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I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "Andrea botched up this post because that is definitely not grilled pizza."
Guess what? It is grilled pizza enrobed in cinnamon sugar with French vanilla ice cream in the middle and chocolate sauce on top. How's that for an insanely good dessert pizza? Yes, my hand slipped and I went a little overboard with the chocolate sauce, but it still tasted delicious!
This delicious creation comes from Chef Craig Priebe and his first cookbook, Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas, recently released by DK Publishing. I received an invitation to review the book and host a give away, and I only had to think about it for a nano second. Pizza is my favorite food and any chance to play around with my favorite food will make my day! As soon as I saw Priebe's incredible dessert inspired by churros (photo above), I knew what we would have for our Cinco de Mayo celebration. Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Priebe formerly owned C.K.'s Grilled Pizza in Atlanta, and his creative take on this great American favorite garnered acclaim and awards. As I read the book, I knew this was a man who loves to make pizza; it's not just a job for him, it's a passion, and the book shows that. He starts with the basics and introduces the required equipment. Do you have a grill? A pair of tongs? A cookie sheet? Then you can make grilled pizza. You can even make the pizza indoors on a grill pan or bake it in the oven if you prefer. After acquainting you with all the gear, he dives right into the basic dough recipe and his favorite sauces and toppings. Then he demonstrates proper grilling technique, after which he leads you on a feast for the senses with beautiful photos and recipes for great topping combinations.
His basic pizza dough recipe is truly easy and will keep in the refrigerator for up to three days. I made the dough on Friday night and grilled on Sunday, and the dough had taken on a very nice yeasty flavor after sitting for two days. I fell hard for the grilled crust. I think it's as close to a brick oven pizza as I can get at home, and the pizzas take on a lovely smokiness that plays well with the thin, crispy crust.
We made two savory pizzas that I will show off later this week, and we used the basic pizza dough recipe for this dessert, which my boys couldn't get enough of. Priebe also offers recipes for a dessert dough as well as piadina doughs, and even if you aren't a scratch cook, Priebe says that Trader Joe's fresh pizza dough works very well on the grill. He even tosses in his favorite salad recipes for accompanying pizza and provides helpful tips on party planning with grilled pizzas, including specific recommendations for which pizzas to make for the main course, the best salad, and the best dessert pizza.
Now in Chicago (my old stomping ground), Priebe has put his talents to work as the chef for Henry Crown & Company, and yes, he's even making pizzas for the people at the investment firm. If I can just convince him to come to DC sometime and teach a few pizza lessons, I would call us very lucky! That's an open invitation, Chef Priebe!
Of course I'm going to share his recipe for making those delicious churros, but first let's talk about the give away! I have one copy of Priebe's new book to give away to a lucky pizza grilling fanatic or wannabee. If you want to win your own copy of Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas, leave a comment below telling us your favorite pizza toppings. Please make sure your email address is correct so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner. Apologies to my international readers, but the book can only be shipped within the continental U.S. The contest closes at 6 P.M. EST on May 11, and I'll have Random.org select the winner. Look for the announcement of the winner in this post soon after.
UPDATE: Congratulations to our winner, Alejandra of Always Order Dessert! A copy of Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas is on it's way to you!
If you want to catch up with Chef Priebe at a book signing or other event, check out his schedule to find out when he will be in your area.
Adapted from Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas by Craig W. Priebe with Dianne Jacob.
medium bowl
cookie sheet or pizza peel
serving plates
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 recipe pizza dough, cut into 6 equal pieces
2 tablespoons melted butter (I used salted butter to balance out the sweetness of the sugar and ice cream.)
6 mini scoops ice cream (just a couple tablespoons)
chocolate syrup
1. Preheat the grill to about 400° F/204° C.
2. Combine the cinnamon and sugar in the medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Roll the pieces of dough into small crusts about 4 inches (10 cm ) wide. Grill for about 2 to 3 minutes one one side and one minute on the other.
4. Brush both sides of the crust with the melted butter. Place the crust into the cinnamon sugar mixture and coat well.
5. To serve, place a small scoop of ice cream in each crust. Fold the crust in half and press down to seal. Drizzle the chocolate syrup on and serve.


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I need to build a custom Debian-based distribution to be easily and quickly installable on multiple machines. How can I build a distribution like this and package it so I can either
- Install it via a bootable USB drive
- Flash it onto the hard disk of the machines so no install will be necessary.
I'd like to start with the smallest distro necessary, so I'm using the business-card edition (which sits at about 40MB). I have a few packages I'd like to install on it, a few configuration file changes, and a few scripts. How can I package the complete picture into an installable distribution?

subset: commoncrawl


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Gispen TST Furniture line - Gispen - Arper
TST by Michael Young for Gispen is a series of luxury seat furniture which consists of a chair and sofas.
TST stands out for its strong iconic shape. The robust design includes soft lines and round shapes and is combined with comfortable furniture fabric. The TST is available as a chair, a 2 seater or 2,5 seater with a low or high backrest for more comfort and privacy to improve meeting and communication.


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What is Open Hardware?
The Open Hardware Meetup is a place where all kinds of people can share an interest in the intersection of hardware, software, connectivity, and user experience. When combined, these elements create a new art which blends the lines of beauty and technology.
Even as computing devices have become more powerful, the underlying technology is now more and more available for everyone. With a few mouse clicks, overnight shipping, and a few hours work, you can build your own versions of ground-breaking products based on simple open platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, Galileo, Edison, and more. Even better, you can create something that has not physically existed. It is the flexibility and power of computing, expressed in physical, tangible form.
Who is it for?
Everyone is welcome, from casual observers to nascent hobbyists to advanced techs. Presentations will range from beginner how tos, to highlighting cool projects from Edmonton and Alberta. There is almost always food before and drinks after. We're always open to new speakers and topics as requested by our members.
Examples of things we've done
- learn to solder,
- basics of arduino,
- automated basketball robots from a local high school team
- projected surfaces and their use in theatre set design,
- magnetic computer displays for the visually impaired
Examples of things we want to do
- lighting, home automation, wearables, drones/navigation, 3D printing, arduino, raspberry Pi, beaglebone and other open hardware platforms.
- workshops,
- build days, similar to hackathon, where a group of people with varying skills create and finish projects
- specialty sub-clusters where people can specialize in wearables, lighting and home automation, maker technology, and drones
We welcome you to Open Hardware Meetup and together we'll create wow.


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19% off
SwissStop Yellow King brake pads deliver more than just great stopping power. They provide superior modulation and feel on carbon braking surfaces. The pads are totally absent of any materials that can damage your carbon rims, and deliver consistent and silent operation no matter what the temperature or conditions. Packaged in a set of four to complete your bike. Compatible with Campagnolo brake calipers.
One coupon per order
Discount taken off MSRP for normal items
Custom kit pricing is complicated so we take the discount off the current build price
In stock items only
Coupons can not be combined with promotional gift certificates, however, purchased gift certificates may be used with the coupons. If you would like to use your coupon with a purchased gift certificate, please leave the gift certificate information in the comments section at checkout, and they will be applied during processing on the backend.
Some items are restricted
Groupsets, hand built wheels, special orders & labor costs are excluded from the coupon.
Additional exclusions may apply.


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Persons wishing to undertake building work may need to obtain provisional building rules consent and development approval.
Building work includes the construction, demolition or removal of a building and excavations for the construction and demolition or removal of a building. Some minor forms of building work are exempted under Schedule 3 of the Development Regulations 1993. Proposed building work is assessed against the requirements of the Building Rules by the relevant authority or a private certifier. The Building Rules generally cover structural issues, fire protection, health, safety, amenity and access issues. Persons intending to install a cooling tower should notify the Council's Environmental Health Officer.
A licence defines the need to obtain recognition / certification and registration to undertake a certain business activity.
Once off. The consent is generally valid for 12 months, during which building work must commence. Work must be completed within 3 years.
Variable; refer to your local Council.
Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 South Australia - PDF
(Opens in new window)
District Council of Ceduna
Contact Email, Phone and Address Details for this service in simple two column table format, header then data.
District Council of Ceduna


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Plenty of high praise has flowed to Metal Gear Solid 4, but N'Gai Croal offers a different take in his latest posting over on Level Up. The game, like others, makes timely use of Private Military Corporations (read: mercenaries) to create an environment players want to explore and a story they want to advance. But MGS4's true point lies in its "war economy," which governs or responds to the choices made by players.
Any game must "radically simplify complex systems," and MGS4's gun-launderer character, and fluctuating price of unlockable weapons and equipment does just that as a representation of a mercenary economy. And that, N'Gai reasons, makes a statement about the inherent amorality of war fought for profit just as much as cutscene dialogue, no matter how well written, where gamers are most conditioned to look for what was on the game creator's mind.
That's not to say MGS4 now goes into a pantheon of great allegorical commentaries on war and greed. It's a video game, so whatever message comes out is necessarily refracted through your experience of playing it. And it is a hell of a lot of fun. But N'Gai's point is that the "war economy" with which you, as Snake, must do business make it thought provoking, in addition to being an entertaining game at the top of its genre.
I Need a Hero, for Hire [Level Up]


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My Favorite Backpacking Trip
I have done so many hikes I can't remember nearly half of them, but one I will never forget is the Ptarmigan Traverse of the North Cascades. This is a high alpine traverse involving daily glacier travel through rugged North Cascades majesty. In 2003, my family (dad, mom, sister, and I) did this beautiful 6-day hike. This page shows some of my photos from our 2003 family adventure. I also provide links to more recent adventures on the Ptarmigan Traverse.
Links to More Recent Adventures on the Ptarmigan Traverse
The 2009 trip report is much more detailed and has more photos.
Go to 2009 trip report.
Also, in August 2007, my mom and I did a 2-night backpack to just past Kool-Aid Lake on the Ptarmigan Traverse. The second day I climbed Mt. Formidable.
Photos from our 2003 Family Adventure on the Ptarmigan Traverse
On Day 5 of the Ptarmigan Traverse, my dad, sister, and I climbed Spire Point via the East Face (4th to low 5th). Click the photo below to see a short trip report for our climb of Spire Point.


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November 09 2007
Still More Purple Prose: 5 Great Strike Movies. Joss cannot get out of bed. Neither can he shut up. More...
next 100 »
This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.


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You don't have to look very far in Ireland to discover a religious building imbued with history and intrigue
Such abundance is no surprise in a country that for centuries was a stronghold of Christianity in Europe. From small beginnings, when a man called Patrick plucked his shamrock and banished the snakes, religion flourished throughout the island. Pioneering saints like Brigid, Kevin and Comgall followed, establishing monasteries of international repute.
Over the centuries, and despite waves of Viking, Norman and Cromwellian interruption, Ireland's abbeys, churches and cathedrals blossomed, leaving us with a super stock of built heritage. The problem is not picking a place to visit. The problem is picking the places to leave out.
Armagh is where St Patrick founded his church, and here visitors will find not one, but two cathedrals bearing his name. How so? The city is the primary seat of Ireland's Catholic and Protestant Churches – and both called their cathedrals after Ireland's patron saint.
Dublin's grand dame cathedral is surely Christ Church. Founded in 1036, this chandelier of a building is home to one of Ireland's finest choirs, an archive housing one of the country's longest continuous collections of records, and a crypt said to be the city's oldest surviving structure… oh, and it's also the home of a mummified cat and mouse, nicknamed Tom and Jerry.
Just five minutes away is St Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, famously served as dean here, no doubt admiring the flying buttresses, manicured gardens and heraldic flags festooning the soaring interior as visitors do today.
Cistercian architecture is amongst the most beautiful in Europe. Mellifont Abbey in County Louth, the first Cistercian monastery to be built in Ireland, is somewhere you'll get a sense of that… and so much more. The model for all the order's abbeys in the country, it's a hugely evocative ruin. Step into the octagonal lavabo… can you imagine monks washing their hands before meals?
Jerpoint Abbey, a 12th-century abbey set outside the charming village of Thomastown, County Kilkenny, is another Cistercian jewel. Its ruins offer plenty to explore, including a tower, a church with Romanesque details, and a sculpted cloister arcade with unique carvings.
Don't miss Bangor Abbey in County Down, either. Founded in 558 AD by St Comgall and once home to almost 3,000 monks, the graveyard is full of interesting old headstones – including that of the assistant surgeon aboard the Titanic, local man John Edward Simpson.
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Looking for churches under the radar? Don't miss Whitefriar Church in Dublin, where some of the remains of St Valentine are kept in a small, wax-sealed wooden box. Every year on 14 February, the reliquary – along with a host of wedding and engagement rings – is blessed.
Two miles outside Downpatrick, you can come full circle at Saul Church, the replica of St Patrick's first church in Ireland. Or why not visit Maynooth University campus for a double whammy: the church at St Patrick's College, designed by Pugin, the Gothic Revival master, and the college chapel, which boasts the largest choir chapel in the world.
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Churches in Ireland conceal puzzles, hidden histories and the downright bizarre, check out these tales from the crypts.
Welcome to the Golden Vale – fields of pastoral perfection fringed by the Galtee Mountains and the Blackwater Valley...
The new Clonmacnoise app takes you back 1,000 years to one of Ireland's most important monastic settlements, says...
Holiday ideas, news, offers… sign up for our ezine and we'll keep you in touch with Ireland.
Excited your interest? There are airports throughout the Island with international arrivals. Discover airlines flying to Ireland from your location.
Want to know more? Ask a question in our Community, they're the people who know Ireland best.
For more information on travel and accommodation, attractions have a look at our brochures and maps.
If you're a visitor from the island of Ireland you may want to visit one of these sites… Otherwise proceed to Ireland.com
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It is not that easy to find true love. Yes if it is in our fate then no one can stop us from achieving it. Though if you keep looking for it in various ways? Then you are sure to end up with problems. It is the other thing that if you show some courage till the end of it. It is in the sense that some people don't give up. When it comes to achieve something? It is not like they do not want to take benefit of Love problem solution in Ottawa. The thing is people who never give up do not lose. This solution is even an unneeded support. You know at the time of complicated situations everything seems unfavorable. Well whoever has brought it in use? They have never seen any troubles since then.
We know how love seems when it gets unstable. There was not even any solution for this problem. It is the other thing that since astrology has come. You know it includes various approaches for resolving every damn trouble. People have been after it from a long time. In fact kudos to those baba ji who explored about it up to the end? Once they got to know about every tit bit of it. It was not like they kept it within themselves. Now-a-days most of them are serving the people by providing astrological services. Of course Love problem solution in Ottawa is one of his best services. But it's not like you will get reliable one of them with ease. We know that in recent times there have been severe love issues going on in the lives of people. Still he starts with analyzing the horoscope. It is not like status of troubles and the reasons behind it is necessary to know. He believes that sometimes hidden facts also explain a lot about the issues which we face. Well once he ends up with it, he first makes sure about what is reliable to suggest. Since in most of the cases there is no need of solutions. Advices and solutions do wonders. It is the other thing that when you let him know your issues. Make sure you end with making best use of his suggestions. Otherwise you will have to lead rest part of your life in miseries.
You must have heard that love marriage is the union of two lovers. Well it is not like they take decision for getting married in any way. Some lovers in fact do not feel fit as life partners. Due to which they even think of getting separated. If you have got directed towards the same problem? Go straight towards an astrologer without looking behind. There is no doubt of Love problem solution in Ottawa being an effective service. The thing is such issues do not arise in any way. It is the other thing that when you come in his asylum. You will even get to know whether you both are compatible for each other or not. Of course you will get an advantage. But you will need to rely on him. When he starts guiding you with the reliable ones from the above solution? Otherwise don't hope that your dream will ever come true.
My family issues now have solved only because I have consulted Pandit Piyush Sharma ji at right time. His remedies work as a miracle in my life and make it happy.
Before few months my lover gets separated from me and gets attached to another person. I discuss it with Piyush ji who suggested me remedies that bring my lover back.
My brother has started behaving weirdly, sudden change really made me stressed and I consult Piyush Sharma ji who again makes him calm by removing black magic from him.
Whenever I am confused about anything I prefer to consult Piyush ji, he brings me out from the dilemma and makes me take the right decision for what I need suggestion.
Astrology is passion of Pandit Piyush Sharma ji. He is interest in this from his childhood. He knows that astrology can make their lives of the people easy and comfortable. He has learned about it from his parents also and from the best Astrology University of India.


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NEA President: Don't forget our children, the most vulnerable in debt deal
Negotiations on federal debt ceiling and deficit reduction stall in Washington
WASHINGTON - July 23, 2011 -
House Speaker John Boehner called off further talks on raising the debt ceiling and deficit reduction yesterday, writing to fellow Republicans that he and President Barack Obama "couldn't connect…because of different visions for our country."
"To the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association and the students and families they serve, there are two very different visions playing out in this fiscal debate: one that favors those with great wealth and one that harms those without," said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel.
"While there are many different ideas about how to put America's fiscal house in order, no one disputes that our nation's children did nothing to cause our economic crisis," said Van Roekel. "The facts are simple: one in three children in this country rely upon Medicaid as their sole source of healthcare. It would be unconscionable for lawmakers to even contemplate punishing children with a budget deal that asks nothing of billionaires or corporations that paid no taxes last year. The students we serve come to school every day more worried, more at risk, and more liable to fall through the cracks. To rob children of their futures by putting their very health at would be reckless and immoral."
As of 2010, 68 million people are covered by Medicaid, including one third of America's children. Children who lack access to health care services are less likely to come to school healthy and ready to learn and to succeed academically.
"Our members want to remind negotiators that the measure of a country's greatness is in how it treats its children, it seniors, and its most vulnerable. Any budget plan must leave life-preserving programs such as Medicare and Medicaid untouched," said Van Roekel.
"It's time to put the families on Main Street ahead of the special interests of Wall Street and make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share," said Van Roekel. "Legislators need to stop looking to children, working families, and seniors to sacrifice without asking anything in return from the wealthiest, who continue to get wealthier due to continued tax loopholes and cuts."
To read NEA's letter to the Senate opposing the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, please go to http://www.nea.org/home/46518.htm
Follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/NEAMedia
# # #
The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.
CONTACT: Sara Robertson
(202) 822-7823, email@example.com


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Event Photos
Click the photo above for a full photo gallery of events
Event Camping
The Benton County Fairgrounds has two (2) camping areas available for rent during events. We have 115 sites with RV hookups (water and electricity) as well as multiple non-hookup sites.
The rates listed below are daily rates per site, to be used only during large events. Reservations are required to camp at the Benton County Fairgrounds. Camping is not open to the public for day-to-day use.


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Our streetwear shop is stocked with the latest from your favorite OG street and skate brands like Carhartt, Stussy, Vans & Nike SB – all that good stuff – plus the very best young skate brands on the come up.
Our big, badass sneaker shop has all that new and classic goodness from major sneaker brands like Nike, adidas, New Balance, Reebok and Puma, as well as those "limited releases" everyone is talking about. Yes, we carry Yeezys.
Our premium department stocks the very best of the very best when it comes to premium casual and fashion brands mixed with some streetwear. Here you'll find Our Legacy, Undercover, Common Projects, Eytys, Porter and countless other high-end brands to keep you looking extra fashion.
Ingen prudukter funnet. Prøv å søk på noe lignende eller navigasjonen å finne produkter!
Ikke gå glipp av kampanjer, spesialtilbud og siste nytt.
Du kommer til å høre fra oss veldig snart.


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About the Center
S*ProCom² is a new research center at The Cooper Union dedicated to cutting edge research in Signal Processing, Communications, and Computer Engineering. The center offers undergraduates the opportunity to conduct full-scale research projects that reflect the complexity and rigor of their education at Cooper. Many of these projects are continued at the graduate level.
Senior projects (Electrical and Computer Engineering Projects III and IV) are an important part of the Electrical Engineering curriculum at The Cooper Union. It gives students an opportunity to combine semesters of academic study with the practical laboratory experience they have accumulated from design exercises and projects from various courses.
Mission Statement
The Center for Signal Processing, Communications and Computer Engineering Research is dedicated to enriching the educational environment at The Cooper Union by providing valuable research experiences in these fields for our students, interwoven with their academic programs, thus preparing them to become vital members of America.s technological leadership and research base. The Center offers Bachelor and Master of Engineering students the opportunity to conduct full-scale multidisciplinary research projects in collaboration with Cooper faculty as well as researchers outside the Cooper community. These projects reflect the depth and rigor of education at The Cooper Union.


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CensusCD 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries allows users to access US Census data from 1990 and easily compare it with the 2000 Census data. It is the finest source of Census data from 1990 expressed at all of the 2000 geographies. The CensusCD 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries is based upon the long form (STF 3) questions answered by one in six households in the 1990 census. It includes detailed demographic data about topics such as population, household structure, income, poverty, education level, employment, housing costs, immigration, and other variables. The 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries is an invaluable resource for policy makers, community organizations, and researchers who want to analyze the changes that have occurred in the U.S. from 1990 to 2000.
Why Normalize 1990 Data to 2000 Geographic Boundaries?
Geographic boundaries change from census to census based on many factors. In the example below Pima County, Arizona is shown broken-out at the census tract level. At a glance, one can observe that there are changes in the census tracts from 1990 to 2000. In fact, Pima County split tracts into multiple parts, with the overall number of tracts growing from 115 to 198 tracts.
Taking a closer look at Pima County from 1990 to 2000 reveals the modifications in tract boundaries that significantly impact how researchers study and account for changes in a population over time. For example, below is a single 1990 Tract # 004800 that was broken into 3 tracts in the 2000 Census. It is a straight forward 1 to 3 correspondence.
However, the changing tract boundaries from 1990 to 2000 are not always that straight forward. In the next example from Pima County, there are two tracts, # 004024 & # 004028, which change into 7 new tracts in 2000. The correspondence in this case is 2 to 7. From these two examples in Pima County, it becomes evident why it is so difficult for researchers to contend with the issue of changing geographic boundaries over time.
Normalizing the Data
The actual re-mapping procedure for converting data from 1990 to 2000 boundaries is quite complicated.
Here is a link for those wishing a more technical explanation of this task
(click here).
The basic procedure was to use the Tiger/Line 2000 relationship between 2000 blocks with those from 1990. This allowed us to identify how block boundaries had changed between censuses. For example, if a 1990 block split into two for the 2000 census, others tracts merged, while some tracts both merged and then split. The table below shows the three scenarios (many to one, one to many, and many to many).
There are 8.2 million blocks in the US in 2000, so in fact these are very small geographic areas. But in order to be more precise, when necessary we broke blocks down. When the blocks split then the matter of how to split the population becomes a problem. (When they merge you just add the numbers). In order to determine how to subdivide blocks we looked at the Tiger Street files. The assumption being that people live on or near streets, so the number of addresses on a street will indicate the approximate weight to give to that area of the block.
From the blocks or block parts we created a Block Weighting File. These population weights were then applied to the various other counts to convert them to 2000 block boundaries. Once the data had been calculated at the block level we were then able to sum up the blocks to the various other geographies. Testing was then done to assure the accuracy and validity of the weighting method compared with the original numbers from the 1990 Long Form data set.


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Ladies Steel & Gold 26mm Datejust Mop 8+2 Dial Ruby & Diamond Watch
Item #: 17155117
Save an extra $50 on your very first purchase
of $400+ with code: GIFT50
Price: $7,863.07Shipping Included
Est. Retail Price: $14,997.00
1 person saved this item
Like new
This item may have been worn but has no visible signs of wear.
=) Why shop with WATCH MY DIAMONDS? *All our Watches are in Brand New Condition *All our watches come with a LIFETIME Authenticity Guarantee *All our watches come with LIFETIME WARRANTY *All our watches come LIFETIME Warranty on Diamonds (Read below for detail) *All our watches come LIFETIME Upgrade *All our watches come with FREE appraisal report & Upgrade Reports *We invite all our clients to visit us in our NYC Showroom to see our Inventory *We have a team of In house skilled master Diamond Setters, polishers, horologists and gemologist. LIFETIME individual diamond replacement. We are so confident in our diamond setters that if any of the individual diamonds are ever to fall out of our watches, we will replace them free of charge for a lifetime. There is more =) We guarantee that every watch we sell is 100% authentic and that the serial number on each watch has never been altered or modified in any way. Every watch manufacturer imprints a serial number on each of their watches for identification purposes. we guarantee that each watch it we sell bears the original manufacturer's serial number, intact and without any alterations. Since we are not an authorized dealer for the brands we carry, unless otherwise stated, we can offer substantially greater discounts than authorized retailers. We only source our watches from authorized dealers and the most trusted suppliers in the industry. Rolex Two Tone Datejust 26mm with Custom set diamonds on jubilee stainless steel and 18kt gold bracelet. Replacement value $14,997.00 This watch is in like new condition. It's been polished, serviced and has no visible blemishes. All our watches come with lifetime warranty and LIFETIME individual diamond replacement. We are so confident in our diamond setters that if any of the individual diamonds are ever to fall out of our watches, we will replace them free of charge for a lifetime. Brand: Rolex Dial (face): Custom Ruby & Diamonds Dial Color: Custom White Mother Of Pearl Bracelet/Strap: Original Jubilee 18K Gold / Stainless Steel Gender: Ladies Movement: Self-Winding Water Resistance: 100 meters/330 feet Case Dimensions: 26mm Metal: Stainless Steel/ 18K Gold Box and Appraisal : Included Disclosure: Diamonds are Watch 100% Genuine Watch Disclosure: 100% GENUINE WATCH custom set diamonds. Diamond are set by us and not Rolex.
Estimated U.S. Delivery
11/4/2020 - 11/8/2020 (4-8 days)Fair & Simple Returns
This item can be returned for any reason for Tradesy Site Credit. Use your credit to buy something that makes you happy.
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A survey conducted on behalf the Entertainment Software Association this month shows that 42% of American adults plan to give or hope to receive video games as presents this holiday season. Where do you stand?
I'd probably fall into both categories had KRC Research, who surveyed 1,001 U.S. adults earlier this month, had bothered to ask me. They didn't, though they did get a hold of a nice little cross-section of people, 52% who felt that video games were a good gift option given the current economy. The popularity of video games continues to grow, with the giving/receiving figure up 9% from 2007, with the number of women intended as game recipients jumping 31% from two years ago, or 47% of respondents.
"Computer and video games are topping holiday lists because they provide a superior entertainment value for the whole family," said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA... "With 68 percent of American households playing computer and video games, U.S. consumers value the creative and innovative products the entertainment software industry produces and are seeking them out for themselves and to give as gifts."
Of course to most of us, these numbers mean nothing. I've been giving video games as gifts since I bought myself my first Sega Genesis. Wait, does gifting yourself count?


text: Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg (French pronunciation: [sɛʁʒ ɡɛ̃zbuʁ]; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he is often regarded as one of the world's mo… Read More


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Trending in Asia: What Does the Fox Say?
In this week's Trending in Asia, Norwegian duo Ylvis spikes in Singapore online search with "Fox" music video, Japan's Akira returns from '80s anime to go viral after Tokyo wins 2020 Olympics. The WSJ's Ramy Inocencio chats with Google's Joyce Hau.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... long lines it has nice ... bite in China South Korea and Singapore ... for smartphones smartwatches and smart Fox it that's right ... the Wall Street Journal's of rainy NSN fee as sits down with Google's Joyce Hau for this week's Trending in Asia ... China first in this week's Trending in Asia in the smartphone company called sell me ... is actually taking center stage with the searches in spite the joys ... of what exactly is happening with the distilled the semi ... Tallulah as a tech company Antai FX getting a lot of attention so last week the unveiled their fight to phone the new phone for the ... awakes region CEO of some things that ... Asta smartphone in the world's where you seem searches biking around the region and around the world primarily with anti Apple it's really interesting is were beginning to see the search is on about this company ... might read to neighboring countries and Eastern Europe ... so brush I in the Ukraine even ... aam are searching about sound from China we had to Japan and because the guts and you can use to look it was going to be hosting ... the twenty twenty summer Olympics I understand that said there was some viral Twitter posts going around to me about that ... Yeh that's right there I was eight still from the movie on here which is an enemy from the nineteen eighties ... I sat in postapocalyptic Japan in the year ... they're actually turned down ... to the Olympics ... being held in Tokyo in twenty twenty ... we are the pace of life imitating art ... and down in Singapore there is a Norwegian music video that going viral ... if you haven't seen it yet here it is ... it's called the Fox ... the thing ... I ... what is the box all about it was created by the comedic duo of two brothers from Norway who have their own students ... aam and they have to do this year and fun music videos and upload it and look how ... I'll buy it already overnight and you can see an average of daily hits ... and three million ... you know I'm realizing actually that in bits of video they ask what does the talks say ... but I think he actually really answer ... the ... series and we are no wave and help ... me ... maybe office speaking of the ultrasound ... lady like a happy peculiar yet our hard on the I ... love that will be the existential question as you read this are ... trading in Asia said but doesn't want it that that that the Fox stayed for more check out the Wall Street Journal dot com this is good


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Food & Drink
Pop-up hotels: Catch them while you can
By Daisy Carrington, for CNN • Updated 2nd July 2013
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6 Pictures
Traditionally, hotels are built with the hope they'll have staying power. For a new breed of accommodation, however, long-term is passe.
The last two years has seen a proliferation in the number of pop-up hotels -- housed in anything from tepees to old shipping containers. Many are making their way in places traditionally off-limits for traditional hotels.
Mark Sorrill, the founder of the UK-based
The Pop-Up Hotel
, has set up accommodation in the form of luxury tents (and in some cases yurts, shepherd huts and Airstream mobile homes) at some of England's most spectacular properties. In August, for example, he's partnering with Heritage England and moving his operation on the grounds of the Osborne Estate, a sprawling 19th century manor that was built as a summer residence for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
"As lovely as conventional hotels can be, they are effectively a series of boxes stacked on top of each other, insulating guests from the environment. I wanted to throw this whole concept up into the air and see how it fell," he says. "I wanted to create a hotel that could really connect with the environment where it was positioned."
Infographic: The price of business travel
The Pop-Up Hotel is also popular on the festival circuit. In fact, the first one launched at Glastonbury, the UK's largest music festival, two years ago. Then, it only offered 20 rooms. This year, its rolled out 130, and was fully booked.
"Guests seem to really appreciate that if you were to come and stay with us again in a different location, it would be a different holiday experience," he says.
Booking isn't necessarily cheap -- tents at the four-day Glastonbury festival start at $1,525. At the same time, just because the walls are canvas doesn't mean you'd be roughing it. Concierge and porter service is usually part of the package and, depending on the event, there are usually accompanying restaurant, bar and spa tents.
The concept is gaining traction. Snoozebox is another company that offers portable accommodation, often pegged to major events, such as the London Olympics last year and the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland in June this year. Snoozebox's rooms are set up in shipping containers, making them easy to transport. That they're self-contained means they have climate control options, an advantage over The Pop-Up Hotel.
China's high-speed trains attract frustrated fliers
One of the most inventive pop-up concepts, however, hasn't been officially launched yet. It is the brainchild of Copenhagen-based architecture firm
Pink Cloud
, and last month it won the
Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award
. The company is hoping to simultaneously address two pressing issues plaguing many urban landscapes: vacated office space and insufficient hotel vacancies.
The collective, which is made up of partners Eric Tan, Leon Lai and Nico Schlapps, is hoping to make New York its launching point. Tan points out that the office vacancy rate in the city is alarmingly high at 26%.
"Tenants would rather wait for new high rises to be built than rent the ones leftover from the '60s and '70s, which, unfortunately, the city has a lot of," he explains. "The ceilings are low and the stock seems outdated to potential tenants."
Meanwhile, New York's hotel occupancy rate is at 96% -- almost full capacity. Pink Cloud's solution is to create temporary hotels in empty office buildings. That way, tourists get a place to sleep for the night and the building owner can finally pull in some rent.
Watch: reinventing the hotel breakfast
An entire hotel could fit into 36 boxes, enough to fill a single lorry. When unpacked, they would contain all the makings of a modern hotel room, including beds, sofas, toilets, partitions, plus elements to craft night clubs, restaurants -- even a pool, if requested.
"A traditional hotel can take five to six years to build, from start to finish. With the pop-up hotel, we see it taking two to four weeks," says Tan.
The beauty of the project, says Lai, is its flexibility.
"If you were to set up in Miami, you could bring indoor swimming pools. In Manhattan, guests might want to watch a boxing match. We could bring in a temporary boxing ring. It all depends on the city and the public," he says.
The price point, they're imagining, would also be considerably lower. The average New York City hotel room is $350 a night. Pink Cloud's rooms, meanwhile, would clock in around $130.
The company is currently scoping out partners to make the concept a reality. The way Pink Cloud sees it, the hotel could be a savvy marketing stunt for the right brand. For example, says Tan, a major fashion label could use the Pink Cloud model to promote itself during fashion week.
"There's no reason you couldn't have the Prada pop-up, or the Diesel pop-up," he says.
A year of the world's
Best Beaches
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Australia's NBN Co has refused to comment on the woes of its key network provider Alcatel Lucent in Malaysia. The vendor has been banned from bidding on any new telecommunications contracts for a year by Telekom Malaysia and mobile operator Axiata.
The exclusion stems from fallout over the Alcatel-Lucent's admission that it took part in bribery totaling over US$8m for contracts secured between December 2001 and June 2006 in Latin America and Asia. Last year the vendor had confessed to US authorities that it made improper payments to win contracts with Axiata division Celcom.
The suspension from Axiata began on 18 February, while Telekom Malaysia's is retro-effective from 5 January.
Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement that it welcomed the recommendation from the antitrust commission and was committed to regaining customers' trust.
In December Alcatel-Lucent and three of its subsidiaries paid US$137m to settle the charges with the US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Closer to home, NBN Co, which has selected Alcatel-Lucent as the lead vendor for the network rollout, downplayed the allegations when they surfaced last year and would not comment on recent developments. The Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy also declined to comment on the matter.
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley and CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret were both senior executives at Alcatel-Lucent at the time of the corruption activity. Alcatel-Lucent is also bidding to supply Layer 2 technology for New Zealand's UFB network. ®


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MONTREAL — "The customer is always right," is an idiom ingrained deeply in the beliefs of many chefs and restaurateurs. One could even argue that the entire hospitality industry centres on this core concept. The client is king, and a chef's raison d'être is make the customer happy. In turn, said customer has the power to create return business or spread the word of a disappointing experience. And does that word ever spread fast in today's world, where communication is immediate and often scathing.However, the customer-is-king philosophy could be losing ground. Chefs are starting to speak up. They're tired of endless special requests, fed up with no shows, concerned about waste, and obsessively surveying food cost.
The restaurant model is also in flux. Twenty years ago, the requirement for men to wear a jacket and tie was about as much as was asked of the customer. But now restaurateurs are starting to call the shots, including forbidding cameras at the table, considering asking for a deposit to hold a reservation, charging for bread and playing music at the volume they want it played. Once upon a time, a restaurant meal was all about surprise, but now we can see every restaurant dish on Facebook and Twitter seconds before it's devoured. We can make a reservation on the web without speaking to a soul.
And if we didn't like our meal at Bistro Chez L'Impolie, we can play critic and rip into the restaurant on Yelp, Trip Advisor or any number of foodie websites.
As much as we all love to dine out, there's no avoiding the fact that increased menu and wine prices and taxes make customers grumpy.
But the restaurateurs and chefs faced with increasing rents, fickle diners and skyrocketing ingredient costs aren't feeling all that peachy, either.
And then there are those kill-me-now customers — the woman who says she's gluten-intolerant yet requests extra croutons in her salad, the guy who complains there aren't enough vegetarian options but then eats the duck off his friend's plate, the critic who pontificates that there are too many chefs with tattoos, and the dieters who insist they have their burger with only one slice of the bun. You know who you are.
To gauge the mood on the Montreal restaurant scene, I put questions to six of the city's top restaurant professionals, exploring the challenges faced by chefs, restaurateurs and customers. Their answers follow mine, which are prefaced with my initials, LC.
The panel:
- HM: Hubert Marsolais, manager and co-owner, Le Club Chasse et Pêche, and Le Filet
- KMN: Kyle Marshall Nares, co-owner and manager, Garde-Manger, and Le Bremner
- OdM: Olivier de Montigny, chef and co-owner, La Chronique
- LL: Lenny Lighter, co-owner, Moishes
- DM: David McMillan, co-chef and co-owner, Joe Beef, Liverpool House
- SL: Stephen Leslie, chef and partner, Tavern on the Square and The Monkland Tavern
In an effort to be cutting back on waste, should customers be charged for bread?
LC: Yes. Many restaurant owners are complaining that they are throwing out garbage bags full of bread every night and plenty of butter. With so many people avoiding bread these days, we should either be served it on request, or better yet be charged for good fresh bread instead of being given lousy baguette as an afterthought. And with fewer people polishing off the bread, maybe more people would opt for dessert, which would mean better profits for restaurants and an increase in the quality of desserts, which in Montreal is lacking.
The panel says.....
SL: It's shocking to see the amount of bread and butter going to waste. I like what I saw in Chicago, small specialty breads, like feta and zucchini, offered at a minimal charge. I'm thinking of trying that here.
KMN: Bread service is a nice tradition but not an important one. As it's a majorly wasteful practice, that should be adjusted.
LL: No. It's like an airline charging for baggage. We never want to go there.
DM: Yes, because customers aren't eating it. Eighty per cent of what we were serving was going in the garbage. We ask if people want it, and seven out of 10 don't. It's now listed on our appetizer menu for $2. For that, you get a nice piece of rye bread, good butter and a pickle. The carb thing has messed everything up. People would rather splurge on french fries or mashed potatoes than bread.
OdM: No!
Considering the high number of no-shows, should restaurants consider asking for a deposit to hold a reservation for six or more?
LC: No, especially as one cannot charge for a service not rendered. There will always be people who bow out of a meal at the last minute, but customers must be made aware of how harmful it is to a restaurant to lose a group of diners. Also, restaurants should start to refuse reservations from hotel concierges who plan multiple bookings for out-of-town customers to offer them a choice when they get to town. Customers should, at the very least, call in advance if they aren't going to show so the restaurant has a chance to rebook the table.
The panel says.....
OdM: Yes, without a doubt, and even for tables of two. Open Table now allows us to implement this system by requesting a credit-card number to hold a table. If you purchase tickets to go to a show, and if you don't show up, you lose. However, if we refuse customers because we don't have the space, and people with the reservations don't show up, the restaurant owners are the ones who lose.
SL: No-shows are the worst kind of vermin, and Montreal is full of them. You don't have time to pick up the phone and say you aren't coming? Really? Montreal restaurants are small, which means margins are slim. It's a verbal agreement, and we often base our staffing and ordering on those numbers. I hope there comes a day that if you don't show up for your table, you're charged for it.
HM: We reconfirm all our reservations the day before and people still frequently don't show up. It's difficult to accept such situations, especially when you have refused people who wanted to come here badly.
KMN: Yes, absolutely. This is already a common practice in most big cities.
LL: It all depends of the size and the average ticket of a particular restaurant.
DM: No. That's not the way to go about it. We prefer to confirm reservations, and anyone not confirmed by 5 p.m. that day is stricken off the list. That's one thing I like about Open Table: They make people confirm their reservations.
Is the number of people taking pictures of their food in restaurants these days turning into a problem?
LC: No. Chefs who produce gorgeous plates should expect foodies to whip out their smartphones and snap away, giving customers plenty of visuals to display around the water cooler at work the next day. Huge cameras and an obnoxious flash are de trop, but a subtle snapshot taken at the table is harmless. That said, fuzzy food photos posted on Facebook and Twitter are an insult to the restaurant.
The panel says.....
HM: It is. Shooting food precisely is a demanding task. Also, some customers take pictures of the entire room including visitors who are there to relax. It's embarrassing, and we do try to control such things.
KMN: Yes, it's disgusting. Cellphones should be banned at the table.
LL: Only if the food is camera shy.
DM: Yes, somewhat. It's bad tableside manners. I had a girl stand on my banquette in stilettos, damaging the vinyl in the process, to take a picture of a bowl of nothing soup. And bad pictures give the restaurant a bad image. I wish people would avoid taking pictures of half-eaten food because you're drunk and have nothing to talk about.
OdM: Yes and no. Depends on the photo. Sometimes it reflects what we're serving and sometimes it's just terrible.
Should a customer send back his or her food if there is a problem, like lukewarm soup or overcooked meat?
LC: Yes, without a doubt. Yet some people are too shy to complain, so they complain to their friends at the table and pretend everything is OK. I also abstain from sending food back at times when I fear it will throw off the pace of the meal. But the chef is usually happy to fix a problem, like that overcooked steak or lukewarm bowl of soup, as long as it indeed is a problem.
The panel says.....
SL: I have no problem taking food back if there's indeed a problem. I will usually apologize and offer a glass of wine to the customer.
DM: For sure! We're there to serve you food! A sign of a bad chef is when he makes a big deal out of something sent back to the kitchen. But just don't tell me you have an allergy after you've been served.
HM: No doubt.
KMN: Absolutely.
LL: It gives the restaurant a chance to correct the problem. There is nothing worse than a customer leaving unsatisfied. Handled properly, it can turn a negative into a real positive, "lemons into lemonade."
Is it bad manners to request a doggy bag?
LC: No! There was a time not so long ago when the sight of someone walking out of a restaurant holding a doggy bag was a sure sign of tackiness or stodginess. No longer. With waste control becoming a hot topic issue and the large portions many Montreal restaurant owners are championing, doggy bags are all the rage.
The panel says.....
Entire panel agreed!
Is there a dress code in upscale restaurants these days?
LC: No. Sadly not. People arrive to dine in fine restaurants today in jeans, sweatpants, baseball caps, shorts and dirty running shoes. The same goes for people who show up for performances at Place des Arts or even graduation ceremonies at schools and dinner parties. Formality is all but dead in restaurants — so much so that men wearing suits and women wearing dresses often look out of place.
The panel says.....
KMN: Not in Montreal. North American culture has largely disassembled traditional formalities in restaurants.
DM: I have one pet peeve: baseball caps in my restaurant. I always nicely ask people to remove them. I'm into jeans, but not with white socks and Velcro sneakers.
Are restaurant wine prices too high? And/or are restaurant food prices too high?
LC: Yes and no. There are egregious examples of ridiculous wine markups and unrealistic menu prices in many Montreal restaurants. Yet I believe that at the city's most professional restaurants, an effort is being made to keep the wine prices in check and the menu prices reasonable. Keep in mind, wine sales are important to the profits of the city's restaurants, and top notch ingredients don't come cheap.
The panel says.....
SL: Wine prices are high, but that goes back to cost. I tried selling wine at a 50 per cent markup for the first six months we opened, with the idea of selling more volume. It almost bankrupted us. Also, if we were getting a better deal on alcohol from the SAQ, it would help. I pay more than you think for the privilege of buying wine at the SAQ. Imagine any other free business enterprise where I buy over a million dollars a year from your store, what do you think I'd receive in return? A free wine trip to Italy? A new BMW? But no with the SAQ, I just get the chance for them to charge me more the next year. Yes, yes ... thank you!
OdM: The problem with high wine prices begins at the SAQ. Do you know that restaurant owners aren't allowed to take advantage of discounts and we get no discount according to the volume we purchase?
DM: No. If the restaurant is paying a high rent, the customer is going to have to pay his part in that. The restaurant lost on the Plateau will not have the same markup as the hot place on The Main. It's business. As for food, it's expensive and it's getting more expensive every year. We just break even on the food. It's the front of house — alcohol and service — where we make our money. The back of house, making the food, is both labour intensive and ingredient costly.
KMN: Alcohol prices are too high and food prices are too low. Somehow, we've built a food culture where people accept astronomical markups on items that require little input (like a martini), yet insist on low prices for menu items entire teams are assembled to create.
Should the tip be included in the bill?
LC: No. Tipping is a matter of discretion and is entirely up to the customer. And when the tip is included in the bill, most people add another tip on top of it. It never ends!
The panel says.....
LL: Never. It gives the customer the opportunity to punish or reward job performance and gives the server the incentive to be at his or her best.
KMN: Tough call, but I say no. In general, servers are very well compensated.
OdM: It would resolve a lot of problems.
DM: No. When that 15 per cent is a given, it encourages complacency. And some weeks we have a tipping average of 22 per cent, which means people like the service here.
Is booking a table online the best way to go?
LC: Yes, as it's quick and convenient. But there are also downsides: An online system can say there are no available tables when the phone reservationist might be able to find you one. And on one occasion, I was told one hour prior to my dinner date that the reservation I booked on Open Table was not valid. Grrr ...
The panel says.....
DM: I use it personally. You can see what's available. I think it's the future. It's a lot easier than having an employee by the phone from 7 a.m. until midnight, and you avoid that busboy-writing-the-reservation-down-on-a-piece-of-paper scenario. And there's a place for adding messages and requests. We read it. They tell us why they're coming and we love it. It opens a line of communication between us and the customer before they arrive.
KMN: You are always better to reserve by phone or in person. Questions can be answered and details can be explained, leading to fewer misunderstandings.
Can customers ask that the music be turned down?
LC: Yes. I do it all the time. Restaurant music is a touchy subject, as so few restaurant owners realize what it's like to listen to loud music while you're eating for several hours. I almost always ask that the music be turned down, or I request a table far from the speaker. But I always ask nicely.
The panel says.....
HM: Music is a topic that we take seriously. The volume level is adjusted dozens of times during the course of an evening. We try to balance all the songs on a play list in a harmonious way, but it can happen that one track's level is higher than another. An electric ambience with guests enjoying themselves can also be noisy, even when the sound system is on mute.
OdM: Being the customer doesn't give you the right to do everything.
DM: Depends how they ask.
KMN: You can ask, but don't expect one person's opinion to dictate the evening. It's very challenging to make every single person happy in a dining room. This is the job of the maître d' or manager. If you want to absolutely control the dining room, restaurants are always looking for eager staff.
SL: Well, you can always leave. Depends how you ask. Some people come in and spend $80 for two people and think they can hold you hostage for that.
Does the chef have the last word when it comes to making substitutions or meat cookery (as in refusing to cook a duck breast well done)?
LC: Yes. On the high end of cooking, part of the restaurant experience is putting yourself in the hands of the chef, forgoing personal taste to a certain extent to get a strong feeling for his or hers. I will almost always request my meat be cooked the way the chef would like to prepare it. That said, I have seen people come close to tears with either an overcooked or barely cooked piece of meat.
The panel says.....
OdM: It all depends on the type of restaurant. When we create a dish, it covers every aspect of what's on the plate. As for well-done meat, don't forget, it has already been killed once.
LL: No, the customer does.
KMN: Tough call. Each chef needs to make his or her own rules to live by. The harsher the rules, the more people you are likely to upset. Restaurants are private spaces, and ultimately, the restaurants/owners have the right to do as they choose.
DM: No. It's not up to me to make a judgment call if they like their meat well done.
Is it okay to mention allergies to the waiter up front? And or make special requests?
LC: Yes to allergies and yes to a special request within reason. That said, I think people should avoid labelling dislikes as allergies. If you don't like garlic, why not say so instead of claiming you have an allergy. And as for special requests, keep in mind, the chef is usually serving dozens of people. I say only make life that much more complicated for him or her only if you see no alternative.
The panel says.....
DM: Allergies are not a problem. And we accept special requests all the time, but it has to be an acceptable combination. I'm not putting my hot wings sauce on the Dover sole.
KMN: Of course, but don't call something you don't like an allergy. The kitchen treats allergies very seriously, so don't waste their time. As for special requests, experienced staff can help you navigate the menu to find something suitable.
LL: Absolutely. We are here to serve.
OdM: Customers should always mention allergies at the time they make the reservation.
SL: We had so many special requests that I got to the point where I said this is the way we serve it, if you don't like it, leave. All the changes can really mess with the kitchen. Sometimes I think we have a better chance at hitting all the numbers on the 6/49 than getting all the special requests at a table right.
If a customer has had a bad meal, should he or she get onto social networking sites like Yelp and trip Advisor and let the restaurant have it? Or, on the contrary, should customers rave about a good meal?
LC: No and yes. It would be far more productive to speak to someone at the restaurant if you've had a bad meal rather than complain in cyberspace (or worse yet, complain to your local restaurant critic). Only in a worse-case scenario would I get onto a site like that to complain. But if it was good, of course, why not tell the world?
The panel says.....
OdM: Unfortunately, you can't please everyone. That said, I get the impression many people think they are restaurant critics these days.
DM: Email the restaurant owner. And if he or she is rude to you, if you really feel the need, use that outlet to slander the restaurant. But generally the best insult is simply not returning, and telling your friends. Be a normal person and not get on websites. Tell the waiter or me instead. Or talk to me on Twitter. With social media these days, it has never been easier to contact chefs directly.
SL: Some nights I get the impression half the restaurant is writing about their meal. It's getting crazy. And let's be honest, have you read some of it?
LL: Rave about the good, call or write the restaurant about the bad.
KMN: The only bad thing about the Internet is social media. Leave reviewing and photography to professionals, or become one yourself.
Should there be calorie counts on menus?
LC: No. An increasing number of family-style restaurants are offering customers calorie counts on their menus, yet this public service of sorts has yet to hit high-end menus. However, if there were, customers may think twice about what they order and chefs may curb their butter use, as upscale restaurant dishes are usually very calorific. But for a special-occasion meal, perhaps we prefer to ignore that.
The panel says.....
DM: For sure in chain restaurants. But it would be hard for us to calculate that accurately. People who are sensitive to their diet know how to order, and we know how to accommodate them.
SL: If you want calorie counts, go and eat in Jenny Craig's restaurant.
LL: No. People are intelligent enough to know what they are consuming, and indulgence is part of why restaurants exist.
Do kids belong in high-end restaurants?
LC: Yes and no. Yes, if the children are old enough to sit at the table for hours on end and enjoy the experience without complaining or disrupting diners around them. However, as many people save up for expensive dinners, which may include the cost of a babysitter for their kids back home, having children dining next to them on their romantic night out might be distracting and possibly not be all that pleasurable.
The panel says.....
DM: Depends on the parents. As long as they are well behaved, we are happy to have kids at Joe Beef. But the parents can't let the kids run around.
SL: The first thing I did when I took over Tavern on the Square was throw all the high chairs into the dumpster.
LL: Yes, but only if they are well behaved. The same goes for adults.
Does a good restaurant always have a sommelier in the house?
LC: No. One wine expert on the floor isn't enough these days. A sharp sommelier on the floor is a boon to a restaurant, but I'd rather see several with solid wine knowledge in the house rather than just one expert.
The panel says.....
SL: The wine program in restaurants has never been as front and centre as it is today. Having a wine-knowledgeable staff is key. Having a stodgy wine guy/girl with a cup around his or her neck is not.
KMN: Not necessarily a sommelier but always experienced staff to help navigate what can often be a daunting wine list to the average diner. If you're serious about your wine list, be serious about helping people understand it.
DM: Sommelier is a loose term in Montreal. People have taken a one-year wine course and they claim to be a sommelier. I think that everyone on the floor should know a lot about wine. It's 50 per cent of what they do.
OdM: Yes
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Twitter: @lesleychestrman


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We Try New Mountain Dew Kickstart Black Cherry and Limeade
People love their Mountain Dew Kickstart. The original Orange Citrus and Fruit Punch flavors have surpassed $150 million in retail sales since their introduction in 2013. Positioned as morning beverages, the key selling points can be found right around the neck of the can: caffeine—92 mg per 16 ounce can—5% fruit juice, and electrolytes. Since things are going so well, Pepsi decided to take Kickstart to the p.m. with new Black Cherry and Limeade flavors. What makes these new drinks more suited for nighttime than their siblings, other than the marketing campaign? I couldn't tell you.
If you're gearing up for a big night, and you have to decide which can to crack open, I say go with the Limeade. It's not quite as crisp as a traditional lemon-lime soda, but it's pretty darn good. The flavor is more lime-y than Mountain Dew-y, and the drink has a surprising amount of body. It's sweet, but not overly so.
As for the Black Cherry, it's a tricky business. On the first sip, I got a hint of that cough syrup flavor all too common to cherry-flavored candies. As I had more, a deeper, richer cherry flavor overtook the medicine. Because it has a lower amount of carbonation than traditional Dew, I found it to be smoother than my favorite black cherry soda, more like juice. Not actually like juice, mind you. Just more like it.
I read all the packaging's references to "nighttime consumption" as not-so-subtle hints to try Kickstart with vodka, replacing Red Bull. So of course, that's just what I did. The winner there was Limeade, for sure. Mixing Sobieski with the Black Cherry Kickstart only brought out the medicinal taste, and it was pretty gross. The Limeade, though, I could see that being a thing, as it's just strong enough to mask the booze.
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 the beginning, society -- in the persons of prominent scientists, government officials, military officers, journalists, and ordinary citizens -- would make things disagreeable for those who insisted they had seen strange flying objects and those who believed them. Wherever there were "flying saucers," there was also ridicule, dished out in generous portions to anyone courageous or foolish enough to defy the reigning orthodoxy.
A 1951 Cosmopolitan article, prepared with Air Force cooperation and encouragement, lashed out at the "screwballs" and "true believers" who thought they were seeing flying saucers. In the decades to come, others would accuse UFO observers of every conceivable social crime or mental disorder. As a result, only a small minority of witnesses would ever report their sightings, and many who did soon lived to regret it. In 1977 a group of professional debunkers warned The New York Times that belief in UFOs is not only irrational but also dangerous; if sufficiently widespread, civilization itself could collapse.
Yet in the face of jeering derision and inflated rhetoric, the UFO sightings continued. The great majority of sightings would be by individuals who would have been implicitly believed had they been testifying to anything less outrageous. Of course, these witnesses were not always right. Even sympathetic investigators found that most reports could be explained conventionally. Few of the reports were outright UFO hoaxes (around one percent, according to the Air Force's estimate), but sane and sober eyewitnesses often mistook weather balloons, stars and planets, advertising planes, and other ordinary objects for extraordinary objects. Still, some sightings stubbornly resisted explanation.
In the summer of 1947, the Air Materiel Command (AMC) was asked to study the situation and make recommendations about what should be done. On September 23 Lt. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, the AMC head, wrote his superior with this analysis: "The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious." Three months later the Air Force established Project Sign under AMC command, which is headquartered at Wright Field, soon to be Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Dayton, Ohio, to investigate UFO reports.
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Project Sign's "Estimate of the Situation"
By late July 1948 Project Sign investigators had come to an incredible conclusion: Visitors from outer space had arrived. They had begun with suspicions. Now they now had the proof. The proof was . . . well, it depends on which of two versions of the story is to be believed.
In the better-known version, the proof arrived in the sky southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, at 2:45 A.M. on July 24, 1948. To Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitted, pilot and copilot respectively of an Eastern Airlines DC-3, the object at first looked like a distant jet aircraft to their right and just above them. But it was moving awfully fast. Seconds later, as it streaked past them, they saw something that Whitted thought looked like "one of those fantastic Flash Gordon rocket ships in the funny papers." It was a huge, tube-shaped structure, its fuselage three times the circumference of a B-29 bomber, and with two rows of square windows emanating white light. It was, Chiles would remember, "powered by some jet or other type of power shooting flame from the rear some 50 feet." The object was also glimpsed by the one passenger who was not sleeping. After it passed the DC-3, it shot up 500 feet and was lost in the clouds at 6,000 feet altitude.
Although Chiles and Whitted didn't know it at the time, an hour earlier a ground-maintenance crewman at Robins AFB, Georgia, had seen the same or an identical object. On July 20, observers in The Hague, the Netherlands, watched a comparable craft move swiftly through the clouds.
It took investigators little time to establish that no earthly missile or aircraft could have been responsible for these sightings. Moreover, with independent verification of the object's appearance and performance, there seemed no question of the witnesses' being mistaken about what they had seen. In the days following the sighting, Project Sign prepared an "estimate of the situation" -- a thick document stamped TOP SECRET -- that argued that this and other reliably observed UFOs could only be otherworldly vehicles. But when the estimate landed on the desk of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, he promptly rejected it on the grounds that the report had not proved its case.
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Project Blue Book
In short order Project Sign's advocates of extraterrestrial visitation were reassigned or encouraged to leave the service. The Air Force then embarked on a debunking campaign interrupted only for the brief period between 1951 and 1953 when Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who took an open-minded approach, headed the official UFO project. Project Sign was succeeded by Project Grudge (1949-1952); Project Blue Book, established in March 1952, succeeded Project Grudge. Practically until the day the Air Force closed down Project Blue Book in December 1969, it denied that such a document had ever existed, even when former UFO-project officers swore they had seen or heard of it. No one could produce a copy of the document, however, because the Air Force had all copies burned.
At least one source disputes this account, on the authority of Capt. Ruppelt, who tells it in his memoir of his Project Blue Book years, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956). Years after the original incidents, a retired AMC-assigned officer (now deceased) claimed that Project Sign prepared two drafts of the estimate. The first draft referred to what the officer remembered as a "physical evidence" case in New Mexico. When Vandenberg saw this reference, he demanded its removal. The second draft, with the offending paragraphs deleted, argued its case solely from eyewitness testimony -- of which the Chiles/Whitted encounter was an impressive example. Vandenberg could now claim that, in the absence of physical evidence, no proof existed.
A long time would pass before civilian investigators learned of this New Mexico physical-evidence case. It would turn out to be one of the most important incidents -- perhaps the most important incident -- in UFO history. With these revelations would come the belated realization that ufology has two histories: a public one and a hidden one. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. . . .
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The Thomas Mantell UFO Incident
Flying saucers were supposed to be a fad. Pundits tied these strange shapes in the sky to "war nerves," a sort of delayed-response reaction to the traumas of World War II. They were also supposed to be a peculiarly American delusion. Unidentified flying objects, however, have survived longer than war memories and remain an eerie, discomforting presence the world over.
As military and civilian researchers scrambled to make sense of all this, anything seemed possible -- even attack by hostile aliens.
On January 7, 1948, Kentucky Air National Guard Capt. Thomas F. Mantell, Jr., died when his F-51 crashed after chasing what he called, in one of his last radio transmissions, "a metallic object of tremendous size." The official Air Force line was that Mantell saw Venus. Unofficially, many officers feared that a space-ship had shot down Mantell's plane with a frighteningly superior extraterrestrial weapon.
Neither answer, it turned out, was correct. Declassified documents eventually disclosed that the Navy had been conducting secret balloon experiments as part of its Skyhook project, which sought to measure radiation levels in the upper atmosphere. As Mantell pursued what he apparently thought was a spaceship, he had foolishly ascended to 25,000 feet -- a dangerous altitude for the aircraft he was piloting -- and blacked out from lack of oxygen. His F-51 spun out of control and crash-landed in the front lawn of a farmhouse near Franklin, Kentucky. But in the days that followed the tragedy, sensational headlines fueled everyone's worst fears about flying saucers, and the Mantell incident entered UFO legend.
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The 1953 Kinross UFO Incident
Just as frightening as the Mantell incident, though more bizarre and less publicized, was a fatal encounter that occurred on November 23, 1953, over Lake Superior. That evening, as Air Defense Command radar tracked an unidentified target moving at 500 miles per hour over the lake, an F-89C all-weather jet interceptor from Kinross AFB took off in hot pursuit. Radar operators watched the aircraft close in on the UFO, and then something fantastic happened: The two blips merged and then faded on the screen, and all communication with the interceptor ceased. An extensive land and water search found not a trace of the craft nor the two men aboard it: pilot Lt. Felix Moncla, Jr., and radar observer Lt. R. R. Wilson.
Unlike the Mantell incident, the Kinross case attracted minimal newspaper coverage; also unlike Mantell, Kinross has never been satisfactorily explained. Later, after aviation writer Donald E. Keyhoe broke the story in his best-selling The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (1955), the Air Force insisted that the "UFO" had proved on investigation to be a Royal Canadian Air Force C-47. The F-89C had not actually collided with the Canadian transport plane, but something unspecified had happened, and the interceptor crashed. Aside from implying woeful incompetence on the radar operators' part, this "explanation" -- still the official one -- flies in the face of the Canadian government's repeated denials that any such incident involving one of its aircraft ever took place.
In 1958 Keyhoe got hold of a leaked Air Force document that made it clear that officialdom considered the Kinross incident a UFO encounter of the strangest kind. The document quoted these words from a radar observer who had been there: "It seems incredible, but the blip apparently just swallowed our F-89." The following year, in conversations with civilian ufologists Tom Comella and Edgar Smith, M. Sgt. O. D. Hill of Project Blue Book confided that such incidents -- he claimed Kinross had not been the only one -- had officials worried. Many, he said, believed UFOs to be of extraterrestrial origin and wanted to prevent an interplanetary Pearl Harbor. Cornelia subsequently confronted Hill's superior, Capt. George T. Gregory, at Blue Book headquarters. Gregory looked shocked, left the room for a short period, and returned to state, "Well, we just cannot talk about those cases."
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The 1952 Washington D.C. UFO Incident
A few minutes before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, an air traffic controller at National Airport in Washington, D.C., noticed some odd blips on his radar screen. Knowing that no aircraft were flying in that area --15 miles to the southwest of the capital -- he rushed to inform his boss, Harry G. Barnes. Barnes recalled a few days later, "We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed. . . . [T]heir movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft." They moved with such sudden bursts of intense speed that radar could not track them continuously.
Soon, National Airport's other radar, Tower Central (set on short-range detection, unlike Barnes' Airway Traffic Control Central [ARTC]), was tracking unknowns. At Andrews AFB, ten miles to the east, Air Force personnel gaped incredulously as bright orange objects in the southern sky circled, stopped abruptly, and then streaked off at blinding speeds. Radar at Andrews AFB also picked up the strange phenomena.
The sightings and radar trackings continued until 3 A.M. By then witnesses on the ground and in the air had observed the UFOs, and at times all three radar sets had tracked them simultaneously.
Exciting and scary as all this had been, it was just the beginning of an incredible episode. The next evening radar tracked UFOs as they performed extraordinary "gyrations and reversals," in the words of one Air Force weather observer. Moving at more than 900 miles per hour, the objects gave off radar echoes exactly like those of aircraft or other solid targets. Sightings and trackings occurred intermittently during the week and then erupted into a frenzy over the following weekend. At one point, as an F-94 moved on targets ten miles away, the UFOs turned the tables and darted en masse toward the interceptor, surrounding it in seconds. The badly shaken pilot, Lt. William Patterson, radioed Andrews AFB to ask if he should open fire. The answer, according to Albert M. Chop, a civilian working as a press spokesperson for the Air Force who was present, was "stunned silence. . . . After a tense moment, the UFOs pulled away and left the scene."
As papers, politicians, and public clamored for answers, the Air Force hosted the biggest press conference in history. A transcript shows that the spokesperson engaged in what amounted to double-talk, but the reporters, desperate for something to show their editors, picked up on Capt. Roy James' off-the-cuff suggestion that temperature inversions had caused the radar blips. James, a UFO skeptic, had arrived in Washington only that morning and had not participated in the ongoing investigation.
Nonetheless, headlines across the country echoed the sentiments expressed in the Washington Daily News: "SAUCER" ALARM DISCOUNTED BY PENTAGON; RADAR OBJECTS LAID TO COLD AIR FORMATIONS. This "explanation" got absolutely no support from those who had seen the objects either in the air or on the radar screens, and the U.S. Weather Bureau, in a little-noted statement, rejected the theory. In fact, the official Air Force position, which it had successfully obscured, was that the objects were "unknowns."
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CIA Involvement in UFO Debunking
After the Washington D.C. UFO incidents, while the nation's opinion makers -- satisfied that all was well -- went on to other stories, the aftershocks of the UFO invasion reverberated throughout the defense establishment. H. Marshall Chad well, assistant director of the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence, warned CIA director Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, "At any moment of attack [from the Soviet Union], we are now in a position where we cannot, on an instant basis, distinguish hardware from phantom, and as tension mounts we will run the increasing risk of false alerts and the even greater danger of falsely identifying the real as phantom."
Chadwell feared that the Soviets could plant UFO reports as a psychological warfare exercise to sow "mass hysteria and panic." In fact, as The New York Times noted in an August 1, 1952, analysis, the Washington sightings and others across the country in July were so numerous that "regular intelligence work had been affected."
In fact, during the Washington events traffic related to the UFO sightings had clogged all intelligence channels. If the Soviets had chosen to take advantage of the resulting paralysis to launch an air or ground invasion of the United States, there would have been no way for the appropriate warnings to get through.
Determined that this would never happen again, the CIA approached Project Blue Book and said it wanted to review the UFO data accumulated since 1947. In mid-January a scientific panel headed by CIA physicist H. P. Robertson briefly reviewed the Air Force material, dismissed it quickly, and went on to its real business: recommending ways American citizens could be discouraged from seeing, reporting, or believing in flying saucers. The Air Force should initiate a "debunking" campaign and enlist the services of celebrities on the unreality of UFOs. Beyond that official police agencies should monitor civilian UFO research groups "because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking. . . . The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind."
The panel's existence and its conclusions remained secret for years, but the impact on official UFO policy was enormous. In short order Project Blue Book was downgraded, becoming little more than a public-relations exercise.
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The Condon Report on UFOs
In 1966 the Air Force sponsored a project, directed by University of Colorado physicist Edward U. Condon, to conduct what was billed as an "independent" study. In fact it was part of an elaborate scheme to allow the Air Force, publicly anyway, to get out of the UFO business.
The Condon committee was to review or reinvestigate Project Blue Book data and decide if further investigation was warranted. As an internal memorandum leaked to Look magazine in 1968 showed, Condon and his chief assistant knew before they started that they were to reach negative conclusions.
Condon sparked a fire storm of controversy when he summarily dismissed two investigators who, not having gotten the message, returned from the field with positive findings. In January 1969, when the committee's final report was released in book form, readers who did not get past Condon's introduction were led to believe that "further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified on the expectation that science will be advanced thereby." Those who bothered to read the book found that fully one-third of the cases examined remained unexplained, and scientist-critics would later note that even some of the "explained" reports were unconvincingly accounted for.
But that did not matter; Condon arid his committee had done their job, and the Air Force closed down Project Blue Book at the end of the year.
Some years later a revealing memo came to light through the Freedom of Information Act. It amounted to confirmation of a long-standing suspicion: Project Blue Book served as a front for a classified project that handled the truly sensitive reports. The memo, prepared on October 20, 1969, by Brig. Gen. C. H. Bolender, the Air Force's Deputy Director of Development, noted that "reports of UFOs which could affect national security should continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedure designed for this purpose." He did not explain what this "standard Air Force procedure" was, and the 16 pages attached to his memo -- which presumably would have shed some light on this curious assertion -- are missing from the Air Force files.
The Bolender memo was the first whiff from the cover-up's smoking gun. There would be more --a lot more -- in the years to come.
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UFO Crash Stories
The stories began to circulate in the late 1940s. They were so fantastic that even those willing to seriously consider the possibility of extraterrestrial visitation responded with incredulity.
In fact, no more than a couple of weeks after Kenneth Arnold's sighting ushered in the UFO age, the first such story hit the press. On the afternoon of July 8, 1947, a New Mexico paper, the Roswell Daily Record, startled the nation with a report of a flying saucer crash near Corona, Lincoln County, northwest of Roswell, and of the recovery of the wreckage by a party from the local Army Air Force base. Soon, however, the Air Force assured reporters that it had all been a silly mistake: The material was from a downed balloon.
Though this particular incident was quickly forgotten, rumors of recovered saucers and, in addition, the bodies of their alien occupants, became a staple of popular culture -- and con games. In 1949 Variety columnist Frank Scully wrote that a "government scientist" and a Texas oilman had told him of three crashes in the Southwest. The following year Scully expanded these claims into a full-length, best-selling book, Behind the Flying Saucers, which claimed that the occupants of these vehicles were humanlike Venusians dressed in the "style of 1890." But two years later True magazine revealed in a scathing exposé that Scully's sources were two veteran confidence men, Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer. Newton and GeBauer were posing respectively as an oilman and a magnetics scientist in an attempt to set up a swindle involving oil-detection devices tied to extraterrestrial technology.
To serious ufologists, including those who suspected the government wasn't telling everything it knew about UFOs, crash stories were farfetched yarns of "little men in pickle jars." A person with such a story got a chilly reception when he or she passed it on to anyone but fringe ufologists. In 1952 Ed J. Sullivan of the Los Angeles-based Civilian Saucer Investigators wrote that such tales "are damned for the simple reason, that after years of circulation, not one soul has come forward with a single concrete fact to support the assertions. . . . We ask you to beware of the man who tells you that his friend knows the man with the pickle jar. There is good reason why he effects [sic] such an air of mystery, why he has been 'sworn to secrecy' -- because he can't produce the friend -- or the pickle jar."
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UFO Rumors and the Government
In 1954, after President Dwight Eisenhower dropped out of sight while visiting California (sparking a press-wire report that he had died), it was alleged that he had taken a secret trip to Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) to view alien remains -- or, as another version had it, to confer with living aliens. A soldier with the Air Force confided that in 1948 he and other soldiers were dispatched to a New Mexico site to dismantle a nearly intact craft, from which an earlier party had removed the bodies of little men.
In Europe it was said that the Norwegian military found a saucer on a remote North Atlantic island of Spitsbergën, or maybe it was the German military and the island was Heligoland. On May 23, 1955, newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen wrote, "British scientists and airmen after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship are convinced that these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions but are actual flying saucers which originate on another planet."
Over Chesapeake Bay on the evening of July 14, 1952, the pilot and copilot of a Pan American DC-3 had a much-publicized encounter with eight plate-shaped UFOs. The next morning, as they waited to be interviewed separately by Air Force officers, the two agreed to ask about the crash rumors. Subsequently, the copilot, William Fortenberry, raised the question, and one of the interrogators replied, "Yes, it is true." Pilot William Nash forgot to ask until afterward, when he and Fortenberry met together with the officers.
Nash recalled, "They all opened their mouths to answer the question, whereupon Maj. [John H.] Sharpe looked at them, not me, and said very quickly, 'NO!' It appeared as if he were telling them to shut up rather than addressing the answer to me." Later Nash met a New York radio newsperson who claimed the Air Force had briefed him and two other reporters (one from Life magazine) about its recovery of a crashed UFO.
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Robert Sarbacher Confirms UFO Crash Rumors
A remarkable interview occurred in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 1950, but the content did not leak out until the early 1980s, when Canadian ufologist Arthur Bray found a memo by one of the participants, radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith of Canada's Department of Transport. The memo described a conversation with physicist Robert I. Sarbacher, a consultant with the U.S. Department of Defense Research and Development Board (RDB), at one of the regular meetings Sarbacher and other government scientists conducted with their Canadian counterparts.
Asked about the crash rumors, Sarbacher said they were "substantially correct." He said UFOs "exist. . . . We have not been able to duplicate their performance. . . . All we know is, we didn't make them, and it's pretty certain they didn't originate on the Earth." The issue was so sensitive that "it is classified two points higher even than the H-bomb. In fact it is the most highly classified subject in the U.S. government at the present time." Sarbacher refused to say more.
Smith, who died in 1961, mounted a small, short-lived UFO investigation, Project Magnet, for his government. Through official channels he tried unsuccessfully to learn more than Sarbacher's cryptic remarks had revealed. After the memo surfaced, ufologists found a listing for Sarbacher in Who's Who in America, citing his impressive scientific, business, and educational credentials.
When interviewed, Sarbacher said he had not personally participated in the UFO project, though he knew those who had, including RDB head Vannevar Bush, John von Neumann, and J. Robert Oppenheimer -- three of America's top scientists in the 1940s and 1950s. He had read documents related to the project and on occasion had been invited to participate in Air Force briefings.
"There were reports that instruments or people operating these machines were also of very light weight, sufficient to withstand the tremendous deceleration and acceleration associated with their machinery," Sarbacher told an inquirer in 1983. "I remember in talking with some of the people at the office that I got the impression these 'aliens' were constructed like certain insects we have observed on Earth, wherein because of the low mass the inertial forces involved in operating of these instruments would be quite low. I still do not know why the high order of classification has been given and why the denial of the existence of these devices." Sarbacher could not recall where the crashes had taken place, but he did remember hearing of "extremely light and very tough" materials recovered from them.
Sarbacher's story never varied, and he resisted the temptation to elaborate or speculate. All who interviewed him were impressed. Still, his story could not be verified, since the persons he named were all dead. Sarbacher himself died in the summer of 1986.


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Can the bank raise my interest rate because of a change in my debt-to-income ratio?
Depending on the loan product, banks may change the interest rate on already-existing types of loans if they properly disclose the changes to you.
When setting the interest rate for a loan, banks take many factors into account. A common factor is the debt-to-income ratio (often abbreviated DTI), which is the percentage of a consumer's monthly gross income that goes toward paying debts.
Generally, the higher the ratio, the higher the perceived risk. Loans with higher risk are generally priced at a higher interest rate.


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This one actually doesn't go against any established scientific theories, but rather challenges our common sense assumptions and reaches a conclusion too bizarre to be taken seriously by the scientific mainstream.
In this article, I am trying to show (ideally, prove) that any technology which allows any civilization to leave a noticeable signature on a stellar scale inherently causes the destruction of said civilization. If true, it means we can solve the Fermi paradox without the invocation of the anthropic principle or any assumptions about alien technologies or lifeforms other than pure definitions.
All counterarguments expressed so far are collected in the "Discussion" section. I am looking forward to adding more.


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Political Science
Graduate Funding
Many incoming PhD students receive funding in the form of assistantships and tuition scholarships covering full tuition remission. The Department of Political Science also offers the Hinman Fellowship in Political Science which provides funding for outstanding candidates during their first year of graduate school and summer support for four years. In addition, the State of New York has created the Clifford D. Clark Fellowship program to attract minority candidates. This funding provides graduate students with the opportunity to teach at one of the nation's most selective public undergraduate institutions, as well as to serve as research assistants.