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A hound named Carrie riding shotgun, Dom Fanelli darted up the East Coast last weekend with a cuddly cargo: In the back of his van rustled 30 dogs, mostly puppies, rescued from overcrowded shelters in rural Georgia.
His destination: Port Washington, N.Y., where potential adopters eagerly awaited the delivery of the gangly pups. Along the way, Mr. Fanelli stopped every few hours to water and walk the dogs. Inevitably, crowds gathered to scratch some ears.
"Every time we stop we have a crowd, and that's why I like doing this," says Fanelli, an airplane technician, via cellphone from the road. "People always ask, 'Where are they coming from and where are they going?'"
Fanelli's regular route from the Fulton County Animal Shelter in Atlanta to various points in the Northeast is but a small cog in a burgeoning transport network that experts liken to an underground doggie railroad, where thousands of otherwise doomed Southern canines are shipped to new lives in the North.
Yet following a number of incidents involving rescue dogs from the South – including a Labrador mix that beat up five Yorkshire terriers on a Maine beach last month – animal-control officers and veterinarians have begun raising questions about the practice. Some say well-meaning Northerners, fueled by stereotypes of the South, may be prolonging misery for bad dogs, creating a health risk by accepting sick dogs, and exposing unintended consequences of the strict spay-and-neuter laws that have created a dramatic puppy shortage in the Northeast.
"This idea of an underground railroad for dogs poses certain problems," says Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University. "I'm not really so sure how humane the whole thing is."
Begun in the human and animal tragedy of hurricane Katrina, and fueled by the saga of Michael Vick (the pro football player convicted of running a dog-fighting ring) and its references to the sometimes brutal rituals that shade Southern backwoods culture, the dog trade across the Mason-Dixon Line today is brisk. Some estimate 90 percent of adopted dogs in the Northeast come from the South. One shelter, in Stratham, N.H., began taking out-of-state transfers in 2005 and moved 289 dogs. Last year it imported nearly 900, many from Alabama.
"They don't have puppies up in the Northeast, and there aren't a lot of family-friendly dogs, so they like to take the Labs and the dogs that we have an abundance of down here," says Michelle Humphries, the director of the Georgia Humane Society in Atlanta, which sends about 600 dogs a year to shelters in the North. "If we had enough volunteers, we could keep our van on the road pretty much all month long."
It's a dramatic shift in a country that has made huge strides in reducing the number of dogs euthanized in shelters, from 17 million in 1987 to about 4 million today. But it makes only more stark attitudes about dogs in the South, where shelters are still overcrowded – especially in springtime – with unwanted dogs and euthanization rates as high as 85 percent.
"I can get in my truck and drive in any single direction and find a skinny dog scrounging for food on the side of the road or puppies coming out from under a trailer," says the Mississippi novelist Ace Atkins, who helps run the Friends of Pete rescue group in Oxford.
It's not that Southerners, especially in rural areas, don't love dogs, says Jack Kirby, a self described "dog man" and author of an environmental history of the South. But attitudes about dogs as chattel plus the price to spay – starting at $125 – makes spaying a nonstarter for many, he says.
"Southerners love dogs, as many as possible, as essential companions in travel and hunting," writes Mr. Kirby in an e-mail from St. Augustine, Fla. But he adds, "There's a tradition of individualism and sovereignty that poorly serves the dog and cat surpluses attributable to human carelessness."
The sheer numbers of dogs being euthanized – one shelter in north Georgia that sends dogs out of state still euthanizes nearly 3,000 a year – have become a burden on animal-rescue groups in the South, who see little legislative will to strengthen spay-and-neuter laws. When such a bill was brought up in Mississippi several years ago, rural legislators hooted, says Mr. Atkins. Georgia didn't pass a dogfighting law until the Vick story broke.
Out-of-state transports intensified after hurricane Katrina as new networks sprung up, connecting shelter workers facing growing demand in the North with exhausted, and often demoralized, workers in Southern states.
"Not only are we partnering, which is always a joyful experience, we're saving lives," says Lisa Dennison, director of the New Hampshire SPCA in Stratham. "We're meeting a need in New England and we're giving shelter workers [in the South and Midwest] hope that they don't have to euthanize dog after dog after dog. What difference does it make where the animals come from?"
But it can make a difference, some critics say. This spring, animal-control officers in some Maine and New Hampshire towns began sharing reports of Southern dogs getting into fights in public places. Recently, a Great Dane from Kentucky came to Rochester, N.H., with no indication of behavioral problems. It turned out that the dog came from an abusive household, where it lashed out to protect children – a scary surprise for one mom who was reprimanding her daughter and almost got bitten.
With behavior training, the big dog was able to be saved and adopted out. Dogs coming from stressful situations tend to take more behavioral work, experts say, which new owners aren't always able to handle. One dog in Maine recently bounced around six homes before finally being euthanized, causing the Portsmouth, N.H., Herald to run the headline: "Animal officers: Rescued dogs from South proving dangerous."
The New Hampshire Federation of Humane Societies committee held a seminar on transport dogs in April as concerns rise about diseased and misbehaved dogs coming northward.
Exeter, N.H., animal control officer Neal Jones calls some rescuers "Animal Planet people" driven by a need to rescue animals from "horrible conditions" in the South. "It's a connection where they want to do something for an abused animal," says Mr. Jones.
For rescuers like Mr. Atkins, notions of saving all the South's dogs have faded to the humbler hope of simply saving dogs one at a time. "We're not going to fix the problem, but for that individual dog, having a good life means everything to them."


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2014-15 US Youth Soccer Southern Regional Premier League Teams Qualify for National League
Teams that earn their spot in the National League have a proven track record of success in US Youth Soccer regional and national competitions, and are among the nation's best, as every team has earned its place in the league based on previous and continued success, regardless of location or club affiliation.
The 2014 US Youth Soccer Southern Regional Premier League (SRPL) champions and runners-up in the Under-15 through Under-17 Boys and Girls age groups have earned automatic qualification into the prestigious US Youth Soccer National League for the 2014-15 season.
The National League is an extension of the highly successful US Youth Soccer Regional Leagues (Region I Premier League, Region II Midwest Regional League, Region III Southern Premier League and Region IV Far West Regional League).
Automatic Regional League qualification was added to the National League format in January 2013, and two teams per age group from each of the four Regional Leagues in the Under-13 through Under-17 age groups, with the exception Under-13s in Region III, earn a spot in the 2014-15 National League season.
2014-15 National League Qualifiers | Southern Regional Premier League
Under-14 Champion: TBD* Under-14 Champion: TBD*
Under-15 Champion: Concorde Fire Elite 98/99 (GA) Under-15 Runner-up: Solar Chelsea 99 Red (N-TX)
Under-16 Champion: FC Alliance 98 Black (TN) Under-16 Runner-up: GSA 98 Premier (GA)
Under-17 Champion: NASA 15 Elite (GA) Under-17 Runner-up: GSA 97 Phoenix (GA)
Under-14 Champion: TBD* Under-14 Champion: TBD*
Under-15 Champion: Jacksonville FC 98/99 Elite (FL) Under-15 Runner-up: Tophat 17 Gold (GA)
Under-16 Champion: Tophat 16 Gold (GA) Under-16 Runner-up: Ponte Vedra SC 97/98 Storm Gold (FL)
Under-17 Champion: Louisiana Fire 97 Navy (LA) Under-17 Runner-up: Southern SA Chelsea 97 Elite (GA)
*Qualifiers from the SRPL Under-14 age group will be selected from the three sub-regional leagues
The National League provides an avenue for teams to play in meaningful matches against top competition from across the country for continued development and opportunities for exposure at the collegiate, professional and National Team levels.
In 2013-14, the National League Under-18 age group included 196 girls and 132 boys that committed to play collegiate soccer. Players found opportunities at some of the top programs in the country, including Florida, Georgetown, North Carolina, Penn State, Virginia and Wake Forest on the girls' side. National League boys committed to programs such as California, Georgetown, Indiana, Marquette, Navy and Stanford.
In addition to recruiting opportunities, the top two finishers from each National League division (Blue and Red) will earn a ticket to the US Youth Soccer National Championships, making each match valuable and creating an added element of pressure as players compete for a chance play for the National Championship.
The US Youth Soccer National Championships are the oldest and most prestigious youth soccer national championships in the country. Through the first six years of play, National League teams have gone on to claim 26 of a possible 38 National Championship titles. The 2014 National Championships will be held this summer in Germantown, Md., July 21-27.

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First Look: Cocktails at Ginny's Supper Club in Harlem, NY
It's not easy to design a cocktail menu for a bar like Ginny's Supper Club, the swank new spot opened by Chef Marcus Samuelsson and partner Andrew Chapman located under his flagship Red Rooster. For one thing, the place is as much about the food (see our slideshow here) as it is about the drinks, and how do you pair cocktails with an eclectic mix of soul food, French dishes, and Chinese specialties? Second, there's the Harlem location and the local clientele (I proudly count myself amongst them). Not that there's not an audience that can appreciate $15 craft cocktails in Harlem, but it's certainly the first, most expensive, and most ambitious bar program in the neighborhood—at least, the first since the end of Jazz-era Harlem's golden age.
The menu is designed by Eben Klemm, the young cocktail director of B.R. Guest Restaurants and a former molecular biologist at MIT's Whitehead Institute (I dig his pedigree). It's split evenly between modern takes on classics and completely new drinks, occasionally drawing on Scandinavian and Dutch imports and flavors—genever, caraway, Heering liqueurs and the like—a nod to Chef Marcus Samuelsson's Swedish upbringing.
Take a peek at the slideshow above for a few of the cocktails, then check out this link for more on the space and the food.
Ginny's Supper Club
310 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, NY, 10027 (between 125th and 126th; map); 212-792-9001; ginnyssupperclub.com
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Northwest (Talk | contribs) at 22:02, 4 April 2017. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Not to be confused with the Australian public broadcaster ABC (Australia)
American Broadcasting Company: A television network in the United States which has been broadcasting since 1948. It is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
- ABC Radio Networks, known as ABC Radio, formerly owned by ABC television but independent since 2007. It originated in 1927 as the NBC Blue Network, owned by RCA. It became independent of RCA in 1942 after being spun off due to anti-trust litigation and became simply the Blue Network at that point, then switched to its current name on June 15, 1945.
Charles Gibson
Anchorman of ABC News Worldnews Tonight mentioned Conservapedia in a February 2007 segment. See Video
See also
- American Broadcasting Company official web-site
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation official web-site


text:
Friday 25 January
|Diomedea (1)
The impressive wandering albatross has the largest recorded wingspan of any bird, reaching up to a massive 3.5 metres across (2). Juveniles have chocolate-brown feathers and a white facemask but over time the white colouration expands, leaving only black at the edges of the wings and tail tip (4); they take up to nine years to reach adult plumage (5). The hooked bill is pink and the flesh-coloured legs end in webbed feet, reflecting the largely oceanic life-style of this bird (4). Unusually amongst birds, albatrosses have tubular nostrils on either side of their upper bill instead of the more common fused nostrils of other bird species (2).
Wandering albatross pairs mate for life (5), these long-lived birds do not reach sexual maturity until 9 – 11 years of age (4). Nests are constructed from a mound of grasses and moss and a single egg is laid (2). Both parents take it in turns to incubate the egg (that hatches after two months) and then to feed the growing chick, which remains on the nest for around nine months (5).
Albatrosses use their enormous wingspan to glide effortlessly on updrafts of wind, they spend the majority of their life in flight and can travel enormous distances (2); one bird was recorded to have travelled 6000 km in 12 days (5). Albatrosses feed at the surface of the water, often roosting on the surface at night (5); they take fish and cephalopods (squid), and will often follow ships feeding on the fish waste they discharge (4).
Wandering albatrosses spend the majority of their time in flight, soaring over the southern oceans (5). They breed on a number of islands just north of the Antarctic Circle, notably: South Georgia Island (belonging to the UK), Prince Edward and Marion Islands (South Africa), Crozet and Kerguelen Islands (French Southern Territories) and Macquarie Island (Australia) (4).
Found over the open ocean, albatrosses travel vast distances (5). Breeding takes place on exposed ridges and hillocks, amongst open and patchy vegetation (4).
Some populations of wandering albatross have shown recent worrying declines that have been attributed to longline fishing methods; these albatross are relatively aggressive in their dealings with fishing vessels and individuals may drown after attempting to seize bait from longline hooks, getting snared and pulled under. The population on Bird Island (South Georgia) has recently undergone a yearly 10% decrease in post-fledgling survival rate (4).
The majority of wandering albatross breeding sites are protected within reserves, and the island of Macquarie is a World Heritage Site. This species also receives protection under Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species and studies of a number of breeding populations have recently been undertaken. Adoption of mitigation measures in some areas, coupled with the relocation of other fisheries away from foraging grounds, are moves in the right direction but have yet to lead to signs of recovery in most populations. Widespread modification of harmful longline fishing practices and ongoing monitoring will be required (4) in order to safeguard the future of these elegant giants of the ocean air.
For more information on the wandering albatross see:
Authenticated (18/06/05) by Dr Euan Dunn, Head of Marine Policy, RSPB.
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Friday 25 January
Friday 05 October
Monday 24 September


text:
A Heavenly Life
December 24
"If then your were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:1-3
My friend, Paul is saying that when Christ died, you died, when He was buried you were buried, and when He was raised from the dead your were raised, and when He ascended to heaven you ascended, and when He sat down at the right hand of the Father you sat down with Him. When God the Father looks to His right hand, He sees Christ and you in Him, clothed with His righteousness. This is your heavenly position. This is what Paul means when He says, "Seek and set your mind above." My friend, to enjoy a heavenly life on earth you only need to Abide Above.
For more resources from Above & Beyond Fellowship, visit www.abidingabove.org.


text:
Report Roundup
Common-Core Tests Dig Deep to Assess Learning, Study Says
"On the Road to Assessing Deeper Learning: The Status of Smarter Balanced and PARCC Assessment Consortia"
Tests now being designed for the common standards are likely to gauge deeper levels of learning and have a major impact on classroom instruction, according to a study of the common assessments released last week.
The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards & Student Testing, or CRESST, at the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed the work done so far by the two consortia of states designing the tests. The center concludes that the assessments hold much promise for improving teacher practice and student learning but cautions that key financial, technical, and political challenges lie ahead.
Co-authors Joan Herman and Robert Linn relied on Norman Webb's "depth of knowledge" classification system to explore the extent to which the common assessments will gauge students' "deeper learning." That system assigns four levels to learning, from Level 1, which features basic comprehension and recall of facts and terms, to Level 4, which involves extended analysis, investigation, or synthesis. Their study was funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which also provides support for Education Week's coverage of deeper learning.
It concludes that the work so far of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is "moving testing practice forward substantially in representing deeper learning, but the nature of available data make it difficult to determine precisely the extent of the change."
The remaining challenges cited by the study include:
• Maintaining performance tasks in the face of cost and time concerns from states.
• Making automated scoring possible for constructed-response items and performance tasks to keep costs down.
• Ensuring the comparability of with-accommodations and without-accommodations versions of the tests.
Vol. 32, Issue 18, Page 5Published in Print: January 23, 2013, as Common-Core Tests Dig Deep to Assess Learning, Study Says
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
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Citing the growth in popularity of the EPub format and a decline in demand for other e-book formats, Barnes & Noble is shutting down its Fictionwise.com e-book retailing site and its affiliated sites effective December 4. Originally founded by Scott and Stephen Pendergast in 2001, the former independent e-book retailer was sold to B&N in 2009.
B&N is shutting down Fictionwise.com as well as its affiliated sites, Reader.com and eBookwise.com. A pioneering e-book retailer, Fictionwise.com offered e-books in a wide variety of formats including Mobipocket, Palm OS, MSReader, eReaderPro and others. In a FAQ page on the Fictionwise site, the company cites a decline in demand for other e-book formats and rise in demand for EPub, the e-book standard developed by the IDPF and offered through Fictionwise's parent company Barnes & Noble.
The Fictionwise FAQ provides information for consumers about how to download any e-books still in their accounts.


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The Bank of Japan (BOJ) might boost stimulus in the wake of a vote by the upper house of Parliament to block a nominee to its board and a call by lawmakers for a more "proactive" monetary policy.
Bloomberg reported Friday that the BNP Paribas economist Ryutaro Kono was rejected by Parliament at a time when two vacancies already exist on the nine-person board and more are to come. The terms of two deputy governors will end in March 2013, and Governor Masaaki Shirakawa's term ends in April of that year.
However, Kono was voted down after the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest of the opposition groups, objected to his nomination. That party is working on a bill that would allow the government more influence over monetary policy. Kono was described by Goldman Sachs as holding similar views to Shirakawa, who says that monetary policy alone cannot solve deflation.
Takeshi Miyazaki, a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker and a leader of the governing party's anti-deflation group, was quoted saying, "Proactive monetary policy is necessary to escape from deflation and end the strengthening yen. The main priority should be someone who is promoting monetary easing."
Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., Mizuho Securities Co. and SMBC Nikko Securities have said that they expect BOJ to expand asset purchases at an April 27 meeting.
Akio Makabe, an economics professor at Shinshu University in central Japan, was quoted saying, "The BOJ must be struggling to balance between responding to political requests and operating effective monetary policies."
Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Friday that candidates for the BOJ board shouldn't be chosen only on their belief in monetary easing, since such views could hamper policy flexibility.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura was quoted saying, "It's a shame that this didn't get approved. This won't cause problems for running the policy board immediately, but this is not a desirable situation."
Kono said in a statement that politicians were pushing monetary policies that are "divorced from reality." He also said that perception of him as negative about an inflation target was a misunderstanding, and added that a 2% goal could be suitable for Japan in the long term.
"Japan's imminent issues are to reform the social security system and to achieve fiscal health and so I think raising taxes is inevitable," he said, since those goals can't be reached through monetary policy.


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Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Children Are Forever (All Sales are Final!) Stage Werx Theatre, 446 Valencia, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15. Previews Fri/14, 8pm. Opens Sat/15, 8pm. Runs Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 22. W. Kamau Bell directs Julia Jackson in her solo show about adoption.
Napoli! ACT's Geary Theater, 415 Geary, SF; www.act-sf.org. $10-120. Previews Wed/12-Sat/15 and Tue/18, 8pm (also Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 7pm. Opens Feb 19, 8pm. Runs Wed-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm; Tue, 7pm (March 4, show at 8pm). Through March 9. American Conservatory Theater performs a new translation of Eduardo de Filippo's poignant Italian comedy.
A Maze Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk; www.justtheater.org. $20-25. Previews Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm. Opens Sun/16, 5pm. Runs Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through March 9. Shotgun Players present Just Theater's production of Rob Handel's kaleidoscopic comedy.
The Music Man Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College, Berk; www.berkeleyplayhouse.org. $17-60. Previews Thu/13, 7pm and Sat/15, 1pm. Opens Sat/15, 6pm. Runs Fri and March 20, 7pm; Sat, 1 and 6pm; Sun, noon and 5pm. Through March 23. There's trouble in River City! See it unfold amid all those trombones at Berkeley Playhouse.
Feisty Old Jew Marsh San Francisco Main Stage, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $25-100. Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm (March 2, performance at 2pm; March 9, performance will be a reading of Charlie Varon's Fish Sisters). Through March 16. Charlie Varon performs his latest solo show, a fictional comedy about "a 20th century man living in a 21st century city."
Foodies! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.foodiesthemusical.com. $32-34. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrow's musical comedy revue all about food.
Hir Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Bldg D, Third Flr, SF; www.magictheatre.org. $20-60. Wed-Sat, 8pm (additional show Feb 19, 2:30pm); Sun, 2:30pm. Through Feb 23. Taylor Mac, creator of 2011's five-hour six-director extravaganza The Lily's Revenge, returns to the Magic Theater with a much more straightforward, if not exactly straight, family comedy-drama in two acts. An Iraq vet named Isaac (Ben Euphrat) returns to his childhood home from the war, where his job was picking up body parts. His now touchy stomach is set off right away by the disturbing changes that have taken place while he was away. For one thing, the place is a dump. His father (a toddling, half-vacant, half-wily Mark Anderson Philips) has had a stroke that has left him an overgrown infant in thrall to his mother, Paige (a honeyed but brassy Nancy Opel), now come into her own as a liberated woman whose badge of honor is a derelict household out of all usual (patriarchal) order and discipline — and whose manner is just a little like that of an open-minded, half-savvy drag queen. Still more troubling to Isaac is his sister Maxine, now Max (an animated and winning Jax Jackson), in the midst of transitioning via regular internet-purchased doses of testosterone. (Max insists on being addressed with gender-neutral, third-person pronouns ze, in place of she/he, and hir for him/her). Soon Isaac shores up his father's position and mounts a counteroffensive to reclaim lost ground. An ideological turf war commences for control of the hearth and, by extension, the future of the family as an institution. Directed by Niegel Smith, the cast is competent but only intermittently effective at selling the high-octane comic premise. Jackson and Opel are the most consistent and persuasive. The play, meanwhile, has some good one-liners in addition to its intriguing premise, but gets mired in a broad and emotionally detached sitcom-like style, which can make the playwright's more theme-oriented, expositional dialogue sound all the more jarring. Nevertheless, the play tackles a serious question: whether it is better to build on the flawed institutions one inherits and try to do better or scrap it all for something supposedly new. It has the good sense to refrain from an easy resolution of the socially and politically freighted dynamic it sets up, pointing a little vaguely to some third-way forward, outside the traditional family, in Max's forestalled but anticipated flying of the coop. (Avila)
An Indian Summer Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.wehavemet.org. $20-40. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through March 1. Multi Ethnic Theater presents local playwright Charles Johnson's parable of race relations in the Deep South of the 1980s. On a small stage split into two alternating scenes by a moveable wall in director-designer Lewis Campbell's set, two sets of working-class residents of rural Alabama, one white and one black, have their discrete worlds unexpectedly collide. Musician Charlie Ray (a less than convincing Kevin Wisney) is fresh from the pen and living with girlfriend Pearle (AJ Davenport). Plucking at his guitar, he dreams of getting some money to afford time in a recording studio. But his brother Bobby (Paul Rodriguez) has a way of talking him into sketchy schemes, which has Pearle worried, especially after a visit from the Sheriff (Richard Wenzel). For his part, Bobby is hoping to make some money to appease his pregnant wife, Sarah (Bree Swartwood), who wants Bobby to move her and their baby to Maine. Meanwhile, Junior (a forceful Bennie Lewis, alternating nights with Stuart Hall) is a feisty wheel-chair bound African American man living in a small trailer. Junior's friend Emmitt (Fabian Herd, alternating with Vernon Medearis) tries to convince him he should put his money in a bank rather than keeping it in his trailer — especially now that Junior is selling his land for a tidy sum — but Junior doesn't trust banks. Next, Junior gets a letter from a lawyer claiming half the profit from the land sale on behalf of a long lost, half-white relative — the offspring of an illicit romance between Junior's father and a white woman, related to Pearle. The situation, of course, spells trouble. But while we see it coming, there's meant to be pathos in the tangled connections among these parallel stories. Unfortunately, the artificial nature of the plot makes it hard to credit, while the desultory pace and uneven acting make the going harder still. (Avila)
Jerusalem San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $20-100. Tue-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm); Sun/16, 2pm. Through March 8. SF Playhouse presents the West Coast premiere of English playwright Jez Butterworth's West End and Broadway hit, a three-act revel led by a larger-than-life rebel, a stout boozed-up drug-dealer, habitual fabulist, and latter-day Digger of sorts named Johnny "Rooster" Byron (Brian Dykstra). The dominion of this Falstaffian giant is the English countryside outside his squalid trailer door, not far from Stonehenge, where he seems to incarnate a rather dissipated version of an ancient English independence, like one of the great mythical beings of rural lore. Aptly enough, it's Saint George's Day, the feast day of England's national saint, but it's not all a party this time around. Authorities have issued a final 24-hour eviction notice on Rooster's tin door; there are luxury apartments in the works; and there's concern in town about the underage teens who flock to Rooster like so many fledglings — one, in particular, has gone missing: Phaedra (Julia Belanoff), who we see at the very outset of the play donning a fairy costume and singing the title song, based on the Blake poem and England's unofficial national anthem. The next 24 hours will be either the breaking point or the apotheosis for all Rooster has made himself out to be. In Butterworth's big-eyed comedy, we are meant to feel a stake in this outcome whether we actually like Rooster or not — his independence, the scope of his life and vision, suggests the outer limit of possibility in an ever more disciplined and circumscribed world. Director Bill English (who also designed the impressive bucolic-trailer-park set) and his large cast (which includes a strong Ian Scott McGregor as longtime Rooster sidekick, Ginger) dive into the comedy with gusto. But somehow the drama, the larger stakes in the storyline, falls short. A certain requisite intensity and momentum are only fitfully achieved. Dykstra, as the expansive antihero, has the biggest burden here. And while he has an appealing swagger throughout, his wayward brogue and unconvincing bellicosity undercut the culmination of the play's (admittedly somewhat overwrought) mythopoeic proportions. (Avila)
"The Love Edition: Love Bytes" Bindlestiff Studio, 185 Sixth St, SF; facebook.com/TheLoveEdition. $10-20. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through Feb 22. Bindlestiff performs six different tales about online dating, loneliness in the cyber age, Google stalking, and other modern-day matters of the heart.
Lovebirds Marsh San Francisco Studio, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Thu-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 8:30pm. Through March 15. Theater artist and comedian Marga Gomez presents the world premiere of her 10th solo show, described as "a rollicking tale of incurable romantics."
The Oy of Sex Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $20-100. Sat, 5pm. Extended through Feb 22. Comedian Alicia Dattner performs her solo show, based on her stories from her own life and love addiction.
The Paris Letter New Conservatory Theater Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25-45. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 23. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Jon Robin Baitz's tale of a Wall Street powerhouse desperately trying to keep his sexual identity a secret.
The Pornographer's Daughter Z Below, 470 Florida, SF; www.zspace.org. $32. Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm (also Sat/15, 10:30pm); Sun/16, 5pm. Liberty Bradford Mitchell was a good kid growing up, and a pretty innocent one — probably more than you would expect given her proximity to the family business, the veritable empire of porn founded and run by her father and uncle, San Francisco legends Artie and Jim Mitchell. Now in her 40s and a mother of her own, Mitchell proves a likeably earthy presence if a less-then-compelling actor-playwright in her new one-woman show, directed by Michael T. Weiss, a firsthand account of growing up in San Francisco's first family of raunch. Inseparable brothers Artie and Jim were the 1970s porn pioneers who founded the O'Farrell Theatre and road high in the industry, weathering court battles and substance abuse and divorce, but succumbing ultimately to their own lethal fallout — Jim Mitchell shot and killed Liberty's father Artie in 1991. The material here is rich to say the least, and together with generous and explicit excerpts from archival footage and classic porn (including the Mitchells' own era-defining Behind the Green Door, from 1972), it makes a fascinating bed for Liberty Mitchell's reminiscences. Musical accompaniment by three-person SF band the Fluffers, meanwhile, punctuates the chronology with blasts of period rock, though often just a few bars worth, and backs up Liberty on the a single, rather awkward musical number. Moreover, despite the keen interest the basic historical facts and family anecdotes can generate, Mitchell's filial narrative lens is only intermittently effective, being finally too pat, poorly drawn, and predictably sentimentalized to fully reverberate with the larger, almost archetypical or classical themes hovering nearby. (Avila)
The Scion Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-60. Thu-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through March 1. Brian Copeland's fourth solo show takes on "privilege, murder, and sausage."
Shit & Champagne Rebel, 1772 Market, SF; shitandchampagne.eventbrite.com. $25. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Extended through March 1. D'Arcy Drollinger is Champagne White, bodacious blonde innocent with a wicked left hook in this cross-dressing '70s-style white-sploitation flick, played out live on Rebel's intimate but action-packed barroom stage. Written by Drollinger and co-directed with Laurie Bushman (with high-flying choreography by John Paolillo, Drollinger, and Matthew Martin), this high-octane camp send-up of a favored formula comes dependably stocked with stock characters and delightfully protracted by a convoluted plot (involving, among other things, a certain street drug that's triggered an epidemic of poopy pants) — all of it played to the hilt by an excellent cast that includes Martin as Dixie Stampede, an evil corporate dominatrix at the head of some sinister front for world domination called Mal*Wart; Alex Brown as Detective Jack Hammer, rough-hewn cop on the case and ambivalent love interest; Rotimi Agbabiaka as Sergio, gay Puerto Rican impresario and confidante; Steven Lemay as Brandy, high-end calf model and Champagne's (much) beloved roommate; and Nancy French as Rod, Champagne's doomed fiancé. Sprawling often literally across two buxom acts, the show maintains admirable consistency: the energy never flags and the brow stays decidedly low. (Avila)
The Speakeasy Undisclosed location (ticket buyers receive a text with directions), SF; www.thespeakeasysf.com. $60-90 (add-ons: casino chips, $5; dance lessons, $10). Thu-Sat, 7:40, 7:50, and 8pm admittance times. Through March 15. Boxcar Theatre presents Nick A. Olivero's re-creation of a Prohibition-era saloon, resulting in an "immersive theatrical experience involving more than 35 actors, singers, and musicians."
Ubu Roi Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; www.cuttingball.com. $10-50. Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 5pm. Through March 9. Cutting Ball Theater performs Alfred Jarry's avant-garde parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth, presented in a new translation by Cutting Ball artistic director Rob Melrose.
The World's Funniest Bubble Show Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $8-11. Sun, 11am. Through March 9. The popular, kid-friendly show by Louis Pearl (aka "The Amazing Bubble Man") returns to the Marsh.
Escanabe in da Moonlight Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck, Berk; www.theatrefirst.com. $10-30. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through March 8. TheatreFIRST performs Jeff Daniels' raucous comedy.
Geezer Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. $25-50. Thu, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through March 1. Geoff Hoyle moves his hit comedy about aging to the East Bay.
Gideon's Knot Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison, Berk; www.auroratheatre.org. $32-60. Tue, 7pm; Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through March 2. Aurora Theatre Company performs Johnna Adams' drama set within the tense atmosphere of a parent-teacher conference.
The House That Will Not Stand Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-59. Tue and Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, Thu/13, and March 13, 2pm; no matinee Sat/15); Wed, 7pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through March 16. Berkeley Rep performs the world premiere of Marcus Gardley's tale of free women of color in 1936 New Orleans.
An Ideal Husband Douglas Morrison Theatre, 22311 N. Third St, Hayward; www.dmtonline.org. $10-29. Fri-Sat and Feb 27, 8pm (also Feb 22, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Through March 2. Douglas Morrison Theatre performs Scott Munson's adaptation of the Oscar Wilde classic, reset in 1959 Washington, DC.
The Laramie Project Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond; www.masquers.org. $22. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 22. Masquers Playhouse performs the theatrical collage about the real-life hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard.
Man in a Case Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $45-125. Wed/12, 7pm; Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm; Sun/16, 2pm. It's a desultory country evening among friends — Belikov (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Barbara (Tymberly Canale), Ivan (Chris Giarmo), Burkin (Paul Lazar), and Kovalenko (Aaron Mattocks) — who chatter and quibble among themselves, just dying for a good story. Two tales eventually unfold, becoming the basis for an effervescent and emotive theatrical outing in this canny, elegant adaptation of Anton Chekhov's "Man in a Case" and "About Love" by co-directors Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parson of Big Dance Theater. In a style that revels in what it reveals, the action centers around a long table to the left of the stage, at the far end of which sound designer Tei Blow manages sound effects and Jeff Larson triggers video projections from his laptop. (Peter Ksander's attractive, non-naturalist scenic design comes animated throughout by a discerning array of choice foley work and atmospheric video projections.) With each humorous and wistful story, the stage expands in unexpected ways, thanks to Parson's vibrant choreography, the shape-shifting mise-en-scene, golden-throated musical director Giarmo's exquisite score (much of it delivered live), and the superbly unaffected acting and supple movement of the cast. Acting the leads in both stories, Baryshnikov etches his respective characters with a masterful hand and a light step, making for a vivid presence at every turn. Opposite him each time, Canale's luminous vitality proves a perfect match. But this is truly an ensemble effort, and the fine result produces a poignant, moody combination of the earthy and sublime. (Avila)
Quality of Life Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear, Mtn View; www.thepear.org. $10-35. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 23. Pear Avenue Theatre performs Jane Anderson's play about two couples coming to grips with losses in their lives.
Aguas Dance Company ODC Theater, 3153 17th St, SF; www.odcdance.org. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm; Sun/16, 7pm. $27. The company performs Movendo com Capoeira, featuring Afro-Brazilian dance and live music.
"Best of the Bay Comedy Show" Pa'ina Lounge, 1865 Post, SF; www.painasf.com. Sun/16, 7pm. $10. Hella Gay Comedy presents its annual "best of" show featuring LBGT and LGBT-friendly comedians: Casey Ley, Justin Lucas, Kimberly Rose Wendt, and Rajeev Dhar. Charlie Ballard hosts.
"The Big Buttery Sketch Show" Exit Theater, 156 Eddy, SF; www.pianofight.com. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm. $20-30. PianoFight Productions' female-driven sketch comedy group Chardonnay (formerly ForePlays) performs.
"Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now" This week: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission, SF; www.bcfhereandnow.com. Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm. $25-35. The festival continues its 10th anniversary with Nora Chipaumire's Miriam.
Caroline Lugo and Carolé Acuña's Ballet Flamenco Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.carolinalugo.com. Fri/14 (see note below), Sun/16, Feb 22, March 1, 8, 16, 22, and 30, 6:15pm. $15-19. Flamenco performance by the mother-daughter dance company, featuring live musicians. Fri/14 Valentine's Day show, 5:30pm, $59.95 (includes dinner).
Company C Contemporary Ballet Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Lam Research Theater, 701 Mission, SF; www.companycballet.org. Thu/13-Fri/14, 8pm; Sat/15, 6pm (benefit gala); Sun/16, 3pm. $25-48. The company's winter program includes premieres by Susan Jaffe and Charles Anderson.
"Dream Queens Revue" Aunt Charlie's Lounge, 133 Turk, SF; www.dreamqueensrevue.com. Wed/12, 9:30pm. Free. Drag with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, and more.
"Get Your Heart On with the Klipptones" Palace Hotel's Pied Piper, 2 New Montgomery, SF; (415) 512-1111. Fri/14, 8pm-midnight. Free ($10 food or beverage minimum). The six-piece ensemble plays swinging romantic songs for Valentine's Day.
"Live Law: Love and the Law" Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa, SF; www.lifeofthelaw.com. Thu/13, 7pm. $20. Live storytelling with Senator Mark Leno, attorneys, a private investigator, and other legal-minded folks.
Feinstein's at the Nikko Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason, SF; www.feinsteinssf.com. This week: Paula West, Thu/13, 8pm; Fri/14, 7 and 9:30pm; Sat/15-Sun/16, 7pm, $35-50.
"Full Spectrum Improvisation" Stage Werx, 446 Valencia, SF; www.joyacory.com. Sun/16 and April 27, 3pm. $12-25. Also March 9, 3pm, Western Sky Studio, 2525 Eighth St, Berk. Improvisational theatre with Joya Cory, Craig Landry, Olivia Corson, Martin Robinson, and guests.
"How We First Met" Marines' Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter, SF; www.howwefirstmet.com. Fri/14, 8pm. $40-55. Back for its 14th year, this show created and hosted by Jill Bourque shares real-life love stories (from couples in the audience!) via improvised sketches and songs.
"Magic at the Rex" Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter, SF; www.magicattherex.com. Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. $25. Magic and mystery with Adam Sachs and mentalist Sebastian Boswell III.
"Mortified: Doomed Valentines" DNA Lounge, 375 11th St, SF; www.getmortified.com. Thu/13, 7:30pm. $15-21. Also Fri/14, 8pm, $15-20, Uptown, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl. Fearless storytellers share their most adorably embarrassing childhood writings — and since the theme is love blunders, expect tales of unrequited crushes, school-dance disasters, and teen-angst drama galore.
"Naked Dudes Reading Lovecraft" Stage Werx Theatre, 446 Valencia, SF; www.hampantsproductions.com. Wed/12, 8pm. $20. "100 percent visible wing-wangs and hoo-hoos" are promised, plus maybe a tentacle or 12 too.
"Point Break Live!" DNA Lounge, 373 11th St, SF; www.dnalounge.com. March 7 and April 4, 7:30 and 11pm. $25-50. Dude, Point Break Live! is like dropping into a monster wave, or holding up a bank, like, just a pure adrenaline rush, man. Ahem. Sorry, but I really can't help but channel Keanu Reeves and his Johnny Utah character when thinking about the awesomely bad 1991 movie Point Break or its equally yummily cheesy stage adaptation. And if you do an even better Keanu impression than me — the trick is in the vacant stare and stoner drawl — then you can play his starring role amid a cast of solid actors, reading from cue cards from a hilarious production assistant in order to more closely approximate Keanu's acting ability. This play is just so much fun, even better now at DNA Lounge than it was a couple years ago at CELLspace. But definitely buy the poncho pack and wear it, because the blood, spit, and surf spray really do make this a fully immersive experience. (Steven T. Jones)
"Romantic Comedy Farce" Bayfront Theater, B350 Fort Mason Center, SF; www.improv.org. Fri/14, 8pm. $20. BATS Improv takes on Valentine's Day.
"The Vagina Monologues/Monólogos de la Vagina" Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St, SF; www.brava.org. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm (also Sat/15, 5pm); Sun/16, 2pm. $35-45. Eliana Lopez, Marisol Correa, and Alba Roversi star in this Spanish-language production of Eve Ensler's feminist classic.
"Die Fledermaus" Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mtn View; www.mvcpa.com. Sat/15, 8pm; Sun/16, 2pm. $20-53. Lamplighters Music Theatre (noted for its Gilbert and Sullivan productions) performs Johann Strauss' "bubbly tale of revenge and temptation." Continues at Bay Area theaters through Feb 23; visit www.lamplighters.org for future dates.
"Last Word Reading Series" Nefeli Caffe, 1854 Euclid, Berk; (510) 841-6374. Fri/14, 7pm. Free. With poets Tom Odegard and Paradise, plus an open reading.
"MarshJam Improv Comedy Show" Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. Fri, 8pm. Ongoing. $10. Improv comedy with local legends and drop-in guests.
"Something Sweet" Piedmont Center for the Arts, 801 Magnolia, Piedmont; www.westedgeopera.org. Fri/14, 7:30pm. $15-25. Romantic operatic repertoire sung by three real-life couples. *


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▶Filter Your Results
Arranging a playdate
Children often want to invite their friends to come and play at their houses after school.
Duke of York award
The Duke of York Award is given to students who show great achievement in technical education (e.g. design, engineering).
Prince Charles in Oman
These activities, based on a video of Prince Charles visiting Oman, will help you use the present continuous to describe what is happening at the t
William and Kate's home
Would you like to know about Prince William's home? Watch the film and find out.
Food in Britain
What do you think is 'British food'? Watch this film and find out what people in Britain like to eat.
Great cars from Britain
Many world-famous makes of car come from Britain. Watch this film to discover their story and what cars we might be driving in the future.
Dangerous sports
Do you like sports? How about dangerous sports? Watch this film to find out more about two extreme sports: white-water rafting and parkour.
Extreme fashion in London
How much do you know about extreme fashion styles? Do you know your punks from your Cyber Goths? Read on to find out more!
How laws are made in the UK
How much do you know about how laws are made in England? This introduction will help you to find out more.


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DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says the new Chevrolet Corvette sports car will get 29 miles per gallon of gas in highway driving.
The 2014 Corvette Stingray has a 455 horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 engine that can take the car from zero to 60 mph in under four seconds.
GM says the car can get up to 30 mpg in "Eco" mode.
The higher-mileage Corvette has a seven-speed manual transmission. It gets 17 mpg in the city.
Testing isn't finished on Corvettes with automatic transmissions.
GM designed the new Corvette to be more efficient so it can help meet stricter U.S. fuel economy standards. The aerodynamic car's engine can run on just four cylinders at highway speeds.
The new Corvette hits dealers in the fall with a base price of just under $52,000.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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I've made a migration of VSS to SVN, it's great !
But a feature still miss, VSS can add informations in header file when someone commit a text file, like the license of the software, author, revision number, date ...
License is possible to add by hand, it not change often :p
But autor, revision and date change at every commit.
It's possible to search/replace in the first commentary block (in a java file for exemple) those words :
Code: Select all
* $Author: NicoA308 $
* $Revision: 30 $
* $Date: 16/04/08 09:01 $


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The U.S. military began questioning freed U.S. prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl Wednesday on the circumstances that led to his 2009 capture in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Bergdahl's lawyer said on Tuesday.
Bergdahl, an Army sergeant, will be questioned by investigating officer Major General Kenneth R. Dahl at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where Bergdahl has been stationed for the past several weeks.
"He is looking forward to having all of this over and done with, and being able to move on to the next chapter of his life," lawyer Eugene Fidell said.
Fidell declined to speculate on what Bergdahl will say to the general but said his client will cooperate.
Bergdahl, 28, was released in May in exchange for five Taliban prisoners who were transferred to Qatar from the Guantanamo Bay U.S. prison in Cuba.
Critics have questioned whether the Obama administration paid too high a price and whether Bergdahl had deserted his combat outpost in Afghanistan before his capture.
Greg Rinckey, a military attorney who has been involved in several hearings similar to this one, said the meeting will take place in a conference room, not in a courtroom, and he says it will be informal and not adversarial.
"This ... general is going to be talking to Sergeant Bergdahl, asking him several questions with his lawyer present," Rinckey said. "It is really not an interrogation, it's more of an interview."
Some members of Bergdahl's former unit have indicated that he was absent without leave or may have deserted his post when he was captured by the Taliban.
About two weeks ago, Bergdahl was returned to active duty in an administrative office at Fort. Sam Houston.
A senior Army officer has said the purpose of the probe was to determine facts and circumstances surrounding Bergdahl's disappearance up to the point of capture.
Dahl's finding and recommendations will be presented to the director of Army staff, who is not bound by the conclusions and who could issue his own determinations and recommendations. (Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Eric Walsh)


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You really have to wonder why EnergyfromShale.org recently placed two slick advertisements in the Daily Camera, showing idyllic scenes of a man fishing, with a strategically placed fracked well in the background. Can fishing, requiring fresh, flowing water, exist side by side with toxic, fracked oil wells? This is in North Dakota, home of the biggest domestic oil patch, where tens of thousands of wells are flaring natural gas, visible from outer space.
Flaring natural gas raises atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming. Can our planet afford to get any warmer? It seems apparent that warming has contributed to severe drought in North Dakota and the rest of the high plains, leaving everyone very thirsty, while the oil and gas industry continues to destroy precious water by fracking. What about the people, the livestock and the farmland of North Dakota, all suffering the ill effects of an industry gone wild?
The Shilke family, highlighted in The Nation, had 32 fracked oil wells within three miles of their home. The result: a water well contaminated with a brew of toxic chemicals and health issues for Jacki Shilke and her husband, including chronic lung pain, unexplained rashes, loss of fillings in their teeth, body pain. Doctors diagnosed Jacki with neurotoxic damage and constricted airways. Five of her prized Angus cows dropped dead and now they can no longer sell their cattle.
Is this a vision of Nirvana? This story plays out over and over again throughout the oil patch in North Dakota — from cities overrun with man camps and crime, to millions of truck trips disintegrating their roads and billions of gallons of water being destroyed. Is this a wonderful legacy? Or is it destroying our life support system?


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Former Hogs Coach Smith Finds New Job
John L. Smith takes coaching job at Fort Lewis College
Former Arkansas head football coach John L. Smith will take over the head coaching job at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., the school announced Wednesday.
Smith will start his new assignment on March 1. He inherits a Skyhawks team that went 0-10 last season.
Now, instead of coaching against Southeastern Conference squads like national champion Alabama, Smith will face teams in the Rocky Mountain Conference such as nearby Adams State.
"We are extremely fortunate to have a coach with the tremendous background and experience that John L. brings to Fort Lewis College," said athletic director Gary Hunter.
The former Michigan State and Louisville coach was hired away from Weber State last April to step in for ousted Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, just weeks after a scandal that erupted following Petrino's motorcycle accident that involved his mistress.
The Razorbacks struggled to a 4-8 record and the John L. Smith era came to a close. Smith has a career win-loss record of 136-93 as a head coach.


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Blizzard have really outdone themselves with this one. The plan for opening up the Icecrown Citadel (the raid instance which is coming with the next patch) has been released. They've thrown the kitchen sink at it. It'll have bosses gradually being unlocked as time goes on, bosses only being unlocked if you kill previous bosses within a limited amount of tries, and the whole instance actually coded to get a bit easier over time by dint of a raid buff that increases as time goes on.
So imagine a self-basting chicken if it was a castle full of undead. Instead of Blizzard having to take it out of the oven every so often to pour fat over it/ nerf it, they can just leave it in until it is done.
Larisa echoes my thoughts on forcing limited attempts. It punishes people who wanted to go into the instance blind, or who have raid members with poor connections, and puts undue stress on the learning side of the encounter. Limited attempts is something you do to spice up farm raids.
Self-nerfing raids forces people to raid to Blizzard's schedule. This has happened to some extent anyway but if like us you raid on a relaxed schedule, it's hard to know what that will really mean for the difficulty side of things.
I think what they're aiming at is that the limited attempts (and the number of attempts allowed also increases over time) should let the hardccore stay ahead of the rest for a short while at least. The autobuff should make it easier for PUGs to form towards the end of the raid's lifecycle.
But none of this is really ideal for players who would prefer it if their own raid group could select the difficulty. A group like mine doesn't need limited attempts, we already have a relaxed schedule and aren't going to sweep through the instance in a week. All that does is add extra stress for us. But since we'll also be gearing up and getting more practice in, I'm not sure we need the increasing raid buff either.
I don't think any of these ideas are bad on their own, but I'm not sure how well they all will work together. Can you really throw in some stuff for the hardcore and some for the casuals and bake it all in the same oven? It will be interesting to find out, and to see what players do with it.


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I stopped in to say hi.
Got something on your mind? Spill the beans here.
I stopped in to say hi.
Haha... you just had to have the first post :P
Fitting since you've been around since version 0.01 LOL
Here are a couple things that I believe should be followed when creating an RPG. These are some things I've done with my own game system and would reuse in any game system I create.
Combat Rounds - Keeping things simple is key. If you are playing a very vague type of game you can use larger combat round values, but then you need to make combat more deadly since your characters have more time to do the killing. Your values should all be based on the same multiplier. In my case I chose 10. One combat round is 6 seconds which nicely converts to 10 rounds per minute, and 100 rounds per hour. Whatever multiplier you use, keep it based on real world values.
Combat Actions - Once you have the length of your combat round, you need to decide what your characters can do in each round. The smaller your combat round, the less you can do. Movement, attacks, spell casting, and so on all need to follow the same time rules. Again, base things on real world examples.
- A typical person can walk two steps per second. Each step is roughly 3 feet or one meter. This isn't a leisurely stroll, but rather an up-beat walk with a purpose.
- The world record for running the 50 meter was made in the 1996 Olympics by Donovan Bailey and was measured at nearly 8.99 meters per second or 9.75 yards/second.
- Any time someone performs multiple actions at the same time, their ability in each task is diminished. A simple experiment can prove this. Use a yard stick and have someone hold the stick while another tries to catch it. Write down how far the yard stick fell. Now have the catcher count from 1 to 100. Then do it again counting backwards from 100. You will see that the yard stick falls further as the catcher's attention is diverted. How this impacts your game depends on how many separate actions a character can take in one combat round.
- The longer your combat round, the more things your characters should be able to do. According to some statistic (I heard on Real TV so who knows if its true), a modern gunfight lasts about 5 seconds before either someone is dead, incapacitated, or runs away. From my experience in the SCA, a sword battle would last no more than 30 seconds, and usually includes several phases of engagement and disengagement. Thus if your combat round is 30 seconds, a character should be knocked out of combat after one round. This doesn't count the role-play and strategies that take place before a character commits to attacking. This also means that in a 30 second round, your character can comfortably walk 60 yards or run up to 270 yards (assuming they were Olympians).
Detail - The more vague your game system, the harder it is for players and GMs to explain a real world types of effects. This also tends to force the player to rely on the GM to illustrate how effective any action they take is, thus the "I attack" mentality is fostered. On the other hand, too much detail will slow down play and turn a 30 second combat into three hours of real time. Finding that comfortable point that fits the style of play you are looking for is the key. As a rule of thumb, one combat round should not take more than five minutes of real time.
Survivability - This is one of the key differences between cinematic games and simulation (aka realistic) games. In a cinematic game, your character will survive trauma that would easily kill a real person. Alternately, the simulation type games tend to replace characters quite frequently since combat is very deadly. The question you need to ask yourself as a game designer is "how unrealistic am I willing to go?" At that point, its the designer's job to make it work as expected.
Character Creation - Character creation should be scaled to the Survivability. If you have a very deadly/realistic game, your characters should be very simple. After all, who wants to spend an hour writing up a character that will likely die in his first fight? Cinematic games have more leeway, but should not be complicated for the sake of complexity. Simpler = Easier = Faster = Better for most situations.
Player Goals - There has to be some way the character improves and the player should have as much say in how the character improves as possible. If you have a very low advancement ceiling, in that you have very few steps to the "maximum" abilities, you take away the long term goals that the player may have. Alternately, if your "maximum" is too high, your players will become bored since it will seem to take too long to become "powerful". Finding a balance is the key.
I may have some other tips later, but that's all I have time for this morning.


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16", .325 pitch, .050 ga. 43.1cc chainsaw
16", .325 pitch, .050 ga. 43.1cc chainsaw
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Africa began the 1970s with nearly 70,000 Black Rhinos and ended the 1980s with about 3,000. Their near extinction is but one illustration of the serious threats to African fauna detailed in this colorful and educational map. Published in December 1990 to accompany a detailed map of the continent and three articles including "A Gathering of Waters and Wildlife," this map is a must-have for animal lovers and those interested in the conservation of wildlife.
Coverage Area: Africa and Madagascar


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Document: Download a PDF of the U.S. Department of Transportation report on bus company Scapadas Magicas, LLC
Related: Crews clear scene of fatal bus crash on Hwy 38; six victims identified
Previous coverage: Bus overturns near Yucaipa | Yucaipa bus crash photos
A company that leased out the tour bus involved in Sunday's deadly collision near Yucaipa that killed seven people failed 36 percent of its safety inspections in the past two years, according to federal transportation records.
Scapadas Magicas Tours, based in National City near the Mexican border in San Diego County, had 25 of its vehicles inspected in the past two years but only 16 passed inspection – exceeding the national average failure rate of 21 percent, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The company fared worse than nearly three-fourths of charter bus companies nationwide in its safety inspections, records show.
Violations noted in the inspections that occurred between February 2011 and October 2012 include insufficient brake linings, leaky brake connections, missing wheel fasteners, oil leaks, low tire tread and inoperable headlights, tail lights and turn signals, records show.
The driver of the bus, Norberto Perez of San Ysidro, survived the crash and told authorities the brakes had given out on the bus during its descent from Big Bear Lake, where he had shuttled the 37 passengers and tour guide earlier that day for a skiing trip, according to news reports.
But the CHP did not confirm those reports Monday.
"We know that a lot of passengers and people on scene were making statements that the brakes had gone out and there was smoke coming out from the rear brakes … but we haven't been able to confirm any of those statements," CHP Officer Cliff Porter said.
The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. Sunday when the bus sped out of control down Highway 38, rear-ending a Saturn before it toppled onto its side and collided head-on with a Ford pickup, ejecting passengers onto the highway and creating a horrific scene of carnage and wreckage.
Despite the many vehicle safety violations observed and noted during inspections, Scapadas Magicus Tours has had no crashes in the past two years, according to federal transportation records.
Representatives from Scapadas couldn't be reached for comment Monday.
Jordi Garcia, marketing director of the Tijuana-based travel agency Interbus, told U-T San Diego on Monday his company rented the bus from Scapadas. He said the bus departed Tijuana at 5 a.m. Sunday, with the itinerary calling for a return late that night.
He said he spoke briefly with his tour guide, who suffered only bruises in the accident. She told him she heard a loud pop before the crash.
"Everything points to faulty brakes," Garcia said.
Scapadas was also penalized for other infractions in the last couple of years, records show.
An Aug. 29, 2012, inspection found that Scapadas allowed a driver to operate a commercial vehicle on a suspended driver's license. In 2010, the company had to pay a fine of $2,520 for failing to give a driver a drug test before hiring him/her.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach Joe via email, call him at 909-386-3874, or find him on Twitter @SBCountyNow.
Reach Beatriz via email, call her at 909-386-3921, or find her on Twitter @IEBeatriz.


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Recipe from Kathleen McMahon of New York
In a deep wok type pan pour enough extra virgin oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Saute chicken tenders seasoned with garlic pepper until just about done. Add chili powder (enough to cover all of the chicken) then add red peppers, green peppers and onion, saute with chicken until tender. Add tomatoes and beans, then add the uncooked rice and let the entire pot stew over medium heat. Cook until rice is done. You may need to add more crushed or diced tomatoes because rice will absorb fluid. If you want it spicier, add more chili powder and/or black pepper. You can also use jalapeno peppers to add real zest.
*DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in or provided through this site section is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be and is not a substitute for professional advice. Use of this site section and any information contained on or provided through this site section is at your own risk and any information contained on or provided through this site section is provided on an "as is" basis without any representations or warranties.


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CAZENOVIA - Chittenango entered Wednesday's Class B girls volleyball semifinal against defending champion Canastota with six losses. What a deceiving statistic. If fans expected top-seeded Canastota to run away to victory they were wrong. Coach Amy Simmons' Bears lost only to Whitesboro and East-Syracuse-Minoa twice apiece and Oneida and Morrisville-Eaton once apiece. All four of those teams won league titles and were tough foes. Chittenango proved to be one as well for coach Marcia Laidlaw's Raiders, but the top seed battled for a 25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 25-15 win at Cazenovia High School. "Amy's got a great team," Laidlaw said. "They've improved immensely since the beginning of the year." It didn't look that way at the start as Grace Campbell and Melissa Krak's hitting put Canastota up 10-1. Claire Charde and Gabby Loftus' hitting and blocking helped the Bears rally to within a point at 19-18 before a Campbell kill and an ace by Maureen Krak started Canastota (17-2) on a clinching 7-0 run. Charde and Brianna Koegel's play helped Chittenango (12-7) take a 10-7 lead to start the second game then Charde's hitting and blocking let the Bears pull away at the end to even the score. A disputed call in the third game went Chittenango's way for a 16-15 lead and the Bears were still up 19-18 before Canastota went on a run - capped by Madison Gregoris' ace - for a 22-19 edge. Koegel and Loftus had kills down the stretch to get the No. 4 seed within one at 24-23, but Emily Barrett hit through a block to end the game and Canastota was suddenly up 2-1. "We had to keep playing," Melissa Krak said of her team's task after the disputed call. Krak did just that, and maybe better than she has all year, in the fourth game to ice the victory. The senior captain had three kills in a 7-2 run that began the game added three more in a stretch that forced a Bears timeout and added three more at the end to put Canastota in Saturday's 5:00 p.m. final against league rival Adirondack. "I was on," Melissa Krak said with a big smile. "I'd rather be on now, and I hope it can continue Saturday." Krak led all hitters with 18 kills and Campbell had 13. They were set up mostly by Maureen Krak, who had 32 assists. "We did start well, but then we got into a rut with our passing," Laidlaw analyzed. "At the end I told Mo to keep feeding her (sister)." That strategy paid off for the defending champions. "The kids played with every ounce of their heart," Simmons said. I've got a great group of seniors who play well and play hard. "We were so close." Loftus led the Bears with eight kills, Charde had nine blocks, Emily Gibbons added 14 assists and Maddie Seguin had 16 digs for Chittenango's other highlights. Chittenango (12-7): Meg Arnold 1ac, 9as, 6d; Claire Charde 2k, 9b, 3ac, 1as, 5d; Katrina Farsaci 8d; Emily Gibbons 6k, 2ac, 14as, 5d; Brianna Koegel 7k, 3ac, 2as, 10d; Gabby Loftus 8k, 5b, 3d; Allee Santorelli 1d; Maddie Seguin 5k, 16d. Canastota (17-2): Josie Sgarlata 1as, 2d; Maureen Krak 18k, 1b, 5d; Jessie Boswell 1ac, 14d; Emily Barrett 7k, 2b; Madison Gregoris 1ac; Melissa Krak 18k, 1b, 5d; Grace Campbell 13k, 3b, 1d.
Canastota girls volleyball advances to final with win over Chittenango
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Bombs Away! A Ping Pong Catapult
|Areas of Science
Mechanical Engineering
|Time Required
|Very Short (≤ 1 day)
|Material Availability
|A kit is available from our partner Home Science Tools. See the Materials tab for details.
|Low ($20 - $50)
|Do not aim the catapult at breakable objects or people; minor injury possible.
AbstractIf you were in a raiding army in the Middle Ages, a catapult would come in mighty handy for taking down castle walls. But only if you could aim it reliably! With this science project, you will try your hand at catapult technology. Using a rubber-band-powered catapult you will send ping pong balls flying through the air. The catapult's design makes it easy to measure and repeat how hard the ball is launched and its direction, so you can find the right catapult settings to hit the target reliably.
In this applied mechanics project, students will find the right settings to reliably launch a ping-pong ball from the catapult into a target (such as a bucket or a trash can) from a certain distance away.
Share your story with Science Buddies!Yes, I Did This Project! Please log in (or create a free account) to let us know how things went.
Ben Finio, Ph.D., Science Buddies
- Project based on Peloton Systems, LLC. (May, 2010). Xpult Instructions—Basic Version. Retrieved September, 27, 2012.
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Last edit date: 2020-07-08
This fun project explores a simple machine, the catapult. In the Middle Ages these were used to hurl huge stones to break down castle walls—here you will be using a slightly smaller (and much less dangerous) version to toss ping pong balls. The catapult used for this project is easy to adjust; it also has convenient markings for reading out launch angle and "pull-back" angle (we will explain what those angles mean in the next paragraph).
The catapult kit is made up of 3 main parts which include the base, disc and arm. The base is secured to a flat surface using an included clamp. The base and arm are both connected to a rotating disc that allows the arm to swing back and forth freely. A locking pin is inserted into the base and disc so only the arm may move freely. A rubber band connects the base of the arm to the disc so when the arm is pulled back the rubber band will launch it forward. At the end of the arm a small cup holds a ping pong ball that will be launched when the catapult is completely assembled.
The base of the catapult, shown in Figure 1 above, is attached to a surface (such as the edge of a table) with a clamp. The ball (either a ping pong ball or a Wiffle® ball) sits in a cup at the end of the "launch arm," which is attached to the base. The catapult is powered by rubber bands, which connect the launch arm to the "disk." The disk makes it easy to measure and set the launch angle and the pull-back angle. The pull-back angle is how far you pull the launch arm back before you launch the ball. The launch angle is the direction the ball travels (relative to the ground) when it is launched. So, a launch angle of 90 degrees means the ball will go straight up, and a launch angle of 0 degrees means the ball will go horizontal. You set the launch angle by placing the pin through holes that line up on the disk and the base of the catapult. Figure 2 below can help you understand these angles. We will explain how to measure them in the Experimental Procedure.
When the arm of the ping pong catapult is pulled back the arc distance it travels is called the pull back angle. When the arm springs forward and launches a ping pong ball the angle it leaves the cup is the launch angle. The launch angle is measured from an imaginary line parallel to the ground at the center point of the ping pong ball just before it is launched.
You can change four things to adjust how far the ball goes:
- The type of ball (ping pong or Wiffle)
- The number of rubber bands (up to three)
- The launch angle (from 0 to 75 degrees)
- The pull-back angle (from 0 to 120 degrees)
Think about how each of these things will change how the ball is launched, and which ones you will want to adjust to make the ball hit your target.
Terms and Concepts
Before continuing with this project, make sure you understand the following terms and concepts. We have defined some of them for you in the Introduction, but you might need to look others up on your own.
- Catapult
- Angle
- Degree
- Pull-back angle
- Launch angle
- Gravity
- Trajectory
- Which launch angle will cause the ball to travel farthest?
- If you increase the pull-back angle, what will happen to the launch distance?
- If you increase the number of rubber bands, what will happen to the launch distance?
- Real-World Physics Problems. (2012). Catapult Physics. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
- The Physics Classroom. (2012). Projectile Motion. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
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Materials and Equipment
- Ping Pong Catapult Kit is available from our partner Home Science Tools.
The kit includes:
- Catapult with easy to change settings
- Rubber bands (3, each 3 x 1/8 inch)
- Ping pong ball
- Plastic Wiffle ball
- Clamp for attaching the catapult to a surface.
- Surface for mounting catapult (piece of wood on the floor, tabletop, etc.)
- Optional: paper towels, dish towel, or other padding for protecting the mounting surface from being scratched by the attachment clamp
- Open area for launching balls
- Bucket or shoebox for catapult target
- Tape measure (12 ft. minimum)
- Lab notebook
Disclaimer: Science Buddies participates in affiliate programs with Home Science Tools, Amazon.com, Carolina Biological, and Jameco Electronics. Proceeds from the affiliate programs help support Science Buddies, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and keep our resources free for everyone. Our top priority is student learning. If you have any comments (positive or negative) related to purchases you've made for science projects from recommendations on our site, please let us know. Write to us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Recommended Project Supplies
View Kit
Experimental Procedure
Safety Note: The catapult is designed to be safe, but it can hurt you if you are not careful! Never launch a ball at other people. The launch arm can move very fast (especially when using two or three rubber bands), so always make sure your fingers and other body parts are safely out of the way before you launch the ball.
- Watch this video to learn how to set up your catapult:
Set up the catapult and the target as shown in Figure 3.
- The recommended distance from the middle of the catapult disk to the middle of the target is 8 feet (ft.).
- Shoe boxes and buckets make good targets.
- The catapult clamp may scratch furniture, so you might want to use padding such as a paper towel when attaching the catapult.
- Make sure the catapult and the target are at roughly the same height.
- Insert the pin with the ring attached through the hole in the catapult base, lined up with a hole in the disk. This sets the launch angle (don't worry, you can always change this angle later). Figure 4 shows you how to do this in steps A through D.
- Attach at least one rubber band (for safety reasons, no more than three) to the pins on the launch arm by threading it through the hole on the catapult's disk. Figure 5 shows you how to do this—ask an adult if you need help.
- You are almost ready to launch! First, you will need to understand how to measure the launch angle and pull-back angle from the markings on the catapult disk. Remember that the pull-back angle is how far back you pull the launch arm before you let go and launch the ball, and the launch angle is the direction the ball is going when it is launched. Refer back to Figure 2 in the Introduction tab if you need to understand the angles. Figure 6 shows you how to measure them on the catapult.
Aim for the target, and fire away! Remember there are four things you can change: the type of ball, the number of rubber bands, the launch angle, and the pull-back angle. However, if you start changing multiple things at once, you no longer have a fair test and your results may be too confusing to interpret. So, for starters it makes sense to keep three things the same and only change one thing at a time.
- For example: you could pick the orange ping pong ball, one rubber band, and a launch angle of 75 degrees. Then you can experiment with different pull-back angles without changing anything else, and find out what pull-back angle works best to hit the target.
Go back to the Questions outlined in the Background tab, and try to use those to help you hit the target.
- For example, do you think adding more rubber bands will make the ball go farther or less far?
- Maybe you find that your ball is always falling a few feet short of the target. If so, go back and pick another variable to explore. For example, should you make the pull-back angle bigger or smaller if that happens?
See if you can find different combinations of settings that enable you to hit the target. Are some settings more reliable than others? An easy way to measure this is to take ten shots at the target with the same settings and count how many hit the target.
- Note that, depending on the material of your target, the ball may be more likely to bounce out (for example, a hard metal pot instead of a softer cardboard shoebox). But you can still count bounce-outs as a "hit."
- Also, the catapult may move or wiggle slightly if you launch the ball really hard. If you notice that you are missing your target far to the left or to the right, it is fine to adjust the clamp and re-aim your catapult.
- Write down your results in a table similar to Table 1. This shows just one example of how a data table could be used to keep track of results for a certain test.
|Number of successful shots out of 10
|Ping pong ball, 45 degree launch angle
|Pull-back angle
|1 rubber band
|2 rubber bands
|3 rubber bands
|30 degrees
|45 degrees
|60 degrees
Table 1. A data table such as this could be used to keep track of the results of your experiments with settings. In this example, two things (the type of ball and the launch angle) are kept the same. Change the pull-back angle and the number of rubber band, one at a time. Then fill in each empty cell with the number of successful shots out of ten for that setting.
- Have you found some methods that are more successful at hitting the target than others? Why do you think this happens?
For troubleshooting tips, please read our FAQ: Bombs Away! A Ping Pong Catapult.
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:
Mechanical EngineerMechanical engineers are part of your everyday life, designing the spoon you used to eat your breakfast, your breakfast's packaging, the flip-top cap on your toothpaste tube, the zipper on your jacket, the car, bike, or bus you took to school, the chair you sat in, the door handle you grasped and the hinges it opened on, and the ballpoint pen you used to take your test. Virtually every object that you see around you has passed through the hands of a mechanical engineer. Consequently, their skills are in demand to design millions of different products in almost every type of industry. Read more
Aerospace EngineerHumans have always longed to fly and to make other things fly, both through the air and into outer space—aerospace engineers are the people that make those dreams come true. They design, build, and test vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, balloons, rockets, missiles, satellites, and spacecraft. Read more
PhysicistPhysicists have a big goal in mind—to understand the nature of the entire universe and everything in it! To reach that goal, they observe and measure natural events seen on Earth and in the universe, and then develop theories, using mathematics, to explain why those phenomena occur. Physicists take on the challenge of explaining events that happen on the grandest scale imaginable to those that happen at the level of the smallest atomic particles. Their theories are then applied to human-scale projects to bring people new technologies, like computers, lasers, and fusion energy. Read more
You could do many things to make this project more fun or challenging. Here are just a few ideas:
- The directions say to put the catapult and the target at the same height. What happens if you don't do this? For example, if you put the catapult on a table and the target on the floor, or the other way around? Do your results change if you try the same experiments?
- Buckets and shoe boxes are pretty big targets. Is your aim good enough to hit a much smaller target, like a coffee mug?
- What happens if you change the distance between the catapult and the target to something other than 8 ft.? How much do you have to adjust your settings to hit the target?
- What happens if you launch an object other than the plastic balls supplied with the catapult kit? For example, a small toy, or a wad of paper? Do you have to use different settings to hit the target? Safety: remember, never aim the catapult at a person, and do not launch sharp objects or things that might break—for example, anything made of glass.
Share your story with Science Buddies!Yes, I Did This Project! Please log in (or create a free account) to let us know how things went.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The Science Buddies catapult kit is used in four projects:
- Bombs Away! A Ping Pong Catapult
- Under Siege! Use a Catapult to Storm Castle Walls
- Launch Time: The Physics of Catapult Projectile Motion
- Bet You Can't Hit Me! The Science of Catapult Statistics
The FAQs below are used for all four projects. General catapult questions are at the top of the FAQs list and project specific questions are at the bottom of the list.
Note: On older versions of the Xpult brand catapult, the pull-back angle may be read from the bottom edge of the launch arm. If you just ordered a new Science Buddies catapult kit for your project (as of October 2012), then you should follow the directions above.
Depending on your camera, you may also be able to manually adjust settings and decrease the exposure time. Consult your camera's manual to see if that is possible.
If your theoretical and experimental results are very different, there are a couple things you can check:
- Are your theoretical predictions reasonable? You should be able to launch the ball across an average-sized room in your house — meaning it should go a couple meters before it hits the ground, for typical catapult settings. If your predictions indicate that the ball will travel several kilometers, or only a couple millimeters, then odds are you made a mathematical mistake. Double-check your calculations, and be extra careful to look for typos if you entered equations into a spreadsheet program.
- Make sure you properly used a scale factor to convert the distances you measure on your computer screen to real-world distances for your experimental data. Again, make sure the distance the ball travels is reasonable — if your experimental data says that the ball traveled 100 meters, then you probably used the scale factor incorrectly.
Four example histograms display the same data with bin sizes of 1, 5, 10 and 20. As the bin sizes change, the distribution of data becomes too compact or spread out to determine whether or not the data is normally distributed from a glance. Bin sizes of 5 and 10 show a clearly normal distribution of data, but bin sizes of 1 and 20 are less obvious.
Notice how the shape of the distribution is evident with bin sizes of 5 or 10, but rather difficult to see with bin sizes of 1 or 20. As a general rule of thumb, more data will allow you to use a smaller bin size, which will give you a more accurate picture of the distribution — so if you have time, try to do more than 50 trials with the catapult.
For the person recording distances, we recommend watching where the ball lands and immediately marking the location with your finger. Then take a reading from the tape measure. Trying to watch where the ball lands and simultaneously read the tape measure will be very difficult.
Also, you probably won't be able to get fraction-of-an-inch accuracy on your readings — getting the closest one-inch increment will be good enough.
Ask an ExpertThe Ask an Expert Forum is intended to be a place where students can go to find answers to science questions that they have been unable to find using other resources. If you have specific questions about your science fair project or science fair, our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.
Ask an Expert
Contact UsIf you have purchased a kit for this project from Science Buddies, we are pleased to answer any question not addressed by the FAQ above.
In your email, please follow these instructions:
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- Please describe how you need help as thoroughly as possible:
Good Question I'm trying to do Experimental Procedure step #5, "Scrape the insulation from the wire. . ." How do I know when I've scraped enough?
Good Question I'm at Experimental Procedure step #7, "Move the magnet back and forth . . ." and the LED is not lighting up.
Bad Question I don't understand the instructions. Help!
Good Question I am purchasing my materials. Can I substitute a 1N34 diode for the 1N25 diode called for in the material list?
Bad Question Can I use a different part?
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