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Varsity Athletics

Men's Track and Field

Carleton Athletics

Team Roster

ImageNameClass YearHometownHigh SchoolPositionHeight
Arafat Akinlabi, Men's Track & FieldArafat AkinlabiSr.Chicago, Ill.Hubbard
Dwight Alexander, Men's Track and FieldDwight AlexanderFy.Lawrenceville, NJLawrenceville
Jonah Barry, Men's Track and FieldJonah BarryJr.Madison, Wis.Madison West
Jack Buckner, Men's Track and FieldJack BucknerFy.Seattle, Wash.Northwest
Nick Carlsen, Men's Track and FieldNick CarlsenSo.Danbury, Conn.Danbury
Jiatao Cheng, Men's Track and FieldJiatao ChengSr.Gurnee, Ill.Warren
Jerry Cook-GallardoFy.Moscow, IdahoMoscow
Pete Dehkes, Men's Track and FieldPete DehkesSo.Lebanon, N.J.North Hunterdon
Zach Edinburgh, Men's Track and FieldZach EdinburghSo.Minneapolis, Minn.Blake
Walter Edstrom, Men's Track and FieldWalter EdstromSo.Plano, TexasPlano West
Andrew Etteldorf, Men's Track and FieldAndrew EtteldorfSo.Eden Prairie, Minn.Eden Prairie
Alexa Feeney, Men's Track and FieldAlexa FeeneyFy.St. Charles, Ill.St. Charles North
Caleb Flack, Men's Track and FieldCaleb FlackJr.Chicago, Ill.Francis W Parker
Bill Grimm, Men's Track and FieldBill GrimmSr.Hinsdale, Ill.Hinsdale Central
Joe Haase, Men's Track and FieldJoe HaaseJr.Fitchburg, Wis.West
Brandon Hagans, Men's Track and FieldBrandon HagansJr.Medina, OhioHawkens School
William Hall, Men's Track and FieldWilliam HallJr.Palo Alto, Calif.Palo Alto
Ryan HanselmanFy.Naperville, Ill.Naperville North
Will HardtFy.Mount Kisco, N.Y.Horace Greeley
Mike HellmanSo.Woodbridge, Conn.Hopkins School
Oliver Heywood, Men's Track and FieldOliver HeywoodSr.Shorewood, Wis.ShorewoodMiddle Distance5'10"
Mo Hicks, Men's Track and FieldMaurice HicksFy.Upper Marlboro, Md.Maret
Ben Hiskes, Men's Track and FieldBen HiskesJr.Storrs, Conn.Loomis Chaffee
Michael Hoffert, Men's Track and FieldMichael HoffertFy.East Montpelier, Vt.Union 32
Hart Hornor, Men's Track and FieldHart HornorJr.Seattle, Wash.Roosevelt
Evan Howard, Men's Track and FieldEvan HowardJr.St. Petersberg, Fla.Home School
Connor Jackson, Men's Track and FieldConnor JacksonSr.Milford, N.H.MilfordDistance5'11"
Bolu Johnson, Men's Track and FieldBolu JohnsonFy.Chicago, Ill.Univeristy of Chicago Laboratory Schools
Paul Kirk-DavidoffFy.Colombia, Md.Oakland Mills
Arnaud Kpachavi, Men's Track and FieldArnaud KpachaviSr.San Gregorio, Calif.Woodside Priory School
Noah Laack-Veeder, Men's Track and FieldNoah Laack-VeederSr.Madison, Wis.LaFollette
Thor Laack-Veeder, Men's Track and FieldThor Laack-VeederSr.Madison, Wis.LaFollette
Aidan Larsen, Men's Track and FieldAidan LarsenJr.Bethseda, Md.Georgetown Preparatory
Ben Levy, Men's Track and FieldBen LevySr.Alameda, Calif.College Prep
David McKinleyFy.Okemos, Mich.Okemos
Evan McNeil, Men's Track and FieldEvan McNeilSr.Burnsville, Minn.Academy of Holy Angels
Hiroshi Nakajima, Men's Track and FieldHiroshi NakajimaFy.Minato, JapanTabor Academy
Ben Nicla, Men's Track and FieldBen NiclaJr.Suamico, Wis.Bay Port
Tyler O'Keefe, Men's Track and FieldTyler O'KeefeFy.Woodville, Wis.Spring Valley
Patrick O'ReillySo.Wilmette, ILNew Trier Township High School
Evan Olawsky, Men's Track and FieldEvan OlawskyJr.Eden Prairie, Minn.Eden Prairie
Jack Percival, Men's Track and FieldJack PercivalJr.Newport Coast, Calif.Sage Hill School
Ernesto Polania-Gonzalez, Men's Track and FieldErnesto Polania-GonzalezSo.Madison, Wis.La Follette
Ian Reeves, Men's Track and FieldIan ReevesSr.Berkeley, Calif.The College Preparatory School
Andrew RuvkunFy.New York, N.Y.Packer Collegiate Institute
Colby Seyferth, Men's Track and FieldColby SeyferthSr.Banks, Ore.Banks
Camden SikesFy.Berkeley, Calif.Berkeley
Ben Withbroe, Men's Track and FieldBen WithbroeSo.Takoma Park, Md.Albert Einstein

2013 Carleton roster (MS Word)

Head Coach: Dave Ricks, ninth season
Assistant Coaches: Josh Schoen (Distance), Leon Lunder (Throws), Bill Huyck (Javelin)

Previous Seasons Rosters:
2012 Carleton roster
(MS Word)
2008 Carleton roster
(MS Word)


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Fall 2012 (October 30, 2012)

21st Century Teaching and Learning

By Chuck Benda

New research and emerging technologies are inspiring educational innovation and improving how students learn in college classrooms.

Stand and deliver!

For hundreds of years, the lecture—derived from the medieval practice of reading to students from an original source—was the primary activity in college classrooms around the world. But times have changed. In fact, many professors now believe that delivering content to their students via lecture is among the least effective uses of their class time.

“The currency of the realm in the liberal arts is ‘high-touch’ class time where students interact with their classmates and professor,” says Paula Lackie, an academic technologist at Carleton. “The idea is to deliver the basic building blocks of content to students outside of class and maximize personal interaction focused on this material during class.”

Known as the “flipped classroom,” this practice has increased since it emerged in 2007 due to a confluence of new knowledge about effective student learning and advances in technology. In this model, students can listen to a recorded lecture on their own time and at their own pace, then hone what they’ve learned under the guidance of the professor during class time. The professor’s role has changed from a sage on the stage to that of a tutor or coach who helps each student become a better learner.

Class time not devoted to lecturing can be used instead to discuss how students arrived at their answers and why some students’ answers may vary. Such discussions help students develop metacognition (awareness and understanding of one’s own learning process), which has long been recognized as a key contributor to excellence in learning. Similarly, professors have time to explore other learning strategies, such as group or team learning, experiential learning, civic engagement, and field trips.

“Our pedagogy always has been about hands-on, experiential learning,” says Mary Savina ’72, the Charles L. Denison Professor of Geology. “We gave up on trying to drill content a long time ago; it just isn’t an effective use of our time.”

Emerging Research and Resources

Empirical studies are uncovering the teaching methods, course designs, and study habits that maximize learning and improve graduation rates. Students aren’t the only ones who stand to gain by this research; teachers find that adopting evidence-based recommendations makes teaching more interesting, as well as more effective.

“Academics are excited about new developments in teaching and learning,” says Regan Gurung ’91, professor of human development and psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. A winner of several teaching awards, Gurung has written or edited numerous books and papers related to teaching and learning, including the 2012 book Evidence-Based Teaching for Higher Education. He notes that many changes in the classroom are so new that their effectiveness is still being scrutinized.

“Along with new teaching methods and technologies comes the emergence of more pedagogical research—sound scholarship that takes a hard look at teaching and learning, using control groups and a peer-review process, and doesn’t just rely on anecdotal evidence and intuition,” he says.

“Research has shown that many things we considered to be learning aids—such as key terms and boxed information in traditional textbooks—actually don’t work. The more students use them, the worse their exam scores, possibly because these so-called ‘learning aids’ divert their attention from other important information. We need evidence-based research to help guide us as we look at new pedagogies and new technologies.”

Gurung also is excited to see more faculty members working with instructional designers, teaming up with academic support personnel, and utilizing resources at their institutions, such as Carleton’s Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching (LTC). But the biggest challenge educators face might be just navigating the ever-changing landscape.

“There’s so much to work with and so many ways we can help students learn,” he says. “We have to determine what is best for our purpose.”

Digital Innovations

“Not enough people look for evidence before they change how they’re teaching in the classroom,” says Regan A. R. Gurung ’91, the Ben J. and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Human Development and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay. “Too often we take for granted that new technologies or methods are better; we need to put them under the research microscope and be sure they work before we bring them to the classroom.”

Thanks to technological advances, educators are developing teaching methods that are effective, challenging, and enjoyable for students with a variety of learning styles. In fact, the use of interactive technologies throughout the curriculum is the biggest change in teaching, learning, and research. It’s important to note, however, that educational technologies are meant to facilitate delivery, not drive the instruction.

They include:

Devices: For years, students usually needed only a pencil and a notebook for class. In today’s classroom, however, students often are outnumbered by technological devices, including computers (laptops and tablets), document cameras, multimedia projectors, and even smartphones. Faculty members team up with technologists to identify the best options for specific curricular needs, requiring some trial and error to achieve the best results. Simple technologies often are more effective than sexy ones, says Lackie, who notes that pencil and paper is still the best choice for some purposes.

In other cases, newer devices can significantly aid the flow of a class. For example, teachers can project pop quizzes on a screen and have students select their answers using individual TV-remote style devices, known colloquially as “clickers.” When the results pop up anonymously on the screen, teachers can tell immediately if students are grasping the material and either offer clarification or move on to new material.

As tablets become more affordable and useful, their presence is increasing in educational settings. Research and advisory firm Forrester predicts that tablets will become the preferred primary device for millions of people and forecasts that 760 million tablets will be in use globally by 2016.

Digital textbooks: You may have lugged textbooks to class, but today’s students often access their course material digitally on a mobile device, e-reader, laptop, or tablet. In a survey of more than 500 currently enrolled college students, Wakefield Research found that students are more likely to bring a laptop (51 percent) than a print textbook (39 percent) to class, with 53 percent frequently reading e-textbooks. Inside Higher Ed and the Babson Survey Research Group recently surveyed more than 4,500 faculty members about technology-driven trends and found that more than one-third of faculty members regularly assign books that are available in both e-textbook and traditional formats, and 65 percent said they were excited about e-textbooks and e-resources replacing traditional print textbooks.

Online digital textbooks are replete with interactive study aids. For example, scores to online quizzes are translated quickly into an individually tailored study plan designed to fill the gaps in a student’s knowledge and understanding.

Web-based resources: The Internet provides students and teachers with unparalleled access to free information both in and out of the classroom.

“Google Earth is a miracle for geologists,” says Savina. “My research is primarily about interpreting landforms—and Google Earth gives me faster access to high-resolution images than I have ever had before. However, as is the case with results from any search engine, it’s still important to carefully evaluate these resources.”

Online learning communities: Since 2002 the number of U.S. college students who take at least one online course per year has risen from 1.7 million to 6 million, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Universities like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Harvard, and MIT are experimenting with massive open online courses (MOOCs), in which materials and instruction are delivered freely over the Internet to users both on campus and around the world. MOOCs offer on-campus students online tools that reinforce their classroom and laboratory experiences, allow individual teachers to reach hundreds of thousands of motivated students who lack access to elite institutions, and enable virtual communities of learners to produce content about a common topic. MIT is making its open-source software infrastructure available to other educational institutions for use in developing their own online courses.

Most MOOCs are free, but students who want to demonstrate content mastery often can receive an informal certificate of completion for a modest fee (although it is not the same college credit that these institutions award to students enrolled in traditional courses).

Although not every college offers online courses, most have online course management or learning management systems in place, and educators can use them to manage some or all aspects of their courses. Carleton supports Moodle (originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), an open-source, web-based tool that teachers in more than 45,000 learning communities around the world use to deliver content to students through recorded lectures, readings, quizzes, exercises, newsfeeds, and other materials. Professors can also accept, grade, and return assignments digitally; provide web versions of syllabi; hold virtual discussions; and much more.

“At Carleton, faculty members opt to use Moodle in roughly half the courses,” says Lackie.

Keeping Up at Carleton

With so many changes afoot in teaching and learning, it’s difficult for any one teacher—or institution—to keep pace. Yet it’s fair to say that Carleton is doing better than most. The College has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to providing faculty members with wide-ranging curricular support services through resources such as the LTC, the Science Education Resource Center, Academic Technologies, the Gould Library, and Information Technology Services.

Several campus-wide initiatives launched in the past 5 to 10 years, such as Visualizing the Liberal Arts and Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge, help keep Carleton’s curriculum vibrant and current. Along with other initiatives, such as Writing Across the Curriculum (which dates back to the 1970s), these programs offer faculty members annual grants to support curricular improvement. What’s more, Carleton has an impressive array of innovative, technology-rich facilities—such the Weitz Center for Creativity, which opened in fall 2011, the Language and Dining Center, and the Center for Math and Computing.

But when it comes to teaching and learning, Carleton’s most important asset surely resides in the passion of its faculty and staff. “Sometimes we’re not sure if [new pedagogies] represent progress or not, says religion professor Louis Newman, the current director of the LTC. “But we are confident that our faculty is extremely good—and very committed to teaching.”

Newman points out that each year, 60 to 70 percent of Carleton faculty members typically participate in one or more of the LTC’s noon lunch events (held weekly during the term) and winter break workshops. At a recent lunch event, three Carleton professors gave examples of how they’ve incorporated screencasting and video podcasting into their courses. And, each day, Carleton faculty members bring what they learn about education into the classroom. (See sidebars, below.)

Carleton has been conducting its own research, which over the past couple years has included a study on curricular uses of visual materials and a six-month study on curricular and research support at the College, intended to identify existing support services and challenges, help eliminate redundant efforts, and focus expertise on current needs.

The College is using the research to inform the design and renovation of facilities, as well as the hours, staffing, and location of academic support centers. “Curricular and research support at Carleton should be designed both to encourage student engagement with expertise on campus and to foster independent pursuit of knowledge,” says Andrea Nixon, Carleton’s director of curricular research and support.

In the meantime, Savina is convinced that as new knowledge about learning and teaching continues to evolve, Carleton’s faculty members will keep current. “There’s an eagerness among Carleton faculty members to make their teaching as excellent as possible,” she says. “They’re always looking for ways to improve what they do in the classroom.”

Assasinating Nero

carleton2012_cw_0813_010.jpgWhen Carleton classics professors Clara Hardy and Chico Zimmerman teach the section of “Classics 110” on Neronian Rome, almost inevitably, one or more students ask: “Why didn’t they just assassinate Nero?”

Why, indeed?

“Nero did some pretty insane things,” says Hardy. Like ordering the execution of his own mother and burning captured Christians at night to provide light in his gardens. “And it’s almost inconceivable to students how
he could have stayed in power.”

To help them understand what it was like to live in Nero’s autocracy, in 2008 she and Zimmerman, the Hazel Lillian Amland Grose Professor of Classics, worked with Carleton’s Information Technology Services to create a game called “Neropolis.”

Modeled loosely on the popular Carleton undergraduate game Assassins (a last-person-standing-wins game in which Nerf gun–slinging students attempt to carry out mock assassinations), Neropolis uses a virtual environment to immerse students in the life of Neronian Rome.

Each student is assigned a persona, such as senator, soldier, assassin, Nero sympathizer, or spy. They create their own profile on a Facebook-like wall and use images from ancient coins or sculptures as their portraits.

Unbeknownst to the students, an anonymous faculty member assumes the role of Nero, which allows him or her to inject more history into the game. One year, a colleague got so immersed in the role of the tyrannical Roman emperor, he even wrote poetry (Nero fancied himself a poet) and posted it on his wall.

To successfully assassinate Nero, students must identify three co-conspirators and all four of them must post “Death to Nero” on their personal walls within two minutes of one another. This can be much more difficult than it might seem, since the would-be assassins don’t know which students are sympathetic to their cause—and who is a spy or member of Nero’s praetorian guard. Although the game runs for just two weeks, it has a significant effect on the students.

“Very quickly, they learn what it’s like to live in an autocracy, where there’s a secret service—essentially—monitoring everything you do,” says Hardy. “More importantly, it involves students at a much higher level than lectures and class discussions alone and pulls in some students who weren’t engaged at all. Neropolis—which is what Nero wanted to call Rome—is a game that brings a lot of fun to the classics.”

Research by the Masses

One of the most powerful learning experiences a student can have is to work side-by-side with a faculty member on a real-world research project. It builds understanding and develops a student’s critical thinking abilities in ways nothing else can. Unfortunately, it’s not feasible to provide all undergraduates with traditional research opportunities.

In her “Biology 241 Genetics Lab” (a companion to “Biology 240 Genetics”), Susan Singer believes she has come up with a way to recreate that experience for an entire classroom of undergraduates. Singer, who is the Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of Biology and Cognitive Science, is a recognized authority on science education. She recently chaired the National Research Council’s committee that authored Discipline-based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering.

“This lab work captures the advantages of doing a research project with a faculty member—48 students at a time,” says Singer. The key to immersing so many students in their own real-world research project within the confines of a typical science class is to provide them with what Singer calls the “scaffolding”—sophisticated online tools and other resources, including a huge genomics database, that guides students through the process of identifying and resolving complex problems in genomics research.

“Our students pose—and answer—these questions the same way a biologist would,” says Singer. For example, students have studied why the prairie legume Chamaecrista fasciculata (a focus of Singer’s research) flowers earlier in Minnesota than it does in more southern climes. Singer provides them with sample plants grown under a variety of conditions, such as long day, short day, warm temperatures, and cool temperatures.

“They’re able to do their own research—like isolating the RNA from the plant, mapping out the gene sequence, and identifying how both genetic and environmental factors play into the differences among these plants,” says Singer. “Biology is incredibly exciting; the best way to convey that to students is by having them do the work of real-world biologists.

“What’s more, we’ve found that this approach really works,” she says. “We use a critical thinking rubric to analyze their first paper and their final paper; it shows that the students’ critical thinking skills increase substantially during the term. In many ways, the gains students make in this class are similar to the gains from a one-on-one research project with a faculty member.”

Tightening the Feedback Loop

carleton2012_cw_0813_064.jpgLike most Carleton faculty members, Aaron Swoboda ’01 spends a lot of time and energy trying to incorporate new methods of learning and teaching into his classes. Swoboda, who holds a joint appointment in economics and environmental studies, follows a number of education blogs, attends conferences, and participates in as many workshops as he can at Carleton’s Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching. He has begun focusing more of his teaching energies on what he likes to call “tightening the feedback loop.”

“Rather than giving a lecture and a homework assignment one week, then grading it and giving it back a week or two later, I’m trying to tighten that loop by creating more interaction and active learning in the classroom,” says Swoboda.

The idea sounds simple, but it takes a lot of work to pull it off. Swoboda uses combinations of new teaching tools and methods. He has videotaped many of his lectures for students to view prior to class. He uses a team-based learning approach, in which groups of students answer a question, compare their answers, and try to figure out why they came up with different results.

When he identifies gaps in knowledge during classroom discussion, he follows up with a mini-lecture on the topic. If Swoboda thinks the spontaneous mini-lectures cover significant information, he creates follow-up recordings so students can review that information on their own time. Swoboda also encourages his students to use Google Docs, Skype, and web-conferencing software when working on group projects outside the classroom.

“By working together in teams and having more classroom discussions and interactions, I can identify the mistakes students are making, correct them much earlier, and help them better understand why we’re doing the things we’re doing,” says Swoboda.

Web Extra: Read reports on Carleton’s curricular and research support.

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Children's Services, Tennessee Dept. of

Collected by: Tennessee State Library and Archives

Archived since: Oct, 2006

The Department of Children's Services responds to over 37,000 reports of child abuse and neglect a year and is responsible for providing temporary care or foster care for many of these children. Hundreds of children are in the guardianship of the State of Tennessee. The Department can find them foster homes, group homes and other residential settings as well as helps to find permanent placement for children through adoption services. The Tennessee Department of Children's Services Division of Juvenile Justice also serves children who have been committed to the Department by the juvenile courts for delinquent offenses.

Subject:   Government - US States Children - Services for - Tennessee Foster children- Tennessee

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Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Ian Stakenvicius <axs@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Let's redesign the entire filesystem! [was newsitem: unmasking udev-181]
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:37:44
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Let's redesign the entire filesystem! [was newsitem: unmasking udev-181] by Joshua Kinard
Hash: SHA256

On 12/03/12 11:14 PM, Joshua Kinard wrote:
> On 03/12/2012 22:33, Ian Stakenvicius wrote: > >> >> On 2012-03-12, at 9:22 PM, Joshua Kinard <kumba@g.o> >> wrote: >> >>> >>> And yes, I've already tested out udev-181 on a VM with a >>> separate /usr. With devtmpfs, the system fully boots just >>> fine, no initramfs needed. Guess what the only piece of >>> software to mess up is? Udev. I largely think it's a timing >>> issue in OpenRC, however, because /usr DOES get mounted fairly >>> quickly, but not before udevd starts. But udevd does restart >>> itself and everything looks to work fine. If you aren't >>> watching the terminal, you wouldn't even notice the failures. >>> >> >> >> THANK YOU for testing this -- I could not forsee a reason, back >> when this process started, as to why openrc couldn't mount /usr >> before udev started. since devtmpfs should provide the source >> devnode anyways. It's good to have a (near) proof of that. >> >> Ian > > Yeah, I think it's an easy fix either in openrc or in an initscript > somewhere. I changed nothing except my kernel (was missing > devtmpfs -- it's not under Filesystems!), uninstalled > module-init-tools, and installed kmod + udev-181. Then rolled back > the snapshot once I had the results.
Ah, right; kmod.. Tthere's pressure for that one to move to /usr too, isn't there mgorny? .... ok, nvm. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (GNU/Linux) iF4EAREIAAYFAk9fTXIACgkQAJxUfCtlWe3RQQD8DIr8mZ773vIqhIxf5ERYWo8E ZkfDgAUlUDF7hcDiuUIA/1amWFFZcVu36V6vikq4HGF0we43YYMVLW6b96SblGzN =dKid -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


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Paramedics were called to two popular Perth beaches today to treat a man who suffered a stroke and a 12-year-old boy with suspected spinal injuries.

St John Ambulance was called to City Beach about 9am after the man suffered a stroke at the beach.
Lifeguards were at the scene.

The 12-year-old boy was treated by lifeguards at Cottesloe Beach for a suspected spinal injury just before 1pm.

The West Australian

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Lyla puts spotlight on cystic fibrosis
Looking forward: Hayley and Lyla Gillard. Picture: Steve Ferrier/The West Australian

Lyla Gillard runs into her home flashing a beautiful after-school smile and, when asked by her grandmother if she knows her words for next week's assembly, she chirps: "Yes, but they're too easy."

But easy has been far from a common theme in the six-year-old's life.

Lyla was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis soon after birth and the 70 trips since from her Gwelup home to Princess Margaret Hospital have become the road map to her life's harsh reality.

The Year 1 student will be the face of an annual Perth golf fundraiser on May 2 to launch the Cystic Fibrosis month, which includes "65 Roses Day" across Australia.

This year's guest speaker for the teams event at Lake Karrinyup will be WA tennis star Casey Dellacqua's cousin Kaila Thomas, who also has the disorder.

For the past three years, Lyla has been admitted to PMH every three months, but the regime has done little to blunt her happy persona.

"She's a real trooper, a tough cookie. She likes going to PMH and thinks it's a holiday," her mother Hayley said.

Lyla's condition causes a build-up of mucus through her body that she knows only as "sticky stuff".

Her daily routine includes half-hour physiotherapy sessions, sometimes twice a day, two nebuliser medications and 40 tablets. She also takes enzymes every time she eats or drinks.

Her mother pours antibiotics into an intravenous port under her right armpit three times a day for up to three weeks every three months, sometimes even in the car on being picked up from school.

Despite knowing that a CF sufferer's life expectancy is about 38 years, the Gillards are optimistic that research will soon provide a medical breakthrough.

"I often think that one day I'm going to wake up and I'm going to see on the news that there's a cure," Mrs Gillard said.

The West Australian

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AWS Official Blog

Amazon CloudFront: HTTPS Access, Another Edge Location, Price Reduction

by Jeff Barr | on | in Amazon CloudFront, Amazon S3, Announcements, Price Reduction |

We continue to enhance Amazon CloudFront at a rapid pace. Here’s the latest and greatest:

  1. We’ve added a new edge location in New York City. This location will provide even better performance to users requesting your content from New York and the northeastern United States.
  2. We’ve reduced pricing for CloudFront HTTP requests by 25%. The prices now start at $0.0075 per 10,000 requests.
  3. You can now deliver content over an HTTPS connection by replacing the “http:” with “https:” in the links to your CloudFront content.
  4. You can configure any of your CloudFront distributions so that the content must be accessed by an HTTPS connection.

The first three items should be pretty much self-explanatory, so let’s take a look at the fourth…

You can now configure an Amazon CloudFront distribution such that access to the Amazon S3 objects represented by the distribution is limited to HTTPS connections. You can do this to protect your content as it travels from a CloudFront edge location to your client application, or to avoid the dreaded “mixed content” warning issued by many web browsers.

Here’s a simple diagram:

To configure your distribution in this matter you simply set the distribution’s RequiredProtocols attribute to the value “https”. If you do not set this attribute, the contents of the distribution will be accessible via both HTTP and HTTPS. You cannot currently make HTTPS requests via a CNAME.

The following third-party applications provide simple tools to set up your distributions for HTTPS access:

These third-party tools are provided by companies unaffiliated with AWS.

– Jeff;


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Fifty days to party (and ponder)

The good news of Easter can take time to ponder. But don’t forget to throw a party in the meantime.

By Jeff Harris

Even though Marshmallow Peeps and Cadbury Creme Eggs are long gone, it’s still Easter. The church spends 40 days (we call it Lent) preparing for Easter and when it finally arrives, we wear seersucker and hats, consume enough sugar to raise Jesus from the dead (again), hunt eggs so many times that we eventually hide them where they can never be found so the game can finally end (don’t let my kids in on that secret), all to breathe a sigh of relief and say, “It’s over!”

Or at least that’s what we ministers say, since Holy Week is our busiest of the year. We are never so glad to shake hands after worship as we are on Easter Sunday because we can finally exhale. As the preacher Lillian Daniel said, “Christ is risen! I’m going to bed!” A nap after Easter worship is the closest thing to heaven this side of the grave.

But the celebration of the resurrection doesn’t end with a nap on Easter Sunday. The church sets aside 50 days to celebrate the resurrection. After the 40 somber days of Lent, we get 50 days in which to party.

As a lifelong Baptist I was taught that parties were bad, and that if you went to one you might get into trouble. The logic was: avoid parties, follow Jesus and all will be well. What they forgot to tell me is that following Jesus is more dangerous than going to parties.

Instead of the zealot they were hoping for, they got a servant who fought more with the religious authorities than he did with the Romans. But this Jesus didn’t fight with a sword; he used sharp words that wounded and healed. Rather than hating your enemies, Jesus said to love them and to pray for those who persecute you. He taught the hard work of turning the other cheek.

Jesus taught that the meek will inherit the earth, that the merciful will receive mercy and that the peacemakers will be called children of God. He said that in order to find your life, you must lose it, and that the last will be first, while the first will be last.

He warned about the danger of judging others, reminding us that it’s hard to see clearly when there’s a log in your eye. Jesus encouraged us to live simply, not to worry so much about our lives, or what we eat and drink and wear. He told us clearly, you cannot serve God and wealth.

Jesus told subversive stories about good Samaritans, which was an oxymoron in that time (if he were to tell the story today, he would probably make the hero a Muslim or a homosexual); he told another about a prodigal son, which turned out to be a story about a prodigal God — a God so reckless with grace that he welcomes home sinners before they even repent, a God so full of love, that we hear from the cross, “Forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

The God we find in Jesus is so unlike the gods we create in our own image. After all these years, this Jesus still afflicts we comfortable religious folks enough for us to kill him all over again. That God raised Jesus from the dead is the climax to the strange story of Easter, reminding us that while the ways of Jesus may get you killed, they ultimately lead to life.

I understand that the good news of Easter is difficult to believe, but I don’t know anyone other than God who could have imagined such a wondrously wild redemption. So if it takes you 50 days to ponder such news, then ponder. But amid your pondering don’t forget to throw a party or three, because Easter is a time to celebrate the God whose love is greater than our hate, whose life is greater than our death. And in case your party goes on for so long that you run out of wine, give Jesus a call — I hear he has a knack of showing up for just such an occasion.

OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.


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Barbosa's Two Goals Carry UMass Boston to 4-2 Win over Western Connecticut

DANBURY, Conn.—Rolando Barbosa (Fogo, Cape Verde) broke out of a season-high six-game scoreless streak with two goals to lift UMass Boston men's soccer to a 4-2 victory over Western Connecticut State University Saturday afternoon at the Westside Athletic Complex.

With the win, UMass Boston moved to 9-4-1 and into sole possession of third place in the Little East at 2-1-1. The Colonials continued to struggle, extending their winless streak to 10 games (0-8-2), as they fell to 2-9-2 and 0-2-2 in Little East play.

Saturday's win marked the Beacons third in a row over Western Connecticut State.

Barbosa picked up his fifth and sixth goals of the season for the Beacons, while Lucas Ordosgoitia (Cartegna, Colombia) and Edmilson Barros (Boston, Mass.) added markers for the Beacons.

Junior Douglas Silveira (Revere, Mass.) showed signs of getting back to full health, as he recorded two assists, while Luis Alva (Lima, Peru) and Barros each contributed with an assist.

Matthew Staehle and Vigan Pacuku scored for the hosts who have not won since September 7, their third contest of the year.

UMass Boston goaltender Alfonso Rosales (Revere, Mass.) tied his season-high with six saves, as he stopped six of the eight shots he faced.

Bobby Strevel took the loss for the Colonials, as he recorded six saves on 10 shots on goal.

The Beacons won the contest despite being outshot 20-16. UMass Boston did own a 10-8 edge in shots on goal, with the Colonials and Beacons tying at four in corner kicks.

The match was dominated by physical play, as seven yellow cards were issued and the Beacons were forced to play all but 44 seconds of the second half down a man due to a red card.

UMass Boston opened the scoring at 21:24, as Ordosgoitia recorded the first goal of his junior season, off a nifty pass from Alva.

The Beacons pushed the lead to 2-0 just before the break, as Barbosa scored the first of his two goals off a pass from Barros.

Western Connecticut opened the second-half scoring at 63:55, as Staehle took a feed from Eren Ceylan to cut the Beacons lead to 2-1.

Barros pushed the momentum back into Umass Boston's favor, as he took a pass from Silveira and finished for his league-leading 10th goal of the year just over 30 seconds after the Colonials goal. The Beacons freshman outside back also is tied for first in the conference for points with 21.

Pacuku made it 3-2 in the 73rd minute off a Chris Spennato pass, but Barbosa's second goal of the night put the game safely in UMB's hands. Barbosa took a feed from Silveira and rocketed it by Strevel for a 4-2 lead at the 77:29 mark.

UMass Boston will return home Tuesday when they host Worcester State University at 3:30 p.m.


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JythonBook / input_output.rst

Full commit

A program means very little if it does not take input of some kind from the program user. Likewise, if there is no form of output from a program then one may ask why we have a program at all. Input and output operations can define the user experience and usability of any program. This chapter is all about how to put information or data into a program, and then how to display it or save it to a file. This chapter does not discuss working with databases, but rather, working at a more rudimentary level with files. Throughout this chapter you will learn such techniques as how to input data for a program via a terminal or command line, likewise, you will learn how to read input from a file and write to a file. After reading this chapter, you should know how to persist Python objects to disk using the pickle module and also how to retrieve objects from disk and use them.

As stated in the preface to this chapter, almost every program takes input from a user in one form or another. Most basic applications allow for keyboard entry via a terminal or command line environment. Python makes keyboard input easy, and as with many other techniques in Python there are more than one way to enable keyboard input. In this section, we’ll cover each of those different ways to perform this task, along with a couple of use-cases. In the end you should be able to identify the most suitable method of performing input and output for your needs.

sys.stdin and raw_input

Making use of std.stdin is by far the most widely used method to read input from the command line or terminal. This procedure consists of importing the sys package, then writing a message prompting the user for some input, and lastly reading the input by making a call to sys.stdin.readln() and assigning the returned value to a variable. The process looks like the code that is displayed below.

# Obtain a value from the command line and store it into a variable

>>> import sys
>>> fav_team = sys.stdin.readline()
>>> sys.stdout.write("My favorite team is: %s" % fav_team)
My favorite team is: Cubs

You can see that the usage of sys modules is quite easy.  However, another approach to performing this same task is to make use of the  raw_input        function.  This function uses a more simplistic syntax in order to perform the same procedure.  It basically generates some text on the command line or terminal, accepts user input, and assigns it to a variable.  Let’s take a look at the same example from above using the        raw_input        syntax.  Note that there is another function that performs a similar task named the    input    function.  However, the        input    function needs to be used with great care as it could be a potential security risk.  The       raw_input        function always returns content passed in as a string whereas the      input    function returns content and evaluates it as an expression.  It is safest to stay away from using      input    whenever possible.
# Obtain a value using raw_input and store it into a variable
>>> fav_team = raw_input("Enter your favorite team: ")
Enter your favorite team: Cubs

Obtaining Variables from Jython Environment

It is possible to retrieve values directly from the Jython environment for use within your applications. For instance, we can obtain system environment variables or use the variables that are assigned to sys.argv at runtime. sys.argv is a list containing the strings that have been passed into the command line or terminal. For instance, let’s take a look at a simple function that prints the contents of sys.argv.

import sys
  for x in sys.argv:
     print x

jython test test2

To use environment variable values within your Jython application, simply import the os module and use it’s environ dictionary to access them. Since this is a dictionary object, you can obtain a listing of all environment variables by simply typing os.environ .

>>> import os
>>> os.environ["HOME"]

# Change home directory for the Python session >>> os.environ["HOME"] = "/newhome" >>> os.environ["HOME"] /newhome'

When you are executing a Jython module from the command prompt or terminal, you can make use of the sys.argv list that takes values from the command prompt or terminal after invoking the Jython module. For instance, if we are interested in having our program user enter some arguments to be used by the module, they can simply invoke the module and then type all of the text entries followed by spaces, using quotes if you wish to pass an argument that contains a space. The number of arguments can be any size (I’ve never hit an upper bound anyways), so the possibilities are endless.

# – Prints all of the arguments provided at the command line
import sys
    for sysargs in sys.argv:
        print sysargs

# Usage
>>> jython test test2 "test three"
test three

As you can see, the first entry in sys.argv is the script name, and then each additional argument provided after the module name is then added to the sys.argv list. This is quite useful for creating scripts to use for automating tasks, etc.

You learned a bit about the File data type in chapter 2 of this book. In that chapter, we briefly discussed a few of the operations that can be performed using this type. In this section, we will go into detail on what we can do with a File object. We’ll start with the basics, and move into more detail. To begin, you should take a look at the table below that lists all of the methods available to a *File *object and what they do.

Method     Description
close()     Close file
fileno()     Returns integer file descriptor
flush()     Used to flush or clear the output buffers and write content to the file
isatty()     If the file is an interactive terminal, returns 1
next()     Returns the next line in the file; iterates over the file. If no line is found, raises StopIteration
read(x)     Reads x bytes
readline(x)   Reads single line up to x characters, or entire line if x is omitted
readlines(size)   Reads all lines in file into a list. If size > 0, reads that number of characters
seek()     Moves cursor to a new position in the file
tell()     Returns the current position of the cursor
truncate(size)   Truncates file’s size. Size defaults to current position unless specified
write(string)   Writes a string to the file object
writelines(seq)   Writes all strings contained in a sequence with no separator

Table 9-1: File Object Methods

We’ll start by creating a file for use. As discussed in chapter 2, the open(filename[, mode])*built-in function creates and opens a specified file in a particular manner. The *mode specifies what mode we will open the file into, be it read, read-write, etc.

>>> myFile = open('mynewfile.txt','w')
>>> firstString = “This is the first line of text.”
>>> myFile.write(firstString)
>>> myFile.close()

In the example above, the file “mynewfile.txt” did not exist until the open function was called. If it did exist already, the previous version is overwritten by the new version and it is now empty. The file was created in write mode and then we do just that, write a string to the file. Now, it is important to make mention that the firstString is not actually written to the file until it is closed or flush() *is performed. It is also worth mentioning that if we were to close the file, reopen it, and perform a subsequent *write() operation on the file then the previous contents of the file would be overwritten by content of the new write.

Now we’ll step through each of the file functions in an example. The main focus of this example is to provide you with a place to look for actual working file I/O code.

# Write lines to file, flush, and close >>> myFile = open(‘mynewfile.txt’,’w’) >>> myFile.write('This is the first line of text.n') >>> myFile.write('This is the second line of text.n') >>> myFile.write('This is the last line of text.n') >>> myFile.flush() # Optional, really unneccesary if closing the file but useful to clear buffer >>> myFile.close()

# Open file in read mode >>> myFile = open('mynewfile.txt','r') >>>

# If we read again, we get a ‘’ because cursor is at the end of text >>> ''

# Seek back to the beginning of file and perform read again >>> >>> This is the first line of text.This is the second line of text.This is the last line of text.'

# Seek back to beginning of file and perform readline() >>> >>> myFile.readline() 'This is the first line of text.n' >>> myFile.readline() 'This is he second line of text.n' >>> myFile.readline() 'This is the last line of text.n' >>> myFile.readline() ''

# Use tell() to display current cursor position >>> myFile.tell() 93L >>> >>> myFile.tell() 0L

# Loop through lines of file >>> for line in myFile: ... print line ... This is the first line of text.

This is the second line of text.

This is the last line of text.

There are a handful of read-only attributes that we can use to find out more information about file objects. For instance, if we are working with a file and want to see if it is still open or if it has been closed, we could view the closed attribute on the file to return a boolean stating whether the file is closed. The following table lists each of these attributes and what they tell us about a file object.

Attribute     Description
closed     Returns a boolean to indicate if the file is closed
encoding   Returns a string indicating encoding on file
mode     Returns the I/O mode for a file(i.e.: 'r', 'w', 'r+,'rb', etc.)
name     Returns the name of the file
newlines   Returns the newline representation in the file. This keeps track of the types of newlines encountered while reading the file. Allows for universal newline support.

File Attributes

>>> myFile.closed
>>> myFile.mode

One of the most popular modules in the Python language is the pickle module. The goal of this module is basically to allow for the serialization and persistence of Python objects to disk in file format. A pickled object can be written to disk using this module, and it can also be read back in and utilized in object format. Just about any Python object can be persisted using pickle.

To write an object to disk, we call the pickle() function. The object will be written to file in a format that my be unusable by anything else, but we can then read that file back into our program and use the object as it was prior to writing it out. In the following example, we’ll create a Player object and then persist it to file using pickle. Later, we will read it back into a program and make use of it. We will make use of the File object when working with the pickle module.

>>> import pickle
>>> class Player(object):
...     def __init__(self, first, last, position):
...         self.first = first
...         self.last = last
...         self.position = position
>>> player = Player('Josh','Juneau','Forward')
>>> pickleFile = open('myPlayer','wb')
>>> pickle.dump(player, pickleFile)
>>> pickleFile.close()

In the example above, we’ve persisted a Player object to disk using the dump(object, file) method in the pickle module. Now let’s read the object back into our program and print it out.

>>> pickleFile = open('myPlayer','rb')
>>> player1 = pickle.load(pickleFile)
>>> pickleFile.close()
>>> player1.first
>>> player1.last, player1.position
('Juneau', 'Forward')
Similarly, we read the pickled file back into our program using the method. Once read and stored into a variable, we can close the file and work with the object. If we had to perform a sequence of or tasks, we could do so one after the other without issue. You should also be aware that there are different protocols that can be used in order to make work in different Python environments. The default protocol is 0, but protocols 1 and 2 are also available for use. It is best to stick with the default as it works well in most situations, but if you run into any trouble using with binary formats then please give the others a try.
If we had to store objects to disk and reference them at a later time, it may make sense to use the      module which acts like a dictionary for pickeled objects.  With the     technique, you basically        an object and store it using a string-based key value.  You can later retrieve the object by passing the key to the opened file object.  This technique is very similar to a filing cabinet for our objects in that we can always reference our objects by key value.  Let’s take a look at this technique and see how it works.
# Store different player objects
>>> import shelve
>>> player1 = Player('Josh','Juneau','forward')
>>> player2 = Player('Jim','Baker','defense')
>>> player3 = Player('Frank','Wierzbicki','forward')
>>> player4 = Player('Leo','Soto','defense')
>>> player5 = Player('Vic','Ng','center')
>>> data ="players")
>>> data['player1'] = player1
>>> data['player2'] = player2
>>> data['player3'] = player3
>>> data['player4'] = player4
>>> data['player5'] = player5
>>> playerTemp = data['player3']
>>> playerTemp.first, playerTemp.last, playerTemp.position
('Frank', 'Wierzbicki', 'forward')
>>> data.close()

In the scenario above, we used the same Player object that was defined in the previous examples. We then opened a new shelve and named it “players”, this shelve actually consists of a set of three files that are written to disk. These three files can be found on disk named “players.bak”, “players.dat”, and “players.dir” once the objects were persisted into the shelve and when close() was called on the object. As you can see, all of the Player objects we’ve instantiated have all been stored into this shelve unit, but they exist under different keys. We could have named the keys however we wished, as long as they were each unique. In the example, we persist five objects and then at the end one of the objects is retrieved and displayed. This is quite a nice technique to make a small data store.

Output Techniques

We basically covered the print statement in chapter 2 very briefly when discussing string formatting. The print statement is by far the most utilized form of output in most Python programs. Although we covered some basics such as conversion types and how to format a line of output in chapter 2, here we will go into a bit more depth on some different variations of the print *statement as well as other techniques for generating output. There are basically two formats that can be used with the *print statement. We covered the first in chapter two, and it makes use of a string and some conversion types embedded within the string and preceded by a percent (%) symbol. After the string, we use another percent(%) symbol followed by a parenthesized list of arguments that will be substituted in place of the embedded conversion types in our string in order. Check out the examples of each depicted in the example below.

# Using the % symbol
>>> x = 5
>>> y = 10
>>> print 'The sum of %d and %d is %d' % (x, y, (x + y))
The sum of 5 and 10 is 15

>>> adjective = "awesome"
>>> print 'Jython programming is %s' % (adjective)
Jython programming is awesome

You can also format floating-point output using the conversion types that are embedded in your string. You may specify a number of decimal places you’d like to print by using a “.# of places” syntax in the embedded conversion type.

>>> pi = 3.14
>>> print 'Here is some formatted floating point arithmetic: %.2f' % (pi + y)
Here is some formatted floating point arithmetic: 13.14
>>> print 'Here is some formatted floating point arithmetic: %.3f' % (pi + y)
Here is some formatted floating point arithmetic: 13.140

It goes without saying that Python has its share of input and output strategies. This chapter covered most of those techniques starting with basic terminal or command line I/O and then onto file manipulation. We learned how to make use of the open function for creating, reading, or writing a file. The command line sys.argv arguments are another way that we can grab input, and environment variables can also be used from within our programs. Following those topics, we took a brief look at the pickle module and how it can be used to persist Python objects to disk. shelve is another twist on using pickle that allows for multiple objects to be indexed and stored within the same file. Finally, we discussed a couple of techniques for performing output in our programs.

Although there are some details that were left out as I/O could consume an entire book, this chapter was a solid starting point into the broad topic of I/O in Python. As with much of the Python language specifics discussed in this book, there are many resources available on the web and in book format that will help you delve deeper into the topics if you wish. A good resource is 'Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional' by: Magnus Lie Hetland. You may also wish to look at the Python documentation which can be found at:


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New Users

Creating a new bitcoin wallet takes literally a few seconds. You will be able to send and receive payments immediately.

Existing Users

If you have previously created a My Wallet account click below to login.

Help And Support

Please consult the FAQ for commonly asked questions. For any problems with the site, please contact us.

What is SMS Authentication?

We will send you an SMS (Text) message with a unique one time password which must be provided before your wallet data will be made available for decryption. To be able to login to your wallet you must provide both your password and SMS code. If for example your wallet password was compromised due to a keylogger or phishing attempt the attacker would be unable to access your wallet without also having access to your cell phone so your bitcoins would remain safe!

How Do I enable SMS Authentication?

Login to your My Wallet Account on the Welcome Screen click [Account Details] and the [Security]. Choose SMS From the Two factor authentication select box.

At next login an authentication code will be sent to you. Simply enter the code as shown below.

I didn't receive a confirmation code?

The provided phone number must include the full international dialing code prefixed with a +. International SMS messaging can be unreliable some country codes and network providers may not be supported.

How much does it cost?

There is no charge for this service.

What other types of Two-Factor authentication does My Wallet support?

My Wallet supports Yubikey, Google Authenticator and Email two factor authentication.

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No problem, simply complete a two factor authentication reset request.


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If Americans are ever going to embrace electric vehicles, industry observers agree that our apprehension about finding places to refuel will have to be addressed with unparalleled infrastructure development.

Well, that time might arrive sooner than we expect. According to the Dept. of Energy's 'Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Program' charging stations are taking off across America. The DOE says easy access to charging stations will be key to meeting energy-efficiency goals, and thanks to companies like ChargePoint, finding a charging station is getting more convenient than ever.

ChargePoint recently finished installing 4,600 U.S.-manufactured Level 2 charging stations in residential and commercial locations across the U.S. as part of its ChargePoint America Program—which was supported with a $15 million grant from the Energy Department and dollar-for-dollar matches by ChargePoint.

(How ChargePoint got picked by the DOE for this project, I'm afraid to ask.) Nonetheless, it's important to note that Level 2 chargers typically add 10-20 miles to the range of the electric vehicle per hour of charging.

The company also worked with vehicle manufacturers Chevrolet, Ford, BMW, and Nissan to provide home charging station hardware at no cost to their customers in exchange for collecting operational data from the charging station.

4,600 charging stations may sound like a lot, but across a country the size of the U.S., it's uncertain exactly how much "coverage" these stations truly provide. Conventional gas stations total around 16,000 nationwide.

The success of the ChargePoint America Program has enabled the Campbell, California-company to raise more than $50 million in investment from the private sector and grow from 16 ChargePoint employees in June 2009 to more than 150 employees today.

The ChargePoint America Program was deployed in 10 regions across the nation where installation costs were supported by private industry and state-level grants. Over the next two years, ChargePoint and the Energy Department will collect data from these charging stations to help manufacturers and community planners optimize electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Do you agree that electric vehicles and the infrastructure they require should be subsidized by your federal government?


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When a #Sharknado attacks! How the phenomenon happened on Twitter

What do you get when you mix sharks with a tornado with hundreds of thousands of Tweets? Sharknado, of course. On July 11, @Syfy network’s Sharknado was the most-social program on TV in the US. So, what exactly happened? (And we don’t mean how those sharks got into that tornado.)

SocialGuide, which measures social activity around TV, ranked it the most tweeted-about program on TV that evening — and that’s a list that includes Big Brother on CBS (@CBSBigBrother) and MTV’s Girl Code (@GirlCode). Social Guide measured 318,232 Tweets about the show during its broadcast — 17% of all the Tweets sent about TV the night of July 11. Over the last 24 hours that’s over 440,000 Tweets, according to Topsy.

Social Guide measured 318,232 Tweets about #sharknado during its broadcast — 17% of Tweets about TV last night.

#sharknado was an instant Twitter phenomenon — that burned brightly and waned quickly. About halfway through the broadcast, Twitter conversation around it reached a peak of over 5,000 Tweets per minute by the time the movie finished at 11pm ET and then subsided to 500 tweets per minute by midnight. This brief flood of Tweets dominated the night. SocialGuide data shows that 38% of all Tweets about the movie came from the East Coast, with another 25% from the Central region.

The conversation didn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, there has been tweeting around #sharknado since it was announced last year — this is the earliest Tweet we could find following one by @STYDNews.

Craig Engler, SVP at @Syfy digital and runs the @Syfy account, used Twitter leading into the airing of Sharknado to start building the buzz among the network’s followers. “Hours before the movie even aired we were retweeting the fans talking about how much they were looking forward to watching it and also tweeting out Sharknado ‘warnings’,” he says. “Then about 20 minutes before the movie aired we could see there was an, ahem, feeding frenzy going on around it so we started jumping into as many conversations as we could.”

Engler says Twitter is crucial to the way that @Syfy builds up interest in a show like Sharknado. “We know going in that people already love to tweet about these movies, so our goal is to foster the conversation and amplify it. For instance, we’ll retweet fun posts from our viewers on the @Syfy feed, which the fans LOVE. It gives them their 15 minutes of fame on Twitter and shows them that we’re listening and playing along.”

At one point we had three of the Top 10 trending topics (#sharknado, #syfy, and #tarareid) at the same time.

“A lot of my friends and colleagues were e-mailing me particularly funny Tweets that I might have missed because, at thousands of Tweets per minute, it’s easy to not see some of the best stuff. I was ping ponging between my work and personal e-mail accounts, the @Syfy public feed and all the DMs I had coming in. It was exhausting, but fun! At one point we had three of the Top 10 trending topics (#sharknado, #syfy, and #tarareid) at the same time.”

The rollercoaster begins

But what started the rollercoaster of conversation running? Just before the show begins there is a build-up of conversation. Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof (@Damon Lindelof) posts this Tweet:

Reporters then announce they are live-blogging the movie.

Tweets such as this start appearing:

It’s then picked up among people with a lot of followers. Actor Wil Wheaton (@WilW) (who is not actually in the movie, by the way) has 2.4 million followers. He posted updates in anticipation of it starting.

Then the movie starts and for those two hours, it dominates a normally quiet night on TV at a quiet time of the year.

Everyone is watching:

New memes take off, such as ideas for pitches for @Syfy shows:

Or even responses from the Red Cross in Oklahoma:

And this Tweet, which is the most retweeted of the night.

Inside the conversation

But how many people were really involved? It doesn’t take many accounts to get a big discussion started. Around 15% of the conversation came from 495 accounts which were mentioned a total of 66,952 times in the past 24 hours. It’s dominated by Wil Wheaton (@WilW), who also gained 3,400 new followers last night — that’s twice as many as normal. His top Tweets were retweeted over 10,335 times.

Wil Wheaton (@WilW) gained 3,400 new followers last night during #sharknado — that’s twice as many as normal. His top tweets were retweeted over 10,335 times.

Out of the top 500 Tweets, 125 of them contained mentions of other users on Twitter. This is how those conversations look in a network chart (blue is people tweeting, orange is people mentioned. The big circle in the middle is the total conversation about Sharknado).

Click image to explore the network

For Engler, the instant nature of Twitter brought the show attention from unexpected places. “Twitter was where the live, worldwide conversation was happening. I mean, I had reports from my followers in Australia and the Netherlands that Sharknado was trending in their countries even though they weren’t even airing the movie.”

At one point I was tweeting with Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) , Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) and Olivia Wilde (@OliviaWilde) about Damon’s idea for a sequel.

— Craig Engler@Syfy

Fans also got to eavesdrop on conversations between Hollywood heavyweights. Says Engler: “When notable people on Twitter post about our movies — like Damon Lindelof, Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt), Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) and many others did last night — we’ll retweet them so our fans can see what they’re saying, and we’ll also tweet along with them. At one point I was tweeting with Damon, Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) and Olivia Wilde (@OliviaWilde) about Damon’s idea for a sequel and the roles Elizabeth and Olivia wanted to play in it!”

Do you have any more innovative examples of tweeting around TV? Mail us at mediablog@twitter.com.


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Wednesday Apr 16, 2008

DSEE 6.2 Sun Alert - Database integrity issues

Please see the above link for the official Sun Alert document.  The below information is provided for quick reference only.

For additional details please also see previous blog entry on this topic:

Document Audience: PUBLIC
Document ID: 235361
Title: Sun Java System Directory Server 6.2 Database integrity may be compromised
Copyright Notice: Copyright © 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Update Date: Mon Apr 14 00:00:00 MDT 2008

Solution Type Sun Alert
Solution  235361 :   Sun Java System Directory Server 6.2 Database integrity may be compromised

Bug ID: 6642430
Product: Sun Java System Directory Server 6.2, Enterprise Edition
Date of Resolved Release: 14-Apr-2008
SA Document Body: Sun Java System Directory Server 6.2 Database integrity may be compromised

1. Impact

A race condition may cause database pages for Sun Java System Directory Server to not sync to disk, resulting in possible Directory Server Database integrity issues. Depending on which pages are affected, the impact may vary.

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases for all platforms (Solaris 8, 9, and 10 SPARC and x86 Platforms, Linux, Windows, HP-UX):
  • Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.2
Note: Directory Server 6.1, 6.0, 5.2 and 5.1 are not affected by this issue.

To determine if the Directory Server running on a system is affected, the following command can be used:

$ dsadm -V

If the output contains the version string 6.2, the system is affected.

3. Symptoms

Depending on which database page is affected and which operation tries to access it, the resulting error messages can be different, but in the most frequent cases a message similar to the following is logged:

DEBUG - conn=-1 op=-1 msgId=-1 -  libdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery

4. Workaround

There is no workaround for this issue. Please see the Resolution section below.

5. Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases: (please see blog entry for more details)

DSEE 6.3 Native Package Versions:
  • Solaris 9 and 10 with SPARC patch 125276-07 or later
  • Solaris 9 x86 with patch 125277-07 or later
  • Solaris 10 x86 and x64 with patch 125278-07 or later
  • Linux with patch 125309-07 or later
  • Windows with patch 125311-07 or later
DSEE 6.3 PatchZIP (Compressed Archive) versions:
  • Solaris 9 and 10 with SPARC patch 126748-04 or later
  • Solaris 9 x86 with patch 126749-04 or later
  • Solaris 10 x86 and x64 with patch 126750-04 or later
  • Linux with patch 126751-04 or later
  • Windows with patch 126753-04 or later
  • HP-UX with patch 126752-04 or later
Note: After patches have been applied: Since the database integrity issue can be present but undetected, it is recommended to rebuild the database by exporting to an ldif file and reimporting the ldif file. In a replicated environment, all servers need to be rebuilt or reinitialized. Export/Import and initializing servers in a replicated environment is documented in the DSEE reference guide at:

This Sun Alert notification is being provided to you on an "AS IS" basis. This Sun Alert notification may contain information provided by third parties. The issues described in this Sun Alert notification may or may not impact your system(s). Sun makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees as to the information contained herein. ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. BY ACCESSING THIS DOCUMENT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SUN SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT ARISE OUT OF YOUR USE OR FAILURE TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. This Sun Alert notification contains Sun proprietary and confidential information. It is being provided to you pursuant to the provisions of your agreement to purchase services from Sun, or, if you do not have such an agreement, the Terms of Use. This Sun Alert notification may only be used for the purposes contemplated by these agreements.

Copyright 2000-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Tuesday Apr 15, 2008

Directory Server 6.2 - Possible Database Integrity Issues

We have become aware of a bug in Directory Server 6.2 only that could cause database integrity issues.   We have a hotfix for this issue, and if you are running Directory Server 6.2 and run into this problem then you should contact Sun Support and ask for the fix for the following bug

6642430: DB corruption (zero’d pages) when performing db2ldif against large 20GB ldif file.

The sunsolve record for this bug can be found at

NOTE: This issue does not affect Directory Server 6.0 or 6.1 release so you only need this fix if you are running Directory Server 6.2.

After you have the hotfix for this issue on Directory Server 6.2 and have applied the hotfix, then you will have to re-initialize the database from an LDIF backup to fully correct the corruption issue. Simply applying the hotfix will not fix the database if the database is already corrupted. Database corruption can be present though not detected with data in binary formats. You must therefore rebuild the database by importing an LDIF backup.

Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.2 is no longer available for download and Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.3, which includes a fix for this issue, will be available for download early April.  When upgrading to Directory Server 6.3 from 6.2 (not needed if you are on 6.0 or 6.1), make sure you export the database (db2ldif) prior to the upgrade and then re-import the database after the upgrade to fully re-initialize the database and to ensure that no corruption issues remain.

Recommended patch or upgrade procedures:

  1. Shut down each directory server instance, as described in Starting, Stopping, and Restarting a Directory Server Instance.

  2. Perform an LDIF export of the database, as described in Backing Up to LDIF.

  3. Install the hotfix for bug 6642430 on Directory Server 6.2, or upgrade your Directory Server 6.2 instance to Directory Server 6.3 once Directory Server 6.3 is available for download (early April). You will need to login to Sunsolve in order to see this bug description.

  4. Re-initialize the database from the LDIF exported in step 2, as described in Importing Data From an LDIF File.

    If you are running replicated instances of Directory Server, make sure you read Restoring Replicated Suffixes as well.

This blog provides information regarding Oracle Unified Directory and Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition products. Use this blog to get the latest breaking information regarding releases and updates plus other technical and non-technical information.

« May 2015


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Online Resources for Low-Carbon Energy and Development

Daniel Kammen's picture

An important series of meetings on the Climate Investment Funds, hosted by the African Development Bank, began June 20 in Cape Town, South Africa. At one of the first events, discussion focused on how individual households, communities, cities, companies, and nations find and use tools to develop low-carbon, pro-growth, gender-sensitive, pro-access energy solutions. A key factor in this process is access to:

  • information on technologies and policies
  • tools to build integrated plans for the energy sector at small and large-scale.

At a session on lessons drawn from energy efficiency and renewable energy experiences, I promised to share a preliminary list of websites and online tools to assist local groups and communities gain control of the energy planning process. Here it is:

Low-Carbon Energy and Development Planning Tools

World Bank Low Carbon Development Portal –This comprehensive website provides direct access to a wide range of low-carbon development studies at the community, city, region, national, and global levels, including low-carbon studies (both documents and models) in Brazil and Mexico, rural communities in Nicaragua, as well as Nigeria and Kenya.

HEAT and TRACE - This portal provides access and documentation for a number of individual models, including:

  • HEAT (Hands-on Energy Adaptation Toolkit),
  • TRACE (Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy)

ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program) - A general portal for myriad reports and models (including HEAT and TRACE) via the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program at the World Bank Group

HOMER Energy (Hybrid Renewable Energy Optimization Tool) - The HOMER energy modeling software is a powerful tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.  It is used by tens of thousands of people worldwide. For grid-tied or off-grid environments, HOMER helps determine how variable resources such as wind and solar can be integrated optimally into hybrid systems.

LEAP (Long range Energy Alternatives Planning System) - LEAP is a widely-used software tool for energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment developed at the Stockholm Environment Institute. LEAP has been adopted by hundreds of organizations in over 150 countries.  Users include government agencies, academics, NGOs, consulting companies, and energy utilities.

UPLAN-NPM (The UPLAN Network Power Model) - The UPLAN project details physical and financial operations of electricity markets under conditions ranging from traditional regulation to today’s post-restructuring competitive market structures

(EGEAS) Electric Generation Expansion Analysis System - A modular production costing, generation expansion software package for use by utility planners to evaluate integrated resource plans, independent power producers, avoided costs and plant life management programs. It also has new modules added to accommodate demand-side management options and to facilitate the development of environmental compliance plans.

Building Energy Use

These two directories provide tools to assess energy use in buildings, one from the U. S. Department of Energy, and the other from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). There are a few specialized building-specific tools not covered by the directories:

Carbon Footprinting Tools for Individuals, Communities and Companies

CoolClimate Household Carbon Footprint CalculatorThis calculator enables individuals or households in the U.S. to calculate their carbon footprints to get customized advice on managing their impact. The Take Action page recommends tailored pledges to reduce carbon footprints and save money. Users can also see how they compare to households of similar size, location and income, or compare themselves to state, national and global averages. This calculator is based at the University of California Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, and comes in versions tailored to individuals, cities, businesses, as well as others adapted to specific locations.

National Geographic Great Energy Challenge - This is an interactive tool to calculate your personal carbon footprint based on information specific to your location.

Climate Culture This calculator, with pledges in money and CO2, login/save, is linked to “Eco” products to help reduce one’s carbon footprint.

Phillips “A Simple Switch” -   This basic calculator, animated with sounds and images, provides a rough estimate of footprint and assigns a “color” of your energy. Attractive, but not very accurate.

World Wildlife Fund Calculator - A version of the “cool climate calculator” form the University of California, Berkeley (the U.S. edition), but now augmented with UK and other national cases as well.

Global footprint network -Ecological Footprint Calculator -This tool’s user interface shows how many “earths” it would take to sustain the planet if everyone lived like you.

Conservation International -This short calculator factors in living conditions, automobile data and air travel.  Not in-depth but offers a quick estimate of your carbon footprint and suggests how much money it takes to offset your footprint.

The Nature Conservancy - This US-based calculator calculates for individuals or households by American state and offers tips at the end, along with piecharts.

The Carbon Neutral Company: Calculate your household or personal transportation footprint; the site divides us into two categories: "North America" or "Europe & the rest of the world."

EPA Household Emissions Calculator - An excellent, in-depth calculator that takes about 15-20 minutes to complete. Issues covered include home energy use, household vehicle use, recycling and more. There are handy recommendations and questions at the end such as, "You could turn down your thermostat by 5 degrees — will you do this?"

EarthLab -This calculator breaks down vehicle information by car type, and gives you your own carbon Web page, on which you can make green pledges and learn how to lower your footprint.

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A Ball Watchers Guide to the Chargers 2009 Season

Discussion in 'Latest Chargers News & Headlines' started by robdog, Jul 24, 2009.

  1. robdog

    robdog Code Monkey Staff Member Administrator

    Jun 29, 2009
    By Curtis Egan
    BoltTalk Staff Writer

    Put the Past behind you!
    The 2008 football season arrived in sunny San Diego California amid high expectations. The Chargers fans were ready to see their team rise to the top of the NFL. Then it happened, the Charger stumbled out of the gate, losing 8 of their first 12 games, including several heart breaking last minute loses. It doesn't matter what the reason was, the 2008 season left a sour taste in the mouths of many Chargers fans. It does not matter that the team collected themselves and managed to steal the division from Denver, who suffered a monumental breakdown to end their season. It was not the season we wanted, and that is now history.

    However, you can look back at last season and see some of the specters that led to the poor showing. Player Injuries the season before, players on the mend as camp rolled around, and slow starts. Then you look at this season. You will see something entirely different. The Chargers are retooled, reloaded, and ready to shock the NFL.

    In 2008, the pass defense was ranked 31st in the league, not what we expected from the break out unit of 2007 that led the league in interceptions. Again injuries hobbled the players as did the poor leadership from the coordinator position. That has been fixed now, Ron Rivera is now the Defensive Coordinator and he and the rest of the defensive coaching staff has put a lot of effort into making the defense more aggressive and more educated. No longer will the players be left on their own to guess at how they should react as a play develops, now the play book reportedly has more situational information, giving players the key to be able to read and react earlier, attacking rather than staying back and letting the play develop before making a move. The defense should be greatly improved, and that in my opinion is what is needed to make a Charger Championship.

    What Changed in 2009?
    Key Additions:
    ILB Kevin Burnett, DE/OLB Larry English, G Louis Vasquez, DT Vaughn Martin, G Tyronne Green, RB Gartrell Johnson, CB Brandon Hughes, SS Kevin Ellison, Demetrius Byrd.
    Key losses:
    G Mike Goff, C Jeremy Newberry, DE Igor Olshansky, DE/OLB Marques Harris, ILB Anthony Waters.

    The Chargers enter the training camp in 2009 with some serious questions to answer. Do they belong in the comparison of elite teams, or are they just a small market team that will be happy with a few division championships and playoff appearances. They have a chip on their shoulders and something to prove as they try for their fourth consecutive AFC West crown, and the NFL Championship.

    Looking Ahead:
    Defense:
    Everyone reportedly is coming into camp at 100%, healthy, excited and extremely motivated:

    Jamal Williams: a key defensive player and anchor of the 3-4 defensive line at Nose Tackle has said that he feels better coming into this camp than he has any camp in the last four years. Any Charger fan should know that as Jamal goes so goes the Defense. When he is healthy and on his game, very few offensive linemen can stop him one on one.

    Shawne Merriman: The disruptive force at Outside Linebacker is back, after missing most of the season last year. He is healthy and is looking chiseled. If his twitter shouts are correct, he is spending a lot of time and energy working out and getting ready to turn the LIGTHS OUT on every opposing Quarterback the Chargers face.

    Antonio Cromartie: The league leading interception master in 2007 dropped off the radar in 2008 while playing on a fractured hip. Antonio has mentioned via Twitter that he is healthy and ready for the season. With his hip healed, and the addition of a reinvigorated Chargers pass rush Antonio should return to his pass thieving ways.

    Luis Castillo: Do not discount how important this big man is to the defense of the Chargers. He has fast hands and feet, faster than one would anticipate for a man who is 6 foot 3 inches and almost 300 pounds. He has the strength to bull rush through offensive linemen as well as the finesse to use his hands to move them out of position. From all reports, Luis is working harder in this offseason and is hitting the ground ready put pressure on the Opposing Quarterbacks.

    Ryon Bingham and Jacques Cesaire: These two behemoths could very well have the battle of the camp. They will be striving to take the starting Defensive End spot vacated by Igor Olshansky, when he agreed to go play for Wade Philip s in Dallas. They will not have it easy though, as rookie Vaughn Martin at 6 foot 4 inches and 327 pounds could enter the mix before camp is over.

    Offense:

    Quarterback Philip Rivers came on like a legend in 2009 when he threw for 4009 yards, 34 touchdowns with only 11 interceptions. He tied for most touchdowns in the league, and had the highest passer rating of any starting Quarterback in the league last season. He is healthy, and will be playing behind a revamped offensive line. Again injuries, or more correctly, the lack there of will be an important factor here. LaDainian Tomlinson is coming into camp healthy, as is Antonio Gates and all the Receivers.

    LaDainian Tomlinson: Lets not kid ourselves, LT is aging, is he the same back as he was at 20, hell no. Did anyone expect him to be. Here is the moral of this story though- He is still an elite back! Last season, statistically was his worst as a pro. His worst season still saw him as a top 10 running back in the league with 1110 yards and 12 touchdowns. For lesser men, those are career numbers. That said, he is coming into camp at 100% on a new contract and with something to prove to everyone. Charger fans should sit back and enjoy it as LT shows the world why he isn't retired. Toss a heady does of Daren Sproles into the mix and the Chargers running game should be in great shape if the offensive line comes together as expected.

    Buster â€˜don't call me a bust' Davis: Buster enters camp refreshed and needing to prove the Chargers were not wrong in spending a first round pick on him. His time might be getting short as there are already rumors flying that the Chargers have shopped him to other teams. Health has been the primary concern with him, his ability to prepare for the game and get on the field. Head Coach Norv Turner expressed frustration with Buster last season; reportedly the problem was that Buster would indicate that he would be able to play, only to recant on Game day.

    Keys to Success:
    Face it, the offense has been the bread and butter of the Chargers for a few seasons now. They are just two season removed from LT's record breaking season where he scored more touchdowns than anyone else in NFL history. However to get all the way to the promised land, and to hoist the Lombardi the Chargers are going to have to bring an intimidating, â€˜smack you in the mouth and make your mama cry!' defense. They will have to be able to put points on the board against the good defenses and keep the good offenses from scoring.

    With a more aggressive defense, one that is better coached and has a renewed focus on rushing the passer I think we have the tools in place to provide just that. Castillo has said via Twitter that the Defense has high expectation and is setting their sights on a 40+ sack season. Go get them boys! Go get them and make us proud!

    Running consistency: No one is expecting LT to rush for five touchdowns and 300+ yards every game, but we are expecting a running attack to help balance out the offense and keep the defenses honest. The key here is the offensive line. The Chargers have had solid consistency from the line, though they did not have a stellar year last season. This season they will be working in a rookie Louis Vasquez, who has the size and strength to be a good guard, but they are lacking real depth. Jeromey Clarry, though not a fan favorite played to levels last season that makes the starting job his to lose.

    The Games:
    Some pundits say that the Chargers have one of the easiest schedules in the league, due solely to the fact that they get to play the other three AFC West teams twice each. However, the Chargers are facing 7 teams that were playoff teams last season, including the defending Superbowl Champions.
    Week 1 @Oakland, 9/14 MONDAY NIGHT:
    The Charger open on a Monday night, a great time to open, except for they have to share the evening with another game. Why the NFL has decided to put two games on Monday nights early in the season is beyond me. They start against an Oakland unit that could be the most improved team in the AFC West, their defense could be good this season. However it is not enough as their offense should still stink on ice. Chargers win. (1-0)
    Week 2 Baltimore, 9/20:
    The home opener should be a good one, this is one of the early gauges. The Baltimore defense is not the same as it was, but is still good. Their offense is improved and if they can maintain any consistency they should see the playoff in 09. If the Chargers defense can keep Flaco and co grounded the Chargers should win the game. (2-0).
    Week 3 Miami, 9/27:
    The Chargers have never beaten a team that Chad Pennington has Quarterbacked. However, the wildcat offense is no longer a surprise and the Chargers retooled defense should make the difference in this one. The Chargers win to start the season 3-0. (3-0).
    Week 4 @Pittsburgh, 10/04:
    This is the true measuring stick for the Chargers. Pittsburgh is an elite team that has really not lost much in the offseason and has improved itself. The Steelers have a misleading offense. They run at you and get you thinking they are doing one thing then hit you with a big play doing something else. Their defense is formidable as well. That said, even in the playoffs last season, injured and wore down the Chargers played Pittsburgh well. They do not have to win this game to have a great season, which is good because I think the Steelers, having a home field advantage take this one by a narrow margin. (3-1).
    Week 5 BYE, 10/11:
    A bit early for my taste, but just in time to deal with any retooling needs and any minor injuries.
    Week 6 Denver, 10/19 MONDAY NIGHT:
    The Broncos' come into San Diego after a tumultuous offseason that saw the coaching staff replaced, and their â€˜star' quarterback pout his way to Chicago. The Broncos will not be the same team the Chargers have faced in the past, they will not be the team that is the one that could win the west. Chargers roll big time over a reeling division rival. (4-1).
    Week 7 @Kansas City, 10/25:
    Is there any place that is more hostile than playing in Arrowhead stadium, in front of a packed house of red? The Chargers have had success of late in Arrowhead, winning at Kansas City in back to back seasons for the first time this century. The Chargers facing a team that is switching to a new offensive and defensive scheme make it a three-peat in Kansas City. (5-1).
    Week 8 Oakland 11/01:
    As I said before, the Raiders defense will be improved, however the Chargers, or more accurately LT owns the Raiders. The Chargers win the game in overtime with an LT rush for a touchdown. (6-1).
    Week 9 @New York Giants, 11/08:
    Eli, remember the Chargers? Remember the team you spurned to go to the Giants? The team who's Jersey you nearly cried on while holding it up on draft day? They remember you. The Chargers and Giants will play a physical game, in a cold New York. The running game will be important and the Giants narrowly squeak out a win in front of their home crowd. (6-2).
    Week 10 Philadelphia, 11/15:
    The Eagles had a good offseason, but the Chargers are fired up after letting a game slip away from them on the east coast. The Chargers running game keeps McNabb and company off the field for much of the game. Chargers win moving to 7-2. (7-2).
    Week 11 @Denver, 11/22:
    Denver will not hold the power it used to, though the Broncos will be playing better football by this time of the season, they are not in the same class as the Chargers this season. Chargers win in Denver to secure a season sweep of the Broncos. (8-2).
    Week 12 Kansas City, 11/29:
    Kansas City will struggle this season with the new schemes. Unfortunately for them the Chargers are gearing up for the playoffs and win this one convincingly. (9-2).
    Week 13 @Cleveland, 12/06:
    Cleveland is COLD in December. There will be all sorts of talk about how the Chargers can't play in the cold, I think the Browns will but the Chargers prove that the cold does not slow them down. (10-2).
    Week 14@Dallas, 12/13:
    Igor Olshansky will be looking forward to this game. He wants to prove to the Chargers that they should have offered him a long term contract. The Cowboys are really good in December, and they will win a shoot out at home. (10-3).
    Week 15 Cincinnati, 12/20:
    Chad â€˜Ochocinco' ran his mouth on Twitter about how he will school the Chargers, and they have not forgotten. The Chargers coming off of a loss in Dallas take out all their frustration on the hapless Bengals. (11-3).
    Week 16 Titans, 12/25 CHRISTMAS DAY:
    Merry Christmas Chargers. The Titans are still good, but without Fat Albert (Haynesworth) they are not the same defense. The fans of both teams get a Christmas gift in the form of an excellent game, but the Chargers win the game in the end. (12-3).
    Week 17 Washington, 01/03:
    Happy new year! Is it preseason already? The Chargers sit some starters and let this game slip as they gear up to make a run at the Lombardi. (12-4).

    Of course this is all speculation. While fun there is no scientific basis for this. However, the excitement I feel for this upcoming season is not like any I have felt before. I think the Chargers defense is going to be special, and that will make all the difference. Time will tell, but my expectations are higher than ever, and my challenge to every man on the Chargers is simple-

BRING HOME THE LOMBARDI!!!!

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    email address book

      My old Nook Tablet had an address book, my new Nook HD+ doesn't seem to have that. Am I missing something? How do you create an address book in this Nook? Thanks! Love my Nook HD!


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The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims

Front Cover
Encounter Books, 2003 - History - 367 pages
1 Review
"At the heart of The Unsleeping Eye is a provocative account of how secret police helped to build and sustain the modern totalitarian state. Joseph Fouche, Napoleon's minister of police, made surveillance and informing into an art form and coupled spying with propaganda techniques that made it doubly effective. Stove chronicles the development of domestic surveillance in Russia, from the time of Ivan the Terrible to its final refinement under Stalin, who brought Lenin's ideal of "organized terror" to perfection in collaboration with his brutal head of secret police, Lavrenti Beria. He also shows how the Gestapo and other police organizations led by demented individuals like Heinrich Himmler defined the essence of Nazism, part of which was Himmler's deluded notion that "the members of the Gestapo are men with human kindness, human hearts, and absolute rightness."".

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The unsleeping eye: secret police and their victims

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In his analysis of five eras in which"secret policing has been of vital importance to government," Australian writer Stove (Prince of Music) sheds new light on the intrigues of the major"spymasters ... Read full review

Review: The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims

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'Given 20th-century scholarship's interest in all things totalitarian, it is more than a bit surprising that there exists no general survey of one of modern tyranny's pivotal institutions: the secret ... Read full review

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About the author (2003)

Stove is the author of Prince of Music, a study of the 16th century composer Palestrina.

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