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Hello everyone!
Edit: 5:30 PM PST
The servers are up and running at the new location. Enjoy!
The servers will be down for approximately 3 hours as I am transitioning to a new server host.
It is currently 3:30 PM PST
Once the servers are moved and ready to go I will post again.
Thanks for your patience during this move!
Updated 07-01-2019 at 05:35 PM by XsyonMaster
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
I am upgrading the servers this week. The new Test Server and Download Server are already up and running. Next up I will move the War and Peace Servers and then back to working on updates!
This upgrade will require a new Xsyon Launcher. The new launcher will be available in the download section of your account page shortly. A notice will be posted in the current launcher window when the new version is ready.
This was brought on by the
The apocalyptic fantasy sandbox MMORPG Xsyon is on sale for 50% off through June 17th!
It's a good time to invite your friends and build up your tribe!
In addition
- I will be patching minor updates to the Main Servers this week. These are further preparatory patches, primarily to adjust the database so that I can more easily run tests (on the Test Server) with the most current data. I will announce minor patches that require a server restart with a 30 minute
The apocalyptic fantasy sandbox MMORPG Xsyon is on sale for 50% off for one more week!
We're running a special promotion as we're getting very close to the upcoming creature updates finally. So far, the required systems update patch in late March has gone smoothly and there's just a bit of balancing and testing before to do before I can start patching the upcoming series of improvements.
The Test Server will open up again next week to again test pets and mounts and to focus
Hello everyone!
The servers are currently down (at 9:15 AM PST) for a patch. I am updating the database and software that Xsyon depends on. This is the final preparation patch before I start rolling out new features including pets and mounts and many other upcoming improvements.
The servers may be down for several hours as there is a lot to upgrade and check today.
Edit 9:00 PM PST: The Game Servers are working properly but I'm still working
Updated 03-19-2019 at 01:20 AM by XsyonMaster

subset: commoncrawl


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The Perfect Seattle Day7/25/2010 12:14:00 AM Edit This 4 Comments »
Lexie and I are blessed to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country - the Pacific Northwest. And today I think anyone would have had to agree. It was 80 degrees, no humidity and not a cloud in the sky. Lexie and I grab a ferry and headed over to Seattle. What a breathtaking day it was.
It was a little windy at the front of the boat but clearly Lexie didn't care. And here is what she was looking at - Port Orchard where we live.
This is looking back at our town. How blessed are we to get to see this every day!
We went inside for a little while and I thought this was a great shot with Bainbridge Island behind Lexie as we passed it.
Then we are heading towards Mt Rainier for a while. Clearly God's handy work.
Here she is my sea faring girl with Mt Rainier in the background.
We take another turn and Seattle comes into view.
And what a view it is. It's days like this when you understand why Seattle is called the Emerald City.
Here's the rest of the city from the end of the ferry.
After our hour ferry ride we are ready, set, go!!!!
I had to grab this shot as we walked along the piers to the.....
Aquarium. Lexie was very excited to go and she wasn't disappointed.
Here she is checking out a star fish through the glass. But then...
she got to experience them through live. The touching tanks where just terrific.
As you can see Lexie agreed.
Here she is pretending to be an octopus but when she saw one up close....
she was totally grossed out. We were lucky she was out of her cave. What an amazing creater. But I didn't get to spend much time watching her as Lexie was off.
This was the only kind of octopus Lexie wanted near. Help it's got her!
Eventually we headed outside to view the seals, puffins, other sea animals and birds. This reef was just breath taking. A couple hours later we were both done which left us enough time to head up to Pike's Place Market. I haven't been there in probably 5 years. I don't know why I just never seem to take the time. I'm so glad we did today. A lot has change, on thing is the walk up. It used to be dirty and felt like you were walking through smelly allies (maybe because you where.) No more.
These beautiful blossoms where planted along the walk ways and stairs to get up to the market. Nice job Seattle. We found some great local treasures. Home grown fruit especially the Rainier cherries, some cute baby clothes for Angie's twins and of course my princess found crowns. These are bridal crowns I'm told by my crown expert and she had to have one. Soon after that purchase we headed back to the boardwalk because I wanted to make sure Lexie got to ride on the famous indoor carousel.
Here she is with her new crown on her horse Princess Pink Rose. Fitting name I think! Then we were off to Ivar's for some equally famous clams - yummy. Lexie was much more interested in feeding the "e-gals." I couldn't convince her they were seagulls.
She would have thrown all my yummy clams to them if I hadn't stopped her.
A few more stops along the way and it was time to head back to the ferry. My feet were certainly ready! Here's the problem with bride crowns - they are uncontrollable.
Good Bye Seattle. We'll be back - sooner than later!
Now that was a perfect Seattle day spent with my favorite person on earth - Princess Lexie Lou.


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#1 - Is there a good Mule client for Mac???
#2 - I am looking for a specific SciFi movie. ***Spoiler Alert!!! Do not read any farther if you don't want possible spoilage!!!
|What I remember is, it was about aliens. But then it turns out NOT to be aliens, but humans from the future. Apparently their timeline included humans screwing up Earth's environment to where they had to genetically reengineer themselves, thus looking like aliens. Now in doing so, it made them sterile. So then they started cloning themselves, but found there was a limit to cloning. So they decided to send people back in time to try & prevent the damage to the Earth.


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Schwab's 2017 RIA Benchmarking Study Underscores the Business Success that Comes With Growing Intelligently at Every Stage
- Firms of all sizes experience growth: 10.0% five-year compound annual growth rate in assets under management (AUM) at the median since 20121
- Independent advisors are winning high-net-worth investors: Average client relationship size reached $1.8 million in 2016, up from $1.6 million in 20152
- Fastest-growing firms 3 pair referrals with comprehensive marketing strategies: Attract new client assets at 2.4 times the rate of all other firms
Public Company Information:
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Independent financial advisor firms are attracting high-net-worth (HNW) investors and adding more new-to-firm client assets as they continue to report year-over-year growth, according to the 2017 RIA Benchmarking Study from Charles Schwab.
The median firm AUM has grown to $593 million in 2016 from $358 million in 2012, a 10.0% five-year compound annual growth rate. In addition, profitability remains strong with standard operating margins of 25% in 2016.
"Independent advisors are continuing to succeed for two important reasons," said Jonathan Beatty, senior vice president, sales and relationship management, Schwab Advisor Services. "First, high-net-worth individuals with the most complex financial needs are increasingly seeking the independent model and secondly, within firms of all sizes, advisors are making the right strategic decisions to help them retain their valued clients, win the trust of new clients, and expand and scale their businesses."
Focus on new-to-firm assets bears fruit
Across the board, advisors have identified client acquisition via referrals as a top strategic priority and as a result, growth continues to be driven by client referrals and referrals from centers of influence (COI):
- At the fastest-growing firms, existing client referrals and COI referrals drove 5.8% of new asset growth, and for all other firms, referrals collectively drove 2.7% of new asset growth.
The fastest-growing firms not only excel at winning new assets through these referral sources, they also emphasize new client acquisition with a range of additional marketing activities such as networking, community involvement, website presence, seminars, and events.
These marketing strategies helped drive an additional 3.6% of new asset growth at the fastest-growing firms, translating into more new clients and more new-to-firm assets.
- A median of 31 new clients in 2016 for the fastest-growing firms, more than 1.5 times as many as all other firms.
- A median of $45 million in AUM from new clients for fastest-growing firms, compared with $23 million at all other firms.
Investors align with the independent model
Client relationship size grew as advisors increased assets from new clients in 2016 and investment performance was strong.
- At the median, average client relationship size grew to $1.8 million in 2016, up from $1.6 million in 2015.
- The largest firms generally work with larger clients. Firms with over $2.5 billion in AUM had an average client size of more than $3 million, while firms with $100 million to $250 million in AUM had an average relationship size of $1 million.
Firm growth and success is an individual firm endeavor
The Benchmarking Study underscores that firm success is tied to growing intelligently by making firm-specific strategic decisions.
"Schwab's Benchmarking Study shows what success looks like at various firm sizes and stages," said Beatty. "The findings are especially powerful when we work with participating firms to understand their unique situations as they plan and prepare for the opportunities and challenges that come with the next stages of growth and success."
To view the full report, including selected advisor case studies, visit: https://www.aboutschwab.com/press/research .
About Schwab's RIA Benchmarking Study
Schwab's annual RIA Benchmarking Study provides participating advisors with insights on key performance indicators relative to their peers, allowing them to analyze their firms, compare their firms with other similar firms, and plan strategically for growth. The study also generates broad industry insights that enable advisors to observe trends and best practices in the RIA landscape.
The 2017 study provides information on such topics as asset and revenue growth, sources of new clients, products and pricing, staffing, compensation, marketing, technology, and financial performance. Fielded from January to March 2017, it contains self-reported data from 1,321 firms that custody their assets with Schwab Advisor Services and represent over three-quarters of a trillion dollars in AUM. Since the inception of the study in 2006, more than 3,300 firms have participated, with many repeat participants.
Data represents median results for firms with $250 million or more in AUM unless otherwise noted. The fastest-growing firms are the top 20% of firms as determined by net organic growth (5-year net organic compound annual growth rate). This cohort includes 135 firms out of 675, all of which have $250 million or more in AUM. Net organic growth is the change in assets from existing clients, new clients, and assets lost to client attrition before investment performance is taken into account, and it excludes the growth from acquisitions, divestitures, and advisors joining or leaving a firm with assets.
About Charles Schwab
At Charles Schwab we believe in the power of investing to help individuals create a better tomorrow. We have a history of challenging the status quo in our industry, innovating in ways that benefit investors and the advisors and employers who serve them, and championing our clients' goals with passion and integrity. More information is available at www.aboutschwab.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Through its operating subsidiaries, The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) provides a full range of securities brokerage, banking, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors and independent investment advisors. Its broker-dealer subsidiary, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC, www.sipc.org), and affiliates offer a complete range of investment services and products including an extensive selection of mutual funds; financial planning and investment advice; retirement plan and equity compensation plan services; compliance and trade monitoring solutions; referrals to independent fee-based investment advisors; and custodial, operational and trading support for independent, fee-based investment advisors through Schwab Advisor Services. Its banking subsidiary, Charles Schwab Bank (member FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender), provides banking and lending services and products. More information is available at www.schwab.com and www.aboutschwab.com.
Brokerage Products: Not FDIC Insured • No Bank Guarantee • May Lose Value
Schwab Advisor Services™ serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading, and support of Schwab.
Independent investment advisors and Schwab are independent of each other and are not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or supervised by each other. For informational purposes only.
1 Data represents median results for firms with $250 million
or more in AUM unless otherwise noted. Results are from the 2017 RIA
Benchmarking Study from Charles Schwab, fielded January to March 2017.
2 Data represents median results for firms with $250 million or more in AUM unless otherwise noted. Results for 2015 are from the 2016 RIA Benchmarking Study from Charles Schwab, fielded January to March 2016.
3 Fastest-growing firms are the top 20% of firms with $250 million or more in AUM based on five-year net organic compound annual growth rate.
Schwab Corporate Public Relations
Rob Farmer, 415-667-0083
The Neibart Group
Mayrav Weiss, 718-801-8864


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Thrill seekers have a word for almost every moment aboard a roller coaster, and if they were to describe Sam Nguyen's position in the summer of 2001, they would say he was at the top of the lifthill. After all, Sam held a freshly minted season pass to Six Flags AstroWorld, and for a 13-year-old who thrived on the feel of his shoulders stapled into a harness, his stomach squashed into his throat and his head inverted, pleasure knew no better passport.
Sam became the most envied species of teen, the summer amusement-park rat. He strolled past the arching entry gate three times a week, boarded the Ultra Twister and churned through nine stories of drops and barrel rolls. Or he caught the Viper, a wild trip ending in a banked hammerhead so low and so sharp you could almost reach out of the car and pluck the grass.
Of course, when the lines backed up, Sam moved on. He hiked out late one July evening to an artfully crumbling corner of the Oriental Village, where a trail flanked by howling skulls and aggressive shrubbery led to the Mayan Mindbender. Rebuilt at AstroWorld in 1995, the coaster resembles Indiana Jones skiing Space Mountain: It caroms in total darkness inside a faux Mayan temple. Teens are delightfully horrified.
Sam rode four times back to back, and five minutes before closing time he found the typically massive line for the popular first car had vanished. He sat in the front; his friend John climbed in behind him and clutched his shirt. Restraint bars pressed against their laps, and the clacking lift pulled them above a sea of screams.
Three stories up, Sam raised his arms. The coaster dipped and jolted to the right, and his shirt was yanked out of John's hands. Sam was thrown from the car and sent flying. It felt like part of the ride. Until he crashed to the concrete and struggled to breathe, his face shattered and his throat choked with blood.
The next thing Sam remembers, he awoke to the prick of a surgeon sewing his eyelid shut. Every bone in his face had been broken. The fall splintered his hip, snapped his pelvis and fractured an ankle. A shard of bone lodged in his brain.
"I was like, 'How bad is it?' " Sam recalled when his parents arrived at Hermann Hospital. "I was really afraid because I thought I was blind."
It took him two months to open his eyes and another month to leave the hospital. He will never be able to run more than a short distance or play most sports, and he still bears a scar from ear to ear where surgeons peeled away his scalp and cheeks to reconstruct his face.
Sam's accident was clearly severe, but it was also less of a fluke than many AstroWorld visitors might expect. Hundreds of medical complications ranging from whiplash to torn organs have occurred at Houston amusement parks. And most galling to those injured, the parks could have taken obvious steps to prevent them.
Roller coasters, with their towering spires and twisting spindles of steel, are temples to speed, gravity and, perhaps most of all, danger. Long lines offer hours to mull over the perils: One could fall out of a loop, sever a neck on a low-slung "headchopper" effect or simply fly off the track. Far from a deterrent, waiting for one's dose of sweaty-palmed terror has become one of the great rituals of modern life. The swamps have been tamed and the West won, but there's always the Serpent and the Gunslinger.
The amusement parks know their patrons want to court calamity, embrace horror and stare death in the face, as long as nobody gets hurt. Which is why they trumpet the enhanced danger of each new ride, while reminding in a stage whisper that it's all a brilliant deception.
"When you compare the number of rides that are taken with the number of injuries that occur," says Beth Robertson, spokeswoman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, "there is virtually no safer form of recreation."
According to one set of statistics, Robertson is right. About 300 million people visited fixed-site amusement parks in 2002 -- more than the population of the United States. Roughly 3,800 of those people were sent to the hospital. That's 13 people for every one million visitors, or about the same percentage of dorks injured in a given day playing Ping-Pong.
But critics say the story told by those numbers is about as clear as the water in AstroWorld's Lil' Buccaneer Bay -- which is suspiciously yellow. The Consumer Products Safety Commission estimates the injuries through a network of about 100 hospitals. Only one of those hospitals was near an amusement park. When that hospital quit the program in 2001 after intense lobbying by the parks, the number of reported injuries fell 10 percent. Change the hospitals, and the parks might not look so safe.
Of course, whatever one chooses to believe about the frequency of injuries, Robertson says, the accidents are clearly almost never caused by the parks. "One of the things we talk about is that guests really need to be our partners in safety," she says. "They need to read the signs and listen to the verbal commands given by the operators and follow the rules."
If Sam had followed the rules aboard the Mayan Mindbender, he wouldn't have fallen off, AstroWorld says. As he lay facedown in a pool of blood on the concrete below the track, an AstroWorld supervisor, Diedra Wuenschel, squatted next to him and began asking questions. Wuenschel later quoted Sam in a statement as saying, "I was jumping up and down on my seat."
After Sam's father sued to reclaim his son's medical bills, the jumping comment became the core of AstroWorld's defense. The park even created a computer-animated video showing Sam standing on the coaster and being jettisoned at the first turn. But Sam denied ever standing up or jumping. And his attorney, Vuk Vujasinovic, argued the teenager could have flown out even while sitting down.
Manufactured by the Vekoma company in Germany, the 12 cars of the Mayan Mindbender trains use a common type of restraint known as the T-bar. The bar telescopes out from the floor and pivots down against riders' laps. It locks into position when the teeth of two sets of ratchets inside the car clamp together.
Reviewing the maintenance log for the Mayan Mindbender, Vujasinovic found a surprisingly fresh record of problems with the lap bars. For example, one week before the accident, an AstroWorld mechanic wrote, "need parts for lap bars ratchet assembly." Two days later, a mechanic determined that cars three, five and ten had "bad ratchets." And three days before the accident, AstroWorld shut down the entire coaster due to "inop. lap bars."
Vujasinovic also found surprising holes in the park's maintenance procedures, casting further doubt on whether the lap bars were working properly before Sam fell out. The user's manual for the Mindbender requires the locking teeth of the restraint bars to be replaced "if more than 20 percent of the tooth height is worn off." But the ride's mechanic was unaware of the requirements, which were also absent from the park's maintenance guidelines. Vujasinovic's ride expert, former Walt Disney senior facility design manager Edward Pribonic, was aghast. "There was no inspection I would consider anywhere near proper on that lap bar," he said, adding that the maintenance of the Mindbender was the poorest he'd ever seen.
Even so, the strongest piece of evidence against AstroWorld came from the park itself. Two months after the accident, ride mechanic Tony Solis inspected Sam's Mindbender car and determined the lap bar had "an intermittent locking malfunction." Solis later explained in a deposition that this meant "the teeth in the ratchet weren't locking right." It was basically an admission: The lap bar could have come undone during a ride.
In a second line of defense, AstroWorld argued that the lap bars scarcely mattered. Park supervisor Wuenschel said the purpose of the braces was simply "to remind guests to stay seated while riding the ride." But the manufacturer's specifications for the coaster tell a slightly different story. They say the braces "hold" passengers and "serve to keep [them] seated during the ride."
Given AstroWorld's laid-back stance toward the Mindbender restraints, riders might expect the park to claim that flying from the coaster is impossible in any case where a passenger is even remotely sitting down. But in fact, in one of the last depositions from the case, park engineer Ed Fritsch said Sam could have fallen out of the coaster if his rear end was just six inches off the seat.
Vujasinovic was shocked. "I don't think anyone would expect that," he said, adding that any number of scenarios could cause riders to fall out under those conditions. "Let's say a rider is trying to move back in their seat and they want to pick their rear end up to move back, or let's say a kid is excited about being on the ride and they put their hands up and lift a little bit," he said. "These are things that you see all the time."
How to hold a person inside a roller coaster has been a vexing concern for generations of mechanical engineers. The architects of America's first coaster ride were among the few ride designers to avoid the problem: Their Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway topped out at six miles per hour. But 120 years after the ride opened on Coney Island, speeds aboard coasters have increased more than tenfold, and engineers still haven't figured out how to keep their machines reliably attached to patrons.
The perennial restraint problem surfaced most recently at the Six Flags New England amusement park in Agawam, Massachusetts, where last month Stanley Mobarsky boarded the Superman Ride of Steel. Mobarsky was clamped in with a T-bar -- the same mode of restraint used aboard the Mayan Mindbender -- then hoisted up with an eight-car train.
Voted the best roller coaster in the world when it was built in 2000, the Ride of Steel plunged Mobarsky down an 80-mile-per-hour descent, bumped him over several high-speed camel humps, and in the last turn threw him out of the car. Eyewitnesses said his body spun like a Frisbee, hit the rail and fell to the ground. He was pronounced dead a few minutes later.
Compared to other riders aboard the coaster, Mobarsky had been a prime candidate for ejection. He was five feet two inches, 230 pounds and confined to an electric scooter. His family said he should have never been allowed aboard the ride. Using a T-bar to hold such a man would have been like restraining a cantaloupe with a chopstick.
Nevertheless, the Mobarskys of the world account for only a portion of the body types at risk from roller coasters, safety advocates say. The average lap bar will fit midsize adults quite well, but small teenagers also board at their own peril. "It's great for people who are 170 pounds," says Kathy Fackler, founder of Safer Parks, "but the farther away you get from that, the ride ain't going to work for you So if they don't restrict people beyond those ranges, [staying in the ride] is just luck, sort of."
The parks say any ejection from a roller coaster--especially when the passenger isn't trying to jump out -- is a fluke. To back themselves up, they cite studies such as a 2002 report released by the state of Florida, which showed 76 percent of amusement-park accidents were directly attributable to "patron error."
Yet "error" -- or rider misbehavior, as the parks often call it -- is hard to define. For example, AstroWorld tells roller-coaster passengers to keep their hands on shoulder harnesses and restraint bars. In fact, the park accused Sam of breaking that rule aboard the Mindbender. But AstroWorld's own 2004 Park Map serves as a hopelessly debauched role model: Kids plunge down rides while blithely waving their arms in the air.
Fackler says a closer analysis of the injuries shows riders might not be the villains the parks suggest. State regulators in New Jersey keep the most detailed records in the nation on amusement-park injuries, dividing the accidents into five categories. Comprising the overwhelming majority in 2000 were accidents classed as inadvertent rider mishaps. "If somebody accidentally bumps their head on a ride, that's an inadvertent rider mishap," says E.J. Miranda, spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Those accidents accounted for 84 percent of injuries, while just 1 percent were due to rider misbehavior.
Even with no help from riders whatsoever, the parks still commit blunders. Mechanical failure and operator error accounted for 4 percent of accidents in New Jersey. And New Jersey has "some of the toughest regulations out there," Fackler says. Ride problems in Texas are harder to classify because regulators don't analyze the causes of theme-park injuries. But at AstroWorld, egregious mistakes aren't hard to find:
On the Texas Tornado roller coaster in 1998, a six-car train had nearly reached the top of the first hill when smoke began wafting from the track. The coaster lost its grip on the chain lift, slid back down the hill into the loading station and crashed into a fully occupied train. Seven people went to the hospital and at least two sued after developing neck and back problems.
More recently, Brandon Jones was injured while riding the Texas Cyclone when a 12-foot, two-by-six-inch board fell off the wooden coaster's scaffolding and hit him in the head. Another passenger aboard the ride told ABC13 Eyewitness News last year that someone on a previous train had warned the attendants about a loose board, but the park kept the coaster running anyway.
The lack of action seems almost excusable compared to the gung-ho snap of Kevin Froelich and Deanna Lee, ride attendants in 2000 at the Tidal Wave. A flume designed to plunge passengers down a series of slides in a small boat, the Tidal Wave was dependent upon a stream of pumped water. When an alarm signaled that the water level had fallen, the attendants overrode the warnings, a lawsuit alleged, and loaded a boat with Michael and Laine Dominice and their son, Troy. The Dominices were drifting toward the final drop-off when the water slowed to a trickle and their craft was stranded. Froelich and Lee decided to push the boat over the precipice. The Dominices were severely injured in the fall and, through their lawsuit, recovered $150,000.
A spokesman for AstroWorld says such incidents are exceptions. "I can tell you 99.99 percent of our guests enjoy a safe and fun visit at our parks," says public relations Manager Daryl Freedman. "So it's extremely rare [to suffer an injury], especially if it's something that might be ride-related."
But pinning down the true accident rate at AstroWorld is tough. The Texas Department of Insurance reports 329 people have been injured at the park since 1988, when the state began requiring parks to report injuries that result in medical treatment. But the state has no way of knowing how often the parks hide injuries. And apparently AstroWorld is at least occasionally inclined to illegally conceal them. Three people were sent to the hospital when the board fell from the Texas Cyclone last year, for example, but not a single injury on the ride shows up that year in the state's accident tally.
Over the past 36 years, AstroWorld has learned a lot about protecting its image.
Judge Roy Hofheinz, former Astros owner and Houston mayor, opened the park in 1968 to great fanfare. The first attraction of its kind in Houston, AstroWorld sported a Ferris wheel, the Astroneedle and a jungle boat ride, but according to many enthusiasts, the park never reached the upper orbits of amusement-park glory until it added the Texas Cyclone, its oldest full-size roller coaster.
"The Texas Cyclone is the classic woody," says Mike Robinson, a local coaster fanatic who visits parks nationwide and posts ride photos on his Web site. "When it opened in 1976, it was the best coaster on the planet."
The Cyclone was modeled on the five eponymous originals built by Harry Traver in the 1920s -- at the time among the fastest and most dangerous coasters ever erected. The Crystal Beach Cyclone in Crystal Beach, Ontario, was so perilous it included a nurse's station specifically for patrons. Most of the coasters didn't last long, and by the 1970s the Coney Island Cyclone was the only one still spinning. AstroWorld set out to replicate its thrills but ended up surpassing them. "It's bigger and faster," says park spokesman Daryl Freedman. " 'Texas-style' is what we like to say."
Though erected at a park dedicated to rocket science, the Texas Cyclone was tested using more down-to-earth methods. Engineers placed watermelons and hams in the seats and ran the coaster to see if the food would fall out. The first humans to take the ride were doubtless terrified; the Cyclone still offers a huge dose of what coaster enthusiasts call "ejector airtime" -- the force that pulls riders out of their seats.
Not surprisingly, the initial safety tests were inadequate. Soon after the coaster opened, AstroWorld replaced the flimsy lap bars in the last car with seat belts. The belts eventually became standard in all cars, along with seat dividers. The coaster also received a new braking system.
All of those changes were firmly in place when Cesar Gonzalez boarded the Cyclone on his 16th birthday in 1984. Gonzalez rode the coaster three times, and on the fourth trip, his cousin noticed his body go limp. Doctors later determined he had ruptured a vein in his neck. The tear sent a blood clot to his brain and caused a stroke, leaving the left side of his body permanently paralyzed.
Gonzalez sued AstroWorld for damages, claiming the g-forces aboard the ride had caused his injury. His attorney, Howard Nations, hired Raymond Bradley, a NASA engineer who had designed space-shuttle seats to cushion astronauts on rocket rides. Bradley found AstroWorld hadn't exactly entered the space age; body support on the coaster was prehistoric.
The seat "immobilized the lower body," Nations said, "but allowed the upper body to twist in the wind. Especially as you go into a hard turn at the bottom of the ride, at that point, you are really just being thrown around."
Bradley estimated riders were so jostled on the last turn that their necks were exposed to forces approaching 28 g's -- more force than experienced by fighter pilots. Nations discovered close to 200 people had complained of injuries aboard the ride. After eight years of legal wrangling, the courts sided with Gonzalez and awarded him $2.5 million.
Revelations from the case led to major changes on the Cyclone, Nations says. Fiberglass trains replaced the steel versions, and bulky headrests obscured the ride's panoramic views. (For unknown reasons, the park also shaved six feet off the ride's first plunge in 1996.) Coaster fans were heartbroken.
"Those headrests were the worst thing that ever happened to that ride," Robinson says. "We used to call them telephone booths. They were big and clunky and you couldn't see anything."
Nations was impressed with AstroWorld's willingness to voluntarily alter the coaster in the face of criticism. "They are extremely safety-conscious," he says, "and I deal with a lot of defendants that really aren't. A lot of them will try to just pay you off and keep the product on the market."
Emphasizing its reputation for safety, the amusement-park industry has successfully battled over the past 25 years to exempt itself from government regulation. In 1981, the industry won an amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Act making all fixed-site amusement parks immune from federal control.
To this day, the parks remain stubbornly antiregulatory. "We doubt the federal government could do more to improve our already excellent safety record," says industry spokesperson Robertson.
U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, disagrees. He has been fighting for five years to get a hearing on a bill to revoke the exemption, but it's stalled in a committee chaired by a Republican from Orlando -- ground zero for the Walt Disney Company.
"My hope is the Republican Party will finally realize there will be more deaths and injuries unless they create a federal standard," Markey says. "We have federal standards for automobiles, for baby carriages, for safety caps on medicine, but not on rides that go 60 to 80 miles per hour that result in death and injury every summer."
Underscoring the case for federal control, Markey's office tabulated the amusement-park industry's safety record and compared it to that of the transportation industry. Based on 14 deaths from amusement-park rides between 1997 and 2000, it found roller coasters in that period were more dangerous than buses, trains and airplanes, which are all subject to national laws.
The only standard currently regulating AstroWorld rides is Texas law, but that's not saying much. Clerks in the Texas Department of Insurance are told to make sure the parks comply with a set of safety standards drawn up, for the most part, by the amusement-park industry. The clerks rely on private insurance agents to inspect each ride once a year and whenever an accident occurs. This means the only people who evaluate amusement-park accidents in Texas are people who work for companies that must pay for them if the parks are to blame. In other states, they call this a conflict of interest: "Their mission isn't to keep the public safe," says Markey's staffer David Moulton. "Their mission is to make sure their shareholders get returns for their business."
Even with the insurance premiums, the Texas Cyclone has been a stupendous investment for AstroWorld. By the coaster's 25th anniversary in 2001, it was still an emblem of the park, and managers decided to boost its popularity even more. They invited television cameras and threw a silver-anniversary bash for the coaster, complete with a birthday cake and disco music. They called the event the Retro Revive. Sometime shortly before or after the celebration, the park removed the headrests from the coaster cars (and with them, the ride's neck support). They were never replaced.
Standing next to a train of Cyclone cars in a peeling service shed last month, AstroWorld maintenance director Kent Maulsby explained the decision. "As [the coaster] reached a gentler form, we were able to remove the headrests," he said, "and that dramatically improved the guest experience."
Asked why the coaster was gentler, Maulsby explained the track had been reprofiled, creating a smoother ride. But questioned further, he said reprofiling has been a regular part of the coaster's maintenance for at least 20 years.
If safety went retro on the Cyclone, the coaster purists aren't about to complain. "It's just perfect," says Robinson, who has ridden it since he was a kid. "I wouldn't change a thing."
AstroWorld might have looked like a dangerous place in the early 1980s, but other parks weren't necessarily safer. At the State Fair of Texas in 1983, William Phillips boarded the Enterprise, a giant pinwheel that spun 20 cars around, first parallel to the ground, then vertically. Phillips's car snapped off, flew into the midway and killed him. Seven others were hospitalized. His family sued the ride operator and manufacturer and won $10 million.
"What we found was the ride had been recalled in Europe," says the family's Dallas attorney, Frank L. Branson, "but because there were no standards in the United States, it wasn't recalled here."
The state fair took the accident seriously and applied permanent safety changes to its entire midway. The fair now requires rides to be inspected before they're booked, once they arrive on-site, and a third time by an insurance inspector. Fair inspectors also examine the rides on a daily basis, often with X-ray machines that can detect the type of internal cracks that caused Phillips's Enterprise car to break free.
AstroWorld also maintains a detailed safety program. A full-time staff of 50 maintenance workers conducts daily visual inspections of rides. More intricate inspections are performed on a weekly basis, and once a year the park strips down major components on every ride and closely examines them.
But the state fair's safety reforms have received more attention. They earned praise from the Consumer Products Safety Commission and were copied in 12 other states, according to a 1997 story in The Dallas Morning News. The fair has even taken a pass on high-profile rides accepted elsewhere. It demanded the operators of the Wildcat roller coaster make electrical changes before opening day in 1999 and rejected the coaster when the changes weren't ready.
Of course, the state fair's inspections haven't eliminated all accidents. Based on statistics collected by the Texas Department of Insurance, since 1999, 18 injuries have occurred at the midway. But those numbers pale in comparison to the 47 injuries reported at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Especially considering that the rodeo's sole ride contractor, Ray Cammack Shows, was cited for violating the state's long-standing amusement park injury-disclosure law and has reported injuries for only the years 2002 and 2003 (see "Rodeo Hat Trick").
A decade after the Enterprise death, the state fair was arguably ahead of even many permanent amusement parks in safety. The fair had learned more from the Enterprise than the Six Flags company gleaned from the Cyclone. Instead of heeding the warning signs raised by the ride injuries, Six Flags built an even bigger wooden roller coaster at its new park in San Antonio. When the aptly dubbed Rattler opened at Fiesta Texas in 1992, it was the tallest, fastest and steepest wooden coaster in the country.
And by many accounts, it was one of the most dangerous. Fiesta Texas reported 13 injuries at the park during the 1992 and 1993 seasons. But many incidents went unreported those years: Ambulance documents revealed 80 people had complained of head and back pain after riding the coaster. A loose-knit group of 27 accident victims later sued the park to recoup money for their injuries.
"It's an infamous ride in amusement-park history," says David Adkisson, the lead attorney in the case. Adkisson argued that the Rattler's first harrowing plunge had been lengthened to preserve the coaster's record-breaking status, without enough consideration for the effects on riders. He hired Bradley, the expert in the Cyclone case, who measured 12 g's on the ride. The advertised g's were 3.5.
"They just kept trying to run it year after year," says Adkisson, who settled the cases in 1998 for $3.5 million. "They should have just torn it down and started it over again."
The original first descent on the Rattler was shortened 42 feet by 1994, reducing the coaster's speed from 73 to 65 miles per hour. But by then, roller coasters at other parks were traveling at nearly 100.
Kids would soon line up at AstroWorld for rides such as the Serial Thriller and Dungeon Drop. They were demanding more speed, bigger plunges and wilder loops. These marvels are now possible through computer modeling. But as rides at AstroWorld finally blast off, new questions are emerging about whether the human body can keep pace.
Patty Kravetz, a cosmetology teacher at Magnolia High School, took her class to AstroWorld at the end of the 2000 school year for a day of thrills. Thin, tanned and muscular, in her early forties, she happily followed her students aboard the park's most hair-raising adventures. And no ride musses teenage coiffures faster than the Dungeon Drop -- a tower that lifts passengers straight up and releases them in a 20-story freefall.
Kravetz's students towed her aboard the Dungeon Drop around 10:30 p.m. She was clamped into a shoulder harness, hoisted skyward with her legs dangling in the air and briefly afforded a stunning view of downtown. Then she plunged toward the ground so fast her legs lifted straight out. She hit 62 miles per hour in less than three seconds, giant magnets engaged, and the wrenching halt ripped a hole in her stomach. The fat of her stomach lining ejected through the opening and bulged into her navel.
Stepping out of the ride, Kravetz couldn't stand up straight without inducing severe pain. But she felt she had to watch over her school group, so she sat for another two hours on a park bench. Only the next day, after she started throwing up, did she go to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed her with an epigastric hernia and patched her with eight staples and 35 internal stitches.
"I've had a hysterectomy and I've had a daughter," she says, "and this was worse than either. It was ten times worse the pain."
The Dungeon Drop fall wasn't the first time Kravetz had suffered a hernia. The rip in her stomach occurred in the same place where surgeons had repaired a tear eight years earlier. Nevertheless, she sued AstroWorld to recover damages and to force the park to change the ride. Her doctors testified the tissue had been healthy when the rip occurred. And she said she had no way of knowing the ride could reopen healed wounds.
The tunnel leading to the Dungeon Drop is modeled on a medieval torture chamber, but AstroWorld says real injuries aboard the ride are nearly impossible. According to a 2002 study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, the most powerful amusement-park rides subject riders to four to six g's. Those forces are less than the jolt of hopping off a step or plopping into a low-backed office chair.
Even so, some doctors are skeptical. Howard Speth, a New Jersey pathologist and amusement-park safety consultant, documented 68 cases of injuries that appeared to be caused by roller coasters. In 2002, Representative Markey convened a blue ribbon panel through the Brain Injury Association of America and asked the members to analyze Speth's cases.
But the panel never examined the Speth data, claiming it wasn't collected in a uniform fashion. Instead, the researchers looked at published literature in the subject and concluded that "the overwhelming majority of riders will suffer no ill effects" and the most susceptible risk groups -- people with prior health problems -- "are already warned against riding."
The findings surprised some researchers, among them Faris Bandak, a neurology professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the former director of the head-injury research program at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"Given the tissue strength of the blood vessels in the brain and given the pressure gradients they experience from roller coaster ride dynamics, the potential for injury is not unrealistic," Bandak says. "And those attributes that make us susceptible are not always associated with abnormality," he adds. "They are within what has been defined as normal for us."
For now, forces aboard most amusement rides don't come close to the voluntary limits set by the industry. "The limits are quite high," Moulton says, "so what that means from a public health perspective bears monitoring."
After two years of legal wrangling with AstroWorld, the park approached Kravetz with a proposal to settle. She was offered $12,000 on the condition that she abandon her demand that the park alter the Dungeon Drop. Kravetz accepted, and she has never returned.
"I thought, 'You've got this huge theme park, you know it's going to attract kids and families, and then you don't care about what happens to people on your rides?' I decided, 'You aren't getting my money anymore.' "
Of course, one lost customer is a small price to pay to keep the adrenaline junkies coming back. A young man with a red ponytail and a lip ring strapped himself into the Dungeon Drop last month with masochistic glee. Along with the Serial Thriller, it is his favorite ride. "It's totally awesome," he said. "It puts your stomach in your fucking throat."
Unlike most of his peers, Sam Nguyen now limits himself to the tamest hoists and pulleys, such as the elevator leading to his attorney's office on the 10th floor of the Binz Law Center. He was running a few minutes late for an appointment last month and walked in wheezing. Until an operation last year, he couldn't breathe through his nose at all. Now he gets by with a constricted nasal passage that makes him seem at times like an asthmatic in gym class.
Sam won an out-of-court settlement against AstroWorld two years ago, and although the payout was confidential, court documents reveal it was in excess of a million dollars, probably making him the richest tenth-grader in the history of Lamar High School.
Even so, a few million dollars is barely a drop in the wavepool to AstroWorld. The park doesn't reveal its attendance figures or revenues, but the industry Web site amusementbusiness.com estimates 1.7 million people visited last year. With standard ticket prices pushing above $40, the park easily could have grossed more than $700 million.
It's hard to know how AstroWorld spent the money, but most of it probably didn't go toward new roller coasters and better safety harnesses. According to an AstroWorld fansite, the park's newest coaster, the popular Serial Thriller, was built for only $10 million, most of which would have gone to its design and assembly. At those prices, not much would be left for detailed safety studies by the manufacturer.
Instead, the task of scrutinizing safety design has fallen to the U.S. government, which is conducting its first ever industry-wide analysis of amusement-ride restraints. A spokesperson for the Consumer Products Safety Commission declined to discuss preliminary results.
Sam wishes the government and AstroWorld had paid more attention to restraints before he rode the Mayan Mindbender. Instead of receiving money after the accident, he would have preferred to go to class like the rest of the students in middle school, without a wheelchair, scars and constant migraines. Regaining a normal life has been tough.
A stellar student in seventh-grade, Sam missed a semester after his accident and never caught up. Headaches sent him home at least once a week. He slipped into low-level classes and struggled to learn. His A's and B's turned to B's, D's and F's. And his headaches have carried over into high school. Teachers told him last month he could be expelled for missing too many days of class.
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Bitterness sometimes gets the best of him. "I can't concentrate, I still have to take a lot of drugs, and I still feel like crap because of my headaches," he says. "I can't even run no more or play sports."
Sam's persistent woes have made it all the more difficult for him to believe AstroWorld keeps running the Mindbender without so much as a public admission of its real dangers. The park posts boilerplate signs dissuading people with heart and neck problems from the coaster, but Sam's attorney, Vujasinovic, suggests a more general caveat. It would say: "Warning: These T-bars are not meant to keep you in this ride, and if you sit up more than six inches on your seat, you could be thrown out."
Activists say the parks also need to post the signs at their entry gates so people can read them before they pay. "They do everything they can to make people drop their fears at the door so they get them in," Fackler says, "and then they screen them out later, like you get to the ride and all of a sudden there is a warning."
Sam's accident served as enough warning to all of his friends. None of them visits the park, though sometimes he hears about kids at Lamar who know about his accident but ride the coaster anyway. He wants the government to shut down the ride. "Roller coasters aren't as safe as you think," he says.


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It had to happen, OPERA has blamed its woes on the blogosphere, or perhaps not. Maybe it is just NewScientist trying to stir up trouble. This what they say in their editorial from 7th April
"Perhaps the only way to have avoided the fuss would have been to keep the result under wraps for even longer than the three years it took to become public. Its flaws might have been uncovered more discreetly. But word was leaking into the blogosphere; OPERA physics coordinator Dario Autiero, who also stood down, says concealment was untenable"
So it's all our fault guys. If we had not leaked the story they could have kept it secret for a few more years until they found the loose cable and Autiero would be a hero.
In case anyone hasn't noticed there are several flaws with this argument but not least is the observation that OPERA had planned its public presentation at CERN and already primed the press before the first hints of a rumour reached any blog, If NewScientist had checked the blogosphere they could have found a conveniently detailed timeline of the events here.


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TechRadar is officially on location in Las Vegas for CES 2013. Armed with laptops, cameras and mobile hotspots, we're ready to bring you all the latest hardware directly from the show floor.
As the reports roll in, you'll see everything from mammoth ultra HD TVs, new smartphones, laptops and surprises from hot new start-ups and app makers.
What are we expecting? Well there's the rumored "radical brand makeover" from Samsung, and we're also expecting Google TV to partner with hardware makers in a big way.
To see all our coverage from CES in one place, stay tuned to our hub page CES 2013. We'll post all the hot news and hands-ons with the latest tech for your reading and watching enjoyment.


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(5000 exemplaire(s) restant(s))
One of the most anticipated books in magic and mentalism has now arrived!!Paul Romhany has produced the most comprehensive collection of material for the performer who wants to add mentalism in their show from pre-schoolers to high school students. Everything from walk-about routines to birthday party routines to parlor and even stage routines for the family entertainer. Over 265 pages which include a collection of essays on how to perform mentalism for children, plus over forty effects from performers around the world including:Mark Strivings, David Kaye, Tim Mannix, Paul Romhany, Richard Webster, Andrew Gerard, Wayne Rogers, Tony Binarelli,Bev Bergeron, Him Kleefeild, Keith Field, Danny Archer, Andrew Gerard, Jack Dean, Greg Arce, Anthony Lindan, E. Raymond Carlyle, Professor Spellbinder, Matthew Johnson, Tony Chris, Cris Johnson, Reg Blackwood, Ken Ring, ChristopherTaylor, Chrisotpher Berry, TC Tahoe, Ozzy D, Magical Michael, Magic George, Ken Dyne, Jasper Blakeley, Ray Roch. This book covers performing mentalism for pre-schoolers to teenagers, even adults will be fooled and entertained by the routines in this book. A treasure trove of effects, essays and advice from real world performers who make their living by entertaining family audiences. This book is destined to become a classic in both the magic and mentalism field. If you ever wondered if mentalism can be performed for young minds then this book will show you it can, and how to do it. "The essays in this book are worth the price of the entire book, and more!! The rest of this book is a treasure trove of fascinating mental effects that your young - and not so young - audiences will enjoy. These wonderful effects are so good that I'm tempted to dust off my old Riccardo outfit and start performing again. I know you'll enjoy this book, and will come back to it again and again in the future. If you have any doubts whatsoever about performing mentalism for children, try one or two of the effects in this book. I know you'll change your mind. Thank you, Paul, for compiling and publishing this valuable book."- Richard Webster "When magicians and mentalists think of 'kids' they think of kids 3-4 years old. This is rarely the case, even for regular kids entertainers. People do not give kids enough credit for being smart. They get mentalism and mindreading, even at the age of five and six. It can be done, and I have done it. They certainly understand when Harry Potter gets a psychic image."- Banachek CONTENTSPreface by Richard WebsterIntroduction by Paul RomhanyPerforming for Children an essay by Paul RomhanyParade of Children Prediction Trick by Tim MannixWorld Cup Routine by Paul RomhanyCereal Box Prediction Larry Mahan and Robert D. LaRue, Jr.Slide Thru Card Switch by Wayne RogersPerform For The Children! by Kyle PeronA TRIP ROUND THE WORLD IN 8 MINUTES ! byTony Binarelli and "Jules Verne"Phantom Artist Halloween Card Routine by Professor SpellbinderBonus Effect -The Phantom Artist by Ted Annemann and Professor SpellbinderClip-Lit Sports by Jim KleefeldPsychic Santa by Matthew JohnsonJudge, Jury and Executioner by Reg BlackwoodThe Mental Corridor by Cris JohnsonTeaching Someone to Read Minds by Cris JohnsonMental Monopoly by Danny ArcherTime Warp by Paul RomhanyMind Reading to Africa by Ken RingThe News in Total by Ken RingESPompoms by Ken RingKing Book Test by Christopher BerryGuessin' Gumballs by Jack DeanChild's Play by Bev BergeronEmoti- Con by TC TahoeBIRTHDAY PRESENT by Richard WebsterPointilism by Greg ArceCookies Fortune by TC Tahoe and Paul RomhanySafety Mentalism Routine by Paul RomhanyYounger Persons Version Reverse Q & A by Anthony LindanPrized Balloon by Ozzy DThe Fortune Teller by Paul RomhanyPuzzled by Magical MichaelPin the Tail on the Donkey by Andrew GerardMystery Ball by Paul Romhany & Hal SpearSpot the Pole by Wayne RogersThe Mind Reading Hat Routine by Magic GeorgeThe Magic Square by Dal SandersGift Wrapped By KennedyMagicians Choice By Keith FieldsP.S.I Fari by Tony ChrisScrabbled by Jasper BlakeleyBalloon Bank Night by Wayne RogersLast One Standing by AnonymousSPOON BEND by Ray RochDrawing On The Imagination by Christopher TaylorRING OR WATCHES? by E. Raymond CarlyleMentalism for Preschool Kids by Mark StrivingsPerforming Mentalism for Children by David KayeThe Precognitive Phinger Puppet by Mark StrivingsPages: 265 - 8.5" x 8.5" - PDF format - Black and white photos and illustrations
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About Us
At Inlanta Mortgage, our mission is to be the home financing partner that you trust to serve your family, friends, and community. Through our family of dedicated mortgage professionals, our commitment is to deliver an exceptional experience. Our unwavering dedication to integrity, honesty, and ethics is the foundation of all of our relationships.
With more than 20 years of experience, Inlanta Mortgage has been serving local families since 1993. It is simple and easy to obtain a loan through Inlanta. Consultations are free, service is personal, and guidance is provided throughout the entire process. Inlanta offers a variety of Loans For Your Dreams®, and our specially-trained loan consultants will look at each customer's individual financial situation to find the best option for their unique needs.
We are proud to be an award-winning team. Inlanta is a Platinum Million Dollar USDA Lender as recognized by USDA Rural Housing, and we have received several awards based on our employees' feedback: 50 Best Companies to Work For by Mortgage Executive Magazine, Top Mortgage Employer by National Mortgage Professional Magazine, and three consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016) as a Top Workplace by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. We love what we do, we take great pride in our work, and it shows in our service at every stage of the mortgage journey.


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2 syllables
- aro, baro, barro, caro, carro, claro, farro, garro, haro, karow, maro, marro, morrow, naro, paro, pharo, sarro, sbarro, sorrow, storrow, varo, yarrow, zarro
3 syllables
- alfaro, alvaro, amaro, arcaro, armaro, asaro, azzaro, barbaro, bavaro, bucaro, cafaro, capraro, cassaro, cesaro, cestaro, chaparro, chiaro, coccaro, coffaro, cordaro, corsaro, cuccaro, dasaro, decaro, denaro, dodaro, favaro, ferarro, ferraro, funaro, furfaro, fusaro, gasbarro, gasparro, gennaro, guitarro, kohtaro, lazaro, lazzaro, lesharo, litaro, lofaro, mascaro, massaro, navarro, nazzaro, notaro, panaro, passaro, pizarro, porcaro, ryutaro, scalfaro, scolaro, setaro, shintaro, sodaro, spadaro, spataro, stagnaro, tafaro, tammaro, todaro, tomaro, totaro, ungaro, vaccaro, varvaro, zaccaro, zingaro, zuccaro
4 syllables
- bordonaro, calderaro, campanaro, cannistraro, cannizzaro, carbonaro, catanzaro, cavagnaro, cavallaro, degennaro, digennaro, famularo, manganaro, marinaro, mogavaro, molinaro, montanaro, mortellaro, pagliaro, pecoraro, pignataro, posteraro, quartararo, utamaro
5 syllables
- conigliaro, decristofaro, finocchiaro, kilimanjaro
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We offer free delivery on all our furniture within a 50 mile radius of Chichester***.
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For customers in our local area looking for lift and rise recliners who are physically unable to come to the show rooms, we are more than happy to arrange for a home visit, where we can bring a selection to your home to try and buy.
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From the acclaimed and award-winning author of Anywhere But Here and My Hollywood, a powerful new novel about a young boy's quest to uncover the mysteries of his unraveling family. What he discovers turns out to be what he least wants to know: the inner workings of his parents' lives. And even then he can't stop searching.
Miles Adler-Hart starts eavesdropping to find out what his mother is planning for his life. When he learns instead that his parents are separating, his investigation deepens, and he enlists his best friend, Hector, to help. Both boys are in thrall to Miles's unsuspecting mother, Irene, who is "pretty for a mathematician." They rifle through her dresser drawers, bug her telephone lines, and strip-mine her computer, only to find that all clues lead them to her bedroom, and put them on the trail of a mysterious stranger from Washington, D.C.
Their amateur detective work starts innocently but quickly takes them to the far reaches of adult privacy as they acquire knowledge that will affect the family's well-being, prosperity, and sanity. Burdened with this powerful information, the boys struggle to deal with the existence of evil and concoct modes of revenge on their villains that are both hilarious and naive. Eventually, haltingly, they learn to offer animal comfort to those harmed and to create an imaginative path to their own salvation.
Casebook brilliantly reveals an American family both both coming apart at the seams and, simultaneously, miraculously reconstituting itself to sustain its members through their ultimate trial. Mona Simpson, once again, demonstrates her stunning mastery, giving us a boy hero for our times whose story remains with us long after the the novel's end.
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About the Author
Nick Podehl is a professional voice actor. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, many of which have won prestigious awards, including fourteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. He currently lives and works around Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife.


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We are almost half way through the alphabet with our Letter of The Week theme series. These theme posts are meant to bring together upper and lowercase letter crafts, crafts and projects that begin with the letter and whole alphabet books and activities. Why do this? To make it easier for you to find what you need for every letter.
{Letter L Crafts}
Ladder L– Leaf L –Lighthouse l – Love L
{Crafts & Activities That Start With L}
Ladybug Craft – Ladybug Math– Lanterns– Leaves – Lego Measuring – Leopard Craft– Lightning Bugs – Love Bugs – Lego Building Game
{ Alphabet Books }
The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z! by Steve Martin was introduced to me by Rebecca when she sent it in for this post . When I saw it at the library I grabbed it and so glad I did. It"™s a fun book with silly rhymes for each letter and I was surprised that my son sat all the way through it. It"™s a pretty long alphabet book for a toddler. I liked the details in the illustrations even if the sometimes gross humor was not my favorite, but kids will love it !
Alphabeep!: A Zipping, Zooming ABC by Debora Pearson is a great book for older toddlers and preschoolers. The transportation themed book uses rhymes and colorful illustrations to go from A to Z. The text was a bit long for my young toddler but I shortened it and he was able to enjoy the book , children 2 and up will love it just the way it is! This ison my must buy list.
{ Whole Alphabet Activities}
Alphabet Sensory Tub – Car Alphabet – Family Letters


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Man wanted in two states for retail theft scheme arrested in Blairsville
Jeffrey Womochil suspected of stealing thousands from Walmart, other retailers
An Iowa man wanted in two states for retail theft is now charged in Pennsylvania after what one investigator called an "elaborate scheme."
Jeffrey Womochil, 52, is facing three felony charges by state police in Indiana after his arrest Friday.
Investigators said Womochil remains in the Indiana County Jail and could possibly be extradited in the coming weeks to Iowa and Nebraska, where he is wanted on felony charges as well.
Police said Womochil purchased a bag of potato chips from the Indiana Walmart on Friday evening.
They said he left the store, walked to his van, walked back in the store and filled his cart with expensive cookware and other items. Then, they said he walked out without paying for the items, while holding the receipt from the purchase of the chips. Once inside his van, police said he used equipment to scan the legitimate receipt, altered the figures to make it look like he purchased the cookware and other items, then printed the fake receipt. From there, police believed he planned to return the items to the Blairsville Walmart.
"In my opinion it was a pretty elaborate scheme," said Trooper Mark McMahan. "He was able to make his way in and out of the store with the stolen goods pretty free and easy."
Indiana County District Attorney Pat Dougherty said loss prevention employees at the Indiana store suspected Womochil would try and return the stolen items at the Blairsville store, so they called that location before he arrived.
"In this day in age, every con artist or scam artist keeps getting more clever and more clever. It happens all the time," Dougherty said.
"Walmart is committed to working with law enforcement in every small town or big city where we do business. We appreciate these partnerships and feel strongly that working together we can make a difference in the communities we both serve," said Walmart spokeswoman Dianna Gee, in a written statement.
"By collaborating with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, we can work together to help authorities capture those responsible for breaking the law," she added.


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26 July 2016 - STAMFORD, Conn. and LUCCA, Italy
Tagetik Announces Profitable Quarter; Recent Expansion Investments Paying Off with Record Revenues and Major Client Wins
Second quarter sees continued cloud expansion and revenue growth in North America, DACH, and Asia-Pacific regions
Tagetik, a visionary leader in global performance management software solutions, announced today a profitable second quarter for 2016 and the addition of 40 new corporate customers. The quarter also saw continued revenue growth in North America and record revenues for two new Tagetik operations in the DACH and Asia-Pacific regions.
Serving Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Tagetik GmbH led revenues for Tagetik's regional operations. Among its second quarter wins were an expanded enterprise agreement with a major German multi-national automotive corporation and a new customer agreement with a major multi-national provider of products and systems to the construction and energy industries. Tagetik's Asia-Pacific operation doubled its revenues for the first half of 2016 compared to those from the same period in 2015 and signed an agreement with its first Japanese corporate customer, a provider of consulting and facility management services for customers throughout Asia-Pacific.
Other representative new customers include Eni Gas & Power Belgium, Kelvion, Mundipharma, Qingdao Hisense Electronics, Keystone Industries, and MP Biomedicals.
"We're very pleased with second quarter results. Our cloud business continues to grow and investments in North America and other regions are paying off with increased revenue and market share," said Manuel Vellutini, Tagetik co-CEO. "Additionally, the recent Brexit vote is generating heightened interest in our solution's ability to support sophisticated planning and forecasting. Our sustained profitability allows us to make the ongoing research and development investments needed to stay ahead of volatile market conditions and the needs of our customers."
Tagetik's Financial Performance Platform™ enables organizations to unify financial and operational planning, financial and management reporting, cost allocation and profitability analysis, and regulatory and disclosure reporting in a single solution. Tagetik was positioned in the visionaries quadrant of Gartner's 2016 Magic Quadrant for Financial Corporate Performance Management Solutions1 and 2016 Magic Quadrant for Strategic Corporate Performance Management Solutions2.
For more information, visit www.tagetik.com.
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1 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Financial Corporate Performance Management Solutions by Christopher Iervolino, John E. Van Decker. 31 May 2016.
2 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Strategic Corporate Performance Management Solutions by Christopher Iervolino, John E. Van Decker. 31 May 2016.
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Well, when you're tasked with making a sequel to a thoroughly terrible and un-liked film, why not just take the kitchen sink, douse it in gasoline, set it on fire, and then drop kick it through a plate glass window?
That's essentially what the directing duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the "masterminds" behind the Jason Statham-has-sex-while-running-at-full-speed WTFness "Crank") have done with "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance." They have nothing to lose, so they are firebombing everything they can in an effort to maybe, hopefully, entertain someone even if by accident.
The original "Ghost Rider," in case you need reminding, was an unmitigated disaster. So bad, it made director Mark Steven Johnson's other Marvel Comics attempt - the laughable Ben Affleck dropped ball "Daredevil" - look like "Iron Man" in comparison.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
But Nicolas Cage has opted to try again and, like we said, this is so insane it may at least score points for trying.
And we'll admit - the new blackened skull, black smoke and melted leather look for the Rider is a vast improvement.
"Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" sets fire to your face February 17, 2012.


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Posted by Editor on 12/9/01
The Canadian Cycling Association Annual General Meeting was held this past weekend in Ottawa. As always, there were numerous committee meetings and administrative details ironed out, but here are some of the key outcomes:
- The By-Laws were amended so that the Athletes Rep is now a voting member of the Development Committee (previously, the A.R. was only on the High Performance Committee). (Article 33a)
- Elections were held for a number of positions:
VP Marketing and Communications - Michel Dupal, QC (acclaimed)
VP Development - Loyal Ma, AB (defeated Lister Farrar, BC)
High Performance Member at Large Road & Track - Warren Lister, SK (acclaimed)
Development International MTB Commissaire - Jim Bratrud, NS (acclaimed)
Development Member at Large MTB - Dave Benson, MB (defeated Henry Pejril, BC)
Development Coach Road & Track - Stephen McCarthy, AB (defeated Sherry Huybers, NS and Natacha Tremblay, QC)
- The 2002 AGM is tentatively scheduled for Dieppe, NS.
- The CCA has finalized its strategic plan for the next few years. We will be publishing excerpts over the next few days.
National Calendar
No, the calendar is not yet finalized. Yes, we have a tentative schedule for everything except the Road Nationals, and will put it online tomorrow.
The Road Nationals continue to be a problem, and the current situation consists of the following two most likely scenarios:
1. The Mont Ste Anne and Grouse World Cups will be pushed back by one week each (and another World Cup will be added somewhere in North America either before MSA or after Grouse). The Road Nationals will then take place on and around the July 1st weekend (possibly conflicting with a U.S. World Cup). The location is tentatively Edmonton, but this is not confirmed. If the Edmonton group declines, and another organizer is not found for this date, then...
2. The Road Nationals are shifted to August, after the Commonwealth Games. This would be a likely possibility if either MSA is not shifted, or Edmonton declines even if MSA is shifted. The organizer will not be Edmonton if it is not the July 1 weekend, and the CCA will solicit bids. Technically, this actually makes sense, since the Nationals are not being used at all for Commonwealth selections, but will be used for Worlds selection; so having them closer to the Worlds dates is more useful.
Right now, everything is waiting on the UCI.
Happy Birthday To...
Ryder Hesjedal, today.
|Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top


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Ozzy Osbourne Says Black Sabbath Contract Disagreement With Bill Ward Never Got Heated
Bill Ward is not part of the Black Sabbath reunion, but Ozzy Osbourne reiterated that there's still a chance things could work out because the relationship during the disagreement never turned bitter.
The singer told The Times [via Blabbermouth], "There was no row. There was no argument. The door ain't closed. Whether we work something out up the road, I don't know." Guitarist Tony Iommi echoed those sentiments, adding, "It's not a personal thing. If he phoned us up tomorrow, which he hasn't, but if he did…"
Ward has been very upfront publicly in detailing his contractual dispute, but has always stated that the door was open and he was good to go if something could be worked out. However, Osbourne recently stated that the requests that were received from Ward were unreasonable. Iommi also stated that while there was an attempt to work things out, it's just not happening.
Black Sabbath played the Download festival in June, and will perform at Lollapalooza next month in Chicago, but they haven't booked any further dates due to Iommi's recovery from chemotherapy treatments for cancer. In the interim, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler have been playing many of the markets they hoped to hit with Black Sabbath under the moniker 'Ozzy and Friends.'
Tommy Cluefetos, who filled in for Ward on the previous Black Sabbath dates, has been part of the run and musicians such as Slash and Zakk Wylde have performed at dates.


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This question came to me when I was designing the culture of a fictional country. I was wondering outside of the life sciences, why do we use gender, and should we keep it in our daily lives. In my own view the division of people by physical gender is pointless and serves only to create conflict.
Views: 2785
Well said Kris. I'd like to add, there is difference between masculine and male, and between feminine and female. I think a society that recognises that not all males are necesserily masculine and can be feminine, and vice versa for females, would be quite good.
Some people can't get over gender, the idea that one is allowed to do some things and not other things beyond the real differences, on how they behave, what they do, how they dress, what kind of car they drive, social & business interactions. Some people seem to go to extremes on this, people tend to go with what is expected of them, not what they really want to do and gender certainly has an influence on that.
"What is the purpose of gender?"
Bacteria have no sex, yet still reproduce... I think you will find the purpose of the sexes is to increase genetic variability in reproduction.
Gender is another topic entirely...
Human Reproduction.
I didn't think it was necessary to specify.
Human sexual reproduction requires a male and a female. One of each gender, ergo the purpose of gender in the human species is reproduction.
Some like to differentiate between "gender" and "sex." Sex is the biological label (i.e., what's between your legs), but gender is more of an identity (why some who are biologically male can identify as female, vice versa, and other variants thereupon.) I think what Christopher is talking about is gender or gender roles, not necessarily biological sex. I am of the belief that gender is a spectrum, much like sexuality, and your biological sex has very little (or nothing) to do with your entire identity.
The question was "the purpose of gender" not "the purpose of gender roles".
A person's gender is determined by one's biological role in reproduction (ie. a male cannot give birth) regardless of their personal desire to identify sexually.
Gender roles are a social/cultural matter and are not the "purpose" of gender, gender roles reflect a society's structure. The purpose of gender is reproduction, without this purpose of the word itself has no meaning.
'Gender', in English, refers to both biological and social definitions.
We really need to change that... too many people exist in quantum gender states.
Clearly my point is that one cannot separate "gender" from the life sciences since core to the concept is sexually reproduction.
And I am agreeing with that point, when some people talk about gender they actually mean to talk about gender roles within a particular cultural setting, people should quit using the word gender alone when they are wanting to talk about gender roles.
The words sex and gender are indeed employed differently in the sciences and sociology, and in all of my classes. There's even a separate major called "Gender Studies".
A good book to read on this is "the human zoo" by Desmond Morris


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According to a recent study hearing loss is associated with depression among American adults, especially women and those younger than age 70.
In the new study, the research indicated that as hearing declined, the percentage of depressed adults increased — from about 5 percent in those who had no hearing problems to more than 11 percent in those who did with the exception of those who would fall into the "deaf" category.
Individuals who classified themselves as deaf (little to no usable hearing) were roughly half as likely to be depressed as people with excellent hearing. The lead researcher on the team Dr. Chuan-Ming Li provided an explanation.
"One reason for this result may be that people with severe to profound hearing impairment have had a different experience in their exposure and access to hearing health care. They are more likely to have been "discovered" and offered treatments like hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Thus, their lower prevalence of depression may be because a higher proportion of them have had access to hearing health care services and thereby have obtained more help and earlier interventions than those with mild to moderate hearing impairment."
Researchers can't yet say why women might have stronger links between hearing impairment and depression. However, "we should encourage people to find out about hearing loss and how people successfully cope with it," Li said. "It can be very helpful – and empowering – for an individual to know that others are in the same situation and are finding ways to cope."
If you are experiencing signs of depression you should contact your family physician. If you are having trouble hearing, contact us today, we can help.


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Power Supplies > Preferred Power Products P3PS-10
6, 12 or 24 VDC, 10 amp Power Supply Board
The P3PS-10 is a switching power supply and charger. It is engineered to convert low voltage AC input into 12 VDC or 24 VDC @ 10 AMPS of continuous supply current.
The P3PS-3 has a number of applications for CCTV, access control and general security system accessories that require DC power.
P3PS-10 Spec Sheet
Bulk CCTV Store
41W195 Railroad Street, Unit A
Pingree Grove, IL 60140


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Tag Archives: refugees
The Mutation of Antisemitism
From Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Posted in antisemitism, antizionism, Arab society, arab world, BDS, Bill of Rights, Christianity, Christians, civil rights, conservative, cultural relativism, democracy, education, ethics, extremism, facism, feminism, foreign policy, freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, genocide, geopolitics, Hamas, happiness, Holocaust, honor violence, human rights, human trafficking, ideals, international law, Iran, ISIS, Islam, Islamism, islamists, Islamo-fascist, Israel, Jerusalem, Jew-hatred, Jewhatred, Jewish community, Jewish nakba, Jewish People, Judaism, Judea and Samaria, lawfare, leftist, liberal, liberty, microagression, Middle East, Moslem, Moslem Brotherhood, Nazism, NGO, PA, Palestine, Palestinians, PLO, political correctness, progressive, Progressives, racism, refugees, religion, religious freedom, science, selfdefense, Shariah, Shoah, SJP, Stand with US, terror, terrorism, UK, UN, United Nations, United States, US, USA, war crimes, West Bank, western civilization, western democracy, women's rights, Zionism Tagged anti-Israel, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, Christianity, college campuses, dehumanization, democracy, EU, evil, feminism, freedom, genocide, human rights, humanity, intersectionality, islamism, Islamist, Jew-hatred, Judeophobia, MENA, Middle East, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, race hatred, racism, refugees, religion, SJP, Stand with US, UK, women's rights, xenophobia
Yes, BDS is antisemitic, and has nothing to do with human rights
From Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain
Posted in antisemitism, antizionism, BDS, cultural relativism, democracy, education, ethics, extremism, Fatah, foreign policy, Gaza, genocide, Hamas, Holocaust, human rights, ideals, international law, Iran, ISIS, Islam, Islamism, islamists, Islamo-fascist, Israel, Jerusalem, Jew-hatred, Jewhatred, Jewish People, Judaism, Judea and Samaria, lawfare, leftist, liberal, Middle East, Moslem, Moslem Brotherhood, national security, PA, Palestine, Palestinians, PLO, political correctness, progressive, Progressives, racism, refugees, religion, selfdefense, Shoah, SJP, terror, terrorism, UK, UN, Uncategorized, war crimes, West Bank, western civilization, western democracy Tagged antisemitism, BDS, civil rights, democracy, Gaza, genocide, Hamas, holocaust, human rights, Iran, ISIS, islamism, islamists, islamo-fascist, Israel, Jerusalem, Jew-hatred, Jewishpeople, Judaism, Judea and Samaria, MENA, Moslem, PA, Palestinians, PLO, progressive, racism, refugees, Shoah, SJP, terrorism, UK, UN, West Bank, Zionism
On Refugees and Intervention Overseas
We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever … Continue reading
Posted in autism, BDS, Bill of Rights, Britain, China, Christianity, Christians, civil rights, Congress, Constitution, cultural relativism, democracy, democrats, DNC, ethics, EU, Europe, extremism, facism, feminism, first amendment, foreign policy, free enterprise, freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, genocide, geopolitics, Holocaust, honor violence, human rights, human trafficking, ideals, immigration, international law, Iran, ISIS, Islam, Islamism, islamists, Islamo-fascist, Israel, Jerusalem, Jew-hatred, Jewish People, lawfare, leftist, liberal, liberty, Middle East, national security, Nazism, political correctness, POTUS, progressive, Progressives, refugees, Shoah, terror, terrorism, Uncategorized, United States, USA, war crimes, western civilization, western democracy, women's rights Tagged children, Christianity, compassion, conscience, culture, current-events, economics, feminism, foreign affairs, foreign policy, human lives, humanity, intervention, intolerance, Iraq, Islam, journalism, neutrality, oppressor, persecution, politics, refugees, religion, security, silence, society, television, Turkey, UN, USA, women
Remembering the Jewish Refugee Expelled from Arab Lands
November 30 has been set aside, by the Israeli Knesset as Commemoration Day for Jewish Refugees from Middle East and North African Lands. It is important to note that the Jewish communities of the Arab world predated Islam and the … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Middle East, Palestine Tagged Israel, Jewish refugees, Middle East, Palestine, refugees, UNHCR, UNRWA


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History & Architecture
All Saints Margaret Street is a Victorian church in Fitzrovia, near Oxford Street, London. It is regarded as one of the foremost examples of High Victorian Gothic architecture in Britain.
It was designed in 1850 by William Butterfield, an architect strongly associated with Gothic revival church building and the Oxford Movement. Completed in 1859, the red brick church was built around a small courtyard with an adjoining vicarage and a choir school.
The interior is noted for its rich decoration and beautiful fittings - a true "hidden gem" in the streets of central London.
Sir John Betjeman, the poet, writer and enthusiastic advocate of heritage and architecture said of All Saints:
"It was here, in the 1850s, that the revolution in architecture began...It led the way, All Saints Margaret Street, in church building."
Today the church enjoys Grade 1 listed building status. The church is a living house of prayer and is cherished by all who worship here for its sacred atmosphere and magnificent heritage.
In January 2014 All Saints Margaret Street was chosen by Simon Thurley, head of English Heritage, as one of the ten buildings that have changed the face of Britain. Follow this link to see the full article and appreciate the building's historic significance:
We invite you to explore some of the points of interest of our church by browsing through the information on these pages. If you have any questions about our heritage, please contact the parish office for more information.


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Interview - Investor update
The presentation is available for access at:
About Lake Resources NL
Lake Resources NL (ASX:LKE) is a lithium exploration and development company focused on developing its three lithium brine projects and hard rock project in Argentina, all owned 100%. The leases are in a prime location among the lithium sector's largest players within the Lithium Triangle, where half of the world's lithium is produced. Lake holds one of the largest lithium tenement packages in Argentina (~200,000Ha) secured in 2016 prior to a significant 'rush' by major companies. The large holdings provide the potential to provide consistent security of supply demanded by battery makers and electric vehicle manufacturers.
The Kachi project covers 69,000 ha over a salt lake south of FMC's lithium operation and near Albemarle's Antofalla project in Catamarca Province. Drilling at Kachi has confirmed a large lithium brine bearing basin over 20km long, 15km wide and 400m to 800m deep. Drilling over Kachi (currently 16 drill holes, 3100m) has produced a maiden indicated and inferred resource of 4.4 Mt LCE (Indicated 1.0Mt and Inferred 3.4Mt) within a 8-17 Mt LCE exploration target (refer ASX announcement 27 November 2018).
A direct extraction technique is being tested in partnership with Lilac Solutions, which has shown 80-90% recoveries and lithium brine concentrations in excess of 3000 mg/L lithium and is planned to be trialled on site in tandem with conventional methods as part of a PFS to follow the resource statement. Scope exists to unlock considerable value through partnerships and corporate deals in the near term.
The Olaroz-Cauchari and Paso brine projects are located adjacent to major world class brine projects either in production or being developed in the highly prospective Jujuy Province. The Olaroz-Cauchari project is located in the same basin as Orocobre's Olaroz lithium production and adjoins Ganfeng Lithium/Lithium Americas Cauchari project, with high grade lithium (600 mg/L) with high flow rates drilled immediately across the lease boundary.
Two drill rigs are currently drilling at Cauchari with results anticipated to extend the proven resources in adjoining properties into LKE's area with results anticipated from November into December 2018. This will be followed by drilling extensions to the Olaroz area in LKE's 100% owned Olaroz leases.
Significant corporate transactions continue in adjacent leases with development of Ganfeng Lithium/Lithium Americas Cauchari project with Ganfeng announcing a US$237 million for 37% of the Cauchari project previously held by SQM. Nearby projects of Lithium X were acquired via a takeover offer of C$265 million completed March 2018. The northern half of Galaxy's Sal de Vida resource was purchased for US$280 million by POSCO in June 2018. These transactions imply an acquisition cost of US$55-110 million per 1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in resources.
The demand for lithium continues to be strong for lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles, according to recent data from the leading independent battery minerals consultant, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Supply continues to be constrained suggesting good opportunities for upstream lithium companies.
Lake Resources NL


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(75% copper, 25%
|Obverse Designer
|Portrait of Her Majesty the Queen
2006 - Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS
|Reverse Designer
|Clive Duncan
A depiction of a soldier carrying a wounded comrade, with an outline of the Victoria Cross surrounded by a sunburst effect in the background.
The Victoria Cross is the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy. All who have received it have shown extraordinary bravery, many at the cost of their own lives. The original idea for the Victoria Cross was proposed by the Duke of Newcastle in 1854, and the Royal Warrant for the creation of the medal was signed by Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace on 29 January 1856. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the institution of the Victoria Cross, The Royal Mint struck two fifty pence coins.
In October 1969 the 50p joined the 5p (shilling) and 10p (florin) coins in circulation, leaving only the three copper coins to be introduced on 15 February 1971 to complete the new series of decimal coins. The design on the reverse of the 50p coin featured a symbol of Britannia that has appeared on our coinage since 1672. While this design may have been traditional, the shape of the new 50p coin, an equilateral curve heptagon, was revolutionary. This made it easily distinguishable from round coins both by feel and by sight, while its constant breadth allowed it to roll in vending machines.
With the introduction of smaller 5p and 10p coins in 1990 and 1992 respectively, the 50p became the largest coin in circulation. In October 1994 the Government announced a further review of the United Kingdom coinage. The results revealed a requirement for a smaller 50p coin, which was duly introduced on 1 September 1997. Since its issue, the 50p has been used on several occasions to celebrate important events, each being commemorated on a new reverse design.
The 50p is legal tender for amounts up to £10.


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Renowned environmental activist Vandana Shiva featured speaker for CSB's Renaissance Series
January 21, 2011
Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, will visit the College of Saint Benedict as the 2010-11 Renaissance Series speaker.
She will speak on the global food crisis, gender justice and the environment at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14 in room 204, Gorecki Dining and Conference Center, CSB. The event is free and open to the public, and is one of a series of events included in the 2010-11 Year of Sustainability. Shiva will also meet with students during her visit to campus.
Shiva has fought to change practices of agriculture and food in the world, and is widely recognized as a world leader in environmental policy and philosophy. She was born in Dehradun, India, and pursued research in environmental policy and technology in Bangalore and obtained her Ph.D. in nuclear physics at the University of Western Ontario in 1979. She was considered one of India's leading physicists prior to beginning her work as an activist.
A prominent figure in the founding of the Green Movement in many nations, Shiva is a leader of the International Forum on Globalization. She has addressed both the World Trade Organization and World Economic Forum.
Shiva was recognized by Time magazine as an environmental hero and received the Globe 500 Award from the United Nations.
In 1982, Shiva founded the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology that would eventually create Navdanya, an Indian national movement to protect diversity, natural resources, organic farming and fair trade. She has authored numerous books including Water Wars: Pollution, Profits, and Privatization and Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge.
Serving the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, the Renaissance Series was established by CSB President MaryAnn Baenninger in 2006 to bring speakers to CSB who "demonstrate the diversity of opportunities available for women and men and . . . to encourage them to broaden their horizons in every respect, particularly in areas that are less traditional for the respective genders." This event is co-sponsored by the CSB Institute for Women's Leadership.
Past speakers include Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer; Annie Griffiths Belt, National Geographic photographer; Sylvia Nasar, author and economist; Sandra Keating, '86, professor of theology; and Judith Yaphe, a specialist in Middle Eastern political analysis.


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Laments of the Caribbean Businessperson are Based on Facts?
Oct 2013
Ruprah, Inder J.; Sierra, Ricardo
In this policy brief, we review the laments of Caribbean businesspersons. We find that subjective perceptions are rooted in an objective reality. Businesspersons do not complain gratuitously.…


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Gawker.com – the site which released a one minute video of the Hogan sex tape along with a play-by-play write up of the whole video – responded to the lawsuit that Hogan filed against the company through their attorney.
"He's having sex with another man's wife in another man's home. I'm not sure it's reasonable to say he has an expectation of privacy under the circumstances," Cameron Stracher, attorney for Gawker, told Reuters.
He plans to have the judge throw the lawsuit out and not give Hogan a single cent of the $100 million in damages he's asking for.
Meanwhile, Stephen Diaco, attorney for Bubba "The Love Sponge," said that Hulk knew about the tape despite his claim that he was unaware of it.
"Bubba is a victim; Heather is a victim. Bubba does not know who released this tape," Diaco said.