text:
Q: PHP - IF-statement false, still runs The last hour I've been sitting with this problem. I have two if-statements (for testing purposes they are both IF-statements, and not IF- and ELSE IF-statements. The code runs the false IF-statement as if it is true.
The code:
<?php
$sth = $pdo->query("SELECT * FROM myDBTable WHERE alien1='$idkod' OR alien2='$idkod'");
$result = $sth->fetchAll();
if(!$result)
{
    echo "No data";
}
else
{
    foreach($result as $row)
    {
        $alien1 = $row['alien1'];
        $alien2 = $row['alien2'];
        if($idkod == $alien1)
        {
            echo $idkod . "==" . $alien1;
        }
        if($idkod == $alien2)
        {
            echo $idkod . "==" . $alien2;
        }
    }
}
?>

This will give me the following text on screen:
1234567891234567891234567==1234567891234567891234567
1234567891234567891234567==1234567891234567891234568
Clearly, the second text shouldn't be there, as the statement is not true.

A: Don't assume anything when making conditional forks, use var_dump() on the variables to temporarily look inside them - that way you best decide how to check for the exact type and value you are expecting.
Then as said already, prefer to check using ===
If you adopt this behaviour you will save countless hours and avoid some quite subtle bugs which can appear in your code.
Having the PHP Truth Tables pinned up for a while will help.

A: == ignores type when testing for equality. In this case it will assume that both strings are numbers and convert them. This means this will turn into:
9223372036854775807 == 9223372036854775807 //Max int val. Will be different on different systems.

=== will make sure that both arguments are the same type and will not attempt to coerce making
'1234567891234567891234567' === '1234567891234567891234568';

Give the expected result.
PHP equality is wacky sometimes.

A: It is wrong to use == you need to use === the second is value comparison, the first is object comparison (depending on the context)

A: I  have modified your code a little check it
   <?php
$sth = $pdo->query("SELECT * FROM myDBTable WHERE alien1='$idkod' OR alien2='$idkod'");
 $result = $sth->fetchAll();
if(!$result)
{
echo "No data";
}
  else
    {
   foreach($result as $row)
    {
      $alien1 = $row['alien1'];
      $alien2 = $row['alien2'];
     if($idkod == $alien1 && $idkod != $alien2)
     {
         echo $idkod . "==" . $alien1;
     }

      if($idkod == $alien2 && $idkod != $alien1)
      {
        echo $idkod . "==" . $alien2;
      }
   }
  }
 ?>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
From Creation to World's End: in conversation with Ádám Fischer
"I'm sorry that you have my recordings of the Haydn symphonies!" Ádám Fischer offers his sympathies and chuckles. He recorded the entire cycle with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra for Nimbus. The resulting 33-disc set nestles on my shelves. "I don't like the first 40 or 50 we recorded in the 1990s," he explains. "I would do them differently today, but of course if you have a project over 16 years, you can't have the same style."
Fischer has an enviable reputation as a Haydn conductor and on 1st January 2016 will conduct The Creation at Müpa Budapest, a tradition started in 2008 (interrupted only by The Seasons in 2013 and 2014). Why? "This is the best piece for a New Year's Day concert in the whole repertoire. It is about a new creation and a new world arising – and this is a story which can reach out to everybody."
His approach to Haydn's music has grown over the decades from those recordings of the symphonies. "Interpreters now have much more freedom. Haydn contains a lot of drama and jokes, which we have a special responsibility to show. If you play Haydn according to 'the rules', this is the worst thing that can happen because it gets boring. His music is so full of surprises and dramatic changes – you have to show them and not hide them. You have to understand Haydn's music and to make it your own."
For The Creation, Fischer uses an orchestra on the small side (10 first violins, 8 seconds) although this varies according to the size of the chorus. "This year," he enthuses, "we're using the chorus of the Wiener Staatsoper. I know the Staatsoper people very well because I conduct much opera in Vienna, and I know they're ambitious, but they aren't often given opportunities to sing oratorios like The Creation. It is something new for them."
The great choral explosion 'Let there be light!' resounding through Müpa Budapest sounds a perfect way of starting a new year. "Exactly! New light and let's start afresh!"
Müpa's superb acoustics also makes it perfect for Wagner. Indeed, the building of the hall is connected to Fischer's inauguration of an annual "Wagner in Budapest" festival there. "It was a very funny story at the beginning," he relates. The architect of Müpa is a Wagnerian friend, who used to come every summer to Bayreuth. We had met there after a few performances and he told me that I should look at the plans for Müpa. I saw these three levels of balconies on the stage and I said, 'Oh, that is exactly what Wagner wanted for Parsifal.' I said that I'd like to perform Parsifal in the new hall, because it would sound much better than in any opera house in the world. And he said 'I'll build a concert hall for you, if you build a Wagner festival for me!'"
The 2016 festival sees a Ring cycle over four consecutive evenings, just as Wagner intended, and a performance of Die Meistersinger. "The acoustics are also much better than in a normal opera house. I've conducted Wagner in Bayreuth, I've conducted Wagner in other opera houses, such as Munich and I'm going to do The Ring in Vienna in January. As a conductor, you have to use all the possibilities available. If I conducted The Ring the same way in Vienna as I do at Müpa, it would not be good. I can show more of the different colours in Budapest because it is much more intimate."
Fischer's idea of staging The Ring in the concert hall has developed over the years. "We've tried different possibilities. We have the same ideology as Bayreuth in that you have to keep what is right and you have to change what is wrong. We started to call it semi-staged but that is not correct – it is minimalistic, but a full staging. Here, I can show Wagner differently. The singers are much closer to the audience than at the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, so you can see much more of their small movements and gestures."
In The Flying Dutchman, which was staged last summer (which Bachtrack reviewed), the singers had a lot of physical acting to do, even climbing Balázs Kovalik's five metre high set, while in Parsifal, movement was minimal. With The Ring, which David Karlin reviewed in 2014, Fischer explains that the production is on the minimalistic side. "It is like the difference between acting on a stage and acting in a movie. We know from the early movies that the actors were doing far too much, because they were used to the stage and not to the camera. Singing Wagner in Müpa is like singing for the camera rather than for the stage!"
It is a different experience for the audience too. "They are so close to the stage, that they are a part of the theatre. The singers can hear the orchestra much better and vice versa, and you can hear the different instruments clearly. I can show much more of the chamber music side of Wagner and I discovered for myself how often Wagner uses the chamber music character, and how often it is lost elsewhere."
Fischer certainly covers a wide range of music in Budapest, stretching from the dawn of Creation to the end of the world in Götterdämmerung within a few months. Casting has yet to be finalized, but currently Budapest has two Brünnhildes listed for the cycle: Elisabet Strid and Evelyn Herlitzius. "In this production, we make a virtue out of necessity because we need two different Brunnhildes to do the cycle in four successive nights, and two different Siegfrieds – so we literally make a new person out of the characters!"
This article was sponsored by Müpa Budapest.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Lillian Hoban (May 18, 1925 – July 17, 1998) was an American illustrator and children's writer best known for picture books created with her husband Russell Hoban. According to OCLC, she has published 326 works in 1,401 publications in 11 languages.

Biography

Lillian Hoban born in Philadelphia and was the youngest of three sisters.  She attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls.  She was always interested in art and wanted to become an artist. At age 14, she started classes at the Graphic Sketch Club where she met her husband and collaborator Russell Hoban.  She won a scholarship to the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, where she majored in Illustration. After getting married and settling in New York City, Hoban gave up art to study dance at the Hanya Holm School. She studied dance for ten years. She danced professionally and did choreography on a musical show called Tropical Holiday that aired live on Saturday nights when, according to Hoban, television was in its infancy.  She also taught dance for a number of years. She dedicated herself to dancing until the birth of her second child, Abrom (Brom).[2]

The Hobans raised their four children, Phoebe, Brom, Julia and Esmé, in Norwalk, CT before moving to a woodsy two-and-a-half-acre property in Wilton, CT. The Hobans moved to London in 1969.  But within a year, the marriage had become strained. Lillian and the children soon moved back to Wilton while Russell stayed in London and remarried in 1975.  Lillian began writing her own stories upon returning to the United States. She based her tales on her experiences with her children and their neighborhood friends.[1]

Lillian Hoban died at Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan in 1998 (aged 73) from heart failure.[1]

Early career as an illustrator for Russell Hoban
Her earliest and, perhaps, greatest collaboration was with her husband Russell in the 1960s and early 1970s.  The centerpiece of this work was the Frances series written by Russell.  The character of Frances was inspired by the Hoban's next door neighbors in Norwalk, CT whose daughter found multiple ways of putting off her bedtime.

Bedtime for Frances
The first book in the series, Bedtime for Frances, was illustrated by Garth Williams. Mr. Hoban, who illustrated his first book by Harper himself, sought another illustrator for Frances because, as he explains, he could not do soft and cuddly. Ursula Nordstrom suggested Williams whose soft and furry animals seemed the perfect fit. Russell originally depicted Frances as a vole, but Williams suggested a badger.  Nordstrom agreed persuading Russell that it would be too difficult to depict a likeable vole for children.  The original illustrations of Frances as a vole can be found in the Lillian Hoban Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Other Frances books
Lillian took over as illustrator with the second book in the series, A Baby Sister for Frances, and illustrated the rest. She was faithful to the badger image first established by Garth Williams but brought her own style and unique charm to the badger family. Hoban used expressive body postures and facial gestures to capture the emotions of the characters and give them an authentic, true to life quality.  The Hobans used their eldest daughter Phoebe as the model for Frances.

Themes and popularity of the Frances series
The theme that runs through all of the Frances books, and much of the Hobans' collaboration, is that problems can be resolved with just a little bit of thought and creativity.  The feeling of a close, supportive, and loving family that is depicted through the illustrations and stories, according to Russell, is one of the reasons that the books have met with such widespread approval of readers and professionals. Another reason the author cites for the popularity of the series is that, beginning with the second Frances book, the title character creates and sings songs to express her emotions. Tamar Mays, senior editor of Harper Collins Children's book division, cites the loving kindness of the parents, the universal childhood moments, and the strong individuality and creative imagination of the character of Frances as reasons why the books have remained so popular.

I Can Read Frances books
The strong sales of A Bargain for Frances in the I-Can-Read format, led to the republishing of many of the rest of the titles originally published as picture books in this easy to read format: Bread and Jam for Frances (2008), Best Friends for Frances (2009), A Baby Sister for Frances (2011) and A Birthday for Frances (2012).  Both Russell and his daughter Phoebe helped in this conversion.

Other Hoban collaborations
In all, the Hobans collaborated on at least twenty-seven children's books between 1964 and 1972.  Other standouts in the Lillian and Russell collaboration include the Brute Family books: The Little Brute Family (1966) and The Stone Doll of Sister Brute (1968).  The books tell the humorous and heartwarming tale of a mean-spirited family that discovers the contagiousness of a good feeling and niceness.  Both books were reprinted as Dell paperbacks and The Little Brute Family was republished by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2002. Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, based on the short story The Gift of the Magi by O'Henry told the story Emmett Otter and his widowed mother who enter a talent contest to earn money to buy each other Christmas gifts. The book won the Christopher Award in 1972.  In 1977 the Jim Henson Company produced the television film adaptation and a musical stage adaption in 2008. Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas marked the Hobans' final collaborative effort.

Career 1967-1998

Arthur the Chimpanzee
Lillian Hoban went on to find great success as an author and illustrator in the "I-Can-Read" books issued by Harper with early guidance from her long-time editor at Harper & Row, Ursula Nordstrom. Hoban explains that she did not set out to write an Easy Reader but simply wrote a story for children.  Nordstrom loved the manuscript and fit it into the standard I-Can-Read format without changing a word. The Arthur series soon became wildly popular among children.  Arthur the chimpanzee and his little sister Violet, explore many of the same trials and tribulations of childhood that she and her husband first explored with the Frances series.  Hoban's first book in the series, Arthur's Christmas Cookies (1972), came from listening to her children baking cookies in the kitchen.  Her son, Brom, devised a scheme to bake clay cookies, decorate them, and sell them for ornaments around the neighborhood to make money to buy Christmas gifts.  In the book, Arthur makes clay cookies by mistake and then decides to make ornaments.  Arthur's Honey Bear (1974) was also inspired by Hoban's experience with her own children who, along with the neighborhood kids, began selling their toys to each other.  The activity led to a 2:00 am phone call from a concerned father who offered fifty dollars for Scooby-Doo because his son could not sleep without his security toy.  Other popular titles written by Lillian Hoban in the I-Can-Read format include the Tilly the Mole and Mr. Pig books.

Riverside Kids series
Hoban illustrated the Riverside Kids series written by Johanna Hurwitz that explores growing up in an apartment in the heart of New York City.  These titles include Busybody Nora, Superduper Teddy, Rip-Roaring Russell, and Elisa In The Middle. The last Riverside Kids book she illustrated was Ever-Clever Elisa published in 1997.

First Grade Friends series
Hoban was especially fond of the First Grade Friends series of books that she illustrated for Miriam Cohen.  The series follows an entire classroom from pre-school to second grade.  The first book in the series, Will I Have a Friend was published in 1967.  Other titles in this series include Best Friends, The New Teacher, Tough Jim, and Starring First Grade.  The last book in the series, and the only book that takes place in 2nd grade, was titled The Real Skin Monster Mask, and was published in 1990.

Juvenile fiction
Hoban briefly ventured into juvenile fiction with the publication of her one and only young adult novel, I Met a Traveler, in 1977.  Inspired by a young Jewish girl she met while visiting Israel, the novel tells the story of an eleven-year-old girl from Connecticut taken to Jerusalem by her eccentric mother.  Hoban had previously illustrated three other stories for older children, Mitchell F. Jayne's The Forest in the Wind (1966), Meindert Dejong's The Easter Cat (1971) and Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child (1967), the latter widely considered to be a classic.

The 1980s
The 1980s marked Hoban's most productive period as she illustrated over forty books, the most of any decade. This included four more Arthur books, five books in the Riverside Kids series and eleven books authored by Miriam Cohen.

Harry's Song
Hoban kicked off this very dynamic period with a small picture book entitled Harry's Song, her ode to the arts.  Picasso once said, "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."  The book affirms that quote.  It tells the story of Harry Rabbit who sits on a rock and sings his songs of summer under the darkening shadow of a fall day while the animals around him prepare for winter.  One by one, the animals ridicule him for not helping his family in the practical duties of preparing for winter.  The field mice call him a dreamer and dumb. Mr. Chipmunk calls him a funny little bunny.  The brown bat calls him a bothersome, bumbling bunny and his mother's calls for him to come home as it is getting late. Harry continues his song under the thin moon.  When Harry finally succumbs to his mother's pleadings and arrives at his house, his three brothers scold him for not bringing anything home.  Harry corrects them.  "Yes I have," he says and sings his song to the delight of his loving mother who exclaims, "How lovely!  You've brought home the perfect song of a summer day to carry us through the winter.  You are a honey of a bunny!"

No, No Sammy Crow
Hoban returned to familiar themes in No, No Sammy Crow (1981), telling the humorous and touching story of little Sammy Crow who cannot stop carrying around his baby blanket.  His caring mother encourages him to find a solution to his attachment.  In classic Hoban fashion, Sammy finds a creative resolution as he gives up his blanket to help hatch his new baby sibling.  In the original typed manuscript, the last page of the book is handwritten on the manuscript (possibly a last-minute inspiration) that reveals how Sammy Crow secretly kept a small piece of the soft blanket in his pocket that he "niced" with his two fingers while his sister praised him for giving up his blanket. This final touch is Hoban at her finest, tuned in so sensitively and empathetically with the feelings of a young child. The guilty expression of self-indulgence on Sammy's face in the illustration tells all.

Silly Tilly series
In a departure from the themes of childhood she so often explored during her career, Hoban captured the endearing charm of an elderly woman who cannot seem to remember anything in the Silly Tilly books.  One of the early drafts of the first book, Silly Tilly and the Easter Bunny (1987), was titled, Lizzie Mole.  Later drafts show Grandma Mole lined out and replaced with Tillie Mole.  The epithet Silly was added at some point before the final publication of the book.  All three of the Silly Tilly books are set around the celebration of holidays, a fascination of Hoban's for much of her career that found their way into dozens of her books.  In 1965 Hoban was commissioned, along with Robert Krauss and Anita Lobel, to create oversized posters for the various holidays to display in school libraries and classrooms.  Hoban's posters included the following holidays: Halloween, Valentines, Christmas, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (Robert Krauss illustrated the Easter poster and Anita Lobel, Thanksgiving). Holidays served as the basis of some of her very best work including her last Silly Tilly book, Silly Tilly's Valentine, that was published posthumously in December 1998, five months after her death.

Collaborations with her children
Other notable books that Hoban illustrated during this period include collaborations with two of her children.  The Amy Loves series written by her daughter Julia portrays a child's joy at experiencing the changing seasons.  The books include Amy Loves the Loves the Sun, Amy Loves the Wind, Amy Loves the Rain and Amy Loves the Snow, all published in 1989.  Julia and Lillian followed those books with Buzby the cat (1990), an amusing and delightful story of a cat seeking his place in the world.  Hoban also collaborated with her oldest daughter Phoebe on two books, Ready-Set-Robot! (1982), alternately titled The Messiest Robot in Zone One in the Weekly Book Club edition, and a second book, the Laziest Robot in Zone One (1983).  Both books explore childhood traits and lessons in a futuristic setting.  Hoban's son Brom illustrated The Sea-Thing Child (1972) authored by his father, Russell Hoban.  He also wrote and illustrated three children's books.  Although she did not collaborate with Brom on any of these books, Hoban encouraged him to write from personal experience after reading some of his early attempts that included fantasy plots and monsters.  His book, October Fort (1981), was based on his own experience as child building a fort in his backyard.

Artistic influence and philosophy

Early home life
Being raised in a family that valued reading, Hoban's interest in books and illustration started at an early age. Her earliest memories were of reading books in the living room with her two older sisters that they had brought home from the library while her parents read in their easy chairs. Many Sunday mornings as a young child she spent alone at the top of the stairs drawing Tillie the Toiler from the Sunday comics. Hoban's first thoughts that she would enjoy inventing and listening to stories were attributed to her older sister Sarah who had a fertile imagination and loved to tell her stories.

The Rittenhouse Square Library
Hoban's parents also encouraged her interest in drawing by taking her to museums, buying her art supplies and eventually enrolling her in the Graphic Sketch Club. Hoban's interest in drawing was further encouraged by her teachers at school. From third grade on, every Thursday afternoon she went to a special drawing class with other children who had been selected from elementary schools around Philadelphia. Hoban also recalls spending a great deal of time in the children's book room at the Rittenhouse Square Library in Philadelphia where there was a long, low bench under the bookshelves that wrapped around the room.  This design made it easy for a child to reach the books on the shelves and then sit on the bench to read. Hoban spent countless hours at that library reading books.

Philosophy and technique
Hoban did not consider herself an expert draughtsman. The first step in her illustration of characters, she explains, is capturing expression.  She explains that in preparing an illustration she will first practice making multiple expressions until she finds the one that best fits the character and situation. This process created many a humorous moment for her small children when they would sneak into her home studio and find their mother making faces in the mirror. Much of her early books were printed in two colors plus black. The illustrations were created through a tedious process known as three-color separation. She most often chose the primary colors of red and yellow.  Through the overlay process, she was able to make purple (red over black), green (yellow over black), orange (yellow over red). Hoban was delighted when the books started to be published in full color and she used pastels, water colors, and colored pencils sometimes in the same picture. See A Bargain for Frances, 1970 (three color separation) and the same title reprinted in 1992 in full color. Language, however, is first and foremost for Hoban as an author.  The sound of the words, the rhythm of the sentences must sound natural and pleasing to her ear and the ear of a child.

Lillian Hoban died at Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan in 1998 (aged 73) from heart failure.[1]

Works

Selected books for children
Author and Illustrator
 Arthur's Back to School Day. HarperCollins. 1996
 Arthur's Birthday Party. HarperCollins. 1999
 Arthur's Camp-Out. HarperCollinsPublishers. 1993
 Arthur's Christmas Cookies. Harper & Row. 1972
 Arthur's Funny Money. Harper & Row. 1981
 Arthur's Great Big Valentine. HarperCollins. 1989
 Arthur's Halloween Costume. Harper & Row. 1984
 Arthur's Honey Bear.  Harper & Row. 1974
 Arthur's Loose Tooth. Harper & Row. 1985
 Arthur's Pen Pal. Harper & Row. 1976
 Arthur's Prize Reader. Harper & Row. 1978
 Big Little Lion, Harper Festival. 1997
 Big Little Otter, Harper-Collins. 1997
 Harry's Song, Greenwillow. 1980
 Here Come Raccoons!, Holt-Rinehart-Winston. 1977
 I Met a Traveler, Harper and Row. 1977
 It's Really Christmas, Greenwillow. 1982
 Joe & Betsy and the Dinosaurs, Harper Collins. 1995
 Mr. Pig and Family, Harper and Row. 1980
 Mr. Pig and Sonny Too, Harper and Row. 1977
 No, No, Sammy Crow, Greenwillow. 1981
 Silly Tilly and the Easter Bunny. Harper & Row. 1987.
 Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner. Harper & Row. 1990.
 Silly Tilly's Valentine. HarperCollins. 1998.
 Stick-in-the-Mud Turtle, Morrow. 1977
 The Case of the Two Masked Robbers, Harper and Row. 1986
 The Sugar Snow Spring, Harper and Row. 1973
 Turtle Spring, Greenwillow/World's Work. 1978

Authored by Russell Hoban
 A Baby Sister for Frances, Harper and Row. 1964
 A Bargain for Frances, Harper and Row. 1970
 A Birthday for Frances, Harper and Row. 1968
 Best Friends for Frances, Harper and Row. 1969
 Bread and Jam for Frances, Harper and Row. 1964
 Charlie the Tramp, Scholastic. 1966
 Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs, Harper and Row. 1972
 Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, Parent's Magazine Press. 1971
 Goodnight, W.W. Norton inc.1966
 Harvey's Hideout, Parent's Magazine Press. 1969
 Henry and the Monstrous Din, World's Work. 1966
 Herman the Loser, Harper and Brothers. 1961
 London Men and English Men, Harper and Row. 1962
 Nothing to Do, Harper and Row. 1964
 Save My Place, W.W. Norton inc. 1967
 Some Snow Said Hello, Harper & Row. 1963
 The Little Brute Family, Macmillan. 1966
 The Mole Family's Christmas, Parent's Magazine Press. 1969
 The Mouse and His Child, Harper and Row. 1967
 The Pedaling Man and Other Poems, W.W. Norton inc.  1968
 The Song in My Drum, Harper and Brothers. 1962
 The Sorely Trying Day, Harper and Row. 1964
 The Stone Doll of Sister Brute. Macmillan. 1968
 Tom and the Two Handles, Harper and Row. 1965
 Ugly Bird, Macmillan. 1969
 What Happened When Jack and Daisy Tried to Fool the Tooth Fairies, Four Winds Press. 1965

Authored by Miriam Cohen
 Bee My Valentine, Greenwillow. 1978
 Best Friends, Macmillan. 1971
 Don't Eat Too Much Turkey, Greenwillow. 1987
 First Grade Takes a Test, Greenwillow. 1980
 It's George, Greenwillow. 1988
 Jim Meets the Thing, Greenwillow. 1981
 Jim's Dog's Muffins, Greenwillow. 1984
 Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire! Greenwillow. 1985
 Lost in the Museum, Greenwillow. 1979
 No Good in Art, Greenwillow. 1980
 See You in Second Grade, Greenwillow. 1989
 See You Tomorrow, Charles. Greenwillow. 1983
 So What? Greenwillow. 1982
 Starring First Grade, Greenwillow. 1985
 The New Teacher, Macmillan. 1972
 The Real-Skin Monster Mask, Greenwillow. 1990
 Tough Jim, Macmillan. 1974
 When Will I Read? Greenwillow. 1977
 Will I Have a Friend? Macmillan. 1967

Authored by Johanna Hurwitz
 Busybody Nora, William Morrow. 1990
 "E" is for Elisa, William Morrow. 1991
 Elisa in the Middle, William Morrow. 1995
 Every-Clever Elisa, William Morrow. 1997
 Make Room for Elisa, William Morrow. 1993
 New Neighbors for Nora, William Morrow. 1991
 Nora and Mrs. Mind-Your-Own-Business, William Morrow. 1991
 Rip-Roaring Russell, William Morrow. 1983
 Russell and Elisa, William Morrow. 1989
 Russell Rides Again, William Morrow. 1985
 Russell Sprouts, William Morrow. 1987
 Superduper Teddy, William Morrow. 1980

Authored by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
 Attila the Angry, Holiday House. 1985
 I Don't Care, Macmillan. 1977
 Say Hello, Vanessa, Holiday House. 1979
 Sophie and Gussie, Macmillan. 1973
 The Story of Bentley Beaver, Harper and Row. 1984
 The Trip and Other Sophie and Gussie Stories, Macmillan. 1976

Co-authored with Phoebe Hoban
 Ready-Set-Robot!, Harper & Row. 1982
 The Laziest Robot in Zone One, Harper & Row. 1983

References

External links

 Brom Hoban and Phoebe Hoban (son and daughter) at LC Authorities, with 8 and 6 records
 Lillian Hoban's Illustrated Books in WorldCat

Lillian Hoban Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

1925 births
1998 deaths
American women illustrators
American illustrators
American children's writers
Writers from Philadelphia
Artists from Philadelphia
Jewish American artists
Jewish women artists
American female dancers
Dancers from Pennsylvania
20th-century American women artists
20th-century American dancers
20th-century American Jews

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Укум има више значења:

 Укум (Опелчен), насеље у савезној држави Кампече у Мексику
 Укум (Отон П. Бланко), насеље у савезној држави Кинтана Ро у Мексику


text:
Plotnikovina transversaria (Brady, 1884)
Siphoniferoides tra...
Rhizaria (Infrakingdom)
Foraminifera (Phylum)
Globothalamea (Class)
Textulariana (Subclass)
Textulariida (Order)
Textulariina (Suborder)
Eggerelloidea (Superfamily)
Pseudogaudryinidae (Family)
Siphoniferoidinae (Subfamily)
Plotnikovina (Genus)
Plotnikovina transversaria (Species)
Plotnikovina Mikhalevich, 1981
Textularia transversaria Brady, 1884
Gaudryina transversaria (Brady, 1884)
Siphoniferoides transversarius (Brady, 1884)
(of Textularia transversaria Brady, 1884) Brady, H. B. (1884). Report on the Foraminifera dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the Years 1873-1876. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology. 9 (part 22): i-xxi, 1-814; pl. 1-115., available online at http://www.19thcenturyscience.org/HMSC/HMSC-Reports/Zool-22/htm/doc.html [details]
Hayward, B.W.; Le Coze, F.; Vachard, D.; Gross, O. (2022). World Foraminifera Database. Plotnikovina transversaria (Brady, 1884). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=723256 on 2022-01-20
Hayward, Bruce W.
original description (of Textularia transversaria Brady, 1884) Brady, H. B. (1884). Report on the Foraminifera dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the Years 1873-1876. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology. 9 (part 22): i-xxi, 1-814; pl. 1-115., available online at http://www.19thcenturyscience.org/HMSC/HMSC-Reports/Zool-22/htm/doc.html [details]
basis of record Debenay, J. P. (2013). A guide to 1,000 Foraminifera from the Southwestern Pacific New Caledonia. IRD Editions. Publication Scientifique du Museum. CP41. 383: pp., available online at http://www.ird.fr/editions/catalogue/ouvrage.php?livre=677 [details] Available for editors [request]
additional source Liu, J.Y. [Ruiyu] (ed.). (2008). Checklist of marine biota of China seas. China Science Press. 1267 pp. (look up in IMIS) [details] Available for editors [request]
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (12 publications) (from synonym Textularia transversaria Brady, 1884)
[image from synonym]
Textularia transver...


The low-pass filters described here were built for use at WD2XNS and WE2XGR/2 to be used after Class D and linear amplifiers. The LF version has a cutoff frequency of 138 kHz and the MF version 515 kHz. Both filters have been tested to power levels in excess of 1000 watts and should be capable of handling significantly more power.
Schematic diagram and parts list of the low-pass filters can be found at 138 & 515 kHz LPF. Both filters share identical construction techniques and are housed in three Bud AC-430 3" X 4" X 6" aluminum chassis which are held together with machine screws. Small delrin shoulder washers and brass threaded rod were used to make the 'feedthrough' connection from one compartment to the next. Although the toroids are self shielding, stop-band attenuation at higher frequencies is improved by using multiple compartments. Capacitors are mounted in their associated end compartments. The inductors are supported on delrin standoff insulators. N connectors are used for the input and output connections.
The inductors for 138 kHz are wound with #14 solid enameled wire because of the large number of turns required. While there is sufficient room on the end cores for all of the turns, the center inductor has a number of the turns placed on a second layer. Any core that is wound with enameled wire should first be wrapped with 3M glass-epoxy tape to prevent chafing of the insulation. The same glass-epoxy tape should also be used between layers in the center inductor.
For 515 kHz the inductors can be wound with solid #14 THHN plastic insulated wire as shown. The turns on the center inductor just fill the core and a second layer is not required. Since plastic insulated wire is used, wrapping the cores with glasss-epoxy tape is not required.
Spectrum analyzer/tracking generator measurement of the 138 kHz low-pass filter. Horizontal scale is 150 kHz/division and vertical is 10 dB/division.
Spectrum analyzer/tracking generator measurement of the 515 kHz low-pass filter. Horizontal scale is 500 kHz/division and vertical is 10 dB/division.
While the filters may appear to be somewhat overbuilt they really aren't. At high transmitter powers even the large T-225A-2 cores get mildly warm - especially running Class D transmitters with their higher harmonic content. The extra space in each compartment allows for some air movement to help keep the inductors cool. The polypropylene capacitors run cool. The three chassis are covered with a single piece of perforated aluminum for shielding purposes.


text:
Supreme Court of Canada to hear appeal from Deloitte over $118-million judgment arising from Livent fraud
June 9, 2016	by Canadian Underwriter
The Supreme Court of Canada announced Thursday it will hear an appeal from Deloitte & Touche, which was sued for $84 million in Ontario by the special receiver for Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada Inc., essentially for failing to detect a fraud scheme perpetrated during the 1990s by senior Livent officials. At that time, Livent was publicly traded and Deloitte was auditing Livent's financial statements.
In a decision released April 4, 2014, Mr. Justice Arthur Gans of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice found that Deloitte "failed to meet its professional standard of care" while auditing Livent. The court awarded a total of $118 million, comprised of $84.75 million in damages plus interest, to Livent.
Court records indicate that Deloitte's liability insurance covers the full amount of the judgment, which was upheld by the Court of Appeal for Ontario, in a unanimous ruling (by Mr. Justice Robert Blair, Mr. Justice Peter Lauwers and Ontario Chief Justice George Strathy) released Jan. 8. Deloitte applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which announced June 9 that leave to appeal is granted.
In a ruling by Justice Strathy, released May 24, 2016, the terms of the Superior Court of Justice judgment were stayed, pending determination of Deloitte's application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Livent was initially known as MyGar, after Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, who founded the firm in 1989 after leaving Cineplex Odeon Corp. Drabinsky and Gottlieb were sent to jail in 2009 after being convicted of two counts of fraud and one count of forgery under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Livent's productions included Phantom of the Opera and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Livent had an initial public offering of stock in 1993 but went into receivership in 1999, the year after it restated its financial results for 1996 and 1997.
In the 2013 trial – of the lawsuit filed in 2002 against Deloitte by Livent's special receiver – Deloitte argued, among other things, that Livent's losses were caused by Livent's own illegal acts.
Related: Appeal continues in $84-million negligence lawsuit against corporate auditors
The criminal convictions of Gottlieb and Drabinsky were upheld in 2011 on appeal, though the jail sentences were reduced – to five years from seven years for Drabinsky and to four years from six years for Gottlieb.
The judge who tried Drabinsky and Gottlieb found that a "variety of accounting techniques were used to fraudulently reduce expenses and thereby increase net income," wrote the Court of Appeal for Ontario in its 2011 ruling in the criminal charges against Drabinsky and Gottlieb.
"These included deferring operating costs from the accounting period in which they were actually incurred to future accounting periods, transferring expenses properly associated with one project to another project and improperly transferring operating and preproduction costs to fixed asset accounts relating to theatre construction."
From May, 1993 through June, 1998, "Livent went to the capital markets at least seven times," Justice Gans wrote in 2014 in his ruling against Deloitte. Justice Gans added that Livent raised "$77.5 million by share and warrant offerings," US$125 million "through the issuance of senior unsecured debentures," and an additional US$77 million by share offerings.
Two private placements of Livent stock were made in 1998. A new investor – Roy Furman – became chairman and CEO of Livent. New managers discovered accounting irregularities and later in 1998, Drabinsky and Gottlieb were dismissed with cause. Also in late 1998, Livent restated its financial results for 1996 and 1997. Net earnings for 1996 – initially reported as $11-million – were revised to a loss of $18-million. The net loss for 1997 was restated as $98.67 million – more than double the initially reported loss of $41 million. Shortly after those revised income statements were released, Livent filed for court protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.
Livent was placed in receivership in 1999, with Ernst & Young appointed receiver. In November, 2001, Roman Doroniuk was appointed special receiver and manager of Livent. The following year, Doroniuk filed a lawsuit against Deloitte on behalf of Livent. Doroniuk alleged that as auditor, Deloitte failed to follow generally accepted auditing standards and that it was negligent in failing to discover material misstatements attributable to the fraud committed by Drabinsky and Gottlieb.
After the trial in 2013, Justice Gans found that Deloitte was not negligent in respect of audits during and before 1996, but Justice Gans did find that Deloitte was "liable for damages arising from negligence in August/September 1997 and the spring of 1998."
There were several accounting irregularities and frauds during the 1990s, Justice Gans noted.
For example, between 1991 and 1993 "at the behest of Drabinsky and Gottlieb," an engineering firm "entered false or inflated invoices" to Livent, Justice Gans noted. When the invoices were discharged, the money received by the engineering firm "made its way back to Drabinsky and Gottlieb personally or to King Commodity Services Ltd., a company controlled by the two of them," he added. "Gottlieb and Drabinsky received approximately $7.5 million, directly or indirectly, during this period of time."
There was also a modification made to Livent's accounting software that allowed Gord Eckstein [then Livent's senior vice president of finance, who later pled guilty in Ontario to fraud], to "manipulate expenses either by backing them out of a particular accounting period, from quarter to quarter or into another year end, or moving them into and charging them against other activities or productions," Justice Gans wrote.
In May, 1997, Livent entered an agreement to transfer air rights, over the Pantages Theater in Toronto, to a real estate firm. That total consideration was $7.4 million, but the agreement contained a "put" that allowed the buyer an option to exit the deal.
As a result of that "put," Deloitte said in 1997 it was opposed to reporting the money from the air rights deal as revenue in Livent's financial statements for Q2 1997.
"The matter appeared to come down to whether or not Deloitte would resign as auditors or whether or not some accommodation could or should be negotiated," Justice Gans wrote, noting that Gottlieb and Eckstein "were now content to let Deloitte resign since they felt that Livent would be able to obtain a satisfactory opinion elsewhere, presumably from KPMG."
Other Livent officials "felt that Livent would be adversely affected if Deloitte resigned prior to the proposed debt placement in the fall," Justice Gans added.
A compromise was reached, in which Livent announced it would recognize $4.8 million in income in the third quarter rather than in the second quarter of 1997.
"Deloitte should have remained firm in its resolve to sever its relationship with Livent at the end of August 1997 at the earliest, but no later than the end of Q3, or September 30th, at the latest," Justice Gans wrote, adding that Deloitte "was clearly aware that Livent's management was more than merely pushing the envelope from a [generally accepted accounting principles] perspective."
Deloitte disputed the finding that Deloitte should have resigned as an auditor of Livent, but that finding was upheld on appeal
Supreme Court of Canada hears appeal from auditing firm over $118-million judgement arising from Livent fraud
Supreme Court of Canada could hear appeal of lawsuit involving auditors' duty of care to non-shareholder lenders
Appeal continues in $84-million negligence lawsuit against corporate auditors
Top court finds auditor liable for failing to detect white-collar crime
Garth Drabinsky
Livent
Myron Gottlieb


Sasikala Pushpa is One Of the Most Young Firebrand For Tamil Nadu. She is The Member Of Indian Parliament Representing Tamil Nadu in Rajya Sabha. At Age Of Only 41, She has Achieved Mile Stones in Politics and Was Even Considered as Gems Within AIADMK and Was Considered as The Possible Successor of Jayalalitha. However, She Was Expelled from AIADMK on 1st August 2016 For Slapping DMK MP Trucchi Siva at Delhi IGI Airport. To Know More Read Ahead Sasikala Pushpa Wiki/ Biography/ Age/ Family/ Husband/ Caste.
Date Of Birth: 22nd May 1976.


The bed bug is, arguably, the most unpleasant pest you're ever likely to encounter in the UK.
Although they are not known to carry any kind of disease, it is our allergic reaction to their bite which makes their presence so unwanted.
Bed bug infestations are on the increase in the UK. Blame it on the increase in travel, particularly inter-country, or on the increase in the use of central heating or, maybe even on climate change, it makes no difference; you're more likely to encounter bed bugs now than you were in the 1950s.
Adult bed bugs are up to 6mm in length, a dark reddish brown and are principally active after dark.
They feed mainly on human blood but will also feed on cats, dogs and rodents. They hide away in cracks and crevices in furniture, walls, skirting and even inside electrical appliances and emerge every few days to have a blood meal for which they home in on their victim's exhalations of carbon dioxide.
Generally the first sign of infestation is the allergic reaction to their bite. Unless you enter a property which already has a significant bed bug population (maybe a hotel room) then the initial encounter is likely to be with just one or two bed bugs and so the bites will often be attributed to mosquitos or midges. However, once the population takes off then a person may receive hundreds of bites per week generally more prevalent on the upper body.
To help identify whether bed bugs are the cause of the bites, you should look for small blood spots on the bedding and a thorough inspection of the bed, may reveal both adult and juvenile bed bugs although where only small numbers are present it can be extremely hard to find them.
Treatment of bed bug infestations really should be left to trained professionals. Thoroughness is the key to a successful treatment as bed bugs are extremely accomplished at hiding and, it is said that, if you can get a piece of paper behind it, you can get a bed bug behind it too.
Repeated application of insecticide is generally necessary and there are also heat treatments available in order to control the bugs.
Rest assured that the professionals will rid you of these unwanted pests so, have a good night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite………!


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text:
Writing Quote Of The Day: K.A. Bedford
FAQ 2.0
7. So you somehow defied the odds and got published by an actual for-real publisher! What's the secret to beating the Evil Publishing Company Conspiracy to keep the "little guy" (particularly the ones with the "Unique Artistic Vision) out of publishing?
Well, the key secret to getting published, above and beyond all others, is this: you have to write a good book. That's the whole thing, right there, in a nutshell.
Previously in this blog:
Second Quote Of The Day: Walter Jon Williams
Book Drooooool!
Hemorrhaging the Neural Net
Writer Added
Leave a Comment » | greatness, idols, legends, sf, The Real Life, writers, writing | Permalink
Posted by mikecane
NBC's Journeyman: Thumbs Down
Update 12/13/07: NBC did not order more episodes beyond the original thirteen. I guess the creator now has much time to frivol.
Spoilers ahead. Skip this post if you haven't seen the first episode tonight. It debuts on NBC at 10PM EDST.
After all the hyping I did of Journeyman here, seeing the actual pilot (courtesy of "Chuck" and also Amazon Unbox) was a letdown.
I don't like the star playing his wife. Let me just come out and day it: She's a shrike, a bitch, and if I had her for a wife I'd want to travel back in time too! And as for the actress herself, she looks more like a supermodel than someone who'd risk her figure to have a kid. This is bad casting.
I don't see the appeal of the woman he pines for. All that time he thought she was dead — and she's not? Did I care? No.
His journeying back in time made no spatial sense. He'd go to sleep in his bed and somehow wind up miles away in a park? Are they going to use earth rotation as an excuse? For that matter, what triggers the time traveling? There's an inference of either the Hand of God or mental illness being the catalyst. The latter is more convincing than the former.
Is every episode going to involve him intervening in some aspect of the past, in someone else's life? This reeks of Early Edition. That show had more appealing, more true-to-life, characters — plus a cat!
His initial journey back into the past lacks emotional realism. To understand what I mean, I now have to recount my own "journeyman" episode. It was a dream I had back in 2003 (1/26 to be precise; it's in my Palm) and it left a permanent mark on me.
I "woke up" standing on the sidewalk looking at a protest marching north near Columbus Circle. It is sometime in the 1970s (I can't pinpoint the year). I am seeing a protest I had actually witnessed in real life back then. But I am back there with my knowledge of today. And it hits me that I am back there with what I know now. I have traveled back in time. The vividness of the dream, its reality, is as real as real, if not realer (you know how hyper-real dreams can be; if you don't, I feel sorry for you!). I am there. And I know the future. And all the shit that I'd been through in that future is now gone. Wiped away. I had a sense of freedom, of liberation, that I'd never before experienced in my life. I could do everything differently — and with the foreknowledge I contained inside me. I walked down to a neighborhood I once lived in for a few years. It was pre-gentrified. The rents were still low and I could see the lowlifes who had been swept out in the neighborhood's redevelopment. They didn't frighten me. In fact, I was without fear altogether. That I was suddenly homeless and apparently penniless didn't bother me at all. It was the freedom of it all that excited me. I could get money, I could get an apartment — and beyond all that, I could get rich. I knew the tech stocks to invest in. I knew that Microsoft was still a private company. There was no DOS yet. No IBM PC. Reagan wasn't yet in office (and when he came in, I'd know there'd never be a nuclear war with the Soviets — something many people actually feared during that time!). Do you understand? Can you imagine it for yourself? How absolutely exciting! To this day — over four years later! — all I have to do is recall that dream and I can recapture some of the emotion of it.
Journeyman lacked that. Instead of seeing his life having a new, fresh start, instead of feeling the emotions that would accompany that — we get nothing. A search for shoes in his old (not-his-yet) house. And even then it almost takes a baseball bat to the head for him to realize what has happened. Even if he thought it was a vivid dream, there are things he could have done other than what the writer chose.
This is bad writing. Very, very bad writing. Characterization was pushed aside in favor of plot. A possibly fatal mistake. With the rare opportunity to grab the audience and make them experience such a trip, to really feel it, the writer flubbed it.
In this respect, I think many people who've read The Time Traveler's Wife and watch the show for the first time tonight will feel right at home. It's as arid and as shallow as that book. It even has an element from that book: the character time-traveling while driving, causing an accident! Strange coincidence, huh?
I'm not sure if I'll tune in for the second episode.
If you watch it and like it, visit The Journeyman Blog.
NBC: Settle With Apple
Is Google Better Than Spy Agencies?
A Third Post-iTunes Fable For NBC: Steve Jobs Is Journeyman
A Second Post-iTunes Fable For NBC: You Got Chucked!
Should Apple Turn iTunes Into A Platform?
NBC: Stop Being Blonde!
NBC To Give Away Show Pilots
Journeyman: Still Unleaked!
Fall Network TV Doom Watch List
Journeyman: All Available Vids
Journeyman: No Leak, But Two YouTube Vids
NBC: Leak Journeyman NOW! Early Reports NOT Good!
YouTube: NBC Fall Preview
ABC Kicks NBC's Ass For Fall TV Buzz
Hey, NBC! Leak Journeyman NOW!
Now NBC Has Pissed Me Off!
Journeyman: Interesting Bits
Hey You Three. Email NBC!
Journeyman Still Not Leaked
September 2005: NBC Promotes A New Earl Show
I Give NBC A Kick To The Nuts. It's Called An Incentive.
Now Sinfest Persecutes Me!
Hey, NBC! Leak Journeyman, Dammit!!
Bourne Ultimatum? Yes. Journeyman? No.
Hollywood: Settle!
Brightcove: Journeyman Preview
DailyMotion: Ha. Ha. Ha.
Are The Suits Using P2P To Hype Their Shows?
2 Comments | crankness, sf, shitness, television, The Real Life, writers, writing | Permalink
Hey, You Timid Wimps Who Wail About My Language!
Yeah, go read your god, Scott Adams, daddy of Dilbert, and see the words he's using.
Now. Fuck. Off. Pussies.
Leave a Comment » | crankness, legends, social, The Real Life, writers, writing | Permalink
Go Get Yer Stephen Fry, Unillustrated
A poster over at Gear Diary has cloned the electrons of Stephen Fry's now globally-famous cri de coeur about smartphones and other like pocketable devices.
Go read it here.
Thanks to Jim Moat for the email tip.
Yeah, you still can't get it from Fry:
We've enjoyed extensive web traffic over the past few days. As a result, the Forum and Blog will be shutting down from Saturday 6.00AM-12.00PM (British Summer Time) whilst we upgrade the server.
Please return for the latest on Stephen's blog and events in the Forum.
And for those of you (which probably includes Fry himself) who doubted I've read his novels, here's one of the many bits I scanned and carry around with me in my PDA (currently a wretched Palm LifeDrive):
Jane's house found itself somewhere near Onslow Gardens. There was money in her purse, no question, courtesy of her Uncle Michael no doubt, and, like every rich, ignorant girl these days, she passed herself off as an interior decorator.
"People saw what I'd done with the flat," she said, as the taxi drew up outside a standard South Kensington white-pillared portico, "and asked if I could help them out too."
The interior lived up to my ripest expectations. Hideous flouncing swags for curtains, raw silk instead of wallpaper, you can picture the whole sham shambles for yourself, I'm sure. Barbarically hideous and as loudly wailing a testament to a wholly futile and empty life as can be imagined. Just how fucking idle, just how rotting bored, do you have to be, I wondered, to sit down and dream up this kind of opulent garbage? She was standing in the middle of the room, eyebrows raised, ready for my gargles of admiration. I took a deep breath.
"This is one of the most revolting rooms I've ever stood in all my life. It is exactly as hideous as I expected, and exactly as hideous as ten thousand rooms within pissing distance of here. It's an insult to the eye and fully as degrading a cocktail of overpriced cliché as can be found outside Beverly Hills. I would no more park my arse on that sofa with its artfully clashing and vibrantly assorted cushions than I would eat a dog-turd. Congratulations on wasting an expensive education, a bankload of money and your whole sad life. Goodbye."
That's what I would have said with just two more fingers of whisky inside me. Instead, I managed a broken, "My God, Jane . . ."
"Like isn't the word . . . it's, it's . . ."
"They tell me I have an eye," she conceded. "Homes and Interiors were here last week, photographing."
"I'm sure they were," I said.
"You should have seen the place when I moved in!"
"Such a sense of light and space," I sighed. Always utterly safe.
"Men don't usually appreciate such things," she said with approval, moving to the drinks table.
"Fuck you, you mad, sad bitch," I said inside, while "Even a man couldn't fail to be knocked out by this skilful, tasteful blend of the ethnic and the domestic," said my cowardly outspread arms.
— The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry; pgs. 21-22
Right then. Hurry off and go buy his books. They are hugely funny, witty, and intelligent.
Someone Bop Stephen Fry On His Noggin, Dammit
1 Comment | books, device, greatness, idols, legends, LifeDrive, palm, reading, tech, The Real Life, writers, writing | Permalink
Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk
Blame Richard Perez, author of the excellent novel The Losers' Club, for upsetting my Endless Book Queue. He sent out a MySpace Bulletin asking if he was the last person to find out that Palahniuk was gay and then wrote a bit about Palahniuk's Fight Club.
Intrigued, I got the book. I'd never seen the movie (I am further behind on movies than books…).
This is a hypnotic, amazing novel, unlike any other I've ever read.
I don't know how to go about describing it without ruining any of it. It's almost like one of those You Had To Be There things.
The unnamed narrator and a guy named Tyler Durden become entwined in a bizarre friendship between one another and a flipped-out young woman named Marla. The narrator's insomnia and Durden's daring ultimately lead to the establishment of Fight Clubs, where men can step into a ring hidden in the basements of bars to beat the living shit out of one another. The Fight Clubs in turn lead to the deification of Durden who then goes on to establish a series of Committees: Arson, Assault, Mischief, and Misinformation. It all turns into a cult manned with shaved-head 'space monkeys" who have wound up, by dint of their low-level positions of employment, infiltrating almost every part of society. Think of a cult as powerful as Scientology but without the outer space bullshit.
The narrator, without ever admitting it, seems to be a closeted gay man whose self-loathing ultimately rears its head (no pun intended) to avenge itself on a society that will not accept him. There's some stuff about anti-materialism thrown in, but I think that's a red herring for the real point: self-determination, self-respect, self-acceptance, and Fuck All to a society that wants, above all, homogeneity (again, no pun intended).
Palahniuk's writing is a revelation. It twists upon itself, plays with time and space, and has a rhythm that just entrances the reader and pulls him into the story.
From the first page I should have understood what was really happening. I didn't for two reasons: 1) I don't read books to figure them out while I'm reading them; I read to enter a different world and point of view, and 2) Palahniuk is like an expert magician, using words to pull off a sleight-of-hand.
I've never seen the movie. I don't know if I want to. Movies from books are usually disappointing at best or utter shit (there are exceptions, but they are very rare). If you've seen the movie, forget it. Just go and get the book to read. It's bound to be better. And it's a reading experience you'll never, ever forget.
Leave a Comment » | books, greatness, idols, legends, reading, social, writers, writing | Permalink
If I Could Be You
Previously: Movies You Must See And I Guarantee You Haven't!
A brilliant book, part of a trio
A stunning screenplay — not one wasted or dull word
Gulley Jimson, artist.
Disheveled, unshaven, chronically short of cash, oppressed by Authority and Suits.
I'd have his life any day over yours.
1 Comment | books, crankness, gods, greatness, idols, legends, social, stuff, suits, The Real Life, video, writers, writing | Permalink
Colligan And Engadget Will Pay For This!
No! No!! Nooooo!!! It's just So Wrong!!
Leave a Comment » | crankness, device, microPC, palm, shitness, social, suits, tech, The Real Life, writing | Permalink
The Palm Foleo Disaster: Part One
There is now a Part Two.
[Update: Correction made to Docs2Go functionality.]
The Foleo had been in development for quite some time. The first inkling of it being in development came from Palm founder and PDA market creator Jeff Hawkins, who explicitly stated that Palm had a "third business."
Hawkins: Palm Has Secret Third Business
Friday, August 05, 2005 12:19:36 PM
Here is the key quote:
What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time?
Close to two years later, with that quote being repeatedly and constantly referred to by people and passed around like some sacred talisman or a token of hope to be redeemed in the future, Jeff Hawkins himself revealed that the Third Business was the Foleo.
Foleo specs:
416MHz Intel PXA27x
256MB of non-volatile memory
about 128MB available for data and applications
Graphics Processor:
Marathon 2700G graphics accelerator
Compact Flash (CF) maxing out at 2GB;
Secure Digital (SD) maxing out at 2GB;
Support for FAT16 and FAT32 formatted USB Flash drives
802.11b Wi-Fi
NO Flash video capability, NO MP3 player included, NO video player included
Web browsing was ONE window. Documents to Go was ONE file open at a time. [Update: see end of post for correction]
NO core Palm apps included: No Calendar, No Contacts, No Tasks, No Memos.
NO HotSyncing with a desktop.
Is it any wonder people were up in arms after being primed with:
It wasn't pocketable, it didn't have gigabytes of storage, it didn't have a super-fast processor, and it couldn't do any multimedia!
I was one of the earliest to slam it on Palm Infocenter, the first to rechristen it:
RE: Third business.
mikecane @ 5/30/2007 2:41:52 PM #
>>>UMPCs will blow this thing away, or the market for it simply doesn't exist.
2008 will bring:
http://tinyurl.com/2mq6fl
Foleo. Flopio is more like it!
Hey, you Nokia N800 users. This gonna make you switch? Thought not!
Why would I want to shell out $500-$600 bucks for something that looks like it was ripped off from HPs old sub-subnotebook (I can't recall the model now; someone will dig it up somewhere) and has far less capability than a notebook that costs maybe 1.5-2x as much and can do, minimally, A HUNDRED TIMES MORE?
And I slammed it on this blog too:
My Reaction To Palm's New Foleo Device
Lost in this mob action were comments such as this one (which no one even bothered to reply to):
excellent product by Palm
chiefthetony @ 5/30/2007 2:33:52 PM #
If anyone has trid to do some work using the small screen and the small keyboard will appreciate this one.
Nope. Jeff Kirvin, who has for years advocated PDAs for writing, had this reaction to the Foleo: Foleo – Are you freaking kidding me?
All the hassle of a laptop, none of the utility
I already stopped carrying my Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth keyboard because it was too much of a hassle for the limited stuff I can do with mobile apps. The Foleo is at least twice the size of my Stowaway, and far more power hungry, yet it doesn't offer much more. You get a bigger screen, sure, but you're still limited on what you can do with it.
Also, in Comments at his blog:
This could be a new platform, it could be the first really viable Linux consumer PC, it could be a rethinking of what a laptop should be in the Web 2.0 era, but… it's just not very good. Nice idea, Hawkins, pretty laughable execution.
The reaction I — and most people — had was entirely justified given what Hawkins himself had said. Speculation had been all over the map. None of us could see what Hawkins was possibly working on, what he had found that no one else could. And with PalmOS becoming more arthritic by the day, with Palm itself making misstep after misstep, with Palm hardware gaining a reputation for outright shoddiness, few people were prepared to stop and listen to an announcement that was less than Capital-S Spectacular.
It just so happens that such an announcement came in January — but it was from Apple, not Palm. Apple had concretized the latent dreams of many and also gone beyond what anyone could imagine.
It was what we had all expected from Jeff Hawkins and Palm.
So when Hawkins was shown on stage with Mossberg and in subsequent videos saying, "The Foleo syncs email with a Treo" — and that was its key selling point and central functionality! — we who had waited for much too long and been treated like less than dirt for several years by Palm weren't about to pause and think. Our collective disappointment and the contrast with the iPhone was too much to bear. We wanted blood.
But: Jeff Hawkins and Palm brought all of it on themselves.
It also didn't help that Hawkins had no defense against Mossberg's question about the Foleo being able to access YouTube videos. It's as if Hawkins figured we'd all be wowed by email sync and forget about — well, forget about the rest of the world! When he said if he were to design it today it would have a faster processor, what was everyone else left to think, seeing the Foleo's own father being ashamed of it?
What could have possibly been in Hawkins' head? What did he imagine the reaction would be to the Foleo? Apparently not what he expected — because after Mossberg, his position was all defensive. Instead of making any effort to save the Foleo, he stood his ground, back to the wall, looking like a self-deluded fool.
I've been in the corporate world. I've attended presentation rehearsals. Did Hawkins ever do any? Did anyone outside his own bubble ever present tough questions to him so he — and a team of PR professionals — could develop cogent and convincing responses that would bend the audience to his will? If he did, then he was ill-served by those PR pros and they should be fired for massive failure. And what about Palm? Did Palm ever bother to formulate a Plan B if Plan A went into the toilet? And as they watched it going down the toilet, did they even consider a Plan B?
Steve Jobs is accused of having a Reality-Distortion Field. That is, of course, an exaggeration. What Steve Jobs is able to do is sell his vision.
The iPhone is, at the time of this writing, a closed platform. Yet Steve Jobs spun crappy web services into something that sounded like a good thing. And he did it in a way that has everyone — especially me! — waiting for the implied promise of an iPhone SDK that will turn the iPhone into exactly what it looks like: a pocketable Mac. He made it sound as if by allowing the iPhone to use web services, we would be sticking it to the Suits of AT&T who wanted to protect their precious network, stifle innovation, and gouge iPhone owners any possible way they could. It was brilliant positioning (even if most people didn't buy it, they admired his chutzpah!).
Hawkins was unprepared to spin. The best he could come up with was Instant On. And the way he presented it was in a desperate, "Well, if you don't like the Big Thing, do you think maybe you'll kind of like this little thing?" He seemed like he was begging.
A man who was able to create the first usable PDA and create a global market where none had existed before should have never been put in such an embarrassing position. It was disgraceful. It was suicidal.
And what was even worse than that?
Ed Colligan coming along to disgrace himself and to publicly humiliate Hawkins.
Palm, in its great talent for self-delusion, created what it believes to be a blog. When the blog began, and for some time afterward, there wasn't a peep from Colligan on it. You would think that on something that is supposed to represent an open exchange between a company and its customers — a glastnost and perestroika — it would begin with a message from the CEO of that company, to thank the customers, to share his vision for the blog, to explain how he will participate.
There was none of that.
Yet in the middle of the Foleo wildfire, Ed Colligan breaks precedent and rides in with a public statement thanking a tech-toy fan website for its free consulting!
After years and years and years of thousands and thousands of Palm customers voicing their ideas and their complaints, Ed Colligan basically says, I'm Only Gonna Listen To Engadget!
And the way he did it was so egregiously awful, the worst parts bear repeating with analysis:
I really appreciate the fact that you guys and others care enough to take the time to write such a comprehensive list of actions.
Aw, let me give you a nice hug! What's scary to begin with is that Colligan seems to believe that pseudo-list addressed everything! I can see Colligan reading and going, "Phew! That's all that's wrong with us? Then we're in pretty good shape overall!"
Of course it only gets worse:
I forwarded it to our entire executive staff and many others at Palm have read it.
What? It sounds like Ed printed it out, scurried to a Xerox machine, made a bunch of copies, and ran through the corridors of Palm from office to office shouting, "Ya gotta read this ! Ya gotta read this!" It made it seemed as if the entire staff at Palm are a bunch of eejits who can't figure it out for themselves, who never go into stores to see competitor products, and it made Ed Colligan himself look like a stark imbecile taking orders from little boys.
I mean, had that techie site stated anything new? When had any of it never been said? What part of it was brand new?
And if any part of it was brand new to Ed Colligan and Palm, then that company is finished because it's clearly running on arrogance.
It gets even worse:
Let's remember that it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us to innovate. We have only just begun to fight!
JK on the Run dispatched that bit of nonsense succinctly:
Engadget appeals to Palm- they respond
The folks at engadget outlined a course of action for Palm to get the slumbering PDA maker back into the competitive fast lane. It is a good plan and apparently Palm is watching. Ed Colligan has promised on the Palm blog that some exciting stuff is coming up. To quote Ed:
That statement sums up Palm's problem in a single sentence. You see, Mr. Colligan, the rest of the industry began to fight at least seven years ago. You'd better train awfully hard for this fight.
One key issue in Engadget's list was this bit, which I think made everyone go WTF?
Stop wasting money on the Foleo – We all know this isn't going anywhere. And even if it does do alright — and let's be real, it's never going to do better than alright — it's really just a distraction from the main business you're already neglecting. Besides, how many Treo companions do you expect to sell if the Treo itself isn't up to snuff? The Foleo is not the way to make the core product better.
Wait a minute. Where did this come from? Its inclusion, after droning and twee paragraphs that go on and on about Treos, is just bizarre. Why this? If the focus is Treo, I would have expected a denunciation of the PDA line, a line which both Palm and Hawkins have explicitly stated is "mature" and "declining" and seem to have no enthusiasm for.
To me, it seems as if everything else that's been written is nothing but camouflage for that bombshell. Everything else was casing for that explosive.
Why suddenly torpedo something new? Especially after word after word extolling the authors' alleged expertise — which apparently doesn't include how very limited the original Pilots were and the evolution of their increased functionality. I would expect them, experts they claim to be, to see the Foleo as akin to the original Pilot and understand how it would evolve. But no. Let's look at some of this a bit closer. First off:
We all know this isn't going anywhere.
We do? Who is this "we?" There are many people on the Internet — aside from the Linux fringe — who are earnest in their desire to buy the Foleo. Potential customers — the market for products — suddenly don't matter? Jeff Hawkins was pleased by the personal reactions he received to the Foleo from executives at the D Conference!
It gets uglier:
And even if it does do alright — and let's be real, it's never going to do better than alright
In other words, we could be wrong, but Ed, that's not what you really want to hear. And "it's never going to do better than alright" — never? Never? Who are these guys? Why aren't they placing horse bets to get rich? They seem to have a pipeline into the future! You mean to tell me that people who buy the Foleo won't start proselytizing it? That they won't show it to family, friends, coworkers, even total strangers? That people seeing it being used won't ever ask about it? No blogs will spring up around it? Firsthand reports of real-world usage won't fly around the Internet? It might sell, in other words, but then die because its happy owners will all keep it a secret? What is this crap?
Given Ed Colligan's unprecedented response, it reads in retrospect as if they are giving him permission to cave in to the firestorm of criticism.
Let me bang the hammer on this so everyone gets the proper perspective on this.
Hawkins, Dubinsky, and Colligan once upon a time left Palm to create Handspring. Handspring was going to enter the PDA market against two huge companies: 3Com/Palm and Sony. It was also going to go up against Microsoft. At the time, no one ridiculed the idea of starting a company from scratch and competing in the PDA marketplace. And, in fact, when the Handspring Visor was released, it contained a glaring technical strike against it: it didn't have the OS in a Flash ROM. The OS could never be upgraded (and that was a real never, unlike the fantasyland Engadget version of that word). In addition, the Handspring Springboard slot needed to garner support to help sell Visors. Investing in, designing, and tooling up to deliver hardware is much more expensive than software. Ultimately, trying to nurture a Springboard ecology failed. And yet there weren't one-tenth the objections to the entire Handspring venture than there have been for the Foleo. The Foleo, which could be expanded in functionality via software and which already had several developers announcing products for both the consumer and corporate markets.
Now look at the timing of this.
Engadget lets loose on Tuesday, August 21. Colligan replies on Thursday, August 23. The day before, Wednesday, August 22, an analyst claimed the Foleo was going to miss its summer sales deadline. On Friday, August 24, Palm issued a denial. Note that: Palm issued a denial.
In chronological list order:
Tuesday: Engadget open letter to Palm
Wednesday: Foleo rumored late
Thursday: Colligan's reply to Engadget
Friday: Palm denies Foleo rumor
Why not just shut up about the lateness rumor? Apple does it all the time. It works for them. (When Dvorak let loose with rumors about the iPhone's alleged abysmal battery life and possible late arrival, there was no denial from Apple.) Why bother to issue a denial? And who authorized said communication?
That was the last of the Foleo news. From anybody. No new software was announced. No new pronouncements about the Foleo appeared on the Palm blog. No shipping date was announced.
The debate even paused on the Internet.
On Monday, September 3, after several days of contemplating what I need as tech tools, I write a blog item that hints my objections are beginning to weaken. In fact, all of my objections nearly collapsed earlier in the week, and I had begun a post that I never published. What motivated that post is something I'll discuss in a later part.
On Tuesday, September 4, right after the long Labor Day weekend (which I doubt was a holiday for any of the Palm top-tier executives), Ed Colligan does two things that are unprecedented:
1) His writing appears on the Palm blog for a second time
2) He publicly announces the cancellation of the Foleo
Jeff Hawkins, father of the first successful PDA, who enthused about his latest world-changing product, was publicly humiliated by the company he had founded.
Did anyone notice that Jeff Hawkins didn't issue any statement?
What is particularly eerie in Colligan's announcement is his wording, calling the Foleo:
a platform that is not central to our core focus.
Contrast that with what Engadget said:
The Foleo is not the way to make the core product better.
Now Corporate Man tends to use a limited vocabulary (which consists of using "implementation" a lot), but it is very odd that fans would indulge in using the term "core" when "central" or "predominant" or "foremost" or even the name Treo would do. Who is mimicking whom? Why does it seem as if both are part of one script? Why do I get the impression not of a dialogue, but of two partners engaged in a rehearsed dance?
There's also a question no one has bothered to ask:
Ed Colligan leads a company that has a valuation of over one billion dollars. Do his actions seem worthy of that position?
Two sites have called for the removal of Ed Colligan. Ordinarily, this would mean nothing. But in light of the fact a man entrusted with leading a billion-dollar-plus global corporation seemingly takes advice from websites, it has new weight. (Hey, Ed, I asked for you to leave too! That makes three sites!) Perhaps the Palm Board of Directors or stockholders will follow Ed's sudden penchant for website advice?
(Do I think Colligan would voluntarily leave or that Donna Dubinsky or Hawkins would support his leaving? No. You have to understand the double mean of "Treo." It's not just a brand name. It also signifies the Hawkins-Dubinsky-Colligan trio.)
In Part Two I will further elaborate on the Foleo as announced, how it ties in with the history of the Hawkins-Dubinsky-Colligan troika, the monkey-wrench thrown into the Foleo works, and how the Foleo could have been saved even with its limitations and despite the Internet Category 5-strength objections.
Take a good long look. It will probably never be back.
Update: According to this post on TreoCentral, multiple documents could be open in Docs2Go:
I'd just like to point out that you were able to have an unlimited number of documents open in Word To Go, Slideshow To Go, and Sheet To Go. There was a dropdown box at the top of the screen that allowed you to switch from one document to the next, and you could also use keyboard shortcuts to do so. You did not have to save the document; it was left in a suspended state so when you switch back to it, you're right back where you left off.
edit: One other thing I forgot is that we implemented an "autosave" mechanism so that when you switched out of a document, or into another application, your changes would be saved to your document even if you did not explicitly perform a save. That way, your documents would always be up to date. Of course, you could still revert your changes if it turns out you really didn't want the file saved after all.
I agree that having the switching done via tabs instead of the dropdown box would have been cool, but the basic functionality was already in place.
That I only found out about that today — the day after posting this entry — just emphasizes what a disaster marketing the Foleo was. That was never widely known.
Click for Part Two.
What Was Your ROS*, Palm?
Blog Notes: Yes, I'm Working On It!
Dumbass Of The Year: Ed Colligan
I'm So Bad, I'm Good
If We Can't Have Momentum On This, Can I At Least Get An Amen, Brother?
Newsflash! Pictures Of Corpses Left In Wake Of iPhone Price Cut!
Palm Kills Foleo
OK, Now The Foleo Scares Me
Ugh. Backlogged. Still.
Poor Ed Colligan. Ascared Of Me.
Engadget Snags The Attention Of Autistic Palm, Inc.
iPhonespotting
Oh Look! I Get To Bash Palm And Nokia At The Same Time! It's Two Two Two Hits In One!
Palm Flogs Blog, Flails, Fails
iPhone Vs. Palm Treo: You Can't Fight A Corpse
Microsoft, Palm, And Nokia: You Better Be Freaking Out!!
Failure Has A New Name
Treo-Skimming. A Post-iPhone Craze?
Record Blog Traffic: Apple iPhone Vs. Palm Foleo
Earth To Palm: Change The Foleo's Browser To Safari
What Foleo 2.0 Needs
If FSJ Says It, Then It Is So!
Oh My God! What Did We Buy?!!?
Prediction: Palm To Drop All Handhelds
LifeDrive Notes: Should Palm's Software Engineers Be Beaten With A Spiked Bat Or Tied Up Together And Dumped In The Ocean From 30,000 Feet?
Palm's Flopeo, Uh, Foleo: Best Other Name For It
A Picture Of Two Tech Devices That Should Have Never Been Released
On A Day When Palm Gets Everything Wrong, Apple Gets It Right
2 Comments | apple, crankness, device, idols, legends, microPC, microsoft, palm, pocketable, shitness, social, stuff, suits, tech, The Real Life, video, writing, youtube | Permalink
Richard Perez Has Finished His New Novel!
God, I wanted to post this earlier. But Ed Colligan and Steve Jobs have stolen my time this week!
Here is the fantastic good news via MySpace Bulletin:
NEW NOVEL FINISHED … 563 pages
563 double-spaced pages, that is.
I feel like I've had my brains yanked out my asshole. So tired and worn out. Disoriented. No internet or phone (cell off) for nearly 2 months. With the exception of my mega-movie friend, Dontal, no human contact whatsofuckin'ever.
Brutal, baby. Brutal.
I don't think I've ever been this exhausted. I feel like I could just fall asleep and never wake up. (And I wouldn't care.)
But it was worth it, I guess. The book is really something special.
It's a lot of things: a youngish bohemian tale (of "artists" wanting to make an impact and, of course, achieve fame), a story of alienated non-conformists (so it has a juvenile delinquent quality), a Thelma and Louise ("buddy love" or "girls on the lam") story, a sexploitation and S/M (and, yeah, femdom) romp, a lampoon of auteur (a.k.a. ego) film-making, a satire of media celebrity and "true-life" tabloid sensationalism. The tone and humor of the novel is somewhat like Running With Scissors or Dry, but told with the bluntness and crude language of Charles Bukowski at his best, with sardonic touches reminiscent of early Chuck Palahniuk. The claustrophobic, downtown, drug-addicted, end-of-the-line feel is a bit like Party Monster. The fatal love these two gals share is somewhat like Heavenly Creatures. And, yeah, I have to emphasize, it's a comedy, despite its mock-serious tabloid title.
This fucking novel is really the very best work I've every done. On a story level, Tarantino on steroids. Bold and demented, totally packed with vulgarity, obscenity, and crazy in-yo-face behavior. Did I also mention it's an epic tribute to exploitation movies? Especially "Bad Girl" cinema?
I think I also manage to turn my protagonist (one of the two, actually), Dolores — my crazy, Latina, wassup! non-conformist — into a three-dimensional character. That's one thing that exploitation films don't do well: add much character dimension. This girl is crazy, but she's also real.
The full title of the book is: PERMANENT OBSCURITY: or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography, and Death
Here's what the novel looked like originally, when I wrote it out by hand (759 double-sided index cards):
This is what it looks like today, as I printed it out: 563 pages + 2 title pages
This is the title page, as I conceived it: white letters on black. (It's supposed to be a black comedy, after all.)
As you can see, the real author is Dolores. Dolores Santana. I've just been a fuckin' secretary, taking dictation. This bitch rules! Oh yeah, I use the word "bitch" a lot in the book. (Also, "cunt," also "ho," also "twink," also "slut," but not "heffah.") Sorry. I am formally apologizing to old-school feminists as of this moment. (It's how Dolores talks; she made me do it! She might say to me now: "Yo, stop being such a bitch!")
Congratulations, Richard! I can't wait to get the published book to read!
Richard Perez Sends Word Of His New Novel
M. Dylan Raskin Returns To His Homeland!
School Shooters Are Weakling Crybabies Who Should Shoot Themselves First And Thereby Help Improve The Human Race
M. Dylan Raskin – Part 2 (of 2)
Leave a Comment » | books, greatness, idols, legends, The Real Life, writers, writing | Permalink
That last post was typed into my LifeDrive using the Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard.
It was a pain in the ass to do!
So many typos because the keys weren't where my fingers expected them to be and also because the keys were so damned small and cramped together. Plus the damned driver has to be dealt with — it apparently likes to meditate and do nothing.
It got me to thinking about what it would be like to type on the Foleo's vaunted ISO-compliant full-size keyboard.
But when I got home and measured the Palm folding keyboard, I found it measured a wee over ten inches wide. Or the alleged width of the Foleo's keyboard!
However, when I look at this view of the Foleo (generously donated without their knowledge by Palm):
It sure looks a hell of a lot roomier from bottom to top row than the folding keyboard. The length of the spacebar worries me, though — but looking at my PC's keyboard, it actually seems to be the same length. Some sort of optical illusion…
I've been looking for a mobile blogging machine. At first, I thought the Raon Digital Everun could be that. But a five-inch screen could be a problem. Plus, I'd have to remember to, or simply constantly, lug along my Chinese Bluetooth keyboard (which, aside from carry weight, I love).
My travel keyboard
Then I thought the upcoming HTC Shift would be heaven. But it's just about seven-and-a-half inches wide. That makes for a cramped keyboard — close to three inches less than the length of the Palm folding keyboard! And then there is the ~US$1,500 price tag. I'd get very nervous carrying that in a shoulder bag in a ferry crowd.
Something keeps going through my mind about the Foleo. I'm even ashamed to admit that this meme has gotten stuck to my brain: The Foleo is a PDA grown-up.
Yeah, slap me around for holding that in my head.
Anyway, no conclusion here. Just troubling thoughts.
Fondle photo galleries:
Palm Infocenter
I might as well note the Foleo sites that have cropped up:
ProFoleo — which has a keyboard article today!
Foleo Fanatics
Foleo Central
Bwahahaha! You laughed at me, Cane! Who's sorry now?!
Leave a Comment » | crankness, device, LifeDrive, palm, pocketable, tech, The Real Life, umpc, writing | Permalink
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The Declaration presented a long list of reasons why political separation from England was necessary. As colonies, the settlements in America were investment tools of the English, and in some respects had the status of virtual slave states. The English took much and gave little back. In the colonies, everyday affairs reached a crisis in many areas of law and commerce. Nearly every official act required English approval, and it took three months to send a message by sea from America to England. Once the Parliament made a decision, a decision often not in the best interests of those living in the colonies, it took another three months for word to get back to America. Failure to comply with the interests of the English could result in capricious and severe punishment, often without benefit of a trial.
The decision to become independent was born of extreme necessity and hardship. These are the conditions that breed revolution, conditions I hope we can avoid in the future. However, history puts the odds against that happy possibility.
After a long and bloody revolt during which the people and the army suffered extreme hardships, the American leaders found themselves with a country, and now they had to design a government. Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence, in 1787, 52 delegates from thirteen colonies met again in Philadelphia. Although few in number, the delegates were among the best educated and most articulate thinkers in the new country. After four months of debate and compromise the new design, The Constitution, was ready to submit to the states.
Each state was to elect delegates to its own ratification convention, and nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify the new government design before it took effect. In May of 1790, twenty-four years after the Declaration of Independence, the last of the thirteen states finally ratified the Constitution. We often forget how long the whole process took. Bitter arguments raged all over the country during those years of decision. It was only after the Bill of Rights was assured, as amendments to the new Constitution, that some states were willing to accept the new plan.
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
Constitutional government in the United States is now long established and cannot be expected to yield easily to any change. Nevertheless, it is profitable to think about what changes might be needed and how those necessary changes might be made in a gradual, democratic and orderly way.
The United States Constitution, I think, contains a flaw in its failure to set efficient terms for its own orderly revision and evolution. It is a legal fossil frozen in time when it should be a living creature with the inherent potential for self-correction, change and growth. The amendment process is not enough. One initial constitutional convention is not enough. A continuing process of review and revision must be developed if we are to avoid reaching a time when certain cumulative evils are no longer sufferable. Perhaps the worst of these insufferable evils will be the decreasing power of the individual citizen to have any vote or voice in how the government is designed.
The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, but the word interpret is troublesome since The Constitution is, after all, written in English. By now, its actual language may be out of date. It is often vague as well as silent on many current problems. While we hold dear most of the essential ideas and values embodied in our Constitution, its meaning should not require critical interpretation of language that is now two centuries old.
The original framers of the Constitution were writing a document for the country as it was then, not as it is today or will be tomorrow. While they surely had posterity in mind, they were not so foolish as to think that they could write laws to govern the behavior of unborn citizens two hundred and more years in the future. Nor, of course, can we do that today. Congress was given the power to enact new laws, of course, but what the Congress can do is limited to what is deemed constitutional. The Constitution places limits on the power of Congress, and it falls to the courts to clarify these limits when they are ambiguous.
As time and events force increasing judicial interpretation, the courts gain the power to make decisions that are, in fact, new laws. This so-called case law is complex and rather remote from the ordinary citizen who has had no vote in their passage. So it is that an ancient and vague Constitution gives unwarranted interpretive power to an unelected, appointed body with absolute power, a body that should merely judge the merits of disputes, not the meaning of our governing document. These unelected, politically appointed judges enjoy secure lifetime positions.
In coming articles I shall describe what I think is a reasonable plan for the continuing re-design of constitutional government. Any continuing design of a government can be ended by revolution or enhanced by controlled evolution. Fear of change would be our greatest problem in continuing the design process so well begun in the late 1700s.


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Our trips usually start at around 8.30am after a quick safety briefing and a full day will see you fish though to around 5pm approx but this can be modified to suit the client or conditions. Some of the more distant rivers will require an earlier start.
Drift fishing is a great way to get a long true, natural drift of your fly and to access areas that would be impossible on foot and of course you can fish both sides of the river with ease! A lot easier than bush bashing or boulder hopping your way up a river!
Depending on time of year or time of day or even different sections of the same river on the same day, we could fish various styles.
Nymphs and indicators is a popular way if the fish are deep , dries and droppers , even stripping a streamers like a large woolly bugger can be very effective or our summer favourite which is to drift large terrestrials such as cicadas or blowfly type patterns .
This is an awesome way to fish. Long drag free drifts , watching your fly gently bounce along in the current and waiting for that large snout to appear!
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PLANETCALC Online calculators
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Julian and Gregorian calendars
Julian and Gregorian calendars date conversion
Julius Caesar introduced Julian calendar in 46 BC. It's believed that it was created by Egyptian astronomers (Alexandrian astronomers headed by Sozigen) although named after Julius.
It acquired its final form in 8 AD.
The year started from the 1st of January because the elected consuls entered the post on that day, and then there were 12 months, 365 or sometimes 366 days.
And that "sometimes" differentiate it from the Gregorian calendar.
Actually, the problem is that a complete revolution around the sun - tropical year - the Earth makes for 365.24219878 days. It's the whole number in the calendar. So if the year consists of 365 days, each year will go ahead by almost a quarter of the day.
It was made simpler in Julian calendar - each 4th year was made a "leap year" and had 366 days. So the length of a year in Julian calendar is 365.25 days which is much closer to a real tropical year.
But not that close - now the calendar lags for 11 minutes 14 seconds each year. It's a whole day in 128 years. This leads to the fact that some of the dates related to astronomical phenomena, such as the astronomical vernal equinox, will begin to shift to the beginning of the calendar year.
The difference between astronomical and calendar vernal equinox, recorded on March 21, became more explicit. As the Easter holiday spring equinox was tied to spring equinox, many Catholic European people believed that the problem has to be dealt with.
Finally, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar and made it known as the Gregorian calendar. Luigi Lilio carried out this project. According to him, later we should consider leap years only those century-olds divided by 4 without residue (1600, 2000, 2400), and others should be considered regular. Also, the deviation of 10 days accumulated since 8 AD was eliminated, and according to the pope's decree from 24 February 1582, after 4th of October 1582, the 15th of October should follow.
The approximate length of a year in the new calendar was 365.2425 days. The deviation was only 26 seconds, and a day deviation can be accumulated for 3300 years.
And we don't need anything more precise. Or we may say it will be our descendant's problems. We can make every year divided by 4000 without residue a common year, and the approximate year length will be 365.24225.
Catholic countries switched to a new calendar almost immediately (no arguing against the pope), protestant countries did that uneasily, and the last one was Great Britain in 1752. And the last country adopted this calendar was orthodox Greece which adopted it in 1929.
Now Julian calendar is used only by few orthodox churches like Serbian and Russian.
Julian calendar is still lagging behind Gregorian - every 100 years (if the century is not divided by 4 without residue) by 1 day or by 3 days per 400 years. This difference is 13 days by the 20th century.
The calculator below transforms the date from the Gregorian calendar to Julian and vice versa. It's easy to use - enter the date, and it will show Julian and Gregorian calendar dates.
Also, there was no Gregorian before 15th October 1582, so you can't tell the date before. However, you can extrapolate it into the past.
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Casual, comfy JUNO earthing grounding Suede MOCs in vivid Gold – perfect for autumn. Decorative stitching, bow detail. Pluggz grounding technology soles for grounding yourself and our trampoline heel provide comfort and support. Memory foam insole, anti-microbial lining.
These shoes are very comfortable. I have sort of a narrow foot and they were just right. These shoes seems to be true to size because I like a good fitting shoe.


BBNaija 2018 finalist Cee-C has signed a contract to become an ambassador for a sunglass outlet, House of Lunettes. Cee-C has joined ex Housemate for BBNaija season 2, Tboss who also is an ambassador of the brand.
Many housemates from the last season of Big Brother Naija(Double Wahala) have been signing deals and Cee-C is now the newest member of that club.
Cee-C signed the contract at the store with businessman and CEO of Record Label TripleMG, Ubi Franklin present with her. This contract certainly explains her recent relationship with Ubi Franklin.
Cee-C shared her happy news on her Instagram page. Cee-C seems to be a great choice as an ambassador of the brand as she has shown a great taste for sunglasses since she returned from the Big Brother house. The eye store also complimented the former Big Brother housemate's dress sense.
Cee-c's fashion sense and love for trendy Eyewear makes her a unique choice as "Face of Lunettes". We are looking forward to a remarkable campaign of Ceec in our new affordable Eyewear brands that are fashionable and well priced for our customers across the country.