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50 years of science sagas
Dec. 15, 2009, 2:34 AM UTC
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Jenny Moltar / NASA
The top science sagas of the past 50 years span the spectrum from the cosmos
to the world of atoms, molecules and subatomic particles.
How do you summarize the past 50 years of discoveries in science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics? And how do you predict what breakthroughs will be made in the next 50 years? That kind of challenge would be doubly daunting for any one person - but fortunately, we have a huge crowd of science fans to help with the task.
Coming up with the top 50 sagas in science is one of the ways that the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing plans to mark its 50th anniversary in 2010. The council began its work in 1960, in the wake of the first satellite launch, to help researchers and writers get the word out about the new era in science and technology that was dawning back then.
The end of the year is a fitting time to review the highlights of the past 12 months, and the end of the decade provides an opportunity to look back at the top stories of the previous 10 years. But the chance for a 50-year perspective doesn't come along too often, so the rules have to be different.
For this list, we're focusing on research milestones that have generated headlines through the years. You won't find listings for events in the realm of science, space and medicine that may have generated huge headlines but did not involve advances in research - for example, the Challenger shuttle disaster of 1986 and the Columbia tragedy of 2003. However, we are including the Sputnik launch in 1957 as part of the '60s timeline, in part because it seemed to serve as a fitting start for the past five decades of discoveries.
To engineer a list of 50 science sagas that are evenly distributed over five decades, you need to combine some developments and separate others. A single item on the list encapsulates five decades of particle physics, while no fewer than eight items document the revolution in genetics.
Strangely enough, you'll find that a lot of the stories we're talking about today trace their roots back to the 1960s. The Large Hadron Collider, for example, builds upon theories and experiments that are more than 40 years old. The Internet we know and love got its start in 1969. The effort to send humans beyond Earth orbit dominated the decade, and a renewed effort is much on NASA's mind today.
This list draws upon the input of other science writers, including members of CASW's board, but it's not set in stone. We welcome your comments about breakthroughs we may have missed. Perhaps there are some science sagas we've addressed in a single phrase that deserve a more extended mention. Or maybe there's a better way to explain the significance of a particular science saga.
This week, we're going to roll the list out day by day, decade by decade. Here are the milestones we've come up with for the 1960s:
1. Satellites: Russia launches Sputnik, opening the space race. America responded with the 1958 launch of Explorer 1, the first satellite to produce a significant scientific return - namely, the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt. The first successful weather satellite (TIROS 1) and the first communication relay satellite (ECHO) were launched in 1960. The space race and the satellite revolution kicked scientific and technological progress into high gear – and created greater demand for science news coverage.
2. 'The Pill': The first oral contraceptive is introduced. The Food and Drug Administration's approval of Enovid-10 ushered in the era of "the Pill." Few medications have had such a widespread impact on society and social norms.
3. The laser:First working laser is put into operation. Theodore Maiman's optical-light ruby laser followed up on earlier research by Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow, who developed the first maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) in 1954. The 1964 movie "Goldfinger" may have portrayed it as a killer ray, but the device came to have user-friendly applications ranging from eye surgery to DVD players to supermarket checkouts.
4. Cracking the DNA code: Biochemist Marshall Nirenberg and his colleagues publish the first of a series of papers laying out how DNA's genetic code is translated within the cell. The cracking of the code built upon Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA's double helix almost a decade earlier, and opened the way for the genetic revolution to come.
5. Plate tectonics: Geologists Harry Hess and Robert Dietz propose that seafloor spreading and subduction are basic parts of the mechanism for plate tectonics - a finding that led to the rapid acceptance of the tectonic theory behind Earth's large-scale geologic changes. The study of paleomagnetism led scientists to conclude that Earth's magnetic poles periodically reversed, providing an important geological dating method.
6. The environmental movement: Marine biologist Rachel Carson's masterwork, "Silent Spring," is published. The environmental concerns voiced in the book helped spark a grassroots movement that led the federal government to create the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and phase out the use of DDT in 1972.
7. Quasars:The first quasar - quasi-stellar radio source - is discovered by Dutch astronomer Maarten Schmidt. Scientists eventually determine that quasars are compact regions in the center of active galaxies that mark the presence of a supermassive black hole. The discovery was a key turning point in our understanding of galactic development and structure.
8. Quarks and all that: The quark model of particle physics is proposed. The ideas put forth by physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig touched off a decades-long quest to find the subatomic particles that matched the theory, including the J/Psi particle (found in 1974), the W and Z bosons (1983) and the top quark (2004-2005). The quest continues today at America's Fermilab and Europe's Large Hadron Collider, where scientists hope to detect the Higgs boson, the last particle predicted by the Standard Model.
9. Big bang's afterglow: Cosmic microwave background radiation is discovered by radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, an achievement that earned them a Nobel Prize in 1978. The background radiation serves as the fossil imprint of the big bang and has helped astronomers determine the geometry of the universe. The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), launched in 1989, was a landmark space mission that followed up on Penzias and Wilson's discovery by mapping variations in the background radiation.
10. Heart transplants: First human-to-human heart transplant is performed. Dr. Christiaan Barnard's operation in South Africa prolonged his patient's life by only 18 days, but helped set the stage for rapid progress in medical transplantation techniques. Stanford heart surgeon Norman Shumway was an early pioneer in transplant medicine, and Denton Cooley and Domingo Liotta made a significant contribution in 1969 with the first human implantation of an artificial heart.
11. Moon landing: Humans make first landing on the moon. The Apollo series of moon surface missions, beginning with Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, marked the climax of the decade-long U.S.-Soviet space race and also led to fresh scientific insights into the origins of Earth and the moon.
12. Internet: First node is connected on ARPAnet, the predecessor to the modern Internet. What began as an research project to develop a nuke-proof communication system ended up revolutionizing academic exchange - and eventually modern society. Twenty years after the Internet's birth, CERN's Tim Berners-Lee brought the global network to a higher level with the invention of the World Wide Web.
Jump ahead to the 1970s ... to the 1980s ... to the 1990s ... to the 2000s ... or see the full timeline on CASW's Web site.
As long as we're talking about timelines, please suggest some of the milestones we might see on a timeline stretching from 2010 to 2060. My favorites include private-sector spaceflight to Mars and beyond, hints of life (or at least livability) beyond Earth, fusion power, more widely available terrestrial solar power and space solar power, cell-based therapies and increasingly intelligent machines. What are yours?
To get the creative juices flowing, here are some additional perspectives on the 50 years (and five years) to come:
The world in 2058
Five frontier technologies
Why the future goes flooey
Edge: The next 50 years
Popular Mechanics: Miracles of the next 50 years
Isaac Newton's prediction for 2060: The end of the world
Alan Boyle serves as the treasurer of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. Join the Cosmic Log team by signing up as my Facebook friend or following b0yle on Twitter. And pick up a copy of my new book, "The Case for Pluto." If you're partial to the planetary underdogs, you'll be pleased to know that I've set up a Facebook fan page for "The Case for Pluto."
Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


I have a requirement where I have a timestamp column and would like to Group on hours, minutes, seconds etc based on the value in the timestamp column.
I remember that there are some teiid functions using which we can accomplish this functionality but cannot recollect them now.
Can you please let me know those functions and the usage of those functions?
For the hour, minute, second functions.


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install
`brew install mongodb`

launchd
`mongod --config /usr/local/etc/mongod.conf`

check
[http://localhost:27017/](http://localhost:27017/)

client
`mongo`

## 基本操作

1) insert

`db.citycode.insert({"city":"beijing", "code":"PEK"})`
`db.citycode.insert({"city":"shanghai", "code":"SHA"})`

2) find

`db.citycode.find()`
`db.citycode.find({"city":"beijing"})`
`db.citycode.find({"code":"SHA"})`

3) update

`db.citycode.update({"city":"beijing"}, {"city":"beijing", "code":"NAY"})`

4) remove

`db.citycode.remove({"city":"beijing"})`

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
L'élection du président du Mouvement socialiste panhellénique en 2007 a eu lieu le  pour élire le nouveau président du parti Mouvement socialiste panhellénique à la suite de la demande Giórgos Papandréou de mettre son poste en jeu pour renouveler la confiance des militants du PASOK à la suite des résultats de l'élection de septembre.

Candidats

Inscrits

Evángelos Venizélos est soutenu par Andréas Lovérdos, Christos Verelis ancien ministre des Transports et des Communications (2000-2004), George Floridis, George Lianis, Michalis Neonakis, Stavros Soumakis et  Kimon Koulouris.

Déclinés

Résultats

Références

Élection en Grèce
2007 en Grèce
Mouvement socialiste panhellénique
Élection en Europe en 2007

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Join us twice a month on Tuesday evenings. 6:30-8 pm.
Journeywork, guided meditation, and personal discovery in a safe, intimate environment.
All people who are interested in exploring shamanism and working with Divine Light as a form of healing and spiritual practice are welcome.
Wear comfortable clothing, bring water to drink, and a notebook or journal. You can also bring a blanket, eye covering and pillow. Feel free to bring a drum or gourd rattle if you have one -we will have extra rattles you can borrow- or a special object to place in our circle for blessing (you will take it back home with you afterwards). Most of all, come with good spirit and openness to receive.


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|medically reviewed
Constipation, SIBO & Other GI Issues Can Be A Red Flag For This Condition
Stephanie Eckelkamp
Medical reviewer:
Marvin Singh, M.D.
Contributing Health & Nutrition Editor
By Stephanie Eckelkamp
Stephanie Eckelkamp is a writer and editor who has been working for leading health publications for the past 10 years. She received her B.S. in journalism from Syracuse University with a minor in nutrition.
Medical review by
Integrative Gastroenterologist
Marvin Singh, M.D. is an integrative gastroenterologist in San Diego, California. He is trained and board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology/hepatology.
Image by LaylaBird / iStock
Endometriosis affects one in 10 women in America. With this condition, tissue that normally lines the uterus—called the endometrium—grows in other parts of the body where it's not supposed to be, most commonly the abdominal cavity, where it can land on the intestinal lining, ovaries, and fallopian tubes. The most well-known symptoms of endometriosis are heavy, extremely painful periods, but this condition can affect so much more—including the GI tract. The worst part: It often takes 12 years to be accurately diagnosed with endometriosis! Which is why the new book Beating Endo: How To Reclaim Your Life From Endometriosis has us so excited. In it, co-authors Iris Kerin Orbuch, M.D., and Amy Stein, DPT, deliver their head-to-toe recovery plan for this invisible illnesses. Keep reading to learn how endo triggers GI issues like constipation, diarrhea, and even SIBO—plus tips to ease your symptoms.
How endometriosis can seriously mess with your digestion.
The main organs of digestion—namely, the colon or large intestine, the small intestine or small bowel, and the rectum—sit together, functioning in continuity, in the crowded abdomino-pelvic cavity. And endometriosis can have a massively disruptive impact on this area.
Unlike the cells of the uterine lining, which flow out of the body during menstruation, endo cells do not dissipate through a natural exit; rather, they thicken and expand. As they do, these endo implants (i.e., the clumps of tissue that grow outside your uterus) affect both the organs they are growing on or adjacent to and the muscles and fascia that underlie the organs. Their presence can make organs adhere to one another or tense and tighten disproportionately to one side.
The anatomical distortion caused by endo implants on or near the GI tract can trigger symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, bloating, painful bowel movements, and abdominal pain, all of which can be incredibly uncomfortable and unpredictable. The pulling and tugging on the fascia and muscles can prevent the bowel's normal peristalsis (the contraction and relaxation that prompts you to poop) and can slow its motility, causing constipation. Sometimes, the constipation becomes so bad that women are only able to release the rare watery stool, with some patients even needing to use digital manipulation to "trigger" a bowel movement.
Meanwhile, the inflammation of endometriosis plus the slowdown of bowel motility could mean that the bacteria of the small intestine stay there for a longer time, during which they fester and grow well beyond what is normal. That condition is called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and it can impede the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream and release enzymes and gases that cause bloat and pain as well as diarrhea.
In some women, these symptoms occur at random. In others, they occur in sync with a woman's cycle—after being constipated for two or three weeks, the arrival of the menstrual flow metaphorically pops a cork in these women, and liquid stool just pours out of them. And then the cycle begins again. And even if these events occur only sporadically, the fact of their recurrence is a signal that endo could well be the cause.
Additionally, pelvic and abdominal muscle aches from straining in the bathroom, phantom urges to poop, and any lower GI pain that feels disproportionately severe can also all be indicators you may be dealing with endometriosis.
How common are GI issues in women with endometriosis?
Some gynecologists who specialize in endometriosis have said that, for their endo patients, the most common non-gynecological symptoms they present with are GI symptoms. In one key study, a full 90% of women with endo presented with GI symptoms—and, it is important to note, only 7.6% of the women had implants on the bowel itself. Thus, some experts say, the diagnosis of GI disorders, especially SIBO, in the appropriate setting, should trigger consideration for the possibility—if not the likelihood—of endometriosis as an underlying cause.
But this connection is all too often missed. Women with these GI symptoms typically first see their internist, are then referred to a gastroenterologist who performs endoscopy that is typically normal, after which they are diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and are prescribed medications that decrease their bloating or increase their bowel motility. The relief tends to be temporary, but the underlying cause has actually gone unrecognized, leaving the poor patient blind to what is fundamentally wrong. The problem is that the view through the specialist's lens too often results in treating only symptoms, not in ascertaining their cause.
For women—especially young women, since IBS presents early in life—an IBS diagnosis should therefore reverberate as an important signal that other, deeper causes may also be at issue, and any young woman with painful periods who has received a diagnosis of IBS should insist on further investigation. Patients have an obligation to question a diagnosis and to educate themselves about what doctors tell them. You have only one body and one life—and you deserve to find out what is really going on.
Tips to ease digestive issues associated with endometriosis.
While you'll want to work with a practitioner to come up with an overall game plan to manage your endometriosis, here are a few ways you can start managing your GI-related symptoms:
Eat the right foods.
Overall, beating endo will call for an anti-inflammatory nutrition plan, but there are also certain foods to avoid and others to embrace to calm down a troubled GI tract. Obviously, the list of foods that will help a condition characterized by constipation will be very different from the list of foods that will help a condition of diarrhea.
If constipation is your problem, you want to eat more fiber, but make it organic, soluble fiber foods like the inside of fruits—avoid the skin—and cooked vegetables, only adding such insoluble, gas-producing fiber foods as beans and legumes, oat bran, and cruciferous vegetables once your gut has begun to calm down. And any time you increase your intake of fiber, it is important to increase your intake of water as well.
If diarrhea is the issue, you can take a supplement that bulks the stool—psyllium husk, for example—and drink plenty of water. Milk products, fried or greasy foods, caffeine, alcohol, acidic foods, even eggs and chocolate can irritate the bowel. Some foods can thicken the stool and slow bowel motility; others loosen the stool and may stimulate the bowels. Your physician or a range of internet sites can supply you with lists of these categories of food.
Change your pooping position.
There are some simple ways to help alleviate the pain and discomfort far too many women experience in conjunction with bowel movements. One old standby of pain relief is a simple heating pad placed on the abdomen. Another is to adjust your bowel habits to those of our foremothers—and to much of the contemporary non-Western world—and assume a squatting position when you defecate. A toilet stool can be useful for this, the best-known commercial variant being the Squatty Potty. But however you approach it, the squatting position beats sitting as a way to ease the process and ensure that it is completed efficiently. The reason is simple: Sitting on a toilet kinks the puborectalis muscle, puts pressure on the rectum, effectively plugs the pathway out of the rectum, and forces you to strain. Squatting keeps the puborectalis muscle in line and enables complete elimination.
Squeeze and release your abdominals.
If circumstances don't let you manage a squatting position, at least try to avoid straining. Instead, tighten your abdominal muscles. There's a process we call hardbelly-softbelly. Basically, while seated on the toilet, take a deep breath, and as you exhale, tighten your abdominal wall and then instantly mimic what happens when you release your urine; this opens the sphincters. Repeat this alternating hardbelly-softbelly movement until you successfully empty your bowels.
Excerpted from Beating Endo: How To Reclaim Your Life From Endometriosis. Copyright © 2019 by Iris Kerin Orbuch, M.D., and Amy Stein, DPT. Reprinted with permission of Harper Collins Publishers. All rights reserved.
Stephanie Eckelkamp is a writer and editor who has been working for leading health publications for the past 10 years. She received her B.S. in journalism from Syracuse University with a minor in nutrition. In addition to contributing to mindbodygreen, she has written for Women's Health, Prevention, and Health. She is also a certified holistic health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She has a passion for natural, toxin-free living, particularly when it comes to managing issues like anxiety and chronic Lyme disease (read about how she personally overcame Lyme disease here).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Nigerian Army says it is working with FCT police command to investigate the alleged killing of a civilian in Abuja and identify the shooters.
The Nigerian Army says it is building a corps of professional combatant female soldiers who are ready to be deployed at short notice for various operations.
The Federal Government has begun the process of reintegrating repentant Boko Haram militants into communities as they undergo deradicalization and rehabilitation programme of "Operation Safe Corridor".
More families are becoming victims of the banditry crisis in Zamfara state, where the killings and abductions of people are getting more widespread.
The Federal Government has begun the process of reintegrating repentant Boko Haram militants into the communities as they undergo the deradicalization and rehabilitation programme of "operation safe corridor".
Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari has commended President Muhammadu Buhari led federal government for the newly established "Exercise Harbin Kunama 111" in the state.
The Nigerian Army has launched an exercise to combat the spate of violent attacks in parts of Zamfara state.
The Nigerian Army says it will continue to train and build the capacity of its personnel in line with contemporary threats and challenges of warfare.
The 32 Artillery of the Nigerian Army, Akure now has a new commandant.
The Nigerian Army says the made in Nigeria combat vehicle will soon be ready following successful research and testing of ballistics materials for the infantry fighting vehicle within 30 meters range of fire power without bullet penetration.
The Director-General, Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria, Major General Bamidele Ogunleye, says Nigeria can be self-sufficient in the production of arms and ammunition if the company is adequately funded.
One of the election observer groups during the 2019 polls, Impart Africa, says the Nigerian Army deserves a pat on the back for providing adequate security for electoral officers, materials and voters in some dire situations.
The Nigerian Army says it remains determined to ensure that its officers and soldiers are exposed to trainings in modern global warfare strategies to enable them to respond effectively to current security challenges in the country.
Troops of the Nigerian army repelled an attempt by suspected Boko Haram insurgents to capture Kopa Village in Madagali local government area of Adamawa State on Monday night.
The European Union has commended the Gombe state government, Nigerian Army and officials of "operation safe corridor" on its deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration Programme of boko haram ex-combatants.
The Union Bank Michika branch in Adamawa State was attacked and raided in a suspected Boko Haram insurgency on Monday night.


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For Pontus the Greek god, see Pontus (mythology)
Pontus is also a popular person-name in Sweden.
Pontus was a name applied in ancient times to extensive tracts of country in the northeast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the Main), by the Greeks. The exact signification of this purely territorial name varied greatly at different times. The Greeks used it loosely of various parts of the shores of the Euxine, and the term did not get a definite connotation till after the establishment of the kingdom founded beyond the Halys during the troubled period following the death of Alexander the Great, about 301 BC, by Mithradates I, Ktistes, son of a Persian satrap in the service of Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors, and ruled by a succession of kings, mostly bearing the same name, till 64 BC.
As the greater part of this kingdom lay within the immense region of Cappadocia, which in early ages extended from the borders of Cilicia to the Euxine, the kingdom as a whole was at first called "Cappadocia towards the Pontus", but afterwards simply "Pontus," the name Cappadocia being henceforth restricted to the southern half of the region previously included under that title. Under the last king, Mithradates Eupator, commonly called the Great, the realm of Pontus included not only Pontic Cappadocia but also the seaboard from the Bithynian frontier to Colchis, part of inland Paphlagonia, and Lesser Armenia. With the subjection of this kingdom by Pompey in 64 BC, in which little changed in the structuring of life, neither for the oligarchies that controlled the cities nor for the common people in city or hinterland, the meaning of the name Pontus underwent a change. Part of the kingdom was now annexed to the Roman Empire, being united with Bithynia in a double province called Pontus and Bithynia: this part included only the seaboard between Heracleia (Eregli) and Amisus (Samsun), the ora Pontica. Hereafter the simple name Pontus without qualification was regularly employed to denote the half of this dual province, especially by Romans and people speaking from the Roman point of view; it is so used almost always in the New Testament.
With the reorganization of the provincial system under Diocletian (about AD 295), the Pontic districts were divided up between four provinces of the Dioecesis pontica:
Paphlagonia, to which was attached most of the old province Pontus
Diospontus, re-named Helenopontus by Constantine, containing the rest of the province Pontus and the adjoining district, eight cities in all (including Sinope, Amisus and Zela) with Amasia as capital
Pontus Polemoniacus, containing Comana, Polemonium, Cerasus and Trapezus with Neocaesarea as capital
Armenia Minor, five cities, with Sebasteia as capital.
This rearrangement gave place in turn to the Byzantine system of military districts (themes).
Ramsay MacMullen, 2000. Romanization in the Time of Augustus (Yale University Press)
Template:Roman provinces 120 ADde:Pontus es:Pontic eo:Ponto (geografio) he:פונטוס it:Ponto (geografia) ja:ポントス王国 nl:Pontus
Retrieved from "https://academickids.com:443/encyclopedia/index.php/Pontus"
Categories: Ancient Roman provinces


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Review: Gambit by C. L. Denault
Title: Gambit
Author: C. L. Denault
Publisher: REUTS Publications
Release Date: March 31st, 2015
Format: e-ARC
Source: Netgalley
In Earth's battle-ridden future, humans have evolved. Those with extraordinary skills rise to power and fame. Those without live in poverty.Sixteen-year-old Willow Kent believed she was normal. But when a genetically-advanced military officer shows up in her village and questions her identity, long-buried secrets begin to emerge. With remarkable skills and a shocking genetic code the Core and its enemies will do anything to obtain, Willow suddenly finds the freedom she craves slipping through her fingers. Greed, corruption, and genetic tampering threaten every aspect of her existence as she's thrust, unwilling, into the sophisticated culture of the elite Core city. To ensure peace, she must leave the past behind, marry a man she's never met, and submit to the authority of a relentless officer with a hidden agenda of his own.Her life has become a dangerous game. How much will she sacrifice in order to win?
I was excited to get lost in a fantasy book. I have been somewhat on a break from them and the chance to pick one up was answered without a second thought. I had never heard of this author so with the luck I have been having I was excited to see where this author would take and the story as well.
The story follows Willow Kent who grows up as what she would say in a normal lifestyle. That all changes when a mysterious fellow shows up and from that moment Willow's life is changed forever. After learning a secret that puts her life in danger she must leave the familiarity of her home and find out the truths of her past and save a world on the brink of war.
Willow Kent did improve throughout the book and her strength is recognizable. I would still like to see her full potential and I am hoping that we get more of that in the second book. I do think she may have acted rash in some parts but I do feel that it was understandable. Reece on the other hand is a special character in my book. I still do not have a solid opinion on him fully yet but I am still deciding.
There was one thing I was having a hard time grasping and it was the idea of where the story was taking place and how one chapter I was thinking we were in a time of no technology and all of a sudden a tablet popped out. WHAT?!?!?! I was a little confused with this added feature to the story that it kind of didn't really sit well with me. So I am curious to see where this leads me.
Overall I am wanting to see more plot, story, and world building. I am looking forward to reading the next installment and see where Willow goes from here. For all fantasy lovers, Gambit is a read that
will have you placing bets.


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Home » Games » Online Pai Gow Poker » Commission Free Pai Gow Poker
Commission Free Pai Gow Poker
Credit for the invention of a hybrid table game known as Commission Free Pai Gow Poker goes to casino game designer Daniel C. Lubin.
As a former table games dealer working at the Stations Casino in Henderson, Nevada, Lubin was already involved in the casino gaming industry when inspiration struck for a new form of the popular Pai Gow Poker concept. By removing the house commission of 5 percent charged to players on winning wagers, and slightly modifying a few other rules to compensate, Lubin created a new take on a decades-old table game format.
Today, Lubin leads the Table Game Development department at Galaxy Gaming, the company behind games like Cajun Stud and Emperor's Challenge.
Game's Roots
Commission Free Pai Gow Poker is obviously an offshoot of original Pai Gow Poker, so if you're unfamiliar with the rules of that game, we recommend heading over to our main Pai Gow Poker page to brush up on the basics. Once you've learned the ropes, return to this page to see how Commission Free Pai Gow Poker stacks up to its predecessor.
All forms of Pai Gow Poker are themselves derivatives of an ancient Chinese gambling game that uses tiles, known as pai gow. That game is steeped in tradition and quite complex, at least to Westerners, but you can still find pai gow tables in most major casinos.
Cards for Tiles
Unlike Pai Gow Tiles in Vegas, when it comes to Commission Free Pai Gow Poker, the tiles from pai gow have been replaced with standard playing cards, but the objective remains the same: arranging seven cards into the best combination of five-card and two-card hands. Commission Free Pai Gow Poker also removes the role of player banking which forms the basis of original Pai Gow Poker, and the result is a much more streamlined and easily understandable gameplay experience.
This page was written as an introduction to the game of Commission Free Pai Gow Poker, so we'll cover everything for the true beginner. You'll find a detailed rundown of the rules and gameplay setup, including a description of the available wagers and payout scheme, and explanations as to how Commission Free Pai Gow Poker differs from ordinary Pai Gow Poker. Next up is a guide to locating the game, followed by a primer on odds and proper strategy.
As we already mentioned, Commission Free Pai Gow Poker is based on the same rules and structure as Pai Gow Poker, so take the time to read up on the base game before turning your attention to this variant.
Commission Free Pai Gow Poker is played with a standard 52 card deck of playing cards, with a single joker card added to create a 53 card deck.
That joker card acts as a "semi-wild" card, meaning it may be used as an ace, or when completing a straight, a flush, a straight flush, or a royal flush.
Poker Hand Ranks
If you're unfamiliar with the traditional poker hand hierarchy, you can review the list of possible poker hands in Commission Free Pai Gow Poker below:
10 J Q K A, all in the same suit.
Any five card straight, all in the same suit.
Four cards of the same rank.
Three of a Kind AND One Pair.
Any five cards of the same suit.
Straight*
Any string of five consecutive cards.
Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank.
Two sets of two cards, each set having the same rank.
Two cards of the same rank.
*For straights, the A 2 3 4 5 "wheel" straight is traditionally considered the second highest straight, trailing only the 10 J Q K A "Broadway" straight.
Steps to Playing Commission Free Pai Gow Poker
#1 Once you've placed your mandatory ante wager, the dealer will then distribute seven cards face down to each player, along with seven cards face down to themselves. Each player then examines their seven cards, before "setting" their five card and two card poker hands.
#2 The only possible two card poker hands are "pair" or "no pair," and when you do make a pair, the standard rankings are used (2s are lowest, followed by 3s, and so on through to As).
When setting both of your hands, the only thing to remember is the five card "high" hand must outrank the two card "low" hand.
#3 Once all players have set their hands, which are still left face down, the dealer will then reveal their own seven card holding and set their "high" and "low" hands. The dealer doesn't actually decide how to set these hands, however, and instead relies on a predetermined system known as the "house way." Think of the house way in the same light as the restrictions placed on blackjack dealers, who may want to hit a soft 17 on occasion, but are bound by the house rules to stand (in some casinos).
#4 The House Way is quite complex, and there's really no need to explain the intricacies of how the dealer will play their hands, but you should know that they'll be playing in the most standard, straightforward manner. As the player, you're free to manage your two hands, however, you'd like, perhaps sacrificing a bit of strength from your "high" hand to improve the "low" hand. The dealer is bound by the House Way, though, and must stick strictly to the script at all times, even when a better play could be made.
#5 Players can also have the dealer set their hand for them, according to the House Way. This move should be reserved only for beginners, however, as much of the appeal of Commission Free Pai Gow Poker is thinking of creative ways to optimize your seven card holding into two potential winners in the "low" and the "high."
#6 With the dealer's "high" and "low" hands now set, they will then turn up each player's pair of hands, while comparing the values to their own.
#7 Both your "high" hand and your "low" hand will be compared to their counterparts held by the dealer. When both of your hands outrank both of the dealer's hands, your initial ante wager will be paid out at even money.
In normal Pai Gow Poker, a commission of 5 percent is deducted from each winning payout, but as the name suggests, Commission Free Pai Gow Poker removes this commission entirely.
When only one of your hands beats the dealer's, with the other losing, your initial ante bet will be returned as a push.
When both of the dealer's hands beat your own, you'll lose the entire ante bet to the house.
#8 In another crucial rule adjustment, which was designed to return some of the edge the house sacrifices by abandoning the commission, your bet will be returned as an automatic push whenever the dealer plays exactly 9 high as their two card "low" hand.
#9 Once all winning wagers have been settled, and all losing bets claimed by the house, the dealer will reshuffle the deck and begin a new hand.
Commission Free Pai Gow Poker includes several side bets in addition to the base game, one of which concerns this "9 high ties" rule. Known as the Tiger 9 side bet, players can wager that this exact scenario will occur before each hand, and when the dealer does happen to show down a 9 high as their "low" hand, you'll win 30 to 1 on your money.
The other side bets in Commission Free Pai Gow Poker are known as the Fortune side bet and the Fortune Progressive side bet.
Fortune Side Bet Payouts
The Fortune side bet is based on the combined strength of your seven cards, and payouts are awarded according to one of the following seven common pay tables (all payouts are awarded on a "to one" basis.
HAND Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7
Natural 7-Card Straight Flush 5,000:1 8,000:1 5,000:1 2,500:1 5,000:1 5,000:1 8,000:1
Royal Flush + Royal Match 1,000:1 2,000:1 2,000:1 1,000:1 2,000:1 1,000:1 2,000:1
Wild 7-Card Straight Flush 750:1 1,000:1 1,000:1 750:1 1,000:1 500:1 1,000:1
Five Aces 250:1 400:1 400:1 250:1 400:1 300:1 400:1
Royal Flush 100:1 150:1 150:1 125:1 150:1 110:1 150:1
Straight Flush 50:1 50:1 50:1 50:1 50:1 45:1 50:1
Four of a Kind 20:1 25:1 25:1 25:1 25:1 25:1 25:1
Full House 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:1
Flush 4:1 4:1 4:1 4:1 4:1 4:1 4:1
Three of a Kind 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1
Straight 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:1
Three Pair No Payout Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss
All Other Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss
The Fortune Progressive side bet is also based on the combines strength of your seven cards, and payouts are awarded on a "to one" basis according to the following pay table:
HAND PAYOUT
7-Card Straight Flush 100% of Progressive Jackpot Meter
Royal Flush + Royal Match 50% of Progressive Jackpot Meter
7-Card Straight Flush with Joker 25% of Progressive Jackpot Meter
Five Aces 2500:1
Royal Flush 200:1
Straight Flush 100:1
Four of a Kind 75:1
Full House 6:1
All Other No Payout
Best Places to Play Commission Free Pai Gow Poker
Details on exact locations for Commission Free Pai Gow Poker tables are difficult to pin down, but the game is plentiful enough to be found in several states across the U.S.
Below you can find a list of brick and mortar casino properties located in or around Las Vegas, Nevada which are known to carry Commission Free Pai Gow Poker at this time:
The Venetian Las Vegas
The Palazzo Las Vegas
Golden Nugget Las Vegas
Boulder Station Hotel & Casino
Fiesta Henderson Hotel and Casino
Cannery Casino & Hotel
The game has yet to be adapted for play via online poker platforms, although this may change at some point down the road.
Strategic Considerations for Commission Free Pai Gow Poker
When it comes to the strategy of Pai Gow Poker, the Commission Free variety or otherwise, the game's sheer complexity makes boiling things down into a few hard and fast rules next to impossible.
With that said, acclaimed casino game theorist and mathematician extraordinaire Michael Shackleford, who runs the invaluable gambler resource known as Wizard of Odds, has taken the time to crunch the numbers and devise several forms of strategy for setting your cards.
Basic Strategy Table
The first place to start is Shackleford's Simple Pai Gow Poker Strategy, which condenses his more expansive strategic advice into one page's worth of guidelines.
To adapt this chart for use in Commission Free Pai Gow Poker, simply ignore any mention of the commission or player banking, as both concepts are removed in this updated version of the classic game.
Once you've mastered the basics, you may prefer to move on to a more advanced method of setting your hands, and once again Shackleford has you covered with his comprehensive Pai Gow Poker strategy. Here you'll find detailed breakdowns of every possible scenario, along with explanations on the mathematical basis for each play.
House Edge & Bets
When it comes to the house edge you'll be facing when playing Commission Free Pai Gow Poker, the 2.51 percent rate is actually quite reasonable. In fact, compared to the 2.6892 percent house edge offered by traditional Pai Gow Poker using a commission, the Commission Free variety of the game actually presents a more favorable bet from the player's perspective.
As for the game's side bets, the Tiger 9 side bet carries a house edge of 17.50 percent, placing it squarely among the worst of the "sucker bets" found in every casino.
Both the Fortune and the Fortune Progressive side bets have variable house edge rates depending on the house rules and jackpot amount, but in any case, they both sit in excess of 11 percent most of the time. Once again, this represents a bad bet by any definition, so the sound strategy for Commission Free Pai Gow Poker dictates sticking to the base game only.


EMERGENCY SERVICES have confirmed that five people have died in a crash between a lorry and a car in southern Spain this morning (Thursday).
The accident happened on the A-394 between Utrera and Arahal in the province of Sevilla reports the 112 Andalucia emergency control centre.
The five male victims, aged from 19-48 and from Las Cabezas de San Juan, were travelling in the van according to officials.
The lorry driver was also injured and transferred to hospital.
Guardia Civil traffic officers are at the scene to investigate the cause of the accident.
In a separate incident in Almeria a 48-year-old man died after his car overturned in the early hours of the morning in El Ejido.


text:
About the deployment category 1 May 15, 2021
TiDB Operator v1.2.3 was officially released on September 8 2021 1 September 8, 2021
TiDB Operator v1.2.1 was officially released on August 18 2021 3 August 23, 2021
TiDB single drainer architecture is creating a single point of failure 2 August 10, 2021
Introduction of new developer.No.003 2 August 3, 2021
TiDB Operator v1.2.0 was officially released on July 30 2021 2 August 2, 2021
TiDB Configuration Myth 1 July 6, 2021
Implement a mode option to switch default set of TiUP, especially for tikv-slim mode 1 May 15, 2021


Recessed fixed roof "Vulcano 2.1".
With a refined design made of steel, assembled with socket compatible with Ø50mm dichroic halogen bulbs.
Adjustable luminaire 355º with a tilt of 40 °.
Visual comfort thanks to integrated mounting surface.


Ryanair, recently in the news due to its policy of charging for the use of wheelchairs, is back with Ryanair is attacked for ejecting blind passengers.
Wow … those EU Companies … so progressive!
Cool gerberas. VERY cool vases.


If u want the best and cool tricks for yr PC's,mobiles and software or operating system !! u just need to sign up here and get joined to my Tricks World Community that is Tricks World By Jaimin Patel !! U will get a lot of stuff there ! Just check it frnds!!


text:
Q: How do I clear the shape information of tf.Tensor in TensorFlow? Suppose during training a network, we resize all images to 512*512, so there might be a tf.Tensor named input:0, which is of shape (batch_size, 512, 512, 3).
However, when making predictions, it is possible to feed images of multiple sizes into the network. So the shape of tensor input:0 should be something like (batch_size, None, None, 3), since the size of images are unknown.
So if I have a Tensor of shape (batch_size, 512, 512, 3), how do I "reshape" it to (batch_size, None, None, 3)? I tried
inputs=tf.reshape(inputs, (batch_size, tf.shape(inputs)[1], tf.shape(inputs)[2], 3)

but the output is still of shape (batch_size, 512, 512, 3).

A: I don't believe you can resize/rescale the weight/bias terms in a neural network. But it would be pretty easy to resize your image input to 512*512. Have you considered that?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
/*
 * Veritas filesystem driver - superblock related routines.
 */
#include <linux/init.h>
#include <linux/module.h>

#include <linux/blkdev.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
#include <linux/buffer_head.h>
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/slab.h>
#include <linux/stat.h>
#include <linux/vfs.h>
#include <linux/mount.h>

#include "vxfs.h"
#include "vxfs_extern.h"
#include "vxfs_dir.h"
#include "vxfs_inode.h"

MODULE_AUTHOR("Christoph Hellwig");
MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Veritas Filesystem (VxFS) driver");
MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");

MODULE_ALIAS("vxfs"); /* makes mount -t vxfs autoload the module */

static void		vxfs_put_super(struct super_block *);
static int		vxfs_statfs(struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);
static int		vxfs_remount(struct super_block *, int *, char *);

static const struct super_operations vxfs_super_ops = {
	.evict_inode =		vxfs_evict_inode,
	.put_super =		vxfs_put_super,
	.statfs =		vxfs_statfs,
	.remount_fs =		vxfs_remount,
};

/**
 * vxfs_put_super - free superblock resources
 * @sbp:	VFS superblock.
 *
 * Description:
 *   vxfs_put_super frees all resources allocated for @sbp
 *   after the last instance of the filesystem is unmounted.
 */

static void
vxfs_put_super(struct super_block *sbp)
{
	struct vxfs_sb_info	*infp = VXFS_SBI(sbp);

	vxfs_put_fake_inode(infp->vsi_fship);
	vxfs_put_fake_inode(infp->vsi_ilist);
	vxfs_put_fake_inode(infp->vsi_stilist);

	brelse(infp->vsi_bp);
	kfree(infp);
}

/**
 * vxfs_statfs - get filesystem information
 * @dentry:	VFS dentry to locate superblock
 * @bufp:	output buffer
 *
 * Description:
 *   vxfs_statfs fills the statfs buffer @bufp with information
 *   about the filesystem described by @dentry.
 *
 * Returns:
 *   Zero.
 *
 * Locking:
 *   No locks held.
 *
 * Notes:
 *   This is everything but complete...
 */
static int
vxfs_statfs(struct dentry *dentry, struct kstatfs *bufp)
{
	struct vxfs_sb_info		*infp = VXFS_SBI(dentry->d_sb);

	bufp->f_type = VXFS_SUPER_MAGIC;
	bufp->f_bsize = dentry->d_sb->s_blocksize;
	bufp->f_blocks = infp->vsi_raw->vs_dsize;
	bufp->f_bfree = infp->vsi_raw->vs_free;
	bufp->f_bavail = 0;
	bufp->f_files = 0;
	bufp->f_ffree = infp->vsi_raw->vs_ifree;
	bufp->f_namelen = VXFS_NAMELEN;

	return 0;
}

static int vxfs_remount(struct super_block *sb, int *flags, char *data)
{
	*flags |= MS_RDONLY;
	return 0;
}

/**
 * vxfs_read_super - read superblock into memory and initialize filesystem
 * @sbp:		VFS superblock (to fill)
 * @dp:			fs private mount data
 * @silent:		do not complain loudly when sth is wrong
 *
 * Description:
 *   We are called on the first mount of a filesystem to read the
 *   superblock into memory and do some basic setup.
 *
 * Returns:
 *   The superblock on success, else %NULL.
 *
 * Locking:
 *   We are under @sbp->s_lock.
 */
static int vxfs_fill_super(struct super_block *sbp, void *dp, int silent)
{
	struct vxfs_sb_info	*infp;
	struct vxfs_sb		*rsbp;
	struct buffer_head	*bp = NULL;
	u_long			bsize;
	struct inode *root;
	int ret = -EINVAL;

	sbp->s_flags |= MS_RDONLY;

	infp = kzalloc(sizeof(*infp), GFP_KERNEL);
	if (!infp) {
		printk(KERN_WARNING "vxfs: unable to allocate incore superblock\n");
		return -ENOMEM;
	}

	bsize = sb_min_blocksize(sbp, BLOCK_SIZE);
	if (!bsize) {
		printk(KERN_WARNING "vxfs: unable to set blocksize\n");
		goto out;
	}

	bp = sb_bread(sbp, 1);
	if (!bp || !buffer_mapped(bp)) {
		if (!silent) {
			printk(KERN_WARNING
				"vxfs: unable to read disk superblock\n");
		}
		goto out;
	}

	rsbp = (struct vxfs_sb *)bp->b_data;
	if (rsbp->vs_magic != VXFS_SUPER_MAGIC) {
		if (!silent)
			printk(KERN_NOTICE "vxfs: WRONG superblock magic\n");
		goto out;
	}

	if ((rsbp->vs_version < 2 || rsbp->vs_version > 4) && !silent) {
		printk(KERN_NOTICE "vxfs: unsupported VxFS version (%d)\n",
		       rsbp->vs_version);
		goto out;
	}

#ifdef DIAGNOSTIC
	printk(KERN_DEBUG "vxfs: supported VxFS version (%d)\n", rsbp->vs_version);
	printk(KERN_DEBUG "vxfs: blocksize: %d\n", rsbp->vs_bsize);
#endif

	sbp->s_magic = rsbp->vs_magic;
	sbp->s_fs_info = infp;

	infp->vsi_raw = rsbp;
	infp->vsi_bp = bp;
	infp->vsi_oltext = rsbp->vs_oltext[0];
	infp->vsi_oltsize = rsbp->vs_oltsize;

	if (!sb_set_blocksize(sbp, rsbp->vs_bsize)) {
		printk(KERN_WARNING "vxfs: unable to set final block size\n");
		goto out;
	}

	if (vxfs_read_olt(sbp, bsize)) {
		printk(KERN_WARNING "vxfs: unable to read olt\n");
		goto out;
	}

	if (vxfs_read_fshead(sbp)) {
		printk(KERN_WARNING "vxfs: unable to read fshead\n");
		goto out;
	}

	sbp->s_op = &vxfs_super_ops;
	root = vxfs_iget(sbp, VXFS_ROOT_INO);
	if (IS_ERR(root)) {
		ret = PTR_ERR(root);
		goto out;
	}
	sbp->s_root = d_alloc_root(root);
	if (!sbp->s_root) {
		iput(root);
		printk(KERN_WARNING "vxfs: unable to get root dentry.\n");
		goto out_free_ilist;
	}

	return 0;

out_free_ilist:
	vxfs_put_fake_inode(infp->vsi_fship);
	vxfs_put_fake_inode(infp->vsi_ilist);
	vxfs_put_fake_inode(infp->vsi_stilist);
out:
	brelse(bp);
	kfree(infp);
	return ret;
}

/*
 * The usual module blurb.
 */
static struct dentry *vxfs_mount(struct file_system_type *fs_type,
	int flags, const char *dev_name, void *data)
{
	return mount_bdev(fs_type, flags, dev_name, data, vxfs_fill_super);
}

static struct file_system_type vxfs_fs_type = {
	.owner		= THIS_MODULE,
	.name		= "vxfs",
	.mount		= vxfs_mount,
	.kill_sb	= kill_block_super,
	.fs_flags	= FS_REQUIRES_DEV,
};

static int __init
vxfs_init(void)
{
	int rv;

	vxfs_inode_cachep = kmem_cache_create("vxfs_inode",
			sizeof(struct vxfs_inode_info), 0,
			SLAB_RECLAIM_ACCOUNT|SLAB_MEM_SPREAD, NULL);
	if (!vxfs_inode_cachep)
		return -ENOMEM;
	rv = register_filesystem(&vxfs_fs_type);
	if (rv < 0)
		kmem_cache_destroy(vxfs_inode_cachep);
	return rv;
}

static void __exit
vxfs_cleanup(void)
{
	unregister_filesystem(&vxfs_fs_type);
	kmem_cache_destroy(vxfs_inode_cachep);
}

module_init(vxfs_init);
module_exit(vxfs_cleanup);


text:
Foo Fighters to Headline 2022 Innings Festival
Baseball may be entering the playoffs, but spring training will be here before you know it. And with spring training comes the annual Innings Festival that brings the worlds of baseball and music together in Arizona each year. The 2022 lineup has been revealed with Foo Fighters and Tame Impala set to headline the two-day event.
In total, 20 bands will rock two stages at Arizona's Tempe Beach and Tempe Arts Park the weekend of Feb. 26 and 27. Foo Fighters will head up the Saturday bill, with support from St. Vincent, Billy Strings, Caamp, Dashboard Confessional, White Reaper, The Dip, Del Water Gap, Girlhouse, Almost Monday and an "All-Star Baseball Jam hosted by Jake Peavy."
Tame Impala are set to close out the weekend on Sunday following sets from My Morning Jacket, Black Pumas, Fitz and the Tantrums, Matt & Kim, Nothing But Thieves, Jade Bird, Low Cut Connie, Briscoe and Sydney Sprague.
As stated, this annual event also features its fair share of baseball talent in attendance as well. Featured appearances include the Off the Mound talk show featuring Ryan Dempster, along with Roger Clemens, Jake Peavy, Dave Stewart, Rick Sutcliffe, Tim Raines, Kenny Lofton, Eric Gagne, Jonny Gomes, Jim Abbott, Sean Casey, Keith Foulke, Tim Salmon, Russ Ortiz and more to be announced.
One and two-day general admission tickets as well as VIP and platinum ticket packages will go on sale today (Oct. 5) at 10AM PT at the Innings Festival website.
2022 Innings Festival Lineup
2021 U.S. Rock + Metal Festivals
Festival Fighters Foo headline Innings
Rotting Christ + Borknagar Announce 2022 North American Tour
Rotting Christ's "Devastation on the Nation" North American tour that was originally set to kick off in March 2020 has officially been rescheduled for Spring 2022. While the dates have changed, the bill remains the same (minus Imperial Triumphant) and features support from Borknagar, Wolfheart and Abigail Williams.The trek, which finds Rotting Christ promoting their most recent release, The Heretics, is set to launch on April 21 of next year in California and will wrap […]


I love Christmas and holiday decor, and this year's black, white, gold and red color scheme is inspired by Sephora's ad campaign this year. Isn't it a modern and festive color palette?
And Pee Wee is usually the first to greet our guests, so he wanted to greet you today, too. Isn't he dapper?
I typically only decorate our living room and dining room, and this year I opted to keep the same black, white and gold color scheme as last year but I added in touches of red.
Let's start off in the living room. This room is long and narrow, which I hate 11 months out of the year, but for the holidays I stuff it full of decor and it feels oh so cozy!
Last Friday I decided to finally reupholster my tufted ottoman (it was ripped in five places), and I love the way it looks now with some striped fabric .
It brightens up the space and is striking, but best of all the whole upholstery job cost me under $20. Replacing the rug is next on my wish list, but I cannot seem to find a rug I absolutely love.
On top of the ottoman is my fave acrylic lucite tray filled with some presents, a holiday candle and Christmas ornaments galore.
The Christmas tree is my fave. I really piled on the ornaments, gold feathers and decor to make it opulent.
I typically don't do too much to my bookshelves, but the addition of the decorated garland does it make this bookshelf feel festive.
Those little spotlights help highlight the decor on the shelves and match the finish on my rustic farmhouse bookshelf perfectly.
I love to take pre-decorated garland and add in extra embellishments like poinsettias , glittered pinecones and extra large ornaments to make it look like a custom piece.
Every year I also try to coordinate my wrapping paper and gift bags as much as I can for a cohesive look. I tend to get most of my gift bags at Target or Dollar Tree.
As much as I like super big floral arrangements, sometimes a slim vase with a big floral stem is all you need for a smaller accent table .
And now…the bar cart. I LOVE to decorate my gold bar cart and right now I am all about champagne cocktails (get four of my recipes here), so that was my focus.
I used a cake stand to add some height and a silver tinsel tree gives it a dash of sparkle.
The addition of the $3 Target Dollar Spot "Merry Christmas" sign really makes the bar cart pop and looks like a hand-lettered chalkboard.
The holiday season means there's plenty of gorgeous champagne and wine bottles around that make any bar cart look instantly snazzier.
Another good way to use up extra ornaments is to string them all on some ribbon to create giant ornaments clusters like the one below. I believe I used about 17-19 ornaments to create it.
My mantle is very similar to last year's mantle, but this year the lit garland adds a bit of glitter and glam.
It's a simple mantle, but I think it all comes together beautifully. It gives me some Kate Spade gold polka dot vibes .
That "fa la la la la" garland I bought from Target last year is still one of my fave holiday buys.
The gold sequin stockings are so stunning! If you can snag these, you should. Timeless and a total steal.
A fun, easy way to personalize stockings is with mini chalkboards adorned with mini bows.
Decorating with various glittery deers all over the place has become my "thing". They're so classy looking and they remind me of my dear Pee Wee.
Some $2 photo boxes from Michael's and $1 Target gift bags round out the hearth area. The main attraction is that beautiful canister from ZGallerie that was given to me by a dear friend last year.
Now, let's go on over to Pee Wee's Parlor and the dining room…another long and narrow room.
My 1970's ranch home is very segmented, but we make the most of the space. It's so warm feeling in here thanks to the potted Christmas tree and all the metallics I used in here.
I love how the black and white throw pillows really add some interest amongst all the Christmas decor.
The rustic reclaimed desk has a few extra plates and flatware, plus some holiday decor.
I kept the tree similar to the one in the living room, but I do love how this tree has pine cones and berries built into the branches. Gives it a fuller, luxe look.
I already wrote a post showcasing my dining table holiday decor, but in case you missed it, here are a few of the highlights.
I kept it all very low to help keep food, drink and conversations flowing. Plenty of candles are always a must at my dining table.
The foyer area looks so beautiful from this angle. The color is peppercorn.
Silver beaded placemats make my holiday salad plates and dinner plates look extra sparkly.
Splurging on real flowers is always a good idea for a dining table centerpiece- it instantly adds class and elegance to a dinner party setting.
The DIY striped gold vases are another Kate Spade inspired touch .
And finally, here's a cute picture of Pee Wee thoroughly exhausted after following me around all evening as I snapped photos.
Hope you enjoyed my holiday tour, and I thank you SO much for stopping by. Please feel free to pin and share if you'd like– it means the world to me!
Wowzers Monica!!!! Que Casa mas linda!!! Every bit of your home is stunning. Pinning and sharing!!
So gorgeous, Monica! Your bar cart, mantel and of course Pee wee are my faves. 🙂 Happy Holidays!
Your home is so glamorous! I really love that gold planter on your coffee table–where did you get it?
Hi Susan! I love it, too. It's from HomeGoods. I've also seen it at TJMaxx. Hope you can snag one!
Thanks Amy! I'm going to check out your blog, too.
Oh MY LORD ! I want to live with you.
Please please please come decorate my house.
Thank you so much for the shout-out. 🙂 I love your dramatic decorating style – gorgeous! Those gold stockings are fantastic. And what a model Pee Wee is! Happy Holidays!
Oh wow Monica, I love your pretty black/white and gold decor. Both trees are amazing and I am totally in love with your coffee table vignette and that bar cart. I also need to know where you found those fabulous striped and polka dot boxes.
Monica your tour blew me away! I love how your theme continues from room to room. Your bar cart is my absolute favorite. So festive! And Pee Wee- need I say more. Bravo my sweet friend!


text:
Ant-eating dinosaurs?
From Dinosaur Tracking blog:
Did Dinosaurs Eat Ants?
If there's one group of dinosaurs that needs better PR, it's alvarezsaurs. They're among the strangest dinosaurs to have ever evolved, yet outside of dinosaur die-hards, few people have ever heard of them. They're not one of those classic forms–the sauropods, tyrannosaurs, stegosaurs, or ceratopsids–that have been cherished for the past century. Paleontologists only recently began to uncover their bones. Alvarezsaurus itself was named in 1991, but it and its close relatives didn't quite get swept up in the same wave of dinomania as their other Mesozoic cousins.
Alvarezsaurs weren't big, toothy, or menacing. That's part of makes them so special. Alvarezsaurus, Mononykus and their relatives from Cretaceous Asia, South America and North America were small dinosaurs–these feathered dinos ranged from the size of a pigeon to about the size of a turkey. In fact, these dinosaurs were so avian in nature that there was once a debate about whether alvarezsaurs were non-avian dinosaurs or birds that had lost the ability to fly. Since those early debates, numerous studies have confirmed that they were non-avian dinosaurs that were closely related to the strange therizinosaurs and ostrich-like ornithomimosaurs.
But the strangest thing of all is the mystery of what alvarezsaurs ate.
Despite being short, alvarezsaur arms weren't wimpy. Not at all. Alvarezsaur forelimbs were very stout and included one robust finger tipped in a big claw. (Among these dinosaurs, the total number and development of the fingers varied, but they're connected by having one finger that was bigger than the others.) In contrast, these dinos often had a reduced number of very small teeth.
Paleontologists thought they saw a connection between these traits and a life feeding on social insects. Mammals such as pangolins and ant-eaters also have stout, heavy-clawed arms and are toothless–a functional pairing that goes with a life of tearing into ant and termite nests to slurp up the scurrying insects in their nests.
Could alvarezsaurs have done the same? So far, it's the most popular hypothesis for their bizarre nature. In a 2005 paper, paleontologist Phil Senter proposed that Mononykus would have been capable of the kind of scratch-digging needed to rip open social insect nests. Then, in 2008, Nicholas Longrich and Philip Currie described the alvarezsaur Albertonykus in deposits that also contained traces of Cretaceous termites. Alvarezsaurs seemed to have the right equipment and live at the right time to be social insect predators.
But we don't really know. No one has published any direct evidence that Albertonykus or any other alvarezsaur ate ants or termites. The hypothesis is certainly a reasonable one, but we still need a test of the idea. Fossil feces may eventually hold the answer.
If paleontologists eventually uncover dinosaur dung of appropriate size that contains ants or termites and comes from a habitat shared by alvarezsaurs, that discovery would strengthen the ant-eating hypothesis. A cololite would be even better. While coprolites are petrified feces that have already been excreted, cololites are fossil poop preserved inside the prehistoric creature's body prior to expulsion. If paleontologists found an alvarezsaur with a cololite containing termites, that would be direct evidence that these dinosaurs truly did snarf down hordes of insects. For now, though, we can only hope that some lucky fossil hunter makes such a discovery.
This entry was posted in Biology, Environment, Invertebrates, Mammals, Reptiles and tagged ants, Cretaceous, dinosaurs, insects, paleontology by petrel41. Bookmark the permalink.
4 thoughts on "Ant-eating dinosaurs?"
Md. Alsanda on October 17, 2012 at 3:41 pm said:
Thank you for stopping by.
petrel41 on October 17, 2012 at 3:44 pm said:
And thank you for all your likes!
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I have been commissioned to write a piece for St. Mary's Choir to celebrate the rebuilding of their sanctuary in 2009. In 2007, a fire destroyed St. Mary's Church's sanctuary. Here is an article from the Amarillo Globe News about the rebuilding. The original article can be found here.


When my mum told me that we would be staying in a women's refuge I was devastated. As soon as I heard the word refuge I immediately imagined a scene from "Bad Girls" just like a prison.
I thought we'd be locked in there and wouldn't be able to go outside. I though there would be a hall with lots of doors leading to horrible little rooms with two trampy beds and a sink the size of a dish. I thought we'd have to share one bathroom and that the place would be swarming with druggies. My hopes of still being able to live a normal life in a nice home dropped immensely. I would rather have lived in a cardboard box.
When we turned around the corner and I saw Marion House, I realised my thoughts had been totally wrong. We went inside and it was beautiful, the walls were brightly coloured and the whole house was beautifully furnished. It was better than my old house. Everyone made us feel really welcome and started chatting to us straight away. Also we had our own bathroom!


What is an applet stub?
An applet stub is an interface that the applet container (browser) creator will implement abstracting out capabilities like getting applet parameters, the applet's code/document base and other information necessary for the contained applet(s). As an applet program, you'll rarely use the interface. The only time you really run across a need to do anything with the interface is if you try to run your applet in your own container. You'll then have to implement the AppletStub interface yourself, along with the AppletContext interface.


Since January, Motherboard has reported on a series of abuses with phone location data from major US telecommunications companies. Most recently, we reported how stalkers and people with a history of domestic violence were tricking telecom companies into providing location data by simply impersonating US law enforcement officials on the phone or over email.
Now, in response to questions from Senator Ron Wyden, T-Mobile has revealed another case of abuse, in which a "bad actor" acquired location information without consumer consent, according to a letter from T-Mobile to Wyden and obtained by Motherboard.
"It is now abundantly clear that you have failed to be good stewards of your customers' private location information," Senator Wyden wrote in another letter Wednesday addressed to all of the major telecoms.
In the newly revealed incident, in August 2014 LocAid—a company that aggregated location data from the telecoms and then sold it onto other clients—informed T-Mobile it was suspending the account of a particular customer called Freedom Telecare. This was "due to an identified vulnerability in the consent mechanism," Russo's letter adds.
"There was suspicion that a bad actor, who was a paying customer of Freedom Telecare, had acquired location information without customer consent, but review of the evidence could not confirm improper disclosure of location data," the letter reads. The vulnerability was fixed and then the service re-enabled, it adds.
Motherboard previously reported that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint have been selling their customers' real-time location data, which trickled down through a network of middlemen and data brokers before arriving in the hands of bounty hunters. But some people don't even pay for this data at all. Instead, bounty hunters and people with histories of domestic violence have managed to trick telecommunications companies into providing real-time location data by simply impersonating US officials over the phone and email, according to court records and multiple sources familiar with the technique.
Three of the four major wireless carriers have been accused of breaking US law by selling 911 location data to third parties. "Telecom giants broke the law by selling detailed location data" that was "meant for use only by emergency services," consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge said last week in a blog post that urged the Federal Communications Commission to punish the carriers.
This week, Joseph Cox at Motherboard dropped yet another bombshell report on this subject, noting how he was easily able to pay a bounty hunter $300 to obtain the (supposedly) private location data collected by his cellular provider (T-Mobile). Much like the Securus scandal, the problem once again is the countless location data brokers and third party vendors which are being sold this data, then doing pretty much whatever they'd like with it.
American telecommunications giants are selling access to their customers' location data, leaving them exposed to being tracked by bounty hunters and others, a disturbing report by Motherboard has revealed.T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are reportedly among the companies whose data is being used to track phone locations, leaving mobile network users exposed without their knowledge.


text:
24hr - 01288 359277
Funeral Service Prices
Prepaid Funeral Plans
Welcome to Denise Wellington Funeral Services, an Independent, family owned, funeral directors in Bude, Cornwall.
Both Denise and Daryl Wellington were born in Bude, went to school in Bude and have been involved with the Community of Bude and surrounding areas in many ways throughout our lives. During this time, we have become well known and trusted members of our local community.
The Wellington Family have a tradition of involvement within local clubs, groups, charities and various organisations, with Daryl's Dad Lester being a founder member of the very first Surf Life Saving Club to be formed in the UK back in 1953 and his Mum Vera setting up the very first Private and Independent Nursing Care Home in Bude back in 1961.
Denise's Dad Michael Hicks, has lived in the Bude area all of his life and worked locally in this time as a tradesman in the building business. In more recent years he has worked within the funeral business in various capacities and assisted Daryl & Denise whenever possible. His Wife Jennifer has also provided unconditional support over many years.
We have a natural desire to be there for others when needed, and now have the valued support of our two sons, Harry & Jack. We are both very proud that our eldest Son Harry works alongside us with the day to day running of the business, and our youngest Son Jack is also involved providing valuable help and support.
We also pride ourselves on providing a caring, compassionate and empathic service. With over 30 years collective experience in the funeral profession during which time Denise has successfully gained her Diploma in Funeral Directing, we have a genuine knowledge and understanding how to support bereaved families at their time of need.
"We have a simple philosophy, to offer immediate care and support following the death of a loved one and to be there for family and friends after the funeral".
Our premises on the outskirts of Bude provides a naturally tranquil, comforting and spacious setting to discuss any aspect of your loved ones funeral, or simply to pop in for an informal chat over a cup of tea or coffee.
"As funeral directors, we see it as our privilege and honour, to be entrusted, and involved with families at such a difficult time, knowing we can provide them with the appropriate guidance and advice whilst providing a commitment to maintaining the highest of professional standards on their behalf".
Registering the Death
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We are proud to support and work with
With the difficult time of losing my Grampy, Denise and Harry went above and beyond for our family and did my Grampy proud. Very professional, very caring, and nothing was too much trouble. So grateful for all they have done. Thank you Denise & Harry.
Wonderful and caring people who helped me and my family through a sad time of the loss of my dad. They took the stress away of arranging a funeral which is hard to at any time. Everything was perfect . Denise and Harry are very professional in every way possible. They looked after my Dad so well before we laid him to rest and that was a comfort to know, even when we had to change the order of service at the last minute it wasn't a problem for them. We are so happy that they took care of my dad. I highly recommend Denise and Harry. Thank you so much for everything that you have done.
L.K
Lovely caring and professional people, best of the best.
K.G
Excellent service. So helpful & really go out of their way for you at such a difficult and emotional time. Would highly recommend.
T.P
We would just like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the superb level of care and kindness you have shown our family during this period. You far exceeded our expectations and have gone above and beyond for us; nothing was too much trouble which helped ease us through this distressing time. In addition to your professional service, your personal touch has given us great comfort. We cannot thank you enough.
Burman Family, Stratton
Unfortunately this year have we have had the heartache of losing not one but two very much loved and adored members of our family, which has been extremely hard to deal with to say the least, but I would like to take the opportunity to say Thankyou to Denise, Daryl, Harry and everyone else that was involved in making such a very sad, confusing, frustrating, and heartbreaking time for us all one of the most comforting, reassuring and above all respectful and memorable occasions. In all of its sadness for everyone that attended on both occasions you were there every step of the way, even when you were going through your own heartbreak you never once allowed that to interfere or cloud our own grief, on behalf of all our family we would like to show our appreciation and gratitude for all that you have helped us with, much love to you all.
Call us on 01288 359277 for an informal chat or to start making arrangements for your loved one.
24hr contact: 01288 359277
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Mila: Grafik asked us to write about any logo that we like. We already decided to talk about the OCP logo from the original RoboCop movie. OCP stands for Omni Consumer Products, which is the megacorporation that is also running the Detroit police department.
Egon: I still don't really know why we picked that particular logo.
M: Hmm yeah, maybe we can think about an excuse later. So here's a print out. As you can see here, the designer didn't even bother getting the letters in the right order. Nor making them recognisable.
Franz: In medieval architecture the octagon was seen as a representation of god-like perfection. Looking at the somewhat lazy execution of the logo this seems kind of ironic, doesn't it. But what is striking regarding the form-feeling of the OCP octagon? It looks like a fortress, it's aggressive, and self-centered as well as sealing-off and protective. Now the question is: is this logo well designed or not? Does the brutalist style build a harmony with the realm of RoboCop?
Ziggy: Can I say something? I think the logo gives us a dark future vision of graphic design. I mean a corporation like OCP doesn't really need a well-designed CI since they are the only player in the market anyway. The logo doesn't have to appeal to the customer. I also believe OCP have an in-house cyborg taking care of all their CI and advertising. He's fast and cheap. He doesn't ask questions because he's just following his prime directives.
E: That's the future. We're all going to melt into our Macs. We'll look like Björk in that video where she was making love to her double. We'll be shiny white design zombies producing crude logos for one and the same company.


text:
Krautrock Icon Michael Rother Talks to Roman Flügel
"Today it's always said that in a certain sense, Neu! is proto-techno. But I've never felt that," Roman Flügel recently told krautrock legend Michael Rother over coffee in a Hamburg cafe. And still, employing trance-inducing elements of repetition as building blocks for long, spiraling musical exploration seems to be a tradition in which German musicians have helped innovate across time and genre, including Flügel himself. On his last album, Happiness is Happening, he offered up an homage to German synth music traditions, kosmische in particular, which is why it's surprising that the dance music icon and co-founder of the Onagaku imprint insists that the conceptual bridges between krautrock and first-wave German techno were subconsciously constructed, at best. But as he points out, his approach to making music—unlike Michael Rother's historical reinvention of rock and pop—was never about creating "new" sounds but rather rearranging prefabricated puzzle pieces into a unique but recognizable image of dance music.
For Michael Rother, the rise of dance music in the '90s was something that barely registered on his musical radar. At the time, the co-founder of Neu! and former member of Kraftwerk and Harmonia was embroiled in legal battles surrounding the rights of his solo material and genre-defining Neu! classics. The eventual resolution, massively influential Neu! re-releases in the year 2000 via Herbert Grönemeyer's Grönland Records label, helped usher in an era of krautrock's mass rediscovery and canonization. Here, Rother and Flügel discuss narratives connecting hypnotic German genres and whether patience, beyond being a mere virtue, is also a common musical strategy.
Roman Flügel: Michael, I always hear a great sense of concentration and focus in your music, especially in your solo work. Do you have a particular approach to focusing or calming yourself, musically speaking?
Michael Rother: You need to really go inside yourself and hope that something happens through this internal analysis. Usually, it's the finer aspects of emotional processes that can be found and then expressed through music. On the other hand, I love excitement. So there's a good reason why I've lived in the small German town of Forst an der Weser since about 1837 [laughs]. I always end up coming to Hamburg in winter because it's easier to endure cold weather in a city. But the rural tranquility, open space and fresh air in Forst are incredibly beautiful. When I look out the window I can see the Weser river, which runs right past my house. Behind it are miles of rolling meadows. It's breathtaking. I passed through there by chance in 1971 with Kraftwerk, when I was playing in the band. I can still clearly remember how I looked out from our bus and being totally overwhelmed by this landscape. Two years later I found myself there once again while looking for musicians for the Neu! tour. Cluster—that is, Roedelius and Dieter Moebius—had been living in Forst for two years at the time. And then I decided to stay. That environment helps me to concentrate and to be calm. You live in Frankfurt, right?
RF: Yes, I live in a rather notorious district near the main railway station. A lot has changed in the last five years. Gentrification is happening with vengeance. Joy and sorrow still live side by side in Frankfurt. There are still a lot of junkies, a lot of people who have no money just trying to survive day-to-day near the train station. On the other hand, expensive apartment buildings have sprouted up for all the Deutsche Bank and European Central Bank types, and that obviously alters the structure of the district. But I grew up in Darmstadt, on the edge of the Odenwald forest. My parents' house was completely idyllic, with lots of birds and a lot of nature. I moved away when I started my studies. City life has the advantage of being able to travel easily. The airport is just around the corner, yet the city center in Frankfurt has luckily been spared all the aircraft noise.
MR: There's neither a highway in my immediate vicinity, nor a good train connection. But as you just mentioned birds: hearing birdsong is an experience that I enjoy anew each spring when I leave Hamburg and go back to Forst. When you're surrounded by birdsong, your hearing chages immediately. It gains more depth.
RF: We have pigeons cooing, but that's not quite the same thing.
MR: But do you know what I mean by depth regarding birdsong? You can hear precisely the distances of certain sounds. It's like a healing shower of precision for the ears. By the way, how old are you?
RF: 44.
MR: So a generation younger than me.
RF: Yes. I first became aware of your music when Grönland reissued the Neu! albums. I already knew the later Kraftwerk, of course, but the rereleases were when I discovered much of what was happening around it, as well as the early Kraftwerk, of which you were a member. And the music captivated me immediately. This goes for Neu!, Harmonia and, of course, your solo records. I bought quite a lot of them—essentially after I bought a bunch of Brian Eno records and figured out his connection to your world. What I find so fantastic about listening to the music you made with Klaus Dinger [drummer and founding member of Neu!] as well as with Roedelius and Dieter Moebius in Harmonia is the completely different attitude towards what rock or pop is supposed to be. You radically broke with a lot of traditions and from that, entirely new approaches and paths suddenly appeared.
MR: It's nice to hear because that is exactly what we wanted to do back then. For me it was always about forgoing all those classic structures, and to somehow discover a new musical continent. That was the aim. Klaus [Dinger] always had an ear for the essence and effect of pop. You can also hear it in his later work with La Düsseldorf. That helped me, because I was never looking out for that. I've always been more surprised if something especially pop-like comes out of what I've done. That was also the case with my solo albums, like Flammende Herzen or Sterntaler. The question for me was always: What can I draw from if I try to forget about Jimi Hendrix and American and British pop music? That's why I turned to German folk music and children's songs and also the classical compositions that I grew up with. And, of course, things that I had heard in Pakistan, where I lived for three years when I was nine. My father worked for Lufthansa and was stationed there. To this day, Pakistani music touches me in a very special way, especially the brothers Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan. Their music flows on a kind of wave, with these two singers who always take up the thread and build the music in incredible ways.
RF: I've been going to India at least once a year over the past three years and the music touches me in a similar way. I eventually discovered Vedic chanting, the music that Brahmins, the elite priest caste in Hindu culture, created over decades with only their voices. It has meters that are completely foreign to us but which totally fascinate me. For me it's primarily about the sound and the rhythms. In a sense it also reminds me of Harmonia, as you hear rhythms that overlap and time signatures that are unfamiliar to European ears. Were you consciously referencing such musical traditions, or was it the random results that came from your attempt to synchronize two drum machines?
MR: We never theorized much. I think the odd time signatures came from Roedelius. He played those kinds of melodies on the piano for hours, and that fascinated me. That was the reaosn why I absolutely had to make music with Harmonia. Throw in the surprising interjections from Moebius, and you had a kind of music that could happen on the spot. Like on "Watussi," for example. That's Roedelius, who sometimes got carried away playing with delays and getting into an almost trance-like state with these loops running the whole way through. We never ran two drum machines simultaneously. What sounds so messed up was the result of our edit and approach. For example, we ran a drum machine through a wah-wah pedal and sent them through a tremolo, which, of course, weren't synchronized. We couldn't do it any better back then, but it has a very special energy.
RF: The studio setup that you had with Harmonia in Forst is known from photos: two nearly identical blocks of keyboards and effects units, with two guitars in front of them.
Harmonia's studio in Forst. Picture courtesy of ValhallaDSP.com.
MR: Right, the heavy Gibson and the light Fender.
RF: The leopard print Fender always fascinated me.
MR: I bought that off Florian Schneider from Kraftwerk. I still have it. Nice and light, a Fender Mustang with a tremolo bar. I eventually removed the leopard skin because it became unappealing to me at some point. Florian had also decorated the guitar with colorful stones.
RF: What I always wanted to ask you is: What role does ego play in music for you? After Neu! and Harmonia did you choose to go solo in order to fulfill your own musical vision?
MR: For me, it's a pretty straightforward development from Neu! to Harmonia to my first solo record. I couldn't have omitted any of it. I never would have ended up with Flammende Herzen or Neu! '75 without Harmonia. But the fact is that Harmonia failed at the time. It was simply a commercial flop. In 1976 we reached the point where we really just stared at each other and said, "It just can't go on like this." I suddenly found myself alone, and to get back to your first question, I had no other choice than to go solo. Flammende Herzen emerged out of that situation. Not because I wanted to finally gratify my ego, but simply because there was no one with whom I could collaborate. For me, it was an experiment: What comes out if I make music alone in the studio? The key to that happening was Conny Plank. As a producer, Conny had the incredible ability to understand and empathize with the ambitions of the musicians who recorded with him. He once said that he sees himself as a midwife who helps musicians to deliver their babies. Which is to say he works without pressuring you. He also sometimes subtly placed limits, without it being clearly noticeable, by saying at the right point: "It's good like that." There's a lot happening spontaneously in the studio on Flammende Herzen. Conny and I never had any disagreements. Whatever he did, I always liked it.
RF: How was your work with Conny Plank financed at that time? I've had the luck that I've been able to build my own home studio gradually, and the means of production have become cheaper. For you, considerably more money and effort was needed in order to get anything onto tape.
MR: Indeed, it was stressful. Commercial studios were expensive. We always worked at night, because it was cheaper. For the first Neu! album, Klaus and I had four nights for the recordings and then a week of mixing in another studio, for which the owner of the studio got the publishing rights. That's how things worked at the time. We somehow scraped the money together. That was also what was so special about Conny Plank: He shared the risk with us. Of course, it meant that he was involved in the licenses. But as an overall matter, it was hell. We suddenly could record on 16 tracks for the second Neu! album, where the first was recorded a year earlier on eight. We failed spectacularly with these new opportunities: "Oh, I'll play another guitar and another reverse piano, and I can still throw a violin there." And then the week was nearly finished, and what did we have to show for it? One side of an album. Then the B-side emerged in a crazy night, where Klaus kicked against the turntable so that the needle jumped. [Side two of Neu! 2 consists of previous singles, "Neuschnee" and "Super," played in various speeds from both tape and a record player.]
RF: I have to admit, I was incredibly irritated by that the first time I heard it.
MR: I hated Klaus for it, but it was the result of sheer desperation. He would probably never have admitted it, but it's the truth. We had these two pieces, "Super" and "Neuschnee," and it was clear that they would be on the B-side, but they had a total of maybe six and a half minutes, so it wasn't enough. And then Klaus put our first single on the record player and let loose. Later, the B-side of Neu! 2 was considered the first remix experiment.
RF: Indeed, today it's always said that in a certain sense, Neu! is proto-techno. But I've never felt that. The fact that something is repeating has absolutely nothing to do with techno. Your music grabbed me on a harmonic level that pop music or the music that otherwise surrounded me never did. It was a different sound. I never associated it with techno. I made my first record in 1990 and I had no idea of your music back then. I didn't know that something like that had ever existed in Germany! During the '90s, house and techno led to the development of a new scene, which I was part of. People in Germany once again found their own language with electronic music, but for me at the time it had no connection to what you had established in the past. I still see it that way today because so many people who produced records in the '90s had absolutely no idea bout music from the '70s. Techno and house are and have always been club music and a unique youth culture, which has little to do with what was done in the '70s. What happens harmonically on your records together sounds incomparable to me. One could draw the connection between your music and techno, but in the end it's constructing something else.
MR: I noticed the development of techno only from a great, great distance. I wasn't hanging out in Berlin or in the other cities where a lot of it happened. I can remember that I sometimes heard something on the radio and thought: "Ah yes, so that's happening now." But it didn't really leave its mark. I maybe briefly considered it in order to see if it could serve as an inspiration. Repetition, of course, always does, like the magic of repetition I found in Pakistan, not just the strange sounds and melodies.
RF: For decades, repetition was something that people in Germany pretty much never got to learn. It was always more about pushing variations to extreme, to have as many combinations and changes as possible before something repeated. On the other hand, techno was an almost archaic approach to music, which felt extremely liberating to me when I started to work with machines. There is also a very important difference between the way your music was created back then and how mine has always been created. Namely, I was influenced by pre-existing record collections, by sampling techniques and the availability of music. My music consists more of puzzle pieces, of various connections that I make between different things that I've heard in my life. I never had the intention to break with everything that came before. And that's a very big difference in approach.
For me, house and techno in the late '80s and early '90s was the most radical thing you could connect with at the time. I left the bands in which I had played as a drummer until then, and in the late '80s, started to produce on the cheapest bits of equipment. My music has always been created as a form of sampling. I know you've said that you wanted to leave everything that was there before behind you. An important part of what you said was to withdraw as much as possible and not listen to much music in order to have your own sound. For me, it was always very important to hear a lot of music and to somehow process what fascinated me. I suppose it also had to do with different times. I'd be curious to know: How were the late '80s and early '90s for you as an artist? The positive mythologizing of the '70s hadn't really taken place yet.
MR: The '70s were pretty much "out" during the '80s.
RF: Exactly. How did that feel?
MR: It was difficult. But I had the good fortune to regain the rights to my first three solo albums after five years. The manager at Polydor then offered me a rather lucrative contract. But you could see quite early on that Deutsche Grammophon, which Polydor belonged to, was reorienting. They released a compilation called Alles für Zuhause (Die Neue Deutsche Welle) and stuck on one of my tracks. They probably thought they could somehow still shove me into this market where I didn't belong. That's when the trouble began. Not financially, but artistically. At the time, the public moved away from what I was doing. By the end of the '80s, there was no interest at all. I prematurely terminated the contract with Polydor. I then continued to work for four years. It was pretty exhausting, because I realized that I could no longer relate to the reality out there. Then in 1993 it became clear that I could no longer wait for things to fall back into place. Consequently, I founded my own label and released everything myself.
RF: That was also exactly the time when self-releasing became possible for me. Those structures emerged at the time. From then on, it was another way of working.
MR: Well, it remained difficult for me. Also because of the endless discussions with Klaus about Neu! reissues. It wasn't all fun and games.
RF: Of course. Then let me ask you some more about Harmonia. Harmonia and Kraftwerk both recorded two very important albums around the same time…
MR: I believe Kraftwerk's Autobahn came out one year after Musik von Harmonia.
RF: Yes, which is interesting, because I think that on the title track "Autobahn," something happens musically that for me sounds exactly like a part of the Harmonia album.
MR: Really? I've never heard that. Great, I'll sue them! [laughs] What do you hear there? I'm very interested to know.
RF: It comes in that middle section, where there's a melody that, to my ears…Well, I'd have to have the tracks side by side.
MR: I would not insinuate that Kraftwerk had taken anything from Harmonia. But I can remember quite clearly how I proudly came to Düsseldorf with the first Harmonia album. I met up with Ralf and Florian in a billiard bar and then played the album to them in the car. I can even remember that they were especially impressed by one of the pieces, called "Veteranen." And you know that I've jammed with Ralf Hütter. Back then it became apparent that we were on the same melodic path. It was a revelation for me, because at the time, to my mind, there was no one in sight who wanted to do anything similar to what I was doing. With other musicians, there was either still blues in what they were doing, or it was complicated and overly intellectual. With Ralf, I could immediately relate. That compatibility between us is perhaps a better explanation of where the similarity in the pieces come from.
This conversation was translated by Alexander Paulick-Thiel and originally appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of Electronic Beats Magazine. Click here to read more from the magazine.
Published September 02, 2015.


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text:
Ein Spiegel bezeichnet in der Architektur eine ebene, zweidimensionale Fläche, die von einer nicht ebenen, dreidimensionalen Struktur umgeben ist. Auf dem Spiegel werden oft Bilder, Flachreliefs oder Ornamente gezeigt.

Beispiele sind:
 die geglättete Stirn eines Quaders,
 das Mittelfeld einer von Profilen eingerahmten Flachdecke,
 das Mittelfeld einer über tiefen Hohlkehlen mit den Seitenwänden verbundene Flachdecke, ein Spiegelgewölbe.

Siehe auch
  Satzspiegel

Literatur
 Folkhard Cremer: Hessen II. Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt = Georg Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. Deutscher Kunstverlag, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3.

Einzelnachweise

Architektur
Ornament (Bauteil)