text:
The Unquiet Dead was the third episode of series 1 of Doctor Who.
It was the first episode of the BBC Wales series to be set in the past, relative to the viewer. It was also the first since Timelash to feature an extended encounter with a historical figure from Earth's past. From a production perspective, it was significant for being writer Mark Gatiss' first televised Doctor Who episode. This episode features the first appearance of the Cardiff Space-Time Rift which would reappear this series in Boom Town and become the initial focus of Torchwood.
The mythos of the "darkness" and the "big Bad Wolf" would come to pass in Turn Left and The Parting of the Ways respectively.
Synopsis Edit
The dead are roaming the streets of Cardiff in 1869 when the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler arrive, just in time for Christmas. Teaming up with Charles Dickens, the TARDIS team encounter the Gelth, creatures sucked through the Cardiff Rift from the other end of the universe, their home lost. Surely inhabiting dead bodies is wrong, though! Can both sides be helped, or are these gaseous creatures not to be trusted?
Plot Edit
In the funeral parlour of Sneed and Company in the Victorian era, Mr Redpath grieves over the open casket holding his dead grandmother, Mrs Peace. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. Mrs Peace's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, strangling him to death. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor, then gets up and wanders onto the street, wailing.
Sometime later, Gwyneth, Sneed's young servant girl, returns from looking after the carriage horses in the stables to find Sneed recovering from the cadaver's attack. This is not the first time there have been zombie incidents in the funeral home, and Gwyneth tells Sneed they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault and that they have to get Mrs Peace back before she does any damage. In the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek out the dead woman, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town at Taliesin Lodge. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels he has seen all there is to see.
In the TARDIS, the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns in more suitable attire: an off-the-shoulder gown. The Doctor admires her beauty, "considering" that she's human. They step into the snow-covered streets of history. The Doctor realises when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off — it's Christmas Eve 1869, and they aren't in Naples — they're in Cardiff.
In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol. Just as he reaches the point where Marley's face appears in Scrooge's door knocker, he stops short. In the audience, Mrs Pearce starts to glow blue. Vapour pours out of her mouth, and an ethereal gas with a vaguely humanoid shape sweeps around the hall, emitting ghastly screams and sending the audience into a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor, as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. The vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body and is sucked into a gas lamp, as the body collapses. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed knocks her out with chloroform, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach. The great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase.
Rose awakes in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, just as the gas takes over Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Mr Redpath and his grandmother climb out of their coffins to menace Rose. The house's gas lights flicker. The Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are. The corpses cry that they are dying because the Cardiff Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. The screaming blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse again.
After recovering from the incident, Gwyneth pours the Doctor's tea just the way he likes it — that is, with two sugars — without asking him what his preference is. Rose lashes out at Sneed for drugging her, kidnapping her and locking her in a room full of zombies. The stricken Sneed explains that the house has a reputation as haunted, which is why he bought it at such a low cost. The Doctor tells him that the house was built on top of the Rift, a crack in space-time that's growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is sceptical, refusing to believe there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor informs them that dead bodies release gas when they decompose, making ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. The Doctor tries to reassure him that the real world is still the same; there's just more than Dickens thought.
Rose talks to Gwyneth, finding out she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve after her parents died. The two girls initially get along well. Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the Rift. She is the key. He suggests they hold a séance.
Gwyneth summons the aliens, who speak through her. They identify themselves as the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed in the Last Great Time War, which left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the Rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists they help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the Rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest. She knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux. The future can be rewritten. Nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth this is only a temporary solution — once they possess the bodies, he will take them to another place where they can build permanent ones.
However, when Gwyneth stands at the Rift and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are "a few billion" — much more than they originally implied. They show their true colours. Only dead corpses are not enough for them. They will kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the Rift as the Gelth stream in. Sneed demands Gwyneth to stop, only to have his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and be taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, flees as the Doctor and Rose are backed into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she assures him that she wanted to come. The Doctor and Rose hold hands as they prepare to go out fighting together. He tells Rose he is glad he met her; she replies the same and they share a final smile.
Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street with a scream. Suddenly, he has an idea. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes into the morgue, doing the same, explaining to the Doctor what he is doing: these creatures are gaseous, so the moment the house is filled with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the corpses like poison from a wound. This is precisely what happens; the Gelth pour out of the collapsing corpses, screaming and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here. She takes out a box of matches from her apron, but Rose won't let her carry through.
The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out before the two succumb to the gas fumes. He tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth and leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in an explosion. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised she was dead — and probably had been from the moment she stood in the Rift. Rose does not understand, because Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare: "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act I, scene v). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home and mournfully states, "She saved the world... a servant girl. No one will ever know."
Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. Dickens has overcome his depression, and has regained his thirst for knowledge and adventure. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental to warn humanity of the Gelth. He asks the Doctor if his books will last. The Doctor assures a smiling Dickens his work will last... forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story; he dies the following year, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood will never be finished. Right now, though, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. The Doctor decides to give Dickens one final surprise...
Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and exclaiming, "God bless us, everyone!"
Cast Edit
- Doctor Who – Christopher Eccleston
- Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
- Gabriel Sneed – Alan David
- Redpath – Huw Rhys
- Mrs Peace – Jennifer Hill
- Gwyneth – Eve Myles
- Charles Dickens – Simon Callow
- Stage Manager – Wayne Cater
- Driver — Meic Povey
- The Gelth – Zoe Thorne
Crew Edit
|Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young
|Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
References Edit
- Sneed once did a bishop a favour.
- The Doctor was aiming for Naples, 24 December 1860, but they arrive in Cardiff, Christmas Eve, 1869.
- According to the Doctor, Rose is nineteen years old.
- As he panics about how he is going to die in the dungeon in Cardiff, the Doctor claims he has seen the fall of Troy and World War V, and has "pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party".
- Dickens calls the Doctor a "navvy".
- The deceased are laid to rest in the Chapel of Rest.
Foods and beverages Edit
Last Great Time War Edit
Space-time anomalies Edit
Bad Wolf Edit
- When looking into Rose's mind, Gwyneth is frightened and breaks off contact when she sees "the things you've seen... the darkness... the big bad wolf!"
Story notes Edit
- The Unquiet Dead was initially titled My Name's Dickens... Charles Dickens.[1] It later held the title The Crippingwell Horror. The Angels of Crippingwell was also considered as a title.[2][3][4]
- Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television and in a one-man show.
- The address on Sneed's hearse indicates his mortuary is in Llandaff where the BBC Wales production offices are. Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks, was also born there.
- There are several literary in-jokes during Dickens and the Doctor's conversation in the coach.
- The "American bit" in Martin Chuzzlewit, which the Doctor describes as "rubbish" and "padding", was indeed inserted by Dickens to spice up the original serialised story when sales flagged, although the gambit failed to improve sales.
- The death of Little Nell, which the Doctor says always "cracks [him] up," is cited (notably by Oscar Wilde in 1895) as an example of bathos, excessive sentimentality and purple prose that becomes unintentionally amusing.
- Dickens also cries, "What the Shakespeare?", a play on the common exclamation, "What the Dickens?" Contrary to popular belief, the phrase has nothing to do with Charles Dickens; "Dickens" is a euphemism for the Devil. Riffing on this comment, in the 2006 Big Finish Productions audio drama The Kingmaker, William Shakespeare cries, "What the Geoffrey Chaucer?" Shakespeare used the phrase "What the Dickens" in his work (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, scene ii).
- Mark Gatiss stated in Radio Times that the original script was bleaker and more frightening, but he was advised by Davies to "make it more of a romp."
- The Doctor calls Rose "Barbarella" for wanting to go out before changing into something more suitable for 1869.
- When Eve Myles was cast as Gwen Cooper in Torchwood, it was noted that the character she played in The Unquiet Dead had a similar name. Russell T Davies initially stated that there was no relationship between the two characters. In the fourth season finale episode, Journey's End, written by Davies, there is a short conversation between the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, which suggests that Gwyneth's physical characteristics remained as an echo in the Time Rift and eventually imprinted themselves into Gwen. Russell T Davies has explained it as "It's not familial as we understand it. There's no blood tie. Spatial genetic multiplicity means an echo and repetition of physical traits across a Time Rift."
- According to Mark Gatiss on this story's commentary, there was originally going to be a scene in which the Doctor was mistaken for Sneed's new cleaner. Someone would have stated, "I thought you'd be a woman" to which the Doctor replies "No, not yet", hinting that Time Lords can change sex.
Ratings Edit
- 8.86 million (UK final)[5]
Broadcasts Edit
- An advert for the American broadcast of this episode on the Sci Fi Channel read, "The year: 1869. The place: England. The problem: The walking dead." The episode is set in Wales, not England. The location of this episode is also misidentified as "Victorian England" in Doctor Who: The Interactive Electronic Board Game by Toy Brokers.
- Author and Faction Paradox creator Lawrence Miles posted a damning review of this episode on the Internet within an hour of its broadcast, focusing on a perceived political subtext suggesting that asylum seekers (the Gelth) are really all evil and out to exploit liberal generosity (the Doctor). The review produced some considerable backlash in Internet forums, especially in light of his favourable reviews of Rose and The End of the World, mainly over his comments about writer Mark Gatiss. Miles conceded in a later edit of the review that the subtext was probably unintentional, but still felt it should have been detected and edited out of the script.[6]
Filming locations Edit
- Although the story is set in 19th century Cardiff, the production was actually filmed in Swansea and Monmouth, as there were not enough Victorian-looking buildings in Cardiff.
- The funeral parlour was filmed at a children's home in Cardiff.
- New Theatre, Cardiff (Theatre where Charles Dickens gives his performance)
- Beaufort Arms Court, Monmouth
- White Swan Court, Monmouth
- Headlands School, Penarth
- Cambrian Place, Swansea Marina, Swansea
- Shire Hall, Monmouth
- St Mary's Street, Monmouth
- Unit Q2, Imperial Park, Imperial Way, Newport
Production errors Edit
- Redpath reacts when the lid is taken off the coffin he is in.
- At the end, the Doctor and Rose treat Charles Dickens by making the TARDIS dematerialise in front of him. The engines begin to grind but the twin-engine pumps do not move.
- In one of the scenes set in the theatre when the Doctor and Rose confront Gelth for the first time an electric light switch is visible on the wall behind Rose.
Explainable Errors Edit
Internet Movie Database Edit
Anachronisms Edit
- Dickens uses the phrase "On with the motley." which is anachronistically incorrect. The phrase translates from "vesti la giubba", a line of dialogue from the opera 'I Pagliacci'. The opera wasn't written until 1892, and wasn't translated into English until 1902 (by Enrico Caruso). The phrase could have been use years before it was included in the opera.
Miscellaneous Edit
- When The Doctor and Rose first land, he tells her the date is December 24, 1860. Later in Charles Dickens' dressing room there is a poster listing the date as December 24, 1869. The Doctor was aiming for 1860, and didn't realise they were in 1869 until after he and Rose had left the TARDIS.
Movie Mistakes Edit
Corrections Edit
- When Rose is having a friendly chat with Gwyneth, just before the Doctor walks in the room, a crew member's shoulder and arm is visible in the bottom left of the screen. That's the Doctor's shoulder and arm. The material of the clothing is the same as his jacket, and he's standing the same distance away from Rose and Gwyneth.
- The Doctor advises Rose to change her clothes as to be less conspicuous in the 1860's, yet he himself does not change his clothing. He states he changed his jumper, however, it has been widely stated that he simply "blends in".
- Charles Dickens says he is going off to catch a mail coach ("Quite literally 'Post Haste'" is the line). However, mail coaches ceased to be in regular use some 40 years earlier in the 1830s, killed off by the arrival of the railway network. He could be using slang. Mail coach = Mail train.
Continuity Edit
- Gwyneth references the "big bad wolf" when sensing Rose's thoughts. The phrase "Bad Wolf" would prove to have special meaning in Rose's future. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
- Rose has been thinking about her father a lot recently. (TV: Father's Day)
- The Doctor suggests Gwyneth's powers are due to her growing up near the time rift. Mrs Tyler developed psychic abilities due to spending her childhood near a time fissure. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
- The Doctor and Rose revisit the Cardiff rift in the 21st century, (TV: Boom Town) and Torchwood Three would regularly monitor and interact with it over the course of many years. (TV: Everything Changes, et al.)
- The Doctor gives Rose some complicated directions to the TARDIS wardrobe: "First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left." Previously the Fourth Doctor asked Leela to escort Chancellor Borusa to the VIP suite. The directions were so complicated that she lost her way and left him in a luxurious bathroom instead. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
- This echoes a similar conversation between Romana and Chris Parsons (TV: Shada, WC: Shada) about where to find the TARDIS medical kit.
- The Eleventh Doctor gives a similarly complicated set of directions to Amy Pond about finding the drawing room (GAME: TARDIS):
Half a mile down the corridor, left, then right, then right again, then the third right, past a weird swirly thing, left, then the other left, through the sunroom, past a green door, right, along a wall until it becomes slimy, down a lift to the third floor and straight ahead - easy-peasy!"
- The Doctor's partiality to the works of Dickens was indicated previously when the Sixth Doctor quoted A Tale of Two Cities. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) The Fourth Doctor also read out a description of Little Nell's dress (from The Old Curiosity Shop). (TV: Shada)
- Rose later references both her conversation with Gwyneth and Gwyneth's sacrifice. (TV: Boom Town)
- Rose and the Tenth Doctor notice that Gwen Cooper bears a strong resemblance to Gwyneth, which the Doctor attributes to several generations of Gwen's family having lived in Cardiff. (TV: Journey's End)
- Donna Noble unintentionally references these events: "Yeah, but think about it. There's a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie... No, but isn't that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders. Not really. I mean that's like meeting Charles Dickens, and he's surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas." The Doctor reacts but does not explain. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)
- The Doctor will later have many more adventures at or near Christmas. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, The Runaway Bride, Voyage of the Damned, The Next Doctor, The End of Time, A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, The Snowmen, Last Christmas, Twice Upon a Time)
- During his sixth incarnation, the Doctor encountered the Artful Dodger, a major character from Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, in the Land of Fiction. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen)
- Charles Dickens later reappears as part of an alternative timeline created by River Song's defiance of a fixed point in time. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
- The Doctor mentions that he saw the fall of Troy. (TV: The Myth Makers)
- During his eighth incarnation, the Doctor met Charles Dickens in the Reform Club in London in 1866. The two of them got into an argument about an error in Great Expectations. (AUDIO: The Man Who Wasn't There)
- This is not the only time the Doctor is called a "navvie" in this incarnation. (PROSE: The Albino's Dancer)
- Despite Rose and Dickens struggling to breathe as the dungeon fills with gas, the Doctor shows no issues with it due to his respiratory bypass system. The Fourth Doctor was previously able to avoid breathing in helium because of it. (TV: The Robots of Death)
Home video releases Edit
- This story was released along with Rose and The End of the World on a "vanilla" DVD with no extras.
- It was also part of the Series 1 DVD box set.
- This story was also released with Issue 2 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.
External links Edit
- BBC - Doctor Who - Episode Guide - The Unquiet Dead
- The Unquiet Dead at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Unquiet Dead at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
- The Discontinuity Guide to: The Unquiet Dead at The Whoniverse
- The Unquiet Dead at The Locations Guide
Footnotes Edit
- ↑ Nine Christmas-related things you (probably) didn't know about Doctor Who... (4 December 2016). Retrieved on 4 December 2016.
- ↑ The Unquiet Dead. A Brief History Of Time (Travel). Retrieved on 4 December 2016.
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/2bf7eea9-a575-4947-8698-8cdcb7386518
- ↑ REF: The Shooting Scripts
- ↑ Doctor Who - consolidated ratings
- ↑ http://lawrencemiles.blogspot.co.uk/2005/04/unquiet-dead.html


text:
Photographer's Note
This photograph is taken towards a direction of Meiji street from the Ōkubo passage facing to Shin-Ōkubo Station contiguous to Shinjuku. It is known as a Korean town in Tokyo this whole place, and many Korean shops stand in a row in the alley which goes as the both sides which faced as Ōkubo passage and the back alley connecting to syokuan street. The food supermarket, the clothes store, the cafe, entertainments goods, etc. are establishing eaves centering on nearly 200 Korean restaurants. It is a peculiar atmosphere. It is said for it to be the foundation of Shin-Ōkubo Korean town that the Korean resident in Japan and the migrant worker from South Korea who work for the factory of Lotte begun to live together in a concentrated community, since the factory of Lotte which is a korean company in Japan at the postwar period begun the business in this toen. Because it was a holiday on Saturday on that day, many people were coming to this place.
The food supermarket in korean town: workshop
Critiques | Translate
pajaran (100718) 2014-02-01 8:24
Dobar dan.
Interesantan tekst o naselju i ulici, sa opisom ...
Dobar snimak, kontrast i perspektiva, lepo pokazano mesto i trenuta, lepe boje.
Dobar rad sa lepom fotografijom u radionici, lepo ulovljen trenutak i fasade sa reklamama.
Sve najbolje.
Good afternoon.
An interesting article about the neighborhood and the street , with a description ...
Good picture, contrast and perspective , nice place and shown presently , beautiful colors .
Good work with beautiful photography workshop , nicely captured moments and facades with ads .
All the best .
mcmtanyel (58669) 2014-02-01 20:40
Hi Mikio,
We have Chinatowns in big American cities, you have a "Koreatown" in Tokyo! You have a good quality photo, as usual, with an informative note. TFS.
fabbs99 (17179) 2014-02-01 22:30
Hello Mikio,
This is a marvelous image of the Downtown Tokyo.Perfect composition and sharpness.Keep sharing. TFS
ikeharel (104645) 2014-02-02 1:13
To western eyes, like myself - I'd never guess the difference, Mikio.
Looks as a vivid and vibrant town scenery, colors and people around gave excelent texture. Fog on high level above buildings, but not to be a great disturbance to the whole.
Have a nice new week,
saxo042 (38078) 2014-02-02 6:43
Hi Mikio,
A very interesting street view with a good glimpse of daily life in this big city. Many examples of the architecture and many fine and enjoyable details.
Kind regards
abmdsudi (87095) 2014-02-04 4:28
Hi Mikio
An excellent street shot full of activity and thks to your in-depth narratives - they are part of social fabric in Japan. Technically the image is of high-quality and well-timed besides being colourful. I think you've got good eye contact - she steals the show as being part of the scene This is hugely enjoyable that you've captured the diversity and expressive image. Well done shot, Congrats.
Best regards
Photo Information
- Copyright: mikio kato (kato) (11630)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2014-02-01
- Categories: Daily Life
- Camera: Canon IXY DIGITAL 910IS
- Exposure: f/2.8, 1/400 seconds
- More Photo Info: view
- Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
- Date Submitted: 2014-02-01 7:36

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Bellwether state may miss the mark; Nixon wins Mo. gov. race
ST. LOUIS -- The streak may be over.
After correctly predicting the winning candidate in the last 13 presidential elections, Missourians on Tuesday appeared headed toward choosing the wrong guy — picking Sen. John McCain over Sen. Barack Obama. Obama became the 44th president Tuesday. McCain led narrowly with less than 10% of returns still out.
It would be first time a Democratic candidate had the presidency without Missouri and could signal the end of the Show Me State's status as a bellwether.
A possible factor: the dwindling number of ethnic minorities even as the nation becomes more diversified, said Jeff Smith, a Democratic state senator from St. Louis.
"When you think of middle America, you think of Missouri," Smith said. "But the country is getting increasingly diverse. And Missouri is lagging behind."
Located smack in the center of the country, Missouri has long represented the demographics and culture of the USA, said Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
But that's quickly changing. Missouri has a higher-than-average number of evangelical Christian residents and fewer Latinos (3%) than the national average (15%), Robertson said.
"The strength of evangelicals remains a very formidable part of the Republican coalition that has to be reckoned with well into the future," Robertson said.
Democrats did vote in Jeremiah "Jay" Nixon as governor. He beat out Republican Kenny Hulshof to replace Matt Blunt, also a Republican.
African-American and student voters mobilized across the state early for Obama, often lining up at polls before dawn. Eddie Caumiant, an Obama volunteer, arrived at Yeatman-Liddell Preparatory Junior High, in a predominantly black neighborhood of St. Louis, at 5 a.m., expecting thin crowds, he said. Instead, several hundred voters were already lined up, he said.
At St. Louis University, student voters began lining up about 5 a.m. More than 2,200 students registered for the presidential election, a school record, university officials said. Many of them were for Obama.
"He really connects with the American people and students," said Samantha Minor, 20, a junior communications major. "He had to pay back his student loans, too."
Both camps courted Missourians — and the 11 electoral votes they represented — in the days leading up to the election. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Democratic running mate Joe Biden and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton all held rallies the weekend before Tuesday.
The battle for Missouri played out in the suburbs and rural neighborhoods. The Obama campaign worked hard in the rural areas. Of the 44 Obama campaign offices across the state, 29 were in rural areas, said Justin Hamilton, an Obama spokesman in Missouri.
By comparison, the McCain campaign had 15 offices across the state, spokeswoman Wendy Riemann said. Volunteers spread out through rural areas, spreading the Republican message of lower taxes and less government, said Gentry Collins, who directed McCain's Midwest efforts from Iowa. "Missouri is still slightly right of center and still values the Second Amendment," Collins said. "They're not looking for a liberal candidate."
State office
• Democrat Jay Nixon, Missouri's longest-serving attorney general, won election as governor Tuesday by turning back Republican Congressman Kenny Hulshof.
Nixon fared well among all ages and races of voters and in both urban and rural parts of Missouri.
He ran on a dual platform of experience and change, referring to his record 16 years of service as attorney general and to his party's out-of-power status for the past four years. His blue, orange and white campaign banners proclaimed: "Jay Nixon. Independent. Experienced. The Change We Need."
Change was guaranteed after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt unexpectedly announced in January that he would not seek a second term. Nixon will become Missouri's fifth governor in 10 years when he is sworn into office in January 2009.
Nixon and Hulshof focused their campaigns on the economy, education and health care while casting each other as big spenders incapable of changing Missouri's Capitol. Although Nixon had been campaigning for three years, Hulshof entered the race only after Blunt exited it.
Nixon, 52, of Jefferson City, was practically born a politician. He grew up in the small eastern Missouri town of De Soto, where his father was the mayor and later the municipal judge and his mother served as the school board president and on the city park board. During stump speeches, Nixon commonly quipped that he got his political start answering constituent phone calls during family dinners.
After sports practices, a high-school-aged Nixon donned a coat to package the products of a local ice house. He got his union card working as the low man on construction crews, carrying pipes to build sewage plants, steel for iron workers and wood for carpenters.
A young attorney, Nixon won election to the state Senate in 1986 at the earliest age possible under law, then began his run as Missouri's longest-serving attorney general in 1993.
In the mid-1990s, Nixon relied on his assistant, Hulshof, to prosecute some of the state's highest-profile crimes. During lunch breaks at the office, they played pickup basketball games.
Hulshof, 50, of Columbia, first ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1994. A year later, he left Nixon's office to try again for Missouri's 9th Congressional District. Hulshof unseated longtime Democratic Rep. Harold Volkmer and won re-election to five more terms.
• Democrat Chris Koster emerged from a nasty attorney general race Tuesday and defeated Republican Michael Gibbons, while Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder was the only Republican to win a statewide office.
Koster, a former Cass County prosecutor who lives in Raymore, switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party last year and was dogged throughout the primary by ethics complaints against his fundraising and negative ads funded by his ex-wife.
In the campaign's final weeks, Gibbons and Koster launched a full-blown ad war against each other. Koster accused Gibbons of voting for more lenient prison sentences and supporting clemency for a murderer. Gibbons, of Kirkwood, criticized Koster for a 1991 arrest for writing three bad checks totaling less than $20 and claimed Koster once accepted campaign donations that could be tied to the mob.
Koster told The Associated Press in an interview that his focus has turned to taking over an attorney general's office that has had only one boss for the last 16 years. Attorney General Jay Nixon skipped re-election in 2008 to instead run for governor.
"The political season is sometimes messy, but I find it unproductive to do anything but move the past aside and move forward," Koster said.
A spokesman for Gibbons' campaign said that Gibbons decided to concede defeat just after 11 p.m. as Koster's lead continued to grow.
"We left it all on the table. We did as good as we could possibly do," Gibbons said in his concession speech.
Kinder, of Cape Girardeau, claimed a second term as lieutenant governor over Democratic challenger Sam Page, of Creve Coeur.
Kinder spent two weeks this year lining up support for a gubernatorial run before abruptly switching course. When he instead decided to run for re-election, he went on the offensive even before Page had won the Democratic primary. In their first debate, Kinder called Page a hypocrite who has cast self-serving votes.
Page has accused Kinder of misusing state funds to support pet projects, such as a professional bicycle race, and of allowing state staff to do political work.
In the state treasurer's race, Democrat Clint Zweifel, of Florissant, knocked off Republican Brad Lager, of Savannah. Zweifel, will become the state's youngest state treasurer in more than a century. He replaces Republican Sarah Steelman, who decided to run for governor instead of re-election.
And Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, of St. Louis, easily won re-election against Republican Mitch Hubbard, of Fulton.
Carnahan was one of the lone bright spots for Missouri Democrats when she won election in the otherwise Republican year of 2004. This year, high-profile Republicans decided against challenging Carnahan, who is the daughter of a former governor and former U.S. senator and the sister of a congressman.
Hubbard, the manager of a McDonald's in Fulton, raised little money. His main issue was criticizing Carnahan about summaries written by her office for ballot measures.
Republican Sam Graves held off Democrat Kay Barnes to win a fifth term in his northwest Missouri district Tuesday, ending what had become perhaps Missouri's nastiest congressional race.
Graves' victory was based on an analysis of current returns and information from voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
With 77% of precincts counted, Graves was leading Barnes 61% to 35%.
The race was one of two House seats that Democrats targeted in the state in hopes of padding their majority in Congress. Republicans worked to keep the GOP's 5-4 advantage among the state's nine House seats.
Democrats also focused on central Missouri's 9th District, where Democrat Judy Baker and Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer were in a heated race to win the open seat created when Republican Kenny Hulshof decided to run for governor.
With 89% of precincts counted, Luetkemeyer was leading Baker 50% to 47.5%.
Barnes was expected to be the strongest challenger Graves faced since he won the seat in 2000. Both candidates raised more than $5 million between them, with Barnes outraising the incumbent. She hoped to benefit from voter discontent with President Bush and a national wave that was projected to help Democrats boost their majority in the House by at least a dozen, and perhaps two dozen seats.
But Barnes could not overcome the entrenched support for Graves, a Tarkio farmer, in the rural counties that make up much of the district. Graves, too, lived up to his reputation for launching hard-hitting attack ads, going after Barnes early with a spot that showed a black man and two white women dancing suggestively at a bar. The ad claimed Barnes would embrace the liberal "San Francisco values" of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Barnes later fired back with her own bristling ad that claimed Graves failed to pay taxes on airplanes he owned and benefited from a sweetheart deal to renovate the Tarkio airport on land his family had a right to reclaim. Local officials had denied both claims.
The 9th District race saw Luetkemeyer, a former state lawmaker and Missouri tourism director from St. Elizabeth, pour about $1.5 million of his own money into the contest to keep up with Baker's fundraising.
National Democrats, sensing the chance to pick up a Republican seat, have spent about $1 million on television ads to boost Baker, a state House member from Columbia.
Meanwhile, in the state's seven other House districts, incumbent lawmakers easily defeated lesser known rivals.
The Associated Press declared the winners based on an analysis of current returns, voter turnout and previous voting patterns.
• Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay defeated Libertarian Robb Cunningham in the 1st District of St. Louis.
• Republican Rep. Todd Akin beat Democrat Bill Haas in the St. Louis County-area 2nd District.
• Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan defeated Republican Chris Sander in St. Louis' 3rd District.
• Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton beat Republican Jeff Parnell in central and western Missouri's 4th District.
• Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver defeated Republican Jacob Turk in Kansas City's 5th District.
• Republican Rep. Roy Blunt beat Democrat Richard Monroe in southwest Missouri's 7th District.
• Republican Rep. Jo Ann Emerson defeated Democrat Joe Allen in southeast Missouri's 8th District.
• The state will no longer require gamblers to limit their losses at casinos, ending a rule that did not exist in any other state in the country.
Removal of the loss limits and changes in other casino regulations was forecast to bring in millions more in revenue for the state's schools and local services — all without raising taxes.
Proposition A, called the "Schools First Elementary and Secondary Education Funding Initiative," was one of five statewide issues approved by voters Tuesday.
It repeals the $500 loss limit at casinos, caps the licensing of new casinos and raises taxes on existing ones. Supporters said it also would allow Missouri casinos to compete more effectively with casinos in neighboring states that do not have loss limits.
With 98% of the precincts reporting, Proposition A won approval of 56% of voters.
The gambling initiative — funded almost entirely by the owners of Missouri's casinos — was forecast to raise more than $100 million a year in additional revenue for schools and local services.
"The approval of Proposition A, the Schools First Initiative, by Missouri voters is a win for our state's economy, our schools and common sense," said Scott Charton, spokesman for the YES on A Coalition, which spearheaded the effort.
"It means Missouri can finally compete for casino visitors and revenues on a level playing field with neighboring states, and it means there will be more revenues to help fund elementary and secondary education from the gaming tax paid by casinos."
Currently, Missouri requires gamblers who lose up to $500 in two hours to wait until the next two-hour "excursion" before buying up to $500 more in chips or tokens.
Supporters of Proposition A argued that Missouri lost gambling revenue to neighboring states that don't have the loss limits. And they noted that the initiative would raise needed revenue for the state's schools without raising anyone's taxes.
Opponents contended the measure was designed to help the state's current casinos increase profits and reduce competition from new casinos. They also said the loss limits reduced problem gambling and gambling-related crime.
A spokesman for Casino Watch, the main opponent of the measure, did not return a phone call from The Associated Press Tuesday night.
• Voters also agreed to amend the Missouri Constitution to make English the state's official language for all government proceedings. Amendment 1 prohibits using any other language in all government meetings, as well as on ballots, driver's license exams and other documents.
• Another amendment that changes part of the constitution that permits the awarding of state grants and loans for local storm water projects also passed.
• And two other initiatives — one requiring the state's three electric utilities to increase the use of renewable sources and another that created a state council to oversee the work of some home health care workers — also passed.
Proposition C, the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative, will require the state's three electric utilities to get 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. It would require that any rate increase not exceed 1%. With 98% of the votes in, the proposition had 62% of the vote.
Also approved by voters was Proposition B, which will create a Quality Home Health Care Council to oversee and recommend changes in working conditions for home health care workers. It also will allow the workers to unionize, but ban them from striking. It had 75% of the vote with 98% of the precincts reporting.
• A proposed constitutional amendment that involves the awarding of state grants and loans for local storm water projects passed with 58% of the vote with 98% of precincts reporting. The amendment removes a cap on how much money the Legislature can make available for storm-water projects and removes restrictions on how the money is spent.
Contributing: Associated Press


text:
Your Question
- Proofread your question carefully! We can't help you if your question is incomplete, unclear, or missing important information (like the name of the book you are asking about).
- Only ask one question per submission. If a post contains multiple questions, an Educator will only pick one to answer. Questions must be not longer than 100 words.
- Don't repost a question you've already asked before. Duplicate questions will be sent back.
- We're here to help you learn and understand your homework. Educators won't do your assignment for you.


text:
We create technology that makes it easier for people to learn.
We identify areas where technology is failing to enhance learning environments, and create accessible solutions. Our solutions span the K-12 sector, business environment, continuing education community, and more.
We celebrate and encourage life-long learning by constantly developing solutions to make the learning experience more simple. No matter what the subject matter, we believe that people who aspire to be and know more should not be hindered by obnoxious technology. That's why all of our projects and platforms are designed to be crisp, clean, and easy to use, while delivering rock solid content. Learning is not easy, but we can make it simple.


text: grandinq 33 Posted December 21, 2013 I've had my DT25 since March, and while I've been loving it, I never turned the master volume beyond 3, as it always seemed plenty loud. I had noticed reading this forum that many of you keep the master a 1 or 2 o'clock, and with the family out today and the house to myself, I decided to give it a try. Wow! What a difference! I ended up turning down a lot of the patch volumes on my POD hd500. There was just something magical about the master volume being up that high. The Plexi 100 for the first time sounded amazing to me. I noticed I dialed back the drive or distortion effects more at higher volume, as they amp was doing plenty of driving on its own. My only concern was that my clean sounds lost their clean-ness with the master volume up. For some songs, I like a really pristine, glassy clean sound. But when the master volume is beyond 12 o'clock, this nice overdrive kicks in -- nice if that's what I wanted. I tried playing around with different combinations of Twin, Bassman, etc. The closest I could come to maintaining a clean quality at high volume was an AC15, though it lacked the Fender character I was looking for. Has anyone been able to dial in a nice clean sound while keeping the master volume cranked? Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Duck Dynasty is growing into quite the dynasty indeed.
Losties? Trekkies? Which TV show has the best fans? Vote now!
The A&E reality show grabbed 4.3 and 4.4 million viewers, respectively, for its new episodes at 10/9c and 10:30/9:30c. Even more impressive was the show's ratings in the adults ages 18-49 demographic: 1.9 and 2.0, respectively. In that demo, Duck Dynasty beat network series Nashville (1.8) and Chicago Fire (1.6), as well as cable hit American Horror Story: Asylum (1.8).
Duck Dynasty, which follows the Robertson family which amassed a fortune from the sale of their duck calls, premiered in March to 1.6 million viewers and a 0.8 rating.
Are you watching Duck Dynasty?


text:
The week in review
Hottest Team in Hoops: The Washington Wizards continue to defy expectations as they extend their winning streak to four games with their best season start in 30 years. Washington's 95-88 victory over the Chicago Bulls December 5 moves the team to 10-5 on the year and within a half game of first place in the NBA's Southeast Division. "We don't have the same team as last year– or the year before," Gilbert Arenas tells the AP after ignoring back and calf cramps to score 34 points in the win. "It's a different team. We got a different attitude, and we want to win."
Tragedies Come in Threes: The UVA men's soccer team bows out of the NCAA quarterfinals with a 3-0 setback at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils on a chilly night at Klöckner Stadium, Saturday, December 4. The Cavs had enjoyed two thrilling triumphs over the Blue Devils earlier in the season, but the third proved the charm for Duke. "We can't play any better than we did [tonight]," Duke coach John Rennie tells the Daily Progress.
Better Late than Never: It may have taken until Week 13, but the Redskins finally conquer three months of woeful offensive play against the division rival New York Giants (5-7) December 5. The Skins (4-8)– who had not broken 20 points all season– explode to put a 21 on the halftime scoreboard while cruising to a 31-7 victory and snapping their three-game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Skins' reliable defense finally is rewarded as they dominate yet another game, allowing only a New York kickoff return to prevent a perfect shutout. "At halftime [ahead 21-0], we told them they better not blow the game for us," Redskins' halfback Clinton Portis tells the AP.
Cardiac Cavalier Basketball: With the regular football season over, basketball takes center stage, and both the men's and women's squads experience early season drama. The men (6-1) pull out hard-fought victories on the road against Northwestern (48-44 December 1), and Auburn in Richmond (89-87 December 3). UVA's late rally to maintain a perfect record falls short in Ames, Iowa, though, as the Hoos suffer a heartbreaking first loss, 81-79, December 6. The ladies (5-3), meanwhile, spend their weekend outside Chicago and also dropped a nail-biter on a buzzer-beating three-point shot to No. 24 Houston 67-64. Debbie Ryan's crew quickly regroups the following day to dominate the home favorite Northwestern Wildcats 76-55 Sunday, December 5.
Strongest Revenge Statement: Three months ago the Monticello Mustangs pranced up to Albemarle's gridiron and shut down the Patriots to win local bragging rights for the fall season. But when winter athletics kicked off Friday, December 3, the AHS boy's basketball team (2-0) exacted revenge, taming the Mustangs 69-48 in their home gym. The Lady Patriots (1-1) also took care of business the same evening by throttling their cross-town rivals, 59-27.
The Week Ahead:
Friday, December 10 @ 7pm
Watch as the ladies battle their in-state foe, ODU. $6 Adults, $4 Youth.
High School Boy's Basketball
Friday, December 10 @ 7:45pm
Tuesday, December 14 @ 7:30pm
Another chapter will be added to some of the oldest rivalries in Central Virginia.
Friday, December 10 @ 7pm
Sunday, December 12 @ 1pm
Wednesday, December 15 @ 7pm
Plenty of action at the MCI Center as the red-hot Wizards look to continue their historic start.
Sunday, December 12 @ 8:30pm
The Skins will find out if last week's offensive breakthrough is truly an improvement or a fluke in an overall disappointing season. Coach Joe Gibbs hopes to prove his legitimacy when the hated and incredibly powerful Eagles (11-1) enter Fed Ex Field. Better hope for an early Christmas present if you want to score these tickets.


text: edouard 0 #1 Posted November 14, 2014 Since every thread dedicated in any way to supermaxis and/or Sydney-Hobart ends up highjacked by the WOXi fanbots, might as well start one about zee boat in zee race with this footage already posted elsewhere. May this thread become the ultimate reference about the most successful motoryacht in sailing history. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
First NEA FY12 Grants to Orchestras Announced - (November, 28, 2011)
November 28, 2011, Washington, D.C. - Grants awarded to orchestras by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) provide vital funding support for projects that encourage and increase access to music in communities nationwide. The first FY12 NEA grant awards in the agency's new funding category, Art Works, were announced on November 17. In addition to supporting local projects directly, NEA funding stimulates crucial giving from other sources like private foundations, corporations, and individual contributors.
Art Works (Part One) grants totaling $1,252,500 will enable 39 distinct orchestra projects to support arts education through student composition training, ensemble learning, specialized coaching, and intensive workshops for inner-city musicians; foster lifelong learning through educational activities, mentorship programs, workshops, master classes, and musician professional development; create new work through commissions and artist residencies; and engage the public through concerts, orchestra tours, and music festivals in communities throughout the country.
Future FY12 grants will be announced for Art Works (Part Two) and Challenge America in the spring of 2012.
The League has compiled the project descriptions for grants to orchestras and grants related to the orchestra field. Complete lists of grant amounts and project descriptions for awards in all disciplines may be found on the NEA web site.
View Orchestra Project Descriptions
The League is a member of the Performing Arts Alliance, a coalition of national performing arts service organizations dedicated to advocating for national policies that recognize, enhance, and foster the contributions the performing arts make to America


text:
James Blunt
Jump to navigation Jump to search
James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount on 22 February, 1974) is a British musician.
|This musician-related article is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it.
- You can't break my spirit, it's my dreams you take.
- "Goodbye My Lover"
- My life is brillant, My love is pure.
- "You're Beautiful"
- It's time to the face the truth, I will never be with you.
- "You're Beautiful"
- Maybe I should try singing like a man.
- Speaking at the 2006 BRIT Awards.[1]
- JB: And the practical consequences of that political reason would be then aggression against the Russians interviewer: might have been world war III. JB: Absolutely. And that's why we were querying our instruction from an American general. Fortunately, up on the radio came Gen Mike Jackson, whose exact words at the time were, 'I'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III


text:
Oops! You have reached a page that is no longer available. Sorry about that!
If you were looking for a recipe – be sure to check out our recipe index.
If you were looking for a craft – then check out our craft tutorials index.
Maybe you were looking for free things to do as a family? Then you have to check out our free family fun section.
Or feel free to use the navigation on the sidebar to help you locate the information you wanted.
Enjoy your stay here at A Heart Full of Love!


text:
Among the smarter moves made by the nü-wave crew at Lotus has been hiring former Formula 1 star Jean Alesi as a brand ambassador/Jeremy Clarkson ballhandler. Today, Lotus announced it was giving Alesi another job: Running the Indianapolis 500.
Alesi, who still races in LeMans and German DTM cars following a 12-year F1 stint, will be making his oval-track debut with Lotus' new 2.2-liter turbo V6, one of a few new engines meant to inject some semblance of a pulse into IndyCar racing. In F1, Alesi was famed for outracing Ayrton Senna in Phoenix in 1990 — and turning that promise into one win, many podiums and a record harvest of rotten luck. With Mario Andretti no longer running, Alesi perfectly fits Indy's historic slot for a star-crossed European racer.


text:
Even back in the early 20th Century there were pollsters. There were blindfolded "taste" tests. And these trials were not related to politics or food. They were related to fountain pens. And "8 Men out of 10 Picked the Duofold" over ten other competitors. The more times change, the more things remain the same. These historic Duofold Classic fountain pens, rollerballs and ballpoints would still be a top selection in today's world of fine writing. The Big Red (although somewhat more orange) is iconic in its representation of this earlier era.
Regular Price: $458.00
Sale Price $366.00
Regular Price: $551.00
Sale Price $440.00
Regular Price: $691.00
Sale Price $552.00
Sold Out


text:
Last Sunday was a great day, a really productive day, a day that gave me a lot of pleasure. My husband and oldest son went away skiing for a few days (No, that wasn't the pleasurable part!) and I was left home with the rest of the gang.
"Do we have any plans today?" one of them asked. "Yes," I replied enthusiastically, "we are going to clean the bedrooms for Pesach!"
There was a lot of moaning and groaning. I think I heard a mumbled, "Do we have to?" and I confess to offering one child a Slurpee as a bribe. But after the initial grumbling, everyone took garbage bag in hand and got to work.
And we all worked and worked and worked. Hour after hour after hour. Garbage bag after garbage bag after garbage bag. It's not that my house was such a mess (!) but we made a wedding last year right before Passover and skipped the non-obligatory but oh-so-satisfying spring cleaning.
This year we made up for lost time.
We had a pile of clothing to give to a local charitable organization. We amassed bags of books for the corner thrift shop. And we got rid of all extraneous "junk." There is neither a sentimental nor "pack-rat" bone in my body and my kids are the same.
I'm not sure if it's nature or nurture but they also don't want to save anything unnecessarily. I once helped someone move and in the process convinced her that it was finally time to throw out or give away that watch and those earrings from 4th grade! And when would you reread all those old report cards anyway? (Why relive that aggravation?!) My husband says that if he hasn't worn something in a week, I've given it away. How else can a large family function in a relatively small space?
At the end of the day we all felt lighter -- even the house -- and that satisfying kind of exhaustion you only feel after a day of physical exertion. And ready to tackle the rest of the house. Tomorrow.
Of course, this was only the beginning of the Passover preparations. And while I don't find every aspect equally rewarding, I do enjoy the process.
I recognize that it is through this effort that I am preparing myself and my family for the holiday.
There is a sense of freedom in having a clean house. (I'm thinking of hiring a maid to help me get there!) There is a sense of freedom (paradoxically enough) in following the prescribed rules for ridding our homes of leaven. There is a sense of freedom in having completed all preparations appropriately – in having kashered our kitchens and purchased all the matzah and cooked all the food and set the Seder table.
All these activities culminate in the reading of the Hagaddah and the experience of the freeing of the Jews from Egypt. Without the preparation we wouldn't understand what we are experiencing. With it we get just a taste of this precious gift.
The Almighty told Moses to say these words to Pharaoh: "The Almighty, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you saying: Release My people that they may serve Me..." It is not an abstract freedom. We crave the ability to worship the Almighty, to connect with Him in unrestricted fashion.
We may not get that freedom through spring cleaning. But each step brings us a little closer...


text:
Environmental groups blast Northeast Utilities' claim on $1.1 billion Northern Pass transmission project
Several environmental groups are challenging statements made by Northeast Utilities' Chief Executive Officer Tom May about the $1.1 billion Northern Pass transmission project, which is intended to bring Canadian hydropower produced by Hydro-Quebec into New England.
During a Nov. 13 Edison Electric Institute financial conference in Arizona, May's remarks included comments about the Northern Pass project. The project designed to bring 1,200 megawatts of electricity generated in Canada into New Hampshire, where much of the power would then be sent to southern New England, which consumes much of the region's power.
During nearly 34 minutes of recorded comments by May that are available online, NU's top executive said the value of the Northern Pass project to the region is huge.
"There is no project that has anywhere near this impact," May told conference attendees. "Many of you have heard about the Cape Wind Project; this (Northern Pass) has six to seven times the environmental value. It's a pretty big environmental impact and this has the support of every environmental group in New England, basically."
Several environmental groups fighting Northern Pass have seized on May's statement, saying that he has misrepresented their positions.
"He was either irresponsibly misinformed or following a pattern of wishful thinking that has become all too prevalent for Northeast Utilities," said Jack Savage, a spokesman for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, which is in the midst of a $2.5 million fund rasing campaign to acquire four large tracts in northern New Hampshire that would block the Northern Pass project.
Christophe Courchesne, a staff attorney for the Bsoton-based Conservation Law Foundation, calls May's remarks "unequivocally untrue."
"In fact, CLF is not aware of a single New England environmental group that supports the Northern Pass project as proposed," Courchesne wrote in a Nov. 15 blog post on the group's website. "May's statement is all the more puzzling given the energy that NU has devoted to attacking the efforts of groups like CLF, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
Mike Skelton, an NU spokesman, said Friday that company officials "are well aware that SPNHF and CLF are opposed to Northern Pass and have several times pointed examples of how these groups prefer to distort the truth as part of their campaign against the project."
"This recent parsing of the support of environmental groups comment is more of the same," Skelton said. "SPNHF and CLF have thrown this quote around without the full context. To be clear, Mr. May was pointing out that the Cape Wind project is widely supported by New England's environmental groups and we hope the Northern Pass Project earns similar support, because it is an even better project from an environmental perspective."
Skeleton said NU this week alone has secured access to more than 20 miles of northern New Hampshire land that it needs to run the overhead transmission lines.
The battle between environmental groups and the company is over the northernmost 40 miles of the project; the remaining 140 miles of the project would be done on existing rights of way maintained by NU's Public Service Co. of New Hampshire subsidiary.
Savage said his group already has raised $1 million toward its goal of blocking the current route of Northern Pass, and will close on two of the four property conservation easements it needs within several weeks.
"A number of potential donors have suggested that it would be beneficial to them if we could push their gifts into 2013 and so we are doing that," he said, adding that SPNHF expects to reach the full $2.5 million it needs sometime during the first three months of 2013.


text:
Venus's-flytrap, insectivorous or carnivorous bog plant ( Dionaea muscipula ) native to the Carolina savannas and now widely cultivated as a novelty. The leaves, borne in a low rosette, resemble bear traps. They are hinged at the midrib, each half bearing sensitive bristles; when a bristle is touched—as by an insect—the halves snap shut and the marginal teeth interlock to imprison the insect until it has been digested. Related genera of insectivorous bog plants, notably the widespread sundews (genus Drosera ), are found in many other parts of the world. Venus's-flytrap is classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Magnoliopsida, order Nepenthalesniales, family Droseraceae.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Plants


text: Yesterday, when Apple announced it was pushing back the international launch of the iPad until the end of May, high demand was cited -- over 500,000 units delivered, it said. And today, we've got a report out from NetApplications that indicates the iPad might be quickly making inroads with users. Over the first week of the device's public availability, the report says, the iPad nabbed about 0.03 percent of all web traffic. For comparison, the iPhone averages about 0.51 percent of traffic. This number nearly matches web traffic for BlackBerrys in March -- 0.04 percent (Android grabbed up 0.07 percent, as did Windows Mobile). Of course, NetApplications tracks only a sampling of website traffic to gather its data, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for longer term trends.


text:
All season on the Real Housewives of Orange County, Vicki Gunvalson has been torn between two people: her daughter, Briana Wolfsmith-Culberson, and the man she loves, Brooks Ayers. Unfortunately, it seems like that battle may never end.
In this exclusive sneak peek from the third part of the Real Housewives of Orange County reunion (Monday, 8/7c, Bravo), Brooks tries to make amends with Briana for some of his past mistakes. However, while Brooks apologizes for asking Vicki to leave her then-husband, Don, for him six years ago, Briana has a much more serious bone to pick with her mom's boyfriend.
Celebrities who've survived scandal
"What did you say to my husband to do to me?" Briana asks Brooks. "You told my husband to start hitting me and you're not sorry for that?!"
The other ladies are visibly shocked by Briana's accusation. But what's even more shocking is Brooks' reaction. Watch the clip below:
The third part of the Real Housewives of Orange County reunion airs Monday at 8/7c on Bravo. Whose side are you on? What do you think Vick should do?


text:
Hamilton mom wants school to ban dairy products
A Hamilton mother has pulled her 6-year-old daughter out of school and filed a human rights complaint because she says the school hasn't accommodated her child's life-threatening allergy to dairy products.
She wants the school to ban dairy so her daughter can enjoy her experience at school without the threat of severe allergic reactions.
The story has opened up a storm of controversy and CityNews reporter Tammie Sutherland has a full report in the below video.


text:
If you've traveled in the financial world for any length of time, I bet you're pretty good at picking financial advisors out of a crowd. I know my skills in this area have been tightly sharpened over the past 20 years. I asked a friend of mine, who works in a broker/dealer, if she could pick out a financial advisor in the crowd. She replied, "Of course I can, they all look alike."
When I pressed her for more specific details, she couldn't quite put it into words. "I know it when I see it," she finally relented. About that time, one of my wholesaler friends arrived with a round of drinks. I asked him the same question, "Can you pick out financial advisors by look? Are there any in this bar tonight, for example?" He paused, deep in thought for a moment, and then said, "Hey dummy, we're standing in the bar at a broker/dealer conference … they're all advisors."
After we all had a good laugh at how stupid I was, we started checking out the crowd. They weren't, we discovered, all financial advisors. A certain number of the bar patrons were home office (broker/dealer) employees. This crowd was easy to spot. They were the ones acting like they were interested in what the others were saying. There was a lot of head nodding.
Another group that stood out consisted of our good friends, the wholesalers. This crowd was usually a little overdressed and they were the only ones in the room you could hear saying, "Hey, can I buy you another drink?"
The rest of the crowd appeared to be financial advisors. They had a little different look and feel than the others. They tended to drink top shelf booze rather than draft beer. It was the advisors, not the home office employees, who could be heard yelling at the wholesalers, "Hey (insert company name here), what's a guy got to do to get a drink around here?" My friend replied, "Yep, that guy's an advisor."
Fast-forward about three months; I was meeting a buddy of mine for lunch. My buddy and I had worked together at a broker/dealer home office for a number of years. About a year earlier, he had made the leap to being an advisor. My first reaction upon seeing him was, "Wow, you look like a financial advisor."
His hair was a little longer. His clothes were a little more disheveled than normal. I would also swear he had gotten a little pudgier and paler. Over the course of lunch he told me all about his transition into the world of the advisor.
One of things he really liked about being an advisor was he set the dress code. No more did he have to succumb to the whims of the Dress Code Committee. "Most of the time, I wear a suit, but if I'm not meeting any clients, I wear a golf shirt." I noted he was wearing a golf shirt and he had already told me he had a client meeting after lunch. I told him as long as his dress code policy didn't start slipping into his personal hygiene policy, he should be OK.
He went on to tell me of being wined and dined by wholesalers to the point he had to let the waistline on his pants out. I asked him if he was still playing basketball at lunch like we used to. "Naw … I'm too busy and besides, I'm the only guy in the office so there's nobody to work out with. I'll get back into it someday" (pudgier and paler).
I couldn't help but think about the Star Trek episodes featuring The Borg (an alien entity that takes over everything it comes across). My friend was being assimilated, Borg-like, into the look of a financial advisor and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I wanted to shake him and tell him he was quickly becoming a stereotype. I refrained, because if you've ever watched Star Trek, you know "Resistance is Futile." Live long and prosper, my friend.


text:
- Draco Malfoy: "That's my wand you're holding, Potter."
- Harry Potter: "Not anymore. Winners, keepers Malfoy. Who's lent you theirs?"
- Draco Malfoy: "My mother."
- — Draco requesting Harry Potter give him back his wand[src]
Draco Malfoy's wand was 10" long, made of hawthorn wood, and had a unicorn hair core. The wand was manufactured by Garrick Ollivander and was described by him as being "reasonably springy".[1]
Draco presumably received his wand from Mr Ollivander in 1991, just prior to his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.[2]
In 1997, Draco cornered Albus Dumbledore atop the Astronomy Tower, disarming the Headmaster. He was under orders from Lord Voldemort to kill Dumbledore, and had made multiple attempts over the course of the year to do so, terrified for his family's safety.[3] Draco had no idea that by disarming Dumbledore, he became the master of his wand — the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows.[4] He was unable and unwilling to go through with the murder, and Severus Snape stepped in to kill Dumbledore in accordance with their secret plan.[3]
In spring of the following year, Draco was home for the Easter holidays when a group of Snatchers led by Fenrir Greyback caught Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, and brought the three of them and their other prisoners to the Malfoy Manor. In the skirmish that ensued, Draco was disarmed by Harry, who won the wand from him.[5] Draco's mother gave him her wand to use.[6]
Carried by Harry Potter
- "Harry looked down at the hawthorn wand that had once belonged to Draco Malfoy. He had been surprised, but pleased, to discover that it worked for him at least as well as Hermione's had done."
- —Harry Potter using the wand[src]
In the aftermath of the Escape from Malfoy Manor, Harry had the wand examined by Garrick Ollivander, who concluded that the wand's allegiance had changed to him.[1] The wand was carried by Harry for the remainder of the Second Wizarding War; seeing action in the Break-in at Gringotts[7] as well as during the final climactic Battle of Hogwarts.[6]
During the Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort found that the Elder Wand, otherwise known as the Deathstick or Wand of Destiny, which he had taken from Dumbledore's tomb, was not working as impressively as he had hoped. Believing that this was because Snape had its allegiance after killing Dumbledore, Voldemort had Nagini kill Snape.[8] When he and Harry faced off shortly afterwards, Harry corrected him: since Draco had disarmed Dumbledore, he was the true master of the Elder Wand, not Snape. When Harry disarmed Draco in Malfoy Manor, the Elder Wand's allegiance shifted to him. Thus, when Voldemort tried to use the Killing Curse on Harry, the Elder Wand refused to attack him. The curse backfired, defeating the Dark Lord once and for all.[4]
It is unknown if Draco ever got his original wand back after Harry repaired his original wand. If so, it is unknown if the returned wand would continue to function for him as it had before Harry won it, as it is never stated how a wand that has been won behaves towards its original master afterwards.
Behind the scenes
- In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Draco comments that his mother was "up the street looking at wands", when talking to Harry Potter in Madam Malkin's.[2] This suggests the possibility that his wand was purchased for Draco by his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, and that it therefore never "chose him". However, it is much more likely Narcissa was simply comparing the wandmakers' craftsmanship and that Draco joined her afterwards and was chosen by his wand, when she had decided from which wand shop they would make their purchase.
- Draco's wand wood matches his date of birth in the Celtic tree calendar. However, it is unlikely that this was intentional on J. K. Rowling's part, as she once commented: "I have only used the Celtic assignations for Harry, Ron and Hermione... I liked having a hidden connection between Harry, Ron and Hermione's wands that only I knew about".[9]
- Draco's wand (aside from having his mother's wand) is one of the few wands in the film adaptations to have the same design throughout all eight films. But, the prop in the last two films is all-black rather than brown with black handle.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry snaps the Elder Wand rather than repairing his original wand. It is unknown if he kept this wand in its place.
- In Part 2 of the final film, rather than saying "reasonably springy", Garrick Ollivander describes it as "reasonably pliant".
- Hawthorn wands are said to be "most at home" with a wizard passing through a period of turmoil. During the last couple of years of owning this wand, Draco Malfoy was under enormous pressure to murder Albus Dumbledore, and immediately afterwards suffered through Voldemort occupying his family's home. Harry Potter claimed mastery of this wand at a time of great turmoil as well, undergoing a robbery of Gringotts Bank and the Battle of Hogwarts within a short time of gaining this wand.
- Wands with unicorn hair as its core are the hardest to turn to Dark Arts. Although this would seem ironic at first, as Draco's inclination to Dark Arts during his early to middle years (and his success at casting the very dark Imperius Curse) his last years at school led to a change of his lifestyle that made him realise he gone further than he expected, and henceforth turn away from the Dark Arts.
- According to J. K. Rowling's tweet about the wand designs for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Malfoy's wand nineteen years after the events of Deathly Hallows is made of hawthorn. It is unclear whether this is the same wand, or a newly acquired wand which happened to be made of the same material.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
- LEGO Dimensions
- LEGO Harry Potter
- Pottermore (Mentioned only)
- Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter: The Character Vault
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 24 (The Wandmaker)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 5 (Diagon Alley)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 27 (The Lightning-Struck Tower)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 36 (The Flaw in the Plan)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 23 (Malfoy Manor)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 31 (The Battle of Hogwarts)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 26 (Gringotts)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 32 (The Elder Wand)
- ↑ "Extra Stuff: Wands" at J. K. Rowling's official site


text:
I had my first introduction to plants in the Hibiscus genus when I was a boy. Rose-of-Sharon was a common dooryard shrub in the piedmont region of Virginia where I grew up, just as it is here in Western North Carolina.
In mid-summer, my cousins and I would amuse ourselves by trapping large bumblebees in the flowers. No problem: just wait for a bee to penetrate the back part of the blossom and then seal the petals shut with your fingertips. We must not have had a lot amusement options back then, since we spent a lot of our time harassing bumblebees in this manner.
Even then, I noticed the peculiar structure of the rose-of-Sharon blossoms, but it wasn't until later on that I bothered to find out more about them and the other members of the Hibiscus genus, which belong to the mallow family of plants.
All mallows display five petals, within which the male stamen parts are united to form a long tube (or "staminal column") that surrounds the female parts. Nectar is produced at the base of the petals that attracts pollinators deep into the flower and thereby into contact with the sexual parts.
Rose-of-Sharon is the only shrub in the Hibiscus genus that's hardy in our region. Sometimes called Althaea by gardeners, the plant is native to Asia but was introduced into the British Isles over 250 years ago; indeed, it has been a part of our floral heritage for so long that it no longer seems "foreign" at all. It's not uncommon to spot naturalized plants growing near old home sites that have "escaped" and made themselves at home with the rest of our native plants.
Which common garden plant displays the most striking blossoms? To my eye okra is the hands-down winner. The plant is a Hibiscus genus member native to the Old World tropics.
Another Hibiscus genus plants that has come to live with us — this time from Europe — is flower-of-an-hour (H. trionum), which has lovely sulphur-yellow petals and a purplish-black "eye." As the common name indicates, the flowers last only a few hours. Unfortunately, it is more common in the Piedmont region of the state than here in the Smokies region, being reported from only Jackson and Watauga counties in Western North Carolina.
That brings us to the lone native Hibiscus species found in the Smokies region. But if we have to just have one Hibiscus of our very own, few wildflower enthusiasts would choose another in its stead.
That species is the swamp rose mallow (H. moshcheutos), which grows in moist woods, meadows, and marshes. Some authorities treat the pink-flowered variety and the white-flowered variety as separate species, but the current thought is that they are subspecies.
Here in the westernmost counties of North Carolina swamp rose mallow has been reported from Cherokee, Swain, Macon, and Haywood counties. To my knowledge, all of these represent reports of the whitish subspecies. No plant is more stunning when encountered in the wild. They lend a sub-tropical touch to our upland landscape.
The large deep-red rose mallows that put on late summer and early fall shows in yards throughout the region are derived from horticultural strains such as the "Hibiscus Southern Belle" types offered by many seed companies.


text:
ClockworkMod Touch for the International Galaxy S III
The Samsung Galaxy S III, successor to the popular Galaxy S II, now has an official ClockworkMod Touch recovery. And now thanks to XDA Senior Moderator and Recognized Developer mskip, it is flashable via Odin and Elite Recognized Developer Chainfire's Mobile Odin. If the name mskip sounds familiar to you, it's because he also developed both the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Nexus Toolkits, all while pwning noobs around the forums.
This recovery has all the features you would expect in a normal recovery, with the obvious addition of touch functionality. As mentioned earlier, it can be installed through Odin or Mobile Odin. However, this release is only compatible with the international GSM edition. Those with other SGS3 variants will likely have to wait a little longer.
You can find the download and instructions in the original thread.


text:
Austria at a Glance Austria has a population of around 8 million and an area of 83,871 km². The capital city of the parliamentary republic is Vienna, the official language is German. Austria is part of the Euro zone and the GDP per capita is EUR 41,970. Austria uses the metric system and is on Central European Time.
Economy Here you can find out the important points about the Austrian economy. This collection of economic data and facts provides a basis for getting to know Austria as an economic partner.
International Relations Austria is not only a member of many international organisations, it also hosts their headquarters. This underlines the importance of Austria and Vienna with regard to international relations.
Development Co-operation Austria's development politics are an integral part of a foreign policy focused on security and stability. Poverty, violence and environmental destruction do not stop at a country's borders. Water and electricity supplies are the basics for any progress, education opens up new perspectives and...


text:
There's a new call to arms for hunters of wild boar: shoot as many as you can — day or night, anytime of year — and ask questions later.
Wild boar are a reviled scourge on the landscape. Yet until now, hunters couldn't shoot more than two per person and the hunting season was limited to only six months of the year in the six western counties.
The game laws didn't make sense given the nearly universal loathing of wild boar, prompting the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to consider a more liberal hunting policy toward the animal.
The open invitation to hunt them in mass quantities is a plea to hunters to help get rid of the destructive beasts that have taken root in the mountains despite not belonging here.
"Ideally, statewide from the mountains to the coast, all feral swine would disappear," said Evin Stanford, a wild boar expert with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
But the hunting community might not be so eager to see wild boar wiped out.
"I like to hunt them, and I would hate for them to be eradicated," said Curtis Bradley, a hunter from Canton and member of the WNC Sportsman's Club.
Many hunters don't like the idea of an open, year-round season with no bag limits. Bag limits are intended to protect game animals from over hunting, ensuring their viability as a huntable species in the future.
"I think the ones that actually hunt them wouldn't want the bag limits to go away," Bradley said.
Hunters are expected to voice their disapproval at a public hearing on the new hunting laws for feral swine being held at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 14) at Haywood Community College by the N.C. Wildlife Commission.
Ecologists have a different view, however. Feral swine are nature's version of a bulldozer, devouring everything in their path and leaving a wake of uprooted earth.
The hunting changes will apply in the six western counties. In the rest of the state, hunters can already shoot an unlimited number of wild boar all year. The change will bring the six western counties in line with the long-standing policy toward wild boar everywhere else.
In fact, they aren't even called wild boar in the rest of the state, but instead are bestowed with the far less romantic name "feral swine."
"Everything is wide open on feral swine outside those six western counties," Stanford said. "Our agency for a long time has not seen them as a desirable species on the landscape."
Saying so publicly is a big step for the Wildlife Commission, however, which until now has been swayed by hunting interests when it comes to wild boar in the mountains.
"In that part of the state it is a traditional big game species that has been hunted for generations," Stanford said.
The Wildlife Commission had attempted to balance interests of wild boar hunters with the ecological harm wrought by the species. But it now seems poised to buck pressure from the hunting community and shed the special status for wild boar that had persisted in the far western mountains.
"I think that was a fight we thought at one time we could not win," Stanford said. "It seems the tradition of hunting wild boar has been waning, at least compared to 20, 30, 40 years ago."
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where hunting isn't allowed anyway and the ecosystem always comes first, was alone in its admitted mission to eradicate wild boar until recently. The Smokies has made an impressive dent in the wild hog population by trapping. Realistically, they'll never get rid of them completely, but hope to keep them in check.
"It is definitely a daunting task, given the manpower and the amount of area we have," said Bill Stiver, wildlife biologist in the national park. But, "We have kept the pressure on."
Until recently, however, the Smokies begrudgingly turned over some of the boar it trapped to the U.S. Forest Service, which in turn set them free in the Nantahala National Forest. The Smokies' more rugged stock of wild boar is particularly desired by the hunting community, which pressured the forest service to save the wild boar from the Smokies' traps and release them in the forest. The practice wasn't ended until 2005.
Rogue introductions
Fringe elements in the hunting community have been doing their part to keep the species alive and well in the state, albeit illegally. Rogue hunters are suspected of releasing hogs and pigs into the forests to boost the feral swine population and counter efforts to eradicate them.
While no one has been caught in the act, Stiver has encountered feral swine in the wild with pale skin, curly tails, smooth skin, even spots — signs of domestic pigs rather than the course-haired, tusked feral cousins.
"Historically wild boar in the park were traditionally black. They had that Russian look. But in recent years we've seen hogs with much shorter snouts, with much shorter legs, animals that appear to be semi-domesticated," Stiver said. "They just stand there. They had no fear of people as if they had been in a pen and then been let loose."
That, more so than pigs accidentally escaping from farmers, is how the population of feral swine has spread across the state.
"In most instances the population is established by individuals intentionally releasing feral swine with the intention of establishing a population that could be hunted," Stanford said.
It has been illegal to release swine into the wild for several years, but it technically wasn't illegal to move them.
"Individuals could trap swine and move them up and down the roadways and there was no violation involved," Stanford said.
That loophole was closed with a new state law this year, banning the transport of live hogs without identification approved by the state veterinarian, so now only hog farmers can legally transport their livestock.
The law also prohibits the removal of live feral hogs from traps. Anyone trapping a feral hog has to kill it inside the trap before opening the door — removing any doubt over whether "relocating" feral swine versus "releasing" them is legal or not. It also gives wildlife officers more ammunition to crack down on rogue introductions.
Oddly, an open season on feral swine — allowing hunters to shoot as many as they want year-round — can backfire. Those who like hunting feral swine are tempted to set out new animals to keep the population viable and huntable.
Some states are trying a novel solution
In Tennessee, hunting wild boar was outlawed this year for most parts of the state.
"The strategy we are going after is pretty radical, but a very aggressive approach at eradicating hogs across the state," said Grey Anderson, a wildlife biologist with the Tennessee Wildlife Commission. "It is a little against the grain. The traditional method is to liberalize your season, and then you get more hunters and it reduces the population."
But Tennessee found that quite the opposite played out on the ground. After changing its wild hog hunting rules in 1999 — lifting the bag limits and allowing year-round hunting — the population actually increased. The reason is no surprise: hunters launched rogue campaign of illegally releasing hogs in the wild, resulting in more feral swine instead of less, Anderson said.
"It was counter productive to what we were trying to do," Anderson said.
Kansas was the first to try the alternative strategy, and Tennessee decided it was worth a try. Hunters aren't too pleased, however.
"We are getting a ton of pushback now," Anderson said.
Now that hunting wild hogs is illegal, the Tennessee Wildlife Commission has started trapping and killing them itself. Without hunters propagating the species, however, Anderson believes the agency will be able to make a dent in the population.
There is one exception to Tennessee's new policy. In the mountains of East Tennessee around the Smokies, wild boar hunting is still allowed under some circumstances. If hunters are hunting bear or deer and come across wild hogs, they are allowed to shoot them.
"If your bear dogs get on a hog trail you can take them," Anderson said.
The reason is a familiar one: a storied tradition of wild boar hunting in the mountains.
"They have been hunting wild hogs in that part of the world that we know of since the early 1900s. There is a very strong tradition of hunting,"Anderson said, Agricultural interests are backing North Carolina's crack down on feral swine. Feral swine carry lethal diseases, including several documented cases of pseudrabies.
"They are tremendous risk to our domestic livestock and swine industry," Stanford said.
Going native
Most of the feral swine in the state are descendants of domestic hogs turned out by early settlers to graze on the open range, or in more recent decades, animals that have been purposely released. After a few generations in the wild, they start to sport hair and tusks.
"In as soon as three generations they can start to develop some of the feral traits," Stanford said. "They start to revert relatively quickly."
Wild boar lineage is unique in the far western mountains, however. Here, their ancestry can be traced back to the true European wild boar.
A stock of European wild boar was imported by a hunting preserve in 1912 in the Hooper's Bald area of the Smokies. In 1920, they all escaped, with estimates ranging from 60 to 100 of the beasts.
This genetic line still lingers in mountain wild boar, but has been dramatically watered down by domestic swine injected into the population.
Feral swine are unfortunate proliferators. Mothers have five to six young a year on average, and in a bumper year for acorns or other food mainstays, they can have two litters a year. They are fertile at just a year old.
The young pigs stick close to their giant mothers, and probably have pretty low mortality from predators such as coyotes or bobcat, Stanford said. As adults, humans are their only enemy.
Bradley, who has hunted wild boar on game lands in Swain and Jackson counties, said it is a challenge to hunt them, mostly because you can't find them. They don't frequent the same place day after day. They come through, eat, then move on.
"You can go out there for an entire season and never see a single one. You will see the remnants of them, where they have torn the woods up," Bradley said. But, "It may be weeks before they come back through there."
Bradley is no stranger to hogs. His family ran a hog farm and slaughter house in Jackson County for 100 years, going back four generations. He is the first to agree feral swine are destructive.
"When they tear it up, they tear it up big time. They come through like a carpet roller," Bradley said.
Bradley believes the N.C. Wildlife Commission is giving in to political pressure from the growing number of upscale subdivisions in the mountains pushing into the forest habitats, and then complaining about the animals in their yards.
"You got a lot of influx of people and they want to change the rules to suit their lifestyle," Bradley said.


text:
Wil Myers Wore a GoPro at Rays Camp
Had fun wearing a @GoPro during camp today. Didn't even feel like it was on! http://t.co/L7sDc2EQlA— Wil Myers (@wilmyers) February 19, 2014
2013 AL Rookie of the Year Wil Myers gave us a behind-the-scenes look at Spring Training yesterday when he wore a GoPro camera mounted to his hat during Rays workouts.
We didn't get a look to see if he's back to rocking the Rob Pattinson hair, but from the clubhouse to the cage to the outfield, that was pretty awesome.


text:
Leafleting: Looking for a few white separatists
Although Charlottesville is often depicted as a liberal community, that hasn't stopped a "white separatist" group from trying to spread its message here with anti-Semitic leaflets.
Matt Wilkinson spotted the neatly rolled, rubber-banded fliers in yards all over his Fry Springs neighborhood as he left for work November 30. One sheet blamed high gas prices on "Zion"; the other denounced the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, as "America's greatest enemy."
Both were courtesy of the National Alliance, a group whose late founder, William Pierce, wrote The Turner Diaries, the notorious novel that reportedly inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
"I was shocked that somebody would spend so much time doing something so moronic," says Wilkinson, "especially in this day and age in Charlottesville."
Across town, on Lexington Avenue near Locust, Nell Goddin unrolled the anti-ADL fliers left in her front yard. "Oh, my God," she exclaimed. "'Let's deport these arrogant Jews'? This is horrifying."
This wasn't the National Alliance's first visit to Charlottesville. Leafleters came through town earlier this year on Martin Luther King's birthday, startling many residents who found what they considered racist literature littering their front lawns.
However, that episode– aimed at the supposed evils of interracial romance– generated enough interest to establish a Central Virginia branch of the organization seven months ago, according to the group's chief operations officer, Shaun Walker.
Based in Hillsboro, West Virginia, Walker says most of the unit's members hail from the Shenandoah Valley– with a couple from Charlottesville.
Why leaflet here again?
"Charlottesville's got the mixed neighborhoods and quite a few foreigners– Indians, Pakistanis," answers Walker. "People are waking up. We're getting the audience we want."
Some Lexington Avenue residents would disagree. "I find it appalling," says Deborah Murray, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Live Arts director John Gibson didn't notice the fliers in his yard and believes the white-obsessed group is wasting its time. "I think those are seeds that will not sprout in the enlightened liberal atmosphere of Lexington Avenue," he says.
The Anti-Defamation League monitors National Alliance activities and estimates its national membership at 1,500.
"Of all the hate groups out there attempting to get their message out, they've easily supplanted the Klan," says ADL regional director David Friedman. "They make it easy for people to download their fliers. They're so highly organized, that's why they're considered dangerous."
Friedman calls the group an "extremist" organization "deeply steeped with white supremacists and neo-Nazis."
"We're a white separatist, not a white supremacist group," specifies state National Alliance spokesman Pete Harwood, who says the latter want to rule over other cultures while the former prefer to live apart.
David Miller is a member of the local unit. He declines to say whether he was involved in last week's leafleting and exactly how many people are involved in his group. "It's not our policy to give out numbers," he says. But he does offer one number: Approximately 500 fliers were distributed.
And to those who are offended by the National Alliance message, Miller points out that it's Constitutionally protected speech. He denies the National Alliance is an extremist group.
"We feel our views reflect the silent majority," he says. "I would say the same thing to the Anti-Defamation League– they're an extremist hate group advocating strictly on behalf of the Jewish population."
The ADL's intense monitoring of hate groups and hate speech has, in recent years, hit some unlikely targets– including an August scolding of presidential candidate Ralph Nader for using the word "puppets" to describe the relationship of Congress and President George W. Bush to Israel.
Friedman recommends reporting further leafleting to the police and to the ADL.
"Citizens should realize this doesn't mean they have the National Alliance in their neighborhood or that there will be an upsurge in hate crimes," he says.
Still, he suggests realism tempered by awareness. "The danger is that individuals are capable of violence when they believe in the extreme positions of the National Alliance."
"We don't advocate violence," Miller counters.
Unlike the Martin Luther King Day barrage, Charlottesville police got no complaints about the recent fliers, but after a reporter made them aware of the fliers, the police collected a few and filed a report, says Sergeant Mike Farruggio.
"I don't think this is a community where the National Alliance is going to get a lot of support," says Vice Mayor Kevin Lynch, who lives near Lexington Avenue. "Typically when you look at these groups, you find it's a couple of people with a lot of time on their hands."
America's greatest enemy? The National Alliance leaves its message in Charlottesville yards.
Nell Goddin was not pleased to find that the National Alliance had left literature in her yard.


text:
The Express-News had some great photos posted on line this morning showing the construction progress of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Here are two aerial views:
The Tobin Center opens in September 2014 and will be the new home of the San Antonio Symphony. You can read the article about the construction by clicking here. You'll notice from the photos that the main 1,750 seat H-E-B Performance Hall is angled into the space created by the existing facade of the Municipal Auditorium. That is to create room for the smaller hall that will be built next to the main hall. It also creates a space for a river-side outdoor performing venue that will seat about 600 right along the Museum Reach of the River Walk.
David Hendricks had another article about the parking garage that will be built. Former mayor Phil Hardberger is vice chairman and parking facilities chairman for the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation board. He is in charge of this critical component.
Jack Fishman
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
For more blogs by Jack Fishman visit: www.sasymphony.org/blog


text:
Your shopping cart is empty!
Summers, and no new stock of t-shirts? Then you surely don't know what we are offering for you. We have the best quality products being offered to you all. All you need to do is just pick up these high quality t-shirts and add to your cart. It will be delivered to you on your doorstep within working days. We deal in premium quality t-shirts which are available in all colors and sizes. V-neck, round neck and high-neck all sorts of shirts are easily available here just under one roof. Now this is something tremendous. So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and book your order.