Introduce yourself!

Its true then. Hes no longer just a myth, no longer just the story that sent shivers down your spine, no longer just that stupid horror game. The Slenderman is most certainly real, and our very own human brains have made him flesh and blood...

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Faceless?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
I just wondered what everyone was like in real life! You dont have to put anything about yourself if your dont wish too :3

My name is Amy, I am 14 years old. Female, just if you weren?t clever enough to work out by my name. My hair reaches my shoulders and is dyed red, I have teal iris's and sadly wear a pair of square framed black glasses. I'm small and thinish with tanned skin, often wearing black, but I wouldn?t class myself as emo or anything. I'm just a individual.

My personality is kind of split. So spilt in fact I think I have bipolar or cross boarder personality. One side of me is sweet, well mannered, manically giddy and pleasantly caring. The other side is cold, smug, sarcastic, and very angry. Sometimes I just flip out, sometimes becoming a little violent. Afterwards I fall into a depression. It?s kind of weird.

It hurts not knowing who you are...

I enjoy gaming! Which I guess is odd for a girl. I love Resident evil, Final Fantasy, and Zelda. Other things I enjoy are: Reading, writing, horror films, anime, manga, online comics, youtubers, (Pewdiepie<3) drawing, becoming obsessed with things, getting scared, daydreaming, and just being a reject of society.

LunaSpirit

Member for 2 years

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We shall be making a family, the Slenders. Yes, that is our family name. From now on. No arguments!!!

My name is Mark, I am 15. Male. I have long hair, for a guy, and it's brown. My eyes are dirty blue or grey depending on the light. In my house I'm tall then I leave and remember I'm just part of a small family, as in little, there is 5 in my family we're about average sized. I'll wear any colour.

My friend wrote in my careers booklet, for school, "Mark is cuddly, bubbly, giggly and eccentric, friendly and always there for you." We found it funny because the teacher was just like laughing at us and random shizzle. Anyway, I'm the agony aunt in my group, any problem a hug from me and a cry on my shoulders and you feel better.

AMY YOU STOLE THE THINGS I LOVE!!!! XD ER MER GERD PEWDIEPIE!!!!

I claim Agony aunt in the Slenders!!! CLAIM IT!!!
Well Gay Agony Uncle, but it ain't got no ring to it so Agony Aunt will do.

ThornGood

Member for 0 years

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Hahaha yes! We are now the Slenders! I really like that! ^.^ You seem awesome AND PEWDIEPIE IS MEIN! Awh I don't know what to beh in the family! Q.Q

LunaSpirit

Member for 2 years

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You're the mother! But you're an Amazingly Amazing mum that the friends like!

ThornGood

Member for 0 years

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Post a reply

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Malin Akerman Pregnant With Her First Child!

Malin Akerman Pregnant With Her First Child!

Malin Akerman has announced her pregnancy, admitting she wasn’t thinking she would get pregnant so easily. The “Couples Retreat” star, who is three months pregnant [...]

Malin Akerman Pregnant With Her First Child! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/09/malin-akerman-pregnant-with-her-first-child/

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The Pretenders ? Talk of the Town (Americablog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/252124517?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Daniel Radcliffe Could Help Bring 'Frankenstein' To Life

By Colin Greten According to a report from The Wrap, Daniel Radcliffe is showing serious interest in bringing someone back from the dead. Fox is in the process of developing a new movie based on Mary Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein." The studio has hired "Lucky Number Slevin" director Paul McGuigan and already has a draft [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/09/28/daniel-radcliffe-frankenstein/

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Blue Dog artist George Rodrigue survives cancer, returns to painting ...

Artist George Rodrigue, known for his paintings of a beseeching, yellow-eyed blue dog is recovering from months of cancer treatment. Rodrigue said that while preparing for surgery to eliminate back pain, doctors discovered that he suffered from a rare form of lung cancer that had spread to other parts of his body. After undergoing a series of ?very tough? radiation treatments and chemotherapy at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Rodrigue said that doctors are satisfied the cancer has been eliminated.

Rodrigue, 68, said that the diagnosis of lung cancer was particularly shocking since he has never smoked. He said that illness may have resulted from a time in the mid 1980s, when he routinely sprayed canvases with clear varnish in an unventilated studio. He said he contracted hepatitis from the exposure. He has since used water-based paints only, but the damage may have already been done. He offers this advice to artists: ?If you have to use varnishes, use them outside or put a (filtration) mask on. They have a (warning) label right on the can. I didn?t heed it.?

Born in New Iberia, Rodrigue has achieved world-wide fame for his brightly hued Louisiana landscapes occupied by his iconic blue dog figure, though he is also known for an earlier series of moody landscapes and portraits that document Cajun culture. His three-story Royal Street gallery is a French Quarter landmark. An enormous three-dimensional version of his blue dog stands at the corner of Severn Avenue and Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie. A retrospective of his work is now on display at the Amarillo Museum of Art.

In the period after Hurricane Katrina, Rodrigue raised more than two million dollars for New Orleans causes from the Louisiana Red Cross to the New Orleans Museum of Art. The George Rodrigue Foundation provides scholarships for Louisiana students entering college. On Tuesday (Sept. 25) Rodrigue received a Community Arts Award from the Arts Council of New Orleans for his contributions to the region. During the ceremony, his successful treatment for cancer first became public, as he and his wife thanked well-wishers and supporters.

?In the last three weeks, I?m painting again. I look at it as another future,? he said in a telephone interview. Rodrigue said that he?s not sure how the profound experience will affect his art, but he?s certain that style or content changes will eventually take place.

?It?ll be interesting for me to see what I?ll do,? he said.

Reach Doug MacCash at dmaccash@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3481. Read more art news at nola.com/arts. Follow him at twitter.com/DougMacCashTP.

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Source: http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2012/09/blue_dog_artist_george_rodrigu.html

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Why do we think Curiosity found an old Mars riverbed?

The Curiosity rover team announced yesterday that they'd found the mission's first potentially habitable environment on Mars: an ancient river bed. But why do they think flowing water created the formation?

What exactly did the rover find?

Curiosity's telephoto camera snapped shots of three rocky outcrops not far from the rover's landing site inside Gale Crater. One of them, called "Goulburn", had been excavated by the rover's own landing gear. The other two were natural outcrops dubbed "Link" and "Hottah". All three, and Hottah in particular, were made of thin layers of rock that had been cemented together.

When the rover zoomed in, it saw rounded pebbles in the conglomerates and in surrounding gravel that were fairly large ? up to a few centimetres in diameter. On Earth, roundness is a tell-tale sign that rocks have been transported a long way, since their angular edges got smoothed out as they tumbled. The Mars rocks are too big to have been blown by wind, so the team concluded it must have been flowing water. This dovetails with orbital images hinting that the rover landed in an alluvial fan, a feature that is formed on Earth by water flows.

Let's not be H2O-centric here. Could the liquid have been something other than water?

The chemical evidence for hydrated minerals at Gale Crater and elsewhere means water is definitely the top contender ? although one team member likes to joke that, for all we know, the liquid could have been beer.

Some Mars scientists have suggested quickly evaporating carbon dioxide ice could have triggered rockslides, forming gullies elsewhere on the planet, but that's a less popular theory, says team member Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College London. Also, such bursts of CO2 vapour probably couldn't have transported these rocks all the way from the rim of Gale Crater, where the river seems to have begun, adds Bill Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley.

It's possible the water could have been quite salty or briny, which would make it more viscous. It could have been slushy or icy as well. "Whether pure water or salty water, it would all behave similarly in terms of sediment transport," says team member Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

How long ago was the water there?

On Earth, the most reliable way to measure the ages of alluvial fans is by radiocarbon dating ? but that requires organic carbon, which we haven't yet found on Mars. And even if it found some, Curiosity's on-board chemistry lab isn't quite up to the task. The best Mars scientists can do is estimate the age of the surrounding surface based on counting craters. On a large scale, the older an area is, the more craters it likely accumulates over time.

"We think what we're looking at is several billion years old," Dietrich says of the region around Gale Crater. "How to get better than that, I don't know. This is a common discussion point."

How deep was the stream? How fast was it flowing?

Dietrich calculated that it was probably between ankle and hip deep, and flowed at about a metre per second.

How can he possibly know that?

The key was knowing the size of the rocks: "Up until now, no one knew what the size of the material in the bed was," Dietrich says. "That affects when grains start to move and the velocity. It propagates through all the calculations."

The equations for calculating river depth on Earth apply just as well on Mars, despite Mars' weaker gravity. The amount of water needed to push a rock down a slope depends on the weight of the rock and the steepness of the slope. The team knew the slope's angle, at least roughly, based on measurements of Gale Crater taken from orbit. Curiosity's new images gave size estimates for the rocks, which translated to a range of depths. Then Dietrich could plug the depth into equations for flow speed, which do depend on gravity. The river flows more slowly on Mars than it would on Earth, he says.

Its speed could change depending on how cold the water was ? cold water is about twice as viscous as warm water. Another uncertainty is how dirty the water was, since carrying a lot of small particles would slow down the stream. With the data we have now, though, a metre per second is a pretty safe estimate, Dietrich says. "Based on a mixture of hydraulic calculations and field experience, this is typically what we would find."

What does this mean for life?

The team's project scientist, John Grotzinger of Caltech, called the river bed the rover's first potentially habitable environment.

"But these fluvial environments aren't the best habitable environments," Gupta says. "They're not the best at preserving evidence of life." That's part of why the rover has already left the outcrops behind and is now heading first toward a spot called Glenelg, where three different rock types come together, and then full speed towards the mountain in the middle of the crater, alternately called Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. Orbital images show tantalising evidence of clays in the mountain's layers, and clays are known to better preserve organics.

"The longer-term aim is to get to Mount Sharp," Gupta says. "That's always on our mind. We can't get too distracted."

But if they run across something else that's more exciting on the way, might they change course?

"Absolutely!" says Williams. "This mission is responsive to discoveries."

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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How to be successful in Affiliate Marketing Business

Affiliate marketing is one of the real, legitimate and competitive online business opportunities available in plenty in internet. You will get millions of products and services and out of which thousands of niches which you can promote in online and make legitimate money. The success of business will depend on learning affiliate marketing business regarding choice of niche and sell those products in online for earning commission.

Now, start to learn with attention affiliate marketing business yield from the experiences of internet marketing businessmen and select your niche. The money making opportunity with affiliate products will be started from your search engine optimized affiliate website.

The first step is to identify products and services which will provide high commission on sale. For this purpose, ClickBank Marketplace is an ideal online platform where you have to visit an hour a day for selecting suitable niche products. This way you can choose products which are suitable with your passion and high conversion rates.

Start driving relevant traffics to your offer. The only way to make money from online is to locate its consumers and attract those in your site for its selling. The high quality targeted traffics can meet your desire. The traffics generated by search engines are potential and targeted and they are easily converted into sales. They visit the website for doing some action rather than only surfing webpages. You have to concentrate on the quality of traffics and their conversion into sales to make money in affiliate business. These two things will be monitored constantly to get continuous flow of online income through affiliate marketing business.

The writing of relevant articles and reviews and marketing in best online platform will enable to learn traffic building techniques. The informative articles and reviews reveal proper function and usefulness of your products and services and also its cost price, process of its delivery and coverage of guarantee or warrantee period. The power of writing establishes a relationship with potential buyers. The articles and reviews will be published at busy online platform such as article sites, directories, PR sites and social networking sites to draw unlimited potential visitors in your website. Writing press releases and publish in PR sites to make it public, is also another good way to attract targeted traffics to your website.

To sell affiliate products is a very profitable online business if it is done correctly and wisely. When someone reads your article and join you mailing list, there is every chance that he will follow your e-mails where you have to advertise your affiliate products which you are going to promote.

Applying these simple strategies, will certainly be a great help to make money in online business through online affiliate marketing campaign. Using these simple strategies will greatly increase your chances of a successful online affiliate marketing campaign turning prospects into buyers and putting cash in your pocket.

Source: http://www.businesswebvision.com/affiliate-marketing-business.htm

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Video: Man arrested for making fake terrorist video

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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The Top 20 Technology-Driven Trends in 2012 | The Raddon Report

Home ? Featured Article, Technology

The following article was originally posted in Daniel Burrus? Technotrends newsletter earlier this year.? Daniel was recently a keynote speaker at Raddon?s CEO Forum.

No matter what industry you?re in, your company can?t survive without technology. And these days, even non-technical employees know that technology goes way beyond desktop computers and networks. From smart phones and tablet computers to mobile apps and cloud-based technology, there?s a plethora of technological advancements to not only keep track of, but also to profit from. To stay competitive, your organization needs to anticipate the future technology trends that are shaping your business and then develop innovative ways to implement them in your organization.

Now that 2012 is well underway, be ready for the following 20 technology-driven trends to continue to create both disruption and opportunity in the business world. But rather than just react to them, be pre-active to future known events and plan how your company will profit from them now. That?s the only way you?ll gain competitive advantage in the coming years.

1. Rapid Growth of Big Data. Big Data is a term used to describe the technologies and techniques used to capture and utilize the exponentially increasing streams of data with the goal of bringing enterprise-wide visibility and insights to make rapid critical decisions. High Speed Analytics using advanced cloud services will increasingly be used as a complement to existing information management systems and programs to tame the massive data explosion. This new level of data integration and analytics will require many new skills and cross-functional buy-in in order to break down the many data and organizational silos that still exist. The rapid increase in data makes this a fast growing hard trend that cannot be ignored.
2. Cloud Computing and Advanced Cloud Services will be increasingly embraced by business of all sizes, as this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity. As consumers, we first experienced public clouds (think about when you use Google or Apple?s MobileMe and now iCloud). Then we saw more private clouds and hybrid clouds from businesses such as Flextronics, Siemens, Accenture, and many others, all using the cloud to cut costs in human resources and sales management functions. This was only the beginning, as cloud services enable the rapid transformation all business processes.
3. On Demand Services will increasingly be offered to companies needing to rapidly deploy new services. Hardware as a Service (HaaS) joins Software as a Service (SaaS), creating what some have called ?IT as a service.? All will grow rapidly for small as well as large companies, with many new players in a multitude of business process categories. These services will help companies cut costs as they provide access to powerful software programs and the latest technology without having the expense of a large IT staff and time-consuming, expensive upgrades. As a result, IT departments in all industries will be increasingly freed to focus on enabling business process transformation, which will allow organizations to maximize their return on their technology investments.
4. Virtualization of Storage, Desktops, Applications, and Networking will see continued acceptance and growth by both large and small businesses as virtualization security improves. We will continue to see the virtualization of processing power, allowing mobile devices to access supercomputer capabilities and apply it to processes such as purchasing and logistics, to name a few.
5. Consumerization of IT Increases as the source for innovation and technology continues to be driven by the consumer thanks to rapid advances in processing power, storage, and bandwidth. Smart companies have recognized that this is a hard tend that will continue and have stopped fighting consumerization. Instead, they are turning it into a competitive advantage by consumerizing their applications, such as recommending safe and secure third party hardware and apps. Encouraging employees to share productivity enhancing consumer technology will become a wise strategy.
6. Gamification of Training and Education will fuel a fast moving hard trend using advanced simulations and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience thanks to a photo-realistic 3D interface. Some will develop software using these gaming techniques to work on existing hardware systems such as the Xbox and PlayStation. A social component that includes sharing will drive success.
7. Social Business takes on a new level of urgency as organizations shift from an Information Age ?informing? model to a Communication Age ?communicating and engaging? model. Social Software for business will reach a new level of adoption with applications to enhance relationships, collaboration, networking, social validation, and more. Social Search will increasingly be used by marketers and researchers, not to mention Wall Street, to tap into millions of daily tweets and Facebook conversations, providing real-time analysis of many key consumer metrics.
8. Smart Phones & Tablets Become Our Primary Personal Computers, and the Mobile Web becomes a must-have capability. An Enterprise Mobility Strategy Becomes Mandatory for all size organizations as we see mobile data, mobile media, mobile sales, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile finance, mobile payments, mobile health, and many more explode. The vast majority of mobile phones sold globally will have a browser, making the smart phone our primary computer that is with us 24/7 and signaling a profound shift in global computing. This new level of mobility will allow any size business to transform how they market, sell, communicate, collaborate, educate, train, and innovate using mobility.
9. Tablet Computers with Enterprise Level Web Apps will be used to transform sales and service support and then move to purchasing, logistics, just-in-time training, and much more.
10. Intelligent Electronic Agents using natural language voice commands takes off with Apple?s Siri, rapidly followed by Android, Microsoft, and others all offering what will become a mobile electronic concierge on your smart devices including your phone, tablet, and television. Soon retailers will have a Siri-like sales assistant, and maintenance workers will have a Siri-like assistant. The possibilities are endless.
11. Digital Identity Management will become increasingly important to both organizations and individuals as new software allows users to better manage their multiple identities across business and personal networks. Next Generation Biometrics will play a key role in both identity management and security.
12. Visual Communications takes video conferencing to a new level with programs like SKYPE, FaceTime, and others giving us video communication on phones, tablets, and home televisions. Visual Communications will be integrated with current video conferencing systems, fueling this as a main relationship-building tool for businesses of all sizes.
13. Enhanced Location Awareness will accelerate the number of business-to-consumer apps for smart phones and tablets that will take geo-social marketing and sales to a new level of creative application, driving rapid growth.
14. Geo-Spatial Visualization combines geographic information systems (GIS) with location-aware data, RFID (radio frequency identification), and other location-aware sensors (including the current location of users from the use of their mobile devices) to create new insights and competitive advantage. Early applications include logistics and supply chain to name a few.
15. Smart TV Using Apps will get a major boost in the marketplace, fueling a major shift in home viewing. Ever wonder how you could have over 500 cable or satellite channels and nothing to watch? You didn?t have apps on your TV allowing you to personalize the experience. This is the beginning of a major shift that will take place in living rooms globally. Look for Apple to introduce the iTV (living room size iPad).
16. Multiple App Stores for all smart phone, tablet, and television operating systems (Android, Blackberry, Windows, and others) will take off, creating an abundant distribution and sales ecosystem for all. This will cement the revolution versus evolution that apps software represents. We will see business app stores for the enterprise starting this year.
17. 3D Displays for Smart Phones and Tablets will be the breakthrough that will drive wide-scale consumer acceptance of 3D computing. 3D Computing for the enterprise will grow rapidly for military, medicine, fashion, architecture, and entertainment applications.
18. eBooks, eNewspapers, and eMagazines Pass the Tipping Point due to the abundance of smartphones with readable displays, tablets that provide a full color experience, and publishers providing apps that give a better than paper experience by including cut, copy, paste, print, and multimedia capabilities. In addition, eBook readers will have high quality with a low enough price to bring in the masses.
19. Interactive Multimedia eTextbooks will finally take off thanks to Apple?s iBook Author and other competing tools, freeing new publishers to create compelling and engaging content, and freeing students from a static, expensive, and literally heavy experience.
20. Wireless Machine-to-Machine applications such as two-way meter reading, surveillance, vending machine, and point-of-sale solutions take off thanks to faster wireless data networks.

Spot Your Own Trends

Are these the only technology-driven trends for 2012 to be aware of? Of course not. As we all know from past experience, technology is always evolving, resulting in new trends emerging and new products appearing every day. That?s why smart organizations stay ahead of the trends by anticipating them, adapting them to their unique environment before the competition does, and ultimately enabling the organization to profit from them. The more you?re able to do that, the sooner your organizations will reach the next level of success.

To gain easy access to Daniel Burrus? mobile web content including his latest blog posts, video clips, social media feeds and newsletters, text BURRUS to 99000 to access and download Daniel Burrus? mobile web app.

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Source: http://www.theraddonreport.com/?p=7956

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Photos: The AK-47 assault rifle ... as art

The exhibition, 'AKA Peace,' in collaboration with non-profit organization Peace One Day, showcases artists reinterpretation of AK-47 assault rifles, reacting against the horror of violence globally and recasting a weapon of devastation as a conduit to peace. Currently on display at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the art installations are to be auctioned after the exhibition on Oct. 4 to raise funds for Peace One Day.

Gallery View:Artists turn weapons into art

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/artists-turn-weapons-into-art-slideshow/

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Angry Birds maker hopes Bad Piggies will help it fly again

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Eat Your Beer | Taste | Food & Drink | Oakland, Berkeley & Bay Area ...

Kyle Itani remembers his first foray into cooking with beer ? if a bit sheepishly: "It was beer-can chicken," he recalled. "Which is kind of funny." Funny because it was a prosaic start for someone who's now mixing obscure Japanese beers into high-concept Asian-American dishes at one of Oakland's newer and hotter restaurants, Hopscotch, and because it's also a pretty good metaphor for the world of cooking with beer, writ large: While beer-battered fish and, yes, beer-can chicken, have long been staples at the dinner table and the pub, recent years have seen beer show up in more dishes, at more restaurants, and in more unexpected places.

At Berkeley's Freehouse, chef Kevin Kroger cuts pilsner into cheddar for mac 'n' cheese and porter into barbecue sauce for his pulled-pork sandwich; Jupiter, meanwhile, incorporates its hefeweizen into chicken pot pie and its porter into barbecue pork riblets. At Pyramid Brewery's Berkeley alehouse, Joe O'Leary uses the brewery's beers in no fewer than fourteen of his menu's standard dishes, including a hefeweizen chili and a sweet-potato fries side served with IPA curry sauce.

Beer is even showing up in desserts: Dan Del Grande ? president of Berkeley's Bison Brewery and a pretty accomplished at-home beer chef himself ? swears by his Chocolate Stout pancakes (!) recipe. Kroger said that one of Freehouse's most popular desserts is a float made with Guinness ice cream and Old Rasputin beer. And it's not just brewpubs, either: Hopscotch is a sleek, NorCal-inflected fusion restaurant with a trendy aesthetic dishes that go far beyond pub-grub standards like wings and burgers ? and three dishes on its rotating menu that incorporate beer.

Ask a chef like O'Leary and all this is something of a no-brainer: Beer is just another weapon in any chef's arsenal, one that, like other ingredients, can deepen a dish in unexpected ways and produce the kinds of can't-put-a-finger-on-it flavors many chefs strive for. "Cooking with beer helps accentuate the flavors of not only the beer but the food," he said. "It's unbelievable; it really brings it to another level and ... adds a whole different complexity. In the restaurant, people are always like, 'Why does this dish taste so much better than normally?' And it's always because of the beer."

Ashley Routson, who has developed several beer recipes for Bison with Del Grande, explained it in terms a brewer would use: "Cooking with beer allows you to concentrate some of the specific flavors that we work to bring out in different beers" ? the subtle yeastiness of a hefeweizen or a witbier, the nutty flavors of a porter, the bitter notes of an IPA. "And when you're cooking, you're always looking for new ways to add flavor without using water, which dilutes stuff," Routson said. "Chefs use stock and broth all the time in their food, so using beer is just taking it to the next level." Beer's texture makes it a good meat tenderizer, she said, and it can add a kind of lightness most liquids can't (hence, its use in batters).

All of this is coming as new knowledge for the East Bay's batch of beer-oriented chefs, seeing as most kitchens and cooking schools still subscribe to fairly old-school ideas about alcohol and food. "Growing up in kitchens, it's wine, wine, wine all the time," Itani said ? "never beer." But he remembers vividly the dish that turned him onto cooking with beer a few years ago: "It was this really spicy clams dish, and I was drinking an IPA with it. And I remember thinking, these flavors go so well together, and I don't think I could've had this pairing with wine." That dish ultimately served as inspiration for two dishes on Hopscotch's menu, both of which prominently feature clams marinated in Asahi, a Japanese beer.

"A lot of chefs are trained to use wine," said Del Grande. "But beer's on tap, it's right at their bar, it's relatively low-cost." And especially in the East Bay ? as small breweries continue to thrive, beer culture becomes more serious about process and ingredients, high-quality brews become easier and easier to get, and identifying flavor notes becomes just as natural for beer as it is for wine or whiskey ? it's a trend that will likely continue.

"This is something I only see getting bigger and bigger in the next ten years," said Kroger. "It's not just Guinness and Heineken and Silver Bullet anymore ? you have such a wide variety of styles with beer now." That variety is smaller and subtler with wine, he said. "With wine you basically have red and white and there's different small characteristics, but with beer, you've got American strong ales, you've got barleywines, you've got imperial stouts, you've [got] wheatier beers, and they all have absolutely unique flavors within themselves. So you just have a much broader area to work with. But it's hard, because so much of classical cooking uses wine."

There's definitely an "intimidation factor" with beer, Kroger said: "Most of my chef friends are still a little timid" ? and it's hard to blame them: Beer offers unique and variable textures and flavors, and is far from fail-safe. Cooking tends to concentrate flavors, so while malty beers typically lend dishes a nice, mellow sweetness, hoppier ones can often translate to inedible bitterness, and it seems like every chef has a horror story. Kroger remembers using an IPA to deglaze a pan for risotto and finding that the finished product was pretty much impossible to eat. O'Leary recalls his first couple attempts at cooking with IPA as "just really, really bad. The oils can kind of take over and it just becomes beyond bitter."

Basically, what it seems to come down to is the same as with any ingredient: balance and restraint. Routson recommends using citrus-forward beers with seafood, malty beers with grilled meats, and intensely flavorful beers as a marinade rather than a base. O'Leary, meanwhile, has found that IPA marries well with coconut, malt-forward tend to be the most versatile, and yeasty beers work well with the sulfuric compounds in eggs: He makes a lemon-Hefeweizen cr?me brulee that he says is "really popular" at Pyramid. He had very little experience cooking with beer before he came to the restaurant about five years ago, and it's been a trial-and-error process. "But it's really fun to experiment with this," he said. "It's a very exciting place to be."

Source: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/eat-your-beer/Content?oid=3346872

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Many opportunities to increase energy efficiency | Commercial ...

Posted on: September 26th, 2012 by admin@cpp

Companies that own Georgia commercial real estate may need to do more than just know how to create an improved energy efficiency plan for their property. According to Eliot Crowe, senior technical manager for PECI, companies need to look to make their building's energy performance improve.

When dealing with general additions to operations and maintenance sustainability, a building can cut more than 15 percent from energy usage, Crowe wrote for National Real Estate Investor. There are other ways to improve performance further, and companies shouldn't stop at just adding options. By utilizing the Energy Star rating system, companies can learn how much energy the property saves. When a property is purchased, there are laws in place to make this ? and related figures ? passed to the new owner.

Many companies are also becoming aware of the importance of sustainability when it relates to their general return on investment, Crowe explained. Property values, levels of occupancy and total rental prices all factor into sustainability and the understanding of this will only increase as time goes on. This hasn't had a complete effect yet, but there are signs throughout the market.

What property buyers look for
Those who purchase commercial real estate and want to increase their assets sustainability will likely look for a couple specific issues for their properties, he said. The first is the property's current level of energy performance. This not only includes how much a company will have to pay for a total operating cost, but also the potential it has to improve total rents. With these in mind, the property investor can then look at the total marketability a property has, as more efficient properties are more attractive.

After this, an investor wants to know what it will take to make the total energy performance better than the current level, Crowe noted. This can involve the cost of investment to make it as efficient as possible. However, this must be relative to a high return on investment.

Crowe added that beyond Energy Star's ratings system, there is another option that may be attractive to investors. The ASTM Building Energy Performance Assessment Standard can be used as a comparison to Energy Star. This is because it takes a specific method to make sure there is a clear figure for the energy used by a property, and how much it will cost in the end.

If you own or are considering a commercial building purchase and are interested in evaluating whether an energy system would have long-term benefits for your buildings, contact Daniel Levison or Furman Wood of Commercial Property Professionals. They can be reached at 404-848-1776.

Source: http://www.cpprofessionals.com/building-sustainability/many-opportunities-to-increase-energy-efficiency-27940

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Obama summons world leaders to reject extremism

President Barack Obama addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

President Barack Obama addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

President Barack Obama addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

President Barack Obama addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama, foreground, shakes hands with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, upper left, and General Assembly President Vuk Jeremic before addressing the 67th session of the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the 67th session of the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Confronting global tumult and Muslim anger, President Barack Obama exhorted world leaders Tuesday to stand fast against violence and extremism, arguing that protecting religious rights and free speech must be a universal responsibility and not just an American obligation.

"The impulse towards intolerance and violence may initially be focused on the West, but over time it cannot be contained," Obama warned the U.N. General Assembly in an urgent call to action underscored by the high stakes for all nations.

The gloomy backdrop for Obama's speech ? a world riven by deadly protests against an anti-Islamic video, by war in Syria, by rising tension over a nuclear Iran and more ? marked the dramatic shifts that have occurred in the year since the General Assembly's last ministerial meeting, when democratic uprisings in the Arab world created a sense of excitement and optimism. Obama had tough words for Iran and condemned anew the violence in Syria as Bashar al-Assad tries to retain power.

Six weeks before the U.S. presidential election, an unmistakable campaign element framed Obama's speech as well: The president's Republican rival, Mitt Romney, has tried to cast him as a weak leader on the world stage, too quick to apologize for American values.

Romney, speaking at a Clinton Global Initiative forum just miles from the U.N., avoided direct criticism of Obama in deference to the apolitical settings of the day, but he said he hoped to return a year later "as president, having made substantial progress" on democratic reforms.

Obama, likewise, avoided direct politicking in his speech but offered a pointed contrast to his GOP opponent's caught-on-tape comment that there is little hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

"Among Israelis and Palestinians," Obama said, "the future must not belong to those who turn their backs on a prospect of peace."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's opening state-of-the-world speech to the General Assembly's presidents, prime ministers and monarchs sketched the current time as one when "too often, divisions are exploited for short-term political gain" and "too many people are ready to take small flames of indifference and turn them into a bonfire."

The leaders are assembled here as anger still churns over a made-in-America video that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. The video helped touch off protests throughout the Muslim world that have left at least 40 people dead, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Obama, a onetime professor of constitutional law, delivered what amounted to a lecture on what he presented as the bedrock importance of free speech, even if it comes at a price.

He stressed that just as the "cruel and disgusting" video did not reflect U.S. values, the backlash against it did not represent the views of most Muslims. Still, he said, "the events of the last two weeks speak to the need for all of us to address honestly the tensions between the West and the Arab world that is moving towards democracy."

Obama said the notion of controlling information is obsolete in the Internet age, "when anyone with a cellphone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button." But he said leaders must be swift to respond to those who would answer hateful speech with violence and chaos.

In his last international address before the November elections, the president had strong words for the leaders in Iran and Syria but broke no new ground on any actions the U.S. might take.

He warned that while there is still hope of resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy, "that time is not unlimited." Without laying out specifics, he added: "The United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an interview with The Associated Press, dismissed the question of Iran's nuclear ambitions and claimed that despite Western sanctions his country was better off than it was when he took office in 2005. And he said a new world order needs to emerge, away from American "bullying" and domination.

"God willing, a new order will come together and we'll do away with everything that distances us," Ahmadinejad said. "Now even elementary school kids throughout the world have understood that the United States government is following an international policy of bullying."

"Bullying must come to an end. Occupation must come to an end," he said in a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

As for the rising violence in Syria, Obama told the U.N. delegates, "The future must not belong to a dictator who massacres his people. If there is a cause that cries out for protest in the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and shoots rockets at apartment buildings. We must remain engaged to assure that what began with citizens demanding their rights does not end in a cycle of sectarian violence."

In the AP interview, Ahmadinejad said Iran was one of nearly a dozen countries forming a new contact group to try to end the 18-month-old civil war in Syria. The group would include 10 or 11 countries in the Middle East and elsewhere and meet in New York "very soon," Ahmadinejad said.

Obama's defense of free speech was respectfully received by world leaders. Yet it was clear that different understandings abound on the proper exercise of free expression.

The foreign minister of Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, said Obama's speech was a "clarion call" for all nations to reject intolerance, calling it "an issue that galvanizes all of us." But Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa added that freedom of expression should be exercised with consideration to morality and public order.

Dina Zakaria, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood's political party Freedom and Justice, said cultural differences between the U.S. and the Muslim and Arab world over the limitations of freedom of expression will persist.

"No one can argue against freedom of expression, but the Western understanding of it is different from ours," she said. "Will this freedom allow for contempt of religion? For us it is different. For us it is a red line as Muslims and Christians as well."

Obama did not hesitate to underline some of the hopeful developments in the world under his watch.

"The war in Iraq is over, and our troops have come home," he said. "We have begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014. Al-Qaida has been weakened, and Osama bin Laden is no more. Nations have come together to lock down nuclear materials, and America and Russia are reducing our arsenals."

In one lighter moment in a somber speech, Obama drew laughter from the Assembly with one comment in his remarks on free speech: "I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day."

___

Benac reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington at the United Nations and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-25-UN-General-Assembly-Obama/id-2b9b2753b53b4889b7b38bbd6cb87245

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African Cup tickets on sale, now to fill stadiums

Associated Press Sports

updated 9:55 a.m. ET Sept. 26, 2012

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -South Africa was the latest African Cup of Nations host to face the challenge of filling stadiums with the continent's generally poor football fans as tickets for next year's tournament went on sale on Wednesday.

Attendances at the African Cup are notoriously poor and the last version in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea was hurt by images of empty seats at some games.

South Africa hopes to sell 500,000 tickets for the 32 matches next January and February, relying on affordable prices and reviving the excitement generated by the country's staging of the 2010 World Cup.

Tickets range from $6 up to $24 for the most expensive seats at the final, with organizers offering additional discounts of up to 20 percent to fans who buy early.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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