#CFR: Mind Games

[brightlotusmoon]

I once forgot I was reading a fanfic I myself had written many years ago, and I fell in love with the writing. What a happy surprise to realize the author was me. What a puzzling disappointment when I realized I hadn't even finished.

*stares at the author*

[brightlotusmoon]

*locks ADHD eyes with you*

I'll do it. Dunno how long it'll take me but I will write about it-

@this-world-of-beautiful-monsters

(oh @fire-fira what if CF Mikey talks about this with the Spear boys)

thinking about the fact that compared to literally any other single iteration of tmnt, the 2012 boys seems to be the ones who truly never left the sewers not even once ever since they got mutated

meaning that they truly spent the first 15 years of their life underground

When they first get out of the manhole in the first episode None of the brothers show any sign of recognition of their surroundings meaning that none of them, not even once, actually got to go that far

this is cemented by the way they all are actually very excited of what they are seeing for the first time ever at every single step they make (except for raph maybe lmao but i think thats because he didn't want to look silly like his bros)

AND ALSO HOW THEY DON'T RECOGNIZE OTHER FOOD THAT ISNT ALGAE AND WORMS 😭(because of what raph said of not knowing anything better than that) THEY FR SURVIVED WITH WHAT LITTLE SCRAPS SPLINTER COULD FIND AND LITERAL ALGAE AND WORMS. LEO IS SO WORRIED ABOUT MIKEY EATING THE PIZZA

they were so excited about being topside....it was a whole new world for them......

going off topic a bit but this all is definitely another reason on why mikey's relationship with food is the way it is

He literally has so many new possibilities to cook with other ingredients that aren't algae and worms and in this process he ends up making combinations that would make rise mikey cry blood

[tonymattblog]

Unveiling the CFR® F5 Cetane Rating Unit: The Future of Diesel Fuel Evaluation

Innovation in Diesel Fuel Testing

In the world of diesel fuel testing, the CFR® F5 Cetane Rating Unit stands out as a game-changer, revolutionizing the landscape since its inception in 1938. Spearheading the evaluation and certification of diesel fuels' ignition quality, the CFR F5 continues to make a significant impact on the automotive and petroleum industries while upholding the integrity of the fuel supply chain from refinery to pump.

Setting New Standards in Fuel Testing

At the core of this innovation lies the meticulously crafted CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit, designed to meet and surpass global standards such as ASTM D613, IP 41, and EN ISO 5165. This powerhouse is dedicated to excellence, ensuring that diesel fuels consistently reach peak quality levels.

Seamless Integration for Enhanced Confidence in Testing

A complete CFR Engines Inc. cetane fuel testing system includes the F5 engine unit, XCP™ Technology, and a CFR® exhaust surge tank. These components seamlessly integrate to control critical parameters and guarantee a flawless cetane test. Whether opting for a complete unit, an upgrade/conversion kit, or genuine CFR service parts, users can rely on a system that enhances efficiency and reliability.

Harnessing Data Prowess with XCP Technology

The introduction of the XCP Digital Control Panel has transformed data collection and presentation. Say farewell to manual errors; the XCP ensures accuracy by integrating with a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and providing crucial information such as handwheel positions, fuel flow rates, and environmental data.

Reliability Woven into Every Design Element

With a legacy dating back to 1929, CFR Engines Inc. products boast reliability at their core. Upgrades and enhancements to the engine crankcase and cylinder/head ensure longevity, enduring the demands of modern fuel testing environments with minimal maintenance.

Unleashing Precision Through Modern Instrument Control

The CFR F5 combined with XCP Technology utilizes digital instrumentation to record and process critical system data. On-board handwheel position recording, automatic cetane number calculation, and multi-pass data recording lead to heightened precision and accuracy.

Cost-Efficiency Through Versatile System Flexibility

The CFR F5 not only revolutionizes precision but also offers unparalleled flexibility and cost savings. With push-button control and guided testing prompts, users experience more efficient resource utilization, quicker tests, and reduced operator training.

Additional Highlights: Elevating Safety and Convenience

XCP integrated safety monitoring systems protect against power loss, low oil pressure, overheating, and electrical overload. A fuel flow safety shut-off solenoid prevents uncontrolled engine over-speed in case of electrical power loss. User-friendly XCP Technology reduces operator training time complemented by an easy-to-use touch-screen HMI panel. On-screen indicators inform when "Injection Advance" and "Ignition Delay" stability are achieved. An electronic maintenance log records vital maintenance information for future reference.

Experience Tomorrow’s Diesel Fuel Testing Today

Step into the future of diesel fuel testing with the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit - transforming your testing process for superior results and peace of mind.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the CFR® F5 Cetane Rating Unit

What is the importance of the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit?

The CFR F5 is standard testing equipment crucial for determining and certifying the ignition quality of diesel fuels—ensuring their suitability for engines in automotive & petroleum industries.

How long has it been in use?

Since its introduction in 1938—the reliable platform boasts a rich history spanning over eight decades.

Which standards does it comply with?

It complies with globally recognized standards like ASTM D613—ensuring accurate & consistent cetane number measurements.

What's included in a complete system?

A complete system comprises an engine unit—XCP™ Technology—and an exhaust surge tank—all working together flawlessly.

How does XCP technology improve data integrity?

XCP automates data capture & presentation—reducing manual errors & providing accurate information on critical parameters.

Is it user-friendly? How easy is it to train operators?

Yes—it's designed to be user-friendly—making it easier for operators to become proficient quickly—to save time & resources.

How does it ensure reliability & longevity?

With upgrades dating back to 1929—it maintains reliability through well-designed system upgrades—ensuring durability with minimal maintenance.

Are there additional safety features integrated into it?

Yes—it includes integrated safety monitoring systems protecting against various factors—and ensuring both equipment & operator safety.

Does it offer on-screen indicators for monitoring stability?

Yes—the system includes on-screen indicators—enhancing operator consistency.

Can it handle different types of diesel fuels including biodiesel blends?

Absolutely—it's designed to assess a wide range including biodiesel blends—ensuring comprehensive testing across various formulations.

How does it contribute to environmental sustainability?

By incorporating environmentally friendly resistance temperature detectors (RTDs)—it manages critical temperature variables aligning with sustainability efforts.

[coolcatteacher]

Genius Hour 2.0 with Lauren Lavelle

In this episode of the 10 Minute Teacher podcast, host Vicki Davis sits down with Lauren Lavelle to discuss the transformative educational approach known as Genius Hour. Recorded live at ISTE, the conversation delves into how Genius Hour has been revamped and integrated into the sixth-grade curriculum, offering students a full-year exploratory course that goes beyond traditional learning. Vicki and Lauren also touch on the importance of generational connectedness in education, emphasizing how mentors and older students can offer invaluable perspectives. Additionally, the episode explores the role of blogging in the Genius Hour process, serving as a tool for reflection and continuous improvement. 

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e813 

Show Sponsor EVERFI

Want to prepare your students for career and life success but short on time? Busy teachers use EVERFI’s standards-aligned, research-based digital lessons, recently awarded with the ISTE Seal for high-quality curriculum, to teach students to thrive in an ever-changing world. Interactive, game-based lessons designed by experienced educators help you engage students at all grade levels and bring critical real-world skills like financial education, early literacy, character education, health & wellness, and more to your classroom. Thanks to partners, these lessons are FREE for all K-12 schools and students. With back-to-school season gearing up, now is an exciting time to give your students a jumpstart on their future.  Go to everfi.com/coolcat to learn more and sign up to get a virtual swag bag full of free goodies to get the school year off to a great start. 

Key Segments in this Podcast

Introduction to Genius Hour 2.0

Timestamp: 00:00:44:20 - 00:01:08:15

Description: Lauren Lavelle talks about the next iteration of Genius Hour, called Genius Hour 2.0, and how it's integrated into the sixth-grade curriculum.

The Importance of Generational Connectedness

Timestamp: 00:02:55:25 - 00:03:21:17

Description: Vicki Davis discusses the concept of generational connectedness and how it's important for students to see that they're part of a bigger world.

Blogging as a Reflective Process

Timestamp: 00:03:57:44 - 00:04:16:57

Description: Lauren explains that students are blogging throughout the Genius Hour process, focusing on reflection and continuous improvement.

Real-world Genius Hour Projects

Timestamp: 00:08:05:02 - 00:08:36:38

Description: Lauren shares an example of a student who created a pedaling system under his desk that also charges his Chromebook, exemplifying the real-world application of Genius Hour projects.

Hosts, Guests & Featured People:

Lauren Lavelle @MrsLavelle

Michael Davola @Mrdavolatech

Jesse Lubinsky @jlubinsky

Resources:

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis

Google Sites - the student blog platform

Google Forms - how students secure feedback from each other

"Yes and" protocol with lesson plan and handout

Google slides - how to automatically add transitions

News:

Why You Should Give a Lightning Presentation

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

New 10 Minute Teacher Podcast episode

[brightlotusmoon]

One of my favorite kinds if AO3 fic comments is how they had to look up the medical terms and neurology words and the story was still interesting enough that they read the whole thing. Like, I might fall in love when people leave reviews like that.

I was blazing through a hyperfixation and wrote an entire AU for an already absurd plotline as an excuse to infodump some very personal feelings.

[brightlotusmoon]

Well, this just makes me think of that 105K fanfic I wrote in 2016 between March and May. My fingers still haven't forgiven me. But when it was done, I didn't cry. I didn't celebrate. I actually felt numb. But comfortably numb? Like the song.

I wrote a sequel later that year, and then a third part, and now I'm on the fifth part.

But I look back on that fic the size of a small Stephen King book and I feel a kind of numb pride. I need to recapture that surge of creative power and adrenaline that made me write over a hundred thousand words in two months and be really good at it.

It's funny how I stopped updating other fics last year. It's becoming an extension of executive dysfunction. I know how I'm going to update, but doing it feels depressing, like molasses and static electricity.

you know what doesn’t get talked about enough in writing circles

completed story grief

That feeling you are left with when you have finished a long project - whether it is long because it contains a lot of words, or long because it took you a long time to write, or long because it took you a long time to start writing it - when you’re happy because you finished it but empty because it is finished. You took out all of the words that were inside of you, at least all of the ones that pertain to that story, and the relief that follows such an action can be devastatingly exhausting.

On top of just the empty feeling, there follows that bittersweet sense of understanding that this thing which has for so long been your companion is no longer just your companion, and that you have in some ways severed the ties with it, because you will not be writing it anymore. You might write other stories related to it. You might write stories in the same world. Or stories with the same characters. But THAT story is finished. That story has been taken out of you and put where it can be a part of everyone that reads it. That is unimaginably happy and sad at the same time.

So I just want to say, I guess, be nice to yourself after you finish a story. Yes it’s happy, yes it feels good. But if you also feel a little like you’ve just lost something, give yourself some time to process that, because in a way you did. It’s a happy loss, the sort of loss wildlife rescuers feel when an animal they saved is able to go back and be wild again. It’s a good, happy thing, but it’s also okay to take a little time to be sad and take care of yourself.

[tonymattblog]

Unleashing the CFR® F5 Cetane Rating Unit: A Pioneer in Diesel Fuel Evaluation

In the dynamic realm of diesel fuel testing, the CFR® F5 Cetane Rating Unit has been a transformative force since its inception in 1938. Spearheading the assessment and certification of diesel fuels' ignition quality, the CFR F5 continues to be a beacon, exerting its influence on the automotive and petroleum sectors and upholding the integrity of the fuel supply chain from refinery to pump.

Setting the Gold Standard in Fuel Testing

At the core of this groundbreaking innovation is the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit, meticulously crafted to not only meet but surpass global standards such as ASTM D613, IP 41, and EN ISO 5165. This powerhouse is committed to excellence, ensuring that diesel fuels consistently attain the pinnacle of quality.

Seamless Integration for Testing Confidence

A complete CFR Engines Inc. cetane fuel testing system comprises the F5 engine unit, XCP™ Technology, and a CFR® exhaust surge tank. These components seamlessly unite, controlling critical parameters and ensuring a flawless cetane test. Whether opting for a complete unit, an upgrade/conversion kit, or genuine CFR service parts, users can trust in a system that enhances efficiency and reliability.

Data Prowess with XCP Technology

Enter the XCP Digital Control Panel, a game-changer automating data collection and presentation. Say goodbye to manual errors; the XCP ensures accuracy by integrating with a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and providing vital information such as handwheel positions, fuel flow rates, and environmental data.

Reliability Woven into Design

Trusted since 1929, CFR Engines Inc. products boast a legacy built on reliability. Upgrades and enhancements to the engine crankcase and cylinder/head ensure longevity, withstanding the rigors of modern fuel testing environments with minimal maintenance.

Precision Unleashed Through Modern Instrument Control

The CFR F5, paired with XCP Technology, leverages digital instrumentation to record and process critical system data. On-board handwheel position recording, automatic cetane number calculation, and multi-pass data recording lead to higher precision and accuracy.

Cost-Efficiency Through One System Flexibility

The CFR F5 doesn't just revolutionize precision; it offers unparalleled flexibility and cost savings. With push-button control and guided testing prompts, users experience more efficient resource utilization, quicker tests, and reduced operator training.

Additional Highlights: Elevating Safety and Convenience

XCP integrated safety monitoring systems safeguard against power loss, low oil pressure, overheating, and electrical overload. A fuel flow safety shut-off solenoid prevents uncontrolled engine over-speed in case of electrical power loss. User-friendly XCP Technology reduces operator training, complemented by an easy-to-use touch-screen HMI panel. On-screen indicators inform when "Injection Advance" and "Ignition Delay" stability are achieved. An electronic maintenance log records vital maintenance information for future reference.

Experience Tomorrow’s Diesel Fuel Testing Today

Step into the future of diesel fuel testing with the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit, revolutionizing your testing process for superior results and peace of mind.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the CFR® F5 Cetane Rating Unit

What is the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit, and why is it important? The CFR F5 is a standard testing equipment crucial for determining and certifying the ignition quality of diesel fuels, ensuring their suitability for engines in the automotive and petroleum industries.

How long has the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit been in use?

Since its introduction in 1938, the CFR F5 has been a reliable and proven testing platform with a rich history spanning over eight decades.

Which standards does the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit comply with? The CFR F5 complies with globally recognized standards, including ASTM D613, IP 41, and EN ISO 5165, ensuring accurate and consistent cetane number measurements.

What components are included in a complete CFR Engines Inc. cetane fuel testing system?

A complete system comprises the F5 engine unit, XCP™ Technology, and a CFR® exhaust surge tank, working together to control critical parameters for a successful cetane test.

How does XCP Technology improve data integrity in cetane testing?

XCP Technology automates data capture and presentation, reducing manual errors and providing accurate information on handwheel positions, fuel flow rates, and environmental conditions.

Is the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit user-friendly, and how easy is it to train operators?

Yes, the CFR F5 is designed to be user-friendly, making it easier for operators to become proficient with minimal training, saving time and resources.

How does the CFR system ensure reliability and longevity in testing equipment?

With a legacy dating back to 1929, CFR Engines Inc. products maintain reliability through well-designed system upgrades and enhancements, ensuring durability with minimal maintenance.

Are there additional safety and monitoring features integrated into the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit?

Yes, the CFR F5 includes XCP integrated safety monitoring systems, protecting against various factors and ensuring the safety of both the equipment and operators.

Does the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit offer on-screen indicators for monitoring stability?

Yes, the system includes on-screen indicators, eliminating manual averaging and improving operator consistency.

Can the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit be easily maintained? Designed for ease of maintenance, the CFR F5 comes with an electronic maintenance log to document vital maintenance information for future reference.

Can the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit handle different types of diesel fuels, including biodiesel blends?

Absolutely. The CFR F5 is designed to assess a wide range of diesel fuels, including biodiesel blends. Its adaptability ensures comprehensive testing across various formulations, keeping pace with the diversifying landscape of modern fuels.

How does the CFR F5 contribute to environmental sustainability in diesel fuel testing?

The CFR F5 incorporates environmentally friendly resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) to manage critical temperature variables. By prioritizing eco-conscious design elements, it aligns with the growing emphasis on sustainability in the fuel testing process.

Can the CFR F5 Cetane Rating Unit be remotely monitored and controlled?

Yes, the CFR F5 embraces modern connectivity trends. With advanced remote monitoring capabilities, users can oversee and control the testing process from a distance, enhancing operational convenience and flexibility.

What sets the CFR F5 apart in terms of user interface compared to other cetane rating units?

The CFR F5 boasts an easy-to-use touch-screen Human-Machine Interface (HMI) panel, simplifying unit/test operation. Its intuitive design minimizes the learning curve for operators, ensuring efficient use and quick proficiency.

Does the CFR F5 provide support for industry-specific reporting requirements?

Absolutely. The XCP Technology seamlessly integrates into Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), fortifying data accuracy and accountability. This ensures that the CFR F5 not only meets but exceeds industry-specific reporting standards.

[coolcatteacher]

Genius Hour 2.0 with Lauren Lavelle

In this episode of the 10 Minute Teacher podcast, host Vicki Davis sits down with Lauren Lavelle to discuss the transformative educational approach known as Genius Hour. Recorded live at ISTE, the conversation delves into how Genius Hour has been revamped and integrated into the sixth-grade curriculum, offering students a full-year exploratory course that goes beyond traditional learning. Vicki and Lauren also touch on the importance of generational connectedness in education, emphasizing how mentors and older students can offer invaluable perspectives. Additionally, the episode explores the role of blogging in the Genius Hour process, serving as a tool for reflection and continuous improvement. 

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e813 

Show Sponsor EVERFI

Want to prepare your students for career and life success but short on time? Busy teachers use EVERFI’s standards-aligned, research-based digital lessons, recently awarded with the ISTE Seal for high-quality curriculum, to teach students to thrive in an ever-changing world. Interactive, game-based lessons designed by experienced educators help you engage students at all grade levels and bring critical real-world skills like financial education, early literacy, character education, health & wellness, and more to your classroom. Thanks to partners, these lessons are FREE for all K-12 schools and students. With back-to-school season gearing up, now is an exciting time to give your students a jumpstart on their future.  Go to everfi.com/coolcat to learn more and sign up to get a virtual swag bag full of free goodies to get the school year off to a great start. 

Key Segments in this Podcast

Introduction to Genius Hour 2.0

Timestamp: 00:00:44:20 - 00:01:08:15

Description: Lauren Lavelle talks about the next iteration of Genius Hour, called Genius Hour 2.0, and how it's integrated into the sixth-grade curriculum.

The Importance of Generational Connectedness

Timestamp: 00:02:55:25 - 00:03:21:17

Description: Vicki Davis discusses the concept of generational connectedness and how it's important for students to see that they're part of a bigger world.

Blogging as a Reflective Process

Timestamp: 00:03:57:44 - 00:04:16:57

Description: Lauren explains that students are blogging throughout the Genius Hour process, focusing on reflection and continuous improvement.

Real-world Genius Hour Projects

Timestamp: 00:08:05:02 - 00:08:36:38

Description: Lauren shares an example of a student who created a pedaling system under his desk that also charges his Chromebook, exemplifying the real-world application of Genius Hour projects.

Hosts, Guests & Featured People:

Lauren Lavelle @MrsLavelle

Michael Davola @Mrdavolatech

Jesse Lubinsky @jlubinsky

Resources:

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis

Google Sites - the student blog platform

Google Forms - how students secure feedback from each other

"Yes and" protocol with lesson plan and handout

Google slides - how to automatically add transitions

News:

Why You Should Give a Lightning Presentation

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

New Podcast Episode

[brightlotusmoon]

The author borrowed an original character from my 2012 AU and made him better, and I'm super impressed, so now the circle of influence makes me want to write more Neural Mikey hanging out in 2012 Mikey's inner mind and occasionally dragging the turtles into weird adventures.

I love how my world building has actually inspired and influenced other TMNT fan writers: Mikey having telempathic abilities, more 2012 Mikey personas, 2003 Mikey getting mutated instead of Donnie as per the first draft of the arc, Bayverse Mikey with empathic abilities.

Mikey with mystic and psychic powers has been with me since the mid 1990s. It's why Rise Mikey made me sit up and take notice.

[brightlotusmoon]

And then a couple of your friends ask if they can write fics based on your AU and you feel like you just won an amazing prize.

:) <- guy making an au so specific a mere handful of people will enjoy it

[ao3feed-tmnt2k12]

Cold Fire Rising: Sometimes, The Sky Calls

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2JHBj8H

by Celeste38

A long overdue gift to BrightLotusMoon, this is set after her Cold Fire Rising: Crossfire fic, and either during or after her Cold Fire Rising: Mind Games.

Mikey decides to do a little stargazing.

Words: 838, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Michelangelo (TMNT)

Additional Tags: cold fire rising, CFR, psionic mikey, Psychic Mikey, Angst, Loneliness

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2JHBj8H

[airlock]

airlock grades the Gharnef archetype

so, I got a random hankering to start a text post series where I launch myself off on reviews of each character from a certain villainous archetype in Fire Emblem -- and hey, it’s a reasonably nice time of the year to be doing posts like these, what with that new upcoming entry that we learn more about each day, isn’t it?

to kick off the festivities, I’m doing one of my favorites -- let’s see who wore the heavy robes better!

(do note: under cut are spoilers for... everything, and also a significant amount of me criticizing or blamming characters that you might like. you’ve been warned! but if you’d still persist, you childish sword lord, then come along and meet my challenge-)

the man himself

(6/10)

although the execution suffers from myriad flaws -- of which several can be touted to stem from storage space limitations in FE1 and FE3, but are inexcusably retained in the remakes -- it’s not for no reason that this fellow spawned a lengthy line of imitators.

the detail of his backstory and motivation is brillant; he’s a perfectly understandable villain without being remotely redeemable -- a much-needed class in antagonist writing for more recent entries of the series. he’s also effective as a terrifying, genuinely threatening villain, implacable and powerful.

unfortunately, however, his excellently written characterization is largely confined to flavor; it fails to inform his actions or the flow of the plot, and so, he tends to come across as a plot device instead of a character. even his takeover of Khadein is written very powerfully for something that isn’t seen and barely influences any of the game’s events. and although his sheer ambition in withholding Falchion to eventually betray Medeus ends up coming across as a plot action instead of something steeped in his essence. and this all to say nothing of his second appearance, where he fully forgoes being a character and behaves indistinguishably from a non-sentinent madness-inducing talisman.

overall, he’s a splendid concept for a villain that is ultimately laid low in execution, largely because, back in his day, the text wasn’t big enough to comfortably carry him, and the more recent incarnations were ineffective in expanding it despite having more than enough room to do so.

I also docked a point or two for being an antisemitic/anti-roma stereotype in his earlier incarnations, what with the hooked nose and rare darker skintone; the remakes thankfully eschew this by swapping out the nose and making the skintone outright inhuman, but the more recent Heroes design, while an improvement on many fronts, seems to roll back on this one.

church gharnef

(6/10)

unlike the above-mentioned, this one was in a remake that changed a lot of things; I mention this as a healthy preface to the fact that I am only familiar with his more recent incarnation!

like Gharnef above, he’s an unforgivable, but genuine villain; while a lust for power is hardly fresh as far as motivations go, the game does reasonably well at establishing that he’s already powerful and influential, and has fallen to cruel orthodoxy in a bid to eliminate threats to his power at all costs -- in other words, his characterization is timelessly realistic.

unfortunately, however, that much is all text, if not outright fanon; the story proper restricts him to behaving as an unconvincing cacklefiend playing at a kidnap-the-princess plot that the princess in question should’ve been too strong and too smart to fall prey to. making Celica a somewhat willing hostage instead of a helpless captive was a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t cover the distance; it would have been far more interesting if Jedah had gotten the chance to overpower Celica in the arena of genuine manipulation through theological debate -- and on the other coin of things, I’m sure his preying on Celica’s fears would seem a lot more organic if not for how dedicated the game is to telling her that she’s wrong before she even takes the steps across the point of no return.

he’s much like the original Gharnef in being an intriguing concept that falls flat on execution, although with both of those qualities amped up -- even more interesting in theory, even flatter in practice.

discount gharnef

(2/10)

sorry not sorry for nicknaming him that!

I believe I’ve said it a number of times and I’ll say it again: Manfroy is a manipulative villain in a setting full of people who don’t need manipulation to make bad decisions and ruin their own lives. he comes across as a plot device at the best of times, and as a null factor at the worst of times; he brings nothing to any cutscene that he appears in.

Seliph’s visit to the Yied Shrine alludes to his backstory -- that which he shares with the rest of the cult -- but this instance is even poorer than previous examples at establishing a plot presence; it not only fails to inform Manfroy’s choices in any interesting way, but it’s also outright contradicted by his actions sometimes (cfr: withholding the Naga tome, in a move that brings Gharnef’s playbook to mind but makes no sense at all for Manfroy).

points have been docked again for racial stereotyping, also; the sprite alone doesn’t make it very evident but he’s also got a face that can be used as a fishing pole.

irrelevant gharnef

(1/10)

Veld is a step beneath even Manfroy, as yet another pointless manipulative villain -- notorious for stealing a slice of agency from one of the far more genuine antagonists of the setting -- who doesn’t make his presence felt at all. I was halfway tempted to consider Raydrik the actual Manfroy here, even.

he retains one point only for not being a racial stereotype, for once.

the absence of a gharnef

(wha?/10)

Binding Blade, for all its highly repetitious usage of archetypes (being, in fact, arguably responsible for making them a thing in the first place, where they were previously just repetitive Kaga quirks), seems to have eschewed the Gharnef. this actually somewhat works in its favor; although the game’s plot is ultimately one of the shallower ones in the series, the lack of a core manipulative villain puts the focus on the self-interested factionalism that each country suffers from as they fail to mobilize a resistance against the primary villain. so, overall, an approach that would have worked out great in Jugdral.

monsterfucker gharnef

(8.5/10)

where Binding Blade had succeeded in building a plot that doesn’t need a Gharnef, its prequel was successful in the opposite: creating one of the most effective incarnations of the archetype to date, and making him front and center, to boot.

although all Gharnefs thus far have been manipulative villains, Nergal and his cronies are the first ones who show true skill in manipulation -- as in, conning people into acting against their interests, in situations where they otherwise would not have. through this, he cements himself as the primary antagonist and driver of the plot, where his predecessors were content, if dishonest, in serving a greater evil. and he brings very perceptible weight to the position, specially in the scenes where he presses the buttons of the heroes; although he fails to ultimately discourage them from defeating him, it comes across as a result of heroic strength, not of ineffective villainy.

that said, however he shimmers and shines as the heavy, he’s somewhat held back by his backstory -- one that only partially succeeds at informing his actions (however compelling it is when it does manage to do so), and worse, is largely locked to second-playthrough bonuses, where the story would’ve benefitted much more from naturally doling out his secrets along the way.

I also docked a half-point because the pseudo-turban and goatee arguably veer into the racial stereotype territory again, although he at least has the point-for of not having an outright gonk design (even when the turban goes off). I should be clear: it’s not that I oppose having nonwhite/nonwestern elements on an antagonist at all, it just comes across rather poorly when certain elements are only seen on antagonists, and especially if it’s always on the ugly ones.

twink gharnef

(10/10)

Lyon is the apex of plot-driving gharnefs, plain and simple. undeniably sympathetic, but impossible to save, whether he’s too far gone or was never redeemable to begin with -- and in fact, this ambiguity is easily the most brillant aspect of all of the writing in Sacred Stones.

he’s characterized effectively from wire to wire: his appearance, mannerisms and fond flashbacks do an excellent job of disarming the player while setting them up for a staggering plot twist, but the game is also not too hesitant to bring the plot twist to fruition and saves enough time to keep building on him past the point when the big secret is out -- sidestepping a pervasive trap that otherwise often causes plot twists to weaken stories. and all the way to the end, it’s difficult to narrow his character down to one narrative that doesn’t feel strictly like a personal interpretation; there are as many Lyons as there are players, right down to the point where he comes across differently depending on whether you’re playing as Eirika or Ephraim!

there’s also credit to be given to the remainder of the cast that effectively props him up; because he has underlings that behave strongly on their own motivations -- and sometimes beyond even Lyon’s control -- he spares himself from behaving as a plot device to focus fully on serving as the genuine core of the story as a whole. I suppose he’s a good delegator if nothing else, eh?

depression gharnef

(4/10)

unlike the above, Sephiran fails crucially in one regard: he’s set up as an extremely endgame plot twist, which, coupled with a frantic, breathless third act that insuffices to fully explore the implications of the reveals it dishes out, causes his reveal to land closer to shock value than to the completion of an arc.

while his backstory is breathtakingly fascinating, it serves exclusively as a footnote to eulogize him with; it’s not just that his actions don’t seem to be informed by it, but rather that his actions completely lack weight in the plot, making it even somewhat arguable to class him as a Gharnef at all. in Path of Radiance, he only appears as an irrelevant mystery, and Radiant Dawn coming out to accredit him for some number of Ashnard’s deeds fails to budge that one’s sheer weight and doesn’t change perspectives.

it’s quite a shame, because in concept, he could’ve been the next Lyon; but the execution is painfully fragile, and amidst the complex web of characters and plots in Tellius, his greater-scope motions fail to be felt whatsoever until the late chapters of Radiant Dawn’s Part 3.

DIWNLF gharnef

(0/10)

(that’s “dad I would not like to fuck”, incidentally)

it’s not for no reason that this guy is the only major antagonist that Awakening doesn’t let you trip over still alive and kicking somehow. he is 100% plot device, adds nothing to the story or to any single scene that he appears in, lacks in personality, doesn’t present any sort of challenge that isn’t erradicated without fanfare by the protagonists, and doesn’t even have any sort of a backstory.

and he’s a racist stereotype on top of all that, so he doesn’t even get a mercy point like his similarly irrelevant predecessor from Thracia 776.

I have not played the game with this gharnef

(??/10)

I don’t even know if he counts; I see a lot of back-and-forth in that regard.

anyways, what do you all think? “oh my god someone finally said it”, or perhaps “I will kill you but not as hard as you assassinated my favorite antagonist”? if the upcoming Three Houses is to have a Gharnef, do you have any hopes for what they’ll be like? this is all nice and open to replies and reblogs, folks! don’t be shy! yes.... do it... succumb to the temptation.......

[blogjeepster]

Predicting the future.

Manifesting what you want via LOA means we have to understand that humanity are deeply programmed in every aspect since birth caused by insane media and nefarious corporations and principalities like the Hollywood and the CIA WEF WHO IMF UN EU CFR TTC FBI Mi5/6 who spend trillions working for these corporations from our own hard-earned cash every year on this immense ideological mind game war on all citizens to break their spirit and enslave them. Distracting humanity with smoke and mirrors, so they can do what is pre cursor for everthing we think say or do. Onerous and obscene campaigns involving the MIC towards civilisation to control the masses through threat and fear.

Hour by by hour globalists relentlessly work tirelessly to dumb us down shredding our pure consciousness and then replace that divine and infinite and powerful gift with propaganda with corrupt agendas false flags and socially engineered disease and mind control by globalists over hundreds of years. We are unwittingly distracted from what is really going on. The real war is not Russia invading the Ukraine or any other conflict over eons. The real war is waged against you by inflictive cruel propaganda.

That old age mystery. The meaning of life, means so much, or little, to different people. It means different ‘importances’. Different priorities. Great philosophers from Plato to Jung all have a different school of thought on the meaning of life. I believe everybody theorises and makes different claims silently or publicly. Its a private thing. Then again, information needed for sharing. A little secret that sometimes we share and, who knows, may start a religion. For others its a little warm feeling that we get when we think we have ‘cracked it’. While some intelligent and then again, others, (delusional or misguided) either deliberately or by no fault of their own create a view by themselves or as a group that a particular insight is their prerogative. Most of these ‘ideas’ are neither, original or unheard of before. We still do not know what we are here for, where we came from, or how we got here.  We do not know how long for, where we are going and what we may find when we get there.

I do not assume or rule out spiritual insight, but we cannot prove any of that. We cannot prove the animal kingdom actually ‘ponder’ or have a sense of humour, enjoy culture, plan anything outside of instinct. If we operate by instinct, then why do we have a conscience? Mere mammals, invertebrates or vertebrates cannot claim the sacred secret of our consciousness. Unless, borne from imagination and thus, not proven by popular consensus. We are the only species that need clothing, because our skin is not insulated sufficiently. We enjoy competition and debate. Other species communicate but don’t need interpreters! I believe we are all beings whoever or whatever we are. If we have a central nervous system then we have same right to be here than the next mollusc! Whatever our makeup, we still are devoid of any absolute ability to foretell or prophesy. Knowledge is rational explanation but not necessarily truth. Knowledge is second hand information. Experience is only damage limitation not the cure to reality. We are all predictable in our range of behaviours and aspirational but we cannot foretell.

There lies the enigma. If we knew what was going to happen tomorrow we would all take evasive action now. The fact is we live in chaos because we do not understand tomorrow! We are anxious about what tomorrow will bring but we choose to take risks today, to sabotage it. Yes, most of us strive to live ordered lives. Take out insurance, take vitamins, we build houses and businesses, not because we know what to expect but because we do not have a clue what is around the corner. My view is that we all live in ignorant fear. Blind panic. Something that instinct has no room for.

What frustrates mortals is the need to know what lies beyond. It is the one ‘glitch’ in our psyche. It takes up most of our time. If only we knew what was over the brick wall. Fact is we don’t and we never will. Even if we do straddle that wall and get to the other side I doubt we will have any idea what we left behind either. I believe all those people that have had NDE's have missed out on dropping acid. I don’t deny the vivid and dramatic convictions who experience these sort of astral projections under mental and physical duress, but who has come back with physical proof? One iota ?

Obscure or random 'Premonitions' are only provable when stated under hypnosis before the event. All the evidence suggests that an altered state of consciousness replaces what is normal perception and gives rise to distorted dream states. Yes, dogs have bad dreams but do they believe that they came back as one of the hounds to tear Jezebel to shreds? I doubt they spend the next night in their basket giving it another thought. The sub-conscious it seems is also peculiar to us. So, why do we yearn through astrology, superstition, the Bible and science to answer the unanswerable? My feeling is we are puppets. Playthings. Toys for human engineers. We are no more than little trinkets or chess-pieces for human or extra-terrestrial subjugators.

The sooner we realise that we will stop spending all this time on religious crap and all our resources on mindless ideology and philosophy and get on with today. By all means plan for the future but don’t fall for the meaningless propaganda shite. Take the best bits out of everything you hear think and say. Love everything around you while you do that, but don’t do anything, now, to expect a healthy transaction later. Or perform to any criteria.

We are insecure enough, why trust anybody or anything but your own instincts. If God gave those to you without someone yelling in your ear, as well, good on you. It is all you have. The one good thing that came out of the good book is the adage ”you reap what you sow”. The law of the jungle.

Instinct.

My feelings are that we all have ‘time-limits’ on everything. There is a beginning and end to everything in our lives. Days, seasons, microwave meals! Nothing is forever, so to contemplate eternity presumes a lot, considering the lack of evidence. The sacred mystery of life is just that. Out of bounds. If only one person knew for sure (with forensic science as back-up) what happens to us when we die, it would spoil our surprises.

I believe because of our own self-image, or rather our own self-belief/self-power/self-most that we are all on our own (or as a group), want to project the ‘belief’ or idea about our eventuality. Elements come in to play of course, upbringing, background, influence, imagination, but generally all these factors point to the need for man to ‘look forward’ to something. Something that has no home in the phenomena of pure instinct. On a tiny scale because we only understand anything that has a beginning and an end we look forward to most things, Christmas, Birthdays, Retirement. We do not have the capacity to plan anything further ahead. Our tiny brains cannot fathom it. Have you ever heard anyone in all seriousness say ‘well, when I come back I am going to do this, or that?’ As a joke maybe, but who can say they are assured of anything to plan for now? Faith? Well, having faith is what counts, people say. “Faith” (def:) “the assured expectation of things to come, not perceived or fully understood.” Faith to move mountains! Oh, ye of little faith! This is my point.  I believe faith is none other than self-image/ and self-projection by proxy, either individually or as a group.

The meaning of life to me is not what happened yesterday or what is to happen tomorrow. It is what you feel experience right now. Once again memories, history, gaining experience, learning from it, appreciation the richness of our existence, knowledge and making short term plans is I think more than enough to cope with. This does mean I either believe or disbelieve in immortality or re-incarnation, I simply cannot prove it one way or the other. I have a spiritual need, but not to be made special or feel special by faith in God. My need is to love and be loved. By the same token to hate and be hated. One cannot exist without the other. Self-image is more than being liked its an ultimate endeavour to survive. Human instinct. Or that part which we have no power over in our human behaviour. Positive and negative. Constructive or destructive.

Don't drown in the political propaganda and seek answers from within and not from mainstream media.

[latinbossboy9]

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LII: UNDER THE HOOD

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: WE'RE UPPING OUR GAME ON CFR IMAGES

AccessibilityNo Responses »

Apr042019

This is part of a series of posts about LII’s accessibility compliance initiative. The “accessibility” tag links to the posts in this series-in-progress.

LII’S CFR – WHY BOTHER RE-PUBLISHING?

A bit of history: for many years, LII published a finding aid for CFR, which offered tables of contents and facilitated a quick lookup by part and section from the eCFR website. This might not sound like much, but at the time, it was the only practical way to link to or bookmark CFR. In 2010, we undertook a joint study with the Office of the Federal Register, GPO, and the Federal Depository Library Program to convert CFR typesetting code to XML. This project resulted in our publication of an enhanced version of the print-CFR. But there was an enormous demand for the eCFR, which, unlike the print-CFR is updated to within a few days of final-rule publication in the Federal Register, so, in 2015, when the eCFR became available in XML, we started from scratch and re-built our enhanced CFR from that. Nowadays, our CFR reaches about 12 million people each year. If our readers reflect the U.S. population, this would mean more than 300,000 users with visual disabilities are relying on our CFR.

SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Simply put, we don’t control the content of CFR. The government publishes it, and we are at their mercy if there’s a problem with the content. And there is a problem with the content, a big one. Or, at last count, about 15,639 big ones. The problem is images. These are not just the kinds of images we’d assume (like diagrams), but images of equations, forms, data tables, even images of whole documents. Usually their captions, if even present, convey next to none of the information the images contain. Sometimes the images are printed sideways. Often they are blurry. Never are they machine-readable.

Now, you might say that remediating this problem should be the responsibility of the publisher. But we don’t have time. Our accessibility compliance target is the end of 2019 (see earlier post), and we can’t realistically expect the government to remediate in time.

PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG TO THE RESCUE

While we’ve been working on enhancing CFR for publication, Public.Resource.Org has been testing the limits of free access to law, challenging copyright claims to codes and standards incorporated by reference. Founder and president Carl Malamud is famous for saying “Law is the operating system of our society … So show me the manual!” The “manual” is often a very detailed explanation of what the law requires in practice. Together with Point.B Studio, they have converted innumerable codes and standards into machine-readable formats, including transforming pixel-images to Scalable Vector Graphics.

When we realized that we were going to need to deal with more than 15,000 images, our first step was to ask Carl whether he minded if we used the 1237 CFR images Public.Resource.Org converted in 2016-2017. He very enthusiastically encouraged us to go ahead and, beyond that, offered to support the conversion of more of the images. We provided an inventory of where in the CFR the images appear and how much traffic those pages get. Point.B Studio undertook the monumental task of first sorting the images by category and then converting the most prominent diagrams into SVG and equations into XML. In addition to support from Public Resource, Justia is helping to support this work by Point.B Studio as well.

We’ll be annotating the SVGs with standardized labels and titles. We want to deliver the results of this work to the public as quickly as possible, so we’re releasing the new content as it becomes available.

STEP 1: MATH IS HARD, LET’S USE MATHJAX

Close to 40% of the images in CFR involve some type of equation. Fortunately, MathML, an XML standard developed in the late 1990s, can be embedded in web pages. The American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) have teamed up to create MathJax, a Javascript plugin that lets us turn machine-readable MathML into readable, screen-reader accessible web content. Public.Resource.Org and Point.B Studio are converting pictures-of-equations into MathML; our website is using MathJax to provide visual and screen-reader-accessible presentations of the markup. You can see an example at 34 CFR 685.203.

STEPS 2 AND BEYOND

In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be remediating accessibility problems and releasing accessible images for eCFR. Stay tuned for updates here and via Twitter.

Posted by sara at 11:35 am

ACCESSIBILITY IMPROVEMENTS INCOMING

AccessibilityNo Responses »

Apr022019

LII’s overarching mission is to help people find and understand the law, and if free access to law means anything at all, it includes accessibility by definition. Over the years, we’ve worked to make the law more discoverable, more usable, and more accessible. But we’ve not done everything. Now we’re doing a lot more.

WHAT IS WEB ACCESSIBILITY?

At its simplest, web accessibility means making web content and services usable by everyone. That “everyone” includes, among others, people with vision impairments, including blindness; people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing; and people with mobility and fine-motor impairments. These days, the acronym “POUR” summarizes the operating principles of web accessibility; content must be:

Perceivable (e.g., audio must be transcribed and text must be machine-readable);Operable (e.g., users must be able to navigate using only the keyboard);Understandable (e.g., navigation must be consistent); andRobust (e.g., the website must behave in the same way across a variety of browsers and assistive technologies, including potential future ones).

More complicatedly, web accessibility means conforming to the standards developed by accessibility experts and adopted by government. These standards change over time. In 1998, the federal government and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) disagreed about the standards, so government web developers had to conform to what were then the Section 508 Standards, while others might be free to conform to the W3C standard. The standards keep developing (in fact, between the time the federal government finalized the rule adopting the current standard and the time that implementation was required a year later, the W3C issued an additional set of guidelines).

WHAT’S THE HISTORY?

The last time we undertook a dedicated effort to bring our website into accessibility conformance (in the mid-2000s), we used the government’s Section 508 standards. At the time, these required that:

(a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via “alt”, “longdesc”, or in element content).

(b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.

(c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.

(d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.

(e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.

(f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.

(g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.

(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.

(i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.

(j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

(k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way.  The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.

(l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.

(m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).

(n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.

(o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.

(p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.

Source: Access Board (2009, via Archive.org)

At that time, most of our content problems were with marking up data tables. We were extremely fortunate to be aided in this effort by then-student, now Cornell University Associate Vice President for Inclusion and Workforce Diversity, Angela Winfield, who made accessibility conformance part of her editorial work for us. And semantic markup made everything more discoverable.

And then our attention was diverted elsewhere. From time to time, we’d receive fan mail from a blind law student, thanking us for providing an accessible version of the Federal Rules that they could use in class. We thought we were doing pretty well. But we were not keeping up.

Several things had changed. Just as we were wrapping up our accessibility conformance project, the Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C standards body promulgated new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). Whereas in the past, federal regulations diverged from WCAG standards, within the past few years, WCAG 2.0 level AA has become the standard for new government websites in both the United States and the European Union. The WCAG 2.0 standards are far more extensive than the former Section 508 regulations, so modern accessibility compliance initiatives are far broader in scope.

Another major change after our last push on accessibility was that we became re-publishers of the Code of Federal Regulations. This project introduced a panoply of accessibility challenges, most of which we believed the federal government publishers could – and should – remediate, but which we endeavored to ameliorate ourselves. The results were mixed. We added indentation to make the text more readable, but because the text is not consistent in its enumeration, the markup is sometimes flawed. We added links to defined terms and acronyms to improve understandability, but this resulted in semi-duplicated links that were difficult for screen readers to distinguish. Most frustratingly, the CFR contains more that fifteen thousand images, many of which could not be fully remediated by adding “alt” or “longdesc” text (our next blog post will cover that).

WHAT NOW?

TL;DR: our parent institution, Cornell University, has committed to achieving WCAG 2.0 conformance by the end of 2019, so our timetable is tight. Most saliently, we will not be able to wait for the federal government to publish underlying data that fully supports web accessibility.

Over the next several months, you’ll probably notice some changes to the LII website. We’re releasing accessibility-enhanced content and features as soon as they are complete, and we will plan to update you as we progress through this project. If you need assistance in the meantime, you can reach us at liiaccessibility@cornell.edu.

Posted by sara at 11:31 am

WORK WE ADMIRE: LAW2GO

UncategorizedNo Responses »

Aug172017

In June, we received an email from Nigerian human rights lawyer Jake Effoduh, who was starting a free access to law project, #Law2Go, while on a summer fellowship at the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. In his concept note, he said:

“#Law2Go seeks to leverage on the extraordinary growth in the use of smart phones in Nigeria. By the end of 2017, there will be 18 million smart phone users in Nigeria with 38 million smartphones projected to be in used in Nigeria by 2018 – a growth like no other on the continent. This platform can be utilised to address one of the most crucial problems in Nigeria’s justice sector which is access.”

Two months later, Effoduh sent us a link to the Law2Go website, with a link to the Android app. Distinctive among open access to law websites is the innovative combination of translation and audio. Effoduh hosts a popular radio show in Nigeria and has not only translated the Nigerian Constitution into local languages, but also provided a simple English interpretation and paired each text with an audio recording.

Effoduh has used social media to develop an FAQ with questions ranging from the most general (e.g., “what are human rights?”) to the very specific (e.g., “my land containing minerals, oils, natural gas and the government wants to take it away; do they have a right to?”). The site has also already published a number of resources for those seeking legal services, and provides a contact form for those seeking legal advice.

Posted by sara at 6:19 am

2017 LEGISLATIVE DATA AND TRANSPARENCY CONFERENCE

UncategorizedNo Responses »

Jul202017

We’re back from the 2017 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference in Washington, DC, where technologists from the federal government and transparency organizations presented their latest open data work.

In the past year, several government websites have completed initiatives that make their data more accessible and more re-usable: from mobile-friendly redesigns from Congress.gov, Govinfo.gov and GPO.gov, to new repositories of bulk data for download, to initiatives that will support original drafting in formats suitable for publication. We were particularly excited to see LII’s work on the Legislative Data Model being adopted in government information systems, as well as FDsys metadata in RDF.

I spoke on a panel about data integration, along with my co-panelist, GovTrack founder Josh Tauberer, and our moderator, GPO’s Lisa LaPlant. Each of us is finding new ways to pick up a legal text, learn what we can about it, and connect it to other legal texts and, particularly in LII’s case, real-world objects.

This presentation was the latest installment in the ongoing work we’ve been doing to aggregate different data sources and connect them to one another, thus helping people navigate from what they know to what they don’t know and therefore making it easier for everyone to find and understand the law that affects them.

Posted by sara at 10:00 am

LII'S M.ENG. CREW REBUILDS DOCKET WRENCH

UncategorizedNo Responses »

May182017

On May 12, LII engineers Sylvia Kwakye, Ph.D., and Nic Ceynowa hosted a presentation by the 14 Cornell University Masters of Engineering students they’d supervised this spring as they presented their project work on the Docket Wrench application to LII and Cornell Law Library staff.

LII adopted the Docket Wrench application from the Sunlight Foundation when it closed its software development operation last fall. Originally developed by software engineer Andrew Pendleton in 2012, Docket Wrench is designed to help users explore public participation in the rulemaking process.  It supports exploration by rulemaking docket, agency, commenting company or organization, and the language of the comments themselves. It is a sprawling application with many moving parts, and when LII adopted it, it had not been running for two years.

On the infrastructure team, Mahak Garg served as project manager and, along with Mutahir Kazmi, focused on updating and supporting infrastructure for the application. They worked on updating the software and creating a portable version of the application for other teams to use for development.

The search team, Gaurav Keswani, Soorya Pillai, Ayswarya Ravichandran, Sheethal Shreedhara, and Vinayaka Suryanarayana, ensured that data made its way into, and could be correctly retrieved from, the search engine. This work included setting up and maintaining automated testing to ensure that the software would continue to function correctly after each enhancement was made.

The entities team, Shweta Shrivastava, Vikas Nelamangala, and Saarthak Chandra, ensured that the software could detect and extract the names of corporations and organizations submitting comments in the rulemaking process. Because the data on which Docket Wrench originally relied was no longer available, they researched, found a new data source, and altered the software to make use of it. (Special thanks to Jacob Hileman at the Center for Responsive Politics for his help with the Open Secrets API.)

Deekshith Belchappada, Monisha Chandrashekar, and Anusha Morappanavar, evaluated alternate techniques for computing document similarity, which enables users to find clusters of similar comments and see which language from a particular comment is unique. And Khaleel R  prototyped the use of Apache Spark to detect and mark legal citations and legislation names from within the documents.

So, where is it?

The good news is that after a semester of extremely hard work, “Team Docket” has Docket Wrench up and running again. But we need to ingest a great deal more data and test to make sure that the application can run once we’ve done so. This will take a while. As soon as the students have completed their final project submission, though, we’ll be starting a private beta in which our collaborators can nominate dockets, explore the service, and propose features. Please join us!

Posted by sara at 9:23 am

THE NEW NORMAL: HOW WE STAY FAST BY BEING SLOW AND STEADY

Infrastructure, LIINo Responses »

Feb162017

In the fall of 2015, we wrote about a traffic spike that had occurred during one of the Republican primary debates. Traffic on the night of Sept. 16, 2015 peaked between 9 and 10pm, with a total of 47,025 page views during that interval. For that day, traffic totaled 204,905 sessions and 469,680 page views. At the time, the traffic level seemed like a big deal – our server had run out of resources to handle the traffic, and some of the people who had come to the site had to wait to find the content they were looking for – at that time, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

A year later, we found traffic topping those levels on most weekdays. But by that time, we barely noticed. Nic Ceynowa, who runs our systems, had, over the course of the prior year, systematically identified and addressed unnecessary performance-drains across the website. He replaced legacy redirection software with new, more efficient server redirects. He cached dynamic pages that we knew to be serving static data (because we know, for instance, that retired Supreme Court justices issue no new opinions). He throttled access to the most resource-intensive pages (web crawlers had to slow down a bit so that real people doing research could proceed as usual). As a result, he could allow more worker processes to field page requests and we could continue to focus on feature development rather than server load.

Then came the inauguration on January 20th. Presidential memoranda and executive orders inspired many, many members of the general public to read the law for themselves. Traffic hovered around 220,000 sessions per day for the first week. And then the President issued the executive order on immigration. By Sunday January 29th, we had 259,945 sessions – more than we expect on a busy weekday. On January 30th, traffic jumped to 347,393. And then on January 31st traffic peaked at 435,549 sessions – and over 900,000 page views.

The servers were still quiet. Throughout, we were able to continue running some fairly resource-hungry updating processes to keep the CFR current. We’ll admit to having devoted a certain amount of attention to checking in on the real-time analytics to see what people were looking at, but for the most part it was business as usual.

Now, the level of traffic we were talking about was still small compared to the traffic we once fielded when Bush v. Gore  was handed down in 2000 (that day we had steady traffic of about 4000 requests per minute for 24 hours). And Nic is still planning to add clustering to our bag of tricks. But the painstaking work of the last year has given us a lot of breathing room – even when one of our fans gives us a really big internet hug. In the meantime, we’ve settled into the new normal and continue the slow, steady work of making the website go faster when people need it the most.

Posted by sara at 12:01 pm

ECFR: UPDATES ON THE UPDATES  

UncategorizedNo Responses »

Jan192017

A bit over a year ago, we released the first iteration of our new version of the eCFR , the Office of the Federal Register’s unofficial compilation of the current text of the Code of Federal Regulations. At the time, we’d been using the text of the official print version of the CFR to generate our electronic version – it was based on GPO’s authenticated copy of the text, but it was woefully out of date because titles are prepared for printing only once a year. During the past year, while retrofitting and improving features like indentation , cross references, and definitions , we maintained the print-CFR in parallel so that readers could, if they chose, refer to the outdated-but-based-on-official-print version.

This week we’re discontinuing the print-CFR. The reason? Updates. As agencies engage in rulemaking activity, they amend, revise, add, and remove sections, subparts, parts, and appendices. During the past year, the Office of the Federal Register has published thousands of such changes to the eCFR. These changes will eventually make their way into the annual print edition of the CFR, but most of the time, the newest rules making the headlines are, at best, many months away from reaching print.

What’s new? Well, among those thousands of changes were a number of places where agencies were adding rules reflecting new electronic workflows. And these additions provide us with an occasion for checking every facet of our own electronic workflows. When the Citizenship and Immigration Service added the Electronic Visa Update System, they collected the existing sections in Part 215 of Title 8 of the CFR into a new Subpart A and added sections 215.21-215.24 under the new Subpart B . So, after adding the new sections, the software had to refresh the table of contents for Part 215 and create the table of contents for 8 CFR Part 215 Subpart A.

What you’ll see doesn’t look a whole lot different from what’s been there for the past year, but it will be a lot easier to find new CFR sections, the pages will load more quickly, and we will be able to release new CFR features more quickly.

Posted by sara at 10:50 am

PROJECT WORK FROM THE M.ENG. CREW

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Dec152016

On December 5th, LII engineers Nic Ceynowa and Sylvia Kwakye, Ph.D., looked on in pride as the Cornell University Masters of Engineering students they’d supervised presented a trio of fall projects to LII and Cornell Law Library staff.

Entity Linking

Mutahir Kazmi and Shraddha Vartak pulled together, enhanced, and scaled a group of applications that link entities in the Code of Federal Regulations. Entity linking is a set of techniques that detect references to things in the world (such as people, places, animals, pharmaceuticals) and link them to data sources that provide more information about them. The team analyzed the entities and the corpus in order to determine which entities required disambiguation, distinguished entities to mark before and after defined-term markup, and used Apache Spark to speed the overall application by 60%.

 

US Code Definition Improvement

Khaleel Khaleel, Pracheth Javali, Ria Mirchandani, and Yashaswini Papanna took on the task of adapting our CFR definition extraction and markup software to meet the unique requirements of the US Code. In addition to learning the hierarchical structure and identifier schemes within the US Code corpus, the project involved discovering and extracting definition patterns that had not before been identified; parsing multiple defined terms, word roots, and abbreviations from individual definitions; and correctly detecting the boundaries of the definitions.

Before:

And after:

[pachecoohector]

Champions League fixtures | Football | The Guardian

Champions league matches for tomorrow - Champions League Fixtures & Results /21 | Live Scores | BT Sport

City manager Pep Guardiola will be hungry to turn domestic dominance into European silverware. The Sky Blues have yet to win the Champions League, but Kevin De Bruyne's return to fitness could help the club break their duck in the competition.

I agree with everything you typed. Champions league matches for tomorrow network should have never gotten the Champions League TV contract as they are not a champions league matches for tomorrow sports covering network and do not have good qualified people to manage it.

We also cannot watch any games in English without paying, I hate listening to Univision as they only broadcast in Spanish, which is a pain to my ears. A big shame on UEFA. A big shame on TNT. They should have never attempted in winning this contract a they are simply incapable in handling it and doing a good job.

No, I am not happy as CBS will start their coverage next year in It is also disheartening on why TNT stopped covering this year, they should have at least broadcasted all the games starting August 7th between Real Madrid at Manchester City, and continue coverage till the final in Lisbon on August They offer a 7-day free trial Maybe it is worth trying it. My anger and disappointment is at TNT for just cancelling their champions league matches for tomorrow before champions league matches for tomorrow season was completed.

They should have at least completed this whole season. I will not miss their poor coverage anyway. I am also very angry and disappointed at stupid and greedy UEFA for not acting in a proper way to service English speaking soccer fans in the US.

Their champions league matches for tomorrow decisions are most unbecoming and very poor business I am trying to be polite here. TNT should have at least covered till the end of this season…. Their abysmal disregard to all US soccer fans is unpardonable. Agree with everything above. If view it now super elite rich person hates soccer so much they want to destroy the game in USA, then the contract to TNT and not showing the games is how you do that.

Amazing TNT really had no idea what they were getting into with this.

Champions League fixtures on TV – how to watch live games, quarter-finals schedule and more

Any clue who has taken the remainder of this years CL? CBS is next year but not Aug champions league matches for tomorrow. Remember that all matches starting with the quarter-finals are all going to be held in Lisbon and are single elimination matches, no more home and away matches, so these games should be very exciting.

They offer a 7-day free trial. Maybe it is worth buying this just for these details month. You can watch these matches for free on Univision if you have this channel chwmpions, but it is only in Spanish.

The only free way to watch these games in English is to find a free online streaming site, Google should come in handy in finding them. Again, UEFA fumbled these arrangements very badly. If we are lucky…. More matches will be available on TV too just as soon as the decisions are made on which matches will be on English-language TV.

Thank you Christopher Leayue for all your help and information. This page must have been updated to include a lot of new and useful current information, which I had not seen before. We soccer fans appreciate all your good efforts. Matchee well and wish you all published here best. Today, July tokorrow,I checked what I read the following on the top of this page here: Manchester City vs.

It is possible that this schedule has not been updated yet …. If champions league matches for tomorrow when this information is ever updated and corrected please share it here. Of course, they can always change their mind. Hi Christopher Harris, thanks for your prompt reply and explanation. You could be absolutely right as I too expect this scheduling information to be corrected and updated closer to game day. Thanks a lot for all your help and information, we all soccer fans appreciate all that you do here.

Have a wonderful day and stay well and healthy, we need you. The advantage is you can watch this channel on your TV mmatches this new coming app and without needing to stream it through your WiFi or Internet.

Here with your TV provider. Good luck all. Chris do you think CBS is really only going to show the final on all access? That seems horribly inconsistent with their prior claims. When Turner had the rights, none of the games were on over-the-air television. My question is will I able to watch the Champions Champions league matches for tomorrow through my Prime account or will I have to pay for a separate subscription?

If anyone can answer this question it is greatly appreciated. Thanks Chris. If you pay…. You are right Christopher. Amazon Prime does make available many shows and channels to Prime members, the sad fact is that many of these available offers are NOT free, the customer is forced to buy their selected packages at extra champions league matches for tomorrow besides paying for Prime membership.

I made this fact very clear in my earlier post which was deleted from here, I assume because I was unkind to Jeff Bezos. Hopefully this one will be fixed in time. There fomorrow no DVR offered. A great relief to have that in place. Useful content does coverage begin at the Playoffs? Group Stage on? How much do those rights in the past cost. How in the world does acompany champions league matches for tomorrow get half a tournament.

I champions league matches for tomorrow this champions league matches for tomorrow the new streaming world we now live in. Is CBS interesting getting that or later? Real played very poorly today to have any chance to eliminate Manchester City. The only consolation for Real fans is that at least we won the La Liga championship this season. Now we have to wait till the next season starts.

It has been a very sad day for all Real Madrid fans. Real Madrid lost and got eliminated because of their French Champions league matches for tomorrow. He picked wrong players for this very important game and did not replace players till the game was almost over. Even though Zidane is highly regarded as a brilliant coach his stupid stubbornness is also his downfall. I will not be sad if and when Zidane departs Real Madrid. His personal stubborn and poor decisions have hurt this team enormously, Had he planned smarter and more logically Real would have had a much better chance to win and advance to the quarter-finals.

Champion: Bayern Munich. You are welcome to use my tips and call your bookie and get rich. Hi guys, anyone getting lfague with my accurate picks? Up to kr in Bet Credits for new customers at fo Min deposit 50 kr. Bet Credits available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit.

Champions league matches for tomorrow odds, bet and payment method champions league matches for tomorrow apply. Ararat-Armenia FC. Atalanta BC. AZ Alkmaar. Borussia Dortmund. BSC Young Boys. Celtic FC. CFR Cluj. Chelsea FC. Club Brugge. Connah's Quay Nomads FC. CS Fola Esch. Dundalk FC. Europa Chaampions. FC Astana. FC Barcelona. FC Dinamo Brest. FC Dinamo Tbilisi. FC Dynamo Kyiv. FC Flora Tallinn. FC Internazionale Milano. FC Krasnodar. Chelsea v Porto 8pm BT Sport 2.

For the full breakdown of what games are coming up check out our Premier League fixtures on TV guide. Our editorial their website always independent learn more.

[brightlotusmoon]

Thank you @deadlyflan

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That got a ripple of laughter through the three turtles, imagining their little brother howling over polka while cackling in joy at almost every other genre.

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