Build a Better Base (Revision 109)
It has come to my attention that many are asking how the Pros make epic bases. Guides are definitely lurking in every corner of the forums but sometimes to a newbie it can still be confusing how to put those pieces in order. With this guide I’ll present piece by piece what you need to know and understand in building bases. Each essential concept will be explained and coupled with an actual base being created step by step using the concepts.
To start it off, there are two types of bases according to purpose:
1. Short-Term Bases
These bases are made in relation to the current player’s level, number of max buildings to be created and the kind of attacks one is getting at the current state. The design of this type changes/develops as the player levels.
2. Long-Term Bases
These bases are designed at an early level however the designer plans ahead of time where to put additional buildings (i.e. bunkers) or blocks or even traps without changing much the basic design once those are achieved in the late levels.
Depending on your preference and amount of time you spend for the game, it’s your choice which one you will go with. The advantage of making short-term bases is that it is dynamic and it adapts well in relation to base effectiveness in attacks appropriate to the player’s level. With long-term bases, it won’t be stressful to redesign the base that much and is a benefit to those who have lesser game time with BYM.
Bases come in a variety of shapes starting with a simple box, pine cones, and circle-shaped ones. Imagination is the key here in creating epic bases. You may even get inspiration from nature itself. As what Steve Jobs wrote in his quote, “ Design is just not what it looks and feels like but design as well is how it works.” Clearly, how your base design can withstand certain attacks is valued more compared to how it looks. Of course, if you make it look great and works well then that by definition is considered to be epic as well. ^_^. Higher player level is not a requirement in creating good bases. Even a base with level 5 TH and 150 blocks can be epic if done right. So to help out fellow new comers of the game, I designed this guide to be both informative and practical with an actual base being created from scratch.
Before starting to create your base, make sure to put these into consideration:
- Will I be making a short-term or long-term base?
- What level is my TH? And what buildings (including towers and RGs) do I currently have?
- How many blocks can I use for pathing?
- Do I have yard planner and monster baiter created already?
- How much yard space do I have?
- Depending on how long I spend time in building my base, do I need damage protection or not while in the process?
Lets now begin building that epic base!
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Increases pH level generally from 1. 0 to 2. 0, produces low negative ORP (generally 200mv) Filters your water of excess chlorine and other contaminants.
The nanometer Energy cup can change the common purified water into nanometer activated water by the activation of Pearl calcium ion and Energy stone, which can release far infrared ray and negative ion, thereby causing the syntony of water molecules, releasing mineral element (such as Ca, Mg , K, Ca ),
Nano Energy Flask Features:
Alkaline Water : Make the drinking to be alkaline , Neutralizes Human Body Acidic substances and keep balance of the body system. Maintain a healthy PH Figure and protect liver from side effect of Nicotine and alcohol might do.( Change Filtered Water to nano activated water rich in Ca, Mg, K and Na etc ( Micro elements).Energizes Water with small molecular cluster structure with strong osmosis, diffusibility and Enhanced with Scalar Energy, our Nano Energy Flask is capable of restructuring water molecules into smaller clusters which will thereby improve the bio-availability of water in the body and promote varied physiological functions in the body complex. The water filled in the Quantum Energy Flask facilitates the absorption of nutrients in the body as well as assists in the detoxification process. Moreover, the water stored in our Scalar Energy Quantum Flask can also be used to wash.
Benefits of using Alkaline Ionized water:
- Detoxification: Flushes acidic waste products from the body.
- Gently cleanses at a deep cellular level.
- Hydration: Three to five times as effective as regular water with bio-available electrolytes.
- Allows nutrients to be absorbed more efficiently
- Anti-oxidant: Electron charged water helps control free radical activate.
- Improved Taste and Purity: Your body will crave more water
- You and your family will enjoy drinking more water.
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- The Factor IV activated water is made up of micro molecule group, with negative potential & of alkalescence. It has strong penetrability and solubility; it can eliminate the excrescent free radical, detoxicate the alcohol & tobacco, improve the nutrient absorption, metabolism & immunity. If you drink it for long term, it can resist oxidation, delay senility, prevent and dissolve kinds of calculus in your body, eliminate the dysphoria, cure the high blood pressure and gastritis. The Factor IV activated water is the water of health, which can increase the physiological behaviour, build up your health.


From the Opening of the Policy Paper:
The aim of this policy paper is to make policy recommendations for cultural institutions to preserve the Public Domain when using digitization services provided by private entities. This becomes particularly relevant in the context of the 2013 Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive which adds Museums, Libraries and Archives in the list of Public Sector Bodies (PSBs) that have to make their information reusable.
The Public Domain ensures the free dissemination of knowledge and provides everyone with the potential to access and create new works based on previous works. Thus, all Public Domain works should be free for everyone to use and reuse. Yet, as many cultural heritage institutions are entering into contractual agreements with third parties for the digitization of Public Domain works, there are serious concerns regarding the conditions of access, use and reuse of the resulting digitized copies.
Read the Complete Policy Paper
Learn More About Communia
Communia International Association on the Public Domain is a network of researchers and practitioners from universities, NGOs and SME established in 10 Member States. The mission of COMMUNIA is to foster, strengthen and enrich the Public Domain. To fulfill its mission, COMMUNIA and its members raise awareness in, educate about, advocate for, offer expertise on and research about the Public Domain in the digital age within society and with policy-makers, at the EU level and worldwide. COMMUNIA Association is a WIPO observer since October 2012.


If you are experiencing problems downloading PDF or HTML fulltext, our helpdesk recommend clearing your browser cache and trying again. If you need help in clearing your cache, please click here . Still need help? Email firstname.lastname@example.org
Field-plot tests were conducted in the southern High Plains with various dosages of the nuclear polyhedrosis Virus for control of Heliothis spp. in cotton. In general, better control was obtained with increase in virus dosage. At the rate of 100 larval equivalents per acre per application (1 LE = 6X109polyhedral inclusion bodies) , the seed yield with the virus was equivalent to that secured with chemical insecticide mixtures. The predominant species in these tests was the bollworm, Heliothis zea (Boddie). The tobacco budworm, H. virescens (F.), was not present in economic numbers. The results of these tests indicate that the nuclear polyhedrosis virus was effective in reducing the bollworm populations and increasing yields.
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: June 1, 1967
More about this publication?
Journal of Economic Entomology is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December. The journal publishes articles on the economic significance of insects and is divided into the following sections: apiculture & social insects; arthropods in relation to plant disease; forum; insecticide resistance and resistance management; ecotoxicology; biological and microbial control; ecology and behavior; sampling and biostatistics; household and structural insects; medical entomology; molecular entomology; veterinary entomology; forest entomology; horticultural entomology; field and forage crops, and small grains; stored-product; commodity treatment and quarantine entomology; and plant resistance. In addition to research papers, Journal of Economic Entomology publishes Letters to the Editor, interpretive articles in a Forum section, Short Communications, Rapid Communications, and Book Reviews.


Nearly half of female faculty members in top science departments wish they'd had more children, but didn't because of their careers, while about a quarter of their male counterparts feel the same way, according to a new study.
The analysis comes at a time of continued interest  in why women -- even those with degrees in science and technology fields -- are less likely than men to pursue science careers. The findings, published in the journal PLoS ONE,  are the first in a series of papers on related topics planned by two sociologists, Elaine Howard Ecklund of Rice University and Anne Lincoln of Southern Methodist University.
The study is based on a survey of 3,455 scientists (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and tenured and tenure-track faculty members) in astronomy, physics and biology in "top 20" departments, as judged by the National Research Council in 2005 and by U.S. News & World Report.
At each of the career stages examined, men were more likely than women to be married and to have had children. They also had more children than women did -- and were less likely to regret not having more children. Women reported working roughly the same number of hours per week as men in graduate school, but more at later stages of their careers.
Scientists and Family Status
|Hours Worked Per Week||% Married||% With Children||Average Number of Children||% Who Had Fewer Children Than They Wanted Due to Science Career|
The survey also asked those in the earlier career stages whether they were considering careers outside of science, and one in four graduate students and one in five postdocs said that they were. Further, those who believe that they have fewer children because of their career are more likely than others to consider a career switch.
"Given these findings, universities would do well to re-evaluate how family-friendly their policies are," the authors write.
Ecklund of Rice said in an interview that it was important to note that the regret over not having more children is not an issue just for women, but for many men as well. "We can do a disservice to the issue if we focus on this only as a women's issue," she said, even if these challenges fall disproportionately on women. Further, she said that while the scientists who are the most senior in these departments, generally men, advanced in part through the help of wives without outside careers, the men entering the academy today are more likely to be married to people with career ambitions themselves.
For a next stage of the research, male and female scientists are being interviewed about family-friendly policies they have enjoyed, or wish they had. Ecklund said several trends are emerging. Many scientists, she said, especially those who are married to other scientists, spoke about "the amazing help" of having on-campus day care available.
But at the same time, she said, interview subjects spoke about issues beyond traditional day care. Top scientists regularly travel abroad either to conduct research or to share results. So Ecklund said some form of "child care credits" that could be used to pay for nannies for short-term needs might be useful, especially for junior faculty members.
Ecklund also said that she thinks that universities need to think more about mentoring issues with regard to life outside the lab. "People need mentoring on how to balance their careers with their families," she said.


This month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that its “stateside waiver” program would go into effect on March 4, 2013. This program is simply a change in the way that Immigration processes certain visa applications. It is not a new green card or visa program, and it only affects a very limited group of immigrants.
Immigrants who will benefit from this new policy are those who:
have a U.S. Citizen spouse, or are between the ages of 18 and 21, unmarried, and have a U.S. Citizen parent, or have an adult child who is a U.S. Citizen and also have either a parent or spouse who is either a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident.
Additionally, the following circumstances must apply:
they have been in the U.S. for more than 180 days without any legal immigration status, and they were not inspected by U.S. immigration when they entered the U.S. It is important to note that immigrants who entered the U.S. under the visa waiver program will not benefit from this program, as they were inspected by U.S. immigration.
As the law stands now, Immigrants who enter the U.S. without inspection are, in most cases, required to apply for their permanent residence by leaving the U.S. and applying at the consulate in their home country. Unfortunately, when they leave the U.S., a law goes into effect that prevents them from reentering the U.S. for either 3 or 10 years. This law has been called the “3 and 10 year bar.” Those who were in the U.S. unlawfully for more than 180 days but less than a year are subject to the 3 year bar. Those with unlawful presence of a year or more are subject to the 10 year bar.
These immigrants must apply for a waiver of this law, like a pardon, in order to be allowed back to the U.S. sooner than 3 or 10 years. Up until now, immigrants had to apply for such waivers at their consular interview, after leaving the U.S. Then they would have to wait a long time, usually between 6 months and a year, before a decision was made. If the waiver was denied, the immigrant was stuck in their country for years.
This new policy attempts to fix this situation by allowing these immigrants to apply for the waiver before they leave the U.S. for their consular interview. If all goes well, a provisional waiver is granted, the immigrant returns to her home country for a consular interview, and she quickly returns to the U.S.
The risks of the program are yet to be seen. While all the immigrants applying through the stateside waiver program are out of status and subject to deportation, Immigration has stated that it will not attempt to deport people who apply for the program unless there is some other reason that they should be deported (such as criminal history, a prior deportation order, or fraud). It is less clear what will happen to those applicants whose stateside waiver is denied.
As a final note, the stateside waiver program only applies to those immigrants who need a waiver for the 3 and 10 year bar. It is not available for other waivers (such as the waivers needed for fraud or criminal history). Additionally, those who entered the U.S. with inspection (with a visa or through the visa waiver program) and who have a U.S. Citizen spouse or adult child or are under 21, unmarried, and have a U.S parent, do not need this program. They can apply for permanent residence in the U.S. and do not need a waiver.
If you have questions about this or any other aspect of immigration law, visit one of IIIC’s weekly clinics advertised in the Emigrant for a free, confidential consultation.
Disclaimer: This articles is published to inform generally, not to advise in individual cases. Areas of law are rapidly changing. US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of State regularly amend regulations and alter processing and filing procedures. For legal advice seek the assistance of an IIIC immigration specialist or an immigration lawyer.


Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
This law makes it illegal to discriminate against a qualified person with a disability in the federal government. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. The law also requires that employers reasonably accommodate the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer's business.
Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission


14. Creating Transformation in Practice – The Pillar of Empowerment
Creating Transformation in Practice – The Pillar of Empowerment
The third pillar of creating transformation in practice is the pillar of Empowerment. This can be a somewhat confusing concept – what does it mean to empower others? Simply put, empowering others means that someone you encounter feels more powerful, more clear, more able, more inspired, more confident, more energized, more optimistic – or just Bigger – than they were before they encountered you.
Granted, there is a lot of similarity between caring for others and empowering others. If you’d like two really simple examples, caring for another might include helping them to carry their bags – or giving them a ‘good morning’ or a hug when they need it. Empowering someone might be expressed by saying the right thing at the right time to someone who needs to hear it; or asking the right questions, or helping someone to see something in a different way that really helps their point of view. Obviously these two types of actions (caring and empowering) have a lot of overlap, but I think you get the idea.
On a basic level, empowering others can be as easy as telling someone, “gosh you do that well!” Or, “I really admire you because of _________.” However, there are other levels when it’s not that simple. On a more subtle level, empowering others requires a certain sort of vision – a sense of sight – a type of perception. It means seeing past the surface levels to the very deepest parts of a person where their greatness and essence resides. It means reaching and bringing their most powerful, greatest and most essential self to the surface. Needless to say, in order to reach someone on this level, you have to first see them on this level. This ability to see the essence and greatness of a person says much more about the seer than the one who is seen.
How do you see people? Do you see them as great beings (albeit sometimes not aware of their own greatness)? Do you see them as an expression of the Divine? Do you see people as spiritual souls trying their very best to express themselves in a challenging physical world? On a more practical level, do you see people as vulnerable and needy, reaching out even in the midst of fear and misunderstanding? Do you see people as being harder on themselves than they are on others? Do you see the unkind stories people tell themselves about their world? Do you see how they punish themselves? Do you see how badly they want love – and how sometimes they don’t know how to get it? In the case of people who are truly dangerous or toxic (and the appellation ‘truly’ belongs only to a very small subset of humanity), do you see how much easier it is to ‘see’ those people than to ‘be’ them? (Remember the old rhyme? – ‘I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one – but I can tell you anyhow, I’d rather ‘see’ than ‘be’ one’.) Do you see how much more preferable it is to be the one who is robbed, rather than the thief? Can you look at even those who are beyond your reach with compassion and caring (at the same time as you take steps to protect or distance yourself as necessary)?
Again, the ability to empower is profoundly linked to our ability to see others at their most essential, truest, most divine, most vulnerable, most needy, most great, most powerful, most sublime, most spiritual, most human.
How does one cultivate this kind of sight – insight, actually – into one’s fellow human beings? Again, it is mostly a reflection of one’s basic view of one’s fellow human beings. This is also a reflection of one’s view of oneself. Needless to say, one cannot see others’ greatest selves, if one does not see one’s own self that way. Granted, it can be harder to see oneself with love and compassion than it can be to see others that way. Yet, we know we should try and see ourselves that way, even if it is a challenge to do so at times. Many of us judge ourselves much more harshly than we judge others. For this reason, it is of prime importance to have at least one or two people in our lives that can reflect this vision of ourselves back to us when we have lost the ability to see ourselves in that way. When we strive to empower others, we need to keep those who can empower us closest.
So, how can we cultivate this kind of vision into the essence of another person?
The analogy I’d give is the development of an artist. Anyone who pursues the visual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, photography) learns to sharpen their vision relative to the world. They look carefully; they learn to see with an artist’s eye. They also cultivate what is called ‘eye-hand coordination.’ This is the ability to translate their keen vision into the movements of their hand so that it can be expressed as lines drawn on a page; the movement of a brush on canvas; the handling of a camera to capture what is seen. I’m emphasizing this sharpening of the artist’s eye and the eye-hand coordination that develops along with it for a particular reason: even someone who is born with a measure of artistic talent knows that it reaches its pinnacle with long use and practice. It is not an ability that one either has or does not have. Even those who are blessed with talent must sharpen it. So also, the ability to see the depths of a person, who they really are and what they really need in a given moment, is like the cultivation of an artist’s eye and hand. Some people may be born with more of a natural perceptive ability than others, but everyone can develop this ability through the practice of careful listening and careful seeing.
One thing that empowerment requires is an ability to see past one’s own personal biases and points of view. Empowerment definitely does not mean imposing one’s own agenda on another person. The crusading zealot who preaches their rigid view of the world to others and demands that they accept it is not empowering to others. He or she is not bringing out what is most essential about those other people. Instead, they are trying to squeeze people into their own narrow box. This is not something that is done only by religious fundamentalists (the common stereotype). Trying to get someone to accept one’s worldview is something that is done by ideologists of every stripe – the religious, the secular, the political, the therapeutic, the oppressive, the ‘helpful.’ Empowering someone means looking past our own beliefs and dogmas and really seeing the other person for who they are on the deepest level. It means going outside of our own narrow selves, our narrow perspectives. It means really looking, really listening to another person.
Lastly, empowering others means being first and foremost, respectful of the personal territory of others. As much as it entails developing an ability to see deeply into the nature of another person, it also means being acutely aware of the boundaries of another person. This is not (at all) about Freudian–style analysis of others. It does not mean pushing people to reveal themselves in ways they don’t want to. It is not about taking people apart. It certainly does not mean thinking that we know more about someone than they know about themselves. As a matter of fact, listening to someone’s words about themselves and their life is the very foundation of understanding another – what someone else says about themselves is much more important than what we see or think we see in them. Respect is the beginning, middle and end of empowerment.
Next column: Empowering others from real-life experience


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New Hechsher to Consider Ethics Associated With the Workplace
Except for a few historical cases where rabbinical authorities tried to link the two issues, generally, they've been considered sperate spheres.
But a newly formed commission created by the Conservative movement is calling attention to conditions faced by workers at kosher-meat plants. The Commission of Inquiry is weighing whether or not to call for a "Tsedek Hekhsher," combining the Hebrew word for justice with the traditional term for kosher certification.
The initiative would create a process to certify that kosher meat and chicken were prepared in an environment where workers are paid fairly and on time, treated with dignity and receive adequate safety training.
"I believe that we, as Jews, when it comes to the food we are obligated to eat, should make sure it is produced in a way that meets the necessary standards of Jewish law and Jewish values," stated Morris Allen, a Minnesota rabbi who's chairing the commission established by the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
Also sitting on the committee is Avram B. Lyon, a New Jersey resident, who also serves as executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee. He spoke about the commission's work last month at the University of Pennsylvania in a program sponsored by the Philadelphia office of the Jewish Labor Committee and Kol Tzedek, a Reconstructionist synagogue in West Philadelphia.
Lyon explained that the idea is that the Tsedek Heksher would serve as a supplement to -- and not a replacement for -- traditional certification of kosher meat, which is virtually always done under Orthodox auspices.
"The Talmud is rather explicit about the treatment of workers," he noted in an interview after the program. "When looking into the problems that may or not exist in a plant, there's a whole series of things you want to look at."
Lyon stressed that the commission members are still figuring out what criteria will be used, and how deeply certifiers will have to dig to investigate conditions. It's also not clear whether the hechsher will just stick to labor issues, or if it will also take a page from the eco-kosher idea -- developed by leaders of the Jewish Renewal movement, including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Philadelphia Rabbi Arthur Waskow -- and also examine a slaughterhouse's effect on the environment.
Another conundrum is just how deep certifiers would be asked to dig. In an industry where undocumented immigrants make up a large portion of the workforce, it's difficult to obtain information easily, and reliable safety statistics are hard to pin down, explained Lyon.
He could not provide a time frame for when the initiative might go into the next phase, nor could he offer specific details about how the process would work. He stressed that the commission is treading carefully, and trying to avoid creating acrimony between Orthodox authorities, particularly those in the business of kosher supervision, and the Conservative movement. This, of course, comes closely on the heels of the movement's decision to allow the ordination of gay rabbis -- a measure that put more distance between Conservative Judaism and its approach to Jewish law, and Orthodoxy.
At its upcoming annual convention in Boston, the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly will vote on whether or not to support the efforts of the commission.
According to Lyon, the story behind the commission begins in Postville, Iowa, home of Agriprocessors, the largest supplier of kosher meat in the country. That plant has already had its fair share of attention from both a book, Postville, and a 2004 controversy stirred by the release of slaughterhouse footage secretly filmed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a move seen by many in the Orthodox world as an attack on the practice of kosher slaughtering.
In May 2006, the Forward published a story about poor working conditions at Agriprocessors; the Conservative movement decided to form a commission to investigate.
The commission did specify a number of safety issues and received a response from management that claimed these concerns would be addressed. The same commission also visited the Empire Poultry Plant in Mifflintown, Pa., and found conditions there to be far better. Late last year, the commission decided to expand the mission and explore the possibility of creating the hechsher.
"This is an issue on which the Conservative movement has an opportunity to be at the forefront of leadership," declared Allen, the Minnesota rabbi. "Jews who keep kosher want to know that in their observance of kashrut, that they are doing the right thing. Jews want to feel good about their religious acts."


It was the same when he was two and I took him to a music class. While the other children sang and danced and itsy-bitsy-spidered their hands like crazy, my shy little Ben sat in my lap and refused to do anything more than timidly observe.
Ben is now eight. And while he’s definitely an introvert—some might still describe him as a little bit shy—he is very comfortable with himself, and even outgoing at times. He looks people in the eye when he talks to them, he raises his hand in class, and he even frequently gets loud and crazy when he’s with his friends—even in public. In fact, last week I noticed him showing off a silly dance in the dugout with his teammates.
Researchers who study human personality tell us that shyness is to a large extent genetic. It’s actually a part of a person’s core makeup.
However, as my husband and I learned with Ben, that doesn’t mean that shyness isn’t changeable to a significant degree. In fact, the way parents handle their child’s shyness has a big impact on how the child deals with that aspect of his or her personality, as well as how shy the child is later on.
Here are a few guidelines to help you know how to best know how to respond to your child’s shyness.
Watch your words.
Talk about shyness as how your child feels, not who he or she is. For example, if your daughter is hiding behind your leg and refusing to say hello to Grandpa, you might be tempted to say something like, “Sorry, Grandpa. She’s shy.” Instead, tell your daughter, “You feel shy right now. That’s OK—you can say hello when you’re ready.” It’s a subtle difference, but saying “You feel” is much better than saying “You are,” because it names a momentary state, rather than the essence of your child’s being.
Also, keep in mind that being shy is a temperament issue. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s just part of who your daughter is, like her height or the color of her hair. So make sure that you’re not sending (verbal or nonverbal) messages that communicate that you don’t like this part of who she is.
Don’t push too hard.
Research shows that kids whose parents push them too far, too quickly, end up withdrawing even more. Because shy children feel uncertainty and anxiety in certain social situations, when parents force them to participate or to do things they aren’t comfortable doing, it just makes them more anxious, making it less likely they’ll be willing to give it a try the next time. If your son is insisting that he doesn’t want to do something that feels terrifying to him, don’t force him. Make sure that he’s confident that you will help him feel safe. After all, it’s probably not that important that he take his turn at the piñata.
On the other hand, it’s important that you give your child opportunities to succeed in new situations. Help your little bashful one take gentle steps in the direction of achievement and accomplishment. Freely use the phrase “I’ll do it with you,” and say things like, “I know it’s hard (or you’re uncomfortable), but I’ll be with you. Let’s just give it a try.” A gentle nudge might include saying “Let’s just go take a look.”
There may be times when you need to pull back when you can sense that your child simply isn’t ready to do something. Then you can respond with lots of empathy and comfort: “Maybe next time, when you’re ready, we’ll try again.” But keep in mind that mastery of new experiences builds confidence, so be careful not to deprive your child of these opportunities by rescuing them too quickly.
Notice and comment on even small triumphs. “Way to go! You got closer to watch the kids hit the piñata! Maybe next time you’ll want to take a swing.” Or, “I know you weren’t sure about it, but you tried it anyway! I’m proud of you.” Focus on your child’s effort, and the fact that he’s trying, not on whether or not he actually goes through with whatever you wanted him to do. The more you can encourage and support him, embracing him for who he is, the more he will believe in himself and take on challenges as he grows into who he’s supposed to be.


Darth Vader's Technical Difficulties
Palm Desert Charter Middle School
STEM Promotional Videos
Entry Age Group:
8th grade and below
Our video is about Darth Vader’s technical situation and injuries, and how STEM helps him recover from his fall in a pit of lava after his battle with Obi Guacamole.
Our first scene is about Darth Vader’s suit breaking down. We solved this situation by hiring an engineer who helps us fix Darth Vader’s suit.
The second scene is about Darth Vader falling into a pit of lava, and because of this major event, he got a terrible burn that will affect the rest of his life. We solved this situation by hiring both a technician and a surgeon (doctor) to help make his suit more efficient to prevent these types of incidents, and to perform surgery on his flesh that got burned because of the lava.


The number of Americans suffering from contaminated food illness is increasing. According to a new report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, tainted food outbreaks sicken approximately 48 million people every year.
As CNN reported, the group's report highlights a growing concern among food safety advocates. Despite the signing of the 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act, which aimed to hold food suppliers responsible for foodborne illness, outbreaks are getting worse. According to the report, the FDA has not been able to keep up with the increased demands for food inspections because of budget cuts for the Food and Drug Administration.
Recent food recalls include moon pies, peanut butter, cookies and other foods linked to potential Salmonella contamination. Popcorn and some cheese products have been recalled due to possible contamination by Listeria. And in early October, a beef recall tied to potential E. coli contamination affected 30 states and Canada.
To avoid getting sick from foodborne illness outbreaks, be sure to check out our guide to keeping leftovers and view the essential tips for keeping food fresh in the slideshow above.


Southern Colorado will soon be home to 150 new wind turbines, but not everyone is happy about the proposal.
Residents from Calhan showed up Thursday at the El Paso County commissioners meeting to express concerns about details of the plan.
Some said the wind farm will be too close to their homes. Others said they are concerned about how large the turbines will be and how it may affect birds such as eagles and geese that fly through the area.
Supporters of the project said it will create hundreds of jobs and pump millions of dollars into the local economy.
County commissioners gave the controversial proposal the OK late Thursday night, after a 10-hour public meeting.
They'll break ground in March, and the turbines will be up and running by summer 2015. None of the turbines can be built any closer than a quarter-mile from homes that haven't signed agreements.
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Posted 3:32 PM 6/6/2011 by Bonnie Markoff, DVM, ABVP Animal Care Clinic, San Luis Obispo
The first heat cycle in a dog is usually at 5-8 months of age, but can be as early as 4 months in some cases.
Dogs then cycle about 1-2 times a year. They have a very different cycle than people do.
The vast majority of veterinarians recommend spaying dogs and cats before they ever (More)
ANIMAL CARE CLINIC
162 Cross Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: (805) 545-8212
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|Tuesday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|
|Wednesday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|
|Thursday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|
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|Sunday||5:00 pm to 7:00 pm|


Tucson-area snail same as other snail species
TUCSON, Ariz. -- A terrestrial snail found in Arizona no longer is a candidate for federal endangered species protection.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that's because the Rosemont talussnail is the same species as the Santa Rita talussnail.
The Center for Biological Diversity had filed a petition in 2010 seeking protection for the Rosemont talussnail that it said lives only in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jeff Humphrey said Wednesday that identifying the snails requires an examination of soft body parts.
Scientists found no difference in the shapes or sizes of the male or female reproductive organs between the Santa Rita and the Rosemont talussnail.
Humphrey says the Santa Rita snail is widespread and commonly found in southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.


Should Chlamydia be included in a feline vaccination program.... Jul 24 2014
... and what does this disease do in cats?
When Chlamydia infects a cat, the owner first notices their pet is sniffling and has a red, slightly swollen eye. In a few days both eyes are red and swollen. If allowed to continue, the infection can cause eyeball scarring and even pneumonia. Check with your vet about including Chlamydia in a feline vaccination program because this disease is somewhat
common, is harmful to cats, is zoonotic, and the vaccine significantly reduces infection. Nutritionals that have spirulina or Norweigian Kelp also help reduce Chlamydial and viral infections.
100% Made in the USA following strict FGSI food quality standards, Pet Factory's 100% American Beefhide chews provide unsurpassed quality combined with full flavor. Our 100% American Beefhide chews contain more and thicker fibers than any other rawhide dog chew. The result is a longer lasting chew with great American bred taste that will not only satisfy your pets, but also helps promote great oral hygiene by removing tartar and plaque. Available in Natural or a variety of flavors, 100% American Beefhide chews give dogs what they want and let you know you're providing the best possible chew for your pet.
Caution: Not for human consumption. Select a chew large enough for your dog and supervise consumption. Discard any small pieces. Coatings are water soluble, but may stain indoor material.


By a unanimous vote in Church Council, a Golden Calf will be placed below the pulpit in the Main Sanctuary on June 1st, 1999. The calf will remain there until July 7th, marking the closing ceremony of Landover Baptist's 52nd Annual Levitical Law Week Celebration. Freehold Iowa Farmer, and council member, brother John Wilkins, was glad to offer recently born calf, Clara Bell. Her corpse will serve as the framework that will be dipped into a vat of molten gold. There is still some debate as to how the early Jews went about this practice. We are uncertain at this point as to whether or not Clara Bell will be placed into the scalding hot liquid metal while she is still breathing.
"We are giving everyone a taste of idolatry, before they actually have to pay for it," Rev. Deacon Fred stated at all 14 Wednesday evening services. He was speaking of Landover's upcoming 'Levitical Law Week' where church members are placed back under the complex system of laws enforced upon the early Jews, for a period of 7 days.. "Members will be subject to all of the laws written in the book of Leviticus by God." Rev. Deacon Fred continued, "You can look at the idol, you can touch the idol, you can even bow your head before the idol, but on July 1-7, anyone caught doing so will be placed under Dr. Jonathan Edwards' care. Under his care, you can expect to be subjected to chemically induced wasting diseases that will destroy your sight, and drain away your life.(Lev 26:18) If you return to the sanctuary and look at the idol again, you will have your home burned down, and be forced to eat the flesh of your sons and daughters (Lev 26:23-29). Folks, let's try to keep the casualty list down this year, and make it a wonderful celebration."
The golden calf is placed in the Sanctuary to provide Church members
with a 'virtual' experience. "They will feel like they are going through
the same temptations that the early Jews went through," Pastor Smith remarked,
"When the 7th day of July is upon us, we expect to melt the gold from the
idol, and dispose of the rotted carcass of Clara Bell. The gold will then
be cast into a 27 foot cross, that will be erected above the pulpit in
the east wing of Sanctuary 11A."


(a) This section covers the requirements for aerial service wires intended for aerial subscriber drops.
(b) The aerial service wires can be either copper coated steel reinforced or nonmetallic reinforced designs.
(c) For the copper coated steel reinforced design, the reinforcing members are the conductors.
(1) The conductors are solid copper-covered steel wires.
(2) The wire structure is completed by insulating the conductors with an overall extruded plastic insulating compound.
(d) For the nonmetallic reinforced design, the conductors are solid copper individually insulated with an extruded solid insulating compound.
(1) The insulated conductors are either laid parallel (two conductor design only) or twisted into pairs (a star-quad configuration is permitted for two pair wires).
(2) The wire structure is completed by the application of nonmetallic reinforcing members and an overall plastic jacket.
(e) All wires sold to RUS borrowers for projects involving RUS loan funds under §§ 1755.700 through 1755.704 must be accepted by RUS Technical Standards Committee “A” (Telecommunications). For wires manufactured to the specification of §§ 1755.700 through 1755.704, all design changes to an accepted design must be submitted for acceptance. RUS will be the sole authority on what constitutes a design change.
(f) Materials, manufacturing techniques, or wire designs not specifically addressed by §§ 1755.700 through 1755.704 may be allowed if accepted by RUS. Justification for acceptance of modified materials, manufacturing techniques, or wire designs must be provided to substantiate product utility and long term stability and endurance.


Oak Park Journal Profiles Young Center's Maria Woltjen
In the trenches of the fight for U.S. immigration reform is Oak Parker Maria Woltjen.
With a dedicated staff of about 80 volunteer bi-lingual guardians ad litem (Child Advocates), she is fervently standing up as the federal immigration system for the best interests of a rapidly growing group of unaccompanied immigrant children.
These kids count on The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights at the University of Chicago for support as they face the possibility of deportation alone, without their parents.
As its founder, Woltjen says the tens of thousands of these unaccompanied children have made incredible journeys from places like Bosnia, Romania, India, China, Central America, and other noncontiguous countries, hoping to find relief and protection from a homeland that is no longer safe.


David Boaz of the Cato Institute has come out in opposition to the Mississippi state flag. The Mississippi flag, you see, includes in one corner the St. Andrew’s cross, in particular, the battle flag of the Confederate States of America. (For more details on the dispute, from the side which Boaz opposes, visit FreeMississippi.org.
How enlightened and progressive of Boaz. Perhaps the United States can emulate the United Kingdom, which, in 1954, banned display of the Irish tricolor (the green, white, and orange flag of the Republic of Ireland so familiar around St. Patrick’s Day) in the English-occupied territory of Northern Ireland.
In his article, Boaz opines that
As long as the violence and cruelty of slavery remain a living memory to millions of Americans, symbols of slavery should not be displayed by American governments. Those who want to honor their brave ancestors who fought for Southern independence should fly the Confederate flag themselves, tend to Confederate graves and hold Southern Heritage picnics. They should not ask their fellow citizens to walk into a state capitol under a banner that proclaims the superiority of some citizens to others.
Ironically, I received a request for funding from the Cato Institute last night at home. It was slick, printed on glossy paper, and asked me if I wanted "to work to restore freedom in America."
Inside of the brochure was a photo of reporters thronging Christine Todd Whitman, head of Bush II’s EPA and former governor of New Jersey, in the Hayek Auditorium at the Cato headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC.
I’m writing a PhD on Hayek. Christie Whitman is no Hayek. In short, I ripped the brochure up neatly and threw it out. And reading David Boaz’s piece on the Mississippi flag makes me glad — so very glad — that I did so.
A question for Mr. Boaz: what flags flew while slaves were imported to the United States from the time the first slaves were brought to the American colonies until the South became a separate nation, say from the arrival of Africans at Jamestown, via Dutch traders, in 1619, until 1861?
Answer: the Union Jack (the British flag, or the St. George’s Cross — the English flag) and the Stars and Stripes.
Another question for Mr. Boaz: what ports did American slave ships call home?
Answer: Boston and other New England ports. Boston had an open-air slave market, where slaves were auctioned. The flag which flew over Boston, and has flown over Boston uninterrupted since roughly 1789, is the Stars and Stripes. The fact of Yankee slave trading, by the way, is not exactly "revisionist," although it is largely hidden due to its embarrassment. About a year ago, Yankee Magazine ran a feature by a man descended from a Boston slave auctioneer, describing the man’s quest to find out where in the city the slave market had been. The reason that Yankees shipped slaves to America, but didn’t use slave labor, is economics: southern plantation agriculture required large numbers of laborers, while the rocky soil of New England did not.
Additionally, recall that the "three-fifths compromise" was a part of the US Constitution of 1789, and the US Supreme Court — under that Stars and Stripes, mind you — upheld the legality of the Fugitive Slave laws in the famous case of Dred Scott. Because of the federal government’s protection of slavery, Northern abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Lysander Spooner argued that the federal constitution was a deal with the Devil. Garrison, for example, urged the North to secede so as not to be associated with slavery.
If Boaz is consistent, the Stars and Stripes, Union Jack, and St. George’s Cross must be regarded as symbols of slavery. As late as 1964, the Stars and Stripes also "proclaimed the superiority of some citizens to others," especially those who lived under Jim Crow. The doctrine was known as "separate but equal."
Apparently unlike David Boaz, some Americans do not pledge allegiance to the Stars and Stripes because of the perceived racism of American society (the pledge, by the way, was written by a socialist).
Forgetting slavery for a moment, since the US Civil Rights Commission recently urged schools to drop American Indian mascots, perhaps the Commission should also call for a redesign of the Stars and Stripes, given the horrible way the federal government has treated the American Indians over the years.
Perhaps Boaz would contend that the United States has stopped "proclaiming the superiority of some citizens to others," and that to redesign or abolish the Stars and Stripes is therefore a mistake.
This argument, however, would undercut Boaz’s opposition to Confederate history. Given that the CSA ceased to exist after its military occupation by the USA, the CSA certainly has stopped committing whatever alleged evils it committed in the past.
Slavery was legal in the USA, and it was legal in the CSA. Slavery, then, cannot mandate the obliteration of Confederate symbols while not at the same time mandating the obliteration of the symbols of the USA as well.
Will Boaz now call for the elimination of Old Glory? To do so would be just as foolish as what Boaz is now urging in Mississippi.
Boaz and the flag-banning crowd whose bandwagon he has joined distort history and perform a civic disservice by following the path of tyrants who outlaw unapproved symbols. To be precise, the error in outlawing the display of Confederate, Irish, or American flags is that such an action serves only to give credibility to the notion that the past is a simple matter of good and evil. An examination of history, however, should dispel such a childish notion.
Human history is populated by human beings. Human beings being human, they are sinful, fallible, and sometimes evil. The notion that every aspect of the Confederacy was evil — that every man, woman and child living below the Mason-Dixon line was evil — is patently stupid.
Even if such a notion were not patently stupid, in other words, even if it were true that every Southern man, woman and child was a demon incarnate, occupied every waking hour with the torture and degradation of black slaves, the obliteration of Confederate symbols accomplishes nothing. To abolish all things Confederate cannot change the past, and it cannot in any way aid a reasoned debate over the nature and history of slavery whether in the Arab world or South America — which were the destinations for the vast majority of Africans who were sold into slavery — or in America (the destination for a comparatively small percentage of Africans sold into slavery).
Americans have a skewed view of slavery because of the accidental fact of the racial element. As noted on Africana.com,
The distinction between slave and master in Africa was not, as in the Americas, typically based on a distinction in race. But indicators such as name, language, scarification, dress, and manners all distinguished the identity and social status of slaves from those of their masters.
Africans could not base their ownership of other Africans on the distinction of race. Despite this fact, Africans enslaved other Africans. Race, then, is an accidental, as opposed to an inherent or necessary element of slavery; slavery can exist even when the master and the slave are of the same race. The American fixation on the racial element of slavery, apparently shared by Boaz, cannot aid in understanding the nature of slavery, as opposed to the small portion of "the history of human slavery" which is "the history of slavery in America." (Perhaps the American view of slavery is simply a part of the general American fixation on all things American, as if Americans are the only people ever to have walked the earth).
Sadly, it must be noted that the end of slavery in Europe and America did not bring an end to slavery in Africa:
the world markets for slave labor and for the goods produced by slaves remained strong in the middle and late nineteenth century, and these markets supported slavery and slave trading in Africa. The European powers poised to invade the continent pointed to the persistence of African slavery to justify colonization. Thus the Berlin Conference of 1885, convened as an anti-slavery meeting, in fact set the rules for the European conquest of Africa.
Between 1890 and 1940 the European colonial powers strengthened their grip on African lands and African societies and preached a doctrine of anti-slavery. The result was not, however, immediate emancipation. Large-scale slave raiding came to an end because the European powers had monopolized the use of armed force. But slavery itself continued for millions of Africans until the eve of World War II.
The notion that slavery ended with the Abe Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation is utterly mistaken. Instead, Africa spent the next 100 years under the boot of European imperialism.
Additionally, regarding the slave trade in the Arab world and India, Africana.com notes that
Slave exports across the Indian Ocean, the Sahara, and the Red Sea reached their peak in about 1850, then declined at varying rates until the end of the century. During this time, some enslaved Africans were carried across the Red Sea to build an expanded pilgrimage site at Mecca, in Saudi Arabia; others were carried on steamers through the Suez Canal, bound for Istanbul and Izmir.
Will David Boaz seek to redesign or abolish the flags and symbols of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and most of the European nations as well, due to their historic connections to the slave trade and the colonization of Africa? Don’t hold your breath.
Mr. Dieteman is an attorney in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a PhD candidate in philosophy at The Catholic University of America.
© 2001 David Dieteman


In cooperation with The Churchill Centre, Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress presented two symposia.:
- February 19, 2004 - Churchill and the Three Presidents (Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower) - view program for full-day symposium
- June 1, 2004 - a half-day symposium explored new scholarship on Sir Winston Churchill.
Please call 202-707-9203 for further information.
Thursday, February 19, 2004
The Mumford Room, James Madison Building
Symposiarch: James W. Muller
James Muller is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he has taught since 1983, and Academic Chairman of The Churchill Centre. Educated at Harvard University, he served as a White House Fellow in 1983-84.
9:00–9:15 a.m. - Welcome
Prosser Gifford, Director of Scholarly Programs, Library of Congress
William C. Ives, President, The Churchill Centre
9:15–10:45 a.m. - Churchill and Roosevelt
Piers Brendon: "Churchill, Roosevelt, and Empire"
Piers Brendon served for six years as the Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, U.K., which holds the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and other eminent figures. Brendon is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is currently writing a history of the British Empire.
Warren Kimball: "Churchill and Roosevelt: Joined at the Hip, by History, or Historians?"
Warren F. Kimball is the Robert Treat Professor of History at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey and, for 2002-2004, is the Mark Clark Visiting Distinguished Professor History at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.
10:45–11:15 a.m. - Morning coffee
11:15 a.m.–1:00 p.m. - Churchill and Truman
Arnold A. Offner: "Churchill Without Tears: President Truman and the Ambivalence of Anglo-American Relations"
Arnold A. Offner is the Cornelia F. Hugel Professor of History at Lafayette College and past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
David Reynolds: "Churchill and Truman: The Struggle for History"
David Reynolds is a Professor of International History at Cambridge University. He is completing a study of Churchill’s memoirs of the Second World War, to be published in 2005.
1:00–2:30 p.m. - Luncheon break
2:30–4:15 p.m. - Churchill and Eisenhower
Klaus W. Larres: "Unequal Relations: Churchill and Eisenhower during the Cold War"
Klaus W. Larres holds the Royal Holloway Chair in International Relations and Foreign Policy at the University of London. In 2002-03 he was the Henry A. Kissinger Professor in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress.
John Ramsden: "Old and Dear Friends, Old and New Worlds"
John Ramsden is Professor of Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, where he has taught since 1972, and Director of the Graduate School in Humanities and Social Sciences. Ramsden is a member of The Churchill Centre Board of Academic Advisers, serving as vice chairman since 2003.


Here are my unscientific observations based on the repointing project... Opinions only
Plastic tips seem to have been developed to prevent point deformation of cartridges in the magazine after the first shot. This then caught on as they are pretty sexy looking and caught on with shooters
Plastic tips are simple to form and incorporate into bullet forming. They are very light and my opinion is that they contribute very little to bullet weight or stability considerations.
Plastic tips are very uniform thus bullet to bullet bc should be very consistent.
Plastic tips are relatively blunt thus bc will be lower than if the same weight hollow point bullet had a meplat diameter of 0.025"
The the repointing project trims the jacket back a specific amount, removes the plastic stub and inserts a brass tip with a meplate less than 0.030" and a weight of around 11 grains with a significant increase in overall length length.
The final bullet weight is increased a few tenths under 10 grains.
BC is increased by a published and real world tested just under 0.500 to a calculated estimate 0.660. Field testing is sporadically underway with definite indications of significant bc increase.
Out of my 8 twist barrel @ 3500 MV stability doesn't appear to be an issue.
However, process tolerances definitely make a difference.
Here's a pic to feed your mind processing a bit.
The 159.8 grain repointed bullet compared to the 150 Ballistic Tip and a 195 grain Wildcat.


Pros: Beautiful art, sophisticated presentation of oft-derided medium/pass-time
Cons: Not for beginners, author problems, said 'beautiful art' needs larger photography
The Bottom Line: Overly ambitious book manages to succeed in introducing the reader to a more sophisticated level of 'dollhouses,' presented in a jumbled yet inspiring fashion.
The Van-Gogh-inspired cozy bedroom on the cover of 'The Art of the Miniature: Small Worlds and How to Make Them' makes for an inviting book, and further browsing reveals 128 glossy pages, almost all with fascinating photographs. An alluring buy.
For reasons I initially couldn't quite put my finger on, I found myself flipping through this half-text half-photograph volume repeatedly. Part of this was because the 'small worlds' -- truly elaborate miniature scenes from galleries rather than toystores -- demanded and deserved close scrutiny. Literally. This would be a fabulously successful art book if the photographs of the dioramas were full-page with minimal, technical commentary.
The other need to re-read was thanks to Jane Freeman, author of 'The Art of the Miniature,' acclaimed miniaturist, very mediocre and self-involved author. Aiming for instruction and display of a serious undertaking is simply too ambitious a project for a 128-page book; the beginner will glean very little thanks to a paucity of instruction crossed with a very distracting mish-mash of examples. A frequent distraction is Freeman's references to parts of the works that can't be seen in the actual photographs. A frequent irritation is Freeman's beliefs being paramount: do not use figurines because she and artists W, I, Y, X and Z do not, because it is Better.
There are some mild jolts in the photographs, along with a plethora of good ideas. The good ideas are often hidden; which see the urge to re-read/look closely at the photographs. The 'jolts' are amusements: things you would not have imagined on your own for a dollhouse that are suddenly obvious materials, and the odd flaws in the representative 'small worlds.' Freeman draws a lot of conclusions, but it may be safer to draw your own. A heaping of grosgrain ribbon in a scene would look quite different if I did not have grosgrain ribbon periodically tying down my hair or stitched into my sweater -- lesson -- if an object is going to be overly familiar to anybody, disguise it. Large plastic objects stick out in miniature, just as they would in real life.
Further fussing: Freeman is limited in trades, so to speak. She often mentions sending things to be made by a carpenter, she can't do metalwork, and so on, and her work would be greatly enhanced by expanding -- well, anyway, it looks as though a MFA does not guarantee wide skill. I found myself wishing my shop teacher had not been a raging paedophiliac pervert (hello, Barry Waller of Nepean, Ontario) so I might have learned something in the plastics section of the course. Almost any trade or craft will greatly enhance the ability to create 'miniature worlds,' expanding as it will your choice of materials.
Despite all the fussing, I can't fault 'The Art of the Miniature' too much. Nice as larger pictures with multiple angles would be, I am grateful it is not a wildly overpriced coffee table book. It's remarkably inspirational; after paging through, all manner of household miscellany seems to offer itself up for adaptation. If you buy the book, buy shampoo with a plain but attractive cap: you will want to glue in some fake foliage and turn it into a plant pot...
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In this course, author Ian Robinson introduces Adobe After Effects CS6 and the world of animation, effects, and compositing. Chapter 1 introduces the six foundations of After Effects, which include concepts like layers, keyframes, rendering, and moving in 3D space. The rest of the course expands on these ideas, and shows how to build compositions with layers, perform rotoscoping, animate your composition with keyframes, add effects and transitions, and render and export the finished piece. Two real-world example projects demonstrate keying green screen footage and creating an advanced 3D composition with the expanded 3D toolset, an important addition to CS6.
It is keyframe animation that's really at the core of about 90% of the After Effects projects I've ever worked on. And in case you need the definition again, keyframes are just recordings of the settings of one specific parameter at a specific point in time, and there are actually several ways to create keyframes inside of After Effects. So let's look at our project here. You notice, if you double-click the Keyframes comps just to make sure everything is open, we have the kinetEco logo and all the layers are set up in our comp already.
We have pre-comps for each one of the words and we also have individual layers for each one of the objects. Now these happen to be Illustrator files and everything is pretty much already set up for animation, so all we're going to do is animate how these little circles appear into the screen and then we'll fade the words on one after the other. So this is going to be the final resting place of everything in this animation. Now to get started, let's select Layer 4, the Yellow circle layer, and we'll adjust the position keyframes to begin the animation process.
So press P on your keyboard. This just optimizes our timeline so we're only looking at the Position parameter. Now with Position open, we'll animate backwards. I can go to 1 second here on the timeline and record my first keyframe. To record the keyframe, go to the Position parameter and click on the Stopwatch. See, I'm saying backwards because we're starting at the end. Notice I'm at 1 second, that's going to be where our animation ends for this one specific object.
If we move our current-time indicator back to the beginning, 0 frames, now we can go ahead and move this off the screen. So to see things better, let's go ahead and expand our canvas here just a little bit so I can move this all the way off the screen. And just so I can see Layer 4, I'll hover my mouse over the timeline and scroll up until I see Layer 4. Now since Layer 4 is already selected, I can click and drag it up. After I start dragging, I'm going to hold down Shift, and that will snap the movement along the Y axis.
Drag it up until it goes all the way off the edge of the canvas. Now you'll notice we have two keyframes and we have an animation. Let's go ahead and press 0 on our keypad, and as you can see, the first circle is animated. Now I'm going to stop playback just by pressing the Spacebar. And instead of having to recreate all of the keyframe animations for each one of these circles, what I want to do is Copy and Paste these keyframes onto the other objects. Let's see what happens if I select the position keyframes for this first yellow circle.
To select all the keyframes quickly, just click on the word Position in the timeline and now you'll notice both of these keyframes are highlighted bright yellow. If we scroll down to our blue circle here, press Command+V, or just go up and say Edit > Paste, notice nothing's happening. So let's select our Position keyframe and press Command+C to Copy, or Edit > Copy. If we go down to the Blue layer, we can go to Edit > Paste, now when we press P on the Blue layer, look, our keyframes are pasted all the way down here on the timeline.
Well that's a problem. And also, notice, now the circle is gone. Well that's a problem too. So let's start with the obvious, the first one; this down the timeline, not so much. We don't want to do that. And basically what you need to do is not have your current-time indicator down the timeline when you paste. See, whenever you paste keyframes they'll paste exactly where the current-time indicator is. So let's just Command+Z, undo that last command. Now the other problem, see, this Position keyframe, it's actually not only recording the position of this object on the Y axis, but it also recorded it on the X axis.
So what we need to do is just copy the Y axis of these position keyframes. I'm going to expand this view up here a little bit. And to do this, select the Position parameter and right-click. Now if you go to Separate Dimensions, you'll notice I have keyframes for X position and Y position. Now since the Y position already matches for all these other layers, all we have to do is select the Y position keyframes just by clicking on it, and say Command+C or Ctrl+C on Windows, and I'm going to press Home to make sure that I've moved back to the beginning of the timeline.
And now, if we press Command+V, you notice it automatically split the position keyframes and applied that set of keyframes to that new parameter. So we can do the exact same thing for Green here. So let's press Home and I'm going to say Command+V, and now that's going to move down. Now if I want to move these so they kind of fall one after the other, all we have to do is just slide the keyframes in the timeline. So I'll just expand my timeline view here just a little bit and select the Y position keyframes for Layer 2.
Instead of just selecting the Y position keyframes, go ahead and select Layer 5 and just click and drag that layer to start further down the timeline. See, since the object is starting off the canvas already, I'm just scrolling out with my mouse, nobody is going to know whether it existed before this point in time or not. So let's do the same thing with the Green layer. I'm going to press U to open up its animated parameters, and that shows me just the Y position keyframes, which I pasted, and I'll just drag down the timeline here.
If we press 0, you can see 1, 2, 3. Now we're going to start speeding things up. You already know how to break out keyframes and copy them and paste them, let me show you how to actually animate multiple objects at once. It's pretty straightforward. Let's select Layer 7 through 9. Click on the first layer, Layer 7, and hold down Shift and click on 9. Now we can go ahead and press P to open up the Position parameter. There's a pretty neat shortcut you can use to automatically create keyframes for specific parameters at any time, and basically the way that works, instead of just pressing P to open up the Position, what you want to do is position your current-time indicator where you want to set your first keyframe.
I want the motion of these objects to end at 1 second. So I'm going to move my current time indicator to 1 second, and now I'm going to press Option+P. And what that does, holding down Option or Alt on Windows, it sets the keyframe for whatever parameter you hit the shortcut for next. So P is the shortcut for Position. If you press Home, in order to move all these down, all you have to do is click and drag on the Y parameter. And I'm going to click and drag to the right until they go all the way off screen.
Notice, since I had all three layers selected, when I clicked and dragged on one Y parameter, it moved all of them. So to ripple this down, all we have to do is just click and drag on the layer, click and drag on the layer. So now if we press 0, you see they all pop down and now all we need to do is add the Fade for each of the words. So to do that, we can just select our first word, which is Connect, and move our playhead to where we want our first keyframe.
Here, let's go ahead and set it right at the end of this animation, so right about 2 second 5 frames. And we can press Option+T, that will set the keyframe. Now I want to change this parameter because I don't want it to start at 100%. So I'll change it down to 0. Now we have our keyframe set and let's have this fade up over 1 second. So to move down 1 second in the timeline, I'm just going to click on the number here in the timeline and press +100.
That's going to move down 1 second. And now to have this fade up to set the second keyframe, just click and drag on the value for Opacity. So I'm going to click and drag it to the right and set it to 100. Now to apply these keyframes to the subsequent layers, all we have to do is select both Opacity keyframes. I'm going to do that in the timeline just by clicking and drawing with a Lasso here, and since I want to stagger how these fade in, I'm going to move my current-time indicator to about halfway in between and select Eco and press-- actually I need to copy those.
So with our current-time indicator moved, that's fine, just go ahead and draw a Lasso over both the keyframes and press Command+C or Ctrl+C to Copy. Now we can select Layer 1 and Command+V or Ctrl+V to Paste. And again, if I press U, that will open up the Animated parameter for that layer, and let's do the same thing for ink here. Let's move down the timeline with our current-time indicator and press Command+V or Ctrl+V, and again with U, you can see how that's set up.
So let's preview our entire animation. Press Home on your keyboard. I'm going to deselect all the layers here, and change my Magnification to fit up to 100 and just kind of give a little bit more room here, and press 0 on my keyboard. So as you can see, we've now created our first keyframe animation of the entire logo animation.
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Learn 3D rendering to bring models and scenes to life with lighting, shadows, reflections, and global illumination. Includes workflows for both scanline and raytraced rendering in Maya, CINEMA 4D, 3ds Max, Blender, and more.
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Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word
What's the difference between these two computers?
There's a big difference in the attitudes of town and country people.
There are subtle differences in their arrangement of the music.
the significant difference in sound quality between CDs and records
The fundamental difference between John and Jake is their attitudes to money.
The same car costs £500 less here, which is quite a difference!
The winner received 2365 votes, and the runner-up 2348 – a difference of only 17 votes.
Despite this age difference, they fell in love.
There's a world of difference between liking someone and wanting to marry them.
trying to smooth out differences between them
Joe and I have had our differences, but we work well together.
The two parties agreed to settle their differences.
Journalists were told the talks had broken down because of irreconcilable differences.
The fact that I can now organize my own time makes a big difference.
Having someone to talk to made all the difference to my mother.
This is the British English definition of difference. View American English definition of difference.
old and in bad condition, or no longer effective


An Online Azores Map
Are you looking for an Azores map? I have put a map of Azores below for your convenience. And scroll past the maps for links to a map of each island.
As you can see by the map below, there are nine islands that make up the Azores Archipelago. The Islands to the west are Flores and Corvo. The most eastern (and southern) Islands are Sao Miguel and Santa Maria. And the central group includes Sao Jorge, Pico, Faial, Graciosa, and Terceira.
Image from Wikipedia Commons
These nine Azores Islands span quite a distance from each other. So if you go to the Azores for a week plan on visiting just one, or maybe two, of the islands. Each island is worth at least a few days on its own. I have been content with two weeks at a time on San Miguel. I have never run out of sights to see and places to explore.
This next map allows you to zoom in and scroll around using the tools on the upper left side of the map. And you can zoom out to see the Azores location. These tools allow you to see the map of any part of the islands that you wish to focus on.
Maps of the Azores Islands
To see a map of any of the islands, click the appropriate link:
In the future I will add a link so that you can obtain a map of the Azores to take with you to the islands. If you would like to know about this, or any other updates on the site, please sign up for Azores newsletter. You will also be able to obtain other maps of each island.
Leave the Azores Map and visit the Magical Azores Islands home page.


By Jeanne LeFlore
Members of the Local Emergency Planning Committee talked about staging a large-scale wildfire training exercise during their meeting on Wednesday.
The Pittsburg County committee met for a regular monthly meeting at the Southeast Expo Center.
During the meeting, McAlester and county Emergency Management Director Kevin Enloe announced that planning will begin in the next few weeks for the largest-ever disaster training event in Pittsburg County.
He said the event will simulate a large-scale wildfire in the Kincaid Hills area.
“There is a real likelihood of something like this coming into fruition, and we need to be ready,” Enloe said.
During the exercise, local emergency personnel such as firefighters, ambulance drivers and paramedics, and police are encouraged to take part as if a disaster is taking place, according to Enloe. As part of the exercise, staged structure fires, and simulated injuries to and deaths of residents and firefighters are planned. The local hospital and other agencies are expected to take part, he said.
Although the events are carefully planned out, details are not revealed until they take place, Enloe said, to better test emergency responses.
“It will give everyone a real eye-opening experience,” he said.
After the training exercise, participants will gather for a “Hot Wash” to go over what they learned and what could be done differently, according to Enloe.
The LEPC meets at 2 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at the Southeast Expo Center. The meetings are open to the public.
Contact Jeanne LeFlore at firstname.lastname@example.org.


Public Health & Policy
The FDA has approved a new silicone breast implant for augmentation in women ages 22 and up, and for reconstruction in women of all ages, the agency said.
It's the third silicone implant approved in the U.S., and Santa Barbara, Calif.-based manufacturer Sientra will have to conduct postmarketing studies to assess long-term safety and risk of rare diseases.
The caution spurs from an FDA review released last year that found a possible link between breast implants and a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It uncovered about three dozen cases of anaplastic large-cell lymphoma in women with breast implants; most of the cases involved silicone-filled devices.
The agency followed up with a report six months later showing silicone implants didn't increase the risk of breast cancer, reproductive abnormalities, or other problems, but the lymphoma link was still under investigation and implants were tied to local complications and often needed to be replaced within 10 years.
Silicone implants in Europe and Latin America made headlines earlier this year when those from French manufacturer Poly Implant Prostheses were found to have been made of industrial grade silicone, rather than medical grade. Those implants also had an unusually high rupture rate. They were never sold in the U.S.
After its review last year, the FDA said women with implants should have regular checkups and pay attention to any changes in their breasts.
In a statement announcing the new approval, William Maisel, MD, MPH, deputy director for science in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, echoed that earlier warning.
"It's important to remember that breast implants are not lifetime devices," Maisel said in the statement. "Women should fully understand risks associated with breast implants before considering augmentation or reconstruction surgery, and recognize that long-term monitoring is essential."
He noted, however, that data on silicone implants "continue to demonstrate a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness."
Still, Sientra will have to follow an original cohort of 1,788 patients -- the data on which final approval was based -- for an additional seven years, and will also have to conduct a 10-year study of 4,782 women receiving the implants to assess long-term local complications and other disease outcomes including rheumatoid arthritis and breast and lung cancer.
The agency is also requiring an additional five case-control studies looking at associations with rare diseases, including rare connective tissue disease, neurological disease, brain cancer, cervical/vulvar cancer, and lymphoma.
The FDA said the initial 1,788-patient trial had an expected number of complications and outcomes similar to those seen with other implants, including a tightening of the area around the implant, reoperation, implant removal, uneven appearance, and infection.


Caribou Mountain prospect, Mount Pisgah District, Bonneville Co., Idaho, USA
Porphyry copper deposit.
References- Hunstman, J.R. (1984): Caribou Mountain: a porphyry copper deposit in southeastern Idaho. Economic Geology 79, 748-754.
- Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C. (2008): Porphyry copper deposits of the world: Database and grade and tonnage models, 2008. US Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1155.
18 entries listed. 13 valid minerals.
The above list contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.
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Locality Updated: Hangha, Kenema District, Eastern Province, Sierra LeoneFrom Dana Slaughter, 24th Jul 2014 03:40:45


spellbinds is a valid word in this word list. For a definition, see the external dictionary links below.
The word "spellbinds" uses 10 letters: B D E I L L N P S S.
No direct anagrams for spellbinds found in this word list.
Adding one letter to spellbinds does not form any other word in this word list.Words within spellbinds not shown as it has more than seven letters.
Try a search for spellbinds in these online resources (some words may not be found):
Wiktionary - OneLook Dictionaries - Merriam-Webster - Google Search
Each search will normally open in a new window.
All words formed from spellbinds by changing one letter
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by Reb Gutman Locks @ Mystical Paths
This question keeps coming up. Does G-d know what we are going to choose, and if so, are we really free to choose what we want? If He already knows what is going to happen, aren’t our choices already set? If so, how can there be free will!
A prophet might know the future. For instance, he could know that Israel is about to fail at something, and G-d has sent him to warn us. But if he knows that we are going to fail, why bother to warn us? If he knows that it is going to happen, then it is already set, and we cannot do anything about it. This seemingly proves that we do not have free will!
This is, in fact, the Eastern belief of karma. They say, whatever you did in the past must come back to you. Therefore, they conclude, do not do anything!
This is not the Torah’s teaching. Yes, the Torah teaches mida keneged mida (portion across from portion), that what you do will come back to you; but the Torah also teaches that we have free will. We are taught that no matter what is set to come, we, with our deeds can reverse that decision and turn our future to the good. This is why G-d sent prophets to warn us.
So, even though G-d knows what is set to come, and He knows what we are going to choose, still, we are free to change our minds, and most importantly, our deeds and choose to do something else instead. And, of course, G-d knows that we were going to make that change, too.
How does this affect our lives today? Why hasn’t the Redemption come? Obviously, its time has not yet come. But if we have to wait for its time, why do anything to try to bring it? If it is set for a certain date, shouldn’t we just sit back and wait peacefully.
No. The Redemption is set to come by a certain date, and no matter what, it will not come a second later than that moment. But… it could come earlier. If we use our free will, and do the proper deeds, then we can make it happen now. This is our free will, and it is one of the many differences between the Torah and the East.
The practical aspect of this difference is, since they feel that they cannot change anything, they say, “Let go… detach.” And since we know that we can change the world, we say, “get involved… make the world a better place.” Not only will you enjoy yourself more, and not only will you reduce suffering, you might even add that tiny drop that was needed to bring the final Redemption right now!


Meteorites play a role in Minnesota's mineral wealth. And some meteorites are more valuable than gold. The problem is finding them, according to University of Minnesota earth sciences professor and meteorite expert Calvin Alexander.
"Something on the order of 10 fist-sized meteorites or larger hit Minnesota every year," Alexander said.
If you find the rare kind -- pieces of space rock from, say, the moon or Mars, your ship has come in.
Rare meteorites fetch prices much higher than gold; in some cases 20 times higher.
"There are a group of very rich people who like to buy meteorites, just to have them so nobody else has them," said Alexander.
But Minnesota is not a lucrative state for meteorite hunters, because "there's just lots and lots of rocks out there."
Calvin Alexander, 68, is a tall, white-haired native of Oklahoma. He's been a professor at the University of Minnesota since 1973.
Alexander's research includes the study of moon rocks, and he's been on a few meteorite hunts.
"Unfortunately, none of them have been successful."
He frequently gets calls from hopeful people who want him to look at a rock they've found.
"On the order of 10,000 people have probably walked in over the last 40 years, and four of them have had meteorites," he said.
And Alexander says two of those four were found someplace else, not in Minnesota.
The problem with meteorite hunting in Minnesota is that the state's landscape and geology are littered with rocks that make meteorite hunting a fool's errand, with one exception -- the Red River Valley, in the northwestern part of the state.
"It's perfectly flat land with no rocks in it."
That's where the Fisher meteorite, one of the state's most famous, was found back in 1894.
Another famous Minnesota meteorite was found in Anoka, back in the 1960s, when a contractor digging a utility hole in a backyard clanged into a bowling ball-sized rock.
Alexander said the homeowner kept the rock, but didn't do anything about it.
"It sat on his porch for 26 years," said Alexander. "And finally his wife told him, 'find out what the blankety-blank thing is, or get it off my porch.'"
He did, and it was a meteorite. It's now in the meteorite collection at the U of M.
Meteorites crashed into the news in late April, when observers said a car-sized space rock crashed into an area of California that in 1849 was the scene of that state's gold rush.
The event set off a rush of meteorite hunters and reporters to the scene. There were photos of adults and children scooping up bottle cap sized pieces of the meteorite.
With visions of dollar signs before them, the meteorite hunters advised the residents to wrap the pieces in foil to protect them from disintegrating and place them in a safe deposit box.
Scientific interest in meteorites languished for most of human history with the view that rocks could not fall out of the sky. The exceptions, Alexander notes, were the Chinese and the Romans who recognized the existence of celestial objects hitting the planet.
The world's collection of meteorites more than doubled due to soil erosion that occurred in the Great Plains in the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, according to Alexander. Relentless winds carrying away soil particles revealed space rocks that had fallen to earth over the years.
By the 1960s, when Alexander was doing his doctoral dissertation on meteorites, scientists were increasingly interested in the forces that created our solar system. It was a puzzle that could be solved in part by more careful examination of the composition of meteorites; the leftovers, if you will, of the formation of the universe.
The explosion in meteorite prices has put the rocks out of reach for most scientists. Many of the meteorites used for research, Alexander said, come from the so-called blue ice field of Antactica -- which is actually a desert -- where receeding ice reveals meteorites that fell to earth long ago.
Countries including the United States have placed Antarctica off limits to for-profit meteorite hunters, according to Alexander.
That's not the case with the sandless deserts of north Africa, which is another meteorite-rich area of the planet.
Alexander said meteorites have several characteristics that distinguish them from ordinary rocks.
"They look kind of like -- when you look on the inside of them -- like low-grade concrete," he said. "They have this black fusion crust."
That black crust forms when the space rock hits the earth's atmosphere at thousands of miles an hour. The friction bakes the surface of the meteorite.
A distinctive feature of meteorites, not readily detectable to the eyeball, is a fairly high nickel content.
And that brings us to a geological debate about Minnesota's mineral wealth: Where did the nickel deposits in the northeastern part of the state, which are increasingly coveted by mining companies, come from?
Geologists generally agree on part of the answer -- that a huge meteorite struck about 1.8 billion years ago in an area that is now Sudbury, Ontario.
Alexander says that meteorite was so big and powerful that it punched through the earth's crust, and a large volume of nickel-rich magma bubbled up, leaving deposits in what is now northeastern Minnesota.
But Alexander also believes the splatter from that disintegrating nickel-rich meteorite accounts for a portion of the deposits.
"I'm a space cadet from way back. I think they're probably mining at least some fraction of asteroidal nickel."


Malware makers target Windows 8 – Fake AV and phising
While Windows 8 isn’t out for a week yet, malware makers are trying to ride the wave of publicity Microsoft’s latest OS gets. Anti-virus company TrendMicro has posted two security threats on their blog that specifically target Windows 8. One is a fake anti-virus dialog that is shown when visiting malicious websites and which shows fake virus results. Of course the scammers urge you to install their paid software to get rid of the viruses. Many users get afraid of the warning and actually will, like they also did on other Windows versions.
It’s clear that this fake anti-virus is specifically made to target Windows 8 users as the dialog says: ‘Win 8 Security System’ .
The other one is a phishing mail that tries to lure you to a website where you can download Windows 8 for free. And instead of the actual download the scammers ask for personal details such as an e-mail address and name that can be sold on the underground market for cyber-criminals.
There are 3 comments
- MyCE Senior Member
- Posted on: 02 Nov 12 01:44
Fortunately, Windows 8 comes with a complete security solution built-in. Also, many manufactures and retailers like to bundle a trial version of some security suite, like McAfee, or Norton.
- MyCE Die Hard
- Posted on: 02 Nov 12 13:49
Like Mina inviting in Count Dracula - once she lets him in, it's all over.
Many AVs use their own proper names in the Active Window Title Bar. So, if I've got AVG Anti-Virus installed, I'll see virus-alerts with "AVG AntiVirus" printed in the active-windows title bar. If I see something else, then I know it's a fake alert.
Microsoft's Windows Defender and Security Essentials didn't use those exact spellings on their true alerts. Not in the past. Maybe their Win8 programmers discovered "precision" and "correctness" to be useful.
Or maybe not. We'll see.
The Bleeping Computer has a huge array of hijacker names that have been used, and almost all of them are worthy of tricking more than a few users in their web.
I'm not sure how an OS can defeat these hijackers when the nonchalant user is tricked into 'letting them in' but it seems like an OS should be able to detect changes to its core components and offer some solution. Unfortunately, that will always result in some UserID agreeing to the changes - and if that's the HiJacker User, well, then...
"Come right in."
(I have laughed at the several articles in the past month talking about Win8's "security" and "invulnerabiliteis", and especially, "the lack of virus attacks." Yeah. Riiiight. Before Day One. Uh huh. Next summer, we'll see "Win8 has more Virus Attacks than Win7" articles. Meanwhile, Win98-SE will be among the least-attacked Win OS's. du-uh.
- New Member
- Posted on: 02 Nov 12 15:17
You have a complementary article on Teckweek :
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State lawmakers say they will ask tough questions about the state's strategy to create new jobs through incentives. Florida offers up-front money to businesses in that promise new jobs.
Governor Scott and other supporters of our incentive strategy say it helps attract new businesses to our state and is fueling our recovery. But critics point to cases where companies did not deliver on promises and in some cases shut down after receiving state money.
Last year, a software company called Redpine Services closed its office in Bay County after accepting $400,000 from the state. This year, an animation production company called Digital Domain closed in South Florida after receiving a $20 million grant. Companies that don't deliver are supposed to repay state incentives. But it's hard to collect when companies shut down.
We don't know exactly how many current deals are going, because the state keeps them secret in the early stages.
Governor Scott says bad deals are the exception. Offering incentives for the promise of jobs is a key part of an economic development strategy. The governor's department of economic opportunity is now requesting $105 million in economic development tools in the next legislative budget. That request triggered some pushback from lawmakers who have questions about the effectiveness of our incentive program thus far. Lawmakers from both parties say want to make sure we get a good return on our money.
Some like Pinellas State Senator Jack Latvala say we should also consider other job creation strategies that ensure our workforce is trained for local job openings.
"We have employers in my district who will hire any welder they can find, but they can't find welders," said Latvala. "I have other employers who want to hire Java programmers. But there's not a state institution that's turning out Java programmers."
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How to Cook Duck Breast - Frying
Duck Breast is a wonderful alternative to steak or lamb - it is a boneless fillet, which makes it quick to cook and it has wonderful flavour, which can be enhanced by sauces or glazes. Ducks are a waterfowl and have a layer of fat under their skin to keep them warm and waterproof - this is why the skin of a duck is so thick and why so much fat will render during cooking.
For more photos and a video demonstration go to www.nzduck.co.nz .
Always thaw your duck breast before cooking.
Smooth the duck breast fillet out and remove any excess fat around the edges. Score the skin all over - this will allow the fat layer under the skin to render, during cooking. Season with salt & pepper, or your favourite rub.
Heat a non-stick frypan to a low heat. Do not grease the frypan.
Place the duck breasts, skin side down, in a frypan. Slowly cook the breast fillets until they begin to brown. The fat layer under the skin will begin to render and will be present in the pan as liquid fat. This is normal.
When the duck skin has browned enough and enough of the fat has rendered out of the breast - this could be 10- 15 minutes, turn the duck breast fillet over to cook the other side.
Note that the duck breast will reduce in length and will swell in thickness, during this time.
When the breast is cooked, the juices will run clear. Crisp the skin in the pan or under a hot grill.
Remove from the pan and let the duck breast rest for 5 minutes. Discard or filter the fat remaining in the pan, for future use.
Drizzle over your favourite sauce or glaze.