one of the freeways that I would normally take to get to Downtown Houston. Downtown Houston is totally flooded with no place for the water to even go and then they have levys that were released which added to more devastation of communities. People lost their lives, whole families in vehicles trying to escape were stranded in water, I have friends who have lost everything and only escaped the flood waters with the clothes on their back. It’s really devastating and emotional to even be in Texas right now. Looking at the news and seeing Facebook of people reaching out to be rescued, people on the roofs of their homes and apartment complexes, doing welfare checks, alerts on my cellphone and alarm system going off every 5-10 minutes because there is a tornado in the area and having to take shelter in the closet but not alarming my 4 year old so that he would still feel safe; it was a lot. The gas shortage partnered with lines to get into the grocery stores, fights + hopelessness once you finally get in there and the shortage of food and water. I wouldn’t wish this experience on any one but I still love my city.

My immediate family had no damage to our home or vehicles. The video below shows how the highest the water got was midway covering my driveway with the neighborhood being totally flooded of not being able to get in or out.

My mom had some uprooted bushes and trees, a couple of roof leaks at her home, and no power for about 16 hours but there was no flooding on her street. My Grandmother on the Northside of town in Fifth Ward had no water damage but was with out lights for 5 days and the freeways were flooded so no one could get to her. My Cousin Crystal had a couple of inches of water in her home but her family is safe. The water was up passed my Aunt Yvonne’s knees in her house and once she went outside for rescue, the water was to her chest; she has the most damage of the entire family.

With school being out for about 2 weeks, there’s only so much you can do with kids in tow as the shelters aren’t allowing kids to  volunteer. I cleaned out our closets and donated over 60 items of clothing and toys. Since my Aunt was affected the hardest, Clark and I bought her a bucket full of clean up products and she was so appreciative.

Author: thestrugglecook

I'm a wife + mom struggling in the kitchen while trying to balance life + healthy eating for my family. Hi, I'm C'na + I am a Struggle Cook.

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy....

OK...back to the topic I started a few posts ago...Joy. Romans 12:12 says, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Sounds like one of those "command" sentences I remember learning about in elementary English class. And remember the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, etc.? Joy is second only to love. Joy comes easy when things are going well for us...but what about when we are going through a time of suffering or heartbreak? And what exactly is joy? Does that mean we are happy all the time?

How many of you sang this song in Sunday School growing up: "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart! WHERE? Down in my heart! WHERE? Down in my heart...". You remember it, don't you? I remember we always yelled "WHERE?" as loud as we could. That song had several verses: "I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus, down in my heart", "I've got the wonderful love of my blessed Redeemer way down in the depths of my heart", and even "And if the Devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack!" Maybe we only sang that last one in my Sunday School, I don't know. Anyway, that song had a bridge...a part that we sang in between those verses...that went like this: "And I'm so happy, so very happy, I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. And I'm so happy, so very happy, I've got the love of Jesus in my heart."

You know, right now, I could sing the "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy" part with sincerity. But, that bridge, the "I'm so happy" part...well, to be honest, I don't always feel happy. As a matter of fact, I'm often very, very sad. My heart has been broken. There are times that I miss my daughter so much I find it hard to sit upright. But even in those moments, there is a deep down joy. In 2 Corinthians 6:10, Paul says, "Our hearts ache, but we always have joy." It could not be better said. This kind of joy, the kind that doesn't depend on circumstances, can only come from God. We can't manufacture it...we can't just decide we're going to be joyful. But, we can rejoice in the Lord at all times, in any circumstance, because He is who He says He is.

Hebrews 12:2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." As we approach this Easter season, I am so grateful that He endured that cross for me, for Brad, for Bethany, for Hannah, and for you...and that we can share in that joy!

Sherri Smith said...

I needed to read this post tonight. Thank you!

Steve and Laura said...

That's one of Julia's all time favorite songs. Her favorite verse is the devil sitting on a tack. Did I learn that from you....I think I sang that in my Sunday School too.
The other day I heard her singing it over the monitor when she was supposed to be sleeping.
Good point though, we are not always happy, but we can always have joy.

Lori Harper said...

Thank you so much for posting this. It came at just the right time for me today. I always come away from your blog with such encouragement. You are a gifted writer and a JOY to know!


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Hollywood Fringe Diary

Week One—Part III

Hollywood Fringe 2016The Hollywood Fringe Festival’s Week One Diary—Part III is all about the Bard who is nicely represented this year with a number of works, these are a few that just struck my interest:

From Great Britain, or as it’s known nowadays Britain, Ryan J-W Smith brings this skewing of the Scottish play, described as “Shakespeare meets Monty Python in this hilarious” as well as a trunk full of awards from other theatre festivals including “The International Award” from last year’s Hollywood Fringe. The buzz about this production is not only good; it’s good in iambic pentameter.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE or HERE!

From Great Britain, or as it’s known nowadays Britain, Ryan J-W Smith bring – HEY! Wait a second we’ve done this! Well, it seems ol’ J-W is a bit of an overachiever. This is his second offering in the Fringe, another verse play of his own devising which promises “Verse, Tights, Codpiece, Lights!”

Interested in learning more? Click HERE or HERE!

A recently divorced teacher, in the midst of a nervous breakdown, is given the assignment of directing the spring play at Dawson Middle School. He decides to stage Shakespeare’s most beloved and light hearted work…. Oops! Forget the “beloved and light hearted” crap; he’s going to direct Titus Andronicus. Rape, hand chopping off, cannibalism and pre-teens which is a potent mix if you ask me. Written and Directed by Troy Heard.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE or HERE!

A long, long time ago somewhere between the death of the last dinosaur and when Ann Coulter crawled out of the primordial ooze, three young actors – Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield – wrote and performed a very funny little farce called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). The trio now wears suits of woven gold, their shoes are chiseled from diamonds, they use hundred dollar bills as TP, throw away their domestics after one use and reside in ivory castles that dwarf those of the Rhine. (Except for Long he bought Iceland). It is a very funny play and has made them richer than Auric Goldfinger and Scrooge McDuck combined. This production offers an all female cast. Tracy Eliott, Patty Jean Robinson, Anna Quirino Miranda with Hallie Cooper at the directing helm.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE or HERE!

Two men and two women romp through the bard’s most libidinous scenes with the audience picking every night which actor will play which role in a gender [expletive deleted] orgy.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE or HERE!

In this adaptation by director Rachel Lynn Walker, the Dane will be doing his brooding in the 1940s, Claudius isn’t a king but the “head of the family” and the “kingdom” being struggled over is just a mere speck in the Nevada desert called Las Vegas. Raymond Chandler meets Bill Shakespeare, the rest is noir.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE!

Hamlet before it was Hamlet. DW McCann’s notion of Shakespeare pitching this wild idea for a play to his first investors, while “Hamlet” tries to learn his role.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE!

Vanzu Khonsu, (aka Jovan Rameau) explores the nature of “time” as viewed through the works of the world’s greatest writers from Sophocles on. And of course, Shakespeare. Directed by Inger Tudor.

Interested in learning more? Click HERE or HERE!

♦   ♦   ♦

Click HERE for Fringe Week One—Part IV

EDITOR’S NOTE: The close of Preview Week brings us to the inaugural opening of The Hollywood Fringe which includes eats, drinks and “the grand reveal of Fringe Central” and, of course, the Plays!!

Date: Wednesday, June 8

Time: 7pm (doors open)

Where: 6510 Santa Monica Blvd

Admittance is your Fringe Button, very reasonably priced at five dollars at the door (3 dollars for participants, primary contacts have gratis status). Please note, if you purchase online now, you can avoid a ticket que on the night.

The Fringe reports that:

“The infamous Bryan’s Bar is back! Home to cheap drinks for those wearing a Fringe button and full of good times for all. To soak up the booze, get your grub on at a partnering food truck pulled right up to the patio.”

Yay! What’s not to love? Welcome to June indeed!

Written by

An award-winning L.A. playwright and rabble-rouser of note who has hoisted glasses with Orson Welles, been arrested on three continents and once beat up Charlie Manson. His first play, "Among the Vipers" was a semi-finalist in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition and was featured in the Carnegie-Mellon Showcase of New Plays. It was produced at the NPT Theater in Ashland, Oregon and Los Angeles’ celebrated Odyssey Ensemble Theatre. His following play, “The Little Boy Who Loved Monsters” was produced at The Hollywood Actors Theater, where he earned praise from the Los Angeles Times for his “…inordinately creative writing.” The play went on to numerous other productions including Berlin’s The Black Theatre under the direction of Rainer Fassbinder who wrote in his program notes of Kearney, “He is a skilled playwright, but more importantly he is a dangerous one.” Ernest Kearney has worked as literary manager or as dramaturge for among others The Hudson Theater Guild, Nova Diem and the Odyssey Ensemble Theatre, where he still serves on the play selection committee. He has been the recipient of two Dramalogue Awards and a finalist or semi-finalist, three times, in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition. His work has been performed by Michael Dunn, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jack Colvin and Billy Bob Thornton, and to date, either as playwright or director, he has upwards of a hundred and thirty productions under his belt, including a few at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater as puppeteer. After a wild and misspent youth, which lasted well into middle age, Kearney has settled down and is focusing on his writing, as well as living happily ever after with his lovely wife Marlene. Ernest’s stage reviews and social essays can be found at and Follow him on Facebook.

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Across the TVolution


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Broken Machine

Woah there! You’re going to program your lighting cues to fire automatically? Well, go ahead. Why don’t you just shoot the LX board operator and me in the face right now and put us out of our misery. Save us the trouble of doing it ourselves when our jobs are inevitably stolen by cold, heartless machines.

This overblown response is actually pretty similar to what was really going through my head when I started work on my last DSM job.

‘Well, there will be a lot of called cues, of course. But during the few songs that have a click track, you can just fire the first sound cue and then sit back and light a cigar.’

As great as that did sound, it also made me feel unsurprisingly nervous.

That’s a helluva lot of responsibility to leave in the hands of a computer, isn’t it? Or am I being terribly old-fashioned? Some of my Mac-obsessed friends would probably trust these sophisticated machines to shave them, dress them and bath their babies. They’d trust these computers with their mothers’ lives if given the opportunity.

After all, dozens of shows a day (more, probably) are successfully being run off QLab-type software. It’s a normalised practice, which has enabled shows to run increasingly complex sequences of lighting, sound and AV cues, for example. And, as audience members, we benefit from the subsequent ‘wow’ factor of a technically complex production.

All of this tech-talk reminds me of a small presentation I did on ‘Stage Management Software’ last year. One of the topics I touched on was the use of an iPad (other tablets are available) to call a show from, chucking the old paper prompt copy out of the window in the process. Speaking to a room full of other Stage Managers about this concept, I was met with a shared feeling of “bleuurgh”. Faces turned faintly green with a nauseous unease.  For most, it was just a step too far in the relationship between SMs and technology.

Then again, if we look back just 10 or 15 years, I would hazard a guess that most Stage Managers were pretty uneasy about the idea of trusting a piece of technology with all of their contacts, or going digital with their calendars, for example.

On the whole, we agreed that the introduction of new software into Stage Management practice should only happen when it makes the process smoother, and the end product superior, without adding unnecessary risk. What is the desired result of using the software, and do the ends justify the means?

What the QLab programming in my last job aimed to achieve was an exact, precise, robotic effect. Lighting cues would fire on the exact hemidemisemiquaver of choice. How can a human DSM compete with that?

With experience, one can learn to pre-empt the beat sufficiently, leaving precisely enough time for you to say ‘GO’, for the operator to hear ‘GO’, for the operator to press their button, and for the information to travel from the lighting desk to the individual lanterns. And this is adequate for most snap cues. But can it really compare to the exact science of targeting individual microseconds of midi?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. At the end of the day, this technique can only be employed when the piece is accompanied by musicians playing to a strict click-track, or when the players themselves have been heartlessly replaced by machines (or at the very least a recording). Until that day, the unpredictable element of live musical performance will require a human response.

I’d like to think that, actually, an audience can tell (in a good way) when a show is automated, and when a human being is calling it. There’s a softer atmosphere, with more give and take. It’s difficult to put into words. I guess it’s a little bit of je ne sais quoi.

And let’s not forget that sometimes… just sometimes… the software can crash… *gulp*

My final question is this: at what point does this remarkable technology start to strangle creativity? The last production I worked on was a new piece. It was constantly evolving, growing, contracting, and expanding. Lighting cues would move frequently, as would sound clips and projected slide cues. In the end, in order to facilitate these audio-visual quick-changes, I decided to cut out the middleman.

Almost all of the previously programmed cues became called cues. Man overcame the machine. As speedy as I soon became at editing QLab, it was much faster to grab a pencil and amend my score. After all, an organic approach to show-calling was far better suited to the organic approach to theatre-making adopted by this particular company.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that it’s all about finding the right approach for the individual piece. We have to constantly develop and adapt our working practice. Even if, at some point, that does mean replacing me with a robot.


text:
Damian Radcliffe

Posts Tagged ‘stats’

Top Internet, Technology and Social Media Stories, Facts and Links: mid-May 2011 to mid-June 2011

In Monthly round up: Top Internet, Technology and Social Media Stories, Facts and Links on June 19, 2011 at 11:16 pm

Cisco forecast the global online population will reach almost 3bn over the next four years, with the number of connected devices growing to 15bn, or double the world’s population, by 2015.

ComScore figures for newspaper websites beyond home and work computers revealed Mail Online had 10.9m unique visitors in April, ahead of guardian.co.uk (8.98m) and Mirror Online (4.4m). The figures cover outlets including apps, mobile and tablet browsers, and PCs in shared locations.

Owners of ‘social magazine’ app Flipboard, which renders feeds from social networking sites alongside traditional news content in a magazine format, said downloads of its iPad app have passed the 2.5m milestone.

Homes with 3D TV sets will pass the 300m mark in 2015, according to new research.

Analysis by Kantar Media indicated the first episode of BBC One’s new series of Doctor Who was the most recorded programme on UK TV to date, with the Barb overnight viewing figure of 4.11m growing to 8.9m when time-shifted viewing was taken into account.

Stock Market Developments

An IPO by LinkedIn has valued the networking website at $4.25bn as demand from investors saw shares priced at $45 – raising $351m. The FT reports that 7.8m LinkedIn shares were sold, with Goldman Sachs making $39m after selling its entire stake, and that the new pricing has increased the value of the business by nearly a third in just a week.

Online coupon seller Groupon began its process of going public by filing for an IPO it  aims to raise at least $750m from the IPO. In 2010 Groupon, which claims to have 83m subscribers in 43 countries, made a $413m loss on revenues of $713m.

Russian internet group Yandex, which controls 65% of its domestic search market, raised $1.3bn in an IPO in New York, almost a fifth more than forecast.

US internet radio company Pandora raised $235m in an IPO which valued the group at $2.6bn.

Virgin has announced plans to launch a Virgin Mobile-branded mobiles service across Latin America in a tie-up with wireless communications group Tribe Mobile, acting as mobile virtual network operators in markets which currently have few providers.

Facebook’s EMEA head of mobile partnerships Fergal Walker told a London conference that 70% of UK users access the site from mobiles as well as online, with the social network accounting for 50% of mobile internet minutes in this country.

Google unveiled its Google Wallet app for Android devices. The service will be offered in a tie-up with partners including Citi, MasterCard, First Data and telco Sprint Nextel, and will be preconfigured with the Google Offers daily coupon service.  Forrester analyst Charles Govlin said: “(We) expect NFC is going to increasingly become a default feature of every smartphone that is sold over the next couple of years.”

Vodafone, O2 and Everything Everywhere announced plans to establish a mobile payments joint venture which will seek to kick-start the mobile commerce sector by establishing a cross-platform solution for banks, retailers and advertisers.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said it is his mission to see 70% of the world owning a smartphone as he predicted devices which only offer call and text services will disappear within three to four years.

Virgin Media screened its first live 3D event, in a deal with Eurosport to offer subscribers 3D coverage of the French Open tennis tournament.

Nomura analysts said they expect Samsung to overhaul Nokia to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer during the current quarter, with Apple pushing the Finnish group into third place during Q3.

A US study by IPG Media Lab and YuMe found 94% of TV viewers polled use ‘companion media’ such as smartphones and laptops while watching programmes, saying distraction poses a greater threat to ad engagement than fast-forwarding via DVRs.

EU officials said the Article 29 Working Party, an alliance of domestic regulators, has argued location data should be considered as private, along with other customer information such as names and birth dates.

Apple’s iCloud digital entertainment service, which is due to go live in the US in September, is unlikely to launch in the UK before Q1 2012 due to rights issues. The free service, which will go live in the autumn, will allow users to store music, photos and documents across all of the group’s devices, while users will be able to pay a supplementary annual fee of $25 to access Apple’s 18m-track music catalogue, with record labels taking a cut of revenues. Jobs said: “We’re going to move the digital hub, the centre of your digital life, into the cloud.”

Apple has become a top-five UK PC vendor for the first time, according to Gartner, growing sales 15.9% year-on-year to leapfrog Samsung. The top four sellers remained Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Dell and Toshiba.

An Imano Digital Agency survey found almost 70% of UK iPad owners said they use the tablet to read newspapers and magazines, with 98% using it for web browsing and 94% for email. The study also found the Apple device is regarded as domestic rather than mobile technology, with 95% of respondents using it in their living rooms and 89% in bed.

US publisher Bonnier said analysis indicates that about 95% of iPad subscribers to its Popular Science magazine are new customers, with spokesman Gregg Hano saying the device has given them access to a “totally new audience”.

Google unveiled its ‘Music Beta by Google’ service. When fully rolled-out the ‘online music locker service’ will allow users to upload up to 20,000 songs which will be stored and accessible via an online library and not on their hard drive. The service will be free for a limited time to US applicants.

Google said its AdMob network doubled the number of video ads it placed on partner sites over the past year.

YouTube said global video views are up 50% in the last six months, at more than 3bn per day, attributing the spike to its decision to secure long-form content from broadcasters including Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Privacy regulators in a number of European countries are probing Facebook after it rolled out facial recognition software to the site without first seeking user permission.

Facebook accounts for almost a third of all online display advertising in the US.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the educational benefits of using the social network were so great that young children should be able to join, adding it would challenge the current 13-and-over age limit “at some point”. The limit is enforced by US law, while in the UK it forms part of Facebook’s terms and conditions.

Facebook is recruiting a cadre of ‘ambassadors’ to represent the group’s interests outside the US, focusing on countries where attitudes and regulations covering privacy and personal communications contrast to its home market.

The number of people using Facebook in the US and UK reportedly fell in May for the second month running, a move the Guardian said could suggest the social networking site has ‘hit the limits of expansion in the countries where it was first successful’. User numbers in Canada, Norway and Russia were also down, according to figures from monitoring site Inside Facebook. But globally the site is still climbing towards 700m users. In the US Inside Facebook said the site lost 6m users, to 149.4m by the end of the month. In the UK, more than 100,000 Facebook users were lost. Inside Facebook’s Eric Eldon said the key to further expansion lay in China.

Facebook moved quickly to dismiss Inside Facebook’s findings, throwing doubt on the monitoring site’s metrics tool. “From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions… Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn’t designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook. We are very pleased with our growth and with the way people are engaged with Facebook. More than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day.”

Attorney General Dominic Grieve has begun contempt proceedings against a juror who allegedly contacted a defendant on Facebook, prompting the collapse of a multimillion-pound drugs trial. Criminal Bar Association chairman Christopher Kinch QC said: “The situation is a potential timebomb for the jury system. Left unchecked, we could move towards trial by X-factor-type online polling; or jurors might find themselves put under pressure by correspondents online.”

Groups including the Telegraph, CNN and MTV have partnered with Twitter to add a ‘follow’ button to their websites, allowing users to monitor accounts on the micro-blogging site without having to return to Twitter’s home page.

Twitter has acquired UK third-party software provider TweetDeck in a deal believed to be worth about $40m.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told the FT he believes the group’s Wii U console, which it showed off at last week’s E3 trade show, can “fundamentally change the structure of entertainment” by blurring the distinction between TV and gaming.

Entertainment Software Association research showed that the average age of UK video game players is 37, with the average game buyer aged 41.

UK child-facing social network Moshi Monsters announced it has passed the 50m user milestone three years after launch.

WPP-owned agency GroupM has ‘blacklisted’ more than 2,000 US websites to prevent its clients’ advertisements appearing on those carrying pirated content.  GroupM’s US arm spends $3.5bn annually buying up ad space on sites on behalf of clients such as AT&T, IBM, Ford and Unilever.

Google’s Eric Schmidt has spoken out against anti-online piracy laws, warning that government legislation to block access to illegal filesharing sites would set a “disastrous precedent” for free speech.

Culture minister Jeremy Hunt used the same platform to say government plans to ban access to illicit filesharing websites remained on schedule. But he did concede that deciding which specific sites would be blocked remained a “challenge”.

Other stuff

AOL is moving into what Reuters called a ‘crowded space’ with its launch of AOL Industry, a division designed for business professionals.

Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5bn cash from the consortium of investors who bought the VoIP provider from eBay in 2007.

BBC Global iPlayer is to begin its international roll-out, launching as an iPad app in a number of western European territories charging users about £6 per month for an “editorially curated” service.

Top Internet, Technology and Social Media Stories, Facts and Links: mid-Jan 2011 to mid-Feb 2011

In Monthly round up: Top Internet, Technology and Social Media Stories, Facts and Links on March 9, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Material I bookmarked in the last month and that I thought worth sharing.

Apple’s App Store hits 10 billion downloads

Android Market growth rate outstrips Apple App Store

App Tells Your Friends What You’re Watching – iPhone app analyzes sound to determine what’s on your TV.

Websites and apps for bargain hunters

The Apps Are Here: World Bank Apps for Development Challenge Now Open For Voting The World Bank is giving its data away for free using a contest challenging developers to build apps on top of the data. Apps have come from 30 different countries and more were built in Africa than in Europe.

Creator of Instant Messaging Protocol to Launch App Platform for Your Life – The Locker Project, an open source service will capture  data from users’ activities around the web and offline via sensors, put it firmly in their own possession and then allow them to run local apps that are built to leverage their data.

Mobile App Market: $25 Billion by 2015 – according to a new report from World Mobile Applications Market. The mobile app market was $6.8 billion this year, the report says, but will grow steadily over the next four years to reach $25 billion. Out of that $25 billion, Apple’s App Store will account for 20.5% of total revenues.

News and Journalism

Hands On with The Daily – report on the launch of Rupert Murdoch’s new iPad-only newspaper ‘The Daily’.

The Guardian Launches Its New Subscription-Based iPhone App

The Newsonomics of 2011 news metrics to watch » Nieman Journalism Lab »

Washington Post to Launch Free Personalized News Site  – The Washington Post Co. is to launch a free news-aggregation website, called Trove. It lets readers build their own news site based on topics they choose. By sifting through more than 10,000 news sources,  delivering articles to a personalised page using algorithms that take into account articles a person has read and personal interests. Trove apps for devices like the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry are also in the pipeline.

Paper.li Raises $2.1 Million To Open Operations In The U.S. And Asia

FCC To Reshape Phone Subsidy Program to Help Boost Rural Broadband – Plan to convert the $8 billion fund that subsidizes rural telephone services into one that will help pay for broadband in underserved areas. The plan will involve reshaping the Universal Service Fund, a decade-old subsidy which is paid for by fees added onto most consumers’ phone bills. That money is then distributed among phone companies to help subsidize the costs of providing services to rural areas.

Vocus Releases Annual Study: State of the Media in 2011 – report sees the US media industry stabilizing; layoffs and closures slow, digital and mobile see growth, Patch.com sites pressure competitive local news

Developing World/Middle East

U.S. Military Can Restore a Country’s Internet – Whether It Likes It or Not – The U.S. military, it turns out, can force a country that has disconnected itself from the Internet back online.

Vodafone Forced to Send Pro-Government Text Messages in Egypt – Vodafone says it was forced to send pro-government messages to its subscribers in Egypt during the country’s recent protests.

Middle East unrest according to Glenn Beck and friends … – Guardian curated round up – with video clips – from US rightwing commentators on recent upheaval in the Middle East.

Super Bowl 2011: Christina Aguilera and Groupon fluff their … “The history books will say that the Pittsburgh Steelers lost 2011’s Super Bowl XLV – but on the night the biggest losers were the pop star Christina Aguilera and the cut-price internet site Groupon.”

Why Groupon’s Super Bowl Ad Was So Offensive

Group-buying – does it deliver? | Money | The Guardian

Foursquare Launches Business Pages

Smartphones Outsell PCs – According to IDC, smartphone manufacturers shipped 100.9 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2010, while PC manufacturers shipped 92.1 million units worldwide. Or, more simply put, smartphones just outsold PCs for the first time ever.

Social Networking

Social Media Marketing By The Numbers [Infographic]

Everything (almost) that you need to know about social networks -Infographic crib sheet with facts about Facebook and Twitter as well as social networking around the world.

Social Network Ad Outlook Is Modest And Unclear – Deloitte predicts that in 2011 social networks are likely to surpass the milestone of one billion unique members. They may deliver over 2 trillion advertisements.

A Question for Quora – Technology Review – “Quality of content and community is diametrically opposed to mass market success,” says Burbidge. “Having worked on Answers, I can tell that the level of quality is going to drop from the very high level it is at now as more people sign up.”

Social networking under fresh attack …

Facebook ‘friends’ did not act on suicide note …

Social Media Tools

Training Handouts « Claire Wardle, PhD – Six terrific ‘slideshows’: Google Advanced Search, Delicious, Aggregators and RSS, Facebook, Twitter and Image & Audio tools: Flickr, Picfog and Audioboo

YouTube – First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy – fun video with a social media message

5 Ways to publish your social media messages – 10,000 Words

Who are the top UK journalists on twitter?

100 Most Influential UK Journalists on Twitter

Twitter’s Advertising Revenue May Triple to $150 Million

LinkedIn plans to float this year | Technology | guardian.co.ukLinkedIn plans to float this year – Private shares in the company changed hands at an implied valuation of $2.5bn (£1.6bn).

LinkedIn Said to Be Worth Almost $3 Billion in Secondary Sale …

5 things you didn’t know you could do with LinkedIn – 10,000 …

LEAKED: AOL’s Master Plan – Leaked slides and editorial summary of AOL’s vision for the next couple of years.

Huffington Post to be sold to AOL for $315m

Huffington Post sale: who gets the $315m?

Everything Else

Microsoft Ships 8 Million Kinect Devices, to Add Hulu

Google, Microsoft Added Internet-Search Market Share in December

10 per cent of users take 90 per cent of mobile data …

The State of the Blogosphere 2010 ” – Brian Solis

Chancellor crowdsources for budget ideas – No 11’s ‘online portal’ where the public can submit ideas for the March 23 budget.

Can We Crowdfund Our Lives? – “What do a chipped tooth, a world record and the relocation of a popular café in downtown Oakland all have in common? Each needed money to achieve a goal and, rather than going the usual routes of taking out loans or operating on credit, each found funding through crowd funding.”

7 Innovative online maps – 10,000 Words

MC Hammer Is Just Another Tech Geek – the 90’s rap icon MC Hammer made a fortune, lost it, and is now an investor in 8 different tech companies.

links for 2011-02-19

In Daily Links on February 20, 2011 at 1:01 am

Top Internet, Technology and Social Media Stories, Facts and Links: mid-Dec 2010 to mid-Jan 2011

In Monthly round up: Top Internet, Technology and Social Media Stories, Facts and Links on February 11, 2011 at 12:22 am

Summary of the key stuff I bookmarked in the last month and that I thought worth sharing.

Social Media

Best of 2010: Social Media Stats & Year in Review | Social Media Today

A new study has found a “staggering” amount of people are accessing piracy websites. Anti-fraud firm MarkMonitor said there were more than 53bn visits a year to the 43 file-sharing sites it studied.

The BBC is launching a higher quality audio stream for online radio, initially for live events but ultimately to be incorporated into iPlayer and Radioplayer. BBC Audio & Music director Tim Davie said: “HD Sound is an exciting development and a signal of our commitment to innovate in digital radio for the benefit of our listeners.”

UK Radioplayer, will be made available on joint venture YouView and other internet-connected TV platforms.

Facebook tops Google as most visited site in U.S. – Facebook surpassed Google for the first time as the most visited website in the United States for most of 2010.

In a speech to the British Venture Capital Association, Facebook’s Europe VP and managing director Joanna Shields said she believes “the most important word on the internet today isn’t ‘search’, but ‘share’”, insisting the rise of social features represents a massive commercial opportunity for most businesses.

Facebook is temporarily disabling a newly launched feature which would have granted app developers access to some users’ home addresses and telephone numbers, saying it was making amendments following customer feedback.

The Wall Street Journal reported Facebook is breaching privacy rules as many applications are sharing personally identifiable information about their users with advertising and internet tracking companies. The report said the problem is allowing at least 25 ad and data firms to access users’ names and, in some cases, names of their friends, and the top 10 applications, including Zynga’s Farmville game, are transmitting user IDs to third parties. Facebook said it was taking steps to “dramatically limit” the exposure of personal information, adding the company would introduce new technology to eliminate this issue.

Google announced a reshuffle of its top management that will see Eric Schmidt hand over the title of chief executive to co-founder Larry Page in April. The leaders said the changes were prompted by challenges brought by Google’s continuing growth. Brin said: “Every time we double in headcount the whole company changes a lot.”

Google posted a fourth-quarter net profit of $2.54bn, up 29% on a year earlier, on revenue 26% higher at $8.44bn.

Only 1% of Google searches get past page one of results.  Ref: Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein

Google has increased its dominance of the US search engine market, growing its share to 66.6%, according to data from ComScore. The figures for December also show that Microsoft increased its share to 12%, though Yahoo! saw its share fall slightly to 16%.

The number of apps available at Google’s Android Market has increased six-fold in a year to almost 130,000. The research by Distimo also showed that the Apple App Store for iPhone doubled its total number of applications during 2010 to almost 300,000.

The New York Post reported Apple expected to ship about 12m iPad tablets by the end of 2010, and another 20m in 2011

Apple posted first-quarter net profits up 78% on a year ago to $6bn, on sales up 71% to a record $26.7bn.

Other Companies

Swiss-based Paper.li has raised $2.1m in a funding round which will allow it to set up operations in the US and Asia. Paper.li lets users transform social media news streams from Twitter and Facebook into personalised online newspapers.

Amazon is to take full control of movie streaming service Lovefilm, in which it already has a 42% stake. Terms were not disclosed, but the FT said the price was close to £200m.

Groupon has completed a $950m financing deal with investments from a number of firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The company now has 50m subscribers.

Android Market growth rate outstrips Apple App Store

Pandora CEO Tim Westergren credited the rise of smartphones with transforming the US radio streaming group, which was close to bankruptcy four years ago, into an “anytime, anywhere service without us doing anything”. Registered users at the site have grown from 40m to 75m over the past 12 months.

50% of UK children aged 5-9 and 75% of 7-15 year olds now  own a mobile phone.   Ref: Manchester University Social Attitudes Study (UK)

Only 3 out of 220 US students were able to turn off their cell phones for 72 hours.  Ref: Fox News (US)

Both from: http://brainmail.nowandnext.com/brainmail_issue68.txt

Research by video traffic management firm Bytemobile revealed just 10% of mobile users account for 90% of all networks’ data traffic, and suggested that by 2011 60% of all traffic will be video.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has revealed the number of posts made via mobile phones has risen 25% in a year, with two out of every five Tweets now made through handsets.

New research suggested a growing trend among consumers to use their mobiles to shop, with almost a third having used their phone to access a retailer’s website.

Games and Gaming

Microsoft Ships 8 Million Kinect Devices, to Add Hulu

Nintendo said it expects to ship around 1.5m units of its 3DS console in Japan after its launch at the end of January. Hailing the new 3D-capable handheld game player, president Satoru Iwata told the Nikkei business daily: “It’s important that we ensure a continuous supply.” The 3DS is scheduled for a European and US launch in March, with the Japanese company targeting 4m worldwide sales before the beginning of April.
Predictions for 2011

Just some of the many of the navel crystal ball gazing articles produced around Christmas time…

10 Predictions for the News Media in 2011 – in 2011, the focus on mobile will continue to grow with the launch of mobile- and iPad-only news products, but the greater focus for news media in 2011 will be on re-imagining its approach to the open social web. The focus will shift from searchable news to social and share-able news, as social media referrals close the gap on search traffic for more news organizations. In the coming year, news media’s focus will be affected by the personalization of news consumption and social media’s influence on journalism.

Social Business Predictions 2011 – Being Peter Kim

2011 Social Media Prediction Roundup: Common Themes for the New Year – Shoutlet

Eleven Digital Trends to Watch in 2011 – Edelman presentation

Edelman Technology–our predictions for 2011 « The Naked Pheasant

5 Predictions for 2011 From IDC

Charlie’s Angles: How did I do with my tech predictions for 2010? | Technology | guardian.co.uk

The Cool Commentator 2011 Trend Predictions! | THE COOL COMMENTATOR

Tomorrow’s world – 2011 predictions | The Filter: Team Blog

95+ Predictions for the Web in 2011 – from Mashable

Top 5 technology predictions for 2011 – Telegraph

Analyst technology predictions 2011 « The IIAR Blog

BBC – dot.Rory: Tech in 2011: Who knows what’s next?

30 Social Media Predictions From 30 Social Media Pros … – Social Media Examiner

10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2011 – ReadWriteWeb

Top Ten Trends for 2011 from Moxie – with excellent downloadable PDF

2011 Staff Predictions – more from ReadWriteWeb

Gartner Predicts 2011 – business angle

11 Digital Predictions for 2011, Contagious Magazine

Seven Technologies That Will Rock 2011 – TechCrunch

10 Websites to Watch in 2011 – Mashable

Summary of Trends for 2011+ – Futurist, Richard Watson

Deloitte predicts that in 2011 social networks are likely to surpass the breathtaking milestone of one billion unique members. Also, they may deliver over 2 trillion advertisements.

Giving its top predictions for 2011 in its annual ‘Year in Review Briefing’, search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight said it expects Google and Bing to offer app search before the end of the year

links for 2011-01-31

In Daily Links on February 1, 2011 at 1:01 am

links for 2011-01-23

In Daily Links on January 24, 2011 at 1:01 am

links for 2011-01-14

In Daily Links on January 15, 2011 at 1:03 am

links for 2011-01-07

In Daily Links on January 8, 2011 at 1:02 am

links for 2010-12-09

In Daily Links on December 10, 2010 at 1:11 am

links for 2010-10-28

In Daily Links on October 29, 2010 at 2:02 am


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Check Point ThreatWiki

The ThreatWiki is an easy to use tool that lets you search and filter Check Point's Malware Database. Filter by a category, type or risk level and search for a keyword or malware.

Test Your Software Blades
  • appstore


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My 13-year-old is obsessed with the card game ‘Magic the Gathering’, what should I do?

Michael Rich, MD, MPH, is Children’s Hospital Boston’s media expert and director of Children’s Center on Media and Child Health. Take a look at his blog archive or follow him on Twitter @CMCH_Boston

Michael RichQ: My 13-year-old son is obsessed with the card game Magic the Gathering (MTG) and occasional video games. Computer time is limited to 45 minutes/weekend day and he rarely plays MTG. However, when he does his homework, he often drifts over to MTG websites and other sites unrelated to homework. He is constantly plotting his next MTG deck and thinking about what cards he can sell to make a profit. He has trouble focusing on the task at hand, whether it’s a school lesson or a karate lesson, and it appears to me that his mind is often on MTG Strategy. I also believe that his recent three-week bout of insomnia could be related to this obsession. How can I get my son to focus on school and his other activities?

~Mind over Magic

A: Dear Mind,

First, know that it is common for children your son’s age to have an interest that grabs their attention in this way, whether it’s MTG, baseball statistics, or anything else. They may spend many hours learning the intricacies of that interest and engaging with it.

If you’re concerned that your son’s card playing is out of balance with other important life activities, here are a few ideas for addressing that issue:

Ask him to teach you how to play MTG. By expressing interest in something that’s clearly so important to him, you let him know that you respect his interests and are willing to engage in things he cares about. That can make it easier to connect, both about MTG and about other topics, by giving you some context for his interest. It also allows him to demonstrate mastery over something that is new to you.

Magic-cardsPlace the computer in a common area, if it isn’t already there. This will give the ability to monitor his computer activities and may help your son learn to regulate and direct his online homework time.

Challenge him to focus only on homework while he does his homework. Not only will the quality of his work improve, but it may even take less time to complete.

Spend time with him outside. Taking a hike or participating in another fully engaging outdoor activity with you can help create space and perspective, taking him out of a media context for a few hours or a day. Outdoor time can have many other positive health effects on attention, stress, and fitness as well.

If he’s still experiencing bouts of insomnia, there may be a larger issue at play. Try bringing him to his pediatrician and talking through possible contributors, including MTG. If sleep, schoolwork, and relationships aren’t suffering because of his focus on MTG, though, it’s likely just a normal degree of interest for a child his age.

Enjoy your media and use them wisely,

The Mediatrician®


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In The News: Decon ‘16 Conference, Raleigh, NC

The Building Materials RegI_86481_Decon16-logo-bannerEageleuse Association (BMRA) has announced that (our very own) Jonathan Orpin of New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks will be featured as the keynote speaker for the Decon ’16 conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. Orpin will launch the conference on February 29th with a forward-thinking address titled “Everything is Possible. Stories of de-constructible buildings, recycled wood, and companies that can thrive doing so.”

Decon ’16 is the premier international conference on building deconstruction, materials reuse, and C&D recycling and this forward-looking address will seed the future of a world without waste. “Jonathan’s experience and remarkable portfolio of projects will be an inspiration as the conference opens, and sets the bar high for all of us in the circular economy of materials,” shared Anne Nicklin, Executive Director of the BMRA.

After three years, the biennial conference of the Building Materials Reuse Association will return, serving as an international gathering of practitioners using both knowledge and experience to create a world without waste. The conference will be hosted by Habitat for Humanity of Wake County and NC State University February 29th through March 4th, 2016.

Jonathan bio image“I am equal parts thrilled and anxious to be speaking at Decon ’16, as this group has led the way for a long time in this exceptional field. Let’s keep turning up the dial, from understanding the story and source of our materials, to using them for really great and beautiful projects, to creating sustainable business models and partnerships to get the good work done,” shared Orpin.

As you may know, Orpin, in addition to being President of New Energy Works Timberframers is the President of Pioneer Millworks, which over its 25 years in business, has recycled more than 25 million board feet of wood. Combined, our companies employ 130 community members, have shops in NY and OR, and we work hard to use the Triple Bottom Line of People, Profit and Planet as our guiding business principle. Orpin is also past President of the Timber Framers Guild, which supports the craft, science, and business of timber framing. As an organization, the Guild seeks to perpetuate and strengthen the robust craft of timber framing, communicating information about building methods, events, people, and the timber frame building community.

More than forty speakers Barn Demo 2from around the world will present case studies, emergent research, and inspire the diversion of construction and demolition waste towards productive markets during Decon ‘16. Live presentations and exclusive training opportunities will be offered, including a workshop on handling salvaged wood for woodworking and furniture making. Local tours of deconstruction sites, reuse stores, and local high performance buildings will also be available for attendees.

More information about Decon ’16 can be found at

The Building Materials Reuse Association (BMRA) works to create a vibrant building materials economy as part of a world without waste. For more than twenty years, they have done this through elevating the issue to the public, moving the market for reused materials, and inspiring and supporting the industry.


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[Jandek] Austin Saturday

Russell Nanney pocketboy67 at gmail.com
Tue Feb 19 15:26:35 PST 2008

I am planning on going to the concert, but tickets can not be reserved. is
anybody else going to be there?
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Dead Men’s City: Are we still dead to be alive?

When I chose the title “Dead Men’s City,” I was both skeptical and scarred to use it. But, in the hindsight, I think just apt and perfect for the situation. As a human being, I am ashamed of what has happened in Guwahati just a year ago, as we conveniently forgot about it. A girl was assaulted and molested by a bunch of hooligans in the heart of the city. Yes, the law took its course, thanks to endless social scrutiny through the eyes of media, at national level. And, there goes a media channel and, an array of media stories to follow, to air this gruesome act. Yes, you will agree, as like any reasonable person, that the sense of justification and reasoning of airing such a video only displays the lowest journalistic ethos like getting the prized byte from a victim who gets molested in front of the crew as they remain busy covering it.  ImageBut, we should not ignore, especially in a consumerist society, which the media, that it is a reflection of the society that we live, is driven by market forces and people find it amusing (?) to watch such barbarism on television channels. There is a sense of urgency in this particular incident. While the justice has been delivered in this case with such swiftness (in a matter of months, that seems impossible to dream), is our justice system only lends its importance to those matters of excessive public scrutiny? Yes, I can understand the motives of the politicos or the bureaucrats as their ulterior motives can be understood. Are we heralding an age where justice is delivered and not delayed? People may have their own judgment here without a lesser intelligent citizen opining on their behalf. We heard it. We know it.

ImageNow, I have a very unusual or, if I can use the word, controversial question to it. Like Ceaser, we, the society of righteousness and crusader of wrong, may claim & exhort ‘veni, vidi, vici.’ But can we really? Why is it that we woke up then? Why is it that when the incident was shown on national television that people were hitting the street to demand justice, and not before when it was repeatedly played in regional channels? Why we are not shammed to death for any other, unreported incident but widely known among people, cases of molestation? People have been questioning the ethics of the media. This is good. But are we questioning our own sense of morality and ethics? Do we question our conscience when we may have ignored such an incident happening when you were travelling late in a city bus, or a lonely road in the afternoon, or in a dark alley in the neighbourhood? Did you stop, raise a protest, took it up with the law? Can we lay hands on our souls and tell the truth to our own self. You got your answer & I got mine. That is where we can call ourselves as hypocrites, and no. I am not saying that I am not a hypocrite. I am you.Image

Thanks to media, we are seeing the exposed value system of our society. We are only shouting our voice when we were shammed in public. We have lost our face and we are facing questions from people who would haunt us for our boasting claim to fame about women dignity in Assam. However, we also knew that this is not entirely true. With those disturbing images doing rounds across the country and the world, we are running for covers, from pillar to post. We don’t know how we will continue to live in the fake blown-up-beyond-proportion ego of culture and social identity that is long dead. We are still drawing inspirations to boast about a cultured society from a bunch of sacred heroes who are increasingly getting diminished from the moral map of the present society. As we tried hard to escape from our gory, ugly face, did we try something in last twelve months to improve these scars? Like rising a voice against any injustice & taking it to its logical conclusion or helping a destitute to preserve its honour & dignity, even when there is no pressure of ‘social conformity.’ I did not. Did you? Or, you are me!

All that we love to do is to jump the bandwagon and remain loyal to the ‘way of social conformity.’ As we increasingly compromise our own identity, I wonder if we, as a society, will have another hero in near time. It’s appalling that we are starving for heroes and we shy away vehemently to ignore such a reality. We love to live in a world of myth and materialistic bling. We are hardly bothered about what goes out there as long as I am ‘safe.’ This atypical idiosyncrasy of the present society has led me to question us. Where do we stand as a society? Why did we fail as a fertile society that stopped producing heroes from whom we draw strengths to fight? As we cling on to those legends from yesteryear, there is an urgent need for newer heroes in our lives. Someone contemporary, someone who instills life, someone whom we can feel! Are we ready to find that person? Are you ready to become that person rather than being someone with a job in MNC, a trophy spouse, an iPhone, a Sedan and a flat in the Millenium City blessed with an unknown old age death with no ramification? Do I at least want to try? Do you?

Till the time, it was not aired in the national television; this incident has not insulated such a reaction. Because we love our fake identity and take magnanimous pride in it, this incident shammed us or we are shammed because that the lie that we live in is exposed in front of the world. The foundation, the mascara and the kajal of the society were washed away by this tragedy and the aging wrinkles and horrific scars of our society lay exposed. We don’t know what to do or how to go back to our old fake self. We are challenged by an array of questions. Are we bold enough to lend our ears to these pressing questions & try to look for an answer? Are we ready to have our guts back to fight for our own glory & honour? Am I?

ImageConsumerism and materialism has so much consumed our society that even our values and reputation need to be kicked hard so that it can wake up. Today, sadly, even one’s individual self respect and ethics are driven by market forces. Because, it will have negative impact on the overall reputation of the society we should now join in. All that we care about today, is a good mark-sheet so that one can get admitted to Delhi University (Let the Assam education system go to hell), get a job in an MNC (let the entrepreneurial kick die), get a trophy wife (who cares about love anymore, we need someone who can mingle with my social class), get a hatchback, midsize or sedan (because it’s not only about commuting anymore) and a home as early as possible (because I can move to a bigger house on a bigger loan on a later date).Image In our mad rat race, we forgot to think about our surrounding and ignore the catastrophic implication that it may have on our individual personal lives, our own identity (provided we have one) and an honour (if we care to own it). Am I thinking the way it should be or am I the only one? Are you thinking alike?

With passing days, we will get back to the machine that we love to log on to, and keep on doing things that were being done. We will post a “RIP” if some elderly looking gentlemen dies without recognizing the contribution that he had towards the society. This is how we remain true to the ‘Conformity Movement’ and we will come out on the street wearing black T Shirt (because we love Metallica) only when it’s not too shiny or hot to walk out, is a Sunday and more importantly our fake image is not tarnished and our dirty liens are not washed in front of the nation. Otherwise, we are doing just fine and we are happy with the shopping malls, swanky cars and bikes and five star hotels. Who talks about Assamese language, or its identity? Face of protest? Kalaguru Bishnuprasad Rabha, Ambikagiri Raichowdhury? Who are they? They are passé. We are talking about the changing the world, bringing communism by wearing black, man! How about Ernesto, oh! Sorry! Che! Gueverra? He is kind of cool to be worn. ImageBut, what the heck? We aint grabbing national headlines for any wrong news now. So, let’s just sit back, sip my beer and watch my EPL & La Liga matches! We are happy till our shallow selves are covered. Am I? Are you?

Are we living in a Dead Men’s Society? I am. Don’t know about you. Just pinch yourself and you will get your identity. I knew that I am a dead men before I pinched to realize. Did you?


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Monthly Archives: April 2014

Fair Weather Friends

The antithesis of the polished political class, Cliven Bundy’s provincial plainspokenness has elicited a firestorm of media criticism from conservative pundits such as Sean Hannity who were only too happy to have him on their shows to boost their ratings … Continue reading

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Property RIghts & the Rule of Law

Federal government attempts to seize the VO Ranch from Cliven Bundy clearly demonstrate the erosion of property rights and the rule of law in America since their establishment in the Constitution by the Founders.

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Systemic Corruption

The revelation this week that Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings colluded with the IRS to target conservative groups while failing to disclose this information to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on which he sits and which has jurisdiction to … Continue reading

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Progressive Republicans

The Progressive movement which is currently wreaking so much havoc on America had its origins in the Republican Party and is still endorsed by a segment of the Republican Party despite bearing little resemblance to its original inception.

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2016 Toyota Mirai Review – Are Hydrogen Cars The Future?

The 2016 Toyota Mirai is a zero emission vehicle which is powered by an onboard hydrogen fuel cell. It features an electric motor producing 151 HP and 247 lb-ft of torque, thanks to a 153 HP power output solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell stack. Also onboard are two carbon fiber reinforced hydrogen tanks.

Related Video:
How Hydrogen Cars Work – https://youtu.be/0jnZFGx_4kY

Features Include:
– Electronic push-button start with Smart Key
– Noise reducing glass
– 8 way power seats, heated
– Heated steering wheel
– Premium audio with navigation
– Intelligent touch controls for climate and radio
– LED headlamps with automatic high beams feature
– 8 year/100,000 mile fuel cell system warranty

MSRP – ,500

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Top Anti-Aging Secrets From 3 Women Who Look Decades Younger Than Their Real Age

Courtesy Of the Steve Harvey Show 2014

For more free tips on anti-aging and product reviews, please visit

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TMR Game 2011 – Week 42

Hello and welcome to TMR Game Week 42.

3 weeks to go including this one. This post accepts entries for these 3 races in what is the last weekend of the season to feature more than one race:

– F1 Abu Dhabi
– ILMC 6 Hours of Zhuhai
– NASCAR Cup Phoenix

Each week you pick 10 entries with a maximum of 7 of those coming from a single championship.
You can have any mix of races from those listed in this post, and you don’t have to use all of them.

See this page for the rules.

Email reminders will be sent on Thursdays or Fridays by either myself or Sebastian. Please leave a valid email address in the comment form.

Week 41 MotoGP NASCAR Cup
Points Valencia Texas
1 50 Stoner Stewart
2 40 Spies Edwards
3 35 Dovizioso Kahne
4 32 Crutchlow Kenseth
5 30 Pedrosa Biffle
6 28 Nakasugo J Gordon
7 26 Hayes Earnhardt Jr
8 24 Abraham Truex Jr
9 22 Capirossi Bowyer
10 20 Elias Allmendinger

Player Scores

Player MotoGP NASCAR Week 41
Sebastian X 202 88 290
RubberGoat 194 94 288
Maverick 200 88 288
Dylanpt24 166 114 280
Pat W 144 135 279
Jackie 144 111 255
Felipe Gana 130 118 248
The Speedgeek 168 79 247
Startledbunny 144 90 234
Sean 144 81 225
Ryan (80%) 180
Crooked Cap (80%) 180
James (80%) 180
Jay (80%) 180
Mike Rice (80%) 180

Well done Sebastian, and also to RubberGoat and Maverick for tieing 2nd position just 2 points behind.

Before Sunday’s race I elected to award Michael McDowall’s points from the Cup race to those who had picked Kyle Busch. I didn’t expect a high score but I also didn’t expect him to just pick up a single point. Annoyingly this has blunted the challenge of Sean and others, but the blame for that lies at Kyle’s door and nobody else’s.

Well done to Dylan for taking a punt on Hayes and Spies, it paid off after that first corner crash!

Please see the results produced by Sebastian for the points spread.

Pos Pre +/- Name Prior Wk 41 Total +
1 1 0 Sebastian X 10692 290 10982
2 2 0 Sean 10607 225 10832 150
3 3 0 RubberGoat 10350 288 10638 194
4 4 0 Pat W 10136 279 10415 223
5 5 0 Maverick 10113 288 10401 14
6 6 0 The Speedgeek 10077 247 10324 77
7 7 0 Felipe Gana 10024 248 10272 52
8 8 0 Jackie 9967 255 10222 50
9 9 0 Startledbunny 9740 234 9974 248
10 10 0 Dylanpt24 9168 280 9448 526
11 11 0 Ryan 8836 180 9016 432
12 12 0 The Crooked Cap 8441 180 8621 395
13 13 0 James 7962 180 8142 479
14 14 0 Jay 7493 180 7673 469
15 15 0 Mike Rice 6977 180 7157 516

No position changes.

Races This Week

F1 Abu Dhabi

Pick Sebastian Vettel because he’ll win, and if he doesn’t then surely Jenson Button will. There hasn’t been a good F1 race at this track yet, the question mark is whether the Pirelli allocations and the DRS will change that? I really hope so. Anyway, at least there is Interlagos to look forward to.

ILMC 6 Hours of Zhuhai

The finale of the inaugural ILMC, and also the last ever round of the ILMC before it is superceded by World Endurance Championship next season. Excited for 2012? I am!

You can find an entry list PDF here.

Naturally the choice is again between the Nos. 1 & 2 Audis and the Nos. 7 & 8 Peugeots. Notables include the absense of the ORECA Peugeot. There are only 9 LMP1 cars but there are very few weak links. I assume the Aston Martin entry is the older Lola version which can actually finish races. Rebellion and OAK would make for solid picks as well. If some of the LMP1s don’t take your fancy you could try LMP2 with Signatech or the OAK entry in that class.

Incidentally, Mika Hakkinen is a making an appearing in guesting GTC category for the Merc SLS AMG and Audi R8 LMS.

Sadly this race is on in the small hours UK/European time, with coverage from Radio Le Mans and the Audi and Peugeot web feeds. Eurosport might have something but then again they might not, who knows with them.

NASCAR Cup Phoenix

A return to the one-mile Phoenix oval. I think this must be the first race back since the place was reconfigured with a slightly different shape (unless that was last year..). I’m not sure how that’ll change the racing but I can’t imagine the usual suspects will be very far from the top ten unless they get in a tangle.

Coming Soon

There are two weeks left after this one and they are both single-event weeks:

Week 43 – NASCAR Cup Homestead-Miami

Week 44 – F1 Brazilian GP

19 thoughts on “TMR Game 2011 – Week 42”

  1. F1
    Sebastian Vettel
    Jenson Button
    Fernando Alonso
    Mark Webber

    After Busch’s playground antics I can’t pick him again.
    Carl Edwards
    Tony Stewart
    Kevin Harvick

  2. Sean, I doubt this is any consolation; I really want to win this but the terrible luck you have had is taking the fun out of it.

    Pleased to win the week and I know Aoyama got me points, but I have never been so embarrassed by a pick I have made. Last of the finishers and horribly off the pace to everyone. In my defence, he had had a very consistant season and was tenth in the championship, seventh in the points of the riders in the race, so I thought I had reason to expect eighth, ninth, tenth.

    Formula One:
    Sebastian Vettel
    Mark Webber
    Lewis Hamilton
    Jenson Button
    Fernando Alonso

    #1 Audi(Bernhard/Fässier)
    #2 Audi(Kristensen/McNish)
    #7 Peugeot(Bourdais/Davidson)
    #8 Peugeot(Montagny/Sarrazin)

    Jimmie Johnson

    Not sure about that last choice. Johnson has a fine record at that track but it is not that track any more. I understand Phoenix is not as flattish an oval as it was, making it more NASCAR-generic (boo).

  3. F1:
    Sebastian Vettel
    Mark Webber
    Lewis Hamilton
    Jenson Button

    #7 Peugeot
    #8 Peugeot
    #2 Audi
    #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota
    #24 Oak Pescarolo-Judd

    NASCAR Cup:
    Biff Riffle (again…he’s gonna win one of these days…or not)

  4. F1:
    1. Vettel
    2. Webber
    3. Hamilton
    4. Button
    5. Alonso
    6. Massa

    7. #1 Audi(Bernhard/Fässier)
    8. #2 Audi(Kristensen/McNish)
    9. #7 Peugeot(Bourdais/Davidson)
    10. #8 Peugeot(Montagny/Sarrazin)

  5. F1
    Vettel, Button, Alonso, Webber

    #1 Audi, #2 Audi, #7 Pug, #8 Pug, #24 Oak
    Very tough to choose between 007 Aston, 12 Rebellion and 24 Oak, that should be a closely matched battle for first petrol car home. With this being 6hrs I nearly went with Rosberg or Hamilton in F1 instead, so this might turn around and bite me.

    Tony Stewart what with his good run, which by picking him I will surely jinx. 🙂

  6. Don’t have a lot of faith in both Audis making the finish but feel forced to pick both as if at least one does it should finish high. Torn between Schumacher, Stewart and Edwards for the tenth spot – think I’ll play the percentages.

    #1 Audi(Bernhard/Fässier)
    #2 Audi(Kristensen/McNish)
    #7 Peugeot(Bourdais/Davidson)
    #8 Peugeot(Montagny/Sarrazin)

  7. Okay, I need to create some crazy volatility here, so that’s what I’m doing. Since it’s rather hard to predict which underdog entries will finish highly in a six hour race, I’m going extremely Phoenix-heavy as I think that will be more predictable than any endurance race is, and this should create the most volatility because Sebastian ignored the category.

    F1 – Button, Vettel
    ILMS – 7, 8
    Cup – Ku. Busch, J. Gordon, Edwards, Kahne, Kenseth, Stewart

  8. What else can you do? I did pick Johnson. I am now a bit worried about the Audis, but with a smaller field than other ILMC rounds, there should be less back-markers for them to hit.

  9. Great week for Jackie.. and sorry for Sean having another poor week, 2 Cup picks only scoring a point and another only scoring 8.. at least you had the top three.

Comments are closed.


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Dakar 2012 – Stage 13

Stage 13

Nasca >Pisco

January 14th: The penultimate stage and the last day with any real competitive mileage. With only a celebratory 29km tomorrow the rally effectively finishes with today’s stage. The 245km special stage opens with dunes almost immediately, with more of them to follow later on.

Magazine (2min):

I think they’ve uploaded this out of sequence, this is a profile of yesterday’s stage 12.

Perhaps with good reason this stage was profiled, it turned out a lot people had got stuck in the dunes. Nani Roma lost some time but it was nothing compared to some. Check this video at the 22m17s mark (spoiler warning – the video pops up early for me, at the point it shows the stage 13 leaderboard, if you’ve not watched the s13 video yet either skip ahead or wait until later). Unbelievable to see many stuck in one place, everyone likes a challenge but perhaps this was a little too far!

Stage 13 Summary:

A final stage of pushing hard… with some mistakes.

Today – Bikes

Coma was doing well early on and was leading, before making a major navigational error ending up 2km off course. Sadly he was also struck with a gearbox problem. He lost 13 minutes on the stage, and another 45 minutes with a penalty for a second engine change.

1. Rodrigues (Yamaha)
2. Despres (KTM) +47s
3. Viladoms (KTM) +3m00s
4. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +5m13s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +5m46s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +56m03s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h11m27s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h41m12s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h49m36s

So a disappointing end to the bike rally especially as I’m a bit of a fan of Coma, he has a great attitude, but what a great fight to remember with a deserving winner, all the way from the start until today!

Today – Cars

Following his run-ins with the officials and his rivals protesting his vehicle, Gordon set out to dominate the MINIs today and for a while he succeeded – until his car rolled on to its side. It took half an hour to right it, which has basically cost him 4th overall.

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. De Villiers (Toyota) +8m29s
3. Novitsky (MINI) +12m55s
4. Sousa (Great Wall) +13m39s
5. Alvarez (Toyota) +14m57s

Great Wall get a top five! Roma lost 23 minutes after a stop. Gordon came in 10th, 36 minutes down.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +42m57s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h15m09s
4. Novitsky (MINI) 2h12m56s
5. Gordon (Hummer) +2h20m05s

Novitsky takes Gordon for 4th.

These tables should represent the final classifications, give or take a minute or two.


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Saturday, November 11, 2006

Doll Makers Muse

Doll Makers Muse
Blog Description - Tidbits, Articles, Musings and Discoveries for Mixed Media Artists and Doll Makers. MY MISSION is to share my love of doll artistry with you, and teach what I know, I hope you'll visit often!
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Culture Rub 1/10/16-1/17/16: CURRENT EVENTS

Sean Penn Claims “My Article Failed” Despite the Capturing of El Chapo

Now everybody got all excited that legendary Sean Penn interviewed drug lord El Chapo, ultimately leading to El Chapo being captured. However, Sean Penn was not all excited about how it went down.

Watch this short interview published by CNN: “My Article Failed”

It makes perfect sense for the Mexican government to set up Sean Penn. With Penn being at risk instead of Mexico, what is there to lose? This is a great example of people not getting the bigger picture. People see the headline, “Sean Penn interviews El Chapo” and get all excited because it is a mixture of fame and drugs. But really, it shows the desperate measures Mexico will take on their “War on Drugs”.

el chapo

GOP Debate Fails Voters Once Again

So the top story from the debate is a personal battle between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump (I hate typing his name). The real top story should be something regarding what the candidates plan on doing to actually make America great again. Instead, we got to hear Trump complain about where Cruz was born and Cruz claim that Trump had liberal values due to his Manhattan background. When will the voters get educated on what these candidates will do instead of a constant bullying rally?

Boston Ranks #1 For Largest Income Gap

According to the Boston Globe, Boston has the largest income divide in the United States. My guess is that it’s due to the success Boston has had in recent years and the changes Mayor Marty Walsh has brought here. The top 5 percent of Boston’s most wealthy make nearly 20 times as much as the bottom 20 percent. (Meanwhile more people talk about where Ted Cruz was born rather than what Bernie Sanders will do to try to reduce the income gap) Boston went from 4th in 2012, to 3rd in 2013, and then 1st for 2014. It was recently announced that General Electric will relocate its headquarters to Boston and that can only bring more wealthy people to the city. In recent years, Boston’s top 5 percent’s income has increased while Boston’s bottom 20 percent’s income has decreased, making the gap even bigger. Another reason the gap is so big is because of the large number of college students in the area with very little money (living the American dream). So is it a good thing for Boston that the top 5 percent’s income is growing? Or is it a bad thing that the bottom 20 percent’s income is shrinking?

I’ll leave you with this fact from Katie Johnson of The Boston Globe, “Inequality has grown nationwide since the last recession, with the top 5 percent earning 9.3 times more than those in the bottom 20 percent in 2014, up from 8.5 in 2007.”

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Shannen Doherty marries in Malibu

Reuters News
Posted: Oct 16, 2011 3:43 PM
Shannen Doherty marries in Malibu

(Reuters) - "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum Shannen Doherty married photographer Kurt Iswarienko on Saturday in Malibu, CA, reported on Sunday.

This is the third marriage for Doherty, who is reportedly chronicling the nuptials for an upcoming reality series to be shown early next year on cable channel WEtv.

The wedding was a black-tie affair and held on a private estate, the website reported.

Doherty, 40, who also starred on the TV series "Charmed," was previously wed to Ashley Hamilton and to Rick Salomon. Both marriages were short-lived.

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Ellen Wulfhorst)


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Suicide bomber kills security officer, wounds 19 in Beirut

Reuters News
Posted: Jun 24, 2014 4:25 AM

By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew up his car in Beirut on Monday night near an army checkpoint, killing a security officer and wounding several people watching the soccer World Cup in a nearby cafe.

Security forces have been on high alert since a suicide bomber killed one person and wounded 37 near the Syrian border on Friday in an attack that narrowly missed Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon's General Security department.

One security source said before Monday night's explosion that security forces were hunting for two potential suicide bombers in the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon has suffered a wave of sectarian violence linked to the war in Syria which, like its neighbor Iraq, is fighting a Sunni insurgency. Militants, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are sweeping through the north and west of Iraq towards the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.

"What is happening in Iraq isn't far from what is happening in Lebanon, but Lebanon will not let ISIL spread here," lawmaker Ali Ammar, from the Shi'ite militant and political group Hezbollah, told Al-Manar television.

Monday's explosion, shortly before midnight, killed the bomber and wounded 19 people, Lebanon's civil defense force said. An emergency worker at the nearby Sahel hospital said it treated 11 slightly wounded people.

Two security sources said on Tuesday that a member of the security services had also been killed when the Mercedes car packed with 25 kg (55 pounds) of explosives detonated.

Lebanon's state-run news agency identified him as Abdul Kareem Hodrej, an officer in Lebanon's General Security forces.

Reuters television footage from the scene showed the blackened wreckage of a car, surrounded by damaged vehicles.

Windows in nearby buildings were shattered by the blast, which occurred in a mainly Shi'ite Muslim district of southern Beirut inhabited by supporters of Hezbollah-allied group, Amal.

Hezbollah has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria against the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels, who have also been supported by Lebanese Sunnis.

The conflict has spilled over into Lebanon, with rocket attacks on Shi'ite towns in the Bekaa Valley, close to the border with Syria, and bombings of Shi'ite and Sunni targets in Lebanon's main coastal cities.

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Louise Ireland)


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The Latest: Auditor predicts 35 percent Medicaid cut by 2036

AP News
Posted: Jun 29, 2017 4:42 PM
The Latest: Auditor predicts 35 percent Medicaid cut by 2036

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Senate Republicans' effort to pass a health care overhaul and keep the party's promise to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law (all times local):

4:35 p.m.

The Congressional Budget Office says Medicaid cuts in the Senate Republican health care bill would take a 35 percent bite off the program's projected spending by 2036.

That's a deeper cut than the nonpartisan office has projected for 2026. That year's reduction would be 26 percent below projections under current law.

The report released Thursday does not quantify how many fewer people the health care program for the poor and disabled would cover in 2036 due to proposed GOP cuts. It says enrollment "would continue to fall" compared to current law.

CBO has estimated the Republican bill would mean 15 million fewer Medicaid recipients by 2026. It now covers over 70 million.

The Senate bill would impose several cuts on Medicaid, including a slower annual growth rate starting in 2025.

1:35 p.m.

Senate Republicans trying to salvage their bill repealing much of President Barack Obama's health care law are considering keeping the biggest tax increase he enacted to pay for his statute's expansion.

The GOP bill would repeal most of the tax boosts in Obama's law.

Leaders are considering retaining Obama's 3.8 percent tax increase on investments by higher earners. That tax boost is expected to raise $172 billion over 10 years. Some Republicans want to use the money instead to make their federal health care subsidies more generous.

They're also considering a proposal from conservatives to let insurers offer policies with whatever premiums and benefits they'd like — as long as they also offer a plan providihg all the coverage Obama's law requires.

It's unclear whether either proposal will survive.

12:55 p.m.

Top Republicans have agreed to add $45 billion for battling opioid abuse to their struggling health care bill. But the measure's fate is still uncertain, as leaders confront an expanding chorus of GOP detractors.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hoping the added money will help win over moderate GOP senators like Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. Their states are among many battered by rising death tolls from illegal drug use and they've been pushing for the funds.

Those same senators are also insisting on easing cuts the GOP legislation would impose on Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income and disabled people that their states also rely upon. There's no indication an agreement has been reached to pull back on those reductions.

4:10 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is exploring options for salvaging the Republican health care bill. But he's confronting an expanding chorus of GOP critics. And that is deepening the uncertainty over whether the party can keep its promise to repeal President Barack Obama's overhaul.

A day after McConnell, short of votes, unexpectedly abandoned plans to whisk the measure through his chamber this week, fresh GOP critics came forward.

While this week's retreat on a measure McConnell wrote behind closed doors dented his reputation as a consummate legislative dealmaker, no one was counting him out.


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Revlon to invest $16M in N. Carolina plant, create 55 jobs

AP News
Posted: Aug 12, 2017 4:32 PM

OXFORD, N.C. (AP) — Cosmetics giant Revlon plans to invest $16 million and create 55 new jobs at its North Carolina plant over the next three years.

Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday the company is expanding its plant in Oxford to produce more Elizabeth Arden products.

The facility 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Raleigh opened in 1986 and currently employs about 1,300 people. It is the largest private employer in Granville County.

Revlon says the plant is its largest worldwide.

The state promises Revlon a $100,000 grant if it meets its hiring and investment goals. The state also requires Granville County to provide a grant. County commissioners still must approve it.


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Cyber spies target German party think-tanks ahead of election

Reuters News
Posted: Apr 25, 2017 12:34 PM

By Eric Auchard

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Two foundations tied to Germany’s ruling coalition parties were attacked by the same cyber spy group that targeted the campaign of French presidential favorite Emmanuel Macron, a leading cyber security expert said on Tuesday.

The group, dubbed "Pawn Storm" by security firm Trend Micro, used email phishing tricks and attempted to install malware at think tanks tied to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Feike Hacquebord said.

Hacquebord and other experts said the attacks, which took place in March and April, suggest Pawn Storm is seeking to influence the national elections in the two European Union powerhouses.

"I am not sure whether those foundations are the actual target. It could be that they used it as a stepping stone to target, for example, the CDU or the SPD," Hacquebord said.

The mysterious cyber spying group, also known as Fancy Bear and APT 28, was behind data breaches of U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Merkel’s party last year, Hacquebord said.

Other security experts and former U.S. government officials link it to the Russian military intelligence directorate GRU. Hacquebord and Trend Micro have stopped short of making that connection.

Russia has denied any involvement in the cyber attacks.

Since 2014, Merkel has pushed the European Union to maintain sanctions on Russia over its actions in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Her coalition partners, the Social Democrats, back a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow.

"What we are seeing is kind of a replication of what happened in the United States," David Grout, a Paris-based technical director of U.S. cyber security firm FireEye, said of technical attacks and efforts to spread fake news in Europe.

Hacquebord said on Monday he had found new evidence that Macron's campaign was targeted by Pawn Storm. (

German officials have told Reuters that politicians fear sensitive emails stolen from senior lawmakers by Russian hackers in 2015 could be released before the election to damage Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term, and her conservative party.

Trend Micro uncovered efforts to break into the accounts of CDU politicians in April and May, 2016. The BSI, Germany's federal cyber security agency confirmed these attempts but said they were unsuccessful. New attacks in 2017 suggest renewed efforts to gain comprising data is underway, Hacquebord said.

Pawn Storm set up a fake computer server located based in Germany at to mount email phishing attacks against the CDU party's Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and a server located in the Ukraine at to target the SPD's Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES).

A KAS spokesman said BSI warned KAS in early March of "peculiarities" but that a subsequent network scan by the government cyber security agency found "nothing suspicious".

The BSI declined to comment, as did the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed allegations of Russian involvement.

"We would be pleased if this investigative group sent us the information, and then we could check it," Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. "Because for now it does not go beyond the boundaries of some anonymous people."

Trend Micro published a 41-page report charting Pawn Storm attacks over the past two years, building on a dozen previous technical reports ( A timeline can be downloaded here (

(Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen in Frankfurt, Andreas Rinke and Andrea Shalal in Berlin and Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing by Richard Lough)