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Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Thoughts on novel businesses, inspiring entrepreneurs and venture capital
The NYSE looks good in red
Perhaps it's nothing more than a sign that there are long stretches in between my blog posts, but my last entry featured a photo of the NYSE's regal facade draped handsomely in blue. Well, I think it looks just as good in red. I wonder where they put those giant banners when they're done with them?
Congratulations Reid and the LinkedIn Team
Posted by Jeremy at 9:33 AM
Feeling Around in the Dark
A recently hired executive at one of my portfolio companies sent me this picture today to explain how he feels on the new job. I told him that, indeed, it can be a pretty crappy experience while one is still feeling his way around in the dark, but eventually he'll get a handle on things...
TechStars New York likes my blog
As I approached the TechStars Demo Day event in New York yesterday, the first thing I noticed was my blog title in lights. (Thanks, TechCrunch, for the photo.) The second thing I noticed is that no two "N's" were alike. The sloppy Webster Hall sign stood in sharp contrast to the incredibly well-polished pitches from the 11 startups inside. If the products and business models of those startups are even half as refined as their on-stage presentations, there will surely be some interesting winners from the batch.
Suckers Must Be Trading Facebook Stock
If you have ever owned a fax machine, then surely you received an occasional spam fax from a stock promoter. The typical one or two page stock-pumping fax proclaims the "sure thing" of potential profits from buying some rinky dink stock you've never heard of at the bargain basement price of $1 or $2 per share. "It's definitely going to $5, maybe even $10," so buy now "before it's too late."
I never could understand who actually responded to these faxes and bought the promoted penny stocks, but there must have been enough suckers out there to justify the expense of sending the faxes. I haven't received one for a while, so I thought maybe the world had finally "wised up."
Turns out I was wrong. The stock promoters have simply shifted to email (thankfully, I've got Postini to protect me). But much more remarkable is that the promoters are now pumping private company stock. Here's an unedited email offer my friend received a week ago:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/21/facebook-85-billion-valuation/
We have not had a chance to speak recently so call me or let me know a good time to call you so I can let you know what is going on with Facebook. Bottom line is this is the very last time we will have Facebook stock to offer to investors - We are closing next Tuesday at $31 per share on our Facebook fund. This will be the very last close we will ever do in our Facebook fund - THE VERY LAST - GAME OVER. The stock we are closing on is attractively priced compared to the current market of $34-$37. It is my opinion that we could see a 3-4x return over the next 12-24 months. It is also my opinion that Facebook, will at the very least, double from this level (which would be a major disappointment) and certainly will not trade lower from the $31 level. What other investments are you aware of today that offer this kind of risk reward ratio over that period of time?
This is the last bite of the apple - take it!
If you have any questions or intend on investing please let me know as soon as possible.
I guarantee that you will not be hearing from me regarding facebook again!
[Name redacted]
If you believe cheesy stock promoters tend to flock to where the suckers are, I guess the implication is that the private market for Facebook shares is full of suckers. I just wish I knew whether the suckers were the ones buying or selling.
Enjoy Dumpster Diving?
I was greeted at home this evening by a violation notice from NYC's Environmental Control Board -- aka the "garbage police." My building was fined $25 because one of my neighbors disposed of paper and cardboard in the trash instead of recycling those materials.
Here is the exact hand-written text on the violation notice dated 8:17pm on Aug 31:
"I did observe 3 white bags placed out for collection. Upon inspection found paper & cardboard mixed with household garbage."
Are our dear city's finances really in such dire straits that Mayor Mike now employs garbage inspectors? I can't believe it!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:33 PM
Bessemer's 10 Laws of eCommerce
A few years ago, my Bessemer colleagues Byron Deeter, Philippe Botteri (blog) and David Cowan (blog) led and synthesized a lot of our firm-wide views on what it takes to build a great software as a service (SaaS) business. They have since published several versions of a white paper entitled Bessemer's 10 Laws of Cloud Computing and Saas. Based on the number of press hits, the thankful compliments from SaaS executives, and the quality of the feedback and criticism they received, their effort to "open source" our thinking has been extremely successful.
Given the exceedingly high quality bar set by our colleages, it is with some trepidation that Sarah Tavel and I set out to do something similar for online retailers. We just began publishing (on Sarah's blog), Bessemer's Top 10 Laws of eCommerce, and we intend to share the full paper over the next several weeks.
We welcome your feedback, criticism and, most of all, experience with what believe are the most important rules for building an online retailer.
A belated thank you
When I started leading venture capital investments for Bessemer in 2003, I was scared out of my mind. I suspect a lot of young investors feel similarly. It's incredibly frightening to commit millions of dollars of other people's money to a young (typically loss-generating) startup. There's a good chance you'll never see that money again. It's nerve-racking. I learned to think of the concept of being a "fiduciary" in the following manner: it's actually a lot more painful to lose a bunch of someone else's money than it is to lose your own.
My response to the fear -- which, after nearly a decade in VC, hasn't subsided much at all -- was to start slowly and conservatively. My first investment was $50,000 in a two-person startup called Hypertag. The founders and I decided to shut it down 6 months later, and I got back about $35,000. I felt like crap, and in an effort to cheer me up, one of my partners jokingly told me to think about it as a 70% return. Two of my next investments were much larger but in later-stage companies: Gracenote and Gerson Lehrman Group. Those worked out well and helped to increase my confidence.
A couple of years later, I started to do some "traditional Series A" venture capital deals, which I define as 7-figure investments in companies that have raised no more than a few hundred thousand dollars and have little or no revenues. It's the scariest type of investment one can make because there's enormous risk combined with serious dollars at stake. Of course the tremendous upside justifies the risk, but it can easily take 4 or 5 years to know if a Series A investment was wise or foolish.
After seven and a half years making venture capital investments, I tasted my first Series A success a few weeks ago. The founders preferred not to disclose the news, so we kept it quiet, but somehow the sleuths at TechCrunch got the dirt and published it here.
I helped Fabrice Grinda get started with OLX in early 2006, and after he brought on co-founder Alec Oxenford, I led the Series A financing with General Catalyst's Joel Cutler later that fall. At $10 million, it was a very large first round of capital, and, like every other investment I have made, it was scary.
But Fabrice and Alec are a fantastic tag-team, and it was a pleasure to watch them in action over the last four years. It was also relatively low stress because the business metrics improved almost every single month since the day we invested. When the company's web sites surpassed 100,000,000 unique visitors in a single month earlier this year, I knew some large Internet leaders would soon come calling.
Despite it's $15 billion dollar market cap, I didn't know much about Naspers until recently. They're based in South Africa and have a uniquely global perspective that I've rarely seen in Internet management teams. Naspers proposed a strategic deal to OLX a few months ago that was too compelling to pass up.
It is with mixed feelings that I celebrate my first Series A success. On the one hand, it's nice to earn a profit and see validation of an early-stage conviction. On the other hand, we sold our stake in the company, so I no longer get to work with the talented founders and their star executive team nor will I get to benefit from the upside that lies ahead for OLX. I've become fond of Joel Cutler's comment that as investors, we were "invited guests." Together with the founders, we decided it was time for us to depart.
Now that the news is out, I submit a public statement of gratitude to Fabrice, Alec, Ariel, William, Mark and the many other key contributors. Thank you for all the fun and capital gains!
There's an App For That (on your TV)
Ever since the initial iPhone release in 2007, I assumed Apple would eventually extend its consumer device operating system to televisions. Benchmark's Bill Gurley predicted it here and even included a nice living room mockup.
To date, Apple has only delivered a mediocre tv attachment called Apple TV. Samsung, on the other hand, has delivered the real thing -- a television set on which you can load apps in much the same way you load them on your iPhone. To motivate developers to come up with some creative app ideas for its new line of TVs, Samsung is sponsoring a contest with $500,000 in prize money, and I'm delighted to serve as a judge alongside Mike Maples, Bob Borchers, Roelof Botha and Samsung's own Eric Anderson.
The winners will be announced at CES next January, and I hope to see some cool new concepts.
World's Greatest Cloud Service Provider
Along with several of my colleagues, I am particularly attracted to our cloud computing roadmap, and I spend a fair amount of time exploring related ideas and companies. It came as a bit of a surprise to find that the world's greatest cloud service provider was a virtual unknown just a week ago:
(Credit to my friends at Parallels for sharing this image with me.)
Spam is everywhere, not just in email
About five years ago, I focused on building highly valuable businesses on the back of user-generated content. I led my first related investment in 2005. It was in a San Francisco-based startup called Yelp. Over the following 18 months, I led three other Bessemer investments based on the same fundamental roadmap: Wikia, OLX and LinkedIn.
One nice thing about the roadmap approach to investing is that when you discover a compelling roadmap, follow it and identify talented entrepreneurs who share your conviction, you end up investing in some great companies. LinkedIn, Wikia and Yelp are each now among the top-100 ranked websites by Quantcast. It's a bit harder to measure the size of OLX because it's largely used by consumers outside the USA across several domains (http://www.olx.com.br, http://www.olx.pt, http://www.olx.ru and many others), but it is probably the largest site in my portfolio and reached more than 100,000,000 unique visitors last month. As satisfying as the success these companies have had pleasing consumers is that that each has a proven, working business model. I wish all of my investment roadmaps were as productive as the one based on user-generated content.
But it's not all happiness in user-generated content land. There are lots of challenges with it, and perhaps at the top of the list is that you don't actually control your site's content. That leads to troublesome spam.
Spam at Wikia
Wikia is a giant collection of wikis that anyone can edit. I think it was about a month after we invested that one my colleagues rushed into my office to ask when I last visited Wikia's home page. Without hesitation, I pulled up the site and was greeted by a massive image of two naked adults exploring one of the more creative entries in the Kama Sutra. Sadly, it feels as though for every well-meaning Internet consumer, there's at least one evildoer. (The ratio is probably much better than 1:1, but the evildoers each seem to make the "contributions" of 10 or even 100 people, and so the "effective" ratio is probably much worse than 1:1.)
Spam at OLX
OLX provides free classified sites in almost 50 languages in 100 countries around the world. They now collect more than 100,000 new free postings every day. These posts advertise the likes of a used car for sale, an apartment for rent or a job opening. Incredibly, OLX's computer algorithms automatically tag 50% of those new postings as spam and delete them immediately. FIFTY percent! Even more incredible is that OLX tunes its algorithm to be extremely conservative: if it might not be spam, they don't delete it. Once the computers are done reviewing the content, a crack team of customer service agents in Buenos Aires manually reviews every remaining post. The human reviewers end up tagging half of what's left as spam too! That means for every useful post, there are three pieces of spam. Left unchecked, the spammers would completely destroy the utility of OLX because you'd have to wade through gobs of crap to find real posts.
Spam at Yelp
Yelp is a site where consumers post their subjective reviews of local businesses. Yelp identified the spam problem early in its development, and came up with a highly effective way to filter out spam on its site. Spam in the context of Yelp is most often a shill review written to make a particular business look great or (its competitor's look horrible). The sentiment embedded in Yelp reviews about most local establishments feels real because most of the spam has been removed. The opacity of Yelp's spam filter frustrated a number of business owners, and so Yelp just launched a new feature to let consumers look at the reviews that were automatically removed.
The result is amazing. In a random sample of business profile pages I just visited on Yelp, the "filtered" reviews account for anywhere from 10% to 50% of the total! Much of the spam is truly shameless. My favorite reaction to Yelp's new feature was from The Next Web, and it's priceless:
Looking through the reviews that Yelp's algorithm filtered out brings to mind a single thought: 'Wow. It's like viewing Yelp through Citysearch goggles.'
Everyone knows that not a day goes by when spam doesn't invade our email inboxes. We use filters and other defenses to prevent spam from destroying the utility of email. It is less obvious that, if left unchecked, spam would also destroy many of the most useful properties on the Internet. Thankfully, some of the best user-generated content sites have developed sophisticated techniques to keep the spam at bay. Let's just hope they keep innovating fast enough to stay a step ahead of the bad guys.
Leaders Can Fall Fast on the Internet
Just a few years ago, the industry-leading incumbent in the Internet local search category was IAC's CitySearch.com. It had an apparently unassailable position in local search with no meaningful competition.
Well, times have changed. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome gave a speech earlier this afternoon during which he mentioned a number of leading Internet companies such as Google, Twitter, Yelp and eh, er, um, one other which he couldn't quite remember.
New year, new blogs to read
Over the last few months, I added three new blogs to my reading list, and they're all related to venture capital and entrepreneurship. Some are not new, but they're new to me, and I think they're all worthy of a regular reading. Let's hope the respective authors each do a better job posting fresh content than I have been doing.
Jeremy Stoppelman, a founder and the CEO of Yelp, is offering up a smorgasbord of book reviews, humor, and observations as an entrepreneur on his relatively new blog.
Adam Fisher, one of my partners at Bessemer and the leader of our Israel office, started Savants in the Levant to blog about VC, entrepreneurship and politics with an occasional Israeli bent.
And last, but not least, Brian Feinstein, one of my Bessemer colleagues in New York, already has a year's worth of great posts on topics ranging from startup lessons to market opportunities on his blog.
The NY Times Says Yelp has Arrived
It's not often that the venerable New York Times publishes a glowing piece on one of my portfolio companies. This is a welcome bit of good cheer amidst the backdrop of a generally gloomy economy. When I invested in the young company founded by Jeremy S. and Russ S. back in 2005, Yelp had attracted about 100,000 San Franciscans to its site. Today, with more than 15,000,000 monthly visitors, it seems to have "come of age" -- at least enough to get serious coverage from the NY Times. Yelp has more or less been a household name in Silicon Valley for a couple of years already, but I'm especially excited to see it turning heads now in New York as well.
As the article points out, Yelp is not just about restaurants. It's good for everything from hair salons to insurance brokers. The courageous Megan C. even used Yelp to share thoughts on the doctor that performed her anatomical modification. Now that's what I call broad coverage.
Among the many reasons Yelp is succeeding is that it easily passes the multiple choice test for consumer internet startups that I blogged about 18 months ago. Later this week, I'm hoping to post a similar multiple choice test for enterprise software companies, though I don't anticipate success with that test will lead to any articles in the NY Times Dining Section.
Humor without the lies, please
I admit that I'm a frequent reader of Valleywag, a low-brow blog full of silicon valley gossip. It's often pretty funny, and I know many of the people referenced in the stories, which only adds to the entertainment value.
Last week, however, the blog ran an entry containing a fabricated story. The entry was meant to embarrass Jimmy Wales, an entrepreneur we backed two years ago. If there is such a thing as an Internet celebrity, Jimmy is surely one of them, so he is accustomed to being attacked by web "journalists" -- particularly those at The Register, where they seem to attack him on a daily basis. If he read the Valleywag piece, I'm sure he just shrugged it off. But since the piece referred to me, I would like to set the record straight.
A few months after we invested in his company, Jimmy transitioned from CEO to full-time executive Chairman, and he and I were fortunate to recruit Gil Penchina, a long-time eBay executive, to assume the CEO role. Valleywag reported some nonsense about Jimmy getting fired because of a bogus expense report. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
If it weren't enough that Jimmy founded Wikipedia and Wikia, he impressed me even more so a few weeks ago when he volunteered to forgo his Wikia salary to maximize the company's flexibility during this lousy economy. I wonder how many Valleywag staffers would ever consider such a sacrifice.
I hope Valleywag continues to entertain readers with witty observations and curious photos, but I wish its writers would substantiate offensive claims before clicking the "publish" button. I wonder how many times I have laughed at fabricated Valleywag stories in the past. Now I know to laugh but not to believe.
Portfolio Company Politics
I got nervous today when I heard one of my consumer internet portfolio companies had posted a political advertisement on YouTube. It seemed obvious to me that any consumer company is likely to alienate half of its customer base by making a political statement. No matter how well-executed the ad, it is guaranteed to hurt business as much as it helps.
It appears that I may have jumped too quickly to a conclusion. This is the first political ad I have seen that appeals to both Democrats and Republicans.
Money fears
Doesn't this new version of the dollar bill do a perfect job capturing the essence of the Treasury Department's current state of mind?
Oh my Goldman
I got a first-hand sense of how badly Goldman Sachs felt the pressure of the crumbling financial markets this morning.
At the start of a private company's board meeting I was attending, a director received a call on his cell phone. One member of the board had not yet arrived, so the director answered the call in case it was the missing attendee. He dispatched with the caller after about a minute.
The caller turned out to be his broker from Goldman Sachs who was calling to relay a simple message: If Goldman goes under, don't worry, your assets will still be safe.
I almost fell out of my chair. The senior executives at Goldman decided the perceived threat to the investment bank was so great that they instructed brokers to call clients proactively to address concerns about the company's failure. Wow.
He has no credibility, but I think he's 100% correct
For several months now, I have been privately telling anyone willing to listen that search advertising, though incredibly effective, is over rated. At first glance, it would appear that advertising to someone in context of his search activity is an utter utopia for marketers. What better time to advertise a DVD player, for example, than when a consumer types "DVD player" into Google's search box. I agree that in context advertising is as close to utopia as marketers will ever get, but they cannot ignore their other marketing efforts.
What many search advertisers are failing to consider is the impact all their other marketing spend has on their search spend. Back to my example: when you search for "DVD player" on Google, there's a reason why you're 100 times more likely to click on a link to Samsung rather than a link to Apex. For starters, you have heard of Samsung but you've probably never heard of Apex. Second, when you researched various DVD players over the prior few days, you read a lot of positive reviews about the Samsung product but saw next to nothing on the Apex product. Finally, Samsung has a high-tech, high-quality brand. Apex has a cheap, made in a low quality way kind of brand.
Today Bloomberg news reported that Brian McAndrews, an executive at Microsoft, predicts ad buyers will switch away from search advertising and towards display advertising. At face value, it looks like a desperate attempt from Microsoft, which is badly trailing Google in search, to pooh-pooh the segment where it is weak and try to persuade advertisers that banner ads are more important. It's definitely a convenient argument given Microsoft's massive quantity of unsold banner ad inventory and weak search market share.
However, there is an element of truth in the statement. Advertisers are failing to examine the impact their non-search advertising is having on search. They are attributing all of their advertising success to search simply because it is usually the last ad seen by a user before the purchase. Just because it's the last ad doesn't mean it's the only (or even most) important one.
What advertisers need -- and what I would like to invest in -- is a company offering a web-based analytic product that helps bring banner ads, email marketing and search marketing all into a single dashboard/framework. It would allow an advertiser to measure the impact of increased banner advertising on the efficacy of its search marketing. In other words, the tool would allow advertisers to properly measure and allocate performance across ad media.
I have yet to come across such a product. Have you?
I always like to know what smart, tech types include in their daily reading. Yesterday, I learned that a very successful entrepreneur (and good friend of mine) named Chris Dixon put up a web site with links to a few dozen of his favorite blogs and websites, and this afternoon I finally got around to studying the list. I have been particularly curious to know what Chris reads because he always seems to know about the latest new idea at least a few weeks before I find out about it, and when I do finally learn about the new, new thing, it's often Chris that tells me about it.
I already knew about many of the links on Chris' new web page, but as expected there were a few gems that I hadn't yet discovered. I hope he keeps this up-to-date. Maybe it's time for someone launch a meta RSS feeder so I can get a feed of changes to other people's RSS readers.
My Click Fraud Theory
With the astounding growth of auction-based pay-per-click (PPC) advertising led by Google and Yahoo over the past several years, there is a great deal of discussion about click fraud. I think most people are completely missing the point. Those who are complaining about the issue really have nothing to complain about. Bizarrely, those who are getting screwed haven't even uttered a peep.
Click fraud takes place when someone clicks on a PPC ad with no real intent of actually following the link. The result, of course, is that an advertiser has to pay for a bogus click. Many advertisers are complaining about being charged for bogus clicks and are even demanding refunds. Somehow they managed to force Yahoo to settle a lawsuit for about $5 million and Google actually coughed up $90 million in a similar instance.
This baffles me because any reasonably sophisticated advertiser shouldn't really care about click fraud. Why? Because if they're using any of the dozens of off-the-shelf tools to measure their PPC ad conversion rates, they would be automatically lowering their PPC bids to maintain an acceptable ROI. An advertiser simply shouldn't care if he pays $1 per click for 10 clicks that yield 10% conversion and a single customer or if he pays $0.50 per click for 20 clicks that yield 5% conversion and a single customer. In either case, the advertiser has paid $10 to land a new customer.
Given the real-time tracking capabilities inherent in auction-based PPC, click fraud gets priced into the equation automatically. In my example above, the bogus clicks drove conversion down by 50% (from 10% to 5%), and advertisers adjusted their bids from $1 to $0.50 per click. Yes, in theory the advertiser may suffer temporarily from fraudulent clicks before he has a chance to adjust his bid downward to compensate for the lower conversion rate, but today's automated systems figure this out pretty quickly. Any real damage to the advertiser is inconsequential.
So why are advertisers complaining? I don't get it. Perhaps they haven't all figured out how easy it is to use tools from search engine marketing (SEM) experts such as Efficient Frontier, SearchRev, iCrossing, iProspect (or many, many others). These SEM experts offer reasonably cheap software to solve the problem through automated bidding.
Perhaps some advertisers believe only their ads are being clicked fraudulently. Click fraud targeting a specific advertiser, does, in fact, hurt that advertiser. He can reduce his bid to maintain his conversion rate and ROI, but now he will get a much lower number of clicks because his competitors can afford to bid higher if they aren't suffering from the same click fraud. Though I acknowledge that advertiser-targeted click fraud is possible, I believe most click fraudsters are just trying to make money for a certain publisher rather than trying to deplete the ad budget of a certain competitor. So, I'm at a loss to explain why advertisers seem to care so much about click fraud.
Even more confounding, however, is that the companies who are really getting screwed haven't started screaming about it. In fact, we haven't heard anything from them. The companies on the losing end of click fraud are high quality web site publishers. When an unscrupulous publisher engages in click fraud to increase revenues, the result is reduced conversion rates for advertisers, who, naturally, lower their bids. Because of the way most advertisers participate in Google and Yahoo PPC auctions, when they reduce their bids, the reduction applies to every publisher in the Google and Yahoo networks.
If publisher A is engaging in click fraud, which causes lower PPC bids from advertisers, publisher B gets screwed. Publisher B doesn't generate any additional clicks, but now he's getting less revenue for each click. In a sense, publisher A just stole money from publisher B. My theory is that the publisher getting screwed the most is probably AOL.
I suppose it's not too surprising that high quality publishers aren't complaining because it's virtually impossible to detect this phenomenon. This is especially true because Google provides publishers with such a minimal amount of information about their advertising performance. Perhaps one reason Google is holding on so tightly to the lack of transparency in its system relates to keeping click fraud off the agenda of high quality publishers.
Search Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
I live in New York City but can usually be found traveling to the Bay Area for its entrepreneurship and weather. I am a Partner in the New York office of Bessemer Venture Partners. My professional bio is here.
My investments
More Bessemer Blogs
David Cowan (California)
Adam Fisher (Israel)
Philippe Botteri (California)
Sarah Tavel (New York)
Fabrice Grinda (OLX)
Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp)
A Helping of My Yelping
The material here is written on the author's own time for his own reasons, and Bessemer has not reviewed or approved the information herein. Any discussion of topics related to Bessemer or its investment activities should not be construed as an official comment of Bessemer.


BUSINESSES URGE HOGAN ON PURPLE LINE: In the latest effort to prod a skeptical Gov.-elect Larry Hogan to move ahead with construction of the Purple Line, a newly formed business coalition – including a dozen prominent area real estate and development firms—late Friday sent Hogan a letter urging him not to cancel or delay the light rail project, writes Louis Peck for Bethesda Magazine.
FISCAL CUTS & ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY: Gov.-elect Larry Hogan is sharpening his fiscal scalpels to cut into a $1.2 billion deficit. But what does that mean for the financial expectations of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County? The Hogan administration isn't talking when it comes to specific budget lines, Rema Rahman and Chase Cook report for the Annapolis Capital.
HOGAN & FRANCHOT SHOW: What are Republican Gov.-elect Larry Hogan and Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot cooking up? In their second joint outing, the bipartisan duo and their wives dished out lunch Monday at Paul's Place in the Pigtown neighborhood of Baltimore City. Hogan continues to work on his relationship with the comptroller, who holds a key vote on the three-member Board of Public Works, which will review all of the major contracts of the Hogan administration, according to MarylandReporter.com.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: Marc Steiner of WEAA-FM leads up to his annual Annapolis Summit, which will be held from 7 to 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, by looking at environmental issues that will be addressed in the General Assembly. He hosts Dels. Anthony O'Donnell and Mary Washington.
JITTERY CHRISTMAS IN ANNAPOLIS: Political diviner Josh Kurtz of Center Maryland writes that the beauty and serenity of Annapolis at Christmas belies the jitteriness of Maryland's political classes. From Democratic staffers worried about their jobs, to the slow roll-out of Gov.-elect Larry Hogan's (R) cabinet appointments and policy initiatives, to lawmakers, lobbyists and advocates scrambling to adjust to the new reality – not to mention Democratic activists waiting for a party savior, or the Next Big Thing, or at the very least a coherent sense of direction – what should be a time of peace and reflection has instead become an unprecedented period of fear and loathing.
Government House, the governor's residence, decorated for Christmas. This is the month of December photo in the new State House Birthday Calendar by MarylandReporter.com. Order one today.
REPLACING DEL. SCHULZ: Those interested in applying to replace Del. Kelly Schulz have a week to enter their name for contention, according to the Frederick News Post. Schulz, R-District 4, plans to leave her delegate post to become Maryland's secretary of labor, licensing and regulation. Gov.-elect Larry Hogan last announced he was appointing Schulz to the Cabinet post.
MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS IN MARYLAND: Both Maryland and Virginia were in the top 10 of states with the greatest rates of need for mental health services, coming in at No. 3 and No. 9, respectively. According to Mental Health America's "Parity or Disparity: The State of Mental Health in America 2015," Virginia has just over 1 million adults with mental illness, Maryland has about 792,000 total, and the District has about 99,000 adults. Maryland was also ranked 4th for having the most adults with serious thoughts of suicide. Virginia was ranked 13th, Annys Shin reports for the Post.
2 POLITICIANS, 1 BOUTIQUE: The 2 Chic Boutique in Pigtown in Baltimore City is the venture of state Sen. Catherine Pugh and Baltimore City Comptroller Joan Pratt — and an investment along Pigtown's commercial corridor, writes Yvonne Wenger in the Sun.
ULMAN'S UM MOVE: Former Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said in the aftermath of his failed run for lieutenant governor, he wanted to play "as much of a role as possible" outside of the public sphere, writes Anna Isaacs for the Daily Record. The answer came in the form of launching his own consulting firm – Margrave Strategies LLC – and partnering with the institution he says he kept coming back to: his alma mater, the University of Maryland at College Park.
ETHICS LAW VIOLATION: The former spokeswoman for Wicomico County was found to have violated county ethics law for forwarding an email of a press event for former gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown. According to the decision, former county spokeswoman Tamara Lee-Brooks violated the section of county code regarding "the prestige of his or her office" for the private gain of the Brown campaign. The decision was authored by members of the county Ethics Commission, Phil Davis reports for the Salisbury Daily Times.
ARUNDEL COURT CHANGES: Courthouse clerks, judges and attorneys are steadily adapting to a two-month-old shift to a paperless system under a Maryland Judiciary project requiring lawyers to file civil claims and related documents electronically in Anne Arundel County courts, writes Steve Lash for the Daily Record.


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A simple way to add a natural umami boost to your cooking is to make your own stock. So much of basic, good cooking is about the extraction, distillation and concentration of ingredients' flavours. As such, I have never understood the allure of cooked, frozen prawns or deshelled prawns as all the flavour is in their heads and shells. Most prawns found in Singapore's wet markets are farmed and farmed prawns aren't as tasty as wild caught ones. However, they're still far superior in flavour compared to cooked , frozen prawns. Fresh prawns have naturally occurring glutamate and insinuate levels, flavour components of umami, of about 120 and 90 but frozen prawns only have naturally occurring glutamate levels of 15-30 (Source: Umami Information Center) . For this reason alone, I buy whole, fresh prawns at the wet market so that I can save their heads and shells in the freezer. I accumulate the shells from at least 1 kilogram of prawns for making stock in freezer-save bags. Shellfish, seaweed, bonito etc. can also be added to the stock but I usually just make the basic stock with prawn shells first and then add on other umami boosters when needed.
Once your stock is made, you could either freeze them in freezer-safe glass jars or pour into ice cube trays. I do both. If I'm making a stock for a batch of Hae Mee Noodle Soup, then I prefer freezing/ refrigerating them in jars. However, if I'm just making stock once I've accumulated enough prawn shells, then I make the stock, cool them and pour them into ice cube trays that I keep specifically for freezing stock. Then, once frozen, I unmould the cubes and store in freezer safe bags in my freezer/ squirrel chamber. These stock cubes come in handy when I want to boost the flavour of simple vegetable stir fries – I just throw a frozen stock cube into the pan with the vegetables. The flavour from this Umami Prawn Stock is really fantastic. You can throw out your premade stock granules once and for all. It has a greater depth of flavour than any store-bought stock – guaranteed! The end result is a sweet, mildly salted and spiced, aromatic and full-flavoured stock.
I like to keep the stock base simple so that the umami and naturally sweet flavour from the prawns shine and also so that it can be used for many dishes. You can omit the spices I use here and replace with garlic instead. I like to use curry leaves in my stock as they have an all-round mild 'curry flavour' – somewhat like allspice berries. Also, I buy yellow onions just for stock making as leaving their skins intact gives the stock an attractive golden colour and they aren't as assertive in flavour as red onions. What you add to your stock is completely up to you. Try adding just 3 ingredients first, taste and modify your own stock recipe as you go. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to make your personalised stock and customise dishes to your own taste. I adapted Micheal Ruhlman's(Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking) basic ratio of 3:2 / water : main ingredients for stock making. Then, to create a rich prawn stock, I blend all the softened shells and heads with the liquid and strain the 'pure' stock. Many southeast asian seafood based noodle soups use this method to extract all the flavour from the prawns. The extra effort pays off immensely as the stock is full of flavour. I often dilute this 'concentrate' stock with a little water when adding to flavour rice, quinoa, couscous or other grains. I use the simple prawn stock in vegetable dishes so it does not overpower the natural vegetable flavours. It's really up to you which stock you'd like to make.
In a medium / large stockpot, warm pot over medium flame. Add neutral oil.
Once oil has warmed up, add mustard seeds. Once the start to crackle, add cumin seeds and curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds.
Add all prawn shells and heads and saute everything on medium high head until prawn shells turn a light brown around the edges. This adds depth of flavour and colour but you can skip this and proceed to the next step.
Add onions and water. Water level should be slightly below prawn shells.
Bring water to a boil and then reduce flame to the lowest. Simmer stock for about 45 minutes, partially uncovered. Skim the frothy scum off with a mesh strainer or spoon as soon as it forms on the surface.
Once stock has cooled enough, remove onions. **Proceed to step 9 if you prefer a clear, thin stock.
Blend prawns heads, shells and all liquid in a blender.
Place a wire mesh strainer over a bowl or large jug. Place some muslin cloth over the strainer. Slowly pour blended stock and let the liquid drain slowly.
Gather muslin cloth and squeeze to extract all the stock.
Strain liquid again if the stock has food bits.
Thanks! It's a good base for seafood recipes.


Not sure what I'm referring to? Well, what has kept me busy as of late (and why I haven't posted up until now) has been the build out of new dental offices. Outfitting new dental offices with new and existing equipment is one of the more enjoyable parts of this job. Everything goes in looking and working properly from the beginning. However, the planning and implementation takes a significant amount of time. And each project has revealed the same issue overlooked from the beginning, not enough data jacks for networked equipment.
I'm talking about the outlets in the wall that look like oversized phone jacks. These are used to allow networked equipment to talk to each other. The typical means of determining the necessary amount and location of data jacks have been to outline where computers will go and count them. What is missing in this equation are networked printers, cameras, scanners, and now digital x-ray sensors. When building a new office, all of this should be taken into consideration to provide enough data jacks to accommodate all of this equipment.
So how do you know the proper amount of data jacks needed? Plan on more than you think. In busy areas (e.g. reception and consultation), add a few extra beyond what has already been outlined on the blueprints. In operatories, consider if you will be making equipment upgrades in the next three years that may necessitate network connections (e.g. those new digital x-ray sensors). It's easy to say no to save a few dollars now. It's more expensive to learn you need additional data jacks after the office has been completed.
The more offices I'm called upon to fix, upgrade, or build from scratch, the more unique circumstances I come across in regards to dental technology. Replacing computer systems is relatively inexpensive when considering the cost of dental-specific software, intraoral cameras, digital x-ray sensors, and the like. Inevitably, the desire to get as much use as possible out of the dental hardware while taking advantage of the capabilities of upgraded software on new computer systems becomes a pervasive theme.
And so, my task becomes how to combine pre-existing intraoral cameras and digital x-ray sensors with new computers. This would all be simple if everything used USB for connectivity. Unfortunately, that's not the case for the majority of older dental hardware. Coupled with the fact that many new computer systems are removing older connectivity ports (e.g. COM), I've found myself searching for solutions. Some products are able to communicate through USB to <insert your favorite connection type here> adapters. Others require the addition of capture cards, which have proven altogether frustrating. The pairing of older cameras (read drivers) with new PCIe adapters has not been particularly successful.
Some have asked why not just explain to the Doctor the necessity of replacing the dental hardware. My experience has told me this is easier said than done. Especially when the cost of a single intraoral camera can be just as much as all of the computer systems throughout the office. It's a difficult justification to make to avoid searching for a solution. And the chance to solve the puzzle is nearly always a little satisfying. Gradually, though, this will all become moot as the older dental hardware is eventually replaced leaving USB as the defacto standard. Happily, USB doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.


text:
Q: Days Countdown Timer in Ubuntu Menu Bar I need an applet that can count up to specific number of days. I'm currently using the 'alarm-clock-applet' from Software Center but it can only count up to 24 hours. I need a countdown timer in Days which will be visible on top notification area along with regular clock.

A: Timer applet is what I reccomend. It does have a limit of 48 hours the exact program name is Timer-applet Another one is Alarm-clock  alarm clock is less limited and it is the best choice. Also there is a widget here (http://www.toggl.com/public/widgets)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: If $μ$ is a signed measure, $Ω^±$ is a Hahn decomposition and $μ^±$ is the Jordan decomposition, then $\int_{A∩Ω^±}X{\rm d}μ=\pm\int_AX{\rm d}μ^±$ Let

*

*$(\Omega,\mathcal A,\mu)$ be a finite signed measure space

*$(\Omega^+,\Omega^-)$ be a Hahn decomposition of $\Omega$ with respect to $\mu$ and $(\mu^+,\mu^-)$ denot the Jordan decomposition of $\mu$

*$X:\Omega\to\mathbb R$ be $(\mathcal A,\mathcal B(R))$-measurable with $$\int|X|\:{\rm d}|\mu|<\infty\tag1$$

I want to show that $$\int_{A\:\cap\:\Omega^\pm}X\:{\rm d}\mu=\pm\int_AX\:{\rm d}\mu^\pm\;\;\;\text{for all }A\in\mathcal A\tag2\;.$$

Note that $\Omega^\pm\in\mathcal A$ with $\Omega=\Omega^+\uplus\Omega^-$ and $$\mu^\pm(A)=\pm\mu(A\cap\Omega^\pm)\ge0\;\;\;\text{for all }A\in\mathcal A\tag3\;.$$ So, the statement should be easy to prove, but how do we need to argue?

A: $\displaystyle\int_{A\cap\Omega^{+}}Xd\mu=\displaystyle\int_{A\cap\Omega^{+}}Xd\mu^{+}-\int_{A\cap\Omega^{+}}Xd\mu^{-}=\int_{A}\chi_{\Omega^{+}}Xd\mu^{+}-\int_{A}\chi_{\Omega^{+}}d\mu^{-}$. We know that $\chi_{\Omega^{+}}d\mu^{+}=d\mu^{+}$ and $\chi_{\Omega^{+}}d\mu^{-}=0$.


Elegant design and sustainability are the hallmarks of Batteriet 2, a block of flats in central Stockholm. With ÅF as environmental coordinator, the property was certified to the Silver level as per Swedish environmental certification system Miljöbyggnad.
Batteriet 2, owned by AFA Real Estate, has undergone extensive renovation. In connection with this, the property was certified Silver under the Swedish sustainable building certification system Miljöbyggnad. The building, which has a gross internal area of approximately 8500 sqm, comprises 68 flats and a child care centre.
In the role of the client's environmental coordinator, ÅF assisted with environmental issues to ensure that the building meet the requirements of Miljöbyggnad Silver. In addition, ÅF has contributed with several investigations related to the certification, such as the prestudy and design for a solar cell installation, a prestudy for windows, daylight simulation and environmental inventory.
The residential property was finished in 2017 and received its environmental certification Miljöbyggnad Silver in April that year.


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Myepri: The Electric Power Institute
Myepri.com was the former website of the Electric Power Research Institute , a USA-based body that provides collaborative research and development for the United States electricity generation industry.
The Electric Power Research Institute is a non-profit organisation that is funded by numerous major North American energy suppliers and other stakeholders with of the aim of delivering and co-ordinating research activity in the area of electricity generation and delivery. It has links to around 90% of electricity providers in the United States and is composed of a number of scientists, academics and industry figures. The aim of its research activities is to enable electricity to be provided in a way that is reliable, economical, but also safe both for human health and for the environment. It has offices in a variety of offices across the US, namely Palo Alto, California, Knoxville, Tennessee, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Lennoxtown, Massachusetts.
In 1965 the North-Eastern United States suffered from one of the most disruptive power outages in its history, the Great Northeastern Blackout, which affected users in a large area that spread from New York State and Pennsylvania into much of New England, and even into Ontario, Canada, leaving 30 million users without power in one of North America's most densely populated regions. The resulting search for blame and for what lessons could be learned led to a series of congressional hearings, in which it was recommended that a new body be set up, the Electric Power Research Institute to coordinate research and development work in the electricity industry, developing better metering and monitoring technology in order to prevent such widespread disruption from occurring again. Since its creation in the early 1970s, the EPRI has widened its remit to include a wide range of research efforts examining all aspects of thepower industry, its technological needs, and its environmental impact.
As well as offering collaborative research and development aimed at meeting the short and long-term needs of the more than 200 organisations who are collaborators and stakeholders, the EPRI 's research activities are organised around its longer-term strategic goals. Chief among these is the intention to reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly before the year 2030, via the energy savings and greater efficiency offered by the establishment of a smart grid, advanced, more efficient coal generation, the wider use of renewables combined with large-scale electricity storage, along with the development of carbon capture technology.
Stated Goals Include
Strengthening the Power Delivery Infrastructure
Enabling the Digital Society
Boosting Economic Productivity and Prosperity
Resolving the Energy/Environment Conflict
Managing the Global Sustainability Challenge
As part of its strategic vision, the EPRI undertakes detailed scenario planning to guess what the future requirements of its stakeholders will be, allowing political and business decision makers to predict how different events and uncertainties in politics, the economy, and technology will affect future technology and societal needs. Scenario planning allows for some of these variables to be tested, such as predicting the impact of fluctuating natural gas prices, increasingly strict governmental climate policies or various "wildcard" developments in energy technology on future market demand and infrastructure requirements.
These broad-brush strategic aims are used to guide more specific research carried out and disseminated by the EPRI. Former research projects have included topics such as:
Measuring levels of mercury and selenium in wastewater and assessing potential their potential health impacts. These elements, along with other heavy metals such as cadmium, are common by-products of coal-fired power stations.
Devising new tests for particulate matter. Particulate matter is again a common product of combustion-driven power generation, particularly from burning coal that is high in sulphur. Such particles have a number of well-known effects.
Research on the potential health effects of aerosols and other pollutants from combustion-based power production.
Research on the effects of electromagnetic fields on human health. Electromagnetic fields are associated with power lines and have long been a source of controversy with a claimed link between exposure and a number of conditions such as childhood leukaemia. Methodological concerns make this an ongoing area of research interest.
The creation of special interest groups (SIGS) for nuclear power, along with ocean power, solar power, and other renewables.
Research towards the creation of an "intelligent grid". Smart grid technology is seen as part of a drive towards greater sustainability by using advanced information technology to allow the integration of a wider range of differently-sized generators on the supply side, while also allowing better monitoring and responsiveness to customer demand with the aim of greater overall efficiency and a lower carbon footprint.
Research is published via the EPRI website and via a number of other means of dissemination such as prize ceremonies.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mama Ouattara (22 June 1951 – June 12, 2004) was a footballer from Bouna, Ivory Coast. He played for French clubs Nîmes Olympique, Montpellier HSC, Olympique Avignonnais and homeland club Stade d'Abidjan, as well as the Ivory Coast national team.

Following his playing career he pursued a career in coaching, being assigned a job in the Ivory Coast national team in 2002. He took the Ivorian junior team to second place at the 2003 African Youth Championship in Burkina Faso and subsequently led the team to the World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates. He became the right-hand man to former national team coach Henri Michel.

He died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52, following a training session before the Ivory Coast v Egypt World Cup qualifying game.

External links
Ivory Coast lose coach
Profile

Ivorian footballers
Ivory Coast international footballers
Nîmes Olympique players
Montpellier HSC players
Ivorian expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in France
Ligue 1 players
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1951 births
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People from Zanzan District
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


With a kind heart and a gifted hand, Dr Sudheep Njattumparambil is on a mission, urging residents of Oman to take up charity work within their own communities, learns Alvin Thomas.
It's funny how things change: usually, a visit to a medical clinic would usually be a nightmare for me. Owing to a sweet tooth, I actually spent a good deal of my childhood getting root canals done. And, as a result, I've never actually been a fan of dentists or clinics, for that matter.
I first heard of Dr Sudheep when a friend referred him to me. But even so, I already knew of him, when he facilitated the departure of a paralysed patient a few years back. He's also known as one of the best periodontists in the Sultanate.
Nevertheless, it was time to catch up with the man himself. Getting hold of the doctor was something of a challenge but, graciously, he set some time aside for a little chat.
As I walked in to his clinic in Seeb, Dr Sudheep was already waiting for me, in his white lab coat – presumably after rescheduling with one of his patients – so without further ado we started the interview.
Born in the humble district of Trissur, in Kerala, Dr Sudheep has only fond memories of his hometown. "I did all my schooling in Trissur, and was essentially brought up there," Dr Sudheep reminisces.
However, for the first time, in 1992, he left his hometown and his family to purse a degree in dental surgery from the reputable PMNM Dental College and Hospital, in Bagalkot, North Karnataka.
"This period of time gave me self-confidence, and I also became independent as I was away from home," he says.
In 1997, he graduated from the college and joined a clinic in Kerala but after realising he had a passion for learning, he headed back to his college as a tutor. In a few months, he applied for a master's degree in dental surgery.
"I believe that education is endless. Every day you learn new things from different people around you. It really does help you stand out from the crowd too," he says.
Dr Sudheep's move to Oman was unexpected.
"I came to Oman on a visit visa to meet my cousin. At that point, I was only interested in academics.
"But then in 2001, my cousin urged me to take the exam for the Ministry of Health. I did it, and I passed both the theory as well as the other examinations.
Today, Dr Sudheep runs one of the most sought-after dental clinics in Oman, with patients flooding in from areas such as Sur and Salalah, to avail of his services as a periodontist.
However, after settling down in Oman, the doctor had a change of heart regarding his lifestyle.
"I soon began realising that money is not everything, and that there are so many needy people within our own communities.
In 2012, he got together with three friends and established the Kerala United Association, a non-profit organisation aimed at helping needy expatriates in Oman.
Dr Sudheep is currently on the advisory panel of the organisation, after stepping down from the role of president.
"The organisation works with a simple model. We try to handle all embassy and foreign affairs work for expatriates, alongside providing financial support for patients suffering from illnesses such as cancer.
"Every month we pay a small amount from our side. We now make up 128 members, including 20 executive members. All of us put RO2 from our side, every month, and it goes to charities around Oman.
Dr Sudheep recollects one individual, who was residing in Muscat for more than a year without a valid visa.
"This man was staying in Oman without a visa and owed RO400 to the embassy in expenses. He covered it himself but was left penniless for the flight back home so we covered him," says the doctor.
He also says the organisation has undertaken "emotional missions".
"More recently, there was one expatriate man who had been in Oman for the past 20 years. However, he got paralysed due to a stroke and was unable to work," says Dr Sudheep.
"So we gave his family the money to sustain themselves here, and also to send their kids to school.
"We had him sent back home but unfortunately he is no more now," the doctor adds.
"Witnessing things like this makes me realise that money is not everything.
"Giving to those in need should be done with an open heart, and not for the publicity. If you do the former, then the money will go from your heart and not your pocket," he says.


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ARCH ENEMY: Cooking Up New Riffs!
Words of wisdom from ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott: "We are back home in Sweden after a hectic weekend in the USA, the 2 festivals we played were chaotic, stressful and…FUN! As always, these festivals with a million bands playing are a bit crazy from an organizational point of view, but the shows themselves were ...
MACABRE Prepare New CD, Remix Rare Classic
MACABRE are in pre-production for their forthcoming studio album, entitled Murder Metal, which will reportedly be "a collection of compositions about very bad people from around the world," according to a newsletter distributed by the group. "A new song about Fritz Haarman Thee Butcher will be included and will even be sung in German." In ...
HATE ETERNAL Drummer To Sell Video Lessons
Due to an overwhelming response for drum lessons from non-Florida residents, HATE ETERNAL drummer Derek Roddy is making plans to release video lessons, which he will sell through mail order, beginning at the end of May. All interested drummers wishing to obtain these video lessons can contact Derek at [email protected] ...
GRAVES To Make Live Appearance On WSOU
GRAVES, the new band of former MISFITS vocalist Michale Graves, drummer Dr. Chud, guitarist Tom Logan, and ex-FAST TIMES bassist Graham Westfield, will be appearing live on 89.5 WSOU on Wednesday, May 1st between the hours of 8:00 and 10:00 PM. The band will be playing cuts off their soon-to-be-released full-length debut, entitled The Web ...
DUST TO DUST To Sell New EP At Shows, Via Mail Order
DUST TO DUST have completed work on a new four-song EP called Sick, and will be making it available shortly at the band's shows and via mail order. The CD will reportedly be "enhanced" and will contain lyrics, links and pictures for the computer. The full track listing for the effort is as follows: 01. ...
EDGUY Announce Live Dates, Release Date For AVANTASIA Part II
German power metallers EDGUY will perform the following shows during the coming months: May 02 - Osaka, JAP @ On Air (w/RHAPSODY) May 04 - Nagoya, JAP @ Bottom Line (w/RHAPSODY) May 05 - Tokyo, JAP @ Club Citta (w/RHAPSODY) May 06 - Tokyo, JAP @ Club Citta (w/RHAPSODY) May 09 - Sydney, AUST @ ...
Former SKINLAB Guitarist, SYSTEMATIC Bassist Join Forces In PRIMATE
PRIMATE, the San Francisco Bay Area metal band that features in its ranks guitarist Mike Roberts (ex-SKINLAB), bassist Rob Berri (ex-DECEIVED, LEVERAGE), and vocalist Chad Dinan (ex-KAGE), have parted ways with drummer Eric Ruel (ex-MOJAVE GREEN), and have added a second guitarist in the shape of former SYSTEMATIC bassist and ex-PRO-PAIN/SKINLAB axeman Nick St. Denis. ...
ORDER OF THE ILLUMINATI: "Not For The Weak"
California's ORDER OF THE ILLUMINATI (ex-AGENT STEEL) have nearly completed work on their as-yet-untitled forthcoming CD, which singer Bruce Hall has described as "intense metal—certainly not for the weak". The full track listing for the album is as follows: 01. Avenger 02. Dead Eyes 03. Earth Under Lucifer 04. Enslaved 05. Forever Black 06. Human ...
SWARM Announce Upcoming Appearances
San Francisco Bay Area's SWARM, featuring former DEATH ANGEL members Andy Galeon (drums), Rob Cavestany (guitar), and Mark Osegueda (vocals), have lined up the following shows during the next few weeks: May 04 - San Francisco, CA @ United Nations Plaza (Cannabis Freedom Day) May 10 – Concord, CA @ Bourbon St. May 18 – ...
Acclaimed Underground Producer Working With SALLY, NOXAGT
Respected underground producer Billy Anderson (i.e. EYEHATEGOD, CATHEDRAL) is presently working at the UK's New Rising Studios with an English band called SALLY, which he has described as the "heaviest stoner doom in ages". Following the completion of this project, Anderson will travel to Norway to record a "noise" band from Oslo called NOXAGT. ...


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Le Range Rover est une gamme d'automobiles tout-terrain/SUV luxueux produits par le constructeur automobile britannique Land Rover depuis 1970. Présenté à la presse en , c'est alors un  d'un nouveau genre, aussi luxueux que baroudeur. Le Range Rover est produit en cinq générations : le Range Rover dit Classic (1970-1996), le Range Rover P38A (1994-2002), le Range Rover L322 (2002-2012), le Range Rover L405 (de 2013 à 2021), et le Range Rover L460 à partir de 2021.

Créée par British Leyland, la marque Land Rover a changé trois fois de propriétaire depuis les années 1990 : passée aux mains BMW de 1994 à 2000, puis
du groupe Ford de 2000 à 2008, Land Rover appartient désormais au constructeur indien Tata Motors depuis 2008.

Historique

De Road Rover à Range Rover
Un premier projet appelé Road Rover avait déjà été imaginé durant les années 1950, mais c'est au milieu des années 1960 que British Leyland, rencontrant des problèmes économiques, et une concurrence de plus en plus accrue venant d'Amérique du Nord et du Japon, sent la nécessité de relancer le projet. Il est donc, à l'aube des années 1970, primordial de concevoir un véhicule entièrement nouveau et surtout beaucoup plus moderne que ceux déjà existants.

Partant d'une feuille vierge en dépit des difficultés économiques, le premier prototype est dévoilé sous le nom de code 100.1 en  et les modèles de pré-production de 1969 furent nommés Velar.

Résumé du Range Rover
Il se décline en cinq générations. Le Range Rover n'a aucun précurseur hormis les prototypes et concepts-cars.

génération - Range Rover Classic (1970 - 1996)

Le Range Rover Classic  est produit de 1970 à 1996. Il est restylé en 1980 et une nouvelle version est introduite en 1992, dotée d'un châssis long. Il est remplacé en 1994 par le Range Rover P38A.

Doté de performances incomparables sur route autant qu'en hors piste, il réussit à s'imposer en créant une nouvelle catégorie de véhicules, les tout-terrains de luxe.  Il est équipé de quatre roues motrices permanentes et d'un moteur essence V8 de  de la marque Rover. Au fil des années de sa production, il sera muni de moteurs améliorés jusqu'à recevoir un V8 de  développant  ainsi qu'une suspension pneumatique gérée électroniquement en remplacement des ressorts hélicoïdaux.

Les différentes carrosseries
 Deux portes : carrosserie standard de la gamme.
 Quatre portes : déclinaison en version longue introduite en 1992.

génération - Range Rover P38A (1994 - 2002)

Le Range Rover P38A est produit de 1994 à 2002. Il succède au Range Rover Classic et il est remplacé en 2002 par le Range Rover L322.

Prévu depuis de longues années, le projet « Pegasus » ne prit forme qu'à la fin de l'année 1989. Il fallait moderniser le vieillissant Range Rover Classic depuis la sortie du Discovery. Mais les indiscrétions et la curiosité des journalistes amenèrent Land Rover à changer le nom du projet, pour quelque chose de moins évocateur.
Le nouveau Range Rover P38 est présenté pour la première fois le .

Son design était entièrement nouveau pour faire face à la concurrence, mais il reprit le châssis des Range Classic longs de  d'empattement. Sa gamme de motorisations est plus étendue : essence  et  V8 d'origine Land Rover, et diesel  6 cylindres fabriqué par BMW.

génération - Range Rover L322 (2002 - 2012)

Le Range Rover L322 a été produit de 2002 à 2012. Il succède au P38A et a été remplacé par le L405. Un dérivé sportif à également été conçu : le Range Rover Sport. Plus petit, il est basé sur le châssis du Land Rover Discovery  génération et a été fabriqué de 2005 à 2013.

Cette troisième génération de Range Rover est développée sous la direction du groupe Ford, à qui appartenait également Land Rover lors de sa conception, contrairement au modèle précédent qui avait été conçu sous la direction du groupe BMW.

génération - Range Rover L405 (2012 - 2021)

Le Range Rover L405 est produit de 2012 à 2021. En 2017, il reçoit un restylage léger et une version hybride rechargeable dotée d'un moteur essence, en plus des versions essence et diesel. Il succède au L322 et sera remplacé en 2022 par une nouvelle génération de Range Rover.

Les différentes carrosseries
 Range Rover L405 : carrosserie standard de la gamme.
 Range Rover L405 SV Coupé : déclinaison en version 2 portes introduite en 2018 et stoppée en .
 Range Rover L405 long wheelbase : déclinaison en version longue introduite en ?.

génération - Range Rover L460 (2021 - ...)

Le Range Rover L460, cinquième génération de Range Rover, est présenté le  au Royal Opera House de Londres.

Motorisations
Essence
 6-cylindres en ligne 3.0 de 360 ou 400 ch.
 V8 4.4 d'origine BMW de 530 ch.

Diesel
 6-cylindres en ligne 3.0 de 250, 300 ou 350 ch.

Hybride rechargeable
 6-cylindres en ligne 3.0 de 440/510 ch.

Autres modèles

Land Rover Range Rover Sport

En 2005, un nouveau modèle de Range Rover, appelé Range Rover Sport, fait son apparition. Ce modèle est commercialisé parallèlement à la troisième génération. Plus petit, il est basé sur un châssis de Discovery . Le second opus sorti en 2013 repose cette fois sur la plate-forme du Range Rover Series IV.

Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

Pour l'année 2010, Range Rover développe sa gamme avec le modèle Evoque. La spécificité de ce Range Rover est que l'acheteur peut personnaliser son véhicule en termes de couleurs mais aussi en termes d'options du véhicule. On retrouve des innovations telles que la transmission automatique à  qui améliore la conduite et réduit la consommation mais aussi un système permettant d'économiser du carburant : le système active driveline qui enclenche les  du véhicule selon la programmation. De plus, l'aide au stationnement intelligent a été intégrée au véhicule. En 2015, le SUV a subi un relooking.

Land Rover Range Rover Velar

Quatrième membre de la famille Range Rover au sein de la marque Land Rover, le Range Rover Velar mesure 4,80 m de long et s'intercale entre les Range Rover Evoque et Sport. Il a été présenté au Salon de Genève 2017. Son nom évoque les premiers prototypes du Range Rover, nommés Velar également.

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Liens externes
 Le Range Rover sur ActuAuto.

Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover
Véhicule à transmission intégrale
Véhicule tout-terrain


text:
Paper $31.00 ISBN: 9780226055060 Published April 2013
Cloth $52.00 ISBN: 9780226559339 Published December 2011
E-book $10.00 to $31.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226559322 Published December 2011 Also Available From
E-book Retailers: Amazon Kindle Apple iBooks B&N Nook Chegg Google Play Kno Kobo Library Vendors: ebrary EBSCO UPSO (University Press Scholarship Online)
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Licensing from a Book
Machine Art, 1934
Jennifer Jane Marshall
Kent L. Brintnall
Between Raphael and Galileo
Alexander Marr
Slaves Waiting for Sale
Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade
Maurie D. McInnis
280 pages | 12 color plates, 125 halftones | 7 x 10 | © 2011
E-book $10.00 to $31.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226559322 Published December 2011
In 1853, Eyre Crowe, a young British artist, visited a slave auction in Richmond, Virginia. Harrowed by what he witnessed, he captured the scene in sketches that he would later develop into a series of illustrations and paintings, including the culminating painting, Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia.
This innovative book uses Crowe's paintings to explore the texture of the slave trade in Richmond, Charleston, and New Orleans, the evolving iconography of abolitionist art, and the role of visual culture in the transatlantic world of abolitionism. Tracing Crowe's trajectory from Richmond across the American South and back to London—where his paintings were exhibited just a few weeks after the start of the Civil War—Maurie D. McInnis illuminates not only how his abolitionist art was inspired and made, but also how it influenced the international public's grasp of slavery in America. With almost 140 illustrations, Slaves Waiting for Sale brings a fresh perspective to the American slave trade and abolitionism as we enter the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
Introduction: Waiting
With Thackeray in America
Representing the Slave Trade
Mapping Richmond's Slave Trade in 1853
The Red Flag
Dressed for Sale
Exhibiting the Slave Trade in England
Remembering the Slave Trade
E. B. Robertson, University of California, Santa Barbara | E.B. Robertson, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Slaves Waiting for Sale is a stupendous contribution to the field of nineteenth-century racial representation. It is canny in its structure, astonishing in the depth of its research, and immensely sophisticated in the deployment of research details—all in the service of a deeply rewarding argument. Using Crowe's painting as the backbone of the book is very smart, and the sequence of chapters, as McInnis charts the landscape of slavery from Richmond to Charleston to New Orleans, and the resulting visual representation of that landscape, is engrossing. It's a book that will speak to readers in many different fields."
William W. Freehling, author of Road to Disunion
"With this book, Maurie McInnis consolidates the reputation, earned in her prizewinning book about Charleston antebellum architecture, as a forerunner in the integration of art and broader cultural studies. This latest brilliant integration brings a new dimension to our understanding of American slavery."
Bernard L. Herman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
"Slaves Waiting for Sale epitomizes the best of scholarship. Beautifully crafted, compellingly argued, and powerfully original, this book guides us through Crowe's painting in a far-reaching narrative that cuts across the antebellum South and transatlantic debates over the human cost and deeply contested ideologies of slavery. Her analysis brings to bear the evidence of works by other artists, archaeological excavations, literature, and personal accounts in a reading of Crowe's work and its array of contexts that is sophisticated, accessible, and truly exemplary."
Edward L. Ayers, University of Richmond
"This book reveals an iconic work of art in remarkable depth and breadth. With ingenious research and imaginative writing, Maurie McInnis unites places and facets of life too seldom joined. No one will be able to see the slave trade—or nineteenth-century America and England, for that matter—in the same way after reading this powerful book."
Washington Independent Review of Books
"This is an attractive book about an unattractive subject. Author Maurie D. McInnis . . . has produced a splendid art book that looks at the ugly face of slavery in the antebellum south."
Visual Studies
"A wealth of information for visual studies and social science scholars looking for a comprehensive overview of the visual language of slavery and abolition."
Virginia Magazine
"McInnis takes the reader deep into the grim but lucrative workings of antebellum slave commerce through careful study of visual and material culture contextualized by meticulously gathered period descriptions, public records, statistics, photographs, and maps. . . . [Her] exemplary book makes a significant contribution to new scholarship and initiatives that document and share this unvarnished history."
Marcus Wood | Slavery & Abolition
"Maurie McInnis has produced a most significant and sustained piece of work that takes up several neglected aspects of the visual archive generated around the North American slave–sale systems in the mid-nineteenth century. In its methodological and formal diversity, the work is nothing short of a triumph. . . . "McInnis's close reading of Eyre Crowe's remarkable masterpiece is a triumphant proof of the imaginative realignments that this book insists upon. This author's insights will be working their way through slavery studies for many years to come. I think Maurie McInnis for producing this morally centered and precisely written contribution to the semiotic study of slave sales."
Journal of American History
"As we follow Crowe to the slave auctions he sketched, McInnis vividly reconstructs the geographies and everyday life of the cities that supported the slave trade and that Crowe tried to navigate for his eyewitness accounts. She also . . . thoughtfully compares the slave trade in Charleston and New Orleans, where auctions were staged theatrically in hotels and on city streets, with its less conspicuous, though no less integral, presence in Richmond."
Journal of American Studies
"Chronicling the thematic, topical and aesthetic developments in depictions of transatlantic and domestic slave trading, selling and auctioning, Slaves Waiting for Sale provides a nuanced examination of the nexus of visual culture and politics on the eve of the Civil War. . . . Its showcase of new and diverse primary source material, fashioned into a compelling case for the centralization of art in the study of the American slave trade, asserts Maurie D. McInnis's [book] as a critical and necessary contribution to current scholarship on American slavery."
"Slaves Waiting for Sale is a welcomed addition to the visual portrait of slavery seen through the vision of nineteenth-century artists and a study that scholars of the domestic slave trade will want to read."
National Museum of American Art: Charles C. Eldredge Prize
Library of Virginia: Library of Virginia Literary Awards
View Recent Awards page for more award winning books.
Art: American Art
History: American History
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sorry, slight misunderstanding. Yes, I would love to help you translating it. Do I find the original English version under your home dir on master.debian as well?
What do you want to have done first? Is there anybody else working on it? How do we ensure that not more than one person is working on the same part at the same time? Who owns the Englisch document? Is it copyleft?
Looking forward to work on this with you (or anybody else who is involved).


Today we travel to Australia to discover the most amazing play houses made from recycled fruit and vegetable crates by Melbourne based Castle & Cubby.
If you dream of having a children's playhouse in your backyard, I think you are going to love this selection of fun cubbies and accesories.
They are beautiful, natural, authentic, rustic and charming houses.
Due to the nature of recycled material (completely safe for kids) every cubby is unique with it's stamps, knots, dents, knocks and patina, so no two are ever the same.
I love that all the houses are full of character.
In the meantime, I will continue to dream with long beach days and this cute coffee shop!


City & County of Honolulu - Department of Transportation Services is seeking an experienced Safety & Security Management professional to oversee rail transit assets & operations. See below for additional information about the position and minimum education and experience requirements.
Under the general supervision of the Rail Branch Chief, administers, plans, directs, manages and oversees the safety and security of rail assets and operations. Develops and executes safety and security management plans, oversees and manages the execution of complex rail security and safety regulatory compliance projects; coordinates assigned activities with other departments and outside agencies; utilizes best practices in safety, security, environmental compliance, engineering, maintenance, project management, and asset management activities to ensure assigned assets efficiently support revenue service. Provides highly responsible, complex administrative and technical support; oversees contractors engaged to execute complex technical safety and security projects; accountable for accomplishing departmental goals and objectives and for furthering Department of Transportation Services' (DTS) goals and objectives within general policy guidelines.
Equivalent to graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with major in planning, architecture, engineering, occupational safety and health or closely related field of study.
Four years of professional experience at the fully independent level, in a transit environment involving primary responsibility for the development, implementation, administration, contractor oversight, and promotion of safety and security activities, of which one year shall have been in a supervisory capacity.


The Disney XD animated series Star Wars Rebels has gotten very little attention on this blog, aside from a post in late January about the show's growing relevancy to the Star Wars universe. Last night's Season 2 finale, "Twilight of the Apprentice," didn't just provide some truly exciting moments that would drop the jaw of any Star Wars fan; it also finally proved that Rebels can reach the same storytelling heights of its beloved predecessor, The Clone Wars.
The hour-long episode involves Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, young trainee Ezra Bridger, and Clone Wars vet Ahsoka Tano traveling to the forbidden planet of Malachor to learn more about the Sith...and hopefully find a way to defeat them. Malachor first appeared in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and though the planet's original history doesn't match up completely with what Rebels shows us, both versions were the site of a major Jedi-Sith conflict. Its presence in Rebels suggests that other Expanded Universe elements could be brought into the new Star Wars canon, which is a very exciting prospect to anyone who was frustrated by the de-canonization of their favorite characters.
The three heroes fall into Malachor's vast subterranean ruins, where they discover scorched corpses and a pyramidal Sith temple. The episode's first eyebrow-raising moment comes when Ezra picks up a lightsaber off the ground and ignites its blade...along with two smaller crossguard blades. It promptly malfunctions and will probably be forgotten for the rest of the series, but you wouldn't expect Rebels to feature such a substantial connection to the origins of Kylo Ren's controversial weapon. The Force Awakens' visual dictionary even states that Kylo's design is an ancient one that dates back to the Great Scourge of Malachor.
After being separated from his friends by a Jedi-hunting Inquisitor, Ezra quickly meets a hooded, seemingly-decrepit man with valuable information about the temple. It's Darth Maul, and it would have been a nicer surprise if the mid-season trailer hadn't spoiled Maul's return, but you can understand why Rebels' marketing team would want to broadcast that one of the greatest Star Wars villains would be coming back.
Maul proves that he's trustworthy and encourages Ezra to harness the full potential of his powers as they work together to enter the temple and grab the holocron inside. They exit and find Ahsoka and Kanan facing three Inquisitors: the Seventh Sister, the Fifth Brother, and the newly-introduced Eighth Brother. Though the two never met in The Clone Wars, Ahsoka immediately recognizes Maul as a sinister threat, undoubtedly thanks to her friendship with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul lets his "actions speak louder than words" by shedding his cloak, igniting a double-bladed lightsaber (which he first introduced to the Star Wars universe, of course) and leaping into battle against the Inquisitors alongside Ahsoka and Kanan.
The Inquisitors flee. Maul explains that he's an enemy of the Sith, too, and Darth Vader must be on his way to destroy them all. He claims that the secrets of the holocron will be unlocked if they place it in an obelisk at the top of the temple. Ezra vouches for him, and Ahsoka and Kanan reluctantly agree to work with him. They split up to make their way up the temple, killing the Inquisitors in the process and exhibiting a level of violence that Rebels has mostly shied away from. Disney might be getting some angry calls from parents about the implied decapitations and impalements, but it's certainly worth it if the show is abandoning its overly kid-friendly tone.
Maul and Ahsoka duel and he reveals that Ezra is actually activating a "battle station" that will cause untold death. Kanan dons a mask of one of the Jedi Temple guards and uses Daredevil-like senses to hurl Maul off the cliff. Meanwhile, Ezra discovers the true nature of the temple as it emits crackling lightning and a purple beam straight into the sky. Darth Vader arrives with a typical, Vader-y dramatic entrance, standing on top of his signature TIE Advanced. Ahsoka comes to Ezra's rescue, and we finally have the moment we've been waiting for: Anakin and Ahsoka, master and apprentice, reunited.
But Ahsoka is still doubtful that her good-hearted, honorable friend is the man behind Vader's mask. He tells her, "Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him." Vader's future grandson utters something very similar to this in The Force Awakens, making this another great example of how the Rebels writers can incorporate references to the Sequel Trilogy. Ahsoka angrily suggests that she will avenge her master, and when Vader points out that revenge is against the Jedi way, Ahsoka replies with a truly awesome – if not predictable – line: "I am no Jedi."
Ahsoka has some serious moves but it isn't long before the Sith Lord defeats her and Force-pushes her off the cliff. Ezra and Kanan together pull the the holocron out of the obelisk, causing the temple to begin collapsing. Vader prevents their escape and tries to claim the holocron for his own purposes, but Ahsoka returns and slashes part of Vader's helmet. She finally recognizes him as her old master.
"I won't leave you, not this time," Ahsoka says, referencing the heartbreaking Clone Wars Season 5 finale, in which she left the Jedi Order and abandoned her master. Through his damaged helmet, Vader now speaks not with the familiar bass of legend James Earl Jones, but with the same voice as brave, passionate Clone Wars-era Anakin (Matt Lanter): "Then you will die." It emphasizes the tragic truth that the man who taught Ahsoka so much is now her intended murderer. Kanan and Ezra are forced to leave her as the temple explodes in a big ball of purple energy.
The episode's final moments don't reduce the emotional impact. Kanan and Ezra return to their friends at the rebel base, and we see Captain Rex look crestfallen as he realizes that his old friend didn't make it. An unsurprisingly still-alive Maul leaves Malachor on one Inquisitor's TIEs, leaving the door wide open for yet another return.
Vader limps out of the ruins of the temple, while an equally-wounded Ahsoka seems to be hobbling back inside, confirming that she's alive, even if she probably won't be returning to the series immediately. The core rebel team appears to mourn her presumed death, while Kanan sports a new blindfold and Ezra uses the Force to open the Sith holocron, suggesting that Maul succeeded in encouraging the darkness within him.
"Twilight of the Apprentice" brought us multiple heavy moments, some semi-closure for the Anakin-Ahsoka relationship, and more than enough cliffhangers to get us excited for Season 3. But its biggest accomplishment is that for the first time in the series' history, Rebels has fulfilled what any Star Wars TV show should be: an expansion of the universe that features major connections to the films, but also gives us plenty of originality and new and lovable characters. Not to mention that it's been beautifully tying up loose ends left by The Clone Wars – or at least, letting those threads spin again.
What did you think of "Twilight of the Apprentice"? What are you hoping for in Season 3? Tell me in the comments, and may the Force be with you all.
The Force Awakens will be available on DVD and Blu-ray in just a few weeks (April 5th, to be specific), and today, Entertainment Weekly provided an exclusive look at the seven deleted scenes that we'll finally be able to watch.
We already got a sneak peek of this scene in the in-home trailer, but this gives us another look at Kylo with the Millennium Falcon, presumably leaving it after searching its interior with a squad of snowtroopers. There's something tragic about seeing this lost soul stand next to the symbol of the family that he continually rejects.
This is an extension of the Jakku village attack at the beginning of the film. In the original film, we saw Captain Phasma direct her troopers to execute the captured villagers, and we saw FN-2187's refusal to do so, but this scene shows him discovering a female villager hiding in the shadows of a building, raising his blaster, and ultimately deciding to let her go. (Though with all the other stormtroopers patrolling around, she'd probably end up dead anyway.) This would continue to characterize Finn as a gentle, merciful man before we even see his face.
A much earlier introduction for Leia in the film, as she receives a distress call from BB-8 about the Jakku village attack.
A scene called "X-Wings Prepare for Lightspeed", in which Poe Dameron leads his squadron to their attack on Starkiller Base.
Rey and Finn engaging in a snowspeeder chase on Starkiler Base, in-between Han Solo's death and their duels with Kylo.
Rey watching over Finn's wounded body as she gets an update from Dr. Kalonia (Downton Abbey star Harriet Walter), who we previously saw tending to Chewbacca earler in the film.
Which scene are you looking forward to the most? Tell me in the comments or tweet to @SithObserver, and may the Force be with you all.
What's Happening on the 'Episode VIII' Dubrovnik Set?
These neon lights and controlled panels were the first big signs that something special is happening in Dubrovnik. The city's architecture is most reminiscent of Naboo than any other place in the Star Wars universe, but if Episode VIII is like The Force Awakens, it'll stray away from the planets of the Prequels. Regardless, if there's anything that the set photos tell us for sure, it's that this will be a pretty fancy place in the film...though that doesn't mean our beloved heroes won't find trouble.
Here's some of the extras dressed like they're going to the opera, complete with suits, dresses, and scary alien masks. Even if this isn't Naboo, the textures and designs of this city are more similar to the glossy, clean tones of the Prequels (Coruscant, Kamino) than the rough, unforgiving terrains of the Original Trilogy and The Force Awakens (Tatooine, Hoth, Jakku). Rumor has it that in the context of the film, our heroes visit this planet to inform Lando Calrissian of his old friend Han Solo's death.
This video isn't very clear, but you can see an unknown figure being thrown through the air. This indicates that they got hit by a small explosion, or (more excitingly) a Force push. The latter would confirm that Luke, Rey, and/or Kylo Ren are present in this city. Daisy Ridley stated that she wouldn't be filming in Dubrovnik, but it appears that her stunt double will be there to shoot some action scenes and Ridley will film the close-ups in identical sets at Pinewood Studios.
There's no doubt that one of the figures riding on the back of this beast is John Boyega (or rather, his stand-in since the actor himself was doing charity in London this week), but what about the other woman? The obvious answer is Ridley's stunt double, but Making Star Wars reports that it's actually Kelly Marie Tran. Her character could be introduced as a guide of sorts who takes Finn through the city on this domesticated animal.
What are your thoughts and theories about these photos? Where do you want Episode VIII to film next? Tell me in the comments or tweet to @sithobserver, and may the Force be with you.
The footage shows a TIE fighter flying past AT-ATs, through the clouds, and towards the looming shape of the Death Star, before the title card runs. This closely resembles both the description of the footage and the leaked teaser from Celebration V, so we can assume that it's legit. The official teaser will be more exciting, showing us the film's protagonists, at least one type of cool new stormtrooper, and maybe even Darth Vader himself.
The text at the top of the video appears to be the name of the file, reading "ROGUE1_BvS_1_1.mxf." This would suggest that the first teaser trailer for Rogue One will be coming with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (often abbreviated as "BvS") on March 25th. This makes sense, considering the recent reports that multiple finished trailers are currently making the rounds at Disney before release. What are you hoping for in the trailer? Tell me in the comments or tweet to @SithObserver, and may the Force be with you all.
After watching The Force Awakens a dozen times in theaters, you were probably wondering when you could buy it on DVD and save it for a Rey-ny day. (Sorry for that pun.) Today it was announced that the film will be available on Digital HD on April 1st, and Blu-ray and DVD on April 5th.
But most importantly, the trailer shows a glimpse of one of the deleted scenes that I discussed back in January: Kylo and several snowtroopers boarding the Millennium Falcon. The full extent of this scene will show Kylo sitting in the cockpit of his father's ship and having an emotional moment.
Along with the deleted scenes, the Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will come with a variety of bonus features, including lots of behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive interviews with the cast and filmmakers. Are you looking forward to watching The Force Awakens in your home? Tell me in the comments or tweet to @SithObserver, and may the Force be with you.


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