text:
/*global State, Config*/

State.Menu = function (game) {
	"use strict";
	this.game = game;
};
State.Menu.prototype = {
	preload: function () {
		"use strict";
	},
	create: function () {
		"use strict";
		var background, buttonPlay, buttonCredits, buttonHowToPlay ;
		background = this.game.add.sprite(Config.menu.x, Config.menu.y, 'menu-background');
		buttonPlay = this.game.add.button(Config.menu.buttonPlay.x, Config.menu.buttonPlay.y, 'button-play', this.clickPlay, this, 0, 1, 2, 3);
		buttonPlay.anchor.setTo(Config.menu.buttonPlay.anchor.x, Config.menu.buttonPlay.anchor.y);
		buttonHowToPlay = this.game.add.button(Config.menu.buttonHowToPlay.x, Config.menu.buttonHowToPlay.y, 'button-how-to-play', this.clickHowToPlay, this, 0, 1, 2, 3);
		buttonHowToPlay.anchor.setTo(Config.menu.buttonHowToPlay.anchor.x, Config.menu.buttonHowToPlay.anchor.y);
		buttonCredits = this.game.add.button(Config.menu.buttonCredits.x, Config.menu.buttonCredits.y, 'button-credits', this.clickCredits, this, 0, 1, 2, 3);
		buttonCredits.anchor.setTo(Config.menu.buttonCredits.anchor.x, Config.menu.buttonCredits.anchor.y);
	},
	update: function () {
		"use strict";
		Config.global.screen.resize(this.game);
	},
	clickPlay: function () {
		"use strict";
		this.game.state.start('Play');
	},
	clickHowToPlay: function () {
		"use strict";
		this.game.state.start('HowToPlay');
	},
	clickCredits: function () {
		"use strict";
		this.game.state.start('Credits');
	}
};


text:
Nita Strauss Cancels Solo Tour Dates, Won't Join Alice Cooper Fall Tour – 'I Don't Know What the Future Holds'
Lauryn Schaffner Published: July 11, 2022
Cole Bennetts, Getty Images
UPDATE (July 14, 2022 — 8:10AM ET): Guitarist Kane Roberts has rejoined Alice Cooper after 24 years and will be with the band for the Detroit Muscle Tour in North America, which starts in September. Get the full story here.
Nita Strauss has announced that her upcoming solo tour dates have been canceled and that she will not be joining Alice Cooper's band when the shock rocker hits the road later this year.
Strauss was set to perform a handful of shows and festival appearances with her solo band throughout the summer and early fall, and then head out on tour with Cooper in September. In a post on social media, she confirmed that she's en route to "the next adventure," so we should know more details soon.
"After this absolutely incredible run in Europe, it is bittersweet for me to let you guys know that I will not be joining the Alice Cooper band for the upcoming fall tour. I will also regretfully have to cancel the festival dates my solo band had planned for the rest of the year," the guitarist wrote in her post, tagged with the location "School's Out."
"I am not pregnant! There is no drama whatsoever and my touring year is still very full — in fact, I'm on a flight straight into the next adventure as I post this, and I'll be on stage again much sooner than you think! But that's news for another day," she continued. "The past eight years together has been the experience of a lifetime, and I could not be more grateful to Alice and Sheryl Cooper, Shep Gordon, the amazing band, crew and fans for welcoming me to all of your nightmare. I don't know what the future will hold after this, but I am forever thankful."
It's unclear whether Strauss will play with Cooper again in the future. Some of the other members of his band commented on her post, including Ryan Roxie, who wrote, "No words — just notes... and lord knows we harmonized a lot of them over the years... nothing but love and respect."
"You're super pro and prepared no matter what the situation," added drummer Glen Sobel. "We're gonna miss you but we're also proud to be associated with Hurricane."
Loudwire has reached out to a rep on behalf of Strauss for more information.
Cooper's Detroit Muscle tour, in support of his 2021 Detroit Stories album, is set to kick off Sept. 7 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and run through early October. Stay tuned for an announcement regarding who will fill in for Strauss during the run, and in the meantime, get tickets here.
Instagram - Hurricanenita
10 Best Albums By Singers Who Left Big Rock + Metal Bands
Big band behind, big things ahead!
Source: Nita Strauss Cancels Solo Tour Dates, Won't Join Alice Cooper Fall Tour – 'I Don't Know What the Future Holds'
Filed Under: Alice Cooper, Nita Strauss
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Nita Strauss Reveals Why She Won't Sing for Her Solo Work

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


How Long Does It Take to Charge A Jump Starter?
In today's world, where the car is used on a daily basis, there is the problem of a discharged battery because of that, many car owners are difficult to run the engine of their car. Jump starter is a multifunctional launcher and charger. Using it, you can easily launch any type of car engine (including diesel engines) with a fully discharged battery, this device is used only to start the engine, with it you can anywhere to charge a mobile phone, laptop, tablet, navigator, camera or any other electronic device.
Can I Charge My Laptop with a Jump Starter?
Modern battery packs are becoming more portable and lightweight, while they have become several times more efficient, giving them a wide range of opportunities to use them in a variety of situations.
Can a Bad Starter Drain Your Battery?
What is a starter and why is it used in a car? In cars for rotation of wheel axles, the energy of combustion of a gasoline mixture, which is needed for a complete start of the engine, is used, this requires the first push, which will start all the cylinders in motion, with all these tasks involved with such a car component as a starter.
Is It Better to Slow or Fast to Charge a Car Battery?
When the battery is running out of power, the question arises: exactly how you can charge it. In this case, it is necessary to know the important subtleties that need to be charged.
Can a 12 Volt Battery Charger Charge a 6 Volt Battery?
Often car owners have situations when they approach their vehicle in the morning and can not start the engine due to the reason for the low battery. The battery is discharged for many reasons, including due to the old age and long idle time of the car on the street at a minus air temperature.
When choosing Jump Packs you have to choose a device that can perform all the functions you need and by which you will be able to avoid the need for third-party assistance, in the event that your car is broken, it will discharge the battery or just need to charge the electronic device you need. Being far away from a stationary electronic network, it is important to decide and make the right choice what kind of charger package to buy, so as not to be mistaken. It all depends not only on the features and capabilities of the device but also on the price segment. Let's consider more details of both variants.
Is It Possible To Charge A Phone With The Car Off?


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text:
Bishop Chatard
Bishop Chatard has won 12 state championships in its 52-year history, more than any other school in Indiana. Alumni include Cap Boso (former Chicago Bear), Ryan Baker (former Miami Dolphin) and Zach Martin (current Dallas Cowboy who was cho...
Bishop Luers
Bishop Luers better have a big trophy case. The football team has won 11 state championships since 1985. The team's alumni include Dallas Cowboys defensive end Anthony Spencer and Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith, who was named Indiana's ...
Ithaca, MI
Ithaca is currently enjoying the longest consecutive winning streak in the state to take place entirely during the playoff era. The Yellowjackets have won six straight Division 6 state championships. The program's stadium has underg...
Kimberly, WI
Behind every great football team there's … a great, supportive group of mothers. Kimberly's moms have their own Facebook page where they talk about everything from traditions and tickets to tailgating recipes and fundraisers. Every va...
Mayfield has won three of the past four Class 1A state championships under coach Joe Morris. On Oct. 12, 2012 the Cardinals notched their 800th win in program history, and their current win total ranks in the top 10 nationally.
Metamora Township
Metamora, IL
Metamora has played in 10 state championship games since 1975 and has won three titles (1975, 2007, 2009). In 2002, Metamora set the record for most rushing yards in a playoff game (633).
Newark Catholic
Newark, OH
Heading into 2014 the Green Wave led all of Ohio in state tournament appearances (33) while collecting a 69-25 all-time record. They have won eight state championship titles and finished as runner-up six times while playing in 24 Fin...
Ithaca Ithaca, MI
Bishop Chatard Indianapolis, IN
Mayfield Mayfield, KY
Bishop Luers Fort Wayne, IN


The single European currency depreciated about 51 base points against the Japanese Yen on Monday. The currency pair breached a support level formed by the 50-hour simple moving average at 126.35 during yesterday's trading session.
The exchange rate was stranded between SMAs during the first half of Tuesday's session. The 50-hour SMA was providing resistance for the pair, while the 100– hour SMA and the lower boundary of an ascending channel pattern was providing support at 126.22.
A breakout from the moving averages could be expected during the following trading session. Technical indicators suggest an upside breakout.


John Cho best known for playing Sulu in the rebooted Star Trek franchise and Harold in the Harold & Kumar films, is making history with his latest performance. Cho's new movie, Searching, is the first mainstream, contemporary thriller headlined by an Asian-American actor.
"I accept that it's a big deal. I'm excited," Cho said of the milestone Wednesday, on the first night of the 41st annual Asian American International Film Festival, opened by a screening of Searching.
A con artist used to duping the richest and most powerful becomes unwillingly embroiled in the world of organized crime, while dodging the FBI and dealing with his own demons.
Plot kept under wraps. The follow-up to Star Trek: Beyond (2016).
A multi-generational tale of one family from 1950's Taiwan to present-day New York.
A house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that curses those who enter it with a violent death.


Four Trine University students received scholarships from the Northern Indiana chapter of the American Foundry Society at its Nov. 12 meeting in Warsaw.
Zachary Shepard, a senior from Angola, Indiana, majoring in mechanical engineering, Landon Pearson, a senior from Churubusco, Indiana, majoring in mechanical engineering, Sean Rourke Carroll, a senior from Jackson, Michigan, majoring in mechanical engineering, and Kathleen Jutte, a sophomore from Fort Recovery, Ohio, majoring in design engineering technology, each were chosen based on academic achievement and a demonstrated interest in cast metals.
The meeting included the organization's Scholarship Night, with scholarships presented through the Foundry Education Foundation.


The filmmakers of New Line Cinema's horror-thriller It knew the actor cast as the predator Pennywise would have a significant impact on virtually every aspect of the film.
The enigmatically short title refers to the story's central villain, an ancient shapeshifter that takes the form of its victims' deepest fears and comes out of hibernation every 27 years to feed on the most vulnerable residents of Derry, Maine: the children. This time, however, seven young outcasts, who dub themselves "the Losers' Club," will band together to do battle with the mysterious being they call by the all-encompassing pronoun: It. But It goes by another name…a name that has become iconic in the annals of horror: Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Opening in Philippine cinemas September 7, It is released worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Entertainment Company.
In case you were wondering, this is what he looks like without the clown suit.


text:
Bones of Contention
DOI link for Bones of Contention
Bones of Contention book
ByAlex Weingrod
BookSerendipity in Anthropological Research
Public burials and reburials typically are political events, organized and produced by the state to serve its own particular purposes. Consider, as one example, the following series of events.
On May 11, 1982, the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin presided over an elaborate ceremony in which the skeletal remains of nineteen persons were reburied on a cliff overlooking Nachal Chever, a remote spot in the Judean Desert. The bones were proclaimed to be remains of the followers of Bar Kochba, the heroic-yet-failed leader of the second century Jewish revolt against Roman rule, and they had been discovered in nearby caves twenty years earlier by Yigal Yadin, the celebrated Israeli archeologist. Analysis of the bones showed that these were the remains of men, women and children, but the media immediately labeled them "the Bar Kochba warriors," and Begin, who had a flair for the melodramatic, decided that these ancient warriors should be reburied with full military honors in an official ceremony sponsored by the State of Israel.


text:
Adverse Weather Conditions
By Vicky Summers in HR News on March 2, 2018
Due to adverse weather conditions, please be aware we are operating a limited service. If your school is closed, enjoy…
March 2, 2018 by Vicky Summers
Sandwell Business System (SBS) / Self Service Portal – Downtime
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on March 1, 2018
The Self – Service Portal will be unavailable from 10:00 pm Friday March 2nd, until Monday March 5th for essential…
Teachers Pension
By Vicky Summers in HR News, Uncategorized on February 23, 2018
What is (My Pension Online) MPO? It's the easiest way to take control of your pension online. You can access…
February 23, 2018 by Vicky Summers
Self-Service Payslips
By Vicky Summers in Uncategorized on February 21, 2018
Self Service payslips for February 2018 are now available for: Education Salaries Monthly
Childcare Voucher Scheme Changes
By Vicky Summers in HR News on February 16, 2018
The Childcare Vouchers Scheme is changing This is important information regarding the cut-off date for employees to join the Childcare…
Increasing your Teachers' Pension
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on February 16, 2018
Increasing your Teachers' Pension The Teachers' Pension Scheme provides a number of opportunities for increasing your benefits and those of…
HR services have now taken ownership of a Defibrillator, with a number of nominated staff resident at Providence Place undertaking…
DBS Training – Reminder
By Vicky Summers in HR News on February 8, 2018
Attention all DBS ID Checkers, don't forget to book your place on our free training course on 15th February 2018:…
February 8, 2018 by Vicky Summers
Self-Service Update
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on February 1, 2018
Employee/Managers Self-Service Roll out Update Below shows how well we are doing with rolling out Self-Service across Sandwell LEA Schools…
Employee/Managers Self Service The Self Service Portal will be unavailable on Sunday 4th February between 10:30am and 12:30pm for essential…
By Vicky Summers in HR News on January 26, 2018
Please note that SBS (including the Self-Service Portal) will be unavailable from 8:00 pm on Friday 26th January 2018 until 2:00…
January 26, 2018 by Vicky Summers
New DBS Guidelines
Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) new identity (ID) checking guidelines commencing 25 January 2018 From Thursday 25th January 2018, Payroll…
Self Service payslips for January 2018
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on January 19, 2018
Self Service payslips for January 2018 should be available to view in Employee Self Service for the below schools /…
Employee/Manager Self Service Demo's
Employee/Manager Self-Service As you may be aware, many of the Sandwell Schools have moved or are in the process of…
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on January 4, 2018
Please note that SBS (including the Self service Portal) will be unavailable from 8 p.m. on Friday 5th January 2018…
January 4, 2018 by Vicky Summers
Merry Christmas from all at PPS!
By Vicky Summers in Uncategorized on December 15, 2017
December 15, 2017 by Vicky Summers
Office Closures Over The Christmas Period
By Vicky Summers in Uncategorized on December 1, 2017
Please see below office closures over the festive period. Christmas closure notice 2017
December 1, 2017 by Vicky Summers
Teachers Increments
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on July 18, 2017
Teachers Increment Notifications have now been sent out to schools, which is identifying teaching staff that could potentially progress to the…
July 18, 2017 by Vicky Summers
P11D – (electronic copy of P11D Document)
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on July 6, 2017
SBS – Employee Self Service 2016/2017 Employee P11D Purpose of P11D Form P11D is a statutory document, required by HMRC…
July 6, 2017 by Vicky Summers
By Vicky Summers in HR News on July 4, 2017
The new Tax Free Childcare scheme is administered directly by the government only. The current Child Care Voucher (CCV) salary…
Personnel Specification (HR66)- Update
The Personnel Specification (HR66) has now been updated by the Council, please refer to section 13 Language Requirement. The change…
Average Holiday Pay – Non-Teaching Employees
New functionality will be implemented within the PPS payroll system with effect from 1st July 2017. This is to automatically…
DBS Clearances
The DBS Agency are currently scrutinising all clearances processed through the eBulk system. This is to ensure that the requirement…
By Vicky Summers in Uncategorized on July 4, 2017
New functionality regarding the administration of the Apprenticeship Levy has now been fully implemented by PPS, without any significant issues…
PPS are currently evaluating the standard functionality made available from Oracle. This is in regard of addressing the new Gender…
2016/17 P11D`s
PPS are currently in the process of producing P11D documents. This is for any employees that have received a Benefit…
Employee Assistance Scheme
The provider of the Employee Assistance Scheme service changed to Care First with effect from April 2017. PPS have now…
Payroll 2017/2018 Rates and Thresholds
All of the new PAYE, National Insurance and statutory rates and thresholds that came into effect from 6th April 2017…
Payments to Intermediaries – IR35
By Vicky Summers in Payroll News on June 30, 2017
Payments to Intermediaries – IR35 The new legislation introduced with effect from 6th April 2017, continues to cause problems/issues for…
June 30, 2017 by Vicky Summers
Self Service Functionality
The PPS Self Service functionality offering continues to grow from strength to strength, and is proving to be very popular…


text:
Q: Is compile-time info available at run-time? In iOS, a nice-to-have would be an about page that has the 'release date' of the app... which I'd rather not have to update by hand.  Is there some way to glean the date the app was compiled?  Preprocessor, or inspecting the app, or something I can't think of?

A: Answering my own question feels dirty, but hey, it's the answer:
NSString *compiled = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:__DATE__];

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: send data from php to javascript I have a question regarding data transmission from php to javascript. I gather some data from database and I format them  like this:
for($i=0;$i<(sizeof($lt_periods_query['period_id']));$i++){

    $period_id   = $lt_periods_query['period_id'][$i];
    $lt_id       = $lt_periods_query['lt_id'][$i];
    $period_name = $lt_periods_query['period_name'][$i];
    $fDate       = $lt_periods_query['fromDate'][$i];
    $tDate       = $lt_periods_query['toDate'][$i];
    $minStay     = $lt_periods_query['min_stay'][$i];
    $nightly_rate= $lt_periods_query['nightly_rate'][$i];

    if (strStartsWith($fDate, $currentYear)=='true'){
        $year = $currentYear;
    } else if(strStartsWith($fDate, $nextYear)=='true'){
        $year = $nextYear;
    }

    $temp_period_details   =  array();
    $temp_period_details['period_id'] = $period_id;
    $temp_period_details['lt_id'] = $lt_id;
    $temp_period_details['period_name'] = $period_name;
    $temp_period_details['fromDate'] = $fDate;
    $temp_period_details['toDate'] = $tDate;
    $temp_period_details['min_stay'] = $minStay;
    $temp_period_details['nightly_rate'] = $nightly_rate;

    $periods[$year][$period_name] = $temp_period_details;
}

And I am able to see them when I print as like this:
echo "RULE for 6 days
";
$days= '5';
$selPeriod = 'off_peak';
$selYear = '2011';
echo $periods[$selYear][$selPeriod]['period_id'];
echo "
";
echo $periods[$selYear][$selPeriod]['lt_id'];
echo "
";
echo $periods[$selYear][$selPeriod]['period_name'];

I know that php is working on the server side and javascript is working on the client side.
I want to get the data from javascript side by sending some parameters  like this (I know why this is not working but I do not know how I can achieve such data transfers):

This can be used to properly escape scalars, arrays, objects, etc.

A: Simple AJAX approach.
Put all your data into single array. Then use json_encode to encode your data to JSON format.
$data_array = array();

//assigning your data to single array here
$data_array['param1'] = 'value1';

echo json_encode($data_array);

Then in your JavaScript code use AJAX to call you script. For example use great jQuery library for this (http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.getJSON/).

Which approach is approporite depends on what data your javascript needs and what it needs it for.  If you're needing to do a lot of server interaction, then working with AJAX is the avenue you should be investigating.  However, if all you need is an initial value to initialize a javascript, then the latter approach is a lot easier to implement.


We're getting to the end of our discussion on The Clone Wars Season Four. The whole season was building to the anticipated return of Darth Maul. Although Katie Lucas wrote the final four episodes, I'd say they would better be described as two two-part stories – one focusing on Asajj Ventress, the other on Savage Opress and Darth Maul. Did you view it this way or as one major arc?
Lex: I see these episodes mirroring Katie Lucas' Nightsisters trilogy in Season Three. In those episodes we also started with Asajj, then shifted to Savage, then ended with a fight between them as they both cut their ties with Dooku. In Season Four, we first see the consequences for Asajj of her choices, then the course of Savage's quest to find his long-lost brother, and finally a culmination with Asajj again fighting Savage. Except each of them had an ally this time – the rematch between Maul and Kenobi. I'm beginning to expect we'll see another arc in Season Five with a similar structure with these characters.
Megan: Lex has a good point that the structure of Lucas's finales have been similar. However, I did view the final four episodes as two two-part stories. I would have liked a mention of Darth Maul, or some other sort of framing device, to make the episodes feel more connected. "Massacre" and "Bounty" had good things in them as standalone episodes, but the geographical separation from Lotho Minor and the intensity of the battle on Dathomir made them feel like separate entities from "Brothers" and "Revenge." On one hand I was dissatisfied with the seemingly disjointed arc, but on the other hand the all-around-well-produced Avatar: The Last Airbender started its series finale in a similar way, taking characters to locations far from the site of the final fight and adding some different tones (humor, callbacks to previous episodes) before the finale got down to business. I think the difference is that the inconsistent pacing throughout The Clone Wars made the problem with the finale more apparent (and important) than it was in Avatar.
Tricia: I think the connection between "Bounty" and "Brothers" was supposed to be the magic dust which pushed Savage along on his quest, linking him back to Mother Talzin and the talisman. The dust as a driving force in his quest didn't work for me, and there was the random diner scene to make sure we saw Anakin and Ahsoka one last time. It ended up slowing down the pace and disconnecting the two character arcs.
We talked earlier about Asajj's character arc being one of the best of the season. Where do you think she ended up, and why was this character arc stronger than the others?
Megan: Asajj offers some of the most uncertainty we've seen in a character. We know the prequel protagonists' fates and that the light side and the dark side are very important distinctions to them. As with Ahsoka, Asajj's fate is unknown. Although both Ahsoka and Asajj have had brushes with the side of the Force they aren't used to, Asajj has taken more steps toward a moral code that is, if not light, then very gray. She has a human (or Rattataki!) decency that we see when she frees Pluma, which seems even more characteristic of the light side than when the officially light Jedi Anakin and Luminara left their Padawans to die in a rock slide. (No, I haven't forgotten that episode.) The moral gradients mean that there's a lot going on in Asajj's head, and through dialogue and action we get to see that she's thinking a lot instead of charging ahead like other characters tend to do. I think she still has a lot of exploration to do before she figures out who she wants to be, and that's great fodder for more characterization.
Tricia: Up until we started talking about the season as a whole, I hadn't really thought of Asajj as another character arc that leaves a big question for the show. Then I was rereading Megan's review and pondering where Asajj might go and realized how much potential they've built for her. I like having this question out there. She certainly has some of the best storytelling behind her and hopefully more to come.
Mother Talzin brings a previously unseen fantastical element to Star Wars. She calls upon Old Daka to raise an army of undead to fight Count Dooku and later uses her majicks on Darth Maul. Is this too divergent from what we've come to expect, or do you think these fantastical powers are true to the spirit of Star Wars?
Lex: Even just looking at the Original Trilogy we see Jedi or Sith use these Force powers: mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, levitation, clairvoyance, and summoning lightning from thin air. That reads like a list of wizardry or witchcraft powers from all kinds of traditional fantasy stories. So it really doesn't seem that far afield to me to include voodoo and the undead, too, especially when it's clear that the Nightsisters' majicks are quite the same thing as how the Jedi and Sith wield the Force.
Megan: Although I think you can argue it both ways, the fantastical elements are jarring to me when they too obviously replicate existing concepts. "Zombies in Star Wars" has always been what we call zombies in Star Wars, from Death Troopers to the undead Geonosians of The Clone Wars. But Jedi aren't called "space wizards" by fans except in jest, because there were enough differences between the Force and existing fictional systems of magic to set them apart. I have no problem with the presence of the zombies and the Force magic, but it ought to be explained a little more show more unique elements. The fact that they're zombies also doesn't hurt the fact that "Massacre" had some of the best fights in the season.
Tricia: To me calling upon the Force is tapping into a spiritual power, and I see voodoo and magic much the same way, so none of the new elements jolted me out of the Star Wars universe. At times the animation allows them to make stretches that push a little too far with the suspension of disbelief, but this may also be a concession to the time allowed.
Darth Maul's reappearance has been set up for a quite a while. We were shown his image in Talzin's crystal ball last season, then given tie-ins like The Wrath of Darth Maul and the short stories Restraint and Endgame. Coming into the episode, it appeared Lucasfilm had invested a lot into the resurrection of Maul. Did it live up to the hype?
Lex: Thematically, yes. Maul is scary, vicious, powerful, and an incredibly dangerous threat. Exactly how I hoped he'd be. But for all the hype, we only got about fifteen minutes of that character within a single episode. Deranged madman Maul had about fifteen minutes, too, spread over the last two episodes. To me, for Maul's return to be hyped all season, so little time actually seeing him was a letdown.
Megan: As the season has ended and I've thought more about it, the fact that Maul wasn't portrayed in exactly the way I wanted him to be has become less important than the fact that he was portrayed at all. I was very disappointed that the hype all the way from Celebration V led up only to Talzin's vision, but with "Brothers" and "Revenge" I feel that some is better than nothing at all. I liked Maul's spidery body and I like the fact that he and Savage are journeying together, even if I don't think that either episode was written particularly well.
Tricia: The last two episodes had some great visual moments, and Sam Witwer's voice acting was phenomenal. I think Savage's quest started oddly, Morley the snake did not work for me – I knew what they were trying to do but the voice, dialogue, and plot didn't mesh – and then the random intercut of Anakin and Ahsoka left "Brothers" as one of the weaker episodes of the season. "Revenge" had some amazing animation with the forging of Maul's legs and the banter between the fighting duos was top-notch. As a story though, the final episode wasn't nearly as crisp or tight as it could have been.
Last time we talked about the pacing of the Bounty Hunger arc. What are your thoughts on "Brothers" and "Revenge" and what was given screen time compared to what was missing?
Lex: The easy answer is too much Morley the snake, not enough Maul. The opening sequence of "Brothers" also didn't really seem to advance the story at all, other than to give Anakin and Ahsoka one more cameo before the season ended. I think giving Savage 7-10 minutes to find Maul would have been enough, then spend the remaining 34-37 minutes with Maul would've been better. I also thought it was very odd to have Yoda sense Maul's return when Maul was just going to send a comm transmission to the Jedi Temple and announce himself anyway.
Megan: It's interesting that you ask about the "divergent" nature of the Nightsister zombies but not the suspension of disbelief required to see Maul come back, in the grand superhero comic book tradition, from the dead. I would have liked a lot more about how he survived, and maybe even flashbacks to Naboo. Spending a lot of time with Morley instead seemed to undermine the concept. Morley and the sequences with he and Savage fighting of various denizens of Lotho Minor were just a tease, and it was annoying to be teased after waiting so long.
Tricia: I guess I had a working theory on why Maul was back, so I wasn't suspending too much belief; the superhero returned-from-the-dead was probably the conceit they were hoping would make his resurrection believable. I'm guessing that showing what happened on Naboo would give too much away on Talzin. Hopefully we'll see more of that later with books, comics, or even from the show. And it seems like we're all glad to see the last of Morley. I definitely think Maul got too little time. They moved him from madman to bent on exacting revenge against Obi-Wan to galactic-level mastermind of doom pretty quickly, even for a cartoon.
In her review, Megan felt the final episode came up a bit short as a story, and I think we're all in agreement that the closing episode didn't close the season with the bang we had hoped for. What would have made the difference?
Lex: I would have liked to see Maul established as a threat not just to Obi-Wan, but on a much broader level. He comes back, announces himself, lures Obi-Wan to him, fights him, and everybody escapes with their lives. It might have been stronger to see Maul have a grander plan to move against the Jedi Order as a whole, or even to make moves against his old master, Darth Sidious. Instead, the "Revenge" vengeance story just seemed a little bit too small for the epicness of bringing Maul back.
Megan: It came up a bit short as a story because Maul's characterization seemed off, and Lex hits on something important when he says that Maul didn't have a clear plan. Maul wanted to get to Obi-Wan, but he went about it in a roundabout way, which made the story lose a lot of its momentum and impact. I would also have liked a mention of Darth Sidious. Maul's return could really shake the Star Wars galaxy as we know it, but like after the Mortis arc and Ahsoka's brief experience with the dark side, after the dramatic events are over it's like they never happened, never changed the galaxy. Hopefully Maul sticking around for season five will change this a little bit.
Tricia: Megan and Lex summed up my thoughts pretty well. Honestly I think it was the prior episode "Brothers" that worked against "Revenge." The pacing stumbled, and the last episode had a hard time building it back up.
Overall, what were the things you liked the most about this season?
Lex: The character arcs for Obi-Wan and Asajj were well done, and the Umbara arc and its development of the 501st clones was another highlight. I also really liked the contrast between Anakin and Ahsoka in their emotional control in the Zygerria arc.
Megan: Seeing Darth Maul on screen again. Asajj. I still really like Ahsoka's fight scenes; "Kidnapped" was a pretty unnecessary episode but her two lightsabers were put to cool use. I also really liked the Krell Arc.
Tricia: The Umbara/Krell Arc was the best work of the season for cohesive storytelling, characterization, and animation. Those episodes worked together. Asajj's arc was strong and I liked what they've done with Mother Talzin, as well. It was great to see Obi-Wan get so much screentime, although I thought they didn't give him quite the growth in the Zygerria arc as he had in the actual Slaves of the Republic comic.
Finally, any closing thoughts on Season Four and what you'd like to see in Season Five?
Lex: I hope Season Five continues the focus on character-driven stories, and moves forward with the development of the major TCW characters like Ahsoka, Rex, and Asajj. But I'd like to see some of the side stories and one-shots, too, like "Shadow Warrior" or "A Friend in Need." I also hope they're able to smooth out some of the inconsistencies in pacing, both within episodes and over the course of arcs. They have a lot of great material, but sometimes showcasing fancy visuals, like "The Box" or Morley, eats up too much time that would be better spent advancing the characters or the plot.
Megan: My wishes for The Clone Wars are always the same: get Katie Lucas and maybe Matt Michnovetz (writer on the Krell arc) in there for a longer period of time and give the season some continuity. Give Ahsoka character development, not just new costumes. She's supposed to be a person, not a RPG character. I'm curious to see what is done with Darth Maul and whether the series as a whole gets darker. That seems to be the trend so far.
Tricia: A lot of energy this season went to visuals and I'd like to see the storytelling and characterization brought up to the same level. Padmé and Ahsoka weren't utilized enough. I'm excited to see where Rex's, Darth Maul's, and Asajj's storylines go. Honestly I prefer the shorter arcs and one-shots and hope to see only one or two longer arcs going forward. I'm definitely excited for the possibilities that lie ahead.
This wraps up our The Clone Wars Season Four in Review; you can find the rest of this series here. Many thanks to Lex and Megan for their effort. The first Season Five trailer is already online, and once Star Wars Weekends hits hopefully we will have some more teasers to discuss!
← Where To Draw The Line for Wonder Woman?
Asajj surprised me too! I really love the complexity of her character. Thanks, Matthew, for your feedback.


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I have used a pepsi tin to make a mobile stand.
First cut the bottom of the pepsi tin,and cut as the shape as given in the picture.Don't forget to smoothen the edges,they may give some scratch to your mobile.
Inorder to avoid the scratch to my display,I picked up this sponge from a pillow and placed it in the space to cover the sharp edges of the tin.
Not much designing,just surrounded the whole tin with a black insulation tape.Then with the Minions sticker,gave it some look.
Now you can place your mobile,I felt this one shaky,so I dropped some stones inside the tin.Now you can place your mobile and also you can watch movies etc..


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Duterte greeting supporters, 2016. (Photo: King Rodriguez/Presidential Office)
Why so serious: the limits of liberal democracy in the Philippines
Janus Isaac Nolasco - 05 Apr, 2019
"We are relying so much on science instead of relying on what we see, the real experience that we encounter in our daily lives."
This was how House Majority Leader Fredenil Castro defended the bill amending the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. Passed on 21 January 2019, the bill would send a nine-year-old who broke the law to an "intervention program unless the child acted with discernment," in which case, a heavier penalty would be imposed.
Civil society organisations and children's rights advocates, including the Philippine Pediatric Society, criticised the bill for its poor grounding on scientific evidence, among other reasons.
Congressman Castro's false dichotomy alerts us to the centrality of "non-scientific" reasoning in Philippine policy-making. This, I argue, belongs to a broader culture of anti-intellectualism and smart-shaming.
This does not bode well for liberal democracy, which upholds Reason and Science and relies on data-driven policies and informed debates. But how can rationality thrive in an unscientific environment?
Engaging anti-intellectualism
If liberal reason is to blossom fully, it has to do so in an inhospitable terrain. Its seeds must be planted in ways that accord with soil type, topography, and climate; i.e. the material conditions of Philippine society.
Liberal democratic practice must first change the terms of engagement with anti-intellectualism. To dismiss it as sheer irrationality plays into the anti-elitism of populist politics. Painting your adversary as fanatical proves your rationality, but it also means you find them unintelligible. How can you overcome an adversary that you do not understand?
By engaging the social and class origins of anti-intellectualism, we recognise its intelligibility and are thus in a better position to do something about it. Given deep inequalities in the Philippines, education is, amongst other things, a mark of power and social class. In this respect, smart-shaming figures in class antagonism and works à la James Scott's weapons of the weak: it mocks the educated and powerful. It also projects a communalism and solidarity absent in a class-divided society.
The limits of rational politics
Smart-shaming and anti-intellectualism cannot be resolved just by putting out facts, correcting errors, or insisting on the values of logic and science. The solution also involves transforming class relations, addressing perceptions of elitism and rebuilding public trust in the media and the academe. Social inequalities must be bridged, and access to quality education has to improve. Universities should enlarge their social media presence and strengthen efforts to popularise research and the scientific method. After all, rationality is as much a mental practice as a way of life.
In the United States, Adam Waters and E.J. Dionne write that "the intellectual process itself [must] be transformed through genuine cross-class alliances" and participation in social movements and everyday struggles. In the Philippines, this engagement can build solidarity among progressive elites and the middle class, farmers, workers, and the urban poor. It can go a long way in answering charges of elitist detachment.
Rightly devoted to science and reason, a liberal-rational politics nevertheless overlooks a crucial point: people do not live on Reason, Science, and Facts alone, but on art, emotions, language, values, desires, and culture as well. Not that the latter are irrational, but they are irreducible to a technocratic, scientific rationality, and often given the slip. "All kinds of things,"Sophia Rosenfeld explains, "are built into what looks like a fact," such as values, norms, and interpretations.
Rethinking culture and politics
References to culture, psychology, language, emotion, folk literature, humour, religion, media, and sexuality pervade much of the commentary on President Duterte. "Cebuano culture," fun, honesty, and authenticity have all been deployed to defend his offensive remarks. For others, he is a "consummate storyteller," an "authoritarian trickster," and "a practiced comedian." He is the "walking, talking id" of Filipinos; his populism taps into "latent anxieties," and builds on a "politics of hope." The agent of God's justice on earth, he is the incarnation of the Filipino action hero and the embodiment of Southeast Asia's orang besar or "big man".
The fact that President Duterte is discussed in sociocultural terms—alongside modern theories of populism, democracy, and authoritarianism—represents the need to explain his popularity beyond rational standards. It also reflects how the president, and his populist politics, embodies and enacts the Philippines' many divisions and contradictions. It indicates how he has confounded liberalism's sense of a rational, well-structured order. This explains his trickster status and turns him into a quasi-transgressive force that appeals to a public starved for change.
Populism has deployed a potent confluence of culture, language, sexuality, and psychology that "messes up" the rationality of liberal democracy. This has been rightly decried by its advocates. For them, the values of Philippine populism are backward, feudal, vulgar, primitive, fascist, or illogical. Kinship (Duterte as a father figure), utang na loob (debt of gratitude), loyalty, personal ties, care, courage, emotions, humour, entertainment, and religion have little to do with "serious" politics, let alone the liberal democratic kind.
Appropriations, or What is to be Done
This view is no longer tenable. If it is to succeed, rational-scientific politics must incorporate "backward," "irrational," and "feudal" elements as part of a revitalised democratic order.
This process is akin to the development of aesthetics in 18th-century Germany. It arose as Enlightenment Reason's attempt to map "what Kant called the 'rabble' of the senses" (aisthesis in Greek) and later on, to lend some life to the "progressively abstract, technical nature of modern European thought."
Love, family, religion, social media, popular culture, and emotions do figure in backward, non-democratic politics, but they are also the stuff of values, dreams, and everyday life. To abandon them for "higher and more rational" standards is to surrender our stakes in the only terrain of struggle. If liberal democratic thought underestimates their role in politics, or if it consigns them to the private sphere, others will exploit them for politically nefarious ends.
Engaging populism entails the creative re-appropriation of everyday phenomena for science, reason, human rights, social justice, and democracy. It's about embracing the mundane and embedding these commitments therein. It means beating populists at their own game, and much else besides.
Feminists like Virginia Held show that a just social order can be based on care, kinship, and personal ties, which do not necessarily play into, say, patronage politics, and do not automatically come into conflict with public interests.
Emotions likewise get short shrift, not least when it comes to describing the cult-like fanaticism of some pro-Duterte supporters. But as Martha Nussbaum points out, "the question is not whether politicians should appeal to emotions, but which emotions, and when, and in connection with which arguments."
Social media sent Duterte to Malacañang, but this should not keep progressives from deploying it for their own purposes. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez inspires in this respect, as does the work of An Xiao Mina on memes and political movements. If pro-Duterte supporters are social-media savvy, so too should be the advocates of liberal democracy.
Similarly, critics bemoan the reduction of politics to spectacle, entertainment, and popularity contests. But this is more, not less, reason to mobilise mass media for progressive politics. Otherwise, how can democratic principles resonate with the Filipino people? Why be serious when liberals should be fun, charming, and entertaining? With the coming elections, they can't afford not to be.
Did Duterte change the rules of Philippine elections?
Dutertismo still hasn't fundamentally changed how political power is sought and won.
Lisandro Claudio 21 January, 2019
Conservative Christianity has apparently given the president and his drug war a divine, Old-Testament mandate. This is exactly why secular liberals disdain religion, but if they don't take religion more seriously, how can they promote a progressive theology to counteract this noxious misinterpretation of the Christian tradition?
Will these engagements succeed? It's hard to say because they touch upon the ambiguous role of culture, humour, desire, psychology and the like in politics. These matters have always been political, but what exactly should their role be in, and their distance from, the scientific rationality of liberal democracy?
Whatever the case, Filipino values, psychology, philosophy, religion, folklore, gender, ethics, popular culture, and identity—and the considerable scholarship on these subjects—deserve a second look. As bearers of norms and assumptions about politics, governance, morality, and social relations, they can serve as a fount of resources that can humble, ground, and advance liberal democratic practice in the Philippines.
As Marx was with communism, I cannot yet see what a revitalised liberal democracy will look like. Maybe it will be solemn but fun, social media-savvy yet troll-free, religious but secular, rational yet sentimental, high-minded but grounded, caring and personalistic, yet selfless and free of patronage. One thing's for sure: it will be safe, drug-free, and clean. Without dead bodies.
I am getting ahead of myself, though. For now, may the odds be ever in our favour.
More Philippines at New Mandala
Key issues in the midterm elections: a perspective from the Bangsamoro
Should we consider the 2019 polls as a preview of politics in the soon-to-be autonomous region?
Yasmira Moner 01 Apr, 2019
When illiberal social media takes over democratic Philippines
Social media has amplified, rather than created, an existing culture of disinformation.
Pamela Combinido 06 Feb, 2019
Lisandro Claudio 21 Jan, 2019
Janus Isaac Nolasco
Janus Isaac Nolasco is Managing Editor of 'Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia', published by the Asian Center, University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. He has a BA in Comparative Literature from UP Diliman (UP) and majored in West Asian Studies for his MA in Asian Studies at the UP Asian Center. He is the author of "Between Philippine Studies and Filipino-American Studies: The Transpacific as Area and the Transformation of Area Studies in the 21st Century," published in Suvannabhumi: Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (2018).


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www.stillisstillmoving.com
I am inspired by the wonderful Willie Nelson
« 'City of Legends' | Austin FC fans reveal TIFO featuring Willie Nelson, other Austin legends
Words of Wisdom from Willie Nelson
www.ew.com
by: Marissa R. Moss
riting 'Letters to America.' | CREDIT: PAMELA SPRINGSTEEN
Willie Nelson saw a sign the other day while out for a walk in Hawaii, where he's been spending his (hopefully) last stages of quarantine. "It read, 'husband for sale,'" he says laughing, Zooming in a black t-shirt with his wife Annie nearby. They're fully vaccinated – Annie even helped administer some shots back home in Texas – and ready to get back to life. "We've been in jail together for a long time."
For Nelson, who has spent nearly his entire existence on the road, that jail has been pretty miserable – he's missed hugs, he's missed friends, and, most of all, he's missed being on stage singing his legendary songs ("If I wasn't already on dope," he says, "I'd go get on it"). But he also didn't use that rare time off to bake bread like the rest of us. He released two records, First Rose of Spring and That's Life, a memoir with his sister, Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band, and a whole new book called Letters to America. Written alongside actor/director Turk Pipkin, it's part patriotic guide, part self-help, part spiritual tome, part parenting and relationship manual, and part heartfelt confessions from one of our most beloved songwriters and entertainers. There are also a couple dirty jokes because, as Nelson sees it, "the best medicine is laughter."
In Letters to America, we learn his family motto ("#1. Don't be an a–hole. #2. Don't be an a–hole. #3. You've got it: Don't be a goddamned a–hole"), his songwriting advice ("listen to the world around you"), and some of his most direct and specific opinions about life, justice, and the future of our planet. Nelson doesn't like to talk about politics in interviews or during concerts, but Letters to America is the answer to those who are curious as to why – and where he stands. Nelson declares definitively that Black, and Native American, Lives Matter, that the electoral college should be eliminated and that protecting the earth should be one of our foremost concerns, corporate interests be damned. In an age when we've never been further from one another physically, Letters to America manages to bring us even closer to the musician, father, husband, activist, and man of spiritual faith that Nelson truly is.
It's good timing. As with Dolly Parton, we've turned to the 88-year-old Nelson for comfort through this "pandammit," as he calls it, and as residents of a country struggling to confront both its inherent beauty and brutal, ugly truths. Since bringing together the hippies and rednecks in the sixties, Nelson's music has been one thing, in an increasingly polarized world, most people can agree on – and without him ever having to hide what he believes or tailor his sound for the marketplace. He's prolific and poetic, inclusive but unwavering, everyone's compromise but without doing so himself.
Nelson wasn't planning on being so direct in the title though. He wanted to call the book "Yesterday's Wine," after his song and album of the same name. "They decided that Letters to America would be a more saleable title, maybe," he says. "So, whatever it takes."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, in addition to writing a book, you also launched an entire cannabis conference – and asked President Biden to make 4/20 an official "high" holiday). Do you feel like we're making progress towards normalization?
WILLIE NELSON: Oh yeah, I think the public perception has changed dramatically over the last few years. And more and more people are realizing that [weed] is a medicine. And if used properly and not overdone, it can help you. It can help you sleep, it can also reduce pain. In fact, the two main things that I've heard about it is that it reduces pain and induces sleep. So that's very positive.
And maybe helps people with a little bit of COVID anxiety.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaking of, you write "F— you" to COVID in the book. I think that's cathartic- a lot of us just need to get that anger out of our systems.
I'm hoping other people will get the same idea, and then life goes on. I got a couple of shots. Kiss me, nothing makes me sick. I want to get back to hugging my relatives and friends again and not having to worry. I think we're all ready for that. I think we've had enough of distancing.
This book is many things: political guide, memoir, personal advice to friends and family. Did you set out to create something that spans so much of your history and approach to life?
It's sort of like when I write a song, which is not that much different from a book. You ask, "What do you want to accomplish?" I wanted to get people's attention and tell them how we feel about this particular subject or that one, and how we think it's important that you have an opinion and that you trust yourself and trust your opinions. And it's believing in ourselves, especially when times are tough.
Did you discover some things while writing this book that you didn't expect?
I think I discovered that I talk a lot.
It's wonderful to read about your childhood, especially learning how you spent your days roaming free outside, playing dominoes, and making up songs. Are you worried that our screen-addicted kids won't grow up to be songwriters, because they're lacking that kind of existence?
I think we're pretty creative, and I think we've figured out ways to do what we need to do. And if we listen to ourselves, listen to what your mind is telling you, it will tell you the right thing. George Jones had a song called "Choices" that said we're living and dying with the choices that we make. And that's very true.
n Letters to America, you are emphatic about equality. "Equal rights for all," you write, speaking to LGBTQ readers, and about the importance of bringing more women into the room. You recently put that to action by inviting Margo Price to the board of Farm Aid, as the first female artist there. Why was she so important to bring into the fold permanently?
First of all, she's incredibly intelligent and very competent. She's absolutely capable of being on the board and doing and thinking for us and helping us go the right direction. She brings a lot to the table. She's a good friend, and we've made some pretty good music together.
In the book you talk about genre, and how it's a bit of a marketing construct. Margo is a great example of someone who is just making music and not trying to fit in a box. Do you feel like we're heading to a place free of the need to categorize art in that way?
Well, my grandmother, who raised me and my sister, she told me the definition of music is anything that's pleasing to the ear. And that sounds good to me. If it's pleasing to the ear, then it's music to the ear. So that put a whole new light on it for me.
The music is important, not what we call it.
True. It can be a steel guitar or a symphony orchestra or just a voice acapella or voice and the guitar, and it doesn't matter as long as there is feeling and talent involved.
You also address the different ways we carry grief, and how to deal with it. You've suffered a lot of loss throughout your life, but your advice is, "Missing ain't living, and living works best when you're strong." Was that a difficult place to come to, because it's not always our natural inclination?
What I have to keep going back to when all these bad things happen, is to what I was taught. A teacher friend of mine said once that whatever your hand is, you will have the strength to endure it, and you will not be asked to do anything you cannot handle. You may not think so, but whatever happens you will be given the strength to handle it and react.
That's a learning process for sure.
Well, you're sure that you can't get over whatever happens, you think you'll never get over it, if a life is lost. But there is a way, wherever it comes from, that you're given some inner peace to be able to live with whatever is going on.
One thing I've noticed as a listener of music in quarantine, is that a lot of songs have changed for me, because I'm not seeing them live. A happy song now can feel kind of melancholy. Have you felt the same?
Oh, yeah. It's very strange. And it's not any fun at all, to not be able to play music for a live crowd. I've never had that in my life, so I didn't know how to react to it.
There seems to be a light at the end of a tunnel, though.
The light at the end of the tunnel could be a freight train.
Hopefully not!
Everybody I know who's qualified to entertain or works in the music business, we're all trying to do the same thing, which is overcome this problem and bring music to the people. And the promoters and all the people out there who helped put shows together, the cooks and the bottle washers and everybody, they need a job, and we need to go out and play. We're all looking forward to it, and I'm very anxious.
Though it wasn't live and in-person, your Luck Reunion livestreams early in the pandemic were very healing. It felt like, OK, we're all in this together.
The positive side of this whole issue is that even though we weren't allowed to go out and play for a crowd, with the virtual concert a person could see the whole thing from their living room and all these different artists from all over the world came together to play.
Maybe there's a lesson for the future there.
Yes, you could go out and do a concert and the whole world could hear you. That'd be cool.
So have you been working on new music in quarantine?
I've been writing a little. Let me see: "the day the earth quit turning, the day that time stood still, and we all had to keep our distance and we had more than time to kill. When Lord said, 'Jesus, why don't you go down there again, and help these people in the shape they're in?' And Jesus said, 'Dad, I'm tired. Why don't you go down there this time?' And God said, 'Are you out of your f—ing mind?'" I haven't put a melody to it yet.
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Digital Tamiment Main Page
Browse by Collection > John Gerassi Oral History Collection
John Gerassi Oral History Collection
Browse all interviews on this page. Interviews are organized alphabetically. Click on an oral history's title to listen to its audio and find more information about the resource.
Journalist and scholar John ("Tito") Gerassi received his MA at Columbia University and earned his doctorate at the London School of Economics. Among his publications are The Great Fear in Latin America (1965), The Boys of Boise (1966), and the biography Jean-Paul Sartre: Hated Conscience of His Century, (1989). The Premature Anti-Fascists: Oral History of American and Canadian Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War was published in 1986, and is a tribute to the men and women who volunteered to fight on behalf of the Spanish Republic. This collection contains 227 audiocassettes consisting of 89 separate interviews with individual veterans that were conducted for Gerassi's project.Further information cane be found in the John Gerassi Oral History collection finding aid.
Alvah Bessie
Frank Bonetti
Robert Gladnick
Irving Goff
Evelyn Hutchins
Oiva Halonen
Ron Liversedge
Steve Nelson
Salaria Kea O'Reilly
Abraham Osheroff


How Does Our Consignment Work?
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If you have quality items described above, email or bring in pictures of the items. From pictures, we can tell you if items are something we can sell in store, and if we have the space currently. We will also need to see them in person to give you an accurate price quote. We cannot accurately tell you from pictures what your items might sell for.
If you are unsure if the quality will meet our standards, check in with us. Antiques and vintage items often do have flaws which affect the pricing, but these are expected and ok to bring in.


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Q: How to change OpenStack Ceilometer MySQL reporting password Have asked this question on Ask OpenStack, but few views and no responses.
I'm trying to use the SqlAlchemy (basically MySQL) driver and have found that the password the driver attempts to use is set to ''. This is the password for the driver used by the reporting API, not collection.
I assume this is a default set somewhere, but I can't find it. Have looked through the config and setup files, and tried to find where the CFG object is created, and even traced through with the debugger.
The reason I know it's a password problem is because when the MySQL password is set to something other than '', the driver encounters a MySQL authentication error. When I set the database password (in MySQL for root user) to empty, the driver can authenticate.
My localrc has MYSQL_PASSWORD set to 'password', but the driver can't authenticate when MySQL uses that password.
Anyone know where to set this password for the driver?

A: I found it, the file ceilometer/storage/__init__.py contains a struct called STORAGE_OPTS.  Adding a similar entry to the array will cause it to use the DB of your choice:
cfg.StrOpt('database_connection',
           default='mysql://root:password@localhost:3306',
           help='Database connection string',
           ),


The start of autumn and winter also marks the start of the annual chain saw season. It's time to get your chain saw out of your shed and get to work cutting wood for your fireplace as well as many other jobs that need doing. But before you get going, you should check to see whether your chain saw is working properly.


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Q: Group and divide multiple values I want to group my dataset by a few variables and then take the sum of the numeric variable. Then divide the individual values by this sum to get a proportion, and mutate this as a column.
For example, say I have a dataset like this:
year         disastertype area(km^2)     country
2001           earthquake   1907.098 Afghanistan
2001           earthquake   3635.378 Afghanistan
2001           earthquake   5889.177 Afghanistan
2001 extreme temperature    8042.396 Afghanistan
2001 extreme temperature   11263.485 Afghanistan
2001 extreme temperature   11802.311 Afghanistan

I can get the the sum of area relative to disaster type and country using
test_two <- test_one %>%group_by(disastertype, country,`area(km^2)`, year) %>% count %>% aggregate(. ~ disastertype + country + year,data=., sum)

But when I try to divide  area by this sum using:
data_test$`area(km^2)` %>%  map_dbl(~ .x/data_test2$`area(km^2)`)

Error: Result 1 must be a single double, not a double vector of length 2

Expected result:
    year         disastertype area(km^2)     country  proportion
1   2001           earthquake   1907.098 Afghanistan  0.1668261
10  2001           earthquake   3635.378 Afghanistan  0.3180099
65  2001           earthquake   5889.177 Afghanistan  0.5151642
109 2001 extreme temperature    8042.396 Afghanistan  0.2585299
135 2001 extreme temperature   11263.485 Afghanistan  0.3620746
146 2001 extreme temperature   11802.311 Afghanistan  0.3793956

Reproducible code:
structure(list(year = c(2001, 2001, 2001, 2001, 2001, 2001),
    disastertype = c("earthquake", "earthquake", "earthquake",
    "extreme temperature ", "extreme temperature ", "extreme temperature "
    ), `area(km^2)` = c(1907.09808242381, 3635.37825411105, 5889.17746880181,
    8042.39623016696, 11263.4848508564, 11802.3111500339), country = c("Afghanistan",
    "Afghanistan", "Afghanistan", "Afghanistan", "Afghanistan",
    "Afghanistan")), row.names = c(1L, 10L, 65L, 109L, 135L,
146L), class = "data.frame")

A: You shoudn't group by area(km^2):
df %>%
  group_by(year, country, disastertype) %>%
  mutate(proportion = `area(km^2)` / sum(`area(km^2)`)) %>%
  ungroup()


text:
package programmersguide.workingwithasposepdf.workingwithsecurityandsignatures.decryptpdffile.java;

import com.aspose.pdf.*;

public class DecryptPDFFile
{
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        // The path to the documents directory.
        String dataDir = "src/programmersguide/workingwithasposepdf/workingwithsecurityandsignatures/decryptpdffile/data/";

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Welcome to the Online Success Journey Podcast. Your opportunity to discover and learn from entrepreneurs like yourself. This is not your typical podcast but a place where you can get the real story and find out how real people encounter speed bumps and detours but journey through to find success. Now here's your host for the Online Success Journey podcast, Patience.
Patience: Hello everyone, and welcome to Online Success Journey this is episode 129. Are you ready to join the clan? Today we have Chris Parker, the founder and the CEO of whatismyipaddress.com, the number one website in the world for finding their IP address. According to the Alexa ranking, Chris' website is one of the top 3,000 websites in the United States with over six million visitors per month.
Patience: I know the clan is anxious to hear your story, so let's get started with the basics. Can you tell my clan a little bit about your background? What you did before you started your own online business? Right after the last job or business before your online.
Chris: Okay. I originally started out working in a mail-order catalog fulfillment working for a company that sold computers and electronics over the phone, and with the advent of the internet, I got to go into the team that helped facilitate that, a little bit of building the website, and a bunch of marketing there. That was a great learning experience as the internet was growing before Google when it was Alta Vista and all those search engines that no one remembers anymore. It was a great fun time to be a part of the internet.
From there, I went on and spent about eight years working for an online life insurance broker, helping them build their platform that helped them sell thousands of policies to customers throughout the United States. Again, it was a fun opportunity there to apply the skills that I learned at the previous job and to really grow in the things that I learned about marketing. I think it really helped prepare me to be able to take the reins of my own business and be able to run with it.
Patience: Why do you do what you do Chris?
Chris: I originally started out whatismyipaddress.com as a hobby. One of the companies I was working for was trying to diagnose a technical issue with our network, and the company that I was talking with said, "Hey what's your IP address? I think you're having problems getting on our network. If you tell us what your IP address is we can try to diagnose it." I went on the search engine at the time, and there was no quick easy answer. There was no Google that told you that right away.
So I thought, "Gosh, I could build a website that will do this. It will make it easy for other people, and they won't have to dig around for it." That night I went home, spent a couple hundred dollars to register a domain name—which is what it costs in 2000 or so—and put together a very simple website which answered that and promptly forgot all about it.
About a year later, I was looking through my server, and I realized I had the log files for my website were pretty darn big, and so from there, I realized that people were visiting the website, and thought, "Hey, this could be a fun opportunity just to have a little business, provide useful information." and so that's what I did for many years. It was just a nice little side gig and was able to provide useful information. I started building out contents. After that, I started to realize that people started having a lot of questions, "Hey I've been scammed, this person who I'm talking with on the internet, I don't think they're who they claim to be." and that so it really became an opportunity for me to help people to be safe, and really watch out for themselves online. That's where it's grown from is my desire just to help people.
Patience: How did you make the transition from working in the corporation full time to being a full time entrepreneur.
We thought about it and said, "Okay, let's give it a couple of months, and see if putting that additional time into it while effectively working a part-time job was enough to grow the business." Lo and behold, definitely saw improvements and growth in the business, growth in the traffic, growth in the revenue. I was like, "Gosh, this could become a full-time job, this is pretty neat." About a year or two later, the company went from having me there part time to saying, "Hey, we can't make you go over it anymore, we got to let you go." and so at that time, it was, "Okay, let's review this again. Can this become my full-time job?" My wife and I talked about it and said, "Let's give it a year, and if in that year we can make as much or more than what your daytime job was doing, then let's stick with it." That's what we did, and that's how that transition went.
Patience: You have a really good wife advising and giving you all the encouragement you needed.
Chris: Yes, she has been incredibly supportive.
Patience: That's good. You should be thankful, not many people have that encouragement and support.
Chris: I am very thankful.
Patience: Okay, let's put it on the side of Chris. How did you know you are successful?
Chris: I think part of what I look at as success is being able to provide for my family, not just for our needs today, but to be able to put aside for our future needs, and that I'm also able to—through having contractors, the people that work for me—I'm actually able to provide for multiple people's livelihood. To me, it wasn't a dollar amount in my bank account, but to be able to say, "I'm able to support myself or things that I'm excited to do." That's what I consider as a success. It's not a particular car in the garage, not a particular size of the house or things in my life but I've got some great family, great friends, and I'm able to help other people out with their lives as well.
Patience: What are some of the challenges you have faced in running such a popular website and how have you responded to those challenges?
Chris: One of the challenges to me, as a new business owner, I think I had a little bit of naivety in thinking that everybody that I would deal with on a business level, would be honest and professional in what they did. I had a number of incidents where I had a vendor that I hired to do work, and they took my money, and they didn't produce what they said they were going to do. I also had an advertiser who looked like a reputable advertiser, so I started running their ads on my website, everything looked good until I went to get the first paycheck from them, and found out that what it was, was someone else was pretending to be this company.
They had bought the .net version of that company's domain name, they made the website look exactly the same, they just changed the phone number to their phone number, and it turned out to be entirely fraudulent. It was kind of a wakeup call that I couldn't just assume and trust that everybody did what they said they would do. But I really had to do my own due diligence, do my own checks to the people that I'm working with, "Are they a legitimate organization? How long have they been around? Who else do they work with?" Almost as if when you're looking for a job, if they check your references, I had to start doing that with vendors and not just assume that everybody was who they claim to be.
Patience: How did you achieve six million constant visitors per month for your site?
Chris: It's been a challenge, part of it has been applying good SEO techniques over the years, and for many years, when I was doing this as a side hustle or as a hobby, I invested almost all the revenue from the company would go back into growing the content, working on advertising, and really spent a lot of effort growing the business and not trying to line my own pocket.
The website's been up for 18 years. It's taken that process of, constantly working on it, constantly growing in it, constantly looking at what my competitors are doing, and areas that I'm not doing well compared to my competitors, I've got to work on those areas. Even places where I might do something better than one of my competitors, I've got to not rest on my laurels, not assume that just because Google has been friendly to me for that for the last so many years that they're going to continue to be that way, but I'm going to continue to innovate, continue to develop, and continue to make my website better even if my competitors aren't doing that on theirs.
Patience: Do you need to be a super tech-savvy when setting up an online internet or can you just figure it out as you go?
Chris: I think when I started, you definitely had to have a technical background. There weren't as many platforms as there are today, there weren't as many Software as a Service company is out there. Today, it's really a lot easier for someone to put together their own website, to plug in e-commerce, to plug in fulfillment. The companies providing those services have really blossomed and could make things a lot easier for entrepreneurs without a significant amount of technical experience.
I do think though that if the entrepreneur themselves doesn't have technical experience, they need to have someone that they work with that can help them at least achieve the minimal technical requirements. Making sure that you're updating your website platform, making sure WordPress is current, that you're aware of what security patches need to be installed on the different tools that you're using. Because if you're not keeping those things current, at some point, your website could be compromised, your computer could be compromised, and if you're not prepared for that sort of thing, it could be devastating for a small business..
Patience: Can anyone be an entrepreneur, or are some people more cut out for it than others?
Chris: I think definitely, some people are cut out for it, and others aren't. We're all wired differently. Different things excite us. Some of the things that we're comfortable with or not comfortable with can really play into whether or not we can be successful as an entrepreneur. I know that for me, since fully working for myself—I work 365 days a year, not eight hours a day always—but if I'm on vacation, there's at least some amount of time spent checking email, making sure everything is running, just keeping on top of my business. Just because I go on vacation doesn't mean my business can grind to a standstill while I'm on vacation.
That's something that my wife and I have talked about. If we're traveling internationally, she knows that I'm going to spend some portion of my day working. If we get a really slow internet connection somewhere, I've got to work through that and continue to do that. I think if someone's willing to work more than 40 hours a week, they've got a lot of patience in their life, they can deal with stress, they're willing to work hard, and they're open to mentorship, I think they can be successful as an entrepreneur. But if a person's not willing to work hard, they're not open for input in their life, I think they're going to have a very hard time achieving success however they define it.
Patience: You mentioned to have a mentor, do you have a mentor or coaches in your business?
Chris: Yeah, I have mentors in a number areas of my life. I think mentorship is truly important for us. It's hard for us to see our own selves clearly. We have blind spots when we look at ourselves, we have weaknesses that we don't realize, and we're not experts in every area of our life. For me, it's not just business, but I've got other people involved in my life. I've got mentors in my church, and I mentor people in my church. I've got a fitness coach that I work with because it's something that I don't know what I'm doing, I'm not good at, and I know I need help and accountability with.
I've got another businessman that he and I meet for breakfast once a week. We talk about how our businesses are going, some of the challenges that we're running across, and ways that we think we can grow our businesses. I've got a group of older men that I meet with, and talk about family, talk about relationships, talk about spiritual things. I think having mentors in all areas of our life can really help us to see things from a different perspective.
For my business, I did hire a coach last year. He's really been able to help me to grow personally, not just my business but help me to grow personally and to realize that I've made a lot of decisions out of comfort and convenience, and that I really needed to start doing things that challenged me, that were uncomfortable and not let that discomfort prevent me from learning new skills, prevent me from building new networking relationships, but to really get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that's been really helpful for me.
Patience: What is the most valuable thing your mentors has told you?
Chris: I think for me, it's really been that combination of accountability and helping me to be uncomfortable. I think it's easy to see, "If I just did this, I could grow my business but I'm not really good in that area, so I don't want to do that." Or we tend to shy away from things that we don't have confidence in and having mentors that can challenge us and help us to see those things can really help us to grow and push through our own barriers and walls that we put up in our life.
Patience: What parts of your business are automated and which requests your time or attention?
Chris: I've worked really hard to automate tasks that are very repetitious. There's database maintenance that has to happen, and so I've tried to automate these things. Sometimes it's hard to automate things. In my mind, if it can be automated, if I can reduce the time, the effort, and attention that needs to be applied to those things and really put my time on things where it requires my skill set.
Patience: What is one thing that has contributed to your success?
Chris: I think one of the things that's really helped me is having realistic expectations. When I was a kid, "I want to run my own business." When I was in high school, I had a paper route, and I thought, "Wow, hard drives. These new things you can store tons of data on. I could probably buy these and sell them for a little more than I buy them for," and so I pulled out my spreadsheet, "If I could sell 10 a day, if I could sell 20 a day, 30, 40, 50," and I got very unrealistic in what I want that to be very quickly.
I think sometimes we have to be careful that we're not living in a dream state of, "Oh my gosh, this is what my business could be 50 years from now. I could be making millions of dollars." But to realize we have to take things one step at a time, not to say that we shouldn't dream but our dreams need to be realistic as to what our next steps are. We shouldn't think like, "If I just turn on my website that suddenly, millions of customers are going to come running to my door." We have to work for these things. Nothing happens overnight. It just takes constant pressure and effort to make a business grow.
Patience: What is one thing no one knows about you Chris?
Chris: I thought of a game that me, my friends used to play, people that I know used to play. It's called two truths and a lie where you tell several true things about yourself and one lie about yourself to see if people would figure it out. The one that I had always catch people with was that I was an A student, I was a horrible student. Education has never been my forte, I've struggled with it, and for some reason, everybody thinks I'm a really smart guy, but I was not a good student by any means.
Patience: But you are successful, here you are.
Chris: Yeah, got to find what works.
Patience: What is the most valuable thing you have ever given away?
Chris: I think that's your heart, honestly. For me, to really care about people, and to be compassionate with people, is a value to me. I look at people that come to my website, and if they've been a victim of a scam, it's easy to have that mindset of like, "How could you fall for that? Oh my goodness, how could you ever do that?" But that's not compassionate. It takes effort to be compassionate with people, to really feel their pain, and try to meet people where they're at. I guess I've given away monitors, and computer equipment, a hundred or a thousand dollars worth but to me, it's not necessarily money. I think the harder thing to give away and more valuable thing is your time, your effort, and your heart.
Patience: Chris, tell us more about whatismyipaddress.com website.
Chris: I've worked really hard over the years to build out a variety of tools that not only tech people can use—originally, it was tech people—but a lot of people need to know when you're online with tech support, you're having a problem accessing a website, they want to know your IP address, it would make that very easy to use, and to be able to see that with a map, and location information. But with more businesses online, and people having comments and forums and all these sorts of things on their websites, people want to know who's visiting their website, is this the same person trolling me, are my orders potentially fraudulent, are these real orders.
I know one of the things that challenged me in one of my small businesses many years ago, the biggest order I ever had, and I believe gleefully filled it and shipped off, and found out that the credit card was stolen. When I did that did a little bit of digging into it, I found out that the person wasn't in Arizona like they said they were, but they were in South Africa. It was a stolen credit card. Part of the services that we can help people with is looking at where people's customers are, if there's a big order people can look into it and say, "Hey, gosh this IP address of the person who placed the order is coming back in a different country halfway around the world." and that for certain businesses should raise suspicions if they're a local business, and it's their biggest order, they should always be cautious about that.
We've also worked really hard to build a lot of content over the last year or two about online privacy and online safety. There's this just so many scams out there. There's so many people trying to take advantage of innocents out there, and we're really trying to help people be aware of what the types of scams are out there, and how to avoid them, and how to prevent themselves from becoming a victim.
Patience: How can we find you and get in contact with you, or can we get in contact with you personally? Do you answer emails personally?
Chris: I actually do. If any of your listeners want to contact me, they've got an issue, along those lines, they can always email me at [email protected] They can always visit the website, and we've got a support staff that's willing and able to help in whatever ways we can. We even try to help them with things that have nothing to do with IP addresses. If we get questions, we do our best to help out with whatever we can.
Patience: Okay, so clan, there will be more from Chris in a moment. If you are listening on one of the many podcast platforms rather than my website, and you are encouraged by Chris' journey, go to onlinesuccessjourney.com. for a bonus portion of the interview.
The Online Success Journey is a wonderful membership community, beautiful people searching for the path for success. We are one big clan, and you can be part of this community for free. Once you have joined the clan, click on Path of Chris' Journey or over 100 other journeys that are available, and learn how you can find the right path for your own online success journey. That's a wrap clan. Remember, success is a journey. Patience, and Chris.
This is not the end of the journey. We hope you've enjoyed listening to part one. I want to be sure you know there is a second part to this and every journey podcast at onlinesuccessjourney.com. Filled with even more success tips, uplifting stories and even a bit of fun. There are dozens of episodes only available to the members of the Online Success Clan. Check out the website and click on join the clan for more information.
Patience would like to thank you for listening to this podcast, and she has a free audio gift for you at her website, go to onlinesuccessjourney.com. for instant access to this gift. Of course, you know that listening to the journeys of others helps each of us charter our own path, so make sure you're subscribed to be notified as each new interview is posted. There are so many ways to stay connected to the Online Success Journey and to listen in. If you're enjoying the podcast, we appreciate your help in telling others.
One of the best ways to share the benefit you get is to rate and review it at Stitcher and other sites by clicking the stars for completing the ratings form, by clicking the thumbs up and leaving a comment on YouTube, or liking and sharing the podcast on social media. To review the podcast within iTunes, simply open iTunes to the podcast, click on ratings and reviews, then write a review. On behalf of Patience, until next time. Thanks once more for listening. It is our hope that this podcast will guide you on your own online success journey.


1. A master list of every Dallas restaurant opening in fall 2016. The restaurant scene in Dallas remains vibrant, with dozens of openings on the table from here through 2017. There are so many coming, we needed a list — a list of every restaurant opening around Dallas for the rest of 2016.
2. Longtime Dallas breakfast spot packs up pancakes and moves on. After 17 years, the Cafe Brazil on Cedar Springs Road is relocating to a new address that will double its size, add more parking, and feature a patio.
3. The end is near for one of Dallas' favorite home and gift shops. Dallas will soon be down one fabulous home and design store. Nest, located on McKinney Avenue in Knox District, is closing on December 1.
4. This round of Dallas restaurant news comes stacked with openings. Dallas has seen several new openings recently, including a pizzeria and a growler bar. Here's the hottest, freshest news in dining.
5. Cattle Baron's Ball taps into Texas pride for blockbuster Dallas gala. With superstar entertainment and millions raised for the American Cancer Society, the Cattle Baron's Ball is a big deal in Dallas. For 2016, chairwomen Cara French and Andrea Weber welcomed a "Texas Proud" crowd to Gilley's Dallas on October 15.


text:
import styled from 'styled-components';

const H1 = styled.h1`
  font-size: 2em;
  margin-bottom: 0.25em;
  font-weight: 400;
`;

export default H1;


text:
2013 College Football Season Opens On Thursday
Tom Goldman
All right, college football fans, it is time to get out your body paint and those foam fingers. The NCAA Division One football season is starting tonight with 17 games on the schedule. Most of the heavyweights start their campaigns on Saturday, and that includes top-ranked Alabama. NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman joins me to preview the new season. And Tom, are you excited?
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Sure. Are you?
GREENE: Absolutely. Well, baseball has to end and then I'll turn my attention to football. But before we get to the actual season, I want to ask you about some news about college football's, really the player of the moment, the Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel. Texas A&M quarterback with all this talk about a possible suspension for maybe getting paid to sign autographs. And good news for Aggie fans yesterday.
GOLDMAN: Yes. Texas A&M and the NCAA agreed they had no evidence that Johnny Manziel took any money for those autographs. But they also agreed there was a minor violation. Basically they're saying Manziel should have known the autographs he was signing would be resold for profit and he should have stopped that. So Manziel was given a truly weird punishment. He was suspended for the first half of Saturday's opening game versus Rice.
GREENE: A half a game? That's like a - well, not even a slap on the wrist. A pat on the wrist.
GOLDMAN: Thirty minutes, David. Thirty minutes. That's a tap on the wrist.
GREENE: Yeah.
GOLDMAN: I asked both the NCAA and Texas A&M why a half, not a whole game or multiple games or nothing? Neither would say why, so we're left to wonder how he gets a 30 minute punishment and how another player, current Dallas Cowboy star Dez Bryant, was banned 10 games when he played at Oklahoma State for lying about having a meal with former NFL star Deion Sanders, a meal that wasn't a violation of the rules. Go figure.
GREENE: Go figure. Is it a bad sign that we're talking about, you know, these off the field issues like whether players and college are really amateurs, whether they're getting paid for things? I mean here it comes again.
GOLDMAN: Here it comes again. Well, amateurism certainly is a challenge to maintain when big-time college football is awash in billions of dollars and it goes everywhere except to the athletes who play the games that make the money. A reader on deadspin.com noted yesterday the NCAA rule Manziel apparently violated that requires student athletes to take steps to stop others from making money off them, the reader writes: Well, if that's the case, shouldn't every student athlete be suspended for not taking the appropriate steps to stop the NCAA from profiting off all these kids?
GREENE: Well, let's not let talk of suspensions ruin the tailgate party. There's going to be football.
GOLDMAN: Of course.
GREENE: And all the talk is about Alabama, the Crimson Tide. We're going to be hearing people singing "Roll, Tide, Roll" all year, probably.
GOLDMAN: Absolutely. Alabama has won the last two BCS titles, trying to become the first team to win three straight national championships. And Alabama is pretty close to the same team that destroyed Notre Dame 42-14 in last season's title game, with quarterback A.J. McCarron, running back T.J. Yeldon, and a defense that returns eight of 11 starters from a unit that led the nation in allowing the fewest points per game last season.
GREENE: They're stacked.
GOLDMAN: They're stacked.
GREENE: Are there other contenders out there?
GOLDMAN: Oh, sure. South Carolina, which plays tonight with fearsome defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and two really good quaterbacks. Look out west to Oregon and Stanford in the Pac 12. The Ducks, of course, with their high octane offense. They lost their offensive mastermind, head coach Chip Kelly, to the NFL, but they still have a great offense. And then Stanford. An awesome defense. And quarterback Kevin Hogan was very good as a freshman last season; he'll be even better this year.
GREENE: And this is the last year of the so-called Bowl Championship series. After this season we're finally going to get a playoff in NCAA college football.
GOLDMAN: One more year to complain about the BCS, but let me tell you, when we get a playoff the year after, there's going to be lots of complaining still.
GREENE: All right. The complaining never ends. Except when I'm on the line with you, Tom Goldman. It's always a pleasure.
GOLDMAN: Thanks, David.
GREENE: Sports correspondent Tom Goldman.
This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
Tom Goldman is NPR's sports correspondent. His reports can be heard throughout NPR's news programming, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and on NPR.org.
See stories by Tom Goldman


The components of your house—the insulation, HVAC systems, the thermal envelope, appliances and lighting—all contribute to your comfort, health and safety and energy efficiency of the home. If one system has a problem, it impacts the other systems' ability to function properly. Treating the obvious symptom without knowing the real culprit behind it can make the problem worse or create new problems. Rather than focusing on a single problem, like leaky windows, the house-as-a-system approach looks at how improvements throughout your home work together to give you the most cost effective results.
An energy audit will help you understand how much energy your home is using and how much it's wasting. Using a variety of diagnostic tools, the auditor will identify problem areas that affect the home's overall comfort, indoor air quality and safety. Then they will prioritize recommended repairs in order—from must-do to nice-do-do—that fit your budget. ConsumerReports recommends using an energy auditor certified by the Building Performance Institute.
Many people think that the windows of their home are causing uncomfortable drafts or cold/hot rooms that can't maintain temperature. BPI certified energy auditors use diagnostic equipment to find cracks and gaps around windows and doors, electrical outlets, recessed lights, and in the air duct system, the attic, and the basement/foundation. By sealing these gaps and installing insulation properly, you can reduce drafts and cut down on significant air leakage without replacing windows or doors.
Poor ventilation and/or moisture in the home can lead to dust mites, mold and allergens, which causes a variety of respiratory health problems. Air sealing cracks and gaps in the building envelope and ventilating your home properly will help circulate clean, fresh air and reduce dust and moisture in the home, resulting in lower humidity and occurrences of mold and other dangerous allergens.
Recommend Installing ENERGY STAR rated appliances and lighting can significantly increase the energy efficiency of your home, resulting in savings on your utility bill. And air sealing and insulating your home means your ENERGY STAR furnace or air conditioner won't have to work as hard to heat or cool your home, cutting your utility bills even further. The house-as-a-system approach reduces homeowner annual utility bills by as much as 20 percent or more, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.