text:
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Institute for Extra-cutting-edge Science and Technology Avant-garde Research (X-star)
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Home > Press Releases > details
JAMSTEC
Discovery of the "Pekeris Wave" — Special Atmospheric Wave Caused by the 2022
Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic Eruption
1. Key Points
A major eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcano in 2022 triggered a special atmospheric wave that had not been revealed for the past 85 years.
State-of-the-art observational data and simulation model, as well as simulation environments were critical to this discovery.
Fluctuations in atmospheric pressure associated with the "Pekeris wave" may have been involved in the meteorological tsunami observed near Japan after the volcanic eruption in Tonga.
Shingo Watanabe and Masuo Nakano of the Research Center for Environmental Modeling and Application, Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), along with Kevin Hamilton of the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii and Takatoshi Sakazaki from the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, have discovered that the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption on January 15, 2022 (hereafter, the "Tonga eruption") generated a special atmospheric wave. The existence of this wave, which the research team proposes calling the "Pekeris wave," have not been detected for the past 85 years. Pekeris waves are resonance oscillations inherent to Earth's atmosphere that were theoretically derived by Dr. Chaim Leib Pekeris in 1937, and their existence has long been a question in meteorological dynamics.
In the study reported here, the research team analyzed brightness temperature data observed by the Himawari-8 meteorological satellite over the first ~12 hours after the Tonga eruption and identified the Pekeris wave moving away from the volcano at a speed of ~245 ms-1, along with the Lamb wave moving away from the volcano in concentric circles at approximately Mach 1 (~315 ms-1). A numerical simulation of atmospheric response to the Tonga eruption was able to reproduce pressure fluctuations with vertical structures consistent with the theoretical calculations of the Lamb and Pekeris waves spreading over the Pacific Ocean at the same speed as those signatures observed by the Himawari-8. Data from the SORATENA*1 barometer array clearly captured the horizontal structures of the Lamb and Pekeris waves crossing Japan, which were consistent with the simulation results. The results of this research not only have significance as a historical discovery in meteorological dynamics but also suggest that the Pekeris wave may have caused "meteorological tsunamis," large sea-level changes caused by resonance phenomena between the atmosphere and the ocean at the sea surface. The research team plans to investigate such a possibility in the future by combining ocean models and the simulation results of this study to gain a better understanding of these special waves, which will contribute to coastal disaster prevention.
SORATENA: A network of weather sensors installed across Japan by Weathernews, Inc. In this study, data recorded at one-minute intervals from barometers at ~1,600 locations were provided.
This study was supported by the Integrated Research Program for Advancing Climate Models (TOUGOU) (JPMXD0717935715) and the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research program (JP20H01973, JP21K03661, and JP20H05728) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan. The Himawari-8 gridded data were provided by the Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS), Chiba University, Japan. The barographic pressure data of the SORATENA array were provided by Weathernews, Inc. The Visualization and Analysis Platform for Ocean, Atmosphere, and Solar Researchers (www.vapor.ucar.edu) was used to create the explanatory video accompanying this press release.
The results will be published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences on September 12, 2022 (JST).
First Detection of the Pekeris Internal Global Atmospheric Resonance: Evidence from the 2022 Tonga Eruption and from Global Reanalysis Data
10.1175/JAS-D-22-0078.1
Shingo Watanabe1, Kevin Hamilton2, Takatoshi Sakazaki3, and Masuo Nakano1
Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
Department of Atmospheric Sciences and International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
The question of whether or not Earth's atmosphere resonates at a certain frequency, like the strings of a violin or the skin of a drum, is fundamental in meteorological dynamics. At the end of the 18th Century, Pierre-Simon Laplace formulated the mathematical system known today as the "classical theory." One possible solution to Laplace's classical theory was the Lamb wave, first proposed in 1911 by Sir Horace Lamb. Far-traveling Lamb waves move horizontally at nearly the speed of sound; the phenomenon was first described following the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Similar pulses in pressure were observed after the explosion of the Tunguska meteorite in 1907 and during later nuclear tests; to-date Lamb waves have been observed worldwide during the monitoring of nuclear tests.
In 1937, Dr. Chaim Leib Pekeris theorized that, in addition to Lamb waves, Earth's atmosphere might exhibit another unique resonance oscillation that travels horizontally at a slower speed. Unlike Lamb waves, which do not change phase in the vertical direction, these oscillations are characterized by a 180° phase shift in the lower stratosphere. It has been argued that they have large amplitudes in the upper stratosphere because of energy trapping between two temperature minima, called the tropopause and the mesopause, but the existence of such waves has not been confirmed until now.
On January 15, 2022, 85 years after Dr. Pekeris' theoretical study, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, suggesting that there may have been an atmospheric wave that traveled ~20% slower than the Lamb wave. This study attempted to elucidate the Pekeris wave by analyzing observation data from the Himawari-8 meteorological satellites and the barometer arrays of SORATENA, and then conducting and analyzing simulations using a high-resolution whole neutral atmosphere model. The Earth Simulator, a multi-architecture supercomputer owned by JAMSTEC, was used to analyze the observational data and to perform and analyze the simulations in this study.
The research team initially focused on the brightness temperature data of the Himawari-8 satellite, which is capable of observing various phenomena on the Earth using electromagnetic waves. It provides irradiance data in 16 wavelength bands, from visible light to infrared, which is converted to the brightness temperature data. When visualizing the data from the 9.6-μm band, which is the absorption wavelength of ozone and captures variations in stratospheric temperature and ozone density, the Lamb wave was identified moving away from the Tonga eruption in concentric circles at approximately Mach 1 (~315 ms-1). The Pekeris wave was also discovered moving away from the volcano at a slower velocity of ~245 ms-1 (Fig. 1).
Figure 1 Ten-minute difference in the 9.6-μm brightness temperature observed by the Himawari-8 satellite plotted ~4 h after the Tonga eruption (difference between 08:40 and 08:30 on January 15, 2022). Abbreviation: TBB, the brightness temperature.
To determine whether or not the Pekeris wave observed in the Himawari-8 data was consistent with the resonance oscillations proposed by Pekeris in 1937, the vertical structure was also examined. As no observational method yet exists to confirm the vertical structure of the Pekeris wave, a realistic atmospheric field was input to a high-resolution whole neutral atmospheric model (the Japanese Atmospheric General circulation model for Upper Atmosphere Research, JAGUAR), including the vertical temperature structures of the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and lower thermosphere, which were considered necessary for the Pekeris wave to resonate in the atmosphere. Numerical simulations were performed to simulate a far-field response of atmosphere to the Tonga eruption. To reproduce Pekeris wave, horizontal (~5 km) and vertical (~300 m) resolutions several times finer than the global weather forecast model of the Japan Meteorological Agency were needed. Consequently, pressure variations were reproduced with vertical structures that were consistent with the theoretical calculations of the Lamb and Pekeris waves, and which spread over the Pacific Ocean at the same speeds observed by Himawari-8 (Fig. 2).
Figure 2 Pressure anomalies at sea level simulated by the high-resolution whole neutral atmospheric model. The difference between the "eruption" and the "no-eruption" experiments is shown. (a) time in Fig. 1 (08:40 UTC on January 15, 2022); (b) time when Lamb waves began arriving in Japan (11:20 UTC); (c) simulation of the global atmosphere after the Tonga eruption (JAMSTEC).
The good agreement of the JAGUAR simulation results with the pressure pulses recorded by barometers in Honolulu and Yokohama, as well as the data from the SORATENA barometer array allowed for the horizontal structures of Lamb and Pekeris waves that crossed Japan and the temporal variations in pressure pulses to be captured clearly, demonstrating their consistency with the simulation results. According to the SORATENA barometer data, the Lamb wave caused an increase in pressure of ~2 hPa during the first 20 minutes after they began arriving at each location; the Pekeris wave, which arrived ~2 hours later, caused pressure to decline by approximately 0.1–0.2 hPa during the following ~10 minutes (Fig. 3). It is possible that the increase (Lamb) or decrease (Pekeris) in atmospheric pressure caused by the passage of these waves may have contributed to the changes in sea level observed during the same time period. This point has important implications for disaster prevention and should be clarified in future studies.
Figure 3 (a) Distribution of SORATENA stations. Color-coded points are classified according to the arrival time of the peak of the pressure increase caused by the Lamb wave. Contours indicate the great circle distance [km] from the Hunga Tonga volcano (20.5°S, 175.4°E). Time series of (b) SORATENA surface and (c) JAGUAR sea-level pressures, which show the differences between the "eruption" and "no-eruption" experiments.
After carefully analyzing 67 years of hourly surface pressure data from the reanalysis data, the research team succeeded in finding signals of surface pressure fluctuations corresponding to the Pekeris and Lamb waves (Fig. 4). This finding indicates that the Pekeris wave is not unique to the Tonga eruption, but is a resonance phenomenon that exists on a regular basis (Ref.) Thus, the existence of Pekeris waves, which has been debated for 85 years, was conclusively demonstrated.
Figure 4 Power spectral density (abscissa: time period in daily cycles) of the eastward component at zonal wavenumbers 1 (E1) and 2 (E2), calculated from 67 years (1950–2016) of equatorial (20°S–20°N) surface pressure data. The positions of the vertical bars marked with solid and dashed gray lines indicate the theoretically predicted resonance oscillation frequencies of the Pekeris (P) and Lamb (L) waves, respectively. The observed spectral peaks are close to these theoretical values, indicating that resonance occurs at this period; however, the sharp peak near 1.0 cpd is due to the daily period and not resonance oscillations.
5. Future Prospects
The results reported here mark a historic discovery in meteorological dynamics and suggest that the Pekeris wave, which has been considered a "phantom atmospheric wave" due to a lack of real-world evidence to support that, arrived in Japan approximately two hours after Lamb waves, and may have caused unexpectedly large changes in sea-level, called meteorological tsunami, through resonance between the atmosphere and ocean at the sea surface. To reproduce these changes in sea level, it was necessary to input data on atmospheric pressure fluctuations over the Pacific Ocean to ocean models that can represent meteorological tsunamis. JAMSTEC researchers have begun incorporating the results of this simulation into ocean models. Through such research, it will be possible to determine when, where, and how much sea levels might change in response to strong volcanic eruptions somewhere in the world, and thus to prepare for such an event, thereby contributing to coastal disaster prevention.
(For this study)
Shingo Watanabe, Principal Researcher, Research Center for Environmental Modeling and Application (CEMA), Research Institute for Global Change (RIGC), JAMSTEC
(For press release)
Press Office, Marine Science and Technology Strategy Department, JAMSTEC
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text:
The Williams Family
Fashion and Inspiration Shoots >
Styled Shoots FAQ
Tips for Buying Your Wedding Suit
Ed Williams Mens Wear - Styled Shoots FAQ
So what's the deal?
The deal is - we're big into styled shoots. We love working with wedding and fashion specialists from around Southern Alberta. If we haven't worked with you before, that's not a big deal - send Lowell an email at lowell@ewmenswear.com (if you haven't already) and say hi. If we haven't worked with you before, we'll take a credit card number to keep on file when you come in to pick up the clothes we've chosen for the shoot and you're all set.
How much notice do you need?
Ideally, we would have a week's notice before the day of the shoot. That allows time for the model to come in for a fitting.
What type of model should I look for?
When you're looking for a male model for your shoot, look for guys with an average build (average shoulders and chest). Overly developed muscles make it harder for us to find clothes to properly fit the models. Look for models that are between 5'10 and 6'2. We don't do alterations on clothing for shoots (aside from hemming pants), so we are not able to adjust shirts for shoulders, chest or sleeve length.
Why does the model have to come in for a fitting?
We don't send clothes out based on sizes. Men's clothing is similar to women's clothing - every brand has variation in sizes. Because we want our best work represented in the shoot, we want to be able to see which pieces fit the model best and create cohesive looks that complement your vision for your shoot.
We find that fittings that take place 4 - 7 days before the shoot work best, that way the model can come in (photographers and stylists are more than welcome to come in too!) and get properly fitted, and we're able to hem the pants. The stylist or shoot organizer can take the clothes from there - we're also find to send to clothes with models as well.
Fitting times need to be booked in advance - we always have staff on hand to help, but it helps to know when models are coming so we can pull clothing and make sure there is a dedicated team member.
Models will have to provide their own shoes for the shoot so it helps for them to bring those shoes with them, but it's not mandatory.
What does EWMW need from you?
Not much - just a vision of your shoot and a few basic details (time of year, location, theme). If you have a Pinterest Board or inspiration photos, those always help us to create looks.
Similar to gown boutiques, we often send out clothing worth thousands of dollars on styled shoots. Taking care of men's clothing is pretty straight forward. When not being worn, the shirts should hang from the hanger with a few buttons done up to ensure it doesn't fall off the hanger. Suit jackets and sports coats should be hung on hangers. Pants should be folded along the crease (please ask if you're not sure what that means) and hung on the hanger. Ties should be hung on the hanger, and any accessories like cufflinks will be boxed.
Because men's clothing doesn't weigh as much as a wedding gown, sometimes it can be hard to tell if it's fallen off the hanger in a suit bag. An easy accident, we ask that you check that the suit is still on the hanger during transportation to and from the shoot.
ED WILLIAMS MENS WEAR
M-F : 10AM - 6PM
179, 5005 Dalhousie Dr. N.W
CALGARY, ALBERTA - T3A 5R8

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How do I write a Python class taking other super class objects as parameters Lets assume that I have a class called Person, and a class that inherits this called Group.  Person has an attribute called name and one called age.  When I create a Group I want to pass n person objects and their new name is a combo of names, and their new age is their combined age.
also for the hell of it, going to keep track of how many people, and how many groups there are separately (just so inheriting makes any sense in this example.)
class Person:
    count = 0
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age
        self.id = make_person() # count is also the person's id in this example

    def __str__(self):
        return f'Name: {self.name} Age: {self.age}'

    @classmethod
    def make_person(cls):
        cls.count += 1
        return cls.count

class Group(Person):
    def __init__(self, *people):
        #not sure how to do this, Below Does Not Work, something like
        new_name = self.make_group(people)
        new_age = self.new_age(people)
        self.name = new_name
        self.age = new_age
        super().__init__(self.new_name, self.new_age)

    def make_group(self, *people):
        return (' & ').join([person.name for person in People])

    def new_age(self, *people):
        return sum([person.age for person in people])

then you would think i could write
anne = Person('Anne', 20)
bob = Person('Bob', 20)
carl = person('Carl', 25)

couple = Group(anne, bob)
threesome = Group(anne, bob, carl)

print(couple)
print(threesome)

but this doesnt work.  For some reason the group class isnt getting the people object i pass, or i'm defining it wrong...any ideas?

A: What you have written is that a Group is a particular type of Person.  This doesn't seem quite right to me.  Regardless, here is a version that will run and give the desired output:
class Person:
    count = 0
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age
        self.id = Person.make_person() # count is also the person's id in this example

    def __str__(self):
        return f'Name: {self.name} Age: {self.age}'

    @classmethod
    def make_person(cls):
        cls.count += 1
        return cls.count

class Group(Person):
    def __init__(self, *people):
        #not sure how to do this, Below Does Not Work, something like
        new_name = self.make_group(*people)
        new_age = self.new_age(*people)
        self.name = new_name
        self.age = new_age
        super().__init__(self.name, self.age)

    def make_group(self, *people):
        return (' & ').join([person.name for person in people])

    def new_age(self, *people):
        return sum([person.age for person in people])

anne = Person('Anne', 20)
bob = Person('Bob', 20)
carl = Person('Carl', 25)

couple = Group(anne, bob)
threesome = Group(anne, bob, carl)

print(couple)
print(threesome)

Changes from your code:

*

*some typos with capital letters

*put a * before people when passing it

*take care of variable scope

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Fun and adorable, cake pops are easy to make and delicious. Choose home made or store bought cake and frosting.
Crumb cake into a large bowl. I used 3/4 of an 8×8 pan of chocolate cake.
Measure out frosting and add it to the crumbs. Mix the crumbs and frosting well until the frosting has been completely incorporated in to the crumbs. It will still look like crumbs, but will hold together when pressed together.
Roll the mix into 1″ balls, pressing firmly. To make the football shape, firmly press cake into an oblong shape, approximately 1 1/4″ long. It is important to compact the cake mixture so it doesn't fall apart during coating.
Place pops on a parchment paper covered baking tray and place in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
Place 1/4 cup of chocolate or white chocolate chips in a microwave bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring well in between until completely melted. Add 1/4 tsp. of oil to chocolate and stir well. This will help the chocolate to coat smoothly.
Remove one cake pop from the freezer at a time. Dip a lollipop stick in the chocolate and insert into the bottom of the pop to the center, being careful not to push out the top. Spoon chocolate over the pop, turning pop slowly over the bowl. Gently shake the pop to allow excess to go back into the bowl. For white chocolate on chocolate cake, coat twice. Coat once, allow to set, then coat a second time.
he chocolate will set up quickly. If sprinkles or sanding sugar is desired, gently dip pop into decorations before the chocolate sets. To drizzle with another chocolate, allow coating to dry first and then drizzle. To make laces on the football pops, place melted white chocolate into a decorating bag or plastic sandwich bag with a corner cut and "draw" laces on top of pop. Set pop into Styrofoam, firmly pressing on stick, not pop. Allow to dry completely.
Continue with the rest of the cake pops, removing one at a time from freezer, melting chocolate and adding oil as needed.
To display the cake pops, cut a piece of Styrofoam slightly larger than your serving piece and press the Styrofoam into place tightly. Firmly press pop sticks into the Styrofoam. Once all the pops are in place, cover any Styrofoam showing with tissue paper.
These can be made a couple of days beforehand and kept refrigerated until needed.
This Cake Pops recipe is gluten free and vegetarian.


text:
News and Podcasts
ProgRock.com
Ep. #328: December Music Mixer
We spent the first portion of this month's music mixer talking about the band Jolly, and their deployment of a new business model using Patreon. You can check out this exciting new way to support bands here.
Next up on the discussion was the new Steven Wilson EP and tour. The initial information on the EP can be seen below, and newer tour dates and information is being released regularly on his facebook page here.
22nd January will see the release of a new Steven Wilson album "4 ½", so titled because it forms an interim release between Steven's recently released fourth album Hand. Cannot. Erase. and the next studio album.
4 ½ comprises 6 tracks with a total running time of 37 minutes. 4 of the songs originated during the sessions for Hand. Cannot. Erase., and one from the recording sessions for the previous album The Raven that Refused to Sing. The final track is a version of Don't Hate Me, a song originally recorded by Porcupine Tree in 1998, and is based on a live recording made on the recent tour of Europe with additional recording later done in the studio. The vocals on this new version are sung as a duet between Steven and Ninet Tayeb.
Also appearing on the album are members of Steven's band over the last few years; Adam Holzman, Nick Beggs, Guthrie Govan (Official), Dave Kilminster, Craig Blundell, Marco Minnemann, Chad Wackerman, and Theo Travis.
4 ½ will be released by Kscope on CD, 180 gram vinyl, and blu-ray, with all formats housed in a beautiful die-cut sleeve photographed by Lasse Hoile and designed by Carl Glover. The blu-ray (audio only) edition includes high res stereo, a 5.1 mix of the album, and a bonus 5.1 mix of the new version of Lazarus (recently included on the Transience vinyl compilation). The vinyl edition will include a download code for the album in a choice of FLAC or mp3. The album will also be available digitally on 22nd January from iTunes, Amazon.com, Google Play & Apple Music.
Steven Wilson – "4 ½"
1. My Book of Regrets (9.23)
2. Year of the Plague (4.15)
3. Happiness III (4.31)
4. Sunday Rain Sets In (3.50)
5. Vermillioncore (5.09)
6. Don't Hate Me (9.34)
Next on the docket was a hypothetical look to the future and the next Transatlantic tour. The band has used both Ted Leonard and Daniel Gildenlow on previous tours as the extra man, so the question is, who does the band turn to on the next tour?
Then we turned our attention to Blind Guardian, their latest album Beyond the Red Mirror, and the subsequent tour. In a rare occurrence, Mason got to see this tour, and so did Joe, so Nick was the odd man out of that discussion. Of course we all gave some input on the album itself, which can be purchased here.
What came next was a general discussion on the merits of waiting in line before shows, or tailgating, as it pertains to meeting other fans and fantastic people. That tied in nicely to an event that had plenty of waiting, Cruise to the Edge 2015. In that discussion we talked about the number of guests compared to the total the ship could hold, and further research has found the double occupancy capacity of the Norwegian Pearl is 2,394. However it should be noted that cabins can, and will often have more than 2 people in them.
Finally, we talked about the first song released from the new Dream Theater album, The Astonishing. You can check out the video for "The Gift of Music" video below, and the interview we referenced during the show here.
Thanks for listening, and we will see you again in January! If you have anything you'd like us to discuss, please leave a comment or hit the email button at the top of the page!
http://media.blubrry.com/wpapu/p/www.wpapu.com/sounds/Mixer328.mp3
Posted on 2015-12-06, 1:45 pm By Rush3737
No comments yet Categories: Podcasts, Show Tags: mixer, Podcast, show
Ep. #367 featuring Haken
Few bands have a longer or more storied career with When Prog and Power Unite than Haken. Our program was broadcasting the band even prior …
Ep. #366 featuring Mystery and ProgStock
Another year, another new prog festival. Now in its second year I got to visit ProgStock in Rahway, NJ for the first time this past …
Ep. #365 featuring Lux Terminus
Sorry for the wait! Going forward I'm going to try (I know, said it before!) to do this on something of a more regular basis, …
Review: Iris Divine – The Static and the Noise
Review: MindMaze – Resolve
Review: Pain of Salvation – In the Passing Light of Day
Interview: Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon and Star One
Interview: John Arch of Arch/Matheos and ex-Fates Warning
Interview: Richard Henshall of Nova Collective and Haken
The Future of When Prog and Power Unite
Hello there, it's been quite a while! As I've eluded to during previous shows life has changed a lot for me over the past year …
10,000 downloads!
I've seen this coming on the horizon for awhile now, but a few days ago When Prog and Power Unite hit a pretty special milestone, …
2015-03-06 – News
Since the new website launched a week ago, it has felt like things have gone a million miles per hour, so let me try to …
Visit the Station
© 2019 When Prog and Power Unite | Wednesday, 6-9pm EST, 10pm-1am UTC


Texture is not initially loaded in solid mode/LookDev mode in Texture Paint mode after reopening a file, and instead the render is presented with a solid pink.
1 - File > New > General.
2 - Select "Texture Paint" tab.
3 - In "Texture Slot", add a new Base Color, default settings with a random color for visibility and OK.
4 - Save to disk the Material Base Color texture generated as png.
5 - Save to disk the blend file (test.blend).
6 - Open Recent > test.blend.
The error can be reproduced in Solid Mode and LookDev Mode if changing the mode before saving the file.


The online gambling industry is coming close to entering its official 20th year of existence. In the past two decades, a number of top companies have emerged that have really dominated the landscape of this industry. This includes a mix of older companies who got their start in online gambling in the late 1990s as well as companies that have come up a bit later on the scene. Whether they're a part of the new breed like Canada's own Amaya Gaming Group, or if they're a part of the old guard, all of the largest top ten businesses in this industry have been through a lot of interesting events.
The third edition our the Top 10 was released in December 2017. For the latest up-to-date list, please visit our updated article.
Since 1997, it has been known for focusing and producing high-class, high-profile online gambling sites. 888 Holdings has a focus on quality over quantity even though they cover every major type of Internet gambling company including bingo, poker, casino, sports and casual gaming. While they are number ten on this list, their overall worth is pretty big considering how relatively few sites they operate compared to some of the other holdings groups on this list.
The big news for 888 Holdings has been a potential buyout in early 2015 by William Hill that completely fell through. William Hill was wanting to buy at a little over £2 per share while 888 held tightly to their own £3 per share evaluation. Neither side would budge through negotiations for several weeks (if not months), and that was the end of the deal.
Bwin.party is the result of a major 2011 merge between PartyGaming and Bwin Interactive. PartyGaming started in 1997, and they dominated the online poker world in the number one spot before the passing of the UIGEA in 2006 which forced them to pull out of the United States in order to stay on the London Stock Exchange. They're currently operate the number three online poker room in the world behind Amaya's PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. They also have an overwhelming sports betting product in continental Europe with Bwin.
More recently, in 2014 Bwin.party was on the receiving end of a ton of criticism because of huge bonuses that were given to top executives while the company was going through a period of negative growth. About 30 percent of shareholders were against the bonuses after the market cap of the company had dropped by almost two-fifths during their time in power. We haven't had enough time to see if they've earned these bonuses, but they could fall off of the top ten list if something doesn't turn around.
Betsson is the largest Swedish online gambling company who originally focused on B2B efforts before opening up in the B2C arena. This particular company was founded in 2000, but the company itself and the people backing it were working together since the 1960s. This means that they have a deceptively long history in the industry despite the Betsson name only being used since 2000.
In the land of fixed-odds sports betting sites, Betfair (established in 2000) completely changed the game by putting in place a market where players could offer and accept each others wagers instead of having to deal with fixed-odds packages only. This has led to them being the largest betting exchange on the Internet.
Generally seen as the biggest online gambling software provider by volume, Playtech's main characteristic that sets them apart is that they're well-known for their online casino game selection even though they tend to focus on other areas like bingo, sports betting and poker. Teddi Sagi formed the company in 1999, and after hitting the London Stock Exchange in early 2006 at a value of about £550 million, the passage of the UIGEA in the United States gave it an almost immediate drop of about 40 percent later that same year. In spite of this, they have continued to dominate the industry ever since.
The Amaya Gaming Group is the largest Canadian online gambling company, and it's only surpassed in size by two of the biggest gambling brands in history. Unlike many companies on this list, they are an investment group which has purchased a number of major assets thought to be undervalued. So far, they've been proven right over and over again under the leadership of CEO David Baazov who has taken the company from small beginnings to its current status as one of the primary juggernauts in the online gambling world.
Two major actions have really defined Amaya in its current state. The first was its 2012 purchase of CryptoLogic. CryptoLogic was once the largest online casino software provider in the world, but they ran into a lot of financial problems and lost their position because of poor leadership. Baazov targeted this company and purchased it to shore up their own online casino holdings. They were immediately in the green after restructuring, and they have remained profitable since.
What really makes Amaya a big deal right now is that they are the center of the online poker world after purchasing PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker in 2014. Several billion dollars had to be raised for the purchase, and it helped to make Canada the biggest country in the world for online poker. The deal was so big that they are being investigated for their position on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but no charges have been filed as of the time of this writing.
Known as the largest gambling company in Ireland, Paddy Power has made an exceptional name for themselves. Aside from providing excellent services, they've mostly done this through outrageous marketing campaigns that have gotten them into hot water more than once. The company itself was founded in 1988 when three bookmakers combined their shops under one name. They were then particularly aggressive about expanding to more betting shops in the late 1980s and early 1990s which gave them a foothold on the industry that they were able to parlay into a foothold on the online gambling world.
Paddy Power has frequently been seen as the king of controversy. For example, when Barack Obama was elected as the President of the United States in late 2008, they offered a bet at 16:1 odds that he wouldn't finish his initial four-year term. Many people took this to believe they were offering a bet on Obama's assassination. They also offered odds on the first species to be made extinct as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. Did you hear about the most controversial ad campaign in the UK last year involving Oscar Pistorius? ...guess who??
The oldest company on this list is William Hill. They've been around since 1934, and the company is named after the founder William Hill who first started accepting bets thanks to a loophole he was able to exploit in the ban on gambling that existed in Britain at the time. What really sets this company apart is that they have been able to use decades of experience in the land-based gambling industry to define how they operate their online holdings. This experience edge has allowed them to dominate most of Europe in the realm of online betting.
Being on top is not without controversy. A number of accounting irregularities were found in the late 1990s, and this caused them to be held under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office of Britain. This happened primarily during the sale of the company from Grand Metropolitan to Brent Walker, and it was mostly a matter of Grand Metropolitan lying about the profit levels to run up the price that Brent Walker was willing to pay. William Hill has also been accused of having members of parliament on the payroll, and they benefited a fair amount from new UK gambling tax structures that went into place in 2014 that forced out a lot of the smaller competition.
What Sets These Gambling Companies Apart?


Campaign finance reform has been a goal of the organization Common Cause since it was founded in 1970 by the great John Gardner, a Republican.
"Somebody once said the Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency." So John F. Kennedy famously remarked in 1961, and so the town seemed to remain when I first moved there in 1969 to go to school.
There were still "temporary" buildings on the National Mall that had been there since the end of World War I, filled with government workers. But any citizen could freely walk the corridors of Congress, enter a member's office to leave an opinion, pick up a pass for the visitors' galleries of the House or Senate, or ride that little subway that runs underneath the Capitol. No campaign contributions required.
Or so it seemed to a white, middle-class college kid. Washington also was a city in decline. Not quite a year and a half had passed since the three days of riots that followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Thirteen people had died, more than a thousand were hurt, and you could still see piles of rubble and burned-out storefronts.
This is not just the fault of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, although it has unleashed vast new sums of cash into the system — compare this year's elections with the midterms of four years ago.
But the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act has been eviscerated by the courts, and what's left of it is barely enforced by the Federal Election Commission. The same goes for various provisions of the federal tax code, which need not only stricter enforcement but beefing up.
Unfortunately, while the voting public expresses concern over campaign spending, it's not very high on their agenda; most believe it will take an outrage such as Watergate, or at least another Jack Abramoff influence peddling-type scandal to get reform back on the tracks.
Campaign finance reform has been a goal of the organization Common Cause since it was founded in 1970 by the great John Gardner, a Republican. My colleague Bill Moyers ended their anniversary dinner last week with a call to action, invoking the memory of Gardner and another prominent member of the GOP.


Rob McElhenney has found success in Hollywood thanks to his role as creator, producer, writer and co-star of the FXX series It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, but since the show debuted back in 2005 he hasn't actually done much outside of it. That's about to change in a major way, as its been reported that he has just landed the job directing the upcoming video game movie Minecraft.
Deadline has the scoop on this development, noting that McElhenney has not yet had the experience of helming a feature film. His only experience as a director to this point has been on two early episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and a pilot for an FX series called Pariah starring Bill Burr. He's actually the second filmmaker to take the reins of Minecraft, as it was originally set up as a project to be made by Night At The Museum's Shawn Levy (who wound up leaving due to creative differences with Mojang, the creators of the popular video game).
At this stage, it's not entirely clear why Mojang and Warner Bros. would look to someone with so little experience to helm the Minecraft film - but Deadline definitely paints a picture of Rob McElhenney as a guy who knows how to get stuff done. Not only did he decide to create It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia after getting sick of acting auditions, but it's also noted that he went above and beyond when it came to selling Figment - a feature he is currently developing with Legendary Pictures that he is set to both write and direct. When he presented his idea for the family action film, he came prepped with a 20-minute pitch as well as a four-minute test reel. Legendary found this impressive enough to make a deal.
As it currently exists, the Minecraft movie is definitely a big mystery. Shawn Levy said that Mojang rejected his idea of creating a film with the material that is in the spirit of The Goonies - but that idea was ultimately rejected, so we're left really knowing nothing about what to expect from the in-development Hollywood feature. The "sandbox" structured source material, which allows players to build complex environments out of pixelated blocks, doesn't really offer too much in the way of narrative structure - so until we hear any official details from Warner Bros., all we really have is speculation.
Knowing that Rob McElhenney doesn't have a ton of experience as a director, what do you think about him getting the job at the helm of the Minecraft movie? Do you think he's a good choice, or would you have preferred to see someone with a bit more veteran status take on the material?


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I Was a Teenage Necromancer
Dreadwizard Siegfried
Chapter 2-Dead Tired
Fiction Page Report Chapter
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A note from Dreadwizard Siegfried
Hello! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter! I origionally posted it in parts on Spacebattles.com, and didn't realize how long it was when put together. Please enjoy!
The alarm went off promptly at seven, and was just as promptly pounded with a fist coming somewhere underneath the tangle of sheets and blankets, making Amber jump. She watched it retreat into the blankets like the tail of a dragon.
"M-Morning." Amber said nervously, eliciting a growl from the bed.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Scott grumbled.
"Seven o' clock?"
"No. Bedtime."
"Scott! It's seven, time to get your butt out of bed mister!" his mother called from below. Scott grumbled again.
"How many times must I tell her before I get it into her head that I do not function in the mornings?"
"Maybe it's because of your nocturnal extracurricular activities?" Amber provided, and Scott groaned again.
"I am a night owl doomed to a family of morning people." Reluctantly, he got up and stumbled out the door. "Be right back. Honestly, I don't know whether to pity or envy you for being a ghost. Don't have to sleep, don't have to use the bathroom in the morning…"
Amber paused to consider his words. Was it really better to be a ghost? True, having incorporeal traits could be useful, she supposed. But he didn't know how frustrating it was not to simply be able to touch something. To never be seen or heard, save by a loopy necromancer. Cut off from the rest of the world in a most cruel and decisive way, able to see and hear but unable to actually do anything.
And she had been a ghost for less than two weeks. She shivered; if Scott hadn't offered a way out, Amber was sure she'd go mad within a year. She shook her head. No, it sucked being a ghost. Last night had proved that once again. She had spent the entire night on the floor beside his bed. It was too dark to examine the room, and she didn't want to leave the only person who could perceive her.
However, it was day now. Amber looked around the room, vaguely wondering what a teenage necromancer's personal space looked like. It was almost disappointingly ordinary: a TV in the corner, a bed against the wall, a bookshelf filled to bursting with comics and fantasy novels, a soaking wet bikini model licking her lips seductively from a poster. Nothing that she supposed she wouldn't find in any other fifteen year old boy's room. At that thought, she realized this was the first time she'd been in a guy's room. Alone. With him.
Amber's train of thought was derailed when Scott walked back in, yawning. She jumped and was silently glad she no longer had the ability to blush.
"Find something interesting?" he asked and started getting ready for the day, but paused before taking off his nightshirt. "You, uh, mind?"
"Oh! Sorry!" Amber squeaked and turned to stare determinedly at the wall. "Just…everything's so, well, normal, I guess. I was half expecting black walls, metal posters, and a bunch of candles and animal skeletons or something."
"And precisely why would I have stuff like that? If I had other skeletons, I'd put 'em to use." Scott said, pulling a shirt on. "I'm just a regular guy, 'cept for the y'know, raising the dead thing."
"Yeah, I guess. It just doesn't, I don't know, gel together." Amber confessed. Scott grinned.
"If you're looking for spooky stuff, it's not like my room's totally devoid of all that." He reached into his closet and moved a box against the wall. There was a two foot hole in the back. "I was about seven when my brother and I were fighting one time. Thing is, he slipped on something and made a hole in the drywall when he hit it. He freaked and made me promise to never tell mom or dad. I agreed because I didn't want to get in trouble either, and it seemed like a good place to hide stuff. You know, if I ever wanted to. Used to put odd shaped stones in it, pretended I was guarding magic gems when I was playing. But now I actually have something valuable to store in there."
He pulled out an ancient, well-worn book. Amber shivered, despite the fact she couldn't feel cold. The cover of the book looked almost like a human face, twisted into a demonic wail. "Bound in human skin. Written in blood. This book contains all manner of methods of sorcery, how to bind and banish spirits and devils, and most importantly, instructions on how to raise the dead. Everything I ever needed to learn, came from this book. It tells of old gods, forgotten realms, and terrible prophecies of when the stars are right. Written around the fifth century by the mad Arab Abdul Al-Hazred, it is the only one of its' kind in existence, offering unholy knowledge and truths too terrifying for the sane to comprehend and the mad to forget. It is the Necronomicon." If Amber could still feel, she would have felt her flesh crawling at the mere sight of that book.
"I…I don't doubt it. Where did you get such an…evil thing?" she asked nervously. Scott shrugged.
"From the library."
"The LIBRARY!?" Amber exploded. For once, she was glad no one could hear her. Her shout would have deafened the neighbors.
"Yeah, darndest thing. Turns out the Necronomicon is a mild pop culture artifact, and you can actually buy fake copies online. This one was donated way back when so I guess they thought it was one of those. I was the first person to check it out. Of course, then I had to pretend to lose it, you know? But I think knowing the secrets of life, death, and everything between and beyond was well worth twenty-six dollars, don't you agree?" he said smugly. Amber deflated at his explanation.
"Whatever you say."
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"Bye mom!" Scott called and waved back at the house. A hand waved back from the window. Citing the need to get to school early for a project, he'd grabbed some coffee and a bagel on his way out, passing a harried-looking woman and what appeared to be a small mountain in the shape of a high schooler that could only have been his brother.
"Aww, shouldn't you have had breakfast with your family? I wanted to meet them. Err, kind of. Observe them, at least." Amber said.
"Nah, have to get moving before I crash too hard." He went over behind a storage shed and thumped on the ground. "Doing okay down there, Bones?" he yelled into the dirt. A minute later a bony hand emerged, giving a thumbs up. "Alright. Rebury your hand and we're good to go." When they'd all gotten back to his house Scott had commanded the skeleton to rebury himself about two feet under the dirt and stay there until further instruction. Amber was confused.
"Why go to all of that trouble of digging him up if you were just going to bury him again?" she'd asked.
"Because I needed him to be reanimated, closer at hand, in an unobtrusive spot, and he won't get bored down there. Now shut up, I'm trying to concentrate!" Scott had whispered furiously, dangling from a rope beneath his second-story window. Amber of course had merely phased through the wall and taken the stars. "Stupid ghosts. They don't need to worry about sneaking in, they can't be heard at all." he'd muttered.
They trudged along to school, Amber in the vaguely happy mood she'd been in since discovering someone to talk to and Scott in a black cloud that didn't match the blue, sunny skies.
"I can't wait to see everyone again. I know they won't be able to see me, but it'll be good to check up on them. Especially Stephanie, she's been my best friend since forever. And there's Carla and Ivory and-"
"Hate to break it to you, but you just named like half the top clique." Scott interrupted.
"You know, the cool kids. The popular folk. The royalty of high school. The A-list. The…"
"I know what it means." Amber deadpanned.
"Right. So in case you didn't know, I'm not exactly part of the in-crowd. I won't be going near them."
"Oh." Her face fell. "Okay, I guess. I'll just hang around them at lunch or something. Oh! Don't worry; I'm looking forward to meeting your friends too!" Scott laughed mirthlessly.
"Yeah, don't hold your breath on that one. As the guy who plays with dead things, I'm not exactly the most popular around. I'm, not exactly…the, uh, best at social activity." he said, his voice dropping and looking away.
"Ahh, it's alright. I have hobbies to keep me busy, mostly raising the dead. Oh yeah, now that I think about it, don't wander off too far from me."
"Huh? Why?" Amber asked.
"To prevent your incorporeal degeneration." Scott said.
"Degeneration?" Amber asked again, stopping in her tracks. Scott sighed.
"Degeneration. To gradually decay, to-" Amber gave him a light smack on the back of his head.
"I know what it means. So why am I going to do it?" she said.
"Right. So ghosts are by their very nature unstable beings. It's how they don't interact with matter like the rest of us do. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes the ectoplasm that makes up their bodies will basically run out and dry up. Which means…"
"I go poof?" Amber said, horrified.
"You go poof." Scott confirmed.
"Aaaaaauuuugh! That's terrible! What can we do to stop it?"
"Not much, admittedly." Scott said. "There's a whole bunch of stuff in the Necronomicon, including ghosts, but even it doesn't have all the answers. There's no telling how much time a ghost has before its' power runs out and it's consigned to oblivion."
"Oblivion? You mean…" Amber put her hand to her mouth, aghast.
"Yup. No moving on, no chance of resurrection. You're gone for good. The book said that strong ghosts, who were particularly obsessive or full of vitality when they were alive, could last longer, centuries even. You wouldn't have happened to have anything you were so passionate about you would give everything for it, and couldn't let the grave separate you from it?" he asked. Amber slowly shook her head. "I see. I'm sorry."
"I…I actually think I've heard of that before," Amber said, trying to think of anything else besides her imminent doom. "Ghosts are supposed to look after or repeat what they did when they were alive, right?"
"Most of the time. I think it's what brings them back, that pure desire." Scott said.
"But I don't have anything like that. And my afterlife expectancy just dropped because of it. This sucks." She shuddered, and it looked like she was going to cry. "I didn't ask to be killed. I didn't ask to be a ghost. I don't even know why it happened; I don't have any real unfinished business or anything." She looked at him forlornly. "I mean, I had some dreams for the future. I wanted to travel a bit. Go to college. Meet a cute guy. Have kids. Why did this have to happen to me?" The spectral tears began to slide down her face. Scott gulped.
"Well, the book doesn't say, but I've theorized that non-obsessive ghosts do happen a lot more than we realize. But without a strong anchor to this world, they…don't have the strength to keep going." Scott said, immediately realizing he said the wrong thing but too late to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. Amber buried her head in her hands and started sobbing. Scott was at a loss for words, and didn't know how to make it better.
"That's it then. I'm gonna disappear." Suddenly, Amber recalled what the young necromancer had said earlier. "Hey, wait. You said there wasn't much you could do. That means you can do something at least, right?" His eyes grew wide and he shifted uncomfortably, trying to look at anywhere but her.
"Err, well, yes… um, but…you see…" he sputtered.
"Tell me!" she demanded, and he sighed.
"To be honest, yes, there is something I can do. A couple of things we could try, in fact. But!" he declared, pointing a finger to the sky. "The only method I know of and am willing at all to use, is incredibly powerful and not easily irrevocable. If worst comes to worst, I'll do it, but it's a step I've hope I'll never have to take. I'm only going to use it as a last resort. Got it?" This was the first time Amber had ever seen Scott look so serious. His emerald eyes were boring into her with such intensity they practically glowed.
"G-Got it." Amber managed to meep.
"Good." he said, mollified. "Anyway, I want you to stick close by just in case. I'd really rather not use it, but a deal's a deal and if there's no other way I've gotta keep you around until I bring you back to life. That I can guarantee."
"Gotcha."
The walk to school on a bright autumn day found two people grimly marching on. While one's mood was down, another's had lessened, but both were filled with resolute determination.
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Things didn't improve much in school. Amid the hustle and bustle of lockers slamming, gossip being mongered, and classes in session, Scott trudged through it all like a crab on the ocean floor, never interacting with the fish above. Amber watched him through four periods, each of which he passed through disinterestedly taking notes. Since school started, she could count the words he'd used to anybody, even the teachers on one hand. He couldn't even talk to her either, for fear of looking insane. When Scott said he didn't have very good social skills, Amber had no idea that he was basically a pariah.
She sat down on top of a neighbor's desk and huffed. A few days earlier, the fact that he was writing on a worksheet through her would have bothered her, but Amber paid it no mind. She was worried a little bit; did he really have no friends at all? Even for a necromancer, that just seemed…sad. She stole a look at him, surreptitiously trying to read a book under his desk instead of paying attention to the math lecture.
Her brow furrowed in concentration. She had seen him once or twice, of course. They had the same third period history class. It had given her a funny feeling to look at her own empty seat, and she hadn't dared to sit in it again. From what she could remember, Scott Brookhaven was always quiet and alone. He never spoke unless necessary, and only raised his hand to answer a question if nobody else did first. Most of the time, he had his head buried in a book, like he did now. But from what she could gather, his grades weren't great. Not bad, but not great.
So if he wasn't just a meek little bookworm, what was he? Amber glanced at him again. There was no way this quiet, submissive Scott and the sarcastic, arrogant, cheerful Scott who loved to hear his own voice she had met last night were one and the same. Why such a big difference? Amber tugged her ponytail in puzzlement. Maybe, she reasoned, it was because it was she was a ghost. He didn't seem to particularly care what she thought or did, probably because she couldn't tell anyone else, so that might be it. She wondered if she could in fact recall him as anything more than a fleeting glance out of the corner of her eye, being ignored and unnoticed by everyone. Her eyes widened and she turned towards him. Was that it? Was the answer really so simple?
Amber jolted from the desk when the bell rang. Everyone else was rushing to pack and get out of the room, but Scott was slow and methodical in his motions and so was the last one to leave. Amber trailed behind, wondering.
She had nearly forgotten it was lunchtime when they headed to the cafeteria. Scott scanned the benches, searching for something but apparently coming up empty. He shrugged and got in the food line. By the time he paid for his burger and sat down at an empty space, Amber was almost ready to pull her hair out.
"Listen, I know you can't talk to me at school, but all this constant silence is driving me crazy." He gave her a smirk, as if to say one day of talking to someone made her an addict. She bristled and smacked his head, making his hair flip up. "Hardy-har, smartypants. My friends are over there. I can be back in a flash if I have to. Is it alright if I go over for a while?" Scott nodded. "You won't be bored by yourself?" In response, he pulled out his book and nodded again. "All righty then. See you."
She drifted over to where Stephanie and the others were sitting and eating lunch, standing at the edge of the table and leaning down to listen in. It wasn't very polite, but she figured it was compensation for having a ketchup-covered fry pass through her arm.
"I don't know, it was the craziest thing. I had the coupon for the dress, but for some reason the tag wouldn't come off and the staff was giving me a hassle because the coupon and the sale weren't supposed to stack together, but there wasn't any reason for them not to, so…" Ivory droned on, and Amber sighed with contentment. She really didn't know how much she missed the little things, like Ivory telling them about her latest shopping conquest, until it was gone. Carla, Ivory, Courtney, Bess, and Stephanie. Her friends. AS she listened to them talking about everything at once and nothing in particular, tears threatened to spill forth once more. Would she ever be able to talk to them again?
Amber looked over to Scott, still calmly reading his book while eating. If he really could pull it off, she would be able to be with her friends again. She turned back to the table, the group chatting away innocuously.
"Right. I guess it's settled then." Amber said, nodding to herself. If he brought her back, she would be forever indebted to him, warehouse or no. She'd only known him for a day, but to Amber he seemed so reserved and lonely. She resolved to help break him out of his shell, at least a little. He might not have friends now, but if he brought her back Amber promised herself he'd have at least one.
"…so weird without her. I never thought she'd be killed like that, you know?" Amber's head snapped up.
"Yeah, I never thought she'd be a target for…you know, the Craven Falls Killer." Carla said.
"I totally agree. Such a shame." Ivory put in.
"Yes. Well. I suppose there's no helping some things. What happened has happened, and there's no changing that fact or any use trying to live in the past. So we should drop the matter and move on, okay?" Stephanie said curtly, punctuating her statement by getting up and tossing her tray. The rest of the group, Amber included, looked surprised and chastised.
"She's right. Amber's…gone now, so there's no more use going over it. It probably is for the best we try to put it behind us." Courtney said eventually.
"Yeah, amber was Stephanie's best friend. If she doesn't want to talk about it, then she doesn't have to. And we all agreed to support her. Right?" Bess said, to a chorus of half-hearted "I suppose so" and "yeahs." "Good. Then the matter's settled. What are the plans for this weekend?" she added with an air of finality. Amber stood up and sighed. Bess was always the mother hen, trying to keep order in the group. She might seem bossy, but she was always looking out for the rest of them.
"Bess, Stephanie, you guys. I swear that I'll come back, don't you worry. Then everything will be back to the way it was. I promise. With one final glance at her friends, she went back over to Scott.
"Have fun?" he muttered, never looking up from his book.
"As much as a barrel of monkeys." she quipped, and cast a longing look at them. "They're a whole lot more fun then you are." She laughed when he grunted, but sat in a chair next to him all the same. "You know, it was good to see them, but it actually kind of hurt to be around them again. I guess this is just a case of so near, yet so far, huh?" Scott nodded. "Then again, I don't suppose you've had much of an issue with either side of my problem." He shot her a flat look, then absorbed himself in his book again. "Great. I can only talk to one other person in the world, and he's king of the grouches. Story of my afterlife."
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Despite most of their schedules being different, it turned out that they shared the same English teacher as well, to their mutual displeasure. Not because of distain for one another, or even the subject itself; they both hated Mr. Grant. Of an advanced age temperamentally, if not temporally, his classes were rigid and dull, preferring to lecture at his students until they fell asleep. Whereupon he would turn red and begin shouting. However the average turnaround from being yelled awake back to bored stupor was 5.3 minutes. Amber sat on the floor, grimacing. If there was one good thing about being dead, it was not having to sit through Mr. Grant's classes anymore. Yet here she was, forced to follow Scott around for the day and whose class did he have?
"Story of my afterlife." she sighed. She threw an annoyed glare at the young necromancer. He was getting out of paying attention by once again pretending to take notes while secretly reading a notebook on his lap. Amber decided enough was enough, and got up. "Hey." She poked him. "Hey." She poked him again. "You're not supposed to be doing that in class. If I've gotta suffer, so will you." At her third poke, Scott frowned and his pencil finally moved on the notebook on his desk.
'What do you want?' he wrote, shifting it so he could see.
"I'm being tempted to stay six feet under just so I never have to step into this class again. His lecture's putting me to sleep and boring me to death, and I can't actually do either! It's driving me nuts!" He shot her a dry look.
'Really?'
"No! I'm bored and lonely and scared because of everything going on, I don't want to have to deal with this on top of everything else! At least you can read a book, I can't even turn a page!" Amber shouted, throwing her hands up in frustration. She paced around the room, heedless of desks and students alike. "I'm sick of it! I can't talk to anyone-else-and just look at me! I've been stuck in the same clothes for two weeks now!" She swept her hand at her outfit of loose t-shirt, sweatpants and socks Great for sleeping, not so much for nearly anything else. "I'm almost glad no one can see me. I just feel so sloppy, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it!"
Scott waved her over with a finger, then began writing again.
"Huh? 'I've been wondering about that, you've never tried poltergeisting since you died?'" She glowered at him. "Please assume I don't have the same knowledge as you please, thank you."
'I mean, have you tried moving things telekinetically, with your mind? That's what the Necronomicon says ghosts can do, at least.' Scott wrote. Amber's eyes widened.
"I can do that?"
'Theoretically. The book says ghosts can concentrate their ectoplasm in order to affect the material world. And changing clothes should be the same. Since you're made out of ectoplasm, you should be able to apply changes to yourself as well. I haven't seen you floating around, either.' If Amber's eyes got any wider they'd fall out of her head.
"I…can do that? I can really…fly?" she asked in a small voice. Scott rolled his eyes.
'You're still thinking like you're a human. You're not right now, get over it. But until I can revive you, you might as well accept the good with the bad. You should practice, it'll keep you occupied. Now leave me alone, I need to rest. I didn't get much sleep last night, and I won't tonight either because I'll be digging up your body.' he scribbled out.
"You're going tonight? I could be alive again tomorrow?" Tears welled up in her eyes again. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" Scott nodded and underlined 'practice.' "Oh, right. I'll, uh, get started right away."
For the rest of class, only one student noticed the eraser making small, jerky slides on the chalkboard. Throughout the day, she worked on making things move.
Soon after, the school day was over and the pair could finally make their way home, in considerably better spirits than when the day had begun.
"Did'ja see the eraser, did'ja see!? I could move it without touching it! This is great! I made pens roll, papers float, I could even move a chair a little bit! Haha!" Amber laughed, skipping along slowly. It seemed that she could do quite a bit with her newly discovered powers, but they took energy out of her, leaving her tired and weak.
"That's great, but don't push yourself. We don't want you burning out." Scott said.
"I know, I know. Really, I'm okay. But you have no idea how freeing it is, being able to actually do things again. It's exhilarating. And watch." Amber closed her eyes in concentration. After a minute, Scott watched in fascination as her form rippled and shifted, morphing into jeans, boots, and a white blouse. "Phew. Ta-daa! What do you think?"
"Pretty cool. It's gotta be convenient to change clothes just by thinking about it."
"Yeah. All I have to do is picture what I want to wear in my head and try really really hard to become that image. It's a whole lot easier than trying to move stuff, too." She looked up at the sky, then back to Scott. "I, uh, I'm a little nervous to try this next part out."
"Don't be. The worst thing that can happen is you phase through the ground. It'll be fine." Scott reassured her. She took a deep breath and tensed up.
"Okay. Here I go. One, two…three!" She straightened up, arms uplifted and pointing her face straight up at the sky. And stayed that way.
"You know, it works a lot better if you actually try to fly." Scott deadpanned.
"S-Shut up! It's not that easy, okay?" Amber retorted, once again grateful she couldn't turn red.
"Ghosts interact with matter differently than actual objects. That includes air molecules, so get your butt off the ground." Scott said, still calm.
"Okay, okay. Here goes." She hunched over, her face scrunched up in concentration. After a minute, her feet left the ground and she hovered about a foot and a half in the air. Her eyes were still closed. "How's that? Is it working?"
"Why don't you actually look and see?" One eye peaked open, then with a loud shriek she flailed her arms in the air, causing her to tilt forwards and phase her head through the ground, sticking there.
"You okay down there?" Scott asked, trying to suppress a laugh and failing. Amber's reply was inaudible, but he got the feeling it was not appropriate for innocent ears.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Just get it out of your system now." Amber said, floating up with her feet in the sky. With a bit of effort she righted herself. "I don't see why you had me do this anyway. You're going to dig me up tonight, right?
"Mostly it got you off my back today, so I could concentrate." he freely admitted. "Besides, I thought you'd like the ability to fly. I'm pretty sure it's been a dream for everyone since the dawn of time." Amber shrugged and tugged at her ponytail.
"I…uh, don't do well with heights. I'm a little afraid of them." Amber said shyly.
"So I've noticed." Scott said flatly.
"Is the coast clear?" Scott whispered. Amber poked her head out from the wall.
"It's all good. I did a scan and everyone's asleep." It was nearly midnight, and time to get to work. As soon as he got home, Scott had fallen onto his bed and didn't get up until his brother physically dragged him to dinner. Hot dogs, mac and cheese, and tense silence were served. Amber gathered that his parents were fighting over bills, sniping at one another over dinner. Scott and his brother tuned them out, apparently used to it.
"Don't worry, it happens all the time. They'll make up, it'll be fine." Scott reassured her, but Amber was still unsettled. Her parents never argued about money, and when they did fight it was behind closed doors.
She shook her head and returned to the matter at hand.
"I watched everyone for at least three minutes. No one's going to notice. But does your brother know how loud he snores?"
"Tell me about it. We used to share a room when we were younger; I can't tell you how much sleep I lost back in the day." Scott said, rolling his eyes.
"So your current schedule is nothing new, then?" she asked, too innocently.
"Ha ha." he deadpanned, then slid the window open to toss a rope out. "The door squeaks like all hell, so Mom'll notice right away. Found that out the first time I snuck out the hard way. The second floor window became easier than the first floor door." He dug around in his closet and pulled out the Necronomicon. "Should probably take this, too. I haven't memorized this ritual yet."
Making sure the rope was securely fastened to the dresser, Scott climbed out the window and slowly closed the glass with one hand, making sure to leave it open enough he could easily get his hand underneath to pull it up. Once everything was secure, he rappelled down the house as quietly as he could.
"C'mon, Amber! We gotta go!" he hissed as loud as he dared.
"No problem, it'll just take me a second to walk down the stairs and-" she started, but Scott wasn't having any of that.
"Amber!"
"Oh fine." she huffed. Closing her eyes, she jumped through the wall, knees bent and completely focused on not falling. So much so she didn't actually descend.
"The sooner you get down, the sooner you live again!" Scott stage whispered.
"All right, all right." Scrunching up her face in effort, she drifted down as gently as a dandelion seed in the wind. "Happy now?"
"Ecstatic." They set off down the street, Amber scouting ahead for people still awake, Scott muttering about girls that couldn't act like the proper phantoms they were.
The trip was uneventful; Amber even began to find it enjoyable. The sky was clear and bright, a cloud drifting across a yellow crescent moon and stars dancing their light down. Of course, she didn't feel the cold that was making Scott shiver. Soon they reached the cemetery, Scott boosting himself over the wall while Amber merely walked through.
"Must be nice." Scott muttered, dusting himself off.
"Trade you." Amber shot back. Scott grinned.
"I'll pass. But it would be useful, just phasing through stuff. I try my best, but I'm always afraid I'll leave evidence when I'm up here. I haven't seen any guards yet, but my activities can't go unnoticed forever. I'm sure the cemetery workers have figured out there's someone coming in late at night. I just hope they blame it on some kids or something."
"Really? But aren't you a kid?" she teased.
"Ha ha. I'll have you know fifteen really isn't that kiddish, no matter how you look at it."
"Oh? But a lot of people consider fifteen or even older to be kids." Amber said.
"They're wrong." he said with confidence.
"Then what would you call yourself?"
"A young adult." He said it so proudly, with his nose in the air, that it made Amber crack up laughing all the way up to her grave. Scott cracked his neck and planted the shovel in the dirt.
"Guess it's time to go to work." he said, starting a pile of earth. "Wish I'd brought Bones up here to dig for me. If I have a minion, I should be able to use him." he grumbled.
"Why didn't you?" Amber asked.
"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how hard it is to actually get your hands on a human corpse? I have to be very careful not to dig up a grave someone visits, is in plain view, or is tended regularly. With Bones, I only have four zombies buried in my backyard. If anyone finds out about them, there's a lot of questions I don't want to answer, doubly so if anyone sees them moving around. I can't risk it. Secrecy is a key part of my operation."
"Ahh. I see." Amber left him to his digging. Unfortunately, that left very little to do. She stared at the sky, paced around the growing hole, even took to practice hovering. She didn't want to break his concentration and slow down, but after what felt like hours, she couldn't take it anymore. It reminded her too much of her two weeks of solitude.
"So…read any good books lately?" she asked lamely.
"Only the Necronomicon. Scott said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Actually, I haven't had time for my personal reading lately. I'm either trying to catch up on sleep or going over my notes and experimenting." Amber's brow furrowed.
"Experimenting?"
"Yeah. Like, two weeks ago I found an old mouse corpse. Now I know I can make a zombie no problem, but I wanted to test the incantations a bit. So I cut its head off and tried reanimating just that." Amber made a face, and even Scott was looking green in the gills as he remembered. "I know, total horror story. Not exactly the most pleasant of experiences, but we all have to make sacrifices for science. Anyway, I cut its head off and did the ritual, and it worked perfectly. I had a severed head yapping at me. Real creepy, but it worked. So then I tried to reanimate just one of its paws and tail, separately. It worked, but the strange thing was it didn't last very long. They moved around, even responded to my commands, but after about five, ten minutes they were inert again."
"Wait, they responded to your commands? But they don't have ears." Amber said, thinking hard on how this was supposed to work. Scott just shrugged.
"Got me, they don't have any brain to interpret the words either. I think it's because it was the fact that I reanimated them, but who knows for sure. So after that, I tried the rest of the body, and get this-the whole thing gets up and stays animated. I timed it and it lasted hours. Later on I tried sewing the head paw back on and glued the tail back. Guess what happened."
"They got reanimated too?" Amber raised her eyebrow at this development.
"Exactly!" Scott threw his hands up in the air, protesting his lack of understanding. "It's crazy, I have no clue how it works! I mean, the tail's not even attached to the rest of the body's cells, the glue completely separates it! But it still works. I eventually sewed the head back on, it's just a regular zombie mouse now."
"Jeez. You could just reassemble a rotting mouse and it's no worse for the wear?" Amber said.
"Yup. Oh! And it's not rotting." Both of Amber's eyebrows shot up at that statement.
"It's not rotting?"
"Yeah. As far as I can tell, the process of decay seems to stop as soon as I give it necrotic energy. And it stays that way. It seems like the magic constantly repairs and refreshes the bones and flesh to the state it was previously in, but I can't know for sure until I do more research and I just don't have time right now. My grades are slipping because I keep falling asleep in class and everyone keeps hounding me about it because they expect me to care."
"And you don't?" Amber asked.
"Of course not." Scott said matter-of-factly. "School is overrated and a waste of my time. My vocation lies in reanimating dead people, I don't see how high school is supposed to help with that."
"Ahh. I guess not." Amber said, biting her lip. "I don't know if I'm weird or not, but I always kind of liked school. I go to meet my friends every day, and homework at least gave me something to do after school at home. I never minded it, not really. I really liked math class, it was my favorite."
"Why's that?" Scott asked, his head popping out of the hole. It was getting quite deep.
"Mmmm, I'm not really sure. It was always the subject I enjoyed the most. I think it's because math is constant. There's always an answer, no matter how hard it is to figure out. Everything always comes together and works out in the end." she said, a smile on her face.
"So, when you come back to life, do you want to be, like, a math teacher or something?"
"I'm not sure. I've thought about it, but I haven't come to any sort of decision on the matter. I could see myself doing it, though. You know, you're kind of lucky you know what you want to do with your life." Amber said wistfully.
"I guess. Necromancy is-" The shovel hit something solid. "Ahh! That's it, I've got the coffin."
"Really? Yes!" Amber pumped her fist.
Scott rapidly cleared the rest of the dirt from the grave, then broke the lock with the shovel. Amber would have waited with baited breath, had she any to hold. He lifted the lid up to examine her body.
"Okay, let's see what we got here…wow, the morticians did a really good job here. Alright, everything seems intact." Her body hadn't visually decayed at all, and Scott poked at it. "Simple enough job, looks like. What was the cause of death again?"
"Ugh, don't remind me. I was stabbed." Amber said, wrinkling her nose.
"Ah yeah, think I remember that. Welp, no problem here. We'll have you on your feet in no time." he said. Amber let out a laugh and clapped her hands, hovering off the ground. Scott pulled out a marker and started to draw sigils on her body, starting with her head.
"I really can't thank you enough for doing this, Scott. I mean, you're kind of saving my life here." Amber said. For the first time, she saw him smile, not a grin or a smirk. An actual smile.
"It's no problem. R-Remember, I'm getting paid, so…huh?" Scott tilted his head in puzzlement. He had been marking a sigil on her heart, but there was a ton of stitching on her chest messing his lines up. "Were you stabbed in the chest?"
"I…don't remember that well, honestly." Amber admitted. "I think? I remember the police talking about chloroform, and the killer actually-ugh-taking something, like a trophy." It really weirded her out talking about her own death like this, but Scott's eyes went wide. Suddenly he grabbed the dress on her body and ripped it open, exposing her chest. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Amber screeched. Scott ignored her and stared at the mass of stitches on her chest over her heart. He swore.
"Tell me. Did the police say that your heart was taken?" he said curtly.
"I guess? What the hell is going on!?"
"It means the resurrection can't be performed. I can't bring you back without your heart." he sighed, shaking his head. Amber went bug-eyed.
"Yeah, this's messed up. What to do, what to do…" He started pacing back and forth.
"What do you mean you can't bring me back? I thought you said damage to the body doesn't matter!" she shouted, her arms in the air.
"It doesn't but all of your body has to be there!" he snapped back. "Especially the heart! It's one of the most important organs, especially when it comes to magic. I can bring you back no matter the state it's in, but it has to be there, along with the brain, eyes, skull, liver, and…" he suddenly trailed off, going pale and eyes wide with horror.
"What? What is it?" Amber said, looking around for danger.
"That serial killer…the one that's been in the news. Has…there been any mention of other body parts harvested from his victims?" he said in a small voice.
"Um…I don't think so. I caught the report of my death on TV, but now that I think about it there wasn't any mention of my heart being taken." Amber said, frowning.
"Jeez. Oh jeez." Scott started to hyperventilate, then focused and took several long, deep breaths to calm himself. "Okay, first things first. I'm sorry, but I can't bring you back to life right now. I'm definitely going to keep my end of the bargain, but we have some work to do before that can happen." He stopped pacing and stood up straight. "Right. I have a plan. It's not perfect, but it should work. Will you help me?" Amber rolled her eyes.
"Of course! Duh! You're my ticket out of limbo; I'll do whatever I need to!"
"Good. We need to break into the police station." Scott stated matter-of-factly. Amber stared at him for a moment, and then pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I don't know what I expected, I really don't…" she muttered. "Why do you want to break into the police station?"
"Because that's where the reports are kept. We need to find out if any other organs are missing from the victims, and the fact they haven't reported it means someone's trying to keep this quiet. I know it's going to be tough, but you'll be incredibly useful as a scout. If you go first, we should be able to avoid most problems. The real problem is the security cameras…" he trailed off, becoming lost in thought. Amber put her head in her palm and sighed.
"…but then I suppose it wouldn't cover my face, maybe a mask…"
"Scott." she said again, louder.
"…look suspicious as hell though, but-"
"Scott!" she shouted, jolting him from his thoughts. He looked up at her. "We should break into the morgue." He tilted his head.
"The morgue?"
"Yes. Not only will it be definitely less risky than the police station, it's guaranteed to have the information we need, and we won't have to shuffle through other stuff like traffic reports to get it." She explained. Scott opened his mouth, paused, then closed it and nodded.
"I knew there was a reason I kept you around."
"Yeah yeah. Fill in the grave and let's go, seeing me like this is freaking me out. And cover me back up!" she snapped, and Scott turned red.
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" he saluted and got to work. The hole was quickly filled in while they discussed the logistics of the upcoming operation. Soon Scott patted down the dirt and they left for home. They were so wrapped up in conversation they didn't notice the glowing fingers crawl up on her gravestone, nor the head that reared up behind it.
"Well, well, well. The little necromancer returns..." it said, licking its chops.
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Paperback, 7 x 9 in. / 224 pgs / 32 color.
What role should a city's historic architecture play in its future? In areas facing demographic shifts towards lower populations and, in a vicious cycle, economic slowdown--in the European and American heartlands--the question is crucial. And any answer requires innovative methods of preservation for monuments and historic buildings, beyond the current standards. Ideas for the reevaluation of structures at hand, for subsequent discourse, and for preservation itself are illustrated here with cases from the European cities of Quedlinburg, Halle-Neustadt, Le Havre, Ljubljana and Novi Beograd. The organization behind The Other Cities series, International Building Exhibition (IBA) Urban Redevelopment 2010, is an innovative project established by Saxony-Anhalt in the face of urban attrition there. Town and Heritage is the sixth volume of their Other Cities series.
FORMAT: Paperback, 7 x 9 in. / 224 pgs / 32 color.


Why Do Dogs Foam at The Mouth After Licking a Frog?
Why do dogs foam at the mouth after licking a frog? In fairy-tale stories, kissing a frog makes it turn into prince, but when it comes to dogs, kissing the wrong type of toad may lead to foaming at the mouth, and in some cases, even death. If your yard provides a good habitat for frogs and toads, and your dog comes back from the yard one day foaming at the mouth, take the issue seriously.
Why do dogs foam at the mouth after licking a frog? In fairy-tale stories, kissing a frog makes it turn into prince, but when it comes to dogs, kissing the wrong type of toad may lead to foaming at the mouth, and in some cases, even death. If your yard provides a good habitat for frogs and toads, and your dog comes back from the yard one day foaming at the mouth, take the issue seriously. Turns out, depending on where you live, your dog may have encountered a type of toad that is poisonous.
Is that critter that leaps a frog or a toad? Often both terms are used interchangeably, but there are some differences that set these amphibians apart. According to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, there is no scientific distinction between "frogs" and "toads" as they both belong to the anura order. However, according to Maryland Zoo, frogs are members of the ranidae family; whereas, toads are members of the bufonidae family. How can we tell them apart though?
Frogs are for the most part aquatic or semiaquatic and they have smooth, sort of slimy moist skin. Frogs like moisture so they tend to hang around ponds and marshes. The have strong and long hind legs and webbed feet that help them leap and swim.
Toads on the other hand, are terrestrial and they have dry, warty skin adapted for drier climates. Toads may be found in a variety of environments, from arid areas to rainforests. Unlike frogs, toads have short hind legs that are more suitable for walking versus serious hopping.
While there are many species of poisonous frogs who advertise their toxicity with bright colours, dogs are more likely to encounter toads as the majority of poisonous frogs are likely to be found in tropical rainforests. Toads release toxins from their skin and some even have special poison glands (parotoid glands) in the back of their heads and other parts of their bodies. When toads feel stressed, their skin may excrete mild toxins or, in the case of the poisonous toads, their poison glands may excrete a milky, alkaloid substance known as bufotoxin which acts as a neurotoxin. These toxins are made so to make the toad slippery to hold onto and unpalatable to predators.
Two types of toads are known for their poisonous effects. The giant toad, also known as the marine toad or cane toad (bufo marinus) is found in south Texas, Hawaii and southern Florida. According to the University of Florida, its secretions are known for burning the eyes and irritating the skin and they're even capable of killing cats and dogs who ingest it. The other troublesome toad is the Sonoran desert toad also known as the Colorado River Toad (bufo alvarius). This toad is found in southeastern California, New Mexico, Mexico and most of southern Arizona.
Dogs are particularly drawn to frogs and toads because they trigger a dog's predatory drive. Several types of frogs and some toads secrete mild toxins from their skin which are irritating to the mucosa of the dog's mouth. This irritation causes dogs to drool and sometimes even vomit, explains veterinarian Dr. Matt. The bitter taste of these mild toxins is meant to discourage animals from picking them up so they're dropped at once and they can escape, claims veterinarian Dr. Scott Nimmo.
However, the poisonous cane toad and the Colorado toad can cause much more damage than local irritation to the dog's mouth, so if you happen to live in southern part of the United States, it's important keeping a watchful eye for symptoms such as trouble breathing, an elevated temperature, an abnormal heart rhythm ( with heart rates even exceeding 260 bpm) and neurological signs such as dilated pupils, loss of coordination and convulsions. Also, keep an eye on the gums which typically turn brick red, according to the Pet Poison Helpline.
Drooling, retching and vomiting are often seen immediately, generally within 30 minutes of exposure. Cardiac signs may show up as early as 15 minutes but there have been reports of them showing even up to 4 hours later, explains veterinarian Jarrod Butler with the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.
Did you know? There are anecdotal reports of dogs developing gastrointestinal problems and cardiac arrhythmias after drinking water from bowls where Bufo species have been seen sitting for extended periods, further explains veterinarian Jarrod Butler.


Diabetes Tab 4 of 4.
Type 1 Diabetes requires regular administration of insulin and careful regulation of blood sugar through eating and exercise.
Type 2 Diabetes is the most common - 90% of diabetes patients have Type 2- and it is treated with adjustments to diet, exercise, and, in some cases, oral medication.


to index them in LucidWorks.
LucidWorks built-in web crawler is based on Aperture. It is great for basic web crawls, but I needed more advanced features that it could not provide. I had to configure LucidWorks with an external crawler that had more advanced built-in capabilities and the ability to create new functionality.
Naturally, I turned to Apache Nutch. I was spending a fair amount of time cracking the code open, looking for plug-ins and so on, and at some point, Norconex HTTP Collector was introduced internally for testing before the official release. I decided to give it a go and see how well it would integrate with LucidWorks. I immediately found it easier to configure, with only one configuration file for my customization. The integration was actually smoother than I expected, thanks to the available Solr Commiter.
Since LucidWorks uses Solr internally, the idea was simply to add the required constant fields and URL argument to the Solr Committer based on LucidWorks documentation on external crawlers integration and Nutch integration.
Access LucidWorks admin console, and click on a collection (or create one in case you have not done so).
In the URL field of your browser, you will find a number (e.g. 25 on older LucidWorks) or a code (e.g. 927df3075b544785892c6b4c51625714 in newer LucidWorks); please copy this somewhere as we need it later.
Save the form and keep in mind that we will be using the values you provided in the next steps.
In the Commiter configuration, we must add a parameter "fm.ds", which LucidWorks expects when the documents are being indexed. This will allow you to use the "Edit Mapping" feature from the LucidWorks user interface for the content you are indexing.
With the Norconex HTTP Collector working just fine with LucidWorks, I easily configured the missing crawling features I was after. If you are using LucidWorks, I invite you to download and try Norconex HTTP Collector. If you need help or run into any issues, feel free to reach my colleagues or myself on GitHub or leave a comment below. I would also like to hear your experience with it.


This is a Chinese meatball recipe with ground pork and spiced with five-spice powder.
Fried meatballs is a homey recipe, one that you can prepare every day for your family without much hassle: a recipe that is great for children and adults alike.
The only special ingredient in this fried meatball recipe is the fish paste, which makes the fried meatball extra yummy.
I use frozen fish paste. If you can't find it, you can also substitute it with minced shrimp. Enjoy!
Everyone loves meatballs. This is a Chinese meatballs recipe where the meatballs are fried. Easy and delicious meatballs recipe that everyone will love.
Mix all the ingredients (except the oil) in a bowl and blend well. The mixture should be sticky.
Heat up a wok with some oil enough to cover half of the meatballs (shallow fry the meatballs). Wet your hands with some water. Using a teaspoon, scoop up some of the meatball mixture and shape it into a small. Drop the meatball into the wok to fry. Repeat the same until you use up the mixture.
Use the spatula to turn the meatballs to fry the other side until they are cooked. Serve hot.
looks very delicious and yummy,i like this recipe, thanks for sharing.It is done and enjoy it…..
Ooh, this looks delicious! While it's likely to get eaten right away when made up, do you happen to know if this recipe freezes well?
What would you think of substituting the fish paste with shrimp paste?
Oh this looks yummy and easy, I will have to add this to my "to make" list.
Definitely and after you try this fried meatballs recipe, I am sure you want more!
I can take this meatball one after another without noticing how much calories intake.
I come from an Italian family where meatballs are serious comfort food – love this version with five spice powder and fish sauce! Just brilliant.
Hi Katherine – you should try it. It's very good!
My mom would also add grated taro. I suppose every family would have their own version but the end result would be delicious nonetheless as they are made with love at home.
Grated taro, that's a great idea. Yes, love meatballs.
I am not sure why though, but I think it's because the meat balls lost its moisture during the deep-frying process. Did you fry for too long?
Did you say fish sauce? YUM! I love anything with fish sauce~~! I've heard about five-spice. I need to look into that when I go to Asian market next. I've seen many recipes with that spice but I'm not familiar with it. Thanks for the wonderful recipe Bee!
Will try it today. Thanks for the recipe.
My paternal grandma used to make delicious fried meatballs every CNY. Now she's so much older and has had a relapse of cancer, we no longer get to enjoy such treats. I'll try this recipe and make some for her to try. :-) Hope she will like it cos it sounds really good.
Why I cant see your meat ball recipe?
Please click page 2 for the fried meatball recipe (at the bottom).
Can I add fresh fish paste instead of the frozen one, what other ingredient should I put into the fresh fish paste? Thanks.
Yes, you can. You just add the fish paste into the pork.
I love this! Just made this for dinner and my son loves it! Thank you so much for sharing all your wonderful recipes. Reminds me of my childhood with my granparents!
I would like to make these for dinner but I am struggling with what sides to have with the meatballs. Any ideas?
I think it goes well with salad or even soups, or noodles.
Tried this last night and it was good! :) But I added carrot purée and chopped coriander as there's no onion at home. How would I know if the meatballs are well cooked yet not overly cooked inside? Cheers!
I just love this! Terrific pictures.
It is hard to get the fish paste in some cities, so I often add in some corn flour or tapioca flour or even bread cubes. Meat balls is one of the best and simple dish. From here we can make it into Sweet and Sour and so on. I often add in some tapioca flour and all the ingredients given and BEAT until a ball is formed then make into balls. Or you can add in some fried salted fish — chop into tiny cubes into the minced meat.
Fish paste is just basically fish meat. It's what made fish balls. Not sure if you can buy ready-made fish paste from Singapore, if not you can use shrimp or fresh fish meat.
Or wet market yong tao hu stall.
Could anchovy paste be substituted?
You can substitute with shrimp.