Today, we got the first previews of the upcoming masters 25 set. Last time we had an (important) masters set, I made a prediction and preview thread, and I was pretty close. Before I get into this new set, let's see how I did last time.
I was correct in this one. We saw an allied-color pair focused 3 color set, featuring Bant Tokens, Esper Blink/control, Grixis Graveyard, Jund Sacrifice, and Naya Beatdown.
I was also fairly correct with this one. While we didn't get as many valuable uncommons as I would have hoped, we still saw Path to Exile, Inquizition of Kozilek, Might of Old Krosa, Serum Visions, Lingering Souls, Molten Rain, Ancient Grudge, Intangiable Virtue, Unburial Rites, the Signets, and Terminate.
Nope. They printed the Fetchlands at Rare instead. To be fair, I was almost entirely sure that they wouldn't do either of these things, so I guess we should just be happy!
So now, without further ado, the first Masters 25 previews and my predictions!
So, we saw Jace, The Mind Sculptor, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and an artifact creature with new art. How the heck can I make set predictions out of this. Well, I think we have a few clues just from the context of the cards we saw. For my prodictions, I will be using information that I have seen from the mothership and/or blogatog, but I won't necessarily be able to post links to the original posts. So without further ado, my predictions!
In the post, wotc states that: Note the really cool watermark in Azusa's text box representing the original printing. Nearly every card in Masters 25 will have this treatment, even cards originally printed in Limited Edition (Alpha), Beta, and Unlimited! I think this means we will see cards from every Magic set. I don't know if we will see cards originating in the commander and planechase products, but that wouldn't surprise me.
Prediction #2: Masters 25 will not have a specific focus for reprints, and will rather contain cards for players of every format.
The previous Masters sets have all had a specific focus for what kind of cards they were reprinting. Modern Masters was about modern, Eternal Masters was all for Legacy and Vintage, and Iconic Masters was for Commander, Pauper, and (to a minor extent) cube! Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Azusa don't usually see too much play in the same formats, so I have a feeling this set will be for everyone instead of just a few people.
Prediction #3: Masters 25 will contain an Artifact theme of some sorts.
Much like my "Stoic Angel means 3-color" prediction from last time, I think a metal guy means artifact theme. The powerful artifacts of old did not make an appearance in Eternal Masters, so I think this would be a perfect place to see them. Imagine a union between the cool artifacts of the Urza block, fighting along side the Etherium-Masters of Esper, the Inventors of Kaladesh, and the Myr of Mirrodin. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Iconic Masters was all about the Iconic Creature Types of the magic color pie (Angel, Sphynx, Demon, Dragon, Hydra). Masters 25 will be about the cards that are Icons of Magic, like Lightning Bolt, Jace, and Force of Will (maybe).
Prediction #5: Masters 25 will contain some pauper staples!
Who cares about all of those other formats and rarities, in this day and age, people only wanna use commons! Let's get those Qurion Rangers reprinted, maybe some of the Mirrodin Artifact Lands, and even some Mulldrifters if WOTC feels especially frisky. Wouldn't that be nice? That said, ever Masters set contains at least a few commons that end up seeing play in Pauper, so I guess I will give you 1 final extra prediction (or, in actuallity, wishful thought) for this set.
Wishful Thought: Masters 25 will contain Fanatic of Xenagos!
This Boi is probably the best uncommon from BNG IMO. I don't think wotc will do this since their current reprint policy in masters sets requires them to have 3 cards with a mechanic for it to see print in the set, but I think that would be really hard to do in a set containing cards from every set. Maybe, come March 16th, we will see these bois staring us down in our masters 25 packs.
What do you think about this set? Do you have any predictions about Masters 25? Share your thoughts below!
Tribute is a fantastic mechanic.
@Faiths_Guide I agree! I feel Wotc's execution on it sucked, however. I think the problem with tribute in this set would be twofold.
1: While tribute is a cool mechanic, most of the individual tribute cards are borderline at best. This is the only tribute card that could be considered good, at least from a competitive standpoint.
2: The only cards with tribute are in Born of the Gods. This is an issue if WOTC wants to fit in cards from every set because they can only fit 2-4 cards from a set into A25. That would mean all of the BNG slots would be "wasted" on tribute cards, ignoring some of the actually impactful stuff like Bile Blight and (maybe) Xenegos, God of Revels.
@TezzeretofCarmot21 I think Azusa is a case of high demand, low supply. Lots of people want Azusas, but there just are not many out there. Take a look at Zur The Enchanter's price graph.
Zur lost about %85 of his value after he got reprinted in MM2017.
Once the supply meets the demand, which appears to be mostly driven by commander like Zur's, I think Azusa will be about 5-10 dollars like she was back in 2012.
I hope this isn't like Modern Masters 2015 where they showed all the cool stuff early, and then it sort of sunk in as... oh.
@KrampisZman I'm praying the price will drop like a rock! I need one for my uber-Timmy deck. Also, how much are the packs? I want to be able to buy one to get my chance at a Jace, a Phyrexian Obliterator (newly spoiled!) or an Azusa.
@Tezzeretofcarmot21 10 bucks a pack. Buy the singles you need!
Also, here is the Obliterator @TezzeretofCarmot21 was talking about.
Note that the watermark is the New Phyrexia Set Symbol and not the Phyrexian faction watermark.
That's a weird new phyrexia symbol. It's more clean cut, as opposed to looking like it was scratched into stone.
I second @Lujikul on that. There's something too regular and smooth about it.
The New Phyrexia set symbol was just like that. He even made a point that it wasn't the faction symbol, which you are talking about.
@Lujikul @KalamMekhar As I and @NokiSkaur have pointed out, that is the New Phyrexia set symbol, not the Phyrexian Faction watermark.
I think we might see Gray Merchant of Asphodel in this set based off of the presence of Obliterator. What do you think?
The (possible) return of Gary? Hooray!!!
@NokiSkaur Theros was one of my first Magic sets after coming/returning to the game. I have fond memories of it and the rest of its block. Devotion coming back would be sweet IMO.
I started collecting during Return to Ravnica, and my favourite block has probably been Theros. Gary was always one of my favourite commons.
If Grey Merchant makes an appearance, then it's gonna be a strange draft set in my opinion, especially if the "four cards from each set" idea was true, because it would make a reasonable draft difficult, and would be very wonky with the rares/mythic.
Also, not noticing that it was the set symbol, not the watermark, is my mistake.
Anyone who was around during odessy remember this guy?
Well, I wasn't, so I don't XD.
Drake Haven and Archfiend of Ifnir. I have been trying WOTC's strategy of including "signpost uncommons" (multicolor cards that signal an archetype) recently with great effect. Our Toothy boi on top has been filling that role quite well for this deck. Now, seeing as to cycling is one of the most beloved mechanics of all time, I think it makes sense for tog' to be the centerpiece of a discard matters deck. If we have Dr. Teeth, rarity-shifted Drake Haven and Oona's Prowler in the set as uncommons, a rare Archfiend of Ifnir, and some nice cyclers like Miscalculation, we have the start of a real archetype here! This also allows some nice bleed-in to a madness deck or other graveyard strategies if WOTC so desires, and it would be a perfect marriage between some of the most fun new cards and the titans of an era. Combine this with the fact that the Toothster has some online-exclusive (but creepy) art from vintage masters, and I think we have a real winner here!
What are your thoughts here before spoilers start tomorrow?
Also, We have a Murder Spoiler.
I was right about cards originally from core sets being here!
See you when previews officially start!
I am really proud of myself for using different names every single time I mention Toothy mc. Tooth Face up there.
We have some new previews!
...And a card making good use of it!
...and a great rare from Dark Ascension that I want for my cube.
...And the blasts with New Art!
Finally, we have Niv Mizzet with his Original Flavor Text!!!!!
Overall, a pretty mediocre start to previews from a value standpoint. I'm glad Thalia and Chalice got a reprint, but none of these cards feel particularly nostalgic for me. I'm still hoping for our Toothy Friend and Gary to get a reprint, cards that I either like or find nostalgic. Knowing WOTC the Theros block "nostalgia" card will be Ashen Rider or some other dumb card no one plays.
Hey! A card that's actually nostalgic for people who don't play EDH or weren't around in the early 90's! Somewhat OK job Wizards!
Imperial Recruiter and Sundering Titan! Move over Jace, this set has a new chase mythic!
@NokiSkaur Bum Bum Dum Bum Dummmmmmmm.
@KrampisZman: so now that the full set is spoiled, what do you feel is the biggest snub?
Personally, I'm unhappy not to see Tutor, LotV, FoW, Astral Slide, and (most of all) Ad Nauseam. Maybe even Snappy.
Also, I know everyone is pissed about Tree of Redemption, but has anyone noticed that there is Colossal Dreadmaw in this??? I mean, why? Haven't they printed enough Dreadmaws?
Tree of redemption was in their the counteract the value other cards in the set held.
The reason Colossal Dreadmaw is in it is that every set in existence gets two cards to put in Masters 25.
@KalamMekhar This set is so close to being great it's not funny. Here is each card I wanted to see reprinted and what card in the set it should replace. Keep in mind that I am trying to follow WOTC's "3 of a card with a mechanic" rule, meaning that I can't just add random cards with a mechanic without giving it buddies. Also, I am replacing cards of one color and rarity with cards that I would like to appear at that same color and rarity.
Changing these 12 cards would have taken this set from ok to pretty good in my opinion. I wasn't going to add the gatekeeper or the Terra Ravager, but there were each only one card from commander 2013 and Weatherlight and I replaced them both.
Honestly, this set would be amazing at $7 a pack like the original Modern Masters, but the value just isn't here at $10 a pack. I think the set looks fun to draft, but I wish we had a cycling payoff in addition to Horror of the Broken Lands. It looks like there is a deck using freed from the real, so that's fun. Also, there is a turn 2 infinite mana combo in here using Utopia Sprawl, Arbor Elf, and Freed from the Real.
@Tigersol What value? There isn't enough value here to sabotage a mythic slot with a not only worthless, but Useless card. This set ended up being a bit of a dud like Iconic masters.
The funny thing is, if they had all the value cards from this set and Iconic masters in one set, it would be a really good value. I am starting to think they split an incomplete masters set to be released this spring into Masters 25 and Iconic masters, but they forgot to add good reprints into the offspring sets.
Wait... I just realized that STORM CROW ISN'T IN THIS SET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Tigersol It's like, how is Murder of Crows more nostalgic than Storm Crow?
No Storm Crow is a travesty. Surely they must know how much that card means to the community.


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5 Feminist Events at the Vancouver Writers Festival
Though the act of writing can be a solitary process, it has the power to transform communities. Vancouver will welcome more than eighty authors from October 15-21, 2018, each invested in societal change. These five events will galvanize anyone interested in knowledgeable, feminist, and principled conversations that fearlessly engage with issues of representation, equality, and more.
Friday, October 19 at 6:00pm
How do you walk away from your career to begin again? How do you reshape your life on your own terms? Jackie Kai Ellis walked away from a seemingly picture-perfect life to follow her passions of travel and cooking, eventually founding Vancouver's own Beaucoup Bakery. The Measure of My Powers is a warm, intimate memoir on courageously pursuing what you truly love. In End of the Rope, Jan Redford throws herself against mountainsides, finding her worth through scaling cliffs. A trailblazer in the 80s and 90s, she reflects on entrenched sexism in her climbing circles, and pushing back against expectations to pursue her own less-than-conventional dreams. The conversation between these two raw, boundary-defying memoirists is sure to inspire.
Buffy Sainte-Marie in Conversation with Andrea Warner
Sunday, October 21 at 7:30pm
Legendary folk singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is a tireless advocate for justice. Sainte-Marie is a fierce survivor, overcoming abuse, racism and blacklistings to receive, among numerous other accolades, the only Academy Award ever to be won by an Indigenous performer. Sainte-Marie will speak to biographer Andrea Warner about her stunning legacy of art and activism. It's a not to be missed conversation on a creating art without compromising your principles.
The Evolution of Man
Friday, October 19 at 10:00am
In each of their respective books, Rachel Giese (Boys: What It Means to Become A Man), Jamil Jivani (Why Young Men) and Daemon Fairless (Mad Blood Stirring) investigate the roots of male violence and how to reshape masculine ideals. Drawing from their backgrounds in law, journalism and neuroscientists, these three authors provide compelling, urgent arguments for how we can all positively move forward in the fight for equality.
The Things We Inherit
Saturday October 20 at 10:30am
Sometimes, the strongest barriers we encounter come from those closest to us. Leading Canadian feminist writer Betsy Warland interviews four stunning talents on grappling with familial grief, secrets and trauma. Spanning a variety of communities, Peter Gajdics (The Inheritance of Shame), Elizabeth Hay (All Things Consoled), Chelene Knight (Dear Current Occupant) and Lindsay Wong (The Woo-Woo) each provide sharp insights on how to nurture your own voice in the face of the most intimate and deeply internalized obstacles.
Friday October 19 at 6:00pm
The writing process can be as interesting and enlightening as the final product, especially when authors wrestle with issues of marginalization and prejudice. Spanning genres and disciplines, Cherie Dimaline (The Marrow Thieves), Sabrina Mahfouz (How You Might Know Me), Eden Robinson (Trickster Drift) and Vivek Shraya (I'm Afraid of Men) and moderator Waubgeshig Rice (Moon of the Crusted Snow) for an honest, practical conversation about life as a writer and how they bring their crucial narratives to life.
To learn more about these events, and more, visit the Vancouver Writers Festival website here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


TIR launches are held at our Swan Falls launch site in southwest Idaho.
For those with a GPS unit, the launch site coordinates are: N 43°14'15'' W116°19'27''.
Use this link to view WIND CONDITIONS at the Swan Falls Launch site.
Our launch site is on BLM land for which we require permission to use. The BLM requires that NO off-road vehicle use is permitted. Pets are not allowed at TIR launches, per BLM rules.
Sometimes launches are canceled due to bad weather or high fire danger. If a launch is cancelled due to environmental conditions then often we will re-schedule for the following Saturday. Remember to check the website or TIR Google Group for an up-to-date report BEFORE you leave for the launch site!
Conditions permitting, Tripoli Idaho launches run all day provided there are still rockets to fly. However, most larger rockets are usually launched in the mornings to take advantage of calm wind conditions. Come early and remember to bring a lunch and water. A port-a-potty is on-site for most launches, otherwise facilities can be found at the nearby Birds of Prey overlook.
Rocketry is an inherently dangerous activity, for this reason, participants are required to read and sign a release and waiver of liability.


At the heart of everything we do CW&A Understanding that Serving Society with Superior Character is our culture and our core, and embracing our responsibility to future generations as a global leader in our industries, CW&A and its teammates around the world employ innovation and technology to improve the way people move, live, work and play.
CW&A, LLC seeks to have healthy and continuous growth, we expect every member of our firm to help shape our course of action upholding social responsibility. We value and fully practice our CSR strategy in all corporate activities: environmental conservation; global supply system; corporate compliance; Civic engagement and ethical conduct. We are committed to continuing to align our business with CSR and improve our CSR strategy through periodic reviews. This is why our firm volunteers a collective 100 hours of service each year. We are also in the process of becoming B-Corp Pending to ensure our firm never states away from our goal to be active corporate stakeholders.


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Q: How to Add the ''EditText:searching field'' to my Java and make it Interactive? I started learning about making apps in Android Studio few days ago , and my goal is to build an app that Shows a list of book with certain details by fetching Data from the GoogleBook Api  , i want to know how to display the result on the screen after typing in the " editText : searching field ?? i Really need your help , Thanks in Advance
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Archive for the 'administrative state' Tag
The Fate of the Rising Generation Within a Bureaucratic Environment Leave a comment
The youth movement was an impotent and abortive revolt of youth against the menace of bureaucratization. It was doomed because it did not attack the seed of the evil, the trend toward socialization. It was in fact nothing but a confused expression of uneasiness, without any clear ideas and definite plans. The revolting adolescents were so completely under the spell of socialist ideas that they simply did not know what they wanted.
Found on FEE
It is evident that youth is the first victim of the trend toward bureaucratization. The young men are deprived of any opportunity to shape their own fate. For them there is no chance left. They are in fact "lost generations" for they lack the most precious right of every rising generation, the right to contribute something new to the old inventory of civilization. The slogan: Mankind has reached the stage of maturity, is their undoing. What are young people to whom nothing is left to change and to improve? Whose only prospect is to start at the lowest rung of the bureaucratic ladder and to climb slowly in strict observance of the rules formulated by older superiors? Seen from their viewpoint bureaucratization means subjection of the young to the domination of the old. This amounts to a return to a sort of caste system.
Caste Conflict and Class Warfare
Among all nations and civilizations—in the ages preceding the rise of modern liberalism and its offspring, capitalism—society was based on status. The nation was divided into castes. There were privileged castes such as kings and noblemen, and underprivileged castes such as serfs and slaves. A man was born into a definite caste, remained in it throughout his whole life, and bequeathed his caste status to his children. He who was born into one of the lower castes was forever deprived of the right to attain one of the stations of life reserved to the privileged. Liberalism and capitalism abolished all such discrimination and made all people equal under the law. Now virtually everybody was free to compete for every place in the community.
This is more than a crisis of the youth. It is a crisis of progress and civilization.
Marxism provides a different interpretation of liberalism's achievements. The main dogma of Karl Marx is the doctrine of the irreconcilable conflict of economic classes. Capitalist society is divided into classes the interests of which are antagonistic. Thus the class struggle is inevitable. It will disappear only in the future classless society of socialism.
The most remarkable fact about this doctrine is that it has never been explicitly expounded. In the Communist Manifesto the instances used for the exemplification of class struggles are taken from the conflict between castes. Then Marx adds that the modern bourgeois society has established new classes. But he never said what a class is and what he had in mind in speaking of classes and class antagonisms and in coordinating classes to castes. All his writings center around these never-defined terms. Although indefatigable in publishing books and articles full of sophisticated definitions and scholastic hairsplitting, Marx never attempted to explain in unambiguous language what the characteristic mark of an economic class is. When he died, thirty-five years after the publication of the Communist Manifesto, he left the manuscript of the third volume of his main treatise, Capital, unfinished. And, very significantly, the manuscript breaks off just at the point at which the explanation of this fundamental notion of his entire philosophy was to be given. Neither Marx nor any one of the host of Marxian writers could tell us what a social class is, much less whether such social classes really play in the social structure the role assigned to them in the doctrine.
Of course, from the logical viewpoint it is permissible to classify things according to any trait chosen. The question is only whether a classification on the ground of the traits selected is useful for further investigation and for the clarification and amplification of our knowledge. The question is therefore not whether the Marxian classes really exist, but whether they really have the importance attached to them by Marx. Marx failed to provide a precise definition of the concept social class that he had used in all his writings in a loose and uncertain way, because a clear definition would have unmasked its futility and its valuelessness for dealing with economic and social problems and the absurdity of coordinating it to social castes.
The characteristic feature of a caste is its rigidity. The social classes, as Marx exemplified them in calling the capitalists, the entrepreneurs, and the wage earners distinct classes, are characterized by their flexibility. There is a perpetual change in the composition of the various classes. Where today are the scions of those who in the days of Marx were entrepreneurs? And where were the ancestors of the contemporary entrepreneurs in the days of Marx? Access to the various stations of modern capitalist society is open to everyone. We may call the United States senators a class without violating logical principles. But it would be a mistake to coordinate them to a hereditary aristocratic caste, notwithstanding the fact that some senators may be descendants of senators of earlier days.
In the bureaucratic machine of socialism the way toward promotion is not achievement but the favor of the superiors.
The point has already been stressed that the anonymous forces operating on the market are continuously determining anew who should be entrepreneur and who should be capitalist. The consumers vote, as it were, for those who are to occupy the exalted positions in the setting of the nation's economic structure.
Now under socialism there are neither entrepreneurs nor capitalists. In this sense, namely, that what Marx called a class will no longer exist, he was right to call socialism a classless society. But this is of no avail. There will be other differences in social functions which we can call classes with surely no less justification than that of Marx. There will be those who issue orders and those who are bound to obey these orders unconditionally; there will be those who make plans and those whose job it is to execute these plans.
Architects of Their Own Fortune
The only thing that counts is the fact that under capitalism everybody is the architect of his own fortune. A boy eager to improve his own lot must rely on his own strength and effort. The vote of the consumers passes judgment without respect to persons. The achievements of the candidate, not his person, are valued. Work well done and services well rendered are the only means to succeed.
Under socialism, on the contrary, the beginner must please those already settled. They do not like too efficient newcomers. (Neither do old-established entrepreneurs like such men; but, under the supremacy of the consumers, they cannot prevent their competition.) In the bureaucratic machine of socialism the way toward promotion is not achievement but the favor of the superiors. The youth depends entirely on the kind disposition of the old men. The rising generation is at the mercy of the aged.
It is useless to deny this fact. There are no Marxian classes within a socialist society. But there is an irreconcilable conflict between those who are in favor with Stalin and Hitler and those who are not. And it is simply human for a dictator to prefer those who share his opinions and praise his work to those who do not.
It was in vain that the Italian Fascists made a hymn to youth their party song and that the Austrian socialists taught the children to sing: "We are young and this is fine." It is not fine to be a young man under bureaucratic management. The only right that young people enjoy under this system is to be docile, submissive, and obedient. There is no room for unruly innovators who have their own ideas.
This is more than a crisis of the youth. It is a crisis of progress and civilization. Mankind is doomed when the youths are deprived of the opportunity to remodel society according to their own fashion.
Excerpted from Bureaucracy (1944).
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) taught in Vienna and New York and served as a close adviser to the Foundation for Economic Education. He is considered the leading theorist of the Austrian School of the 20th century.
Posted July 1, 2016 by aurorawatcherak in economics, Uncategorized
Tagged with #mises, administrative state, economics, socialism
Tyranny By Another Other Name Leave a comment
I like free speech and I like privacy. In fact, I think free speech depends on privacy.
Too bad the US government absolutely sucks at protecting our privacy. Glenn Greenwald's new book No Place To Hide reveals that the U.S. government tampers with Internet routers during the manufacturing process to aid its spying programs.
Do you really trust the government with control over the Internet? We know from the Fairness Doctrine that the government didn't trust the media outlets to police themselves, so we can be sure that the government will need to technically verify whether the telecoms are treating data as they should, which will mean installing its own hardware and software at critical points to monitor Internet traffic.
We already know that , once installed, our government (and any other government able to hack in) will not use this access for benign purposes. They didn't in the past. Why would they change their behavior now?
Oh, but you like Barack Obama and the current Chair of the FCC and you're not worried that they will invade YOUR privacy or infringe upon YOUR freedom of speech. What happens if Jeb Bush is elected to the White House? What if Republicans remain in control of the House and Senate? That changes the dynamic a bit, doesn't it?
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. – James Madison, The Federalist No. 51
I used to believe the US government was a benevolent and wise parent looking out for the best interests of society. When Jimmy Carter violated Alaska's Statehood Compact and the provisions of ANILCA, I got real-world woke up. I see the US government as a dangerous tyrant, influenced by large corporations, seeking to control everyone and everything.
At the crux of the debate between proponents and opponents of Net Neutrality are that some of us have become aware that Skynet exists and others of you still want to live in dreamland.You want to believe that the US government is all-knowing with good intentions that will never change without your permission and all will be well. I don't believe that because I look to history and see Woodrow Wilson outlawing political dissent and FDR locking up US citizens of Japanese ancestry. The US government topples elected democracies, fights unjust wars and interferes in world affairs. It executes American citizens in violation of 5th Amendment rights.
I don't trust the government. It doesn't matter which party is "in" at the moment because I'm convinced they're two sides of the same coin called tyranny.
Regulations can start out with the best of intentions, but when enough red tape accumulates, we drown in it regardless. That leads to less freedom for us individually and for society as a whole.
Posted March 9, 2015 by aurorawatcherak in Media
Tagged with administrative state, fairness doctrine, freedom of speech, media, net neutrality, regulation, tyranny
Crony Capitalism & the Internet Leave a comment
Were you happy with your doctor and did you get to keep him? Were you happy with your insurance policy and do you still have it? Have your premiums gone down … or up?
Yeah … the ACA is a cautionary tale of what happens when large corporations and government get into bed with one another. The ACA was written by large medical corporations behind closed doors in collusion with our elected representatives and, with a few notable exceptions, it has largely been a disaster.
So now we have Net Neutrality. Do we think it wasn't written in a way that will make it harder for new companies to offer Internet service?
If I wasn't a broke novelist taking informed pot shots from the cheap seats, I'd bet money that the telecoms now have an effective tool against smaller, more efficient competitors and that consumers will have few options for Internet service.
Oh, but you believe the politicians who say that if they hadn't stepped in things would be much worse?
In a truly free market, telecoms like Comcast and Time Warner would have to adjust their practices or go out of business. They'd be replaced by options that would give us better service at lower prices. Some of the new options would depend on taking advantage of the freedom to charge more for certain types of Internet … which is exactly what Net Neutrality seeks to eliminate.
Barriers to competition tend to work in the favor of large corporations which can more easily afford to forego profits in the short term in order to profit in the long term. This sort of predatory capitalism blocks the smaller companies out of the market and leaves the field wide open for the larger companies that helped to write the regulations in the first place.
But hey, don't take my word for it. Go research it for yourself.
Tagged with administrative state, crony capitalism, economics, media, net neutrality, regulation, telecoms
Net Neutrality 2 comments
Looking through Facebook posts and watching the news, you might get the idea that everyone is for "Net Neutrality".
I'm not. It just became the regulatory law of the land, but I oppose it.
I'm not a paid shill for the cable industry, I don't even have cable television. I have zero experience with Comcast, but I occasionally grumble about GCI, an Alaska ISP. I'm skeptical of large corporations and dislike that true capitalists end up sounding like we're supporting them, because I'm not. I'm supporting me and people like me and I'm learning from the past so I don't repeat it.
Remember what I wrote about the Fairness Doctrine. Consider these to be companion pieces.
I have no problem with net neutrality as a principle. Unrestricted access to the Internet is a net good, but I don't think this is a wise way to go about it – in fact, I don't think it's going to work at all.
Competition is a good thing. Proponents of Net Neutrality say the telecoms have too much power … and I agree. Monopolies are bad, always.
So why do we think giving a monopoly to the government is somehow going to work out well?
Think about it a moment.
The United States government built a health care website using a budget equal to Facebook's first six years of operating costs and this website doesn't work even after several attempts to fix it.
The federal government spends 320 times what private industry spends launching a rocket into space.
Has the involvement of the federal government improved public schools? Well, test results compared to other countries suggest not.
How about immigration?
Housing?
Bridges and highways?
The military?
The post office?
All these examples are heavily regulated or controlled by the government and all are areas mired in red tape and struggling to survive the realities of the 21st century.
On the other hand, telephone services were deregulated a few decades ago. The industry almost immediately responded with cell phones the size of bread boxes, but look where we are today?
The US government has repeatedly shown that it is ineffective at managing … well, everything. Which is as it was designed. Our Founders didn't trust government, so they created one that is slow, inefficient and mired in gridlock. That way government is slow enough for people to protect their individual liberty from its usurpations. Well, we could if we bothered to pay attention, anyway.
It's actually a plus that our government is slow, because it gives us time to rein it in before it eats our liberty, but the downside is that slow inefficient government cannot be relied upon to provide us with the high quality products and services we want in a timely manner.
Everything that makes the telecoms bad has to do with the federal government and the regulatory structure that links the telecoms to government. What? You didn't know that?
Government regulations are written by large corporate interests in collussion with officials in government. The image of government being full of people on a mission to protect the little guy from predatory corporate behemoths is a Mad Man illusion fostered by politicians and corporate interests. Most government regulations are the product of crony capitalism designed to prevent small entrepreneurs from becoming real threats to large corporations.
Go on! Go research it, find out I'm right and come back for more discussion.
Posted March 2, 2015 by aurorawatcherak in Administrative State
Tagged with administrative state, common sense, FCC, federal communications commission, federal government, net neutrality, regulation
Remembering the Fairness Doctrine 3 comments
This can be considered an installment of my media influence series. It isn't over. I just got busy and distracted.
The American people just seem unable to learn the folly of allowing the administrative state to control anything in our lives.
When I was in college (early 1980s) there was a fierce debate underway about the unfairness of the Fairness Doctrine.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Fairness Doctrine, it was based on a 1949 Federal Communications Commission regulaion that requried broadcasters to "afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of pulbic importantce." It was overturned by the FCC in 1987 because, contrary to its purpose, it failed to encourage discussion of more controversial issues. It also violated the First Amendment, but who cares about that old piece of paper anyway, right?
The Fairness Doctrine was predicated on the idea that the airwaves were scarce and to assure that broadcasters did not stomp on one another's signal, the government had to regulate access. From that came the idea that it could also regulate content. The FCC claimed that the only way to assure fair and balanced news and opinion was to mandate it.
In practice, controversial speech was silenced as the threat of random investigations and warnings discouraged broadcasters from airing what FCC bureaucrats might refer to as "unbalanced views." Rather than encouraging debate, it stifled it. But it also skewed the news.
Those of us old enough to remember the late-1960s remember the "Silent Majority" – a vast number of ordinary Americans who never seemed to make waves. While protests swept college campuses and sucked up all the media attention, they were largely silent. But were they, really? We now know that as the media focused glowing attention on the affects of progressivism in the America a large groundswell of conservatives were forming that would eventually bring Ronald Reagan to the presidency, followed a few years later by the Contract with America. If you go back and look at broadcasts from that era, you don't see any evidence of that groundswell. You have to go to print media to find it. There were a handful of local radio stations that allowed citizens to call in and espress opinions, but if the discussion skewed too far to the conservative end of the wading pool, the radio station management was likely to receive a call from the FCC telling them to balance their content.
I'm not saying there was a vast progressive conspiracy to keep conservative ideology off the airwaves. I'm saying that government is more likely to be staffed by progressives. It makes sense. If you feel that government should be small and limited, you're less likely to seek employment with government. If you are a progressive, you are more likely to view progressive ideas as being more truthful and valid than conservative ideas. You are also going to get into a lather when the local radio station allows "unbalanced" views and you can do something about it. So the FCC became a watchdog and bulwark against conservative ideology creeping onto the airwaves.
In 1984, the Supreme Court concluded that the scarcity rationale underlying the doctrine was flawed and that the doctrine "inescapably dampens the vigor and limits the variety of public debate". When the Fairness Doctrine was set aside in 1986, conservative talk radio exploded onto the scene. It didn't need to build an audience because that previously Silenced Majority were thrilled to finally hear their own beliefs in public.
Of course, progressives don't like that and there have been occasional attempts to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, especially to enshrine it in Congression law. Reagan vetoed one attempt in 1987 and later attempts have failed to pass Congress. As an independent regulatory agency (which ought to scare the hell out of all intelligent Americans), the FCC has the power to reimpose the doctrine without Congressional or Executive action.
Supporters of reviving the un-Fairness Doctrine base their argument on the same three faulty premises that the FCC used originally.
The broadcast spectrum is limited, supporters say, so they should be policed by federal bureaucrats to ensure that all viewpoints are heard. And yet there are thousands of radio and television stations nationwide as well as cable and satellite channgels and the Internet (more on that in a later post). There is little prospect for a information monopoly simply because of the incredible diversity of media.
Federal policing is needed to guarantee fair access to the airwaves for a diversity of viewpoints. This is assuming that FCC bureaucrats have the ability to discern what is "fair". The way the Fairness Doctrine was administered, each broadcaster had to offer air time to anyone with a controversial viewpoint. FCC regulators would arbitrarily determine what "fair access" was and who was entitled to it through selective enforcement. PBS in Fairbanks Alaska was a progressive wonderland with no FCC warnings in its jacket. KFAR in the same market would receive regular FCC warnings for listerners calling in and expressing their personal opinion. Gotta balance that! Both the Kennedy and Nixon administrations used the Fairness Doctrine to keep unfavorable reporting off the airs. What is "fair"? It all depends on your viewpoint, I guess.
Guaranteed Vigorous Debate
Supporters of the Fairness Doctrine then and now will assert that requiring broadcasters, under threat of arbitrary legal penalty, to "fairly" represent both sides of a given issue will result in more views being aired and will not affect the editorial content of a station. The reality was quite different. Under the Fairnmess Doctrine, with the threat of potential FCC retaliation for perceived lack of compliance, most broadcasters were reluctant to air their own opinions because it required them to also air alternative perpectives thatt their audiences did not want to hear. Free (regulated) speech became less free. It did not result in easier access to conversial views, but instead led to self-censorship. With the wide diversity of views available today, people seeking alternative viewpoints can simply change the channel or click on a different link.
Ah, but can they?
I see Net Neutrality as this era's version of the Fairness Doctrine and I predict it will result in the exact same problems and with far more dire consequences.
Posted February 27, 2015 by aurorawatcherak in Administrative State
Tagged with administrative state, fairness doctrine, FCC, federal communications commission, freedom of speech, net neutrality
Duct Tape Alert Leave a comment
I will start out by saying that I couldn't care less about lost government revenue. The federal government needs to be put on a diet, so lost revenue looks like a good thing to me. My rage here has nothing to do with revenue.
This has to do with the administrative state and myriad of convoluted regulations that allowed this to happen. Some of my irritation is directed at Doyon, which may deeply impact Alaska Native corporations because of these shenanigans. As Alaska Native corporations are joint-partnered in many construction projects in Alaska, this has the potential for deeply affecting Alaskans in general.
This is what crony capitalism looks like, but it wouldn't be possible without the Federal Communication Commission creating a monopolistic system for the airwaves. This is the same organization that has now seized control of the Internet and, if you don't believe this sort of thing will now be commonplace in that government-created monopoly, you're foolish.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/business/dealbook/how-loopholes-transformed-dish-network-into-a-very-small-business.html?_r=0
DEAL PROFESSOR
STEVEN DAVIDOFF SOLOMON
Charles W. Ergen, the billionaire who controls the satellite TV provider Dish Network, and his company are about to make a cool $3.25 billion — courtesy of the American taxpayer.
This windfall came from a recent successful auction of wireless spectrum that raised more than $40 billion for the American treasury. But it will be $3.25 billion less than it ought to be, if Mr. Ergen and his clever lawyers have their way.
The reason is that Dish Network bid for licenses through a newly formed vehicle that claimed to be a "very small business" under the Federal Communications Commission rules and was entitled to a 25 percent discount.
At this point you may be scratching your head. How can Dish, a company with a $34 billion market value, be a "very small business"? Indeed, to qualify for the discount, a very small business must have revenue not "exceeding $15 million for the preceding three years." Dish in its last full fiscal year had almost $14 billion in revenue.
Through sleight of hand and aggressive use of partners and loopholes, Dish turned itself into that very small business, distorting reality and creating an unfair advantage.
Here is how it worked for $7.8 billion of Dish's winning bids (it had $13 billion in winning bids in all).
A new company, Northstar Wireless, was formed to bid on the spectrum. Dish Network Corporation indirectly owns 85 percent of Northstar Wireless.
But a new company is not enough. After all, anyone could then simply form a new company and save similar billions of dollars. In its rules, the F.C.C. counts the revenue of affiliates and the controlling owners of the bidding entity for purposes of determining whether a business is a very small one.
For the first loophole, the lawyers went to Alaska.
Doyon is an Alaska Native regional corporation, created as part of a federal government settlement of native land claims back in the 1970s.
Based in Fairbanks, Alaska, Doyon has more than "19,000 shareholders, and is the largest private landowner in Alaska," according to its website. It has at least 12 different operating companies, including one that operates seven drilling rigs on the Alaskan North Shore. It purpose is to serve the Native American community in central Alaska, and its shareholders are all Native American descendants.
Doyon owns 15 percent of Northstar, a stake it acquired for $120 million; Mr. Ergen's Dish owns the other 85 percent. Even though Dish is the majority owner, Doyon was designated as the manager of Northstar.
Doyon's control over Northstar is the key to the small-business discount. Dish contends that it lacks control — Doyon has all the votes — and so its own revenue is not included in calculating whether Northstar is a very small business.
Still, you may be wondering how Doyon itself can qualify as a "very small firm." After all, being the largest landowner in Alaska and an owner of oil rigs must count for something.
And indeed, Doyon's average annual profit over the last five years has been more than $18 million.
It comes down to what may be the most obscure exemption in the F.C.C. rules.
There are regulations specifically for the dozen or so companies organized under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. For them and other Indian tribes, the agency does not count the revenue from "entities owned and controlled by such tribes or corporations" unless the revenue comes from gambling. And so only Doyon — the holding company — is counted, and it has no revenue for these purposes because all of its money was made in its other companies.
And so, Dish has erected an edifice that it used to reap that $3.25 billion in savings.
By this point, your head may be exploding.
The rest of Dish's winning bids — worth about $5.5 billion — were done under a partnership with John Muleta, the former chief of the F.C.C.'s wireless telecommunications bureau, and relied on similar loopholes. As a former government official, Mr. Muleta has no real revenue and so meets the test of being a "very small business."
No doubt Dish and its lawyers are high-fiving one another and patting themselves on the back. By giving 15 percent ownership to Doyon at a discounted price, they have saved themselves billions.
Taxpayers, however, may want to ponder what those billions of dollars could have done in the coffers of the government — a new bridge or money for schools, perhaps.
And this is not a new issue. The "small firm" exemption has been known to be a problem at the F.C.C. for years. The Congressional Budget Office in 2005 wrote a report highlighting how it was used mostly by big companies instead of the small firms it was intended to benefit. Moreover, the office found that the program provided little benefit to consumers while providing a big discount to companies. In a 2006 auction, AT&T successfully used this structure with Doyon.
The latest spectrum auction — and the attention it has received — may finally push the F.C.C. to eliminate this exemption. It's hard to see how it benefits anyone but Dish and Doyon, which both get free money for not doing much of anything.
More immediately, the agency should take a good, hard look at the structure of the arrangement.
Doyon has control over Northstar in its day-to-day operations, but the agreements also require Northstar to be managed according to a five-year business plan agreed to by Dish in advance. No deviation in any material respect can be made without Dish's approval through a subsidiary. Not only that, but there is a multipage list of things that Northstar cannot do without approval from Dish's subsidiary. These restrictions include spending more than $2 million, selling the company or paying any executive more than $200,000.
Given Dish's significant control and the requirement that Doyon cannot deviate from a previously agreed business plan, Dish is having its discount but still getting effective control. Though the F.C.C. may have passed on this issue without scrutiny before, this instance would seem to provide grounds to challenge the exemption claim.
In a blog post after the auction, Roger C. Sherman, the current chief of the F.C.C.'s wireless telecommunications bureau, wrote that the agency would "thoroughly review and scrutinize each application" to make sure it "has complied with the commission's bidding credit rules."
Ajit Pai, an F.C.C. commissioner, followed up by saying that Dish's bid made a "mockery" of the exemption and called for further investigation.
Dish has been busy trying to defend itself, arguing in a presentation to the agency that this program "helps increase auction revenue" by allowing more parties to bid.
You have to laugh, because even if true, this credit was never intended to help companies like Dish bid and earn them billions.
Mr. Muleta has turned into a very rich man overnight. Doyon put up only $120 million and now owns 15 percent of an entity worth almost $8 billion. Mr. Ergen, who is worth more than $22 billion, according to Forbes, is even richer. If the F.C.C. wants to encourage more bidders, it would seem that other, fairer ways are possible.
In a statement, Doyon defended the strategy, saying its participation in the auction helped push up the prices "three times more than was expected."
"We followed the designated entity ('D.E.') program rules and did what Congress intended: create competition," Aaron M. Schutt, the president and chief executive of Doyon, said in the statement. "By any measure, the D.E. program delivers solid value for the American taxpayer."
Mr. Muleta did not respond to an email request for comment. A representative of Dish directed me to a conference call with analysts earlier this week in which Mr. Ergen argued that Dish "went by the rules" and that by bidding, it created more value for the government.
In an era when banks and oil companies are at times publicly vilified as not being good corporate citizens, Dish's strategy for the spectrum auction comes across as among the most brazen, least civic-minded act by a corporation in years. The involvement and enrichment of Mr. Muleta, a former government official, only makes it worse. Manipulating the system this way may win points with shareholders and lawyers, but it will serve only to fuel the public's cynicism over large corporations and government.
Correction: February 26, 2015
The Deal Professor column on Wednesday, about Dish Network's bidding for wireless spectrum, misidentified the company that created Northstar Wireless, an affiliate of Dish, to participate in the auction. It is Doyon, which owns 15 percent of Northstar — not Dish, which indirectly owns 85 percent.
Steven Davidoff Solomon is a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. His columns can be found at nytimes.com/dealbook. Follow @StevenDavidoff on Twitter.
Tagged with administrative state, crony capitalism, Dish Network, Doyon Corporation, FCC
Get Over It, Alaska???? Leave a comment
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell apparently felt it was appropriate to tell Alaskans to "get over" the idea of building an 11-mile single-lane gravel road from Cold Bay to King Cove to provide emergency transfer when the seas are too rough for boat transfer of residents needing hospitalization.
Interior Secretary Jewell wishes Alaskans would "get over' King Cove road
Anchorage blogger Amanda Coyne picked it up, but almost nobody else did.
Folks, this is highly indicative of the attitude that the Obama Administration has toward the entire country, but most especially if it is rural or owns resources.
We should just "get over" the idea that a functional economy requires things like pipelines and roads, mines and refineries, electricity and home heating. It's far more important for his administration to pretend to to be considering opening the Arctic Petroleum Reserve to drilling (though they won't actually do it) and make speeches about solar panels (which are next to useless here in the winter) than it is to consider the people their policies affect.
So could someone please tell me why the administrative state is a good idea? How do you justify the tyranny?
Posted July 29, 2014 by aurorawatcherak in Alaska
Tagged with administrative state, alaska, Interior Department, king cove road, sally jewell, tyranny


text:
The mantra
JoAnne McNeil:
Publishers need to act like… record labels.
Say it again.
If there were a Tony Wilson of publishing, you bet I would buy every book printed, (disposable income permitting.)
Think about how true that feels. And think about how few institutions or mechanisms there are that create a sense of trust or of identity in book publishing – especially in the wide-open, nobody-knows anything world of mainstream fiction and nonfiction.
October 11, 2009 / Uncategorized
Matt Penniman says…
Do publishers need to act more like record labels, or do authors need to act more like rock stars? I think we've seen a number of successful authors lately — Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi spring to mind — who do a fair amount of that trust and identity creation work on their own, through their blogs, and reap the rewards accordingly. I probably would never have read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", let alone "Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town" if it weren't for Boing Boing. And there's also another book project I keep hearing about that does something similar — only with even more effort to draw readers into the creation process. Granted, this is happening at the sci-fi genre fringe… but couldn't it transfer pretty effectively to the mainstream? It seems to be working for Bruce Schneier.
Looking at this again, I see that you're talking about something different… not just rock star authors, but trusted arbiters that can introduce us to the new authors that may write fantastically well, but lack the gift for self-promotion.
What about something like the opening act convention that's emerged in the music world, being transferred to publishing? It's pretty common to see an excerpt from another book by the same author at the end of a paperback; what if publishers used that space (or even space at the beginning of the book) to promote a new author with a similar style / topic?
I love this idea!
Incidentally, sci-fi author Charlie Stross disagrees (briefly, in an aside):
"Also note that book publishers do a hell of a lot more work to help authors' sales than, for example, music studios do to help musicians. I could do the work, but energy spent on editorial/typesetting/production/marketing/sales is energy not spent on writing, which is what I'm good at and what I enjoy doing."
Maybe the refined version of this is: publishers' catalogues and branding should be more like music labels' catalogues and branding.
In other words, the sign of a publisher isn't or oughtn't to be just a vague seal of approval – it ought to be curatorial, it ought to tell us something more about what the book is like by placing it in kinship with other books.
There are successful models of this, some of which McNeil identifies. There are even more historical ones. And record labels, especially mega-majors, are sometimes as vapid as book publishing.
But it's an example where the heuristics of one field feel so right and the other feel so wrong. You have to specify what works and how.
But this is why it is a mantra, not a program.
joanne mcneil says…
I don't know about the authors as rockstars thing. For a writer, social ineptitude is like a naturally occuring Tommy John elbow
I think the authors-as-rockstars idea, which is a good one, suggests that individual authors can help create these mechanisms of trust and identity. I'd add further that they're transferable! So just as Kurt Cobain can help turn a generation of fans onto the Pixies, Meat Puppets, Vaselines, and Daniel Johnston, a thumbs-up from Doctorow (or whomever) can substitute for a publisher's stamp.
Since I'm a nerd for Ezra Pound, I'm especially partial to the author as genius/patron/advocate model. One thing Pound frequently did was to convince fans with some capital to become publishers – probably most successfully in the case of James Laughlin and New Directions. ND still has a strong curatorial identity in its catalog.
One thing I wonder – who could be publishing's Jay-Z (or The Beatles and Apple Records, etc.)? Who could be an artist/mogul who could work both ends, and not only for the benefit of their own art?
Eli James says…
Seth Godin says as much in this talk over here: he argues that magazines have always made more money than publishing houses, word for word, because they've got themselves an audience first, and then they look for writers to put words in front of that said audience. When I think of this model of publishing, McSweeney's immediately springs to mind. And … well that's just about it, I suppose. O'Reilly too, but they command less loyalty amongst their readership.
I am a little baffled by this whole conversation, because for me there was/is a very clear entity fulfilling all these duties: the (independent) bookstore. The Cody's that was, and curently Moe's, Mrs. Dalloway's, Diesel and especially little ole Rakestraw in little ole Danville are all run by voracious readers with good taste and a sense of what their readers like. Rakestraw, in Danville, is particularly exemplary. Well, there, right there on its homepage is a blurb praising it from Michael Chabon, one of our literary rockstars. (And I bought a signed copy of one of Chabon's books long after the appearance, precisely because the owner thought I might want to.) But the store's Michael Barnard is an indefatiguable promoter of books, reading, and a reading culture, and both his email/web presence and his cashier-side conversation serve as enthusiastic, trust-worthy literary curation for a whole town. In that warm and cozy space, you don't *need* to be a rockstar in order for any personal charisma or talent to be amplified into high enough volume to yield book sales.
And of course Stoss is exactly right: science fiction and fantasy publishers do all kinds of things to get their books out their, and plenty of cultural organization (cons, readings, fan zines, websites) create an atmosphere of trusted discovery.
Totally. But – at the same time – a publisher can create different effects than a brick-and-mortar bookstore (and vice versa) b/c its customer base is not bound by place.
I've tried to keep up with several of the great bookstores I've known as I've moved away, and it's really, really tough. Bookstores are places, and they can connect and identify a place — music labels, since the days of mail-order, can create an imagined community where spatial proximity doesn't matter as much.
Still, however, it's no accident that there's overlap between the two — indie music stores doubling as indie labels (like Rough Trade) or indie bookstores as indie publishers (like City Lights).
Hmm. I think I don't understand what you're after then. Tony Wilson was a regionalist, and his recording company catalog only has 3 hands down global rockstar bands. When I click on the original post, the idea of just buying everything any publisher or record producers puts out without any thought of my own preferences is a little repulsive. That seems like brand slavishness. Are there brands in publishing I trust? Absolutely–that doesn't mean I buy everything they put out, modulo disposable income. But I've got enough stuff by Chroncle Books, McSweeny's, Grove, or (weirdly) Harper Perennial to feel like their logos are small positive weight in favor of my decision to buy. In my genre of choice, Tor, Baen and Bantam Spectra have been pretty admirable in their choices. The University presses (nicely displayed here in Berkeley by yet another beloved book store, University Press Books, nicely twinned with A Musical Offering) are pretty reliable—Oxford, Princeton, and UC in particular. And there's always the excitement of the Yellow Sale. . .
I do think it would be great if Editors were more visible. If their names were actually on books, if authors thanked them more publicly, and if every so often they granted interviews explaining their choices for the season. That would be pretty great.


FT Technologies is a specialist designer and manufacturer of high-performance Acoustic Resonance wind sensors, also known as anemometers. Our products are compact, lightweight and deliver reliable wind speed and direction data in the toughest of climates and weather conditions.
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We are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, and all of our sensors undergo a rigorous battery of vibration and shock, waterproofing and sealing, temperature and EMC tests to ensure reliable service, even in the harshest of environments.
The FT205 is a lightweight high-performance wind sensor designed specifically for UAV applications. Manufactured from a graphite and nylon composite, and weighing only 100g (3.5oz) with low power requirements, the sensor is ideal for flight control and environmental monitoring applications on SWaP-limited platforms.
The compact size and shape provides the FT205 with a physically strong structure. The sensor is resistant to electrical interference and is also fully sealed and water-resistant. It is able to operate at altitudes up to 4000m and at temperatures between -20°C and +70°C.
The ultrasonic sensor provides highly accurate wind speed, wind direction and air temperature data, and also features a built-in compass. It can be mounted to either to a pole or to flat surface.
The FT742 wind sensor is capable of measuring wind speeds up to 75m/s. It features an innovative design that incorporates a series of "turbulators" to condition the air flow for optimal operation.
The FT742-SM (Surface Mount) features a built-in compass and is designed to be integrated on moving vehicles. Small, low power, extremely rugged, and weighing only 252g, the FT742-SM is extensively tested and certified for vibration and shock resistance.
The sensor achieves high accuracy within the measured air speed range of 0-75m/s, and has been used as a pitot tube replacement on fixed-wing UAVs.
With full 360° air speed direction measurement, the SM enables station-keeping and hovering on quad-rotor UAV's, as well as dynamic positioning control in gusty and turbulent environments.
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All FT Technologies wind sensors are powered by Acu-Res®, our patented solid-state technology for measuring wind speed and direction. Acu-Res® resonates an ultrasonic acoustic wave inside a small cavity, resulting in a signal-to-noise ratio that is more than 40dB stronger than other ultrasonic technologies.
A stronger signal means more reliable data – Acu-Res® features automatic compensation for temperature, humidity and pressure to maintain maximal response. The powerful Acu-Res® software also monitors the quality of the data, continuously checks the health of the sensor's sub-systems and dynamically controls the heater power to maintain ice-free operation.
By submitting this form, you consent for your details to be sent to FT Technologies and its authorized partners in order to respond to your inquiry. Depending on the location of the organization, your personal information may be transferred and processed outside of the European Economic Area.


text:
package net.stevechaloner.intellijad.gui.tree;

import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTree;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.tree.DefaultMutableTreeNode;
import javax.swing.tree.TreeCellRenderer;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;

/**
 * Tree node renderer for checkbox trees.
 */
class CheckBoxTreeNodeRenderer implements TreeCellRenderer
{
    /* UI defaults for tree colouration. */
    private static final Color SELECTION_FOREGROUND = UIManager.getColor("Tree.selectionForeground");
    private static final Color SELECTION_BACKGROUND = UIManager.getColor("Tree.selectionBackground");
    private static final Color TEXT_FOREGROUND = UIManager.getColor("Tree.textForeground");
    private static final Color TEXT_BACKGROUND = UIManager.getColor("Tree.textBackground");

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    public Component getTreeCellRendererComponent(JTree jTree,
                                                  Object value,
                                                  boolean selected,
                                                  boolean expanded,
                                                  boolean leaf,
                                                  int row,
                                                  boolean hasFocus)
    {
        IconicCheckBox cb = new IconicCheckBox();
        DefaultMutableTreeNode node = (DefaultMutableTreeNode)value;
        CheckBoxTreeNode cbtn = (CheckBoxTreeNode)node.getUserObject();

        JLabel label = cb.getLabel();
        label.setText(cbtn.getText());
        JCheckBox checkBox = cb.getCheckBox();
        checkBox.setSelected(cbtn.isSelected());
        label.setIcon(NodeIconUtil.getIconFor(jTree,
                                              value,
                                              expanded));

        prepare(label,
                selected);
        prepare(checkBox,
                selected);

        JPanel contentPane = cb.getContentPane();
        prepare(contentPane,
                selected);

        return contentPane;
    }

    /**
     * Prepares the component for correct rendering.
     *
     * @param component the component to prepare
     * @param selected the tree-selection state of the component
     */
    private void prepare(JComponent component,
                         boolean selected)
    {
        component.setOpaque(selected);
        component.setForeground(selected ? SELECTION_FOREGROUND : TEXT_FOREGROUND);
        component.setBackground(selected ? SELECTION_BACKGROUND : TEXT_BACKGROUND);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


With summer officially here Greg figured that we had better start doing some of our famous Retirees & Hookey Player Drive N Dines that Corvette Indy has been know for. To also kick off the drive season he chose to go to Donna's favorite destination Rick's Boatyard. A good group 8 Corvettes and 16 members met at their house and headed out before one, after waiting for a couple that could not make the 12:30 departure. Being fully warned about Carmel and construction zones Greg headed to the roundabouts for a number of circles of fun. After a few route changes the group got on to 96th street and headed West to get out of construction and what had become a heavy traffic day. The rural roads were less traveled and soon full of the Corvette exhaust notes as they took the 'long' route to Rick's. Once there the group met up with several other couples that could not make the drive, but as any good Corvette Indy member, wanted to EAT. The view off of the patio was great as the weather continued to get even better as the afternoon went on. As always a lot of conversations were held on the full range of topics for a fun first of summer event. Be sure to look for more as the weather is finally breaking towards dry to the club members delight.


There is a place where discovery lives around every corner and over every hill. Where history is alive and ready to take you by the hand. Where fresh local food isn't a fad, it's a way of life. And the freedom to explore wide-open spaces rubs shoulders with some of the friendliest people you're ever likely to meet. It's called Nova Scotia.


GUFA LAW is one of the most renowned and prestigious law firms in Honduras in corporate, tax, administrative, mining and energy fields. Founded in 1974, the firm has been in the Honduran market for more than 40 years, a symbol of experience, excellence and ethics that has granted to the firm international recognition all over the world. Its vision is very clear: to become the local partner that clients and investors have been looking for – and, most likely, they will.
GUFA Law was built with six values at its core: ethics, teamwork, transparency, respect for people and clients and tradition and dynamism, being the first value the one that guides and inspires the rest. Since the very first moment, clients will realize that professionalism, efficiency and quickness can be accomplished if things are done properly and by the right people. GUFA Law believes that their team should have, not only the best and the highest valued lawyers in the market, but also people you can rely on in this country. Every client is treated equally and in a personalized manner, and at GUFA Law it is a priority to make sure that each person is treated with the finest attention throughout their legal process.
Finally, thanks to the closeness, transparency and ethical manners through which everything is done, clients find in GUFA Law the firm they go-to when they are looking for advice, investment opportunities, strategic meetings or certain connections in fields that they aren't familiar with.


text:
You Don't Say? Racism Helps Republicans Win Elections…
A new study finds that the counties or areas of the country where slavery was most prevalent today vote Republican…
'Grab 'Em By The P***y:' Trump Caught Bragging…
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign was in crisis mode Friday evening after he was caught on a 2005 tape…
Trump's Cool Reception At Flint Black Church Underscores…
A Flint, Michigan pastor interrupted Donald Trump's stump speech at her historically Black church. The candidate had agreed to focus…
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text:
About Planet Aid UK
Mission, Our Directors
DAPP UK
Projects Supported
Support History
Funding Received
Fundraising Activites
Clothes Collection
Sorting and Sales of Clothes
In Corby
Donate your clothes
Host a clothes bank
Leaflets and Newsletters
Farmer's Club in Ecuador
Over the past three years Planet Aid UK has supported Farmers club in Ecuador.
The aim of the project supported in 2016 has been to improve food security for female, heads of household, in the peri-urban neighborhood of Mariana de Jesus in the parish of Guamaní in Quito, Ecuador.
The aim has been attained through the implementation of three community gardens and a nursery. Not only vulnerable women from the community have been involved but also women affected by domestic violence that are living in the shelter "Casa Matilde" have participated in the activities. Ultimately, the project has also contributed to reducing the vulnerability of these women and their families. A marketing process for selling the products in local markets have been initiated and this guarantee the sustainability of the project as the female, heads of households, are willing to continue the gardens. The project has been implemented with technical support from the Metropolitan Economic Development Agency of the Municipality.
The impacts of the project have been very positive and we can highlight a feThe family members of the 29 participants have improved their eating habits and therefore their health conditions.
- The capacities of the participants in organic gardening have been strengthened.
- The households have increased their saving by reducing their spending on food as well as also established mechanisms for community savings.
- Participant's integration and organization have been strengthened.
- Women, victims of domestic violence, have found productive activities that are helping them in their processes.
- It has set an example in the community and this has meant that other families have expressed interest in implementing similar actions, so the project has a multiplier effect.
Farmer's Clubs in Guinea Bissau:
Planet Aid UK has supported the Farmer's Clubs in Guinea Bissau with donations of over £14,440.
The figures on hunger paint a clear picture of the threat that hunger continues to place on the world and also illustrates why eradicating hunger and poverty is appropriately placed as the number one Millennium Development Goal.
Jacinto, 39 years old, owns a piece of land which he has been cultivating as his way of living for some years now. He lives in Oio, Guinea Bissau, the poorest region of the country, where 69% of the heads of families are illiterate and 60% of the children don't attend school. His family consists of 14 members and most of the children participate in the production. If Jacinto were real, he would be the prototype for the 350 farmers who decided to join the Farmers' Club Rural Energy in Oio in 2010, a project implemented by ADPP Guinea-Bissau. The aim was to take advantage of the huge agricultural potential to break out of poverty, in this case, by adding energy provision to the array of other activities the program provides and builds among the farmers.
The training of all the farmers was indispensable for the technical installations to work and to create awareness about sustainable energy. Besides that, they have been learning from each other, sharing experiences and resources and working together on the buying and selling of their products to obtain the best prices.
According to the project technical staff involved, the training of the farmers plays a crucial role in reducing poverty in Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world, where 60% of population lives under $2 per day, ranking 176th out of 187 countries in the UNDP Human Development Index for 2012. Even though the Agricultural sector employs 85% of the labour force in the country, the rural areas are still the forgotten ones and 94,3% of the population do not have access to electricity.
Women in the model field in Cunta
Mother cleaning the onions
Improving local food production
Contact Planet Aid UK


text:
require 'spec_helper.rb'
require 's3sync/sync'

include S3Sync

describe "Local file system IO" do

  it "should list local files" do

    # Given that I have remote source and a local destination with a couple
    # files
    destination = directory "directory2"
    file destination, "file1.txt", "First file"
    file destination, "file2.txt", "Second file"

    # When I create a new local directory based on that path
    local = LocalDirectory.new destination

    # Then I see that the directory nodes contain both their parent paths and
    # their names
    local.list_files.should be_eql({
      "file1.txt" => Node.new(fixture("directory2"), "file1.txt", 10),
      "file2.txt" => Node.new(fixture("directory2"), "file2.txt", 11),
    })

    rm destination
  end

  it "should skip local folders while listing files" do
    # Given that I have remote source and a local destination with files
    destination = directory "directory2"
    file destination, "file1.txt", "First file"
    file destination, "file2.txt", "Second file"

    # And with a sub-directory
    subdir = directory "directory2/subd"
    file subdir, "sub1.txt", "Sub content"

    # When I create a new local directory based on that path
    local = LocalDirectory.new destination

    # Then I see that the directory nodes contain both their parent paths and
    # their names
    local.list_files.should be_eql({
      "file1.txt" => Node.new(fixture("directory2"), "file1.txt", 10),
      "file2.txt" => Node.new(fixture("directory2"), "file2.txt", 11),
      "subd/sub1.txt" => Node.new(fixture("directory2"), "subd/sub1.txt", 11),
    })

    rm destination
  end
end


text:
Records Smashed as Single Ticket Wins Huge MegaMillions Jackpot
Fri 27 Jul 2018, By Dean Cromwell
Last Tuesday's MegaMillions jackpot ended up at a massive $522-Million, right? Think again. A surge in last-minute ticket buying pushed the final estimated jackpot total up to a whopping $543-Million!
Once all the sales were tallied, the estimated jackpot ended up as the 9th largest in US lottery history, and the 3rd largest in the history of the MegaMillions lottery.
It seems incredible that the winning lottery numbers of 1-2-4-19-29 and the MegaBall 20 could result in only a single ticket holder winning it, but that's the magic of the lottery. This historic win is now the largest individual MegaMillions jackpot ever. Thanks to that late jump in the jackpot total it just managed to leapfrog the previous record of $536-Million won in Indiana back in July 2016.
With the only winning ticket purchased in San Jose, Calfornia, this also makes it the single largest jackpot in California Lottery history. If the extremely lucky winner decides against the annuity option and instead chooses the cash, they will take home a pre-tax haul of $320.5 Million. Since the state of California doesn't charge tax on lottery winnings, the winner will only need to worry about Federal taxes when staking their claim.
Of course, we won't know just who the winner is until they hand their signed ticket in at one of the official lottery offices, but hopefully they are taking their time to follow the official advice from the MegaMillions, who 'strongly encourage' their large prize winners to get professional financial advice. And they have plenty of time, the ticket remains valid for a year from the date of the draw.
Lucky buyer - Lucky seller!
Somebody who has already claimed their prize for this jackpot is Kewal Sachdev. He is the owner of Ernie's Liquors in San Jose, California. This is the store where the winning lottery ticket was purchased. Lottery officials presented him with a cheque for a cool $1-Million, his reward as the retailer who sold the winning ticket. As news of the good fortune found in his store spreads he can probably expect more customers in the near future. Who wouldn't want to try for a piece of that incredible luck?
More records to fall?
Interestingly, most of the biggest individual MegaMillion lottery wins - 4 out of the top 5 - have occurred within the past year, and that may be no coincidence. In October 2017 the MegaMillions rules changed. They bumped the starting jackpot up from $15-Million to $40-Million and shuffled the number selections around a little, making a slightly smaller main number selection but increasing the options for the MegaBall. That seems to have made quite a difference to the pace of the game ever since.
Right now the record for the biggest MegaMillions jackpot ever is $656-Million, which was won by three individuals in March 2012. How much longer will it be before a single winner takes an even larger jackpot?
It may be some time before the MegaMillions jackpot hits the giddy heights it did earlier this week, but if you're hungry for a monster jackpot, why not try the next US Powerball draw? At $168-Million the jackpot may not be quite as rich, but it's still a very impressive total, and more importantly, it's still up for grabs!


If you have ignored the dramatic rise of mobile in the past then you need to start noticing and begin acting towards creating a mobile website. You just cannot ignore the potential of this fast-rising market any longer.
However, just like many others, you may be apprehensive about making a change or may not know much about different options in creating a mobile site. As per details from StatCounter Global Stats, 20 percent of all internet traffic by the end of 2013 will be through mobile devices. As with previous years, December witnesses a sudden spike in traffic through mobile devices. So, now is the right time to go mobile with your website.
Many people still believe that potential customers use mobiles only to browse and make purchases through desktops and laptops. While this is true at present, there is a noticeable rise in purchases made through mobile phones that currently stands at half of those made through desktops.
Even if you do not sell your products online, it still makes sense to have a presence on mobile phones where you can offer discount coupons, announce special marketing offers, provide products reviews, etc., to actually achieve a rise in offline sales. Informational sites such as newspaper sites too have surprisingly witnessed a rise in traffic from mobiles.
Once you are convinced that you need a presence on mobile devices then you will be faced with a technical challenge of just how to create your mobile site. You need to consider your business model and your target audience so as to present the best possible mobile site to them.
Once you research the above query then you will be able to know whether you can offer the same content that exists on your desktop site or create a separate mobile version. You need to consider your business goals as well as utilize web analytics to understand current customer behavior so as to make an informed choice. However, if you plan to target different search queries then you may want to change your mobile content to achieve better rankings.
Even though many feel that creating a responsive website that serves both desktops and mobiles is very costly and effort-intensive, you can still explore that option since there are some distinct advantages.
For instance, you can just make single updates for both sites through responsive templates. You will also get stronger links that lead both to your desktop and mobile site. You will be able to create a visually stunning as well as fully functional mobile and desktop site through effective SEO that also works well with different browsers.
If you are not convinced then you can either opt for a separate mobile website, or initiate your responsive site in a phased manner. You can begin by making highly-trafficked pages into responsive ones first before moving on to other pages. In case you opt for a completely new mobile site then you will need to indicate to servers to present your mobile site to users that use mobile devices to reach your site.
In case you opt for a totally different mobile site then you can let your imagination run free in terms of design as well as target specific keywords used mostly be mobile device users. You also need not touch your desktop site at all, but can use successful mobile SEO strategies on your desktop version to continue with a successful formula.
Whether you opt for a responsive site for your mobile site or create a brand new mobile website, you need to put your plan into action as soon as possible. Statistics certainly indicate a huge rise in mobiles devices for browsing and purchasing in coming days. You need to have a mobile presence fortified with effective SEO techniques to attract visitors and buyers to your mobile site.