Hey everyone, Ryan here. I have some bad news to report this week: the 2015 edition of the PC Perspective Hardware Workshop at Quakecon is canceled. I apologize for late announcement, but we were trying diligently to figure out a way to make it happen as expected. That just didn't happen.
My wife gave birth to our first child, a baby girl named Emmaline, on June 27th. However, her original due date was August 18th. Based on that original due date, we had planned to host and operate the workshop at the 20th Quakecon as we normally have. However, on June 9th, my wife was admitted to the hospital with pre-eclampsia and placed on full-time hospital bed rest until the birth of the baby. Every day that we could keep Emma safely inside mom meant a lot fewer complications with pre-term birth, so that was our focus.
Regardless of our intent to make it to August, Emma had other ideas and she was born at 3:51am on June 27th. She was immediately carted off in an incubator to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where she has remained ever since. Expected "go home" dates vary from day to day, but as of last week it was getting pretty close to the dates of Quakecon.
As you might imagine, my heart belongs here at home, with my wife and baby, as we try to carefully coax her into health as a preemie of nearly 8 weeks. Planning and finalizing the workshop and traveling to Dallas for one of the most fun weekends of my year just isn't possible this time.
Emmaline apologizes for messing up the workshop this year!!
Things are looking good for us, so I don't want to paint a dire picture here. Emmaline is growing, is off oxygen and IV fluids and taking bottles like a champ!
I also want to be sure everyone knows that the entire Quakecon staff has been great with me on this, understanding my need to cancel last minute and offering all the support they could. It's great to have people that care and we have already been invited back for next year - and that's our plan!
So, I apologize to all the fans and gamers of the PC Perspective Workshop and Quakecon. Hopefully you all understand the circumstances this time around. Thanks to all the sponsors of our event as well for being cool with my change of plans. Have a blast at Quakecon everyone, I'll see you next year!
SquareEnix would apparently prefer to say "no DLC or microtransactions" when referring to free, post-launch, content updates. Personally, I think "free DLC" would be an acceptable name for their plans. However you want to brand it, the new Hitman will have content added for not additional cost. This was once a common practice for PC games, at a time when they had access to internet, consoles did not, and there was nothing like Steam or Xbox Live to facilitate microtransactions.
Some of the updates could deviate from what is considered "traditional DLC" though. For instance, they might push an update that adds or modifies an NPC to be a target, but just for a couple of days. Since Hitman has been one of the games that scores how effectively you can take down opponents, PC Gamer hopes that impromptu and time-limited missions will test players on skill and intuition, rather than manufacturing a calculated strategy. In fact, some will only occur once and you might not have more than a photo to go off of.
Hitman (no subtitle) is scheduled to launch on December 8th.
While StarCraft II is known for its multiplayer component, some of us are mostly interested in the campaign... and Arcade mods, but there's no news on that front. Legacy of the Void is the end of the StarCraft II trilogy, which is said to finally deal with the hybrids that were introduced in the secret missions of Brood War and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. They played a larger role in Heart of the Swarm's campaign although that did not even have unlockable missions, so they wouldn't exist otherwise.
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void does not yet have a release date, but there will be a mini-campaign released for free before it launches. StarCraft II: Whispers of Oblivion (or is that StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void: Whispers of Oblivion?) are three single-player missions that will be released in July. Those who pre-purchase Legacy of the Void will get the missions first, which might mean that everyone else needs to wait until after July to play them... or not. That said, if you are patient, you do not even need to own StarCraft II at all. Free to all, but timed-exclusive for those who pre-order.
This has been a good E3 for the PC platform. We got our first keynote, organized by PC Gamer and AMD, which took the format in its own direction. This had basically the same reaction as putting Skittles in an M&Ms vending machine; they are good, but you'll see lots of weird faces on those who were expecting chocolate that melts in their mouths and not in their hands. It also ran long, celebrating the platform for almost two and a half hours, which is problematic for fans of console games who are very busy (and anyone with sub-phenomenal blood circulation or irritable bowels). Personally, I found it very interesting (while a bit long).
Throughout E3, PC Gamer has also kept a vast (but not as complete as they claim) list of titles at the event. Each entry in the slideshow (I know) format has a brief blurb about the game, its release date if available, and whether it is coming to the PC platform. It is updated as the event progresses, but it already has about forty entries. Of the current list, only four are not yet confirmed for the PC. That sounds pretty good, and a stark contrast from five-to-ten years ago.
Unfortunately, they are missing many titles that would be excluded from the PC, so I will add to it here. Gears 4 has not been confirmed for the PC, although the developer is bringing the original Gears remake to the platform. Yup, we get the one Gears we already had (at least until Games for Windows Live had something to say about it). Uncharted 4, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Dreams are pretty safe bets against the PC. Microsoft has been extremely quiet about Halo 5 and its chances on the PC; ReCore and Rare Replay sounds like Xbox One exclusives, as in excluding the PC as well as the other consoles, as well. Then you add Nintendo, and this list blows up from 12, including my additions, to a much bigger number that I don't even want to figure out.
Still, it is interesting to browse through PC Gamer's slideshow and look at all the content that we will get. It has been a good year for the PC. Microsoft is pulling Windows 10 forward with equivalent effort to what they have spent dragging the mostly unprofitable Xbox division around. They know that gaming is an essential component of why people are locked in to Windows, and it has thrived even through the decade-plus of neglect and maltreatment. On the other side, we see Sony appreciating the PC as a profitable market that can exist alongside their PlayStation initiatives for Sony Online content, and they don't even have as much first-party developers as they used to anyway.
But yeah. Lots of games is good. While I've managed for the last couple years, I feel it's getting much easier to ignore the console exclusives. How about you?
And, of course, Xbox One... but I can assume who is the bulk of my audience.
Microsoft announced the Xbox One Elite Controller at E3, which includes support for Windows 10. This is part of their initiative to amend relations with the PC gaming industry. They seem to be going about it by focusing on the high-end gamer first. If not, then I wonder why they chose a $150 controller as a leading product.
At that price, you could literally purchase three Steam Controllers from Valve instead of a single one of these, but whether you should... depends. In all honesty, I might end up purchasing both and doing a comparison between them over a variety of games. Of course, my primary input device is the mouse and keyboard for most games, but I occasionally add an early model Xbox 360 wired controller to the mix for Saint's Row, Grand Theft Auto, NASCAR 2003, and a few other titles.
The real disappointment is its D-Pad, though. It just cannot reliably send a single direction without sometimes accidentally sending others. This gets worse in games that are styled in the "8-bit" and "16-bit" era. I actually need to play most of those on a keyboard, which is a terrible experience. Valve's implementation looks interesting with the cross-shaped thumbpad, but Microsoft's new version has options: an old-fashioned cross as well as a nine-sectioned cup, called a "faceted D-pad".
That leads into the main design of Microsoft's controller: customization. Two switches on the back of the controller allow the range of trigger motion to be limited on the fly. This is designed for games like Grand Theft Auto, where the player wants precise control over throttle and brake, but would prefer to rapidly max-out the trigger as fast as possible when shooting a weapon. With this controller, you flip the switch when you leave the car and, what normally would be some fraction of its range, would be considered "bottoming out" and it would apparently even physically stop the trigger from pushing in further. According to the website, the threshold is user-customizable. I did not use it personally because I wasn't at E3.
Like Valve's controller, it has optional rear paddles near the grips. They are stainless steel apparently, and can be used to compensate for weird button combinations by mapping them to fingers that normally just clutch the device itself. In Valve's version, there is just two while Microsoft's allows for up to four. Microsoft also allows you to detach them, rather than just disable them.
This is when we get to software customization. Valve claims that the Steam Controller can be bound to many events across mouse, keyboard, and gamepad buttons and axises. Microsoft, on the other hand, seems to be keeping within the range of buttons found on a standard Xbox One controller. This is concerning to me because it means that extended inputs will be redundant, which is fine for an Xbox One game but could be annoying for a PC title that has many independent, simpler commands. This might be a limitation of XINPUT, which supposedly cannot address more than 10 buttons. I thought I remembered that limit being extended, but that seems to be true even in the MSDN documentation. Even still, the driver could address the extra functions as a secondary virtual device (keyboards, etc.) but Microsoft doesn't seem to want to. As a final note, Valve also allows the end of both triggers to be considered a clicky button, while Microsoft just recognizes it as a bottomed-out axis.
The Xbox One Elite Controller will ship in October for $149.99. A wireless adapter for the PC will not be required if you use the included USB Micro cable, but add that to the price if you want it wireless. Add batteries on top of that, because it takes AA. They include a pair of disposable AA, but that is obviously not a permanent solution.
PowerColor is best known as an add-in board (AIB) partner of AMD who has also branched out into cases and power supplies. This year, they have introduced a new product category: sound cards. The PowerColor Devil HDX connects via PCIe and can take up one or two slots, depending on whether the user wants to install its included (!!) daughterboard with analog (4 x 3.5mm) surround outputs and a microphone input. Without the daughterboard, the card has a quarter-inch headphone jack, two analog RCA jacks for stereo, an RCA SPDIF output, and an optical SPDIF output. The main card is covered in a full EMF shield, because it's inside a computer.
The card includes switchable OP-AMPs, high quality capacitors, a Cmedia CM8888 audio processor, and a Wolfson WM8741 DAC. This configuration is capable of driving headphones with up to 600 Ohm impedance. The signal-to-noise ratio is a little better on the RCA jacks, because they're not amplified, but not by much. The RCA jacks are rated at 124 dB SNR, while the headphones are rated at 120 dB SNR with the supplied OP-AMPs. PowerColor wrote a driver interface, called "Xear", which includes ASIO 2.2 support.
The PowerColor Devil HDX doesn't have a release date but Tom's Hardware, who spoke with the company, said it should be "over the coming months". They also said it will retail for $159, which is apparently $50 less than their competition.
Chugging right along that TechInsights Flash Roadmap we saw last year, Micron has announced the TLC extension to their 16nm flash memory process node.
While 16nm TLC was initially promised Q4 of 2014, I believe Micron distracted themselves a little with their dabbles into Dynamic Write Acceleration technology. No doubt wanting to offer ever more cost effective SSDs to their portfolio, the new TLC 16nm flash will take up less die space for the same capacity, meaning more dies per 300mm wafer, ultimately translating to lower cost/GB of consumer SSDs.
The Crucial MX200 and BX100 SSDs have already been undercutting the competition in cost/GB, so the possibility of even lower cost SSDs is a more than welcome idea - just so long as they can keep the reliability of these parts high enough. IMFT has a very solid track record in this regard, so I don't suspect any surprises in that regard.
Full press blast appears after the break.
From what we can see, it appears to be a good performer (by modern SATA 6Gb/sec SSD standards), but we naturally can't tell anything for sure until we get samples in for local testing, as we have no idea of the state of preconditioning of the Trion in those tests.
These are OCZ's enterprise-grade NVMe devices, available in 800GB, 1.6TB, and 3.2TB. The 6000 series is a 2.5" 15mm SFF-8639 device aimed at lighter workloads with a rating of 1 Drive Write Per Day (DWPD) over a 5-year period, while the 6300 series brings that figure up to 3 DWPD and offers an HHHL PCIe card as an optional form factor. The higher writes per day are facilitated by the move to A19nm eMLC flash.
We'll be keeping a close eye on these new developments from OCZ and we are eager to get these in the shop for some thorough testing!
Press blast for the Trion and Z-Drive 6300 Series after the break!
Killer Networking has developed several networking solutions, focused on gamers, over the last decade or so. Ryan reviewed their first product way back in 2006, and he found it had some merit but struggled when quantifying it, especially to the price tag that it bore. Many years later, Qualcomm picked them up and their technology found a few design wins, especially with Gigabyte motherboards. They also branched out into wireless networking, a segment that undeniably could benefit from innovation. They are also, now, under the Rivet Networks brand, which is listed as an "Authorized Design Center" for Qualcomm.
Today, they are announcing the Killer Wireless-AC 1535 Networking Adapter. This brings their technology to the 802.11ac standard. It includes features like DoubleShow Pro, which allows Windows to balance network traffic between wireless and wired networks. It also allows the user to monitor their wireless traffic, even providing an interface to throttle or outright disable certain applications from using the internet. They are mostly promoting their "ExtremeRange" technology, which uses the MU-MIMO standard of 802.11ac, along with beamforming and two signal amplifiers, to provide high bandwidth at longer ranges.
The Killer Wireless-AC 1535 has received a few design wins, this time with MSI. It will be available in the MSI GT72 and MSI GT80 gaming laptops, as well as the MSI X99A GODLIKE GAMING motherboard. Thankfully, they are not adopting MSI's love of uppercase letters.
Earlier this morning you saw us post a story about MSI updating its line of 20 notebooks with new Broadwell processors. Though dual-core Broadwell has been available for Ultrabooks and 2-in-1s for some time already, today marks the release of the quad-core variations we have been waiting on for some time. Available for mobile designs, as well as marking the very first Iris Pro graphics implementation for desktop users, Broadwell quad-core parts look to be pretty impressive.
Today Intel gives to the world a total 10 new processors for content creators and enthusiasts. Two of these parts are 65 watt SKUs in LGA packaging for use by enthusiasts and DIY builders. The rest are BGA designs for all-in-one PCs and high performance notebooks and include both 65 watt and 47 watt variants. And most are using the new Iris Pro Graphics 6200 implementation.
For desktop users, we get the Core i7-5775C and the Core i5-5675C. The Core i7 model is a quad-core, HyperThreaded CPU with a base clock of 3.3 GHz and a max Turbo clock of 3.7 GHz. It's unlocked so that overclockers and can mess around with them in the same way do with Haswell. The Iris Pro Graphics 6200 can scale up to 1150 MHz and rated DDR3L memory speeds are up to 1600 MHz. 6MB of L3 cache, a 65 watt TDP and a tray price of $366 round out the information we have.
The Core i5-5675C does not include HyperThreading, has clock speed ranges of 3.1 GHz to 3.6 GHz and only sees the Iris Pro scale to 1100 MHz. Also, it drops from 6MB of L3 cache to 4MB. Pricing on this model will start a $276.
These two processors mark the first time we have seen Iris Pro graphics in a socketed form factor, something we have been asking Intel to offer for at least a couple of generations. They focused on 65 watt TDPs rather than anything higher mostly because of the target audience for these chips: if you are interested in the performance of integrated graphics then you likely are pushing a small form factor design or HTPC of some kind. If you have a Haswell-capable motherboard then you SHOULD be able to utilize one of these new processors though you'll want a Z97 board if you are going to try to overclock it.
From a performance standpoint, the Core i7-5775C will offer 2x the gaming performance, 35% faster video transcoding and 20% higher compute performance when compared to the previous top-end 65 watt Haswell part, the Core i7-4790S. That 4th generation part uses Intel HD Graphics 4600 that does not include the massive eDRAM that makes Iris Pro implementations so unique.
For mobile and AIO buyers, Intel has a whole host of new processors to offer. You'll likely find most of the 65 watt parts in all-in-one designs but you may see some mobile designs that go crazy and opt for them too. For the rest of the gaming notebook designs there are CPUs like the Core i7-5950HQ, a quad-core HyperThreaded part with a base clock of 2.9 GHz and max Turbo clock of 3.8 GHz inside a TDP of 47 watts. The Iris Pro Graphics 6200 will scale from 300 to 1150 MHz so GPU performance should basically be on par with the desktop 65-watt equivalent. Pricing is pretty steep though: starting at $623.
These new processors, especially the new 5950HQ, offer impressive compute and gaming performance.
Compared to the Core i7-5600U, already available and used in some SFF and mobile platforms, the Core i7-5950HQ is 2.5x faster in SPECint and nearly 2x faster in a video conversion benchmark. Clearly these machines are going to be potent desktop replacement options.
For mainstream gamers, the Iris Pro Graphics 6200 on 1920x1080 displays will see some impressive numbers. Players of League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm and WoW will see over 60 FPS at the settings listed in the slide above.
We are still waiting for our hardware to show up but we have both the LGA CPUs and notebooks using the BGA option en route. Expect testing from PC Perspective very soon!
Shortly after the keynote at Lenovo Tech World today,we got hands on with the Dual-Screen Smartwatch concept, the Magic View.
The Magic View is an Android Wear device, which integrates a unique "virtual interactive display" via a small prism on the watch band. Users must bring the device up to their face and look through the prism to see a secondary display for tasks such as video viewing.
Looking inside the Magic View reminded us a lot of Google Glass. As you put your eye up to the prism on the watch band, you could see what looked like a display off in the distance. It was difficult to determine the relative size, but Lenovo claims this display is 20x bigger than the display on the smartwatch itself. Resolution was also undetermined, but it seemed to be low and about on par with the original Google Glass units.
The device itself was a bit warm and the additional display unit added some bulk, but these weren't immediate deal breakers. The design was still ergonomic and seemed like something that you wouldn't have an issue wearing all-day long.
This is definitely an early concept, but the fact that Lenovo are showing off demo units here means that they are serious about the ideas presented in the Magic View. If additional development can solve some of the heat issues, it seems like this would be a feature that doesn't detract from the core use of the device and can provide a potentially value new interaction method.
Today at the Lenovo Tech World keynote presentation, Lenovo CTO Peter Hortensius took the opportunity to show some of the far reaching concepts for smartphones and smartwatches.
The Magic View smartwatch is a stylish, round smartwatch reminiscent of the Moto 360 that seems from the concept renderings to be based around Android Wear. However, the uniqueness comes from what Lenovo is claiming makes it the only smartwatch with two screens.
Optical reflection is used inside of a portion of the strap in order to project a second "virtual interactive display" more than 20 times larger than the integrated display. This is made possible through Lenovo-designed silicon aimed at miniaturizing the components for this type of projection while maintaining the same performance.
Lenovo claims this secondary screen will be useful for things like maps, as well as photo and video viewing, but it be remains to be seen if users would favor a virtual display like this over simply using their existing smartphone display. Privacy is also a big part of what Lenovo is pitching with the Magic View. Since users must place the lens portion next to their eye, other people in the same area cannot look over their shoulders and view potientially sensitive information.
The Lenovo Smart Cast concept plays on a similar idea as the Magic View. Through the use of a build in laser projector, as well as specialized sensors, Lenovo aims at allowing users to project a large virtual touch screen onto tabletop surfaces.
With the use of infrared sensors, users can touch the surface underneath the projection and interact just as if it were a physical display. Lenovo points towards this being useful for such applications as virtual keyboards in productivity apps, or even for media control of projected movies and light gaming such as Fruit Ninja.
The projected display is also independent of the smartphone display, allowing things such as two separate views for video chatting applications.
It remains to be seen if these concepts will ever actually make it into production devices, and if those devices will ever hit North America, but it's always interesting to see what R&D divisions of large companies like Lenovo are up to.
Yesterday during briefings at Lenovo's North Campus just outside of Beijing, the Contextual Computing group took the opportunity to discuss their unique integration of a technology called REACHit with Cortana on Windows 10.
REACHit is an indexing program that Lenovo has developed which is aimed at helping users find their documents among many different services and contexts. Once you authenticate REACHit with your accounts such as Dropbox, Box.net, Google Drive, or your local computers, Lenovo makes an index of the files which you keep there to help you more easily locate what you are looking for.
The most unique feature of REACHit comes in how you issue a search query. Lenovo has developed multiple contexts which they think will be useful in locating files, such as File Type, File Actions, Location, Calendar Events, and time frames. They are indexing the files you give them access to for these specific prompts, and hoping to present them in a more useful fashion.
One of the examples we were walked through involved the prompt, "Where is the presentation I was working on at Starbucks last week?". In this case, Lenovo is looking at the file types (PPT), whether or not a file was Saved/Opened, the geolocation which this occurred at, and the time frame at which these operations took place.
We didn't see a live demo of these searches working, and haven't had hands-on time with the software yet so it's hard to say if Lenovo has succeeded at their goal, but the technology seems like an interesting solution to a common problem.
There are also security concerns about giving Lenovo access to all of your files, and letting them build an index your metadata. We have been told there is encryption being handled on Lenovo's server side, but they couldn't get into any further details about this.
Various companies have begun teasing what we might see at this year's E3 expo. Blizzard has not historically had a big presence at the event, though. With the size and scope of Blizzcon, the company usually saves it announcements for then. In fact, I cannot think of a single, non-trivial thing that Blizzard did at E3 since the expo downsized after E3 2006.
This year, on the other hand, Blizzard will be present at AMD and PC Gamer's E3 show. The recent Overwatch previews could be leading up to this event, which takes place three weeks from yesterday. The recent video that I embed above, Tracer, is pretty interesting too. It shows how useful a light assault player could be if they don't obey the space-time continuum. The last two-thirds of the video show off an impressive kill streak.
Again, expect more E3 coverage leading up to the Expo on June 16th.
Even though COMPUTEX 2015 doesn't begin for almost a week, the organizers have presented their "Best Choice Award". Many devices won from a variety of categories, such as the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet and the 19" Stainless Fanless Industrial Panel PC from Wincomm Corporation. Being COMPUTEX, they appreciate PC gaming and overclocking, which led to MSI winning a pair of awards for its X99-based motherboards.
The MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK motherboard won the Best Choice Golden Award for Gaming and Entertainment because of its Streaming Engine Module. This feature uses an AVerMedia encoder to stream 60 megabit, 1080p, H.264 gaming video over the internet, to compensate for the lack of Intel Quicksync on Haswell-E. I have never seen it in action, but it seems to have interested the judges. MSI's second award is for the MSI X99A XPOWER AC motherboard, which won the Best Choice Award for Computer and System because of its overclocking capability.
COMPUTEX starts on June 2nd in Taiwan, which is next week, but expect more news before then.
Today at their Tech World event in Beijing, Lenovo is taking the opportunity to announce some new mainstream notebook options.
First off, we have simply the Lenovo Z41 and Z51. The 14-inch Z41 and 15.6-inch Z51 aim to refresh the previous Z40 and Z50 with Broadwell CPUs as well as new AMD discrete GPU options.
Lenovo is using the Broadwell-U class of CPUs here as you would find in ultra books, so don't expect a CPU powerhouse, but for productivity style tasks these machines should hit the sweet spot of Price vs Performance with a starting price of $549 for the base Z51.
Paired with the new AMD R9-M360 (Z41) or M375 (Z51) these notebooks should also be able to play mainstream titles on the integrated 1080p display while coming in just over $800.
The Lenovo Z51 and Z41 are available on Lenovo's site now.
Lenovo also announced a low-cost entry into the ideapad line utilizing Intel's BayTrail-M processors. The ideapad 100 is available in both 14-inch and 15-inch variants and seems to be aimed at the low-cost Chromebook market.
Starting at $249, the ideapad 100 seems like it will be a good option for users looking for a secondary option for basic web browsing and office tasks.
Stay tuned for more from Lenovo's Tech World Event this week!
PCPer Live! Intel SSD Live Stream and Giveaway!
UPDATE: The secret is out! Today's live stream will focus on the new Intel SSD 750 Series products, which Allyn posted our review of just a few minutes ago. Be sure you read up on that story and prepare your questions for our event that starts in less than three hours!
UPDATE 2: If you missed the live streaming event today, you can find the reply embedded directly below. You can't win any of the prizes at this point (sorry!) but there is a ton of information for you to gleam from the discussion. That includes a history of Intel's SSD technology, how flash works and what the new SSD 750 Series has to offer with PCIe and NVMe. Enjoy!
Earlier this month we spotted a new and potentially very exciting SSD while looking through some PAX East coverage around the web. It appears to be a PCI Express based Intel SSD, likely based on the same technology as the P3700-series of NVMe drives released last June. And today, if you take a look at this Intel promotional landing page you'll see a timer and countdown that ends on April 2nd.
Sounds like something must be up, huh?
Well, in totally unrelated news, PC Perspective and Intel are partnering together for a live stream to discuss "SSD related topics" on April 2nd.
Joining us for the live event will be Intel's Bryn Pilney and Kei Kobayashi, making a follow up appearance after jumping on stage with us at Quakecon 2014. During the event we'll discuss some of the history of Intel's move into the SSD market, how consumers benefit from Intel development and technology and a certain new product that will be making an appearnce on that same day.
Huge thanks to Intel for supporting our viewers and readers with hardware to giveaway!
The event will take place Thursday, April 2nd at 3pm ET / 12pm PT at http://www.pcper.com/live. There you'll be able to catch the live video stream as well as use our chat room to interact with the audience, asking questions for me and Intel to answer live. To win the prizes you will have to be watching the live stream, with exact details of the methodology for handing out the goods coming at the time of the event.
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below and we'll look through them just before the start of the live stream. Of course you'll be able to tweet us questions @pcper and we'll be keeping an eye on the IRC chat as well for more inquiries. What do you want to know and hear from Intel?
So join us! Set your calendar for this coming Thursday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT and be here at PC Perspective to catch it. If you are a forgetful type of person, sign up for the PC Perspective Live mailing list that we use exclusively to notify users of upcoming live streaming events including these types of specials and our regular live podcast. I promise, no spam will be had!
The DIGITS DevBox is a device that data scientists can purchase and install locally. Plugged into a single electrical outlet, this modified Corsair Air 540 case equipped with quad TITAN X (reviewed here) GPUs can crank out 28 TeraFLOPS of compute power. The installed CPU is a Haswell-E 5930K, and the system is rated to draw 1300W of power. NVIDIA is building these in-house as the expected volume is low, with these units likely going to universities and small compute research firms.
Why would you want such compute power?
DIGITS is a software package available from NVIDIA. Its purpose is to act as a tool for data scientists to manipulate deep learning environments (neural networks). This package, running on a DIGITS DevBox, will give much more compute power capability to scientists who need it for their work. Getting this tech in the hands of more scientists will accelerate this technology and lead to what NVIDIA hopes will be a 'Big Bang' in this emerging GPU-compute-heavy field.
More from GTC is coming soon, as well as an exclusive PC Perspective Live Stream set to start in just a few minutes! Did I mention we will be giving away a Titan X???
NVIDIA is streaming today's keynote from the GPU Technology Conference (GTC) on Ustream, and we have the embed below for you to take part. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang will reveal the details about the new GeForce GTX TITAN X but there are going to be other announcements as well, including one featuring Tesla CEO Elon Musk.


Original Rules of Golf in Ornate Classic frame. Wood frame and real glass. Outside dimension 19 1/2"
x 23 1/2". Special order ships within 7-10 days.
Tis the ghost of old Tom Morris coming to visit you in your modern world. Aye, long ago we watched the shepards tend their flocks and in their boredom invented a little game of striking a stone with their crooks and knocking it over the countryside and finally the champion was declared who first put his rock in the rabbit hole. Of course, bets were made and settled but the game continued till the next hole. In time we learned from the Shepard and developed this golf into a gentlemans game; and designed certain and proper rules for the purpose of betterment. Aye, and in 1745 the first rules of golf were drawn at Muirfield, Scotland and signed by the club captain John Rattray. The rules were adopted in 1754 at the Royal and Ancient of St. Andrews. What we are offering Laddie, is a framed reproduction of the first Rules. Let us not forget the history and the love of this game...GOLF!


text:
Unifi - Get News & Ratings Daily
Enter your email address below to get the latest news and analysts' ratings for Unifi with our FREE daily email newsletter:
Petroteq Energy (CVE:PQE) Sets New 52-Week Low at $0.26
Arix Bioscience (LON:ARIX) Hits New 12-Month Low at $130.00
Unifi, Inc. (UFI) Holdings Trimmed by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.
April 11th, 2019 - Comments Off on Unifi, Inc. (UFI) Holdings Trimmed by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. - Filed Under - by Nicole Kennedy
D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lessened its position in shares of Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI) by 26.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 36,063 shares of the textile maker's stock after selling 13,135 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.'s holdings in Unifi were worth $824,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mercer Capital Advisers Inc. increased its position in Unifi by 41.7% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 1,700 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Unifi by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 117,903 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $2,693,000 after purchasing an additional 941 shares during the period. Mycio Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Unifi by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Mycio Wealth Partners LLC now owns 13,500 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in Unifi by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 54,930 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $1,255,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in Unifi by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 22,365 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,352 shares during the period. 82.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Get Unifi alerts:
UFI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Unifi from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 1st. ValuEngine downgraded shares of Unifi from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, February 4th. Finally, Sidoti downgraded shares of Unifi from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd.
In related news, Director Kenneth G. Langone acquired 20,000 shares of Unifi stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $20.93 per share, with a total value of $418,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,150,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,069,500. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Richard Gerstein acquired 5,000 shares of Unifi stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.85 per share, with a total value of $104,250.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,449 shares in the company, valued at $759,961.65. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have bought 64,195 shares of company stock valued at $1,406,480. Insiders own 22.41% of the company's stock.
Shares of UFI stock opened at $19.26 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $365.69 million, a PE ratio of 14.59 and a beta of 0.78. Unifi, Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.83 and a 52 week high of $38.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 3.73 and a quick ratio of 1.86.
Unifi (NYSE:UFI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 4th. The textile maker reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $167.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $166.80 million. Unifi had a net margin of 2.00% and a return on equity of 2.21%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Unifi, Inc. will post 0.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
COPYRIGHT VIOLATION WARNING: This article was originally published by Watch List News and is the sole property of of Watch List News. If you are accessing this article on another site, it was illegally stolen and republished in violation of US & international trademark & copyright legislation. The original version of this article can be viewed at https://www.watchlistnews.com/unifi-inc-ufi-holdings-trimmed-by-d-e-shaw-co-inc/2954016.html.
Unifi Company Profile
Unifi, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells synthetic and recycled products made from polyester and nylon in the United States, Brazil, China, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Polyester, Nylon, and International. The Polyester segment manufactures and sells polyester plastic bottle flakes, polymer beads, partially oriented yarns, textured, solution and package dyed, twisted, beamed, and draw wound yarns to other yarn manufacturers, and knitters and weavers that produce yarn and/or fabric for the apparel, hosiery, home furnishings, automotive, industrial, and other end-use markets.
Featured Article: Rule of 72
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding UFI? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI).
Receive News & Ratings for Unifi Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Unifi and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Nicole Kennedy
Ethereum Cash 1-Day Trading Volume Hits $38.00
Petroteq Energy Sets New 52-Week Low at $0.26
Arix Bioscience Hits New 12-Month Low at $130.00

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ballinasloe, County Galway
Artist Biography, Bug
Ronan Burke, aka Bug, was born in the Wild West of Ireland, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, population: 14,000. He entered the world on New Year's Day 1980 and found that he liked his first taste of fame as television stations and newspapers scrambled to get an interview with one of the First New Irish Babies of the Decade. Of course, they didn't get much sense out of the newborn, but over the years his conversational skills have improved considerably.
The young Burke was musical from the start - or so his mother says - and taught himself to play the guitar.
Fast-forward through the usual scrapes and grades at school of childhood and we find Bug at the fabled crossroads of his life. Except that, luckily for him, there was no Devil challenging him to a musical duel. Always good with his hands, Ronan entered the world of carpentry, making beautiful - and practical - things, with his soul intact.
In fact, he made the guitar that he wrote songs to play on for his debut album 'Leave Town Behind.' And not only that, he also built the recording studio in which he played the guitar on which he played the songs he wrote for the album.
Along with the guitar, and being a singer-songwriter, Ronan has also made a mandolin and would like to craft instruments for other musicians.
He performs solo and with local bands around the country, and has supported Mary Coughlan and Aslan.
'Leave Town Behind' has an alternative indie rock feel and includes the songs:
'Gingerbread Man' which is inspired by the book of the same title which Ronan's father used to read to him when he was a child - 'I run as fast as I can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man'.
And 'Comes Down To' which is about life's lessons - 'I've made mistakes and I've been around, I've gone through this and I've gone through that, it all comes down to, it all just happens to be life.'
Foo Fighters, REM, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, pearl jam
AC/DC Radiohead, Ash, Declan O Rourke, Jackbeast, Kerbdog, Metallica, Therapy?, all of the above with many many Irish groups/artists too like Damien Rice, the Devlins amongst others


text:
Windowless bunker brings NBC's marathon Rio Games operation to life
RIO DE JANEIRO--The epicenter for one of the biggest media operations at the Rio Olympics is a 75,000 sq. feet of windowless rooms lit by thousands of monitors that serves as the backbone of NBC's exhaustive Olympics coverage.
Matt Lauer of NBC does a stand of taping in the Olympic Park prior to the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on July 30. USA TODAY Sports/John David Mercer
By Liana B. Baker / Reuters
RIO DE JANEIRO-The epicenter for one of the biggest media operations at the Rio Olympics is a 75,000 sq. feet of windowless rooms lit by thousands of monitors that serves as the backbone of NBC's exhaustive Olympics coverage.
Just one product of it is Michael Phelps' death stare that dominated social media the first week of the Games. NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp, was able to beam online athletes preparing in "ready rooms" at some of the Games' biggest events with newly installed cameras.
Rio is the ninth consecutive Games for NBC, which has the U.S. Olympic rights for the next 16 years.
Viewers' habits keep changing, with more searching for Olympics news online or through social media, fragmenting the traditional prime time audience that advertisers still pay a premium for.
The company has honed its own game plan with thousands of workers returning every Olympics. Its challenge is to meet new needs without unraveling a trusted system that has worked for so long.
"The sheer quantity of clips on mobile and tablets and the live streams add a lot of complexity," said David Mazza, NBC Sports and Olympics chief technical officer, pointing to a rack of equipment making it possible for editors in NBC's broadcast center in Stamford, Connecticut, to cut clips to be shared online.
He called the Rio operation 25 percent more complex than the broadcast from London in 2012.
A wall diagram near him shows 132 feeds being sent back to the States, including all of the streaming video, signals for Telemundo routing back to Miami and a Golf Channel feed headed for Orlando.
Most of the raw feed comes from the Olympic Broadcast Services, although NBC supplements the events most popular with U.S. audiences like swimming, gymnastics and athletics with its own cameras.
The U.S. television network ships its gear from one Games to the next. When the Games are over in Rio, it will pack 30 shipping containers full of TV monitors, furniture, catering supplies and the like and send it immediately to South Korea for the 2018 Winter Games.
"It took 60 days of build, will have 25 days of usage and in 20 days, it'll be dead empty," Mazza said.
Near disaster
NBC said there were a lot of close calls this year. Two-thirds of the power went out in Olympic park two weeks before the games. Then, a week before the opening ceremony, one of its four circuits transmitting the TV signal back to the United States failed. The next day, two more went down, which Mazza said was "terrifying."
After the Games started, one of its generators died on Copacabana during the beach volleyball and NBC had to run with no backup power that night since it took several hours and a crane to get a new one.
"We generally have four plans. Sometimes you never do plan A or B, often times you'll start with plan C and hopefully not plan D," Mazza said.
Overall viewership on the main NBC broadcast network is down from the Games four years ago in London. Jim Bell, NBC's Olympics executive producer, said it's not accurate to compare the primetime broadcast numbers because viewers are watching the Games online or on different cable channels at the same time.
"We all sit there and quibble, what are the metrics, what is the engagement? To pick this metric or that metric is an incomplete snapshot of what's gone on here. We're streaming it. We're monetizing it. We're winning cable. We're winning broadcast. We're dominating social," Bell said.
NBC expects its revenue-sharing deals with young media companies such as Snapchat for the Olympics to pay off and for the Olympics to boost its own long-term digital efforts.
The NBC Sports' app saw a 60 percent boost in NHL streaming after the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, according to Rick Cordella, NBC Sports Group's general manager of Digital Media.
Related Topics: OLYMPICS
Dickinson State Track and Field teams compete at UND Open
Brantley III sets second all-time record in shot put, Wrzesinski breaks school and North Star record in 60 meter hurdles
By James B. Miller, Jr.
Dickinson defeats Jamestown 86-80 in double overtime nail-bitter
Entering the game the Midgets and Blue Jays were tied in the WDA standings, and owing to a clutch performance Dickinson came away with a crowd pleasing win.
By Josiah C. Cuellar
Blue Hawk wrestling dominates at Tyler Plummer Classic
Engwitch and Speelmon take home belt buckles in victory at memorial home tourney
Blue Hawks defense holds #1 Mayville State to 50 Points in statement win
Before a packed crowd at home, Dickinson State dominated the Comets going 45% from the floor, grabbing 48 boards and double-digits in assists
The Medina shootout: 40 years after the tragedy 'that didn't need to happen'
ND bill would punish high-volume drug dealers, including those tied to overdose deaths


Cocktail dresses don't come more sensational than Jazz, a glittering, sequin-sprayed style that's guaranteed to steal the spotlight. This party piece features micro-paillettes arranged in a sleek, body-hugging silhouette, complete with flattering ruched detail and asymmetric neckline. Let Jazz shine and keep jewellery to a minimum - a black clutch and red lipstick is all you need.


text:
LoginID:
Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 We believe in Two great powers: the power of Nature and the power within one´s self.
Home Food Science Health Sciences Mind & Body Concepts Sick Care Systems Plant Sciences Alchemy Center Back
Lanosterol
CYP51
⌊Compounds of Life
⌊Proteins (Protein Science)
⌊Hemeproteins (Heme Proteins)
⌊Cytochromes (Cytochrome Proteins)
⌊CYP Gene Families (CYP Enzyme Families)
⌊CYP51 Gene Family
CYP Gene Families (CYP Enzyme Families)
⌊ CYP1 Family of Cytochrome P450 Genes
⌊ CYP2 Gene Family
⌊ CYP11 Family of Cytochrome P450 Genes
⌊ CYP17 Gene Family
See Also ↔
Welltrients Guide
Fitness (Physical Fitness)
Cleanses & Detoxifying
CYP51 Gene Family
"CYP51 Family of Cytochrome P450 Genes (CYP51 Gene Family)"
In our body, the CYP51 Gene Family is one of the families of Cytochrome P450 Genes including the: CYP51A1 gene involved in lanosterol 14-demethylase, important in cholesterol biosynthesis.
The CYP51 Gene Family includes:
CYP51A1 gene (CP51 gene) encoding the cytochrome P450 family 51 subfamily A member 1 enzyme, aka sterol 14-demethylase
CYP51P1 pseudogene (CYP51P1 pseudogene) (cytochrome P450 family 51 subfamily A member 1 pseudogene 1)
CYP51A1 Gene (CP51 Gene)
Lanosterol (Kryptosterol)
CYP51A1
In our body's cells, the CYP51A1 gene (CP51 gene) encodes the cytochrome P450 family 51 subfamily A member 1 enzyme (cytochrome P450, family 51, subfamily A, polypeptide 1), is one of our human genes.
CYP51A1 Gene
In our body's cells, the chromosomal locus of the CYP51A1 gene is found on chromosome 7 at the 7q21.2 position.
CYP51A1 Enzyme
In our body's cells, the CYP51A1 enzyme belongs to the cytochrome P450 (family 51, subfamily A, polypeptide 1) superfamily of enzymes that converts lanosterol to cholesterol.
In our body's cells, Lanosterol, formula C30H50O, is a triterpene compound that derives from the chair-boat-chair-boat folding of 2,3-oxidosqualene, metabolized to cholesterol and cucurbitacins, and the compound from which all steroids get derived.
In organic chemistry,Lanosterol is a tetracyclic triterpenoid and the first sterol intermediate formed by the condensation of the 30 carbon isoprenoid squalene.
Examples of lanosterol related compounds include:
lanosteryl ester
pneumocysterol
14-demethyllanosterol
24,25-dihydrolanosterol
"About Our Genes in PMID"
Ohashi M. et al "Localization of mammalian NAD(P)H steroid dehydrogenase-like protein on lipid droplets" J Biol Chem. 2003 Sep 19;278(38):36819-29
�The statements on this Web site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. The information presented is not intended to replace medical advice or treatment from your own doctor or healthcare provider. Nothing presented here is intended as a substitute for prescription medication or any other medical treatment prescribed by your doctor.
Home Conditions of Use Privacy Notice Philosophy Disclaimer About Us Contact Us Back
Copyright © 1988-2021 Wellness Advocate � & Wellness Advantage�
Wellness Advocate


aidshealth.org rank by Alexa is 748,092. aidshealth.org is estimated to have average of 240 unique users every day. aidshealth.org has 384 pageviews every day and it makes about $1.46 USD daily. WebInspect estimates aidshealth.org to worth $1,701.98 USD. aidshealth.org is most popular in United States.
The rank of aidshealth.org compare to all other sites. The best rank is 1.
Ammount of links pointing to aidshealth.org from other known websites.
The estimated avarage number of users that visit aidshealth.org every day.
The potential daily ads revenue of aidshealth.org. The estimation considers the traffic on the site, and the nature of it.
The potential yearly ads revenue of aidshealth.org. The estimation considers the traffic on the site, and the nature of it.
The estimated worth of aidshealth.org acording to it's ads revenues.
Description Largest community-based HIV/AIDS medical provider in the nation, serving over 130000 patients worlwide regardless of ability to pay.
Search terms assosiate with aidshealth.org.
Pepole who searched for the fallowing terms were also intrested in aidshealth.org.


text:
The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library opened last week in Indianapolis, where Vonnegut was born in 1922 and lived until returning from World War II.
The library items on display range from the ordinary to the intergalactic, many of them donated by his children. They include the author's typewriter and an unopened box of his Pall Mall cigarettes, alongside a painting devoted to the Tralfamadorians, the green aliens Mr. Vonnegut wrote about in books including "Slaughterhouse-Five." Several of Mr. Vonnegut's drawings are also displayed, including one of a gravestone that reads "Life is no way to treat an animal."
11.22.2010Tagged with: indianaKurt Vonnegutlibrarywriters
Slaughterhouse Five
The excellent Letters of Note has a scan and transcript of the letter Kurt Vonnegut sent home in May 1945 to inform his family of his capture, imprisonment and survival of the firebombing of Dresden. As a prisoner of war during the bombing, he was held in an underground slaughterhouse known as Slaughterhouse Five, which would save his life and lend its name to his famous 1969 anti-war novel.
It was our misfortune to have sadistic and fanatical guards. We were refused medical attention and clothing: We were given long hours at extremely hard labor. Our food ration was two-hundred-and-fifty grams of black bread and one pint of unseasoned potato soup each day. After desperately trying to improve our situation for two months and having been met with bland smiles I told the guards just what I was going to do to them when the Russians came. They beat me up a little. I was fired as group leader. Beatings were very small time: — one boy starved to death and the S3 Troops shot two for stealing food.
On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the R.A.F. their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden — possibly the world's most beautiful city. But not me.
After that we were put to work carrying corpses from Air-Raid shelters; women, children, old men; dead from concussion, fire or suffocation. Civilians cursed us and threw rocks as we carried bodies to huge funeral pyres in the city.
(via 3 quarks daily)
11.20.2009Tagged with: Kurt VonnegutLetters of NoteSlaughterhouse-Fivewriters
One for the Good Guys
Dave Eggers has a review of the new collection of early, previously unpublished short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, Look at the Birdie, in the Times.
The 14 stories in "Look at the Birdie," none of them afraid to entertain, dabble in whodunnitry, science fiction and commanding fables of good versus evil. Why these stories went unpublished is hard to answer. They're polished, they're relentlessly fun to read, and every last one of them comes to a neat and satisfying end.
11.02.2009Tagged with: book reviewsDave EggersKurt Vonnegutshort storieswriters


The Regional Grand Masters Tournament was once again impeccably organised by Laurie Alcock at Cannock HC - only this time he had a full blown Over 65 Great Grand Masters division to add to the mix.
As ever the whole weekend ran extremely smoothly and an excellent dinner was enjoyed by almost all those playing and their supporters at The Barns on the Saturday evening.
Over 60 Grand Masters Division.
The first day saw the East emerge as the only side to win both games, defeating the North 3-0 and the South 2-1. The South had also, surprisingly, been held to a 0-0 draw by the Midlands, who themselves had lost 1-2 to the West. As further indication of how close the teams are these days the West were held to a 1-1 draw by the North.
All these results played very much into the hands of the East who were assured of the title if they could put on a good performance at 9.45 on Sunday morning and beat the West, which they did by a flattering 3-0. On a disappointing day the West also lost 3-1 to the South. Meanwhile Jim Standish on his 75th birthday was given plenty of action in the North goal as they went down 5-0 to both the Midlands and South respectively. The East finally completed a clean sweep with a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Midlands, who had been the only team to beat them the previous year. This left East at the top of the table, followed by South, Midlands, West and North.
Over 65 Great Grand Masters Division.
In the Over 65 division it was the South who had a clean sweep beating all three opponents - East, West and Midlands - by the same margin - 1-0. Midlands came second with a 1-0 win over East and 1-1 draw with West, while East managed to beat West 2-0 to avoid the Wooden Spoon.


text:
by Bill Brandt | July 31, 2017 · 11:16 pm
By lex, on October 5th, 2010
Everything you'll need to know about Richard Cohen's latest WaPo column is to be found in the first paragraph:
I still ride a bike. I do 12 miles, several days a week, and as I do so I listen to music — the Pandora service on my iPhone. I have created a station that plays folk rock. Lately, it has repeatedly played the Neil Young song "Ohio": "What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?" On the bike, I have to repress a tear.
Do you grok how green Richard Cohen is, riding his bike several days a week? How technologically hip, listening to Pandora? How gosh darned mournful he remains for that long lost summer of endless love? Before the National Guard fired live bullets into a crowd of peaceful dissenters expressing the highest form of patriotism?
Before the specter of AIDS clapped a stopper over the whole party?
Do you get how golly gee sensitive he is, repressing his tear? (We will assume that the columnist is talking about the lachrymose singular, rather than a wardrobe malfunction in his spandex. The alternative being rather too painful to contemplate.)
Stop reading right there and let Ann Althouse pick up the tale:
I'm supposed to have the right image of the Tea Party so I can just swallow that assertion whole. But I've been to Tea Party rallies — and heard about them from my husband — and the people seemed pretty nice and normal. To me, Cohen's attempt to smear ordinary people is what's ugly.
Or maybe Darleen Click:
I get why Cohen is to desperate to wallow in the past, to invoke the lyrics of Neil Young song, shut his eyes and pretend to grasp the dead students to him as his own. He needs to slander the Tea Party members; the millions of people who have admitted more than once to anyone honest enough to ask that they have never participated in any kind of protest before.
It is Obama vowing to "kick ass", it is Pelosi calling for investigations into people raising questions about a mosque within the footprint of Ground Zero, it is Max Baucus calling on the IRS to investigate opposition groups, it is Alan Grayson dealing in hate-filled rhetoric and it is Democrats over and over again beating the drum, amplified and disseminated by their poodle media, of how evil and treasonous are conservatives, libertarians and Tea Party participants.
Michael Moynihan?
Richard Cohen doesn't catch the irony: The dissent of Kent State protesters, he thinks, was met with deadly force because of rhetoric that "otherized them," that turned them into a domestic enemy. Pretty much exactly what Richard Cohen is doing to the dissidents of the Tea Party movement. But he disagrees with those people, so…
Poor, pitiable stuff really. Risible too.
Dunno what Cohen is earning these days. Reckon it's at least six figures too much for this kind of pap.
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Politics
Tagged as Best of Neptunus Lex
Fleet Up
By lex, on October 3rd, 2010
In naval aviation squadrons, it has long been traditional for the squadron's number two position (executive officer) to "fleet up" to the commanding officer billet after a prescribed interval. The intent was always to ensure continuity and minimize the sometimes jarring transition from one command style to the next. In the surface and submarine forces an alternate model has generally been employed: The executive officer's position was administrative in nature, and intended to lighten the commanding officer's burden of day-to-day trivia and allow him focus on warfighting, seamanship, engineering and navigation.
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Lex, Navy
Friday – Oct 2, 2010
By lex, on October 2nd, 2010
Worked half the day, and then boogied up to the Miramar Air Show, where the company had provided preferred parking places and a hospitality chalet. Which is really nobbut a tent with pot stickers, beverages and wee bit of AstroTurf leading out into the sunshine. But hard by the flightline at damned near show center, so who am I to grumble? Which is was all paid for.
Hot and muggy though, so there's that. The overcast burning off only resentfully, but fully gone by the time The Blue Angles performed their show to wrap up the day's events. First thing I saw was the F-16 dynamic demonstration, which is all well and good for them as likes zipping by in full grunt. Although he did do one loaded barrel roll there towards the end that caught my attention, not merely because, 1) It'd be hard to track a guy doing that through a gunnery solution, and 2) the tail seemed to break loose there for a moment, which causes the attentive air show observer to wonder, momentarily, how it all might work out.
Next up was Sean Tucker from Team Oracle, flopping around and sawing at the air in his 400-HP I-don't-quite-know-what. Any desire I might have to join the pure airshow circuit being pretty much laid to rest right there and then, for it involved far more forward tumbling and negative g then I've got the remotest hankering for.
The Super Hornet demo was certainly impressive. The only thing that's noisier than an AV-8B Harrier on approach is an FA-18E or F on take-off. Rattle your fillings out, and they can lay some instantaneous turns and AoA on that are truly impressive. Not quite as nimble as an FA-18A in roll perhaps (which in turn is nothing like as quick as an A-4E), but impressive nonetheless.
As a junior officer I spent a fair amount of time on the air show circuit. Always as a static display pilot rather than performing the dynamic demonstrations, though. The first more suited to public interaction (and air show parties), and the latter seeming, to me at least, to have summat a little too close to showing off about it. Not that I'm judging, mind. Just wasn't my particular thing. Static displays were a fun way to spend your cross country hours, meet people, get introduced to a town.
Was a time standing by my brand new Lot XI FA-18C in Houston, I believe, when a man came up to me and asked which was newer, my airplane or the F-16A just alongside. He was shocked to learn that mine was only a year old, especially compared to the decade old lawn dart which was painted like it'd just come off the factory floor. We treated sea-going aircraft for corrosion using patch spray that gave it a leprous character to the untrained eye. There'd be all the usual questions from the crowd: How high will it fly? How fast will it go? Are those bombs on the wings? Pretty high, pretty fast, and no, they're external fuel tanks. Then there was the polite man of exotic appearance who asked what the war reserve modes were of the APG-65 radar.
Ask the F-16 guy, I told him.
As an adversary pilot I flew into Ross Perot's airport at Alliance near Fort Worth one weekend in an F-16N. There were two Russian pilots who had flown in a pair of MiG-29s, and I bet they got a kick out of seeing the Red Star painted on my Viper's tail. For my own part, I got a kick out of looking at the finishing of their machines: Everything smooth as silk on the fuselage forward of the massive engine intakes. Plain old flush rivet heads aft, however.
Young men's work however, and I grew out of it. Haven't been to the Miramar show here but twice in the last 10 years, yesterday being the second time. The crowds press in, traffic is a bear, and anyway I've seen it all before.
Or I had, anyway. Until I saw the F-22 Raptor show.
It's not just the one thing that the airplane does well. It's the combination of speed, agility and – obviously – low observable technology. If I understand it correctly, the Raptor jocks like to supercruise in the 40′s, rain AIM-120s on unsuspecting foes and then turn tail and let the missiles sort it out. Coming back in again in wave after wave until there's nothing left to shoot at.
But in a tight, turning fight, it's hard to believe that there's anything out there which can hang with the F-22. In one sequence, the Raptor demo pilot took her across show center, pitch pulsed into the vertical to probably four or five thousand feet and basically hovered there. Standing on his tail until he got tired of that, nosed her over a bit and pedal turned a 60,000 pound aircraft around in such a flat attitude that in any other plane I've ever seen, far less flown, you'd have had to call it a fully developed flat spin. When he got tired of that, he straightened her out, bunted for a few knots and then took her back over the top again in an Immelman, the two engines roaring like God hisself had lost something in the heavens, and was tearing the sky apart until he found it. I was left shaking my head at the brute, raw force of it.
An F-16 and a P-51 had taken off prior to the Raptor show, and they all rejoined for the legacy fly-by. I've flown the F-16, and will never fly the F-22, so it was the lovely song of the P-51′s 12-cylinder Merlin engine that entranced me, for someday yet I may get my chance at her. Probably not, of course. But maybe. As the three aircraft flew by in echelon, I could swear I heard the Merlin engine first before the jet noise overtook the whirring of the pistons. Made the hair on my arm stand up, so it did.
The Snow Birds were characteristically polite and professional, their choreography practically perfect. The announcer said that the team was happy to be down Sandy Eggo way, since the Great White Up had but ten months of winter and two months of bad hockey. There's always something going on in the Snow Birds show, it is like a complex symphony whose various strains separate and rejoin, leaving you wonder if you've caught the composer's true meaning or only glimpsed a part of it. You cannot capture all of it in a camera lens, nor even in the eye, and wherever you choose to look you know you are missing something equally compelling.
The Blues had a great show, which if you're an admirer of the Blue Angels is saying quite a bit. The skipper is a post-command captain who worked for me when he was a lieutenant at TOPGUN, and if that don't make you feel old, well I don't know what it would take.
On invitation, I stopped by the Officer's Club for the aftershow party just to see what was what. Full of young bucks in flight suits, comely young ladies and elderly gentlemen who were neither too proud nor too lingeringly envious to stand in their reflected light. I saw no one that I knew, and feeling rather too far separated from the former group and equally distant from the latter, I got back in my car after a few moments and headed home.
One dogfight hop today, in between breaks in the air show TFR.
I'm off for that.
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Flying, Lex, Neptunus Lex
By lex, on September 30th, 2010
So, it's been a busy day today, and so it has. What with yesterday passing in a bit of a blur due to some unwelcome, but not entirely unanticipated news * from Balboa Naval Hospital. A very high success rate, I'm told. In and out on the same day. Never to fret.
Still, even a minor note version of The Big C is an unwelcome signpost on the road of mortality. This won't get me, probably, but something will. Things tick down, and you're left to wonder what any of it will mean.
But enough of that, and anyway, tomorrow's never promised.
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Lex, Neptunus Lex
by Bill Brandt | July 30, 2017 · 2:01 am
One Team, One Scream
Two very different living conditions:
"Being in the Army and working on an Air Force post really opened our eyes," Army Sgt. Nicholas Hub wrote on a Stars and Stripes survey, one of nearly 2,000 completed in August by troops in Iraq.
"Why can they live and eat so good compared to us? Every piece of equipment and every service they have is better! The Army needs to feed, shelter and supply like the Air Force does," wrote Hub, 23, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment at Kirkuk Air Base in northern Iraq.
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Funny Stuff, Humor, Lex
Wisdom of the Ages
Or maybe a bit of a smile, anyway, courtesy of occasional reader dwas:
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist, the parachute.
If helicopters are so safe, how come there are no vintage helicopter fly-ins?
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Humor, Lex, Neptunus Lex
Hope for the Best
I don't know what's more troubling in this excerpt from Bob Woodward's new book "Obama's Wars": The fact that a novice executive stoutly refused to take the considered advice of his senior military advisers, or the fact that the country's subordinated military essentially refused to be boxed into what they must have known was a losing strategy:
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, The Long War
The Horror
To the long list of indignities visited upon America's guests in the tropical paradise squalid hell hole known as Guantanamo Bay, add this: The terror detainees are afforded only one serving of ice cream per day.
Detainees' diets at Guantanamo Bay have been a controversial issue for some time and now the U.S. prison is said to be rationing ice cream.
The frozen dessert is allegedly being tightly measured, with only one ice cream allowed for each of its 147 detainees.
Journalist for The Miami Herald, Carol Rosenberg, photographed a refrigerator at Guantanamo, with two signs reading 'DETAINEE FOOD ONLY' and 'Only 1 Ice Cream For each detainee!'
Journalist Danny Pearl, CPT Brian Freeman and 1LT Jacob Fritz could not be reached for comment.
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Lex, Neptunus Lex, The Long War
by Bill Brandt | July 28, 2017 · 12:31 am
Tailhooker's Prayer
By lex, on September 22nd, 2010
(Ed – An oldie but goodie)
In the Beginning, God created the heavens, and the Aircraft Carrier, and the seas upon which to float it; and yet there was complete Darkness upon the face of the earth. And, as we traveled there came to us, as a voice out of the darkness, an angel of the Lord, saying, "On centerline, on Glideslope, three quarters of a mile, call the ball." I reflected upon these words, for I was still yet engulfed in complete darkness. With deep feeling and doubt overwhelming my countenance, I glanceth towards my companion at my right hand and saith, "What seeth thou, trusted friend?" And there was a great silence.
Gazing in a searching manner and seeing naught, I raised my voice saying, "Clara…"
And the Lord spoke to me, and He said, "You're low…power." As the Lord saith, so shall it be, and I added power; and lo, the ball riseth up onto the bottom of the mirror. But it was a tainted red glow, and surely indicateth Satan's own influence. And the Lord spoke to me again saying, "Power..Power…Power!!!! …fly the ball." And lo, the ball had risen up and off the top of the lens, and the great darkness was upon me.
And the voice of the Angel came to me again, saying, "When comfortable, twelve hundred feet, turn downwind." Whereupon I wandered in the darkness, without direction, for surely the ship's radar was beset by demons, and there was great confusion cast upon CATCC, and there was a great silence in which there was no comfort to be found. Even my TACAN needle spinneth…and lo, there was chaos; my trusted companion weepeth quietly unto himself and from close behind I heard weeping and gnashing of teeth of our flock. There was a great turmoil within my cockpit for a multitude of serpents had crept therein.
And though we wandered, as if by Providence I found myself within that Holy Corridor, and at twelve hundred feet, among my brethren seeking refuge; and the voice of the Angel of the Lord came to me again, asking of me my needles, and I raised my voice saying, "Up and centered," and the voice answered, "Roger, fly your needles…"
I reflected upon these words, and I raised my voice in prayer, for though my gyro indicateth it not so, surely my aircraft hath been turned upside down. Verily, as Beelzebub surely wrestled with me, a voice, that of my trusted companion, saith to me calmly, "Friend…fly thy needles, and find comfort in the Lord." And lo, with deep trembling in my heart, I did, and He guideth me to centered glideslope and centerline, though I know not how it came to be.
And out of the great darkness, the Lord spoke to me again saying, "Roger ball" for now I had faith. And though the ball began to rise at the in close position, my right hand was full of the Spirit, and it squeeketh off power and as in a great miracle my plane stoppeth upon the flight deck, for it hath caught the four wire which the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath placed thirty feet further down the flight deck than the three wire.
And thus bathed in a golden radiance from above, our pilgrimage was at an end, and my spirit was truly reborn. And as I basked in the rapture, the Lord spaketh to me one final time, and He saith, "Lights on deck…"
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carriers, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Flying, Funny Stuff, Humor, Lex, Naval Aviation, Navy, Neptunus Lex
Conflicted
Anwar al-Awlaki is a traitor to his country and a promoter of terrorism. Let's stipulate that right up front.
As such, I'd have no problem seeing him dance at the end of a rope once tried and convicted of his crimes. Since the American citizen is hiding in Yemen, my heart would rest easy if he met his maker courtesy of a Hellfire missile – now there's a visionary name for a weapons system – fired by an MQ-9 Reaper.
But I have to admit to you that I found the lead to this AP article just a little chilling in an "enemy of the state" kind of way:
The Obama administration is considering filing the first criminal charges against radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in case the CIA fails to kill him and he's is captured alive in Yemen.
See, a trial for an American citizen by a jury of his peers is being considered as a fallback plan to his targeted, extrajudicial assassination. This from the same bunch that just a few years ago got their panties in a twist about extending habeus corpus to non-citizen terrorists detained by the US military in Cuba.
Anybody else got a problem with that, or is it just me?
Filed under Best of Neptunus Lex, by lex, Carroll "Lex" LeFon, Carroll LeFon, Lex, Neptunus Lex, Terrorism


Neuropharmagen® is a breakthrough in pharmacogenetics that helps to identify the safest and most appropriate psychotropic medication for each patient, by analyzing their DNA. It provides the most extensive genetic-based information on drug efficacy, metabolism and adverse effects.
Neuropharmagen® helps reduce the time spent searching for the most effective treatment choices unique to each patient. This allows for a faster stabilization of patients and better quality of life..
DNA markers of efficacy, optimal dosage and adverse effects are analyzed.
A series of specific recommendations are provided based on the test results, to help the physician choose the most appropriate choices for each patient.


Home/Brewer's Blog/Brewer's Blog: Brett Beer!
Today I'm brewing my favorite type of beer to brew… Beers fermented with Brettanomyces! This is our first take on a Brett beer at Tombstone and it features a Brett blend that I developed with the help of a small yeast lab. This particular beer is being fermented with Brettanomyces only. No bacteria and no Saccharomyces.
One of my favorite things about brewing Brett beers is the look of shock on other brewer's faces when I tell them that we're bring Brett into the brewery. While cross contamination of yeast is a concern for all breweries, the simple fact is that Brett is just as easy to kill and clean as any other yeast as long as certain precautions are taken. At Tombstone, we actually go a step further than many people might expect. We use color coded gaskets for various types of yeast and we're very careful to ensure that we're not having cross contamination even within our various Saccharomyces strains. Every fermenter is checked with an ATP Luminometer in at least 3 locations on the tank and spot checking is done on all the smaller pieces of equipment. Anything that can tolerate heat is also autoclaved for full sterilization.
Another thing I love about brewing with Brett is that so many people still have false impressions of what Brett actually is. Normally when I hear people describing what a Brett beer is, they say it's a sour beer. I think the reason for that is because Brett is frequently used with bacteria or with other yeast strains to make interesting flavors, sometimes described as earthy, mushroom, funky, leather, or horse blanket. The beer we're brewing today is none of those. Since we are using only Brett, we will be getting flavors that are actually pretty similar to clean ale yeast strains, with the addition of pineapple and stone fruit esters. The beer will be very fun to watch age as it will change rapidly in the first 3-6 months. At that point, the flavor development will slow, but continue on for many years to come.
Although it is becoming more common in recent years, 100% Brett beers are still pretty rare to come by. The first known 100% Brett beers were brewed just over 10 years ago, so it's also new enough that brewers are still finding out what can be done with Brett and many strains are still being isolated and propagated every year.
Other than the fear of cross contamination, one of the most frustrating things for brewers is that 100% Brett beers typically don't have a mouthfeel comparable to what we think of beer feeling like. The reason is that Brett can not create glycogens which contribute creaminess or silkiness to mouthfeel. In order to keep the beer feeling dry and drinkable, but still have a mouthfeel that isn't thin, we are using a large quantity of flaked oats to replace the missing glycogens.
Our first batch of Brett beer should be ready in about 4-5 weeks and will be heavily dry hopped with Lemondrop hops to compliment the pineapple character from our Brett blend!


This is an attempt to get something flowing by dislodging a few things…..
What is the point …..?
Who listens? Why discuss? Why care?
My daughter had an amazing quinceñeara – my son is loving college and is starting spring football – and my other son is about to be the become a dad start his own business and he will be great at it both!
I've got many thoughts on these things, as well as the conflicts and transitions in my life; and yet I hesitate to write. Lazy? apathetic? I don't think so.
I'm trying to figure out WHAT? Matters.
Does it matter for me to pour out my thoughts to have someone say "nice piece " (hear the golf applause?).
Or why write just to have the guardians of orthodoxy blast me with a fire-hose of their socio-religious doctrines, and not listen seriously to a counter point that may disrupt their world of wonderland?
Do I write to persuade and inform, or maybe just to vent and process it? And then there are issues I want to process in public, yet because of the dignity of those involved, can't.
If blogging is a way to extend physical community, not replace it of be a substitute for it, then we can grow and learn together, (I do need you!).
If blogging is a from of self-congratulations and narcissism? I'd be better off with a good mirror and trip to Southdale.
I think it matters because it's nice (for me anyway) to catch up with you and your family because we don't always have time at church or during the week. When I read your blog and see your photos and your FB updates, God keeps you in my mind and often prompts me to pray for you and your family.
By the way…congrats to Morgan on her 15th and your sons on their college/football stuff and on becoming a dad! How exciting! Blessings to you all!
I think this (above) is part of your problem. You assume that those who oppose you haven't actually considered your arguments. How arrogant is that?


A New kayak for the group for newbies!
Posted in 2014	| Comments Off on A New kayak for the group for newbies!
Please try 134.228.225.99:89 in your browser!
Posted in 2014, Landings	| Comments Off on New Ottawa-Cam IP Adress!
Posted in 2014	| Comments Off on Thursday's outing Sept 4th!!


I know what you may be thinking. Just what is that title all about? It is not the serial number of the C-124 picture here. It is an address of sorts, but you can't find it on Google maps or with your GPS system. It also represents a destination, of sorts, for myself and my family. It took over 61 years to get this address and on last Monday, March 26th, 2012, my family took possession of this address for the first time.
On Good Friday, March 23rd, 1951, an Air Force C-124 took off from Maine on its way to an airfield in England. The plane was carrying 53 airmen as passengers and crew. The passengers were all assigned to the Strategic Air Command and were accompanying Brig. Gen. Paul Cullen to establish a new SAC Air Wing in England.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, the plane reported that a fire had broken out on board and the Mayday signal went out. Approximately 6oo miles West of Ireland the plane ditched in the ocean and according to the official accident report, all hands exited the plane safely and made it into the life rafts. Shortly after the men were in the life rafts, a B-29 pilot out of Ireland spotted the rafts and the flares that the men had ignited. Their location was reported and the pilot left the scene when his fuel was getting low. This should have been the beginning of a great rescue story, but no other United States or Allied planes or ships made it to the ditch site for over 19 hours.
When ships accompanying the USS Coral Sea finally made it to the scene some 19-24 hours later, the life rafts and the men were nowhere to be found. The official accident report that was fully classified for some 50 years, states that there was some debris found in the area, but there was no sign of the crew or the passengers. The search went on for several days and Western Union telegrams were sent to the families of the men on board detailing the extent of the search activities and efforts. But the searches were unable to turn up any evidence of what happened to the 53 souls on board. The only evidence that the men were there was a valise that was found that had the name of one of the passengers on it. The valise belonged to my father, Captain Lawrence E. Rafferty, who had also been a veteran B-24 pilot in World War II with 50 bombing missions to his credit.
Over the last 61 plus years, the families of the men aboard searched for answers, but the Air Force kept the report completely classified for half a century. Parts of it are still classified to this very day. The family was originally told that the plane had crashed into the sea and no one survived. Unfortunately, when the report was partially declassified the families were able to learn that the men were safely in rafts and the plane landed in one piece in the sea. Our family and the surviving family members of the other patriots on board the ill-fated C-124 flight are still searching for answers. There is now circumstantial evidence that the airmen may have been "snatched" by our Cold War foes in the Soviet Union for their intelligence value, but their fate remains a sad mystery.
The purpose of this story is not to rehash the unanswered questions from the accident, but to highlight the wonderful experience that we had on March 26th, 2012. As I mentioned above, we took possession of a special address noted in the title. That address is the location of a memorial stone that now stands on a green hillside in the Arlington National Cemetery. After finding out that my Father had never received a memorial from the Air Force, I learned from family members of other victims on board the C-124 that he was entitled to an Air Force memorial service with full military honors. Upon looking into the matter and after contacting a wonderful Mortuary Affairs Specialist at Dover Air Force Base, our memorial was set up and reserved with Arlington National Cemetery.
Last Monday, on a sunny and breezy Washington, DC day, my Father received his honors. We followed the caisson and the marching band in our procession to the memorial site and witnessed the 21 gun salute. My Mother who turns 89 next month was able to see Washington, DC for the first time accompanied by 60 members of our family and friends. My Father's sister, my Aunt who is 93 also made it to the ceremony and the sight of her and my Mom sitting at the memorial site and receiving the folded flag from members of the Air Force Honor team will forever remain with me.
Although we do not yet have all the answers to our questions, our family's patriarch is now forever memorialized. From this day forward, my Dad's legacy will be forever etched in our hearts and now in stone. It may have taken us 61 years to get it done, but on Monday, March 26th, 2012; he made his final flight home. Welcome Home Dad.
Thanks for the link to the B-24!
raff, I thought about you all day that day. I still have mixed feelings. I really wanted to be there, but don't think I could handle it right now. Feelings are still too raw and close to the surface on many levels.
I want to share with you a photo I took. This is the "front office" of the B-24 bomber owned by the Commemorative Air Force. Your dad would have been a co-pilot for a while, then after a time, promoted to the left seat as pilot in command. I love the Liberator. It could fly higher and faster than the more popular B-17, and carry a heavier bomb load.
rafflaw, what a wonderful tribute. I'm sorry I was not able to witness it.
rcampbel, et al. Thank you for the kind words. It was especially gratifying that my Mother and my Aunt Rosie were able to attend. I only wish that Rosie's sister, my Aunt Catherine, who is 96 years old, was well enough to join us.
I am inspired thank you!
Thank you for sharing you very personal story. I am glad your family has some degree of closure and especially that your mother and Aunt are still here to feel that and to take part in the ceremony at Arlington.
Thanks for your kind words. It was comforting for me and for my family to have his memorial marker put in place and for his ultimate sacrifice to be noted with the military honors. I was blown away by the care shown by all of the members of the honor guard, including the Chaplain who was wonderfully caring to myself and more importantly to my Mom. Now we get back to the job of uncovering the rest of what we do not know. But you are right. A weight has been lifted and it feels good.
Reading your Father's story again moved me. It is finally a fitting tribute to a man of proven substance and courage. Fifty missions is in itself a testament to those qualities. It leaves me sadly pondering the effect his mysterious loss had upon you, your Mom and the rest of your family. While this brings some long due closure, the unneeded secrecy for all these years is disgraceful treatment of brave servicemen.
I feel privileged that you were kind enough to invite me to share in this momentous event for the Rafferty family and sad that I missed it. Thank you for sharing this on the blog and praise to the efforts of the entire family in persisting all these years to uncover the truth about a man and men, who had earned the right to better treatment from their country. A momentous injustice has been partially uncovered and redressed.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful part of your life with us. I am so glad that you were able to bring him home, to rest where he belongs.
Well then. A little less anonymous than usual. And here I thought "The Killing" or "Game of Thrones" was going to have my biggest surprise of the evening.
The answers are hard to get, but we will get them…eventually. Thanks.
Sorry to reply as late as I did, yard work….birthday party (5) five year old…..dinner….and shopping…… It is truly wonderful….about your dad….
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful tribute to you and your family. I am pleased that there is some comfort and a conclusion…..
Has the DID/DOW answered any questions as to why it was classified and is still being kept classified?
Again, thanks for sharing a beautiful ending by a very proud son…..
"Day is done, gone the sun . . ."; but the son did good.
Muy bien, RaffLaw. Muy bien.
i grew up air force myself (my dad was mac not sac). even lived at dover afb back in the 60's. it's good you got at least part of the story. fifty missions was no small feat.
I don't know why it sn't on the website. The only thought is that I USA memorial site and not a grave site. Thank you and thanks for your Dad's service.
Thanks talkindog! It was an emotional time for all of us. Even after so many years.


text:
<?php

namespace Google\ApiCore;

use Google\ApiCore\ResourceTemplate\AbsoluteResourceTemplate;
use Google\ApiCore\ResourceTemplate\RelativeResourceTemplate;
use Google\ApiCore\ResourceTemplate\ResourceTemplateInterface;

/**
 * Represents a path template.
 *
 * Templates use the syntax of the API platform; see the protobuf of HttpRule for
 * details. A template consists of a sequence of literals, wildcards, and variable bindings,
 * where each binding can have a sub-path. A string representation can be parsed into an
 * instance of PathTemplate, which can then be used to perform matching and instantiation.
 */
class PathTemplate implements ResourceTemplateInterface
{
    private $resourceTemplate;

    /**
     * PathTemplate constructor.
     *
     * @param string $path A path template string
     * @throws ValidationException When $path cannot be parsed into a valid PathTemplate
     */
    public function __construct(string $path = null)
    {
        if (empty($path)) {
            throw new ValidationException('Cannot construct PathTemplate from empty string');
        }

        if ($path[0] === '/') {
            $this->resourceTemplate = new AbsoluteResourceTemplate($path);
        } else {
            $this->resourceTemplate = new RelativeResourceTemplate($path);
        }
    }

    /**
     * @return string A string representation of the path template
     */
    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->resourceTemplate->__toString();
    }

    /**
     * Renders a path template using the provided bindings.
     *
     * @param array $bindings An array matching var names to binding strings.
     * @throws ValidationException if a key isn't provided or if a sub-template
     *    can't be parsed.
     * @return string A rendered representation of this path template.
     */
    public function render(array $bindings)
    {
        return $this->resourceTemplate->render($bindings);
    }

    /**
     * Check if $path matches a resource string.
     *
     * @param string $path A resource string.
     * @return bool
     */
    public function matches(string $path)
    {
        return $this->resourceTemplate->matches($path);
    }

    /**
     * Matches a fully qualified path template string.
     *
     * @param string $path A fully qualified path template string.
     * @throws ValidationException if path can't be matched to the template.
     * @return array Array matching var names to binding values.
     */
    public function match(string $path)
    {
        return $this->resourceTemplate->match($path);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Biking on the Asian side of Istanbul. Photo by bicyclemark.
Last year, Turkey and the Netherlands celebrated 400 years of diplomatic relations, established between Sultan Ahmed I and Maurice, Prince of Orange, in 1612. In 1600, there were around 460,000 inhabitants living in Istanbul. There are upwards of 13.8 million in Istanbul today, putting pressure on the city, its inhabitants, city planners and preservationists to make better use of limited space, and implement more people-centric solutions for the benefit of the city's two greatest assets: its people and its history.
Through peer-to-peer collaboration and best-practice sharing, BikeLab Istanbul, a new project undertaken by EMBARQ Türkiye, the association dedicated to sustainable transportation in Turkey, in partnership with a Dutch consortium of six urban design companies, with YARD 9, and the Netherlands' Royal Consulate General, is working to make Istanbul's historic traffic woes a thing of the past.
Onno Kervers, Consul General for the Netherlands in Istanbul, happens to be a cyclist. Kervers says that the Dutch Consulate was "ready on day one" to help bring famous Dutch cycling expertise to help turn Istanbul into a bike-friendly city, that uses bikes as another legitimate means of urban transport.
Featured in a February 2013 article in Time Out Istanbul, BikeLab Istanbul was launched in a December 2012 workshop at Salt Galata, Istanbul. Attended by sixty guests, including representatives from the Dutch Cycling Embassy board, the Life with Bikes Association, and the Turkish Bikers' Association, the workshop brought Turkish and Dutch experts together, along with urban transport stakeholders to discuss topics across the transportation space: bicycle safety, bike-pedestrian-transit infrastructure integration, and the fostering of a bike culture in the 8,500-year-old city. Participants shared examples of successful bike projects and bike lane designs from the Netherlands. Consul Kervers highlighted that the BikeLab project presents cycling as not only a mobility solution, but also as a way to take cars off the road, reducing Istanbul's famed traffic congestion.
Addressing the absence of an ingrained commuter cycling culture in the city is one of BikeLab Istanbul's greatest challenges. Often, a hard-fought step forward is replaced by two steps backward from automobile drivers resistant to change. In November of 2012, cycling lanes were installed on Bagdat Caddesi, a 14-kilometer main thoroughfare on the Asian side of Istanbul, along the Marmara Sea. Yet, only a month later, due to opposition from drivers, the city removed the lanes in December 2012. "Bicycles are usually seen as the vehicle of the poor or the hobby of the rich," observes Murat Suyabatmaz, president of the Turkish Cyclists Association, in the February 2013 TimeOut Istanbul piece. Meanwhile, automobile emissions are taking a costly toll on the preservation of the Historic Peninsula's iconic attractions.
BikeLab Istanbul seeks to facilitate the development of a cycling culture in Istanbul, through a number of different approaches. Normalizing cycling as a transport option for city residents has been identified as key in this process, and in addition to hosting workshops, BikeLab Istanbul seeks to reach people through promotion of cycling in mainstream media and television shows, and in particular, envisions capitalizing on Turkey's robust sports culture to introduce biking to sports fans through a Tour de France-type racing event.
BikeLab project partners also see a great deal of potential for bicycle integration at Kabataş, a bustling transportation hub for ferry boats, buses, light-rail, and funicular on the European side of the Bosphorus strait. BikeLab also would like to reach out to Istanbul's youth and next generations of cyclists through education seminars on bike safety and the benefits of integrating biking into one's lifestyle.
The December workshop helped catalyze the planning and development of solid solutions to turn Istanbul into a biking city, inspiring further collaboration between Dutch and Turkish experts, the Istanbul Municipality, Istanbul Electricity, Tramway and Tunnel General Management (Public Bus Authority in Istanbul), and representatives from NGOs. Within the scope of the project, a number of events will take place in the coming year. EMBARQ Turkey and YARD 9 will conduct activities to encourage the use of bicycles as a means of transportation, through creative ideas and designs. Further workshops will be organized to design "safe and user oriented" bicycle lanes, following which will be the pilot implementation of prepared bicycle lane designs.
What better way to honor a 400-year diplomatic milestone than to help Istanbul reclaim and preserve its ancient identity and make urban life healthier, safer, and more enjoyable by bringing in some Dutch inspiration?


The Shoreham 14 is a compact modular home design that's ideal as a small family residence or holiday home. The main features of note include the open plan design, versatility when it comes to facade options and efficient use of space. With only five square metres of passageway throughout the entire home, the design includes many luxury features not usually seen in a home of this size.
The large, open plan meals, living and kitchen area is centrally located and includes sliding door access to the optional deck. The kitchen has plenty of surface space thanks to the island bench and there's also a generously sized walk-in pantry with ample shelving for any home chef's needs.
All three bedrooms are located along one side of the home. The master bedroom gains added privacy from being situated in a corner of the house and includes a walk-in wardrobe and ensuite. The second and third bedrooms have built-in robes, and the third bedroom could easily double as a study thanks to the privacy gained from being in the opposite corner of the house, and the natural light provided by the large window.
The Shoreham 14 has a spacious main bathroom situated between the second and third bedrooms. The central toilet is standalone, providing extra convenience. The laundry provides lots of cupboard space as well as an exit to the rear of the home.
An optional deck is also available along the living side of the home, shown in the photos below in merbau. The shorter length of decking near the front door is included in the base price. Keep in mind that as with all our designs, the deck and alfresco areas can be customised to suit your individual needs.