text:
\section{Introduction}

Gravitational wave astronomy will open a new observational window on
the universe.  Since large masses concentrated in small volumes and
moving at high velocities generate the strongest and therefore most
readily detectable waves, the final coalescence of black-hole binaries
is expected to be one of the strongest sources. The opening of the
full electromagnetic spectrum to astronomical observation during the
last century greatly expanded our understanding of the cosmos.  In
this new century, observations across the gravitational wave spectrum
will provide a wealth of new knowledge, including accurate
measurements of binary black-hole masses and spins.

The high frequency part of the gravitational wave spectrum, $\sim
10{\rm Hz} \lesssim f \lesssim 10^3{\rm Hz}$, is being opened today
through the pioneering efforts of first-generation ground-based
interferometers such as LIGO, currently operating at design
sensitivity.  Such instruments can detect gravitational waves from
coalescing stellar-mass ($M \lesssim 10^{2}M_{\odot}$) and
intermediate-mass ($10^{2}M_{\odot} \lesssim M \lesssim
10^{3}M_{\odot}$) black-hole binaries.  While detections from this
first generation of detectors are likely to be rare, the advanced LIGO
(adLIGO) upgrade may detect the coalescence of several stellar-mass
and tens of intermediate-mass black-hole binaries per year. Other
high-frequency sources include binary neutron star coalescences,
supernovae, and rotating neutron stars.

The low frequency gravitational wave window, $3\times 10^{-5}{\rm Hz}
\lesssim f \lesssim 1{\rm Hz}$, is especially rich in astrophysical
sources and will be opened by the space-based LISA detector, currently
in the formulation stage.  LISA will be sensitive to the coalescence
of massive black-hole binaries with total masses in the range
$10^4M_{\odot} \lesssim M \lesssim 10^7M_{\odot}$ to large redshifts
$z \gtrsim 10$ at relatively high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and
may detect 10 or more such events per year.  Using such observations,
the black-hole masses, spins and luminosity distances can be
determined to very good precision, with errors $< 1\%$ in some cases
\citep{Lang:2006bz}. In addition, LISA will detect gravitational waves
from the inspiral of compact stars into central massive black holes
out to $z \sim 1$, as well as tens of thousands of compact binaries in
the Galaxy.

The actual merger of two comparable-mass black holes that plunge
together and form a common event horizon takes place in the
strong-field dynamical regime of general relativity.  For many years,
we were unable to calculate the expected waveforms from these very
energetic events due to severe problems with the large scale computer
codes needed to simulate the mergers. Recently, however, a series of
stunning breakthroughs has occurred in numerical relativity, resulting
in stable, robust, and accurate simulations of black-hole mergers as
well as applications to astrophysics.  In Sec.~\ref{sec:calc} we
review these developments and present examples of the resulting
gravitational waveforms.  Applications of these signals to issues in
gravitational wave observations are discussed in Sec.~\ref{sec:obs}.
When the merging black holes have unequal masses, or unequal or
unaligned spins, the final remnant black hole suffers a recoil; recent
progress in calculating these ``kicks'' and their applications to
astrophysics are presented in Sec.~\ref{sec:kicks}.  We conclude with
a summary in Sec.~\ref{sec:outlook}.

\section{Calculating black-hole binary coalescence}\label{sec:calc}

The final coalescence of a black-hole binary is driven by
gravitational wave emission, and proceeds in three stages: an
adiabatic inspiral, a dynamical merger, and a final ringdown
\citep{Flanagan97a}.  During the inspiral, the black holes are
well-separated and can be approximated as point particles.  The black
holes spiral together on quasicircular trajectories, and the resulting
gravitational waveforms are {\em chirps}, i.e.\ sinusoids that
increase in both frequency and amplitude as the black holes get closer
together. The inspiral can be treated analytically using the
post-Newtonian (PN) approach, which is an expansion in $v/c$, where
$v$ is the characteristic orbital velocity (see \cite{Blanchet06} for
a review of PN results).  The inspiral is followed by a dynamical
merger in which the black holes plunge together to form a highly
distorted single black hole, producing a powerful burst of
gravitational radiation.  Since the merger stage occurs in the regime
of very strong gravity, a full understanding of this process requires
numerical relativity simulations of the Einstein equations.  After
merger, the remnant black hole then settles down, evolving towards a
quiescent Kerr state by shedding its nonaxisymmetric modes as
gravitational waves.  The late part of this ringdown stage can be
treated analytically using black-hole perturbation theory, and the
resulting gravitational waveforms are superpositions of exponentially
damped sinusoids of constant frequency \citep{Leaver85,Echeverria89}.

In numerical relativity, the full set of Einstein's equations are
solved on a computer in the dynamical, nonlinear regime.  This is
typically accomplished by slicing 4-D spacetime into a stack of 3-D
spacelike hypersufaces, each labeled by time $t$
\citep{Arnowitt62,Misner73}.  The Einstein equations split into two
sets.  The constraints give a set of relationships that must hold on
each slice and in particular constrain the initial data for a
black-hole binary simulation.  This data is then propagated forward in
time using the evolution equations.  Four freely-specifiable
coordinate, or gauge, conditions give the development of the spatial
and temporal coordinates during the evolution.

Simulating the merger of a black-hole binary using numerical
relativity has proved to be very challenging.  The first attempt to
evolve a head-on collision in 2-D axisymmetry dates back to 1964
\citep{Hahn64}.  In the mid-1970s, the head-on collision of two equal
mass, nonspinning black holes was first simulated successfully, along
with the extraction of some information about the gravitational
radiation \citep{Smarr76,Smarr77,Smarr79}. In the 1990s, fully 3-D
numerical relativity codes were developed and used to evolve grazing
collisions of black holes \citep{Bruegmann97,Brandt00,Alcubierre00b}.
However, the codes were plagued by a host of instabilities that caused
them to crash before any significant portion of a black-hole binary
orbit could be evolved.  For many years, progress was slow and
incremental.

Recently, a series of dramatic developments has led to major progress
in black-hole binary simulations across a broad front.  The first
complete orbit of a black-hole binary was achieved in 2004
\citep{Bruegmann:2003aw}.  This was followed by the first full
simulation of a black-hole binary through an orbit, plunge, merger and
ringdown in 2005 \citep{Pretorius:2005gq}.  In late 2005, the
development of new coordinate conditions produced a breakthrough in
the ability to carry out accurate and stable long-term evolutions of
black-hole binaries
\citep{Campanelli:2005dd,Baker:2005vv,vanMeter:2006vi}.  These novel
but simple ``moving puncture'' techniques proved highly effective.
They were quickly adopted by a broad segment of the numerical
relativity community, leading to stunning advances in black-hole
binary modeling, starting with evolutions of equal mass, nonspinning
black holes and moving quickly to include unequal masses and spins;
(see, \eg, \cite{Campanelli:2006gf,Baker:2006yw,Campanelli:2006uy,
  Gonzalez:2006md,Baker:2006kr,Herrmann:2006ks,Herrmann:2007ac,
  Campanelli:2007ew,Campanelli:2007cg,Koppitz:2007ev,Gonzalez:2007hi,
  Baker:2007gi,Tichy:2007hk}).

The most rapid advances in modeling black-hole binary coalescences
cover the previously least understood part of the gravitational
waveform, i.e.\ the final few cycles of radiation generated from near
the ``innermost stable circular orbit'' (ISCO) and afterward, which we
call the ``merger-ringdown''.  There is already considerable progress
toward a full understanding of this important ``burst'' portion of the
waveform, through which the frequency sweeps by a factor of $\sim 3$
up to ringdown and during which the gravitational wave luminosity is
$\sim 10^{23}L_{\odot}$, more than the luminosity of the combined
starlight in the visible universe.

A particularly significant development was the demonstration of
initial-data-indepen\-dence of merger-ringdown waveforms for
equal-mass, nonspinning black holes \citep{Baker:2006yw}, as
summarized in Fig.~\ref{fig:waves}.
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=13.8cm,clip=true,angle=0]{Wavehist.eps}
\caption{Gravitational waveforms are shown for four simulations of
  equal mass nonspinning black-hole binaries with successively wider
  initial separations.  Here, $d_i$ is the initial coordinate
  separation of the black-hole centers (``punctures''). All waveforms
  have been aligned so that the moment of maximum radiation amplitude
  occurs at $t = 0$ (phase is also set to zero at $t = 0$).  The upper
  panel shows the full extent of all the runs, while the lower panel
  shows the final merger-ringdown burst.  }
\label{fig:waves}
\end{figure}
Results from four runs with successively larger initial separations
are shown; the waveforms have been aligned so that the moment of peak
radiation amplitude in each simulation occurs at time $t=0$.  Here we
show the gravitational wave strain from the dominant ($l=2$, $m=2$)
mode; this represents an observation made on the equatorial plane of
the system, where only a single polarization component contributes to
the measured strain. The upper panel of Fig.~\ref{fig:waves} shows the
full simulation waveforms, while the lower panel focuses on the final
merger-ringdown burst.  Note that here and elsewhere in this paper, we
use \emph{geometrical units}, $G = c = 1$, to measure time, distance
and mass in the same units.  In particular, one solar mass $M_{\odot}$
is equivalent to $\sim 5 \times 10^{-6}{\rm sec}$, or $\sim 1.5 {\rm
  km}$.\footnote{Since the simulation results scale with the masses of
  the black holes, they are equally applicable to LISA and
  ground-based detectors.}  In Fig.~\ref{fig:waves}, our timescale is
the final mass $m_f$, of the post-merger hole; this will be less than
the initial total binary mass $M$ because of gravitational radiation.
In the shortest run (solid line), the black holes are placed on
initial orbits close to the ISCO and undergo a brief plunge followed
by a merger and ringdown \citep{Baker:2005vv}. At the next-largest
initial separation (dashed line), the black holes complete $\sim 1.8$
orbits before merging \citep{Baker:2006yw}.  The waveforms from the
two runs with successively larger initial separations (dot-dashed and
dotted lines, respectively) then lock on to the merger-ringdown part
of this shorter (dashed) run.  In fact, the waveforms from the three
longer simulations show very strong agreement for $t \gtrsim
-50\,m_f$, with differences among these waveforms $\lesssim 1\%$ in
this regime.

Today, there is consensus that the merger of equal-mass, nonspinning
black holes produces a final Kerr black hole with spin $a/m_f \sim
0.7$, and that the amount of energy radiated in the form of
gravitational waves, starting with the final few orbits and proceeding
through the plunge, merger and ringdown, is $E_{\rm rad} = M - m_f
\sim 0.04M$
\citep{Pretorius:2005gq,Campanelli:2005dd,Baker:2005vv,Campanelli:2006gf,Baker:2006yw};
see \cite{Centrella:2006it} for a review.  There is also agreement on
the overall simple shape of the waveforms shown in
Fig.~\ref{fig:waves}, and detailed comparison of results among
numerical relativity groups has already begun \citep{Baker:comp}.
Parameter-space exploration of the merger-ringdown burst, using
simulations with various mass ratios
\citep{Herrmann:2006ks,Baker:2006vn,Gonzalez:2006md} and spins
\citep{Campanelli:2006uy,Campanelli:2006fg}, is now underway.  The
next step is to push this frontier to increasingly complex mass-ratio
and spin-orientation combinations, and to establish initial-data
independence across these parameters.

Simulations starting in the late-inspiral regime and covering more
than a few orbits prior to merger are more challenging than shorter
merger-ringdown evolutions \citep{Baker:2006kr}.  Such long
simulations have stronger requirements for numerical stability and
place greater demands on computational resources.  In addition, better
accuracy is needed to control the accumulation of phase error; this in
turn constrains the numerical error that can be tolerated in the rate
of energy loss through gravitational radiation reaction, which governs
the inspiral.

So far, the longest simulations have been carried out for equal-mass,
nonspinning black-hole binaries, starting at relatively wide
separations.  The two longest runs shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:waves}
undergo $\sim 4.2$ \citep{Baker:2006yw} and $\sim 7$ orbits
\citep{Baker:2006kr}, respectively, prior to merger\footnote{For these
  quadrupolar waves, the gravitational wave and orbital frequencies
  are related by $f = 2 f_{\rm orb}$.}  and demonstrate progress in
long simulations (see also \cite{Husa:2007hp}).  We expect that
astrophysical black-hole binaries in the late inspiral regime will
follow nearly circular orbits, since any initial eccentricity would
have been radiated away early in their evolution. However, in the
first long black-hole binary simulations, the eccentricity of the
initial orbits was not very well controlled; in particular, the early
part of the waveform shown by the dot-dashed line shows evidence of
eccentricity which resulted from the initial data specification.  The
dotted curve shows more recent results, which start with very small
eccentricity $\epsilon < 0.01$ (see also
\cite{Pfeiffer:2007yz,Husa:2007rh}).  Such long waveforms make it
possible to compare the results of numerical relativity simulations of
black-hole binaries with post-Newtonian calculations in the
late-inspiral regime \citep{Buonanno:2006ui,
  Baker:2006ha,Hannam:2007ik}, demonstrating remarkable agreement.

\section{Observing Black-Hole Binary mergers}\label{sec:obs}

The final moments of a black-hole binary merger produce the most
intense radiation generated through the strongest gravitational
dynamics. The resulting waveforms are obviously an important part of
the observable gravitational wave signature for black-hole binary
events.  Before these recent advances in numerical relativity,
however, little was confidently known about these signals, so that
observational analyses of gravitational wave data could only rely on
generic ``unmodeled burst'' techniques \citep{Abbott:2007wu} rather
than more effective matched-filtering techniques, which require
detailed knowledge of the expected signals.  Consequently the quality
of scientific information which could be expected from merger
observations has, to date, necessarily been significantly discounted
in planning observational work.

Just how much more we can learn from observing the final stages of
black-hole binary mergers with full knowledge of the waveforms, and
how best to apply this knowledge in gravitational wave data analysis,
are still largely unanswered questions, which the gravitational wave
community is only beginning to address.  We can get some rough
impressions of the observational significance of black-hole binary
mergers from this new perspective by considering the SNR of the full
waveforms based on matched-filtering analysis of gravitational wave
data \citep{Flanagan97a}.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\leavevmode
\includegraphics*[scale=.35, angle=0]{AdvLIGOSNRcontour.eps}
\caption{Contours of SNR for observations of black-hole binaries with
  adLIGO, showing mass, redshift, and luminosity-distance dependence.
}
\label{fig:adLIGOSNRcontour}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
Estimating the full waveforms by stitching together the most accurate
PN model with a numerical simulation of the last several cycles, we
have calculated the SNR for equal-mass nonspinning binaries
\citep{Baker:2006kr}.  Fig.~\ref{fig:adLIGOSNRcontour} shows the
contours of SNR as functions of redshift $z$ and total binary mass $M$
for the ground-based adLIGO detector, which will be sensitive in the
frequency range $14Hz \lesssim f \lesssim 10^3$Hz. AdLIGO is a planned
upgrade of the initial LIGO detectors that will increase the
sensitivity by roughly an order of magnitude across the\ frequency
band. In addition, adLIGO can be tuned to optimize its sensitivity for
different sources.  To produce Fig.~\ref{fig:adLIGOSNRcontour} we used
the wide-band tuning typically associated with burst sources, due to
its greater sensitivity at higher frequencies, where the merger
portion from many sources is predicted to occur \citep{DHSCom}. This
gives an improved SNR for most black-hole masses compared to tunings
that were optimized for only the early inspiral portion of the
coalescence.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\leavevmode
\includegraphics*[scale=.35, angle=0]{LISASNRcontour.eps}
\caption{Contours of LISA SNR with mass, redshift, and
  luminosity-distance dependence.  Note that black-hole binaries with
  masses $M > 10^7 M_{\odot}$ may not coalesce within a Hubble time
  \citep{Milosavljevic:2002bn}.}
\label{fig:LISASNRcontour}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
In Fig.~\ref{fig:LISASNRcontour} we plot contours of SNR for LISA
observations, showing that LISA can observe massive black-hole
binaries at high SNR throughout the observable universe.  LISA is most
sensitive to systems with masses in the range $10^5 M_{\odot} \leq M
\leq 10^7 M_{\odot}$, coinciding with the mass range in which models
of massive black-hole binaries predict coalescence within a Hubble
time \citep{Milosavljevic:2002bn} and event rates for LISA of at least
several per year \citep{Sesana:2004gf}.

In Fig.~\ref{fig:LISAresponse} we plot a simulated LISA data stream
containing a black-hole binary signal as well as noise from the
interferometer and the white dwarf confusion noise caused from the
unresolvable number of background white dwarf binaries.  This is an
example of a typical, non-optimal case in order to demonstrate the
relative strength that these signals will generally have.  Here we
show two $4 \times 10^5 M_{\odot}$ black holes at redshift $z = 10$,
inclination $\iota = \pi/2$, polarization angle $\psi = 0$, ecliptic
latitude $\beta = 0$, and ecliptic longitude $\lambda = \pi$.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\leavevmode
\includegraphics*[scale=.35, angle=0]{lisadata_SMALL.eps}
\caption{Simulated LISA data stream showing LISA's response to a
  system of two equal-mass black holes. Specifically, the pseudo-A
  observable is shown for the case of two $4 \times 10^5 M_{\odot}$
  black holes at redshift $z = 10$, inclination $\iota = \pi/2$,
  polarization angle $\psi = 0$, ecliptic latitude $\beta = 0$, and
  ecliptic longitude $\lambda = \pi$.  The pseudo-A, E, and T
  observables are a set of linearly independent combinations of the
  Michelson unequal arm X, Y, and Z observables at TDI 1.5
  \citep{Shaddock:2003dj}, and are therefore useful in data analysis.
  The inset shows a time span of $4 \times 10^4$ seconds encompassing
  the time span of the main figure, the main figure being an
  enlargement of the dash-boxed region of the inset. }
\label{fig:LISAresponse}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
So far we have restricted our consideration to the example of
equal-mass nonspinning black-hole binary mergers.  More detailed
considerations of black-hole binary observations must take into
account the full parameter space of these systems, which, from the
point of view of general relativity, are described by seven
parameters, corresponding to the black-hole mass-ratio $q \equiv
m_1/m_2 \leq 1$ (recall that the total mass $M$ only scales the
waveforms), and the spin vector of each hole (plus two more parameters
if eccentric systems are considered).  Much progress has already been
made in conducting numerical simulations to flesh out the basic
features of this parameter space (see, \eg,
\cite{Campanelli:2006fg,Campanelli:2006uy,Herrmann:2006ks}).  First
impressions indicate that the waveforms in this parameter space are
qualitatively simple, with smooth parameter dependencies.  This
suggests that our knowledge of the mergers can ultimately be applied
in observations with the aid of smooth analytic waveform models,
joining PN treatments of the inspiral signals with analytic
approximations to the mergers.  Already such a model has been
proposed, which provides high overlaps with the numerical simulations
for mass-ratios as low as $q = 1/4$ \citep{Buonanno:2007pf}.

Applying the mass scalings from \cite{Flanagan97a}, we can estimate
the effect of the mass ratio $q$ on the computed SNRs; specifically,
SNR $\sim \eta^{1/2}$ for the inspiral, and SNR $\sim \eta$ for the
merger and ringdown, where $\eta \equiv m_1m_2/M^2 = q/(1+q)^2$ is the
\emph{symmetric mass ratio}.  For stellar-mass black-hole binaries,
the mass ratios are rather broadly distributed
\citep{Belczynski:2006zi}; the rates for such mergers may be low,
$\sim 2 yr^{-1}$ for adLIGO, depending on the evolution of the
original binary through the common envelope phase.  For
intermediate-mass black-hole binaries, mass ratios in the range $0.1
\lesssim q \lesssim 1$ are expected to be the most relevant, with
potential rates of $\sim 10$ per year \citep{Fregeau:2006yz}; we note,
however, that these rates are far more uncertain than those for
stellar-mass black-hole binaries.  Investigations of
gravitational-wave data analysis based on unequal-mass numerical
simulations are now underway: \cite{Pan:2007nw} have investigated how
numerical relativity waveforms may be used to select the best
post-Newtonian template banks for searches in the LIGO, adLIGO and
VIRGO data stream.

Astrophysical black-hole binaries are also expected to be spinning,
which can potentially raise the SNR, for example if there is a
spin-induced hangup that generates more gravitational wave cycles in
the merger \citep{Campanelli:2006uy}.  \cite{Vaishnav:2007nm} have
investigated how the addition of spins to equal-mass waveforms affects
search templates, necessitating the use of higher-order modes for high
matches in the LIGO band.

We also note that, with more accurate computational modeling,
simulations of the merger can be used together with gravitational wave
observations to probe gravity in the regime of strong fields.  In
particular, if the binary masses and spins can be obtained with good
accuracy from observations of the inspiral with LISA
\citep{Lang:2006bz}, the merger waveform can be calculated using
numerical relativity. With this, a comparison can be made between the
predictions of general relativity -- or any other theory of gravity
used in a numerical simulation -- with observations in the regime of
very strong gravity.

\section{Kicks from black-hole binary mergers}\label{sec:kicks}

Black-hole binaries that possess an asymmetry, such as having unequal
masses or possessing unequal or unaligned spins, will emit
gravitational radiation asymmetrically.  This asymmetric gravitational
radiation will impart a linear momentum recoil on the binary's center
of mass.  Previous attempts to calculate this recoil, or ``kick'',
analytically in the nonspinning case \citep{Fitchett_1983} and for
cases with spin \citep{Kidder95a} included very large uncertainties,
because the dominant part of the kick occurred in the last orbit
through the merger, which was very poorly modeled.  With the advent of
stable, accurate numerical relativity codes, the problem of accurately
calculating the kick became possible.  Several groups have tackled
this problem.  The problem of kicks from an unequal mass binary was
first investigated in \cite{Baker:2006vn}, where recoils between 86
and 115 km/s for a $q=2/3$ mass ratio were simulated.  In
\cite{Gonzalez:2006md}, several simulations were performed and a peak
recoil velocity for nonspinning binaries of 175 km/s was found for a
mass ratio of $q \approx 1/2.78$.

A flurry of activity began when several groups began simulating kicks
from spin asymmetry.  \cite{Herrmann:2007ac} demonstrated that kicks
from spin asymmetry can exceed unequal-mass kicks, and that for an
equal-mass configuration with one black hole spinning prograde and the
other spinning retrograde with equal magnitude $\hat{a}$ (a
dimensionless spin parameter, varying from 0 for a Schwarzschild hole
to 1 for a maximally spinning Kerr hole), the spin kick scales as $475
\,\hat{a}$ km/s.  However, it was soon found that the largest kicks
are obtained when the spins are antiparallel with each other but
perpendicular to the orbital angular momentum, a configuration
suggested by \cite{Campanelli:2007ew}. \cite{Gonzalez:2007hi}
were the first to perform this simulation, obtaining a kick of $2650$
km/s for $\hat{a} = 0.8$.  \cite{Campanelli:2007cg} showed that the
resulting kick depends sensitively on the angle between the black-hole
spin vectors and their velocities.  They found a simple cosine
dependence, indicating that \cite{Gonzalez:2007hi} somewhat
fortuitously happened upon what is nearly the maximum angle.
Furthermore, \cite{Campanelli:2007cg} projected that for maximal spin,
kicks as large as $4000$ km/s are possible.

Kicks of $2000$ km/s are sufficiently large to kick remnant black
holes out of even the largest giant elliptical galaxies.  Therefore,
simulation results this large had to be reconciled with the
observational reality that we see massive black holes at the centers
of all the galaxies that we have observed above a certain spheroidal
mass threshold.  \cite*{Schnittman:2007sn} used the EOB formalism to
perform a Monte Carlo simulation in order to try and predict how
typical these large kicks are.  For mass ratios between $q=1$ and
$q=1/10$ and spins of $\hat{a} = 0.9$ on both holes, they allowed
random orientations among the spin vectors and the orbital angular
momentum.  They found that 12\% of the remnants received a kick
exceeding $500$ km/s, and 2.7\% received a kick exceeding $1000$ km/s.

\cite{Schnittman:2007sn} assume no external influence which might tend
to align the spins with each other and with the orbital angular
momentum.  However, \cite*{Bogdanovic:2007} investigated the role of
the Bardeen-Petterson effect \citep{BardeenPetterson_1974} in
mitigating the gravitational recoil from spin asymmetry.  In the
absence of gas accretion, the assumption of random orientation in
\cite{Schnittman:2007sn} applies.  However, if a black-hole binary
accretes (1-10)\% of its initial mass from an accretion disk, the spin
of each hole will align with the angular momentum of the disk, which
in turn is aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary.
Therefore, if the majority of mergers occur in gas-rich environments,
then the giant kick results, although theoretically interesting, are
not astrophysically relevant.  There is good reason to expect
supermassive black holes to accrete substantial mass, particularly at
larger redshift.  In this scenario, the configuration of greatest
interest is spin orientations aligned with the orbital angular
momentum.

Fig. \ref{fig:kicks} and Table \ref{tab:data} present the results of
our investigation of this class of configurations, which were first
presented in \cite{Baker:2007gi}.  ``NE'' refers to unequal mass, with
the corresponding simulations having a mass ratio $q = 2/3$.  ``+''
means prograde with respect to the orbital angular momentum, and ``-''
means retrograde (``0'' means no spin).  Fig. \ref{fig:kicks} shows
the accumulated kick as a function of time for all of our runs.  Of
particular note is the absence of an ``unkick'' for the equal-mass
case, and the variable size of the unkick in the other cases.  Also,
we observe the expected accelerated merger in the ${\rm NE}_{--}$ and
${\rm NE}_{0-}$ cases due to spin-orbit attraction, and
correspondingly the delayed merger in the ${\rm NE}_{++}$ and ${\rm
  NE}_{0+}$ cases due to spin-orbit repulsion.  Using our data along
with the data from \cite{Herrmann:2007ac} and \cite{Koppitz:2007ev}
(which are also included in Table \ref{tab:data}), we are able to
construct an empirical kick formula, given by:
\begin{equation}
v = V_0[32\,q^2/(1+q)^5] \sqrt{(1-q)^2 + 2\,(1-q)\,K\,\cos\theta + K^2 },
\label{eqn:kick_formula}
\end{equation}
where $K = k\,(q\hat{a}_1-\hat{a}_2)$. The parameter $V_0$ gives the
overall scaling of the kick (note that the factor in brackets becomes
unity for $q=1$), while $k$ gives the relative scaling of the kick
contributions from spin and mass asymmetries.
\begin{center}
\begin{deluxetable}{lrrrrrr}
  \tablecolumns{7} \tablewidth{0pt}
  \tablecaption{Predicted versus computed kick speed.  Runs labeled
    ``S0.\#\#'' are taken from \cite{Herrmann:2007ac}, while runs
    labeled ``r\#'' are taken from \cite{Koppitz:2007ev}.  [from
    \cite{Baker:2007gi} - reproduced with permission of the
    AAS]\label{tab:results}}
  \tablehead{\colhead{Run} & \colhead{$q$}
    & \colhead{$\hat{a}_1$} & \colhead{$\hat{a}_2$} &
    \colhead{$v_{num}$} & \colhead{$v_{pred}$} &
    \colhead{$\frac{|\Delta v|}{v_{num}}$(\%)}} \startdata
  ${\rm NE}_{--}$ & 0.654 &-0.201 &-0.194 &116.3 &119.5 & 2.7\\
  ${\rm NE}_{-+}$ & 0.653 &-0.201 & 0.193 & 58.5 & 58.2 & 0.5\\
  ${\rm NE}_{0-}$ & 0.645 & 0.000 &-0.195 &167.7 &153.1 & 8.7\\
  ${\rm NE}_{00}$ & 0.677 & 0.000 & 0.000 & 95.8 & 98.6 & 2.9\\
  ${\rm NE}_{0+}$ & 0.645 & 0.000 & 0.194 & 76.9 & 71.7 & 6.8\\
  ${\rm NE}_{+-}$ & 0.655 & 0.201 &-0.194 &188.6 &181.9 & 3.6\\
  ${\rm NE}_{++}$ & 0.654 & 0.201 & 0.194 & 83.4 & 92.4 &10.8\\
  \medskip
  ${\rm EQ}_{+-}$ & 1.001 & 0.198 &-0.198 & 89.8 & 92.6 & 3.2\\
  S0.05 & 1.000 & 0.200 &-0.200 & 96.0 & 93.8 & 2.3\\
  S0.10 & 1.000 & 0.400 &-0.400 &190.0 &187.6 & 1.2\\
  S0.15 & 1.000 & 0.600 &-0.600 &285.0 &281.5 & 1.2\\
  \medskip
  S0.20 & 1.000 & 0.800 &-0.800 &392.0 &375.3 & 4.3\\
  r0 & 1.000 &-0.584 & 0.584 &260.0 &274.0 & 5.4\\
  r1 & 0.917 &-0.438 & 0.584 &220.0 &220.8 & 0.3\\
  r2 & 0.872 &-0.292 & 0.584 &190.0 &178.1 & 6.3\\
  r3 & 0.848 &-0.146 & 0.584 &140.0 &141.9 & 1.4\\
  r4 & 0.841 & 0.000 & 0.584 &105.0 &110.4 & 5.1\\
\enddata
\label{tab:data}
\end{deluxetable}
\end{center}
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\leavevmode
\includegraphics*[scale=0.5,angle=0]{all_kicks_MONO.eps}
\caption{Aggregated kicks from all of our runs.  The merger time for
  each binary matches the peak in its kick profile; the relative delay
  in merger times between data sets differing in initial spins is
  consistent with the results of \cite{Campanelli:2006uy}.  All
  configurations show a marked ``unkick'' after the peak, with the
  exception of the equal-mass case, ${\rm EQ}_{+-}$. [from
  \cite{Baker:2007gi} - reproduced with permission of the AAS]}
\label{fig:kicks}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

Performing a least-squares fit to the data yields $V_0 = 276$ km/s, $q
= 0.58$, and $k = 0.85$.  Our formula yields a maximum error of 10.8\%
for the cases investigated.  If, in fact, the majority of supermassive
black-hole mergers are gas-rich, then this formula may predict a
significant component of the kick for the majority of cases of
astrophysical interest.  \cite{Campanelli:2007cg} subsequently
suggested an extension of the formula presented in \cite{Baker:2007gi}
for kicks out of the orbital plane, which would be more applicable in
gas-poor cases where the Bardeen-Petterson effect doesn't occur, such
as gas-poor galaxies and the merger of stellar-mass black holes.  The
achievement of simulating the merger is therefore leading us to a
fairly comprehensive understanding of the recoil velocity parameter
space in a strikingly brief period of time.

\section{Summary}\label{sec:outlook}

Mergers of comparable-mass black-hole binaries produce intense bursts
of gravitational radiation and are very strong sources for both
ground-based interferometers and the space-based LISA. Recent progress
in numerical relativity now makes it possible to calculate the merger
waveforms accurately and robustly.  Today there is consensus that the
merger of equal-mass, nonspinning black holes produces a final Kerr
black hole with spin $a/m_f \sim 0.7$, and that the amount of energy
radiated in the form of gravitational waves, starting with the final
few orbits and proceeding through the plunge, merger and ringdown, is
$E_{\rm rad} = M - m_f \sim 0.04M$.  Simulations are now being carried
out for an increasing range of black-hole component masses and spins.
Computational methods continue to improve, resulting in longer
simulations that start in the late inspiral regime and allow
quantitative comparisons with analytic post-Newtonian methods.
Applications of the resulting waveforms to gravitational wave data
analysis have begun.  The recoil or kick velocity that results when
the black holes have unequal masses, or unequal or unaligned spins,
has been calculated for a variety of interesting cases, with key
applications to astrophysics.  Overall, the field of black-hole binary
mergers is experiencing a true ``golden age,'' with many new results
coming out across a broad front.  Stay tuned!

\begin{acknowledgments}
  It is a pleasure to thank our colleagues and collaborators
  Alessandra Buonanno, Scott Hughes, Cole Miller, Jeremy Schnittman
  and Tuck Stebbins for stimulating discussions.  This work was
  supported in part by NASA grant 06-BEFS06-19.  The simulations were
  carried out using Project Columbia at the NASA Advanced
  Supercomputing Division (Ames Research Center), and at the NASA
  Center for Computational Sciences (Goddard Space Flight Center).
  B.J.K. was supported by the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Oak
  Ridge Associated Universities.  S.T.M. was supported in part by the
  Leon A. Herreid Graduate Fellowship.
\end{acknowledgments}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Have a Network Pick Up KING OF THE NERDS for Season 4
0 have signed. Let's get to 200!
Jack Drees started this petition to Game Show Network and
On September 4th, 2015, Curtis Armstrong (@curtisisbooger), host of King of the Nerds, tweeted this:
"Dearest nerds! Deeply sorry to announce that @KingofNerdsTBS will not be returning for a 4th season. Hard to find words now. #nerdsrule"
In case you want to know what that was about, it kind of says it all in the tweet, but I'm going to go into a little more detail. Curtis was tweeting about "King of the Nerds," my favorite show of all time, getting canceled by TBS, the network which has held the show for 3 seasons, all of which have received fantastic ratings. Granted they declined every single season, but they were still fantastic, even season 3 which was in the "Friday night death slot." Throughout each season, there was an extremely active and respectful fanbase which supported the show. This fanbase, which I am in, is still desperate for the show's return. When we were trying to get a third season, we tried our absolute hardest to warn TBS through various methods that we WANTED the show more than anything else. We did the same for season 4, in fact, I think we may have tried even harder. I still try to get attention for people to renew this show, I don't even work for the show, I'm just a teenager living in Massachusetts. I wanted to be try to become a contestant on this show one day, and without this show I can't do that. I spoke on Twitter with one of the producers, and he said he'll be waiting for my audition tape. There are SO MANY BITS OF INFORMATION I can talk about when it comes to this show, but I don't want to rant forever and ever. I am 17 years old, I don't live in LA, I don't really have much authority in the show, but I talked with several folks behind the show, and they deeply miss the show too. In fact, now that I mentioned it, that's one of the things I missed most, getting to know the contestants on the show, during each episode, and even online. They are so nice to fans and it is overall a wonderful community of people.
I tagged two channels here that I hope would listen to this. Game Show Network and Syfy. I'm going to list a bunch of factors and reasons that I feel would make these channels an excellent fit for "King of the Nerds."
GSN: (1) Reality show experience (Skin Wars). (2) Has given away over $100,000 (prize given to the show's winner) before. (3) Can bring a new audience to the channel (one that could possibly get into game shows considering game shows are nerdy). (4) Has revived shows before (Pyramid, Minute to Win It, The Newlywed Game, and 1 vs. 100). (5) I'm not saying this has to be certain, but if Skin Wars gets another season, King of the Nerds can air new episodes during a time when Skin Wars is not airing new episodes, and they can take turns at creating new episodes and airing them.
Syfy: (1) The channel itself, is nerdy. (2) Show partially involves having a knowledge in science fiction, fantasy, and nerd culture. (3) This can bring a new audience to the network that may be interested in reality shows. (4) Show could ask questions in a quiz bowl having to due with Syfy original programming. (5) Doesn't need a high budget, granted it is recommended that the budget isn't low, but it doesn't need to be large.
If there are any channels that see this besides GSN and Syfy and think this show is a good fit, please keep this in mind, because people WANT this. In fact, I'd go as far to say that people NEED this. This, from 2013-2015, was an entertaining reality competition that knows its demographic, and inspired many people to be comfortable with who they are. To those who haven't seen this: if you are a nerd, you'll love this show, if you have ever been left out, you'll love this show, if you have ever loved something so much that you'd never give it up for anything, you'd love this show. All else I can say now is if you want this show back, PLEASE sign this!
Complete your signature
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Louis D. Rubin Jr., fount of Southern writing, dies at 89
By Matt Schudel
Matt Schudel
Obituary writer
Louis D. Rubin Jr., an influential teacher, novelist, publisher and writer who helped define the scholarly study of the literature of the South and launched the careers of many Southern writers, died Nov. 16 at a a retirement home in Pittsboro, N.C. He was 89.
His wife, Eva Redfield Rubin, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. He had heart and kidney ailments.
After beginning his career as a journalist, Dr. Rubin turned to a life of teaching, writing and scholarship, primarily at Hollins College in Virginia and later at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
There was no field of the literary South that Dr. Rubin did not cultivate. In 1953, he was co-editor with Robert D. Jacobs of "Southern Renascence: The Literature of the Modern South," which traced a long line of Southern writers from the Revolutionary Era to the 20th century.
Two years later, Dr. Rubin published a critical study that helped revive the reputation of North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. He wrote major works on the "Fugitive" poets of the 1920s, 19th-century writers, African American poets and novelists of his own time. He was a co-editor of the definitive "The History of Southern Literature" in 1985. He wrote or edited more than 50 books.
In 2006, Vanderbilt University literary scholar Michael Kreyling pronounced Dr. Rubin "the master builder of southern literature as a field of academic study."
As a critic, Dr. Rubin believed that a writer's voice and personality — what he called "the teller in the tale" — gave Southern writing its distinctive flavor.
He also maintained that critical writing should not be abstruse, difficult or boring but should be conversational and free of jargon.
Dr. Rubin had a reputation as a rumpled, grumpy character who could sometimes be intentionally hard of hearing, but he developed a fiercely loyal following through the years. Early in his career, when he was teaching at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, one of his students was novelist John Barth.
At Hollins, a women's university in Roanoke, his students included Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard and novelist Lee Smith. Among his students at Chapel Hill were writers Jill McCorkle and Kaye Gibbons.
"If my work is honest and speaks anywhere near to the heart of things," Gibbons told the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution in 2002, "it is because Louis raised my mind and heart right."
Dr. Rubin helped found the Southern Literary Journal and edited other literary quarterlies. He founded and edited the influential Southern Literary Studies series of books from the Louisiana State University Press. At Hollins, where he taught from 1957 to 1967, he launched an early writers-in-residence program with such celebrated authors as Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, William Styron, Peter Taylor, James Dickey and Allen Tate.
Describing Dr. Rubin's teaching style to the Journal-Constitution, Smith said, "Louis never told us what to write . . . It was an atmosphere in which it was safe to take risks, to try new things. If it didn't work, he'd tell you, but he'd never make you feel dumb or put you down."
In 1983, Dr. Rubin called on one of his former students at Hollins, Shannon Ravenel, and founded Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill as a publishing house for overlooked writers, particularly writers from the South.
Initially headquartered at Dr. Rubin's house, Algonquin published the first books by such writers as Gibbons, Clyde Edgerton and Larry Brown.
Louis Decimus Rubin Jr. was born Nov. 19, 1923, in Charleston, S.C. His father was an electrical contractor who lost his business in the Great Depression and later became a weather forecaster.
Dr. Rubin captured his youth in his three novels and in a well-received memoir, "My Father's People: A Family of Southern Jews" (2002).
"Nostalgia is an impoverishing emotion; it robs our memory of all its complexity," Dr. Rubin wrote in the book. "There were no Good Old Days; my father's generation knew that very well."
After serving as an Army journalist during World War II, Dr. Rubin graduated from the University of Richmond in 1946, then worked at newspapers in Virginia and New Jersey for several years.
He received a master's degree and doctorate in English from Johns Hopkins University in 1949 and 1954, respectively. After teaching at Hopkins and the University of Pennsylvania, he returned to journalism in 1956 as an editorial writer at the Richmond News Leader, where his views sometimes clashed with those of chief editorial writer James J. Kilpatrick, who then was an advocate of segregation.
"We do not ever eradicate the early patterns of our experience," Dr. Rubin wrote in a later memoir, "Small Craft Advisory" (1991). "They remain with us all our lives."
Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Eva Redfield, a former political science professor; two sons; a brother; a sister; and two grandchildren.
Recalling Dr. Rubin's close mentoring of his proteges, novelist Edgerton once recalled sitting in Rubin's back yard, thinking up names for characters for Edgerton's first novel, "Raney." As Edgerton began to drive away, Dr. Rubin came toward his car, shouting, "Naomi! N-A-O-M-I. Naomi! That's the name!"
"It was the perfect name for my character," Edgerton said in 2002. "Aunt Naomi. It was like naming rain."
Matt Schudel Matt Schudel has been an obituary writer at The Washington Post since 2004. He previously worked for publications in Washington, New York, North Carolina and Florida. Follow


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Description: The Pink House, built circa 1712, in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building in the French Quarter District. As was by then typical of the Architecture of Bermuda, the house was built of limestone from Bermuda (Charleston had been settled from Bermuda under William Sayle in the 1670s, and Bermudians retained close links with the city up to American independence).
This page was last modified on 7 April 2017, at 04:32.


text:
Get Ready for World War III
By Paul Craig Roberts
With every poll showing majorities of Americans both fed up with Bush's war against Iraq and convinced that Bush's invasion of Iraq has made Americans less safe, the White House moron proposes to start another war by attacking Iran. VP Cheney has already ordered the US Strategic Command to come up with plans to strike Iran with tactical nuclear weapons.
Bush refuses to meet with Cindy Sheehan, instead using his vacation time at the Crawford ranch to talk war with Israeli television. In a recent interview with Israeli TV, Bush said: "All options are on the table" with regard to Iran.
Israel's Likud government is Bush's last remaining ally in his war against "Islamic terrorism." Israel, which is loaded with nuclear weapons and is not a signatory to the nuclear pacts, is the accuser against Iran, asserting that Iran's nuclear energy program is just a veil behind which to produce weapons. Iran, however, has signed the nonproliferation pact and is willing for the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the nuclear energy program.
Bush, however, dismisses all facts and assurances and is willing to attack Iran based on nothing but paranoia.
Bush can ignore the American public, because the Democrats, like the Tory Party in the UK, have completely collapsed as an opposition party.
The only check on Bush is the lack of US troops. Bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, US commanders are stating that a third rotation of our exhausted and demoralized troops in Iraq can be avoided only by troop withdrawals by next spring.
However, on August 11 Bush nixed the military's talk of reducing US troops in Iraq. The next day the commander of US logistics in Iraq announced that the number of insurgent attacks on US forces along supply routes has doubled in the last year, making it clear that far from winning, the US is not even holding its own.
Cindy Sheehan has the right question for Bush: What noble cause is being served by all this suffering and destruction?
Bush is in hiding from Mrs. Sheehan, because he knows only ignoble causes are being served. According to the CIA, the main beneficiary of the war is Osama bin Laden's recruitment drives. While America's military recruitment falters and US generals announce that the war has broken the Reserves and National Guard, the cause of Islamic extremism basks in the Iraqi war.
Gentle reader, do you realize the danger of having a president so disconnected from reality that he plots to attack Iran — a country three times the size of Iraq — when he lacks sufficient forces to occupy Baghdad and to protect the road from Baghdad to the airport?
Despite all the high profile "sweeps" of US forces through insurgent strongholds, US commanders report a doubling of insurgent attacks.
The Bush administration is insane. If the American people do not decapitate it by demanding Bush's impeachment, the Bush administration will bring about Armageddon. This may please some Christian evangelicals conned by Rapture predictions, but World War III will please no one else.
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts
[user_login] => paul-craig-roberts
[user_pass] => 81c4d39335d8fb75beae24f3000c9e4e
[user_nicename] => paul-craig-roberts
[display_name] => Paul Craig Roberts
$bio: Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Visit his website.
[0] => Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Visit his website.
Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Visit his website.
Copyright © Paul Craig Roberts
Previous article by Paul Craig Roberts: The Kelo Calamity
The Answer to Judicial Tyranny
Blessing the Bombs


The whole play, or nearly the whole play, with a few minor abridgements read in one sitting organised once again by the Shakespeare Aloud Group based in Wellington.
All are welcome to participate, young or old. No acting or reading experience necessary. Email contact details: nigelsmith1048@gmail.com.


text:
The Original Kings of Comedy achieves the seemingly impossible task of capturing the rollicking and sly comedy routines of stand-up and sitcom vets Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac and the magic of experiencing a live concert show. Director Spike Lee and his crew plant a multitude of cameras in a packed stadium and onstage (as well as backstage, as they follow the comedians) to catch the vivid immediacy of the show, which is as much about the audience as it is about the jokes.
Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen (1988)
Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen is a stand-up comedy concert film featuring some big name talents before they reached actual stardom. These comedians included Tim Allen, Chris Rock, Bill Hicks, Otto & George and Jackie Martling among others.
Richard Pryor: Live and Smokin' (1971)
Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' is the first stand-up act of Richard Pryor to be filmed out of the four that were released in total. This film was filmed in 1971 but not released until 1985, on VHS. This was the first stand-up act that Pryor did before he hit the mainstream audience. With only 48 minutes of footage, it is the shortest of Pryor's stand-up routines.
Simon Amstell: Numb (Live at the BBC) (2012)
This one-off stand-up special is a performance of Simon Amstell's stand-up show, 'Numb', which he toured to sell-out audiences around the UK and Ireland in 2012, as well as Australia and, more recently, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Recorded specially for BBC Four at TV Centre, it's a stripped-down, intimate performance, with no set and minimal lighting - a painfully raw, honest and deeply funny exploration of disconnection and loneliness.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day as Seymour is seeking a new mysterious plant, he finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper.
Luck By Chance (2009)
A struggling actor comes from Delhi to Bombay and enters the Hindi film industry. This gives the audience an in sight into what sometimes happens when making a movie and what happens in the industry and more when it involves the opposite sex and when you are working together. Zoya Akhtar, sister to Farhan Akhtar and daughter of Javed Akhtar, has done a superb job in her directorial debut in showin
Ted (2012)
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane brings his boundary-pushing brand of humor to the big screen for the first time as writer, director and voice star of Ted. In the live action/CG-animated comedy, he tells the story of John Bennett, a grown man who must deal with the cherished teddy bear who came to life as the result of a childhood wish, and has refused to leave his side ever since.
Funny People (2009)
Famous and wealthy funnyman George Simmons doesn't give much thought to how he treats people until a doctor delivers stunning health news, forcing George to reevaluate his priorities with a little help from aspiring stand-up comic Ira.
Bachelor Mother (1939)
Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.
Going the Distance (2004)
Nick (Jacot), whose life seemed to be going perfectly, realizes he may lose his girlfriend to a famous music producer (Priestley). He sets out on a roadtrip from the west coast to go to the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto, along with two buddies (Tyler and Dime), for the road trip of their lives.
Fat Albert (2004)
An obese boy named Fat Albert and his friends Rudy, Mushmouth, Bill, Dumb Donald, Russell, and Weird Harold, pulls into trouble when they "fall" out of their TV world into the real world, where Fat Albert tries to help a young girl, Doris, make friends.
A Piece of the Action (1977)
How does retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) get two career criminals, Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) and Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby), to follow the straight and narrow? Con them into helping juvenile delinquents turn over a new leaf. But how? Burke has never been able to nail the duo, but he uses what he knows of their seedy past to blackmail them into volunteering.
The Devil and Max Devlin (1981)
When Max dies in an accident, he goes straight to hell. But the devil Barney makes him an offer: if he manages to get three innocent youths to sell him their souls in the next two months, he may stay on earth. Max accepts, and returns to earth, equipped with special powers. However his task is harder than expected, especially when 7 years old Tobi demands that he marry his mother. Written by Tom Zoerner
One night Jefferson Reed gets hit in the chest by a souped-up chunk of meteor. So he can fly, but he's scared of heights. He can master the information in any book ... for about fifteen minutes. Now his friends and family want him to protect their community from the dreaded Golden Lords.
Leonard Part 6 (1987)
After separating from his wife, Leonard Parker (Cosby) quit the spy business and became a restaurateur. His wife refuses to speak with him, and his daughter, who changes her career more often than her clothes, has begun dating a man old enough to be Leonard's father! On top of it all, the government has asked him to come back and save the world again.
Jack (1996)
Jack Powell suffers from an affliction that makes him grow four times faster than normal, so the 10-year-old looks like a 40-year-old man. After years of being tutored at home, Jack convinces his overprotective parents to send him to public school. The children don't know what to make of Jack, but with the help of his fifth-grade teacher, he makes an effort to win them over.
Ghost Dad (1990)
Elliot Hopper is a widower with three children, he is currently working on a deal. It seems like his wife illness was very costly and this deal could put them out of the red. However he gets into a cab that is driven by a maniac, and Elliot crashes into a river. Elliot is sent back so that he could finish the deal and make sure that his children are taken care of.
Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber (2015)
Several roasters, and the master himself Kevin Hart, make fun of Justin Bieber.
I Spy (2002)
When the Switchblade, the most sophisticated prototype stealth fighter created yet, is stolen from the U.S. government, one of the United States' top spies, Alex Scott, is called to action. What he doesn't expect is to get teamed up with a cocky civilian, World Class Boxing Champion Kelly Robinson, on a dangerous top secret espionage mission. Their assignment: using equal parts skill and humor, catch Arnold Gundars, one of the world's most successful arms dealers.
Jim Jefferies: Freedumb (2016)
Returning for a second Netflix comedy special, Jim Jefferies unleashes his famously ferocious black humor to a packed house in Nashville, Tennessee.
Road Hard (2015)
After his movie and television career has run dry, Bruce Madsen (Adam Carolla) is forced to go back on the road playing one dingy comedy club after another, spending endless nights in budget hotel rooms and always flying coach. Amidst trying to revitalize his career, rekindle his love life and put his daughter through college, Bruce knows one thing for sure - he must get off the road. ROAD HARD is the story of that journey.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
Shakespeare's comedy about two couples in love with the wrong partners, and how they are finally brought together rightly, thanks in part to the bungling work of Puck. It is completely in the language of the Bard, with Pfeiffer as the Fairy Queen and Kline as the one turned into her evening's lover with donkey ears.
Rio Sex Comedy (2010)
Is this possible to reconcile individual happiness and social justice? It is the paradoxical search several foreigners installed in Brazil. Charlotte Rampling incarnates a British esthetic surgeon given to dissuade whoever would like to pass under the lancet. Irène Jacob is an anthropologist Frenchwoman whose of libido concerns override its political conscience. Bill Pullman camps a disturbed American ambassador who flees his most dangerous responsibilities while hiding in one for the favelas for Rio. There, it becomes accessory to the schemes of Fisher Stevens, a tourist guide, doubled of a romantic swindler. All these stories meet in a whimsical comedy nevertheless anchored in the reality of Rio de Janeiro, known rightly like "the town of wonders."
Lisa Lampanelli: Back to the Drawing Board (2015)
Brash, bold and never afraid to go blue, comedian Lisa Lampanelli offers a raucous and raunchy performance in her first stand-up special for EPIX. Taped at the Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, the set includes Lampanelli's signature brand of insult comedy as well as her personal experiences with weight loss and divorce.
While trying to avoid the clichés of Hollywood romantic comedies, Dylan and Jamie soon discover however that adding the act of sex to their friendship does lead to complications.
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland (2006)
In the spirit of the old west variety shows, Vaughn played host to the ensemble of comedians and performed improvisational sketches with surprise celebrity and musical guests. The film chronicles the journey of Vaughn and the comedians as travel over 6,000 miles and perform 30 shows in 30 consecutive nights in cities across the nation.
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
An unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam.
The King of Comedy (1982)
The King of Comedy is a bitterly evil satire of show business. Rupert Pupkins is obsessed with becoming famous so he aims at kidnapping one of the best in the business, Jerry Langford.
Talkin' Dirty After Dark (1991)
Terry is an up and coming comedian, but believes politics will get him the big breaks and more time at the popular Dukie's Comedy Club. Just so happens that Terry is 'sleeping' with Ruby Lynn Sinclair, the wife of club owner Dukie Sinclair. What follows is a night of comedy, romance, comedy, action, comedy, and Terry achieving his initial goal: getting $67 dollars to pay his phone bil
George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy (1997)
George Carlin celebrates 40 years of comedy and here, he presents 2 new standup bits, comedian Jon Stewart gives an interview with him, and we look at his old comedy work through the last 4 decades.
Melinda and Melinda (2004)
While dining out with friends, Sy suggests the difficulty of separating comedy from tragedy. To illustrate his point, he tells his guests two parallel stories about Melinda ; both versions have the same basic elements, but one take on her state of affairs leans toward levity, while the other is full of anguish. Each story involves Melinda coping with a recent divorce through substance abuse while beginning a romantic relationship with a close friend's husband.
Peter's Friends (1992)
It is New Year's weekend and the friends of Peter (Fry) gather at his newly inherited country house. Ten years ago, they all acted together in a Cambridge University student comedy troupe, but it's less clear how much they have in common now.Peter's friends are Andrew (Branagh), now a writer in Hollywood; married jingle writers Roger (Laurie) and Mary (Staunton); glamorous costume designer Sarah (Emmanuel); and eccentric Maggie (Thompson), who works in publishing. Cast in sharp relief to the university chums are Carol (Rudner), the American TV star wife of Andrew; and loutish Brian (Slattery), Sarah's very recently acquired lover. Law plays Peter's disapproving housekeeper, Vera; and Lowe, her son Paul. Briers appears in a cameo role as Peter's father.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Everybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life? Harold Crick is your average IRS agent: monotonous, boring, and repetitive. But one day this all changes when Harold begins to hear an author inside his head narrating his life. But when the narration reveals he is going to die, Harold must find the author and convince them to change the ending.
A man pursues stand-up comedy encouraged by his fellow garbage man. Though his friend, who accompanies him on accordion, continues to tell him how great he is, he actually stinks. When the "comedian" grows a third arm out of his back, the friend uses this twist to get him signed up with a sleazy talent agent, and it begins to look like his career is on the move, even though his girlfriend has left him.
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)
Centred around a weekend party at the home of inventor Andrew Hobbs and his wife Adrian, attended by randy doctor Maxwell Jordan, his nurse Dulcy, renowned philosopher Dr.Leopold Sturgis and his fiancée, this is a light comedy concerning their various emotional, intellectual and sexual entanglements, loosely based on Ingmar Bergman's 'Smiles of a Summer Night' .
Monty Python's And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)
And Now for Something Completely Different is a film spin-off from the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring favourite sketches from the first two seasons.
Ealing Comedy (2008)
Alfie Singh, accountant turned film producer, has a great idea for a film. It's called Ealing Comedy and it's about an accountant turned film producer called Alfie Singh. Alfie will play himself and his real son, Paul, will play his son in the film. Turned down by all the financiers, Alfie vows to make the film himself. His life with his wife and teenage son and his struggles to finance and make films in the UK are all woven together in a series of mad-cap events, resulting in a very British film
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
In this musical comedy, Valerie is dealing with her philandering fiancé, Ted, when she finds that a trio of aliens have crashed their spaceship into her swimming pool. Once the furry beings are shaved at her girlfriend's salon, the women discover three handsome men underneath. After absorbing the native culture via television, the spacemen are ready to hit the dating scene in 1980s Los Angeles.
Challenges of impending parenthood turn the lives of five couples upside down. Two celebrities are unprepared for the surprise demands of pregnancy; hormones wreak havoc on a baby-crazy author, while her husband tries not to be outdone by his father, who's expecting twins with his young trophy wife; a photographer's husband isn't sure about his wife's adoption plans; a one-time hook-up results in a surprise pregnancy for rival food-truck owners.
Harvey (1950)
The classic stage hit gets the Hollywood treatment in the story of Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees (and a few privileged others on occasion also.) After his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution, a comedy of errors ensues. Elwood and Harvey become the catalysts for a family mending its wounds and for romance blossoming in unexpected places.
Life or Something Like It (2002)
Angelina Jolie and Edward Burns sizzle in this romantic comedy about making choices, making friends and making a mess. Lanie (Jolie) is a beautiful, ambitious newscaster who thinks that having the perfect hair, perfect boyfriend and perfect apartment adds up to the perfect life, until an encounter with a street psychic throws her world into chaos.
Sex After Kids (2013)
Edgy comedy about the sexual adventures in parenthood
Following on the heels of popular teen-scream horror movies, with uproarious comedy and biting satire. Marlon and Shawn Wayans, Shannon Elizabeth and Carmen Electra pitch in to skewer some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters, including Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Matrix, American Pie and The Blair Witch Project.
The Last Kiss (2001)
Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) have been happy together for three years, but Giulia's announcement that she is pregnant sends him into a secret panic. Terrified at his imminent entry into the adult world of irreversible responsibilities, Carlo finds himself tempted by a bewitching 18 year old girl, Francesca (Martina Stella), whom he meets by chance at a wedding. The possibility of one last youthful crazy fling before the impending prison of parenthood proves to be too attractive to resist.
Shaun of the Dead is a humorous homage to Zombie movies from director Edgar Wright; an outrageous romantic comedy with zombies.
As Cool as I Am (2013)
A smart teenage girl comes of age in a small town with her self-centered parents who had her when they were teenagers.
The story of the Buckman family and friends, attempting to bring up their children. They suffer/enjoy all the events that occur: estranged relatives, the "black sheep" of the family, the eccentrics, the skeletons in the closet, and the rebellious teenagers.
What a Way to Go! (1964)
This black comedy opens with Louisa Foster donating a multimillion dollar check to the IRS. The tax department thinks she's crazy and sends her to a psychiatrist. She then discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.
Hanuman Junction (2001)
Hanuman Junction is a 2001 Indian Telugu action comedy film directed by M. Raja and produced by M. V. Lakshmi.
30 YEARS TO LIFE (2003)
First of all, the title does not refer to someone sentenced to jail. It is a movie about 6 lifetime friends who are all hitting the big `3-0' together during the same year. Each one looks inside themselves to see where has my life gone and what am I going to do with my future. Actually, what I saw was a black Seinfeld comedy. Tracy Morgan, who is one of the main characters, is a struggling comedian just like Jerry Seinfeld. He gives his opinion of what women want in a man in one of his comedy routines. Melissa De Sousa is looking for a man before time runs out. She is just like Elaine in Seinfeld. I don't remember the big problem with turning thirty, however, all the characters in this movie can show you what they are, such as not having fame, riches, a husband, a thin body, and staying young. Their life stories are probably repeated many times around the world.
Farce of the Penguins (2006)
In this spoof of "March of the Penguins," nature footage of penguins near the South Pole gets a soundtrack of human voices. Carl and Jimmy, best friends, walk 70 miles to the mating grounds where the female penguins wait. The huddled masses of females - especially Melissa and Vicki - talk about males, mating, and what might happen this year. Carl, Jimmy, and the other males make the long trek talking about food, fornication and flatulence. Until this year, Carl's sex life has been dismal, but he falls hard for Melissa. She seems to like him. A crisis develops when Jimmy comes upon something soft in the dark. Can friends forgive? Does parenthood await Carl and Melissa?
Blue State (2007)
BLUE STATE is a romantic comedy about a disgruntled Democrat who actually follows through on a drunken campaign promise to move to Canada if George "Dubya" Bush gets re-elected.
Friends with Kids (2011)
In the wake of their friends' marriages and eventual offspring, longtime pals Julie and Jason decide to have a child together without becoming a couple. By becoming "time-share" parents, they reason, they can experience the joys of parenthood without significantly curbing their personal freedom. However, when Julie and Jason both become involved with others, they discover that they secretly harbor romantic feelings for each other.
Gayby (2012)
Jenn and Matt are best friends from college who are now in their thirties. Single by choice, Jenn spends her days teaching hot yoga and running errands for her boss. Matt suffers from comic-book writer's block and can't get over his ex-boyfriend. They decide to fulfill a youthful promise to have a child together... the old fashioned way. Can they navigate the serious and unexpected snags they hit as they attempt to get their careers and dating lives back on track in preparation for parenthood? 'Gayby' is an irreverent comedy about friendship growing older, sex, loneliness, and the family you choose.
In China They Eat Dogs (1999)
An intent fast paced Danish dark comedy film about two separately motivated brothers who with their slightly psychopathic tendencies end up in a touchy situation. One brother gets in serious trouble after a bank robbery and begs the other brother for help.
Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat (2002)
The controversial bad-boy of comedy delivers a piercing look at his life, lifting the metaphorical smokescreen that he feels has clouded the public view, commenting on everything from the dangers of smoking to the trials of relationships, and unleashing a nonstop litany of raucous anecdotes, stinging social commentary and very personal reflections about life.
Gone Doggy Gone (2014)
Gone Doggy Gone is a comedic feature about a couple stuck in a lack-luster marriage who treat their dog like a baby. Working the grind in LA they leave little time for each other, and what free time they have they spend doting on the dog... until it gets kidnapped. What ensues is an outlandish cat-and-mouse adventure as they hunt down the kidnapper, enlist a schlubby PI, find a renewed love of each other, and conquer their fear of parenthood.
Mistress America (2015)
Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who entangles her in alluringly mad schemes. Mistress America is a comedy about dream-chasing, score-settling, makeshift families, and cat-stealing.
Road to the Open (2014)
Road to the Open is an offbeat comedy about a has-been doubles tennis team, single parenthood, the quest for love, and a once in a lifetime shot at greatness.
Screwballs (1983)
Starting a new tradition of sex comedy, T & A High School, five boys meet in the detention room thanks to the evil virgin princess urity Busch. RICK - dressed as a doctor and gave breast exams to the high school new comers. BRENT - sexually teased Purity in French class. MELVIN - caught masterbating in the meat locker. HOWIE - rearranged the mirrors in order to see up the skirts of cheerleaders after practice. And TIM - tricked into entering the girls watchroom. Each one fooled by Purity. They want revenge. Each one makes a packed to deflower the virgin, but all have failed. Their only chance is to work together with others of the school to get her at the homecoming game.


text:
Current Affair -3rd January 2023
By Aman Kumar
The second phase of the Sari Festival "VIRAASAT"- Celebrating 75 handwoven Saris of India will begin from 3rd to 17th January 2023 at Handloom Haat, Janpath, New Delhi.
2. 50 Electric Buses launched in Delhi with support under the FAME India Phase II scheme of the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
Full name of the scheme: Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II).
Implementing agency: Department of Heavy Industry.
3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has named the top three lenders in India – State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank – as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs), or banks that are too big to fail.
4. Ministry of Coal converts suitable mine areas, after exhaustion of reserves, into eco-parks, sites for water sports, underground mine tourism, golf grounds, adventure, bird watching, etc. These sites have good potential for recreation, revenue generation, and employment for local people.
5. The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) and the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), the two prominent institutions under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India for regulating medical education and conducting scientific research respectively, have launched 'SMART' (Scope for Mainstreaming Ayurveda Research in Teaching Professionals) program.
6. The Chief Justice of India (CJI), D Y Chandrachudh, has announced the launch of the electronic Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) project, which aims to provide free access to around 34,000 judgments of the apex court to lawyers, law students, and the general public.
7. The Prime Minister of India congratulated Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on assuming office as the President of Brazil.
8. The Prime Minister has chaired the Annual General Meeting of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library Society (NMML) Society where he emphasized encouraging research, and scholarship among the youth and making history more appealing. The Prime Minister also discussed ways to make the PM-Sangrahalaya more popular among youngsters.
9. According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate reached 8.30% in December, the highest level in 16 months. This marks an increase from the 8.00% recorded in November. The urban unemployment rate also saw a rise, going from 8.96% in November to 10.09% in December.
10 UNIQUE WAYS TO SUCCEED IN LIFE
List of Important Days of February for all govt. Exams 2023
Some Important Facts from 13-10-2021 Current Affairs
SCO(Shanghai Cooperation Organisation)
UN(United Nations) | UPSC
G20(Group of Twenty)
Some Interesting facts in 12-10-2021 CA


text:
2001: A Hebridean odyssey, Loch Airigh, Isle of Harris
Sun 7 Jun 2009 07.01 EDT First published on Sun 7 Jun 2009 07.01 EDT
Isle of Harris. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/Murdo Macleod
Walk in a nutshell
Following the Bealach Eòrabhat, or "Coffin Road", you'll set out from Loch Airigh on Harris's rocky east coast, and pass one of the most gloriously sandy beaches in the UK, on the west coast. The island is renowned for its extreme visual contrast, and you'll make the most of it on this walk. If you find yourself perspiring, spare a thought for the poor coffin bearers who passed along the route before you, as the soil in the east is too thin for bodies to be buried.
Why it's special
The area near the start of the walk stood in for Jupiter in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just after Loch Airigh, the ground is composed predominantly of large rocks, exposed by melting glaciers. The rock, known as anorthosite, is similar in composition to that found on the moon. This barren landscape was filmed from small planes, and tinted using coloured lenses to make it look even more otherworldly.
Keep your eyes peeled for
Deer roaming freely over Harris. Birdlife includes oystercatchers, corncrakes and, most excitingly, golden eagles.
But bear in mind
Make sure before you set out that visibility is good. The route over the Bealach is waymarked, but posts are not necessarily frequent and the path is not always clear on the boggy upper section. You'll need boots rather than shoes, and you'll probably find the hill section slow going. If you want to return by bus, the W10 will drop you on the A859 at the top of the Geocrab, Stockinish and Roghadal road, where you started the walk. But check service times before setting out.
Recover afterwards
Drive or catch the bus back to Tarbert, and stop off in First Fruits Tearoom near the tourist office. Customers describe it as "a little gem".
If it's tipping down
Take in some of the local history instead. St Clement's Church in Rodel, built in the late 15th century, was at one time used as a cow barn, before being restored in 1873.
The nearest ferry terminal to the walk is Tarbert. From there, take the A859 Leverburgh road, turning left after about 7km (4.5 miles) on to an unclassified road signposted to Geocrab, Stockinish and Roghadal. Park at an electricity substation just a few metres down this road. Make sure you pull up carefully on the verge, and don't block access for large vehicles.
By public transport Take the W13 bus from Tarbert to the start of the walk or W10 to the road end, and walk down.
1. Turn left and walk down the road for about 1km, taking advantage of a short cut where road zigzags. At a point where Loch Airigh nearly touches the road and where there is a passing place on the right, turn right on a grassy track towards two telegraph poles.
2. Follow the path, which takes a devious route between heather and boulders, to the corner of a fence, across a wooden footbridge and through a gate. Look for a sign on your left with pointing finger.
3. At a junction of paths, beside a lochan (little lake) on your right, keep straight on in the direction indicated by the pointing finger. Passing through heather, you soon cross another footbridge. Yellow marker posts reassure you of your route as you meet a wire fence on your left. Follow path as it zigzags downhill to a small lochan and then a house.
4. Walk to the right of the house, to a post on top of a mound, then continue on marked path by a stream. Path climbs steadily towards the col. As you near the top you will find yourself, to some extent, picking your own route, as some boulder-hopping is required to avoid boggy patches, but posts and intermittent path will guide you.
5. Enjoy a spectacular view down to the bay at Losgaintir. From this point, the well-made path widens into a track. The track ends at a gate and stile.
6. Cross the stile, then turn right through two more gates, to follow an old road with a crumbling asphalt surface. Eventually you cross a stile on to the A859.
7. If returning by bus, turn right for approximately 200 metres to reach a bus shelter. (Check bus times beforehand as they vary depending on the day.) If you are returning on foot, continue along the road. The "old" road runs beside it intermittently and it may be pleasanter to walk on this where it is possible. After less than 1km, at the end of a crash barrier, notice a junction on the right that has a "no through road" sign.
8. Follow this continuation of the old road as it climbs gently on a line of telegraph poles. Continue, nearly always with the new road visible in the distance, through a quarry, to emerge back on to the A859.
9. Turning right, continue to follow sections of the old road, first on the left, then on the right of the new one. In due course you will arrive opposite the substation where your car is parked.
• Register with Walking World to obtain instructions, OS maps and a downloadable digital mapping file to export into a portable gps system about the walks featured in this series
The summary panel was amended on Tuesday 9 June 2009. Wrong information appeared in the original.
Scotland holidays
United Kingdom holidays
Cultural trips


text:
Q: What are the helpful packages for Emacs to do ruby on rails? I would like to know the best Emacs plugins for developers using the Ruby on Rails framework.

A: If you want to have an awesome emacs config you should install these packages:

*

*inf-ruby

*projectile

*projectile-rails

*robe-mode

*web-mode

*rvm

*flymake-ruby

*flymake-easy

*flymake-css

*flymake-sass

*flymake-coffee

*flymake-haml

*flymake-html-validator

*haml-mode

*yaml-mode

*slim-mode

*sass-mode

*coffee-mode

*feature-mode
if you were using vimux you would like to replace projectile and projectile-rails with    emacs-rails-reloaded
by the way if you happen to be a vim user then you should checkout spacemacs.spacemacs has predefined configuration layers for html and ruby on rails.
for ruby as well as ruby on rails

*

*bundler

*chruby

*company

*enh-ruby-mode

*evil-matchit

*flycheck

*popwin

*rbenv

*robe

*rspec-mode

*rubocop

*ruby-mode (should be avaliable by default)

*ruby-test-mode

*ruby-tools

*rvm

*smartparens

*rake

A: You may find my 2014 post on configuring emacs as a productive development environment for Rails helpful. It primarily covers projectile, robe and rvm integration.
While both emacs-rails-reloaded and rinari have been somewhat popular at a time, their development has languished. Projectile-rails is maintained much more actively.
In particular my overall experience with helm and projectile has been very good and would strongly recommend in favor of them.

A: Here are some of the modes you should try:
Rinari - A simple framework for getting around your code, running tests, and managing consoles, web-servers, etc. It's minimalistic and revolves around a series of key-bindings.
Emacs-rails - the grandfather of Emacs RoR modes. It hasn't been updated in a while, and in fact the primary homepage no longer exists. But it's quite powerful and lets you do almost everything.
Emacs-rails-reloaded - This is a re-design of the original emacs-rails. It uses the the great anything mode to help you find things and get around.
Also see this answer.
You can find some other useful stuff here

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Looking ahead, Johnson & Johnson expects to deliver "sustainable growth as we enter 2013."
Johnson & Johnson /quotes/zigman/230812/quotes/nls/jnj JNJ -0.94% reported a surge in fourth-quarter earnings from a year-earlier period that was weighed down by legal costs, while an acquisition helped sales rise 8%.
The health-care giant, which is trying to bounce back from a series of product recalls, had lighter-than-expected quarterly sales and issued a forecast for 2013 earnings that fell slightly short of Wall Street expectations.
J&J reported its quarterly numbers ahead of a meeting with analysts and investors in New York where executives plan to spotlight the company's biggest business unit, medical devices and diagnostics, newly enlarged by last year's $20 billion purchase of device maker Synthes.
J&J's new chief executive, Alex Gorsky, has said his top priorities are restoring the supply of over-the-counter medicines--including Tylenol--that were subject to a series of recalls, integrating the Synthes purchase, and building on recent momentum in J&J's pharmaceutical unit, which has launched several new drugs.
For the fourth quarter, J&J earned $2.57 billion, or 91 cents a share, compared with $218 million, or 8 cents a share, a year earlier. The year-earlier quarter included hefty charges related to litigation over J&J's recall of hip-replacement parts and other items, while the latest quarter included a lesser amount of similar charges.
Excluding one-items in both periods, per-share earnings rose to $1.19 from $1.13.
Sales rose 8% to $17.56 billion, with the Synthes deal contributing 5.6 percentage points of growth.
J&J was expected to earn $1.17 per share, excluding certain one-time items, on revenue of $17.67 billion for the fourth quarter, according to mean estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
For full-year 2013, J&J expects to earn $5.35 to $5.45 per share, excluding certain items. Analysts were expecting earnings to rise 8% to $5.49 per share on a 7% increase in revenue to $72.17 billion.
Medical device and diagnostics sales rose 13.7% to $7.38 billion in the fourth quarter. Pharmaceutical sales rose 7.1% to $6.53 billion, while consumer-healthcare sales fell 0.4% to $3.65 billion.


text:
Five held for Kimberley cash heist
November 17, 2015 /0 Comments/in Crime News /by Salmaan Seedat
November 16 2015 at 09:21pm
By Getrude Makhafola
Johannesburg – Five people have been arrested in connection with a cash-in-transit in Kimberley, Northern Cape, on Monday.
"The incident took place near a local store at Beaconsfield. At this stage, we are still busy with the investigation to determine how many suspects were involved in the cash-in-transit," said the police's Lieutenant Olebogeng Tawana.
"Some of the suspects fled the scene with undisclosed amount of cash, and some of the cash boxes with undisclosed amount of cash have been recovered."
Police confiscated five firearms and two getaway vehicles.
Meanwhile, in Limpopo, three armed men overpowered security guards who had just collected cash from a shopping centre in Hlogotlou on Monday, police said.
"The guards were robbed of a box containing undisclosed amount of cash. The suspects fired shots before fleeing the scene in two vehicles, a Mercedes Benz and a mortuary vehicle. The mortuary vehicle was later found abandoned 30km away from the scene," said spokesman Lieutenant Malesela Ledwaba. No arrests were made.
http://visiontactical.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/179782370.jpg 225 300 Salmaan Seedat http://visiontactical.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vision-Logo1.png Salmaan Seedat2015-11-17 09:30:012015-11-17 09:30:01Five held for Kimberley cash heist


Papua New Guinea Prime Minister and Minister for Sports, Peter O'Neill , has extended the Nation's condolences to the family and teammates of the Late Kato Otio.
"It is with shock and great sadness that we have learned of the death of Kato Otio," the Prime Minister said.
"I extend the condolences of the people of our Nation to the family and teammates of the Late Kato Otio, as we share your grief.
"The passing of someone so young, so fit and with so much promise, is hard to come to terms with.
"It was only a matter of weeks ago that he proudly wore the colours of Papua New Guinea on the world stage as a Kumul.
"We remember his courage and tenacity as rugby league star, and as an all-round athlete.
"The Nation will learn more of the health conditions that took the life of the Late Kato Otio.


text:
Stephen Mopope (1898–1974) was a Kiowa painter, dancer, and Native American flute player from Oklahoma. He was the most prolific member of the group of artists known as the Kiowa Six.

Early life
Stephen Mopope was born on 27 August 1898 near the Redstone Baptist Mission on the Kiowa Reservation in Indian Territory. Qued Koi was his Kiowa name, which translates as "Painted Robe," and is sometimes spelled, "Wood Coy." His maternal grandfather was Appiatan, a famed Kiowa warrior, and his great-uncles were Silver Horn and Oheltoint (Ohettoint), both of whom were accomplished artists. Oheltoint was one of the Fort Marion ledger artists. Mopope's paternal grandfather was a Spanish captive, adopted by Kiowa chief Many Bears.

When Mopope was a young child, his relatives observed him drawing pictures in the sand, so the artists in his family taught him how to paint on hides in the traditional manner. His grandmother was also instrumental in his early education.

In 1916, Mopope attended St. Patrick's Indian Mission School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, where he received further art instruction under Sister Olivia Taylor, a Choctaw nun. In a move that contradicted US federal policy at the time, Susan Peters, the Kiowa agency field matron, arranged for Mrs. Willie Baze Lane, an artist from Chickasha, Oklahoma, to teach painting classes for young Kiowas in Anadarko. Recognizing the talent of some of the young artists, Peters convinced Swedish-American artist, Oscar Jacobson, director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art to accept the Kiowa students into a special program at the school, in which they were coached and encouraged by Edith Mahier.

Kiowa Six
The Kiowa Six included Mopope as well as fellow artists Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Lois Smoky and Monroe Tsatoke. Auchiah was the last to join the group at OU in 1926.

In 1928, the Kiowa Six made their debut into the international fine arts world, when they participated in the First International Art Exposition in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Dr. Jacobson arranged for their work to be shown in several other countries and for Kiowa Art, a portfolio of pochoir prints and artists' paintings, to be published in France.

Art career

Mopope was commissionined to paint murals in the US Department of the Interior building in Washington, DC, along with five other Native aristists, including James Auchiah. Mopope's mural was 6 by 60 feet and portrayed a Kiowa ceremonial dance.

He joined the Native American Church and created stylized paintings that combined ceremonial implements with religious imagery. Besides being a visual artist, he was a highly accomplished dancer and flute-player.

Mopope's work was part of Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting (2019–21), a survey at the National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center in New York.

Mopope's granddaughter Vanessa Jennings is a Kiowa/Apache/Pima beadwork artist and regalia maker.

Public collections
Mopope's work can be found in the following public art collections:

Anadarko City Museum
Anadarko Community Library
Bank of America Collection, Phoenix, Arizona
Brigham City Museum of Art & History, Brigham City, Utah
City of Anadarko
Cleveland Museum of Art
Dartmouth College Collection
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
The George Gustav Heye Center
Gilcrease Museum
Heard Museum
Indian Arts and Crafts Board, US Department of the Interior
Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art
McNay Art Museum
Museum of Northern Arizona, Katherine Harvey Collection
Museum of New Mexico
Millicent Rogers Museum
National Gallery of Art
Oklahoma Art Center
Oklahoma Historical Society
Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
Oklahoma State Art Collection
Oklahoma Science and Art Foundation, Gerrer Collection
Peabody Essex Museum
Philbrook Museum of Art
Southwest Museum
Seminole Public Library
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Southern Plains Indian Museum
University of Oklahoma, Library
Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
Woolaroc Museum

Death
On 2 February 1974, Mopope died at Fort Cobb, Oklahoma.

Notes

References
Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Press, 1995. .
Swan, Daniel C. Peyote Religious Art: Symbols and Faith and Belief. Jackson, University of Mississippi Press, 1999. .
Wyckoff, Lydia L., ed. Visions and voices : Native American painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996. .

External links

 Jacobson House Native Art Center: About the Kiowa Six
 Stephen Mopope, article from the Oklahoma Historical Society

Kiowa people
Native American painters
1898 births
1974 deaths
Painters from Oklahoma
People from Anadarko, Oklahoma
Native American Church
American people of Spanish descent
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Native American male artists
Native American dancers
Dancers from Oklahoma
20th-century Native Americans
20th-century American male artists

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For 2016 Yamaha has up the technology on the YZF-R1 model that allows for increased control, comfort and ease of use. The crossplane on the engine has been fitted with titanium fracture-split connecting rods on the 998cc in-line 4-cylinder engine making it lighter and more efficient. From the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and the variable Traction Control System (TCS) to the Launch Control System (LCS) and Quick Shift System (QSS) there is plenty of electronics to keep you busy figuring out the best set up for the coolest ride.


text:
Loving GoT's 'Battle of the Bastards' really isn't something to brag about
by Tiffany Antone
Tiffany Antone
Tiffany's Most Recent Stories
Here's What You Need to Know About Pharrell's Wife, Helen Lasichanh
Shopping for someone who's superhero-obsessed? We've got you covered
June 24, 2016 at 9:11am AM EDT
If you're a Game of Thrones addict like myself, you couldn't wait for the "Battle of the Bastards" to air this past Sunday. Ramsay Bolton has haunted our dreams for three seasons now, and the mere thought of him maybe getting what he deserved made me thirst for blood just as much as Sansa.
Related story Game of Thrones Rose Leslie and Kit Harington's Pregnancy Announced In Breathtaking Photoshoot
More: Screw the NBA Finals! Game of Thrones is what got celebs riled up on Twitter
But once blood began to spill on the battlefield, my desire for Ramsay to get his turned into a real-life depressive funk, and I haven't been able to shake it since.
Listen, I know that Game of Thrones is just a fantasy series, but HBO has brought George R. R. Martin's world into such strong focus that at times it feels hyper-realistic. Sure, the show features dragons and white-walkers and zombies, but every character's actions are driven by realistic human needs and desires. Even though the characters are works of fiction, the psychology behind them is not.
That realism is one of the reasons we tune in week after week — and the show's "fantasy" elements protect us from feeling guilty in taking pleasure in such a brutal world. But this week's ultra-intense medieval battle was inspired by actual human history, and its horrifying violence is just too much to ignore.
More: A Game of Thrones Dany, Yara hookup isn't completely out of the question
According to showrunner David Benioff, the mountain of dead bodies we saw on screen wasn't a mere fantasy, but rather a real-life anecdote. "You read accounts of the battles in the Civil War where the battles were piled so thick, it was actually an obstruction on the battlefield," said Benioff.
If that doesn't give you the shivers, I don't know what will. I mean, sure, Jon Snow had Wun Wun the giant, but the brutality of the crushing bodies, the spears closing in on a mass of trapped people and the blood and mud masking all signs of house loyalties as men brutalize one another to settle a score? Those things have happened, and continue to happen, all around the world — only now we use guns and bombs.
Perhaps it's because — as a nation — most of us are so far removed from the horrors of war that we're able to take pleasure in the "epic" nature of the battle's cinematic accomplishments. But is that a good thing? I can't help but think no.
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Every Sunday, we tune in to watch Martin's characters suffer horrendous misfortune so that we can spend the days following wondering how they'll get their revenge. It's a pretty dark thing to do.
And in a particularly contentious election season, where mass-shootings have become the norm and basic civil rights are being challenged across the nation, GOT's gross violence has me feeling incredibly depressed about man's base nature and our propensity to brutalize one another.
Not to mention the pleasure we take in watching such a spectacle of violence for entertainment's sake.
I won't be quitting GOT anytime soon, but I'm sure going to be a little more aware of reveling in its darkness — and maybe, instead of just feeling sick about the show's (and mankind's) brutality, there is an opportunity to have a deeper discussion about human nature and the unexpected insights we can gain from watching Game of Thrones, not just as a form of entertainment but also as lesson in human behavior as well.
You can listen to the Game of Thrones showrunners discuss the brutal "Battle of the Bastards" in the clip below.
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According to a study by the University of California, 9.3 percent of Grammy nominees from 2013-2018 were female, creating a gender ratio of 9.7 males to 1 female.
The Grammys have already received criticism for its lack of representation for women.
Recording Academy president Neil Portnow said if women wanted to win more in their categories that they needed to "step up" their performances.
This comes at a time of reckoning for women in media. Portnow is said to have had a dispute with female artist Lorde, who was nominated for several categories. Lorde was the only female nominated for album of the year. Portnow and the Academy did not allow Lorde to perform one of her songs on stage by herself, sparking controversy with the Academy. Jay-Z and Lorde were the only artists nominated for album of the year that did not perform.
Like #OscarsSoWhite, viewers took to Twitter with the hashtag #GrammysSoMale, calling out the Recording Academy's apparent gender gap.