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Watchmen was initially published as a limited series of 12 comic books in 1986. It was subsequently packaged up into an omnibus paperback volume, which I bought for my son's birthday a few years ago.
The pictures are by Dave Gibbons, but it is the complex, multi-layered narrative written by Alan Moore which critics instantly realised as something new and epoch-making in comic books. Watchmen won hosts of prizes and has come to be seen as a founding masterpiece of the (then new) genre of graphic novels, and one of the most influential comic stories ever written.
Its importance stems from:
- the complexity of the narrative with its numerous intertextual elements
- the cynical, jaded attitude shown by all the characters throughout
- and the downbeat ending where the 'goodies' (if that's what they are) do not defeat the baddie
The plot
1. Background
The story is set in a parallel universe in the 1980s. It is essentially the real world but with some key changes. (The story is, naturally enough, set in New York, home of most superhero narratives.)
In this alternative universe, back in the 1930s, various guys and women took up the new fad for caped law enforcers, with the result that there was a rash, an outburst, of masked vigilantes.
Some of them genuinely excelled at what they did –
- Adrian Veidt who named himself 'Ozymandias', was the cleverest man in the world, who developed a corporate empire based on merchandising his own character
- the 'Night Owl' was a technical genius who built gadgets and a flying ship to help him fight crime
Others were more run-of-the-mill, ordinary guys and gals, who liked dressing up and a good fight, examples being the self-named 'Dollar Bill', 'the Mothman', 'Hooded Justice' or 'the Comedian'.
At the end of the decade these self-declared heroes came together to form a crime-busting association called the Minutemen in 1940. The narrative jumps back and forth between this founding meeting, and later meetings, up to and including a decisive one in the 1960s.
So many masked vigilantes came on the scene during these decades that the U.S. government eventually passed a law in 1977, the Keene Act, banning them. At that point – seven or eight years before our narrative begins – most of them hung up their masks and capes, and settled into comfortable, or less comfortable, middle-aged retirement.
2. The story
The 'now' of the narrative, is October 1985.
What triggers the story is the murder of one of the old vigilantes, the so-called 'Comedian'. He is beaten up and thrown out of a window.
A member of the old gang team, Rorschach (so-named because mysterious constantly changing black and white patterns move across his mask), investigates the murder. We are privy to his thoughts which are written in exactly the tough guy style of Raymond Chandler, describing the city as a sewer and its inhabitants as vermin.
Rorschach starts at the scene of the crime, where the Comedian landed – splat – on the pavement. He goes on to visit Dan Dreiberg – once the so-called 'Night Owl' – as well as 'Dr Manhattan', to ask them what they knew about the Comedian in his retirement.
The narrative then leaves Rorschach to show us the backstory of the Night Owl, but especially of Dr Manhattan, arguably the most interesting character in the book.
Whereas most of the other Minutemen are just strong, athletic men and women with a fondness for dressing up in tight outfits and punching muggers, Dr. Manhattan is a genuinely genetically-altered superhero. Originally he was Dr Jonathan Osterman, a nuclear physicist who, in 1959, got trapped inside an 'Intrinsic Field Subtractor', was obliterated down to his constituent sub-atomic particles, before managing – nobody knows how – to reconstruct himself.
This rebuilt, molecularly perfect Osterman is now tall, statuesque, and a vibrating blue colour.
When he went along to meet the other Minutemen he took the moniker 'Dr Manhattan'. He has a winningly Zen approach to life, the universe and everything, seeing that he can not only manipulate all metal substances, but can also foresees the future. Humans bore him.
The movie makes clearer what, for me, was rather obscure in the book, which is that it was with this apparently random incident – the creation of Dr Manhattan – that the alternative universe of the comic book diverges from history as we know it.
The divergences become quite drastic because, once he was fully reconstituted, Dr Manhattan put himself at the disposal of the U.S. government who immediately drafted him into their war machine and Cold War strategy.
He was sent to Vietnam, where he appears as an indestructible blue giant capable of destroying all the North Vietnamese weaponry (tanks and machine guns). Thus the North surrender within weeks, and Richard Nixon becomes a hero for winning the war. (In a throwaway line, typical of the density of the references and ideas in the text, we learn that the investigative reporters Woodward and Bernstein were bumped off in a multi-storey car park and so never got to report the Watergate scandal, with the result that President Nixon – in this universe – was been elected for an unprecedented third term. In fact, Nixon is on his fifth term when the book is set.)
Dr Manhattan lives with the former 'Silk Spectre II', real name Laurie Juspeczyk, daughter of the original 'Silk Spectre' superheroine from the 1940s.
(In a digression which is typical both for its complex filling-in of the back story, and for its brutality, we are shown the scene where, after one of the 1940s meetings, the Comedian badly beats up and begins to rape the Silk Spectre before being interrupted by some of the other superheroes who then beat him up. This incident, disturbing in itself – and obviously quite a jarring 'subversion' of the superhero mythos – echoes and re-echoes, like so many other incidents, throughout the text).
But Laurie is getting fed up with Dr Manhattan's lack of emotion (in a great scene she discovers that while he is 'making love' to her, his true self is carrying on conducting experiments in his laboratory – the love-maker is merely a clone: he can clone himself at will, in real time).
After a big row, Laurie leaves him and turns up on the doorstep of Dan Dreiberg, 'Night Owl II' who, she wanly confesses, is now more or less her only friend from 'the old times'. After some chat, they have sex – as Laurie's full-busted figure all along suggests she will – and then don the old costumes and go out in Night Owl's impressive flying machine to fight crime.
Meanwhile, Dr Manhattan has been persuaded against his better judgement to do a TV interview – but instead of being praised for being a key element in America's Cold War protective armoury, he is surprised by an investigative reporter who bombards him with accusations that everyone he's worked with has got sick from radiation poisoning.
Dr Manhattan is hounded off the set and out of the studio doors by the audience and a baying crowd, crystallising his feeling that he's had it with puny mortals and their silly concerns. In front of this live audience, Manhattan teleports himself to Mars. Here, in complete peace and quiet, he creates a palace from his thoughts alone.
This very public disappearance of America's most important military asset badly affects the balance of power in the ongoing Cold War, and is a key moment in the plot – for the Russians decide to test the resolve of the West, now that their key weapon has so publicly and spectacularly resigned.
Multi-leveled text
The text is complex and multi-leveled. Here are some of the other elements:
1. Newsvendor We keep being taken back to a newsvendor on a street corner in New York, who reads out the day's news headlines, news which is echoed on the TV sets which various characters watch or have on in the background of conversations.
The reappearance of the newsvendor in each of the twelve instalments is a device for showing how, over the 12 days of the narrative, the U.S.S.R. invades Afghanistan and then threatens to push on into Pakistan. They have been emboldened to do this by Dr Manhattan's disappearance. Thus the papers and TV are full of speculation about whether the West will respond to Russian aggression thus sparking a nuclear war.
2. Countdown clock This sense of mounting tension is emphasised by the way that each of the twelve editions of the magazine opens with a big image of a clock whose hands start at twelve to midnight, and move forward one minute with each episode. As if counting down towards disaster…
3. The Black Freighter Throughout all the instalments, what you could call the Main Narrative is punctuated by an apparently unrelated story about a doomed pirate, set in the 18th century and written in 18th century prose. This is a story which appears in daily instalments in a newspaper which is being read by a black kid who buys it from the newsvendor who I mentioned above.
While the newsvendor chats with his adult customers about the impending war, the kid sits propped against a fire hydrant, his mind totally absorbed by the grim tale of a pirate set adrift in a doomed boat full of corpses, and his various ill-fated attempts to escape.
At regular intervals the pictures and text of this Gothic tale 'take over' the main narrative set in 1985; sometimes the monologue of the damned pirate jostle alongside dialogue of the 'contemporary' characters; sometimes the entire Watchmen strip disappears for a page or so, replaced by detailed drawings of the pirates' adventures.
The pictures of the pirate narrative are done in a deliberately different style from the main illustrations, using a pastiche of the highly-visible dots you used to see in really old comic books. Not only does this so-called 'Black Freighter' narrative routinely invade the 'main text', but its words often cleverly counterpoint the thoughts or dialogue of the main characters. For example the ghoulish pirate survivor might be thinking about death on the high sea, while the newsvendor and his customers are worrying about the risk of thermonuclear war and mass death. It's all dark stuff.
4. Scrapbook This 'intertextuality' is also exemplified in the way that each of the twelve instalments ends with four pages of prose which are kind of scrapbooks of texts relevant to the main narrative. For example, the first couple of instalments end with excerpts from the tell-all book supposedly written by one of the Minutemen, Hollis Mason, an account of the early days of the group which he titled Under the Hood. These lengthy prose extracts expand our understanding of various plotlines referred to in the comic book sections.
Later on, the prose sections become more varied, but always shed new light on aspects of the main story. For example, the end of chapter nine features several 'texts' relating to the original Silk Spectre I, Sally Jupiter, namely an interview with her in an old newspaper from 1939, correspondence with a film studio interested in making a movie of her life, a fan letter from a would-be crime fighter, and then a magazine interview with an older, alcoholic Sally Jupiter from 1976.
Critique of Watchmen's multitextuality
Some readers and critics think these multiple levels give the book greater 'depth'. I disagree. I think it makes it a lot more complex but complexity and depth are not the same thing.
When I was a kid in the 1970s there were any number of magazines about pop music or teen heart-throbs which used the same approach of coming up with imaginative and diverse visual ideas to vary their appearance and format. These could include letters from the stars, or their horoscopes, or recipes for their favourite meals, or their top fashion tips, or mocked-up pages from their diary, each in the appropriate visual style, using different page layouts, letter heads, maybe notes with mocked-up handwriting of the hearth-throb in question – and so on and so on.
This didn't make magazines like Jackie any more profound – it just made them more visually imaginative and interesting. Now I really think about it, I remember any number of 'annuals' of my favourite TV shows such as Dr Who or Blue Peter, which came up with all kinds of visually inventive ways of presenting tit-bits of information about the stars of the show, or features about keeping a rabbit or the solar system or instructions on how to build your own dalek – and so on and so on.
It never struck me that the proliferation of visually novel ways of presenting all this turned my Dr Who annual into War and Peace. It was just par for the course; they were all like that.
Thus the inclusion of extraneous mocked-up texts onto the end of each instalment of Watchmen didn't strike me as some radical new innovation, but as an editorial ploy I was used to ever since I started reading comics and annuals.
Thus the clutch of texts tacked onto the end of instalment 10 of Watchmen – in this case all relating to 'Ozymandias', the superhero alias of go-getting entrepreneur Adrian Veidt and which include a letter to a toy manufacturer about a new range of Ozymandias merchandise, and the Welcome letter to anyone who's sent away for a pack of his Veidt Method of Physical Fitness and Self Improvement – these are fun, and they add to the visual and factual complexity a bit – but they don't add any real depth to the book.
The crime trope
Watchmen mashes up tropes from numerous sources. One of the most obvious is pulp crime novels, the king of which was Raymond Chandler. There are plenty of Chandleresque pictures of Rorschach, in particular, walking down mean streets in the dark with his collar pulled up muttering murderous thoughts about the scum of the streets.
And the fundamental motor of the narrative is a whodunnit – ostensibly to find out who killed the Comedian, whether there really is a conspiracy to kill off the other retired old Minutemen, and why.
Clever and novel many elements of the book may be – such as the idea that superheroes can grow old and vulnerable and themselves be victims of a serial killer. And yet this whodunnit thread of the book is strangely uncompelling – and when the denouement is reached I found it more strange and inexplicable than a dazzling and satisfying revelation.
Maybe it was Moore's aim to 'subvert' the thriller genre – or by mashing up elements from pulp crime thrillers with the superhero genre with quite a bit of pulp science fiction thrown in, to create something bold and new.
Whatever the motivation, this central thread of the plot just didn't do it for me. I found it a) difficult to wade through the welter of distracting detail to even understand that it was a crime thriller and b) was so thrown by the spectacular side-plot about Dr Manhattan that I stopped caring about the whodunnit element and became intrigued solely by his actions.
As to the denouement, suffice to say that it turns out (as so often) to be one of the gang themselves who is knocking off their own members.
And he's doing it because (like so many mad fanatics before him) he has become deluded into thinking that the only way to bring true peace to the world is by committing a really awesome atrocity (in this case, wiping out the population of New York – as usual), showing humanity what they are capable of – and thus shaming them into peace.
Sound likely to you?
And so the climax of the book turns out to be nothing to do with the mounting paranoia about a nuclear war between America and Russia which has been steadily promoted by the narrative, and reinforced by the ominous full-page picture of a clock ticking towards midnight! Turns out that that whole threat, much discussed by all the characters from the newsvendor and his customers to all the superheroes, was a red herring.
Instead, the climax of the story is the unleashing of a secret weapon which destroys half of New York (and, in the movie, just to universalise things a bit, also wrecks Los Angeles, Moscow and Hong Kong).
I didn't feel engaged with any of the characters. I didn't really believe in them, and I found it impossible to believe in the idea of ordinary men and women just putting on masks, adopting silly pseudonyms and then magically being able to 'fight crime'.
Either the idea of masked crime fighters is risible or it isn't – but it is a difficult balance to make it both sad and silly (as it seems to be in the opening pages depicting the Comedian as a raddled drunk and Rorschach as a maniac) and then in the next few pages ask us to believe that Night Owl and Silk Spectre actually can fly round the city in their cool flying machine, rescuing kids from burning buildings.
Once undermined in the early pages, I found the notion of crime-busting superheroes stayed undermined.
The only character I liked was Dr Manhattan because the purity of his conception and his indifference to the human trivia who surround him lifted him far above the crime-busting silliness of much of the rest of the plot. I immediately sympathised with his wish to get away from silly humans, and found that identifying with this essentially science-fiction character made me more or less indifferent to the Chandleresque whodunnit plot.
Within the world of comic books, Watchmen had a powerful impact because of its complexity: because it created new heroes while at the same time undermining the entire superhero ethos, because of its stylish mix of sci-fi, noir and superhero tropes, because of its downbeat vibe and its very downbeat ending – because this pessimistic mood caught the vibe of Mrs Thatcher and Ronald Reagan's 1980s, because of the cleverness of adding in the intertextual elements of letters, quotes from fictional books, magazine articles, added extra complexity and resonance.
But from outside the world of comic books, it still looks as if Watchmen adopts almost all the familiar tropes of the superhero comic book, and subverts few if any of them. And even these 'subversions' I found a) difficult to actually understand b) had no impact on me.
Watchmen administered a seismic shock to the comic book genre which influenced a whole generation to write more 'realistic' and 'gritty' stories. To outsiders like me, it looks like a very clever play on existing tropes which doesn't, ultimately, change any of them at all.
Art work
I couldn't understand why the book is meant to mark a great departure in comic book style. The page is still made up of cartoons. All the 'good' guys are tall, muscular and handsome.
And all the women are long-legged, slender-waisted and big busted i.e. look like the same idealised, soft porn figures that have been half the point of comic books right back to their origins in the 1930s.
Although there are several women among the original Minutemen, we only really get to know one – Silk Spectre – and her role is to wear a tight outfit and be made love to first my Dr Manhattan then (several times) by the Night owl. But all the women seem to be variations on the same sex goddess trope. I was amused to discover that a number of manufacturers make a 'Silk Spectre' costume. Can you see why?
The movie
It took Hollywood 20 years to sort out the rights, the script and to settle on a visual strategy for turning such a complex and multi-layered comic strip text into a movie. The result is that rare thing, an attempt at a really faithful, accurate rendition of the original book.
Watchmen the movie uses all the characters and tells the exact same story, in the same order, as the source book. It even shoots scenes from the same angles shown in the comic strips. With the result that:
1. It is very long – two and a half hours long.
2. This is without the inclusion of the pirate story, the so-called Black Freighter plotline. This was originally going to be included as live-action footage interspersed among the main narrative, as happens in the book, but it turned out that it would have cost too much (some $20 million extra), so someone had the bright idea of making it as an animation. In the event even this animated version of the sub-plot was cut because it would have made the final version of the film well over three hours long. However, the Tale of the Black Freighter is available as a standalone DVD and has been reincorporated into the movie in a Directors' Cut version.
3. More interestingly, director Zack Snyder's choice to follow the comic book narrative so closely means that the movie does not follow the familiar three-act movie structure. Instead it follows closely the rather meandering, and sometimes distracted, narrative of the book. Many movie fans complained about this because it didn't produce the usual feast of fights and fireworks every fifteen minutes – the amount of time a bored teenager can sit through 'character' stuff' before he needs another fix of CGI and explosions.
But I liked the film for precisely that reason. Following 'book logic' and not movie screenplay rules, results in a very different feel to the movie. It feels much slower and often rather confusing. I liked that.
The movie was also criticised for the quality of the acting. If we were talking about the real world, I'd agree that the acting was wooden, as was the direction. But I found the Watchmen book itself oddly wooden, opaque, emotionless and flat, and so I thought the movie captured that quality really well.
Since I didn't believe in any of the characters from the book, finding them all just cyphers drifting through a weird mash-up of science fiction, noir and comic book clichés without any discernible purpose or end, I thought the movie faithfully captured that odd sense of anomie – and that is rare and interesting in a Hollywood film.
Seen from this point of view, i.e. the hope that the film would not follow superhero movie convention, it was disappointing that so much did still fall into superhero cliché – namely the familiar stylised fights, for example where Night Owl and Silk Spectre II defeat a whole gang of muggers with superhuman speed and slow-motion violence; or where flying machines swoop around the New York skyline; or where Night Owl and Silk Spectre have sex in his flying machine, she wearing only her knee-length PVC boots, both of them revealed to have the air-brushed-to-perfection bodies of porn stars.
This didn't feel like it was subverting very much.
In other words, the film of Watchmen successfully captures the complex storylines and odd mood of the book, and so both audiences and critics – who essentially want the same meal dished up with slight variations – didn't like it.
The film didn't make much return on investment with a box office of $185.3 million on a budget of $138 million. After twenty years, a prequel comic was published chronicling the adventures of the Comedian and Rorschach in the earlier days. There's talk that the Watchmen characters will be adapted for an HBO TV series. Everything is swallowed by the machine. Nothing subverts anything. In time, everything is turned into product.


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To celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary this year Rob and I left the kids with the grandparents and embarked on a canoe expedition course to learn the necessary skills to head off on our own adventures. In that week we fell in love with canoeing and on our return invested in two canoes and the various paraphernalia required such as life jackets, dry bags and so on. The kids have been desperate to get out on the water with us but I'm in the final stages of dissertation writing for my MSc and with weather and tide considerations a couple of weeks passed before we had a chance. That chance came last weekend and we went for it, full bore!
We set off just before high tide going up stream with the flow which made for easy initial paddling. Although as we rounded a corner the wind caught us and with only my 8 year old in the front of mine we were much lighter than I had anticipated and we kept getting turned. Even with the camping kit there wasn't a lot of weight in the canoe and it was very much in the middle (kit) and back (me)… first lesson learned in terms of kit positioning.
Eventually after spinning in the water for a while and even walking along a stretch of shore until we were past the bend in the river that was catching the wind, we were back on route and arrived at our camping spot.
Traffic on the river was busy around high tide and we didn't want to draw too much attention so we didn't set up the tarp until much later but we set about collecting and processing firewood. We lit the fire with a flint and steel using tinder we found around us and the kids played in the water before the tide went too far out. Rob strung them up a simple rope swing which proved fun for hours (and also caused irritating "my turn" arguments!!)
Dinner was a basic chicken curry and here I learned another lesson… when taking curry powder in a pot seal the pot in bag or decent container… the curry powder spilt in one of the dry sacks and covered EVERYTHING! I salvaged enough for dinner and sucked up the lesson. We had taken about 10 litres of water with us but actually on such a hot day and with cooking dinner and washing up this was only just enough. On our course we had learned about finding water on an expedition, filtering and sterilising but the river we were on is largely salt water so that wasn't an option. There was a stream feeding into the river nearby that we could have got water from had we been desperate and next time we'll take a suitable filtration system in case we need it.
After dinner and some bird watching we set up the tarp and as the sun set we got the kids to bed and us shortly after… we had to be up at 5am to catch the outgoing tide back home or we would be stranded until mid-afternoon!
The early start was brilliant, we had the camp packed down and ready to set off in half an hour and we made sure that we left no trace that we had been there… an important principle we are pressing hard on the children!
The trip back was effortless on a mirror still river drifting with the tide. Of course at 5.30am we were the only human life on the river but it was teeming with bird life and the beauty of a canoe is that you can silently drift along without disturbing them.
We were back at the car by 7am and heading home for a big old breakfast and a nap.

subset: commoncrawl


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I'll be speaking at the Open Video Conference (OVC).
Save the dates: October 1-2, 2010.
Image: Xeni Jardin at OVC 2009
Last year's OVC was fantastic. Great speakers and a great audience. This is the place for new business models, open content and huge amounts of talented creatives, programmers, editors and producers.
I'm honored to speak at a conference together with people like "the explainer" Michael Wesch, OK Go's Damian Kulash and loads of other smart people!


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chappy island, flowers, gardens, gay head cliffs, island, lighthouse, marthas vineyard, mytoi, nature, nautical, ocean, sunset, trees, vacation, water
My husband and I really enjoyed our week away from it all in the beautiful Martha's Vineyard. What a lovely island and peaceful place. I had gone there when I was younger to stay with a friend for awhile so it was cool to finally go back. This time it reminded me of Napa valley which is a cherished memory of mine. Plus, my husband had never been there so it was fun to be with him his first time.
We didn't do much while we were there because the trip was mostly to relax and just enjoy ourselves but we did visit a few places. I wanted to share some photos I took during our stay. Enjoy!
Mytoi Gardens on Chappy Island
Sunset in our backyard
Gay Head Cliffs


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Record – Last Five Years:
2012: 61 – 101
2011: 71 – 91
2010: 75 – 87
2009: 83 – 78
2008: 97 – 64
Record at Home: 38 – 43
Record at Home: 23 – 58 (ouch)
Runs Scored: 613 (14th in NL)
Runs Allowed: 759 (14th in NL)
This is still going in the wrong direction.
Season Summary:
Ultimately, the team was awful out the gate, and continued playing poorly into May, including a long losing streak in late May (12 games). Something clicked in late June and July – from 6/25 to 7/30, the Cubs went from 24-48 to 43-58, a nice run of 19 wins in 29 games. Sadly, that was the high point – from that point forward, the Cubs had just a single good week in the last two months of the season. When they played the Astros to end the season, it was the first time in nearly 50 years that two teams with 100 losses appeared in the same game(s).
Record By Month:
Apr: 8 – 15
May: 10 – 17
Jun: 10 – 17
Jul: 15 – 10
Aug: 8 – 21
Sep: 9 – 19
Oct: 1 – 2
The bad news is that the Astros are no longer in the NL Central, so if the Cubs want to avoid last place, they actually have to get better…
The rotation, save a couple of spots, wasn't the problem. Jeff Samardzija was an above average option, going 9 – 13 thanks to a lack of run support. Travis Wood wasn't horrible, and neither was Paul Maholm (9 – 6 in 20 starts). Ryan Dempster was great until he was sent to the AL, while Matt Garza was decent until he got sent to the DL. The two problems were Chris Volstad, who was predictably horrible (3 – 12, 6.31) and rookie Justin Germano (2 – 10, 6.75).
Heading into 2013, the Cubs won't have Maholm either – he's a Brave. However, the Cubs did import the well-traveled Edwin Jackson who should be an innings-eater, if nothing else. Samardzija returns as the ace (and he is getting better), and the bottom of the rotation will include Scott Feldman from Texas and Carlos Villanueva, a former Brewer and Blue Jay arm. Feldman was not very successful in Texas (11 runs worse than average in about 135 innings), but Villanueva wasn't half bad in 125 innings. The question is can either of these guys get to 180 innings. If Garza can come back and help at all, the rotation looks to be no worse than last year with the efforts to improve the slot where Feldman takes over for Volstad offset by the lack of anyone who can pitch as well as Dempster did before he left.
One of the biggest problems in Chicago lately has been the lack of a dependable closer – Carlos Marmol has no idea how to control his pitches and he walks people all day until he serves up a homer. Even at that, his runs allowed rate is marginally above average. Shawn Camp was pretty good, James Russell is a better reliever than starter, and former Sox arm Michael Bowden did okay. The problem is that the rest of the relievers are below average.
The Cubs will give a shot to a couple of Asian imports, Kyuji Fujikawa and Hisanori Takahashi. Both can be better than what the Cubs had, but aren't really proven commodities. If Marmol continues to deteriorate and the imports (and Camp) take a step back, this could be a devastating problem.
Goodbye Geovany Soto, and hello to the Wellington Castro era. Dioner Navarro has been brought in to help out. Cubs catching was well below average compared to the rest of the NL (bad against the running game, bad at winning games, bad at preventing runs from scoring, slightly error prone). Castillo wasn't better than Soto, but he did hit better than Soto had. The problem is that Navarro may hit like Soto did last year.
Anthony Rizzo was a solid addition at first base and only has room to improve. Darwin Barney and Starlin Castro are the best keystone combination in the majors defensively – they hit some, too. The problem is that the third base slot isn't being filled well by either Luis Valbuena or Ian Stewart. This is a significant hole – and Josh Vitters doesn't look ready to fill it. The Cubs miss Aramis Ramirez. A full season of Rizzo looks like the only opportunity for improvement over last year.
Alfonso Soriano had a reasonably good year in left – better as a defender, believe it or not, and as an expensive option, likely isn't going anywhere. David DeJesus is okay as a number two hitter, but not a great centerfielder. He's also getting older. In right, the Cubs trade Bryan LeHair for former Giant Nate Schierholtz, which isn't a step forward. I see this group falling off from last season's stats both offensively and defensively.
Alberto Gonzalez and Brett Lillibridge are around, as is Scott Hairston, who is an able bodied pinch hitter and fourth outfielder. Other than Hairston, I'm not impressed.
AAA Iowa Outfielder David Sappelt didn't do much and got a job out of spring training, which scares me. Josh Vitters hit .304 at Iowa with some power, but didn't impress at the major league level – he will get another chance. Rizzo killed AAA and made the big leagues. None of the starters were impressive, even though Chris Rusin got a cup of coffee – the best relievers, like Bowden and Scott Maine, were given shots with the big club.
The AA Tennessee Smokies didn't have a single batter clear .300 who played regularly, but Justin Bour wasn't horrible – some power, a bit of a free swinger. The best arm may be Nicholas Struck, who is 22, fanned 123 and walked just 44 in 155.2 innings and had a winning record. Eric Jokisch looked okay in 17 starts, but needs to find a strikeout pitch to advance and be productive.
Daytona (A+) has 2011 first round pick Javier Baez to look forward to – but he's a shorstop who may have to be traded for other options. John Andreoli isn't horrible, a good eye, great speed, but no power. Young arms may help, though, including Matt Loosen and Frank Del Valle. Unfortunately, 2010 first round pick Hayden Simpson may be done.
I don't see a reason to be optimistic. The team crashed down the stretch, they didn't make any significant changes to the roster, and the one area where the team could improve (first base) is going to be offset by the outfield getting another year older and less productive. This team looks to finish about 65 – 97 and are an injury to Rizzo or Castro from losing 105 games. Theo – it's about time for your first miracle, wouldn't you think?


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President Trump mocks CNN's Jim Acosta over Twitter video at border wall
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump joined a chorus of Republicans on Thursday in mocking Jim Acosta, CNN's chief White House correspondent, on Twitter for a video the journalist posted showing areas of the border that had a wall.
Acosta, who traveled to Texas for the president's border visit, posted a video on Twitter of him walking alongside a steel-slated fence at the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he didn't "see anything resembling a national emergency."
"We're not seeing any kind of imminent danger. There are no migrants trying to rush toward this fence here in the McAllen, Texas, area," Acosta said. "No sign of the national emergency that the president has been talking about. As a matter of fact, it's pretty tranquil down here."
Almost instantly, conservatives said the video showed that walls and barriers along the border were working. Fox News' Tucker Carlson used the video as part of an opening monologue. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders thanked Acosta, saying he was "doing our job for us and so clearly explaining why WALLS WORK."
More:Government shutdown: Trump tours border, claims Democrats 'losing the argument'
More:'Not leadership': Pence in 2014 criticized using presidential powers on immigration reform
The president also chimed in on Twitter, writing "Dear Diary" atop Acosta's video.
Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, said Acosta's video was one of the "best self-own videos," showing that "walls work."
Acosta fended off criticism, telling Sanders that she was "twisting the truth."
"As we have been reporting today there are other sections of the border that don't have walls or slats. Yet, the residents here feel safe," Acosta wrote on Twitter.
He also got into a back-and-forth with the president's son, asking Trump Jr. that if current measures were working why couldn't the government be reopened? Acosta also questioned whether Trump Jr. was "headed down to Mexico to pick up the check" for the border wall.
He ended each tweet with variations of #byebye, a reference to how President Trump ended a meeting with Democratic leaders at the White House on Wednesday.
Acosta has clashed with the president and White House several times throughout the Trump presidency. Acosta's press credentials were temporarily revoked at the White House after a contentious exchange with Trump during a news conference when the president called Acosta a "rude, terrible person."


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Alibaba Group is pumping US$590 million into a Chinese smartphone maker that's been helping the e-commerce company promote its own mobile OS against Google's Android.
The Chinese giant said Monday it would take a minority stake in Meizu, a smartphone brand in China already battling for visibility in a crowded market.
The size of the stake wasn't disclosed, but the two companies will integrate Meizu's hardware with Alibaba's mobile operating system, known as YunOS. In addition, Alibaba will leverage its e-commerce resources to help Meizu sell its products.
Alibaba is best known as China's leading online retailer, with its two sites Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com. But as more Chinese rely on their smartphones to go online, the company has tried to develop its own mobile operating system, as a way to popularize its Internet services.
It debuted its mobile OS back in 2011, but the software has struggled to take off, at a time when Google's Android remains the dominant smartphone platform in China.
The e-commerce giant, however, expects its efforts to pay off in the long run. "The dominant player today may not be the dominant player tomorrow," said Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai back in November.
To expand YunOS, Alibaba has been trying to get bigger-name Chinese handset makers to use the software. So far, Meizu has been the most notable brand, and in October it came out with phones installed with the OS.
In terms of shipments, Meizu isn't a key smartphone maker compared to other Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Lenovo or Huawei. But the company has its own avid fanbase in China, and is releasing more phone models, including a new budget Android handset at 699 yuan (US$113).
It's unclear to what degree Meizu will use Alibaba's YunOS, when its older products have instead relied on Android. But by joining forces, the two companies could pose a threat to other smartphone makers in the Chinese market, although the competition isn't letting up.
Fast-rising Xiaomi is not only coming out with more Android handset models, but expanding into other devices such as tablets, smart TVs and even air purifiers.
Lenovo, on the other hand, has re-introduced in China its newly acquired Motorola brand, which is supporting devices with a more vanilla Android experience.
Apple, however, is posting strong growth with its new iPhone 6 models, and became China's number one smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter, according to research firm Canalys.


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It seems as if there is a lot of confusion in the way people post things online referring to who is what and what they do, and I see this mostly on Facebook. Let me clear up some confusion for any new writers who may be looking to self-publish in the near future. Here are a few basic terms and companies described.
- CreateSpace
CreateSpace is the paperback publishing arm of Amazon. This is where you go to create a paperback of your book, if you're not choosing one from a myriad of other options. You can find free templates for your cover, and free formatted templates for the interior. They are free. You don't need an account to download these. They also have a Cover Creator with templates and font/font placement. Choose a photo (available for commercial use) and the creator will create a cover in accordance with your book's measurements. They also have a CreateSpace Community. If you have questions, they have most likely been answered 1,000 times already.
KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. This the Kindle arm of Amazon. Some people only publish on Kindle (or e-reader/tablet if they go wide {see definition below}.) The set up is much easier than putting together a paperback. Just format your file, upload your cover art, fill out all the fields for price, etc, and you're done. Your ebook will be published on Amazon in 12 hours. They say to give them 3-5 days, but it has *never* taken that long.
- KDP Select
KDP Select is OPTIONAL. When you enroll your book into this program, you are promising Amazon you are not selling your e-book anywhere else, in three month blocks. That means you are not published on Nook, iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, or anywhere else e-books are sold, including your own website, during that time frame. This does not have anything to do with your paperback, and you don't have to enroll in Select even if you don't plan to publish your e-book elsewhere. It seems people use KDP and Select interchangeably, and this is not accurate. If you enroll in Select, your book will be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, or KU. Readers with KU subscriptions can read your book as part of their subscription costs, and Amazon will still pay you for the page reads. If you want to know more about Kindle Unlimited, look here. You can unenroll any time, but KDP makes you finish out your three months, so plan ahead if you want to begin selling your books on other platforms.
- KDP Print
KDP Print is the paperback arm of Kindle Direct Publishing. With CreateSpace closing their online store and the creation of KDP Print, it is rumored that eventually Amazon will shut down CreateSpace. Why have two services doing the same thing? I've looked around KDP Print, and the submission process is similar. Even the downloadable templates are the same. The only difference is how your purchase your author copies. There was a lot of complaining at first, because KDP Print didn't offer the same things as CreateSpace does. They are slowly changing that, though, and to me, that's another indication that soon you won't have a choice between the two. I only hope their customer service remains the same. I've had to call CreateSpace customer service on occasion, and I have always received polite and helpful service.
- Going Wide
Going wide means that you are not selling your e-books only on Amazon. That's it. Lots of people don't understand what this means, or they get confused because they don't realize there is more than one place to sell books. There are a lot of opinions on this topic and you need to do what's best for you and your writing and marketing plan. Currently, I'm in Select, but I feel as I add more to my backlist, I will expand. It's never good to have all your eggs in one basket, but it may be a while before I have more than one egg.You have a couple options on how to go wide: You can upload your file to all the places yourself. Kobo recommends you upload directly to them so you can take advantage of marketing opportunities. But you can't upload directly to iBooks unless you have a Mac and can download the necessary apps. Most people use a 3rd party aggregator such as Draft2Digital to distribute their e-books. But be aware if you do this, your royalties are lower. You pay D2D to distribute, but then you also pay the vendor for selling your book.
- IngramSpark
IngramSpark is the other company indies use to publish their paperbacks. They have better distribution (CreateSpace uses them to distribute) and The Alliance for Independent Authors suggests you use CreateSpace to sell your book on Amazon and use IngramSpark for other distribution. CreateSpace will give you a free ISBN number, which is why a lot of indies go that route, and CreateSpace is free (besides taking their cut of your royalties) and IngramSpark is not. Also, IngramSpark makes you purchase your ISBN through Bowker. If you decide to purchase one from Bowker, however, you can use that one for both IngramSpark and CreateSpace. That is another personal choice, and you will have to do your research and see what is best for you. If you plan to do any book signings, IngramSpark is the way to go. That way a Barnes and Noble can order your book from IngramSpark and return any that you do not sell at your signing. The cost is on you, for returned books, but bookstores do not like to deal with CreateSpace, as they view Amazon as a competitor.
- BookBaby, Lulu
If it all seems too much for you and you just want to upload your book and walk away, there are reputable self-publishing companies who will help you. Though I haven't used BookBaby or Lulu, I have heard they treat you well, and don't pressure you to buy services and products you can't afford. Be aware that if a company offers "editing" that they do a light proofread or line edit only, and if you want developmental editing or a deeper sweep of your MS, you will need to hire that out before you submit your book to these companies. These companies are legitimate as far as I am aware. Joanna Penn even had the founder of BookBaby on as a guest on her podcast, and Joanna would never endorse a company that is not on the up-and-up. She is a member of the Alliance for Independent Authors and they are committed to helping the indie-publishing industry.These are not to be confused with other self-publishing companies run by Author Solutions. Companies such as Author House, Xlibris, and iUniverse are listed on the Writer Beware website, and you should use extreme caution when deciding with whom you will publish.
Thanks for reading this quick guide. If you're new to the writing and publishing scene, it may seem overwhelming, and there is never a lack of information on the internet. As always, check and double-check before you make any decisions, and always, always, be careful if you decide to pay someone for a service. It's nice to think you can trust people you meet online, but in reality, the only person you can, and should, trust is yourself.
Tell me what you think! And let me know how I can help.


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Fun Facts about P.T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut in 1810.
- Speaking of his youth, P. T. Barnum said, "I was always ready to concoct fun, or lay plans for moneymaking, but hard work was decidedly not in my line." Indeed, he succeeded in making a great deal of money by working hard at having fun.
- When he was born, his grandfather deeded him a parcel of land known as lvy Island. The growing boy was constantly reminded of his property. When he was 10 years old, he went to visit his estate and discovered it to be "a worthless piece of barren land."
- When Phineas was 15, his father died, leaving his widow and five children penniless. Phineas immediately became clerk in a country store, where he learned the fine art of Yankee trading. During the next 10 years he was a shop owner, director of lotteries, and newspaper publisher.
- When he was 19 he eloped with a local seamstress, Charity Hallett (who would remain his wife for 44 years and give him four daughters).
- At 22, as publisher of the Herald of Freedom, he was jailed for libelously accusing a deacon of usury; upon his release 60 days later, Barnum was met by a band and "a coach drawn by six horses" for a parade back to town.
He made his first sensation in 1835 when he met Joice Heth, a slave who claimed she was 161 years old (she was about 80) and had been the nurse of George Washington.
- Seeing Joice Heth's possibilities as a human curiosity, Barnum purchased the right to exhibit her, along with the documents validating her age, and set her upon her couch in Niblo's Garden in New York City. She was extremely popular, but when interest began to flag, a newspaper item appeared suggesting that Joice was not human at all but an "automaton" made of whalebone, indian rubber, and springs.
- Shortly after the article was published, the exhibition hall was full once more, for Barnum always knew how to use the news as well as the advertising sections of newspapers. Finally, upon her death in 1836, when an autopsy proved that Joice had been no more than 80 years old, Barnum was as surprised and indignant as anyone else. He had learned, however, that "the public appears disposed to be amused even when they are conscious of being deceived."
- For the next four years Barnum was an itinerant showman in the West and South. By 1840 he was back in New York, poor, weary of travel, and without prospects.
When he heard that the struggling Scudder's American Museum (with its collection of curiosities) was for sale, Barnum determined to buy it. "With what?" asked a friend. "Brass, " Barnum replied, "for silver and gold I have none." He mortgaged himself to the building's owner, proposing for collateral good references, a determination to succeed, and a "valuable and sentimental" piece of property known as Ivy Island.
- In 1842 he opened the American Museum in New York City and immediately became famous for his extravagant advertising and his exhibits of freaks.
- By the end of 1842 the museum was his, and a year later he was out of debt.
- Barnum's American Museum was to become the most famous showplace of the century. Here, in constantly changing and elaborately advertised parade, the public could see educated dogs and fleas, automatons, jugglers, ventriloquists, living statuary, albinos, obese men, bearded women, a great variety of singing and dancing acts, models of Paris and Jerusalem, dioramas of the Creation and the Deluge, glassblowing, knitting machines, African Americans performing a war dance, conjoined twins, flower and bird shows, whales, mermaids, virtuous melodramas such as The Drunkard, a menagerie of rare animals, and an aquarium—"all for twenty-five cents, children half price."
His Great Model of Niagara Falls with Real Water was actually 18 inches high; the Feejee Mermaid was really a monkey's head and torso fused to a fish's tail; the Woolly Horse of the Frozen Rockies had in truth been foaled in Indiana.
- Only half in jest did Barnum seek to buy Shakespeare's birthplace, hire the Zulu leader who had recently ambushed a British force, and tow an iceberg into New York harbor. Altogether, the museum showed over 600, 000 exhibits during its existence.
- Among his great attractions were the aforementioned Feejee Mermaid, "General Tom Thumb," who was viewed by over 20 million people, and the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng.
General Tom Thumb was Barnum's greatest attraction. Charles S. Stratton, a native of Bridgeport, Conn., was 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds when he entered Barnum's employ in 1842. When he died in 1883, at the age of 45, he had made millions of dollars and delighted international audiences.
- In the first of Barnum's many European junkets the General entertained Queen Victoria, King Louis Philippe, and other royalty with his songs, dances, and impersonations in miniature. Of the 82 million tickets Barnum sold during his lifetime for various attractions, Tom Thumb sold over 20 million.
- In 1850, Barnum managed the American tour of the Swedish singer Jenny Lind and, with his talent for publicity, made it a huge financial success for her and for himself.
The immensely profitable tour of this gracious "Swedish Nightingale" was prepared with ingenious public relations but conducted with dignity and generosity by Barnum. Its success initiated the vogue of European concert artists visiting the United States.
- In 1855 he retired from show business; he served as mayor of Bridgeport, Conn., and in the Connecticut legislature.
- In 1857 his famous house, Iranistan, fashioned after George IV's Pavilion at Brighton, burned to the ground.
- The original museum burned in 1865, and new museums burned in 1868 and again in 1872.
- The showman's greatest financial catastrophe had nothing to do with show business. For years he had cherished the dream of building a city out of the farmland of East Bridgeport—a benevolent endeavor, he thought. In order to attract business, he signed some notes guaranteeing the debts of the Jerome Clock Company. As a result, he lost all he owned. Thus, in 1855, at the age of 46, the great Barnum was bankrupt.
He worked his way back from bankruptcy, however, in part from successful lectures on "The Art of Money Getting, " and by 1860 he was free of debt once more.
- Throughout his life Barnum was a political liberal, serving in the Connecticut Legislature in the late 1860s, where he diligently fought the railroad interests, and as mayor of Bridgeport in 1875-1876.
- A year after the death of his first wife, Charity, in 1873, Barnum married Nancy Fish, an English woman 40 years his junior.
- In April 1874 Barnum opened his Roman Hippodrome in New York; this was to grow into the great circus. While he did not invent the circus, an ancient form of entertainment, he made it a three-ring extravaganza the likes of which had never been seen before.
- In 1881 he merged with his most successful competitor, James A. Bailey, and under the name Barnum and Bailey the circus continued for a generation after Barnum's death.
In what was described as "Barnum's last great coup" he purchased Jumbo, the 61⁄2-ton African elephant (and largest elephant kept in captivity), from the London Zoo despite the furious protests of English elephant fanciers, including Queen Victoria.
- Violent objections by the English only made Jumbo and the circus that much more appealing.
- In 1882 the circus opened its season in Madison Square Garden, where it was to become an American institution; and everywhere the "big top" traveled, a "Barnum Day" was declared. Circling the arena in an open carriage as leader of the parade always brought roars of approval (and great satisfaction) to the aging genius.
- In 1887, the great circus in its winter quarters, with most of its menagerie, was lost to fire, yet it somehow managed to continue on.
- By 1891 Barnum's body began to fail, though not his spirit. His child's delight in the joke, the curious, and the splendid had set an entire nation to wondering and laughing and buying.
- A few weeks before his death, Barnum gave permission to the Evening Sun to print his obituary, so that he might have a chance to read it. On April 7 he asked about the box office receipts for the day; a few hours later, he was dead.
- His autobiography was published in 1855 and went through many editions.
- He also wrote Humbugs of the World (1865), Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and Money Getting (1883).
Special thanks to education.yahoo.com and www.encyclopedia.com


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The Ask A Lawyer In The Library program is a civil, non-family law, self-help program sponsored by the Anne Arundel Bar Association and the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service. Every Wednesday, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., you can talk with a volunteer attorney for up to 20 minutes. No appointment is necessary, but sign-up is required at the law library's information desk. Sign-up begins at 10:45 a.m., and time slots are determined by a lottery. For more information, please see http://circuitcourt.org/legal-help/lawyer-in-the-library.
On Wednesday, May 11, 2016, the Law Library hosted another successful Ask A Lawyer In The Library program. Thank you Mike Valadez for volunteering and providing this service to the public. Five people were able to meet with the attorneys to discuss issues related to bankruptcy, expungement, real estate, emergency petition for mental evaluation, and small claims. The next program date is Wednesday, May 18, 2016.
It is helpful to prepare for your session with the attorney. Here are some helpful tips:
- Write a list of specific questions for the attorney.
- Bring any paperwork and information related to the case.
- Organize any paperwork from most recent on the top to oldest at the bottom.
- Identify all deadlines.
- Prepare a timeline of the legal issue.
If you would like to research your issue prior to your session with the attorney, please come find us at the Law Library's information desk. We are happy to assist you.
More information about the program is available at http://circuitcourt.org/legal-help/lawyer-in-the-library.
The Ask A Lawyer In The Law Library program is a limited legal advice service. The program is not a substitute for representation. If you need an attorney to represent you, you can contact the Anne Arundel Bar Association's Lawyer Referral and Information Service.


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Ruger Vaquero 357 Magnum Stainless Hi Polish
Being a child who grew up in the 1950's I was like every other little boy. I loved Cowboys and Cowboy movies. Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger on TV then all the old greats at the movies. That love affair with all things Cowboy stayed with me into adulthood in the form of rifles and single action revolvers.
When I was about 7 years old my dad taught me how to shoot a revolver with a second generation Colt single action army revolver in 45 Colt. That was the first handgun I ever shot. That's a memory I'll always keep close. My dad had several single action army revolvers he kept at my uncles house for a couple of years. My uncles home burned down and the old Colts were gone. Only years later I realized what a loss that was.
No it's not pushed all the way into the holster:-)
The first revolver to cover is the Ruger Vaquero. This gun is safe to carry six rounds in the cylinder since it uses a transfer bar instead of the old type with the firing pin in the hammer. Mine is the 5 1/2 inch barrel version which is a good barrel length for just having a fun afternoon of shooting or with your local SASS group dressing up and playing the part with all the other old guys from the baby boom generation:-) This Ruger is the hi gloss stainless which is about the most durable finish you can buy and very easy to clean. These old guns point naturally no matter who makes them. They just feel right in your hand. They are also surprisingly accurate considering all they have is the notch in the rear and a thin blade front sight. The Ruger is also a very durable revolver and can handle about any reasonable handload you can come up with and keep going through a lifetime of shooting.
The trigger as it comes from the factory isn't bad at all but can be improved with a little judicious buffing. One handed shooting from a holster draw will give you groups of about 4 inches at 10 to 12 yards shooting like you would in competition. If you slow down and use a handload 38 special with just the right amount of Bullseye powder you can squeeze a group of about an inch at 10 yards. One note here I don't advise anyone get carried away and fan the hammer like in the old movies. One thing is unless someone who knows how teaches you it can be dangerous and the other consideration is it's hard on the internals even the rugged Ruger.
The holster rig pictured above my wife bought me on a trip we made to San Antonio Texas back in the early 90's. An old Mexican gentleman made it by hand and had a bunch of rigs to choose from at crazy low prices like $30 for this rig. I dyed it black and added the conchos to dress it up a bit. The loops fit 38/357 rounds. It was a heck of a deal and has served well for all these years.
Uberti Cattleman
The next revolver is the Uberti Italian made single action that is pretty faithful to the old Colt in design with the firing pin in the hammer. Again this requires you carry only 5 rounds in the cylinder with an empty under the firing pin. If you drop it and a round is under the firing pin it will fire! This one has a fairly matte blue finish. I ordered a set of the faux Ivory grips from Uberti which they didn't even charge me for. I did have to fit them but it didn't take very long and only required a minor bit of material be removed to fit well. This one is chambered in 45 Colt. Not as sturdy as the Ruger I use mainly Magtech "Cowboy" loads which are very mild and run about 700 fps. The trigger on this one is a little better than the Ruger which I would guess is just the difference in the old action and the Ruger transfer bar action. It's not as accurate as the Ruger but it's no slouch either. For those that may not be aware of it Beretta purchased Uberti after years of the company making the Stampede for Beretta. I undertsand that eventually the Uberti name will be gone and they will all be Berettas. All of the machinery is being or has been moved to Berettas facility. The action on this revolver is smoother than the Ruger with less effort to cock it and has less trigger pull distance. The trigger is also lighter by just a hair. It also handles well and points just as good as the Ruger. The Uberti is also a bit lighter than the Ruger which makes for a bit faster handling. The price of the Uberti is also about $100 less than the Ruger.
Marlin 1894 "Cowboy" Competition 38 Special Rifle
I saved the best for last:-) This is the Marlin 1894 "Cowboy" competition model rifle which came in 38 special only and had a 20 inch barrel. It has a deep blue octagon barrel and a color case hardened reciever and an American Walnut high grade stock. It has the traditional Buckhorn sights with a gold bead Marble front sight. You'll also note the holster rig I mentioned earlier. At least you can see it all in this picture. I do love this rifle and in my opinion it's in the top two of the best looking rifles ever made!
Marlin made this rifle for a few years for those who compete in the Single Action Shooting Society matches (SASS). Marlin put a lot of hand fitting into this rifle by hand smoothing and fitting the action. The cost was higher than the other Cowboy rifles in Marlins line. It ran close to $650 to $700 at most shops. Marlin discontinued this rifle much to the consternation of many a Marlin rifle enthusiast. Apparently Marlin listened to the customers since it has been re-released
chambered in 38 special and 45 Colt.
One Of The New Models. Note the bolt is not case hardened as they were on the old ones and mine.
Barrel Markings and the beautiful deep blueing
The action on this rifle is as smooth as butter. In fact the first time you work the action you have to just pause and wonder at how they got it this smooth all the way through the stroke. Normally when the round is about to go into the chamber there is a little feeling of the round hanging a bit but not with this rifle. The balance and feel with this straight stock is fantastic. It handles like a dream and has such little recoil it's back on target in an instant. From a distance of about 15 yards you prettty much put all your rounds into one hole of about an inch and a half. There are few if any rifles that are more pleasurable to shoot than a quality lever action like this one and the other Marlin lever actions made in the Cowboy configuration.
I once owned a Winchester model 1892 that had been converted to 38/357 in the 1950's when that was a popular thing to do with the old rifle. The size of the "92" and the Marlin are pretty close and light in weight. One of the first things I thought of was the old model "92" when I picked up the Marlin.
The Marlin and Uberti before I added the Ivory grips
I don't know why Marlin did away with the case hardened finish on the bolt. I much prefer the entire reciever,lever and bolt color case hardened since Marlin did such a beautiful job of creating this finish. Marlin has always made quality rifles. In fact my next favorite rifle is the Golden 39A in 22LR. One interesting tidbit of information on this 100 plus year old rifle is that back in the late 1950's when the Rifleman TV series was so popular Marlin added a feature to the 39A that would have lawyers today licking their chops. Just behind the trigger attached to the lever was a flat piece of metal that could be swiveled forward so that when you worked the lever the metal piece engaged the trigger firing a round each time you worked the lever. This type was my first 39A and man was it fun! It's the first and last one I've ever seen and command a big price these days if you can find one.
If you have any interest in the old west or getting into the Cowboy action shooting scene you would do well to seriously consider the marlin 1894 "Cowboy" for your long gun and the Ruger Vaquero for your sidearm. Check the Ruger website at LINK
Marlins lever action webpage can be found at LINK


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The Dramatic Works and Poems of William Shakespeare, Volum 2
George Dearborn, 1836
Què en diuen els usuaris - Escriviu una ressenya
No hem trobat cap ressenya als llocs habituals.
Pàgines seleccionades
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
The Dramatic Works and Poems of William Shakespeare: With Notes ..., Volum 2
William Shakespeare
Visualització completa - 1871
Frases i termes més freqüents
Antony appears arms bear better blood body bring brother Brutus Cæsar cause Cleo comes copy crown daughter dead death doth duke Edward Enter Exeunt eyes face fair fall father fear fight follow fortune friends give gods grace hand hast hath head hear heart heaven hold Holinshed honour hope I'll keep kind king King Henry lady leave live look lord madam master means mind mother nature never night noble once passage peace person play poor pray present prince queen Rich Richard Rome SCENE Serv Shakspeare soul speak stand stay sweet sword tears tell thank thee thing thou thou art thought true unto Warwick York
Passatges populars
Pàgina 161 - Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows ; each thing meets In mere oppugnancy : the bounded waters Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores And make a sop of all this solid globe : Strength should be lord of imbecility, And the rude son should strike his father dead : Force should be right ; or rather, right and wrong, Between whose endless jar justice resides, Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Pàgina 174 - That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly, Grasps in the comer : welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was ; For beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all To envious and calumniating time. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, — That all with one consent praise new-born gawds, Though they are made and...
Pàgina 209 - I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun...
Pàgina 9 - When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse : was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man.
Pàgina 161 - What plagues, and what portents! what mutiny! What raging of the sea! shaking of earth! Commotion in the winds ! frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixture ! O, when degree is shak'd, Which is the ladder to all high designs, The enterprise is sick.
Pàgina 69 - To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery ? O, yes it doth ; a thousand fold it doth. And to conclude, — the shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle, His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, Is far beyond a prince's delicates, His viands sparkling in a golden cup, His body couched in a curious bed, When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him.
Pàgina 7 - Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me: Now no more The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip: — Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. — Methinks, I hear Antony call; I see him rouse himself To praise my noble act; I hear him mock The luck of Caesar...
Pàgina 9 - tis his will : Let but the commons hear this testament, (Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read) And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood ; Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, And, dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it, as a rich legacy, Unto their issue.
Pàgina 10 - I am no orator, as Brutus is; But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, That love my friend; and that they know full well That gave me public leave to speak of him: For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men's blood: I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know...
Pàgina 143 - This many summers in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride At length broke under me; and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.


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Darko Macan is a comic artist from Zagreb, Croatia, where he studied history and archaeology at the University. He began his career working for Croatian comics, before he broke through on the US comic book market. Together with Edvin Biukovic, he created 'Citati' in Stripagent. He worked with Radovan Devlic and Dusan Gacic on 'Strossmayer' for Glas Koncila in 1993. In the mid-1990s, Macan and Biukovic submitted their work to Dark Horse Comics. Macan has written 'Grendel Tales: Devils and Deaths', 'Star Wars: X-Wing: The Phantom Affair', 'Star Wars: Vader's Quest' and 'Tarzan: Carson of Venus', often in cooperation with his compatriots Biukovic and Igor Kordej. He has additionally worked on Vertigo's 'Hellblazer' and 'Marvel's 'Cable: The End'. Macan has also done scripts for several Disney pocket stories.
While working for the US market, he kept producing comics in Croatia, such as 'Komarac' with Stef Bartolic for Profil (2001), 'La Bette Noire' with Milan Jovanovic for Drugi Pogled (2001-02), 'Mister Macak' with Robert Solanovic and Tihomir Tikulin for Prvi izbor (1999). As a writer, he has written over 40 science fiction and fantasy short stories, two science fiction novels and three children's books. Under the pseudonym Cecile Quintal he has written essays about comics. Macan is editor-in-chief of the Q Strip comic magazine.


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So I was very tempted to call this post something not so polite, but I decided against it! If you have read my last post you will be aware that when I was visiting Rome I opted to stay in a hostel rather than a hotel as a means of saving money, and this is something I often do when embarking on adventures. Hostels solve the issue of "do I stay centrally or do I save some pennies?" by making both possible, which is fantastic!
Unfortunately my experience in Rome was probably my worst hostelling experience to date, which is made all the more unfortunate because it was probably the nicest hostel I have ever stayed in. After some consideration I realised that some of the 'issues' I experienced in Rome I also experienced with a German roommate in Edinburgh last October and I do wonder if things are different in mainland Europe hostels, and elsewhere worldwide, to that which I'm used to in the UK. Regardless, the following are my top tips on how to get the most out of hostel holidays!
1. Be Prepared To Sleep With The Light On.
The generally accepted rule in a hostel dorm is last person going to bed switches the lights off – seems simple enough! Of course if you are the kind of person who likes an early night you might not be so keen but people who are coming back in the middle of the night don't expect you to keep the light on all night. I think 11pm/midnight is a generally accepted time to switch the light off even if somebody is still out. If people aren't shrouded in darkness they will be able to get ready for bed quicker and quieter, so leaving the lights on a little longer might still mean you get an undisturbed sleep sooner.
2. If You're Leaving Early In The Morning, Prepare The Night Before.
Surely this should be a general rule for life, but I'm looking at those two roommates who were leaving at 5am and suddenly needed to repack their cases and shower before leaving, waking up the whole room in the process. Every day when I was in Rome I was woken at stupid o'clock by people who were not prepared for their early departure which made me cranky for the rest of the day. Chances are you'll wake up when somebody is leaving during those hours, but if they are prepared (and don't switch the room light on, hint hint) it will be fleeting and you'll probably just roll over and go back to sleep.
See also: don't blow dry your hair at stupid o'clock in the morning because if your shower and packing didn't wake me up that certainly will.
3. Eat Your Takeaway Elsewhere.
This is one unspoken rule which I am guilty of breaking. While it can be tempting to take your McNuggets to bed, you will end up making the whole room smells iffy (iffier than normal in some cases), even if you're just putting empty packaging in the bin. Almost all hostels are equipped with a communal kitchen/dining/social space, so use it if you want to avoid dirty looks and disgusted comments in a language you can't understand.
4. Keep it tidy.
This one doubles as a a security measure against opportunist thieves and a way to save yourself from being the most hated roommate – keep your stuff tidy, and in your bag or locker where possible.
5. Remember You're Sharing.
When you have 10 women sharing one bathroom which has the toilet, sink and shower, a sure fire way of earning dirty looks and negative roommate points is to take more than your fair share of time in the morning. Most hostels have communal bathrooms as well as ensuite, so there is access to multiple toilets or showers and sharing isn't such an issue, but I have found myself in this situation where people have locked themselves in the bathroom for almost an hour at the same time everyone else wants to get ready.
…and some final things to think about if you're staying, or thinking about staying, in a hostel:
– Respect your roommates and other hostellers, and be open to a little trust. Worries about security of personal property are one of the things I get asked about a lot but it's always worth remembering that normally everyone else has the same concerns and hopes that their stuff will not go missing. See my Tip 4 out of mind to avoid opportunist sticky fingers – out of sight out of mind.
– Hostels are not youth hostels anymore. Many people still believe that hostels are just for young people but this is not the case anymore – I've met pensioners and businessmen as well as young people. Anybody can just be looking for a bed at a reasonable price!
– Everywhere is a communal area. Be prepared for everywhere that is not your bed/locker etc to be treated as somewhat of a communal area. Accidentally leave your shampoo in the shower? That is everybody's shampoo now. Map on the desk? Anybody's map. Box of tampons on the shelf? Everybody's tampons. Left your towel on the back of the door? Shared towel. Don't worry though, generally people try to keep to their own things and only use seemingly communal items if they find themselves stuck. Again, see Tip 4!
– You get what you pay for. Hostels are basic, but they work as a base for exploring or an overnight layover to break up a journey. You don't expect bells and whistles for a tenner (or even a fiver!) a night.
-Say hi to your roommates! The loneliest place is a crowded room of people who don't speak to you. Say hi, maybe learn a bit about their story. A hostel doesn't have to be lonely even if you are alone (a lot of people in hostels are solo travellers!).
– Privacy is the other big concern I get asked about, but it doesn't bother me too much. A lot of people use a towel or blanket to create a shield between them and the outside world (obviously only really works in bottom bunks) but I think you'll find that nobody really cares what you're up to as long as you're not causing a riot.
– Dorms come in various styles, from 2 or 3 beds up to 18 or even 30 beds (who wants to share a room with 29 other people?!) and can be single or mixed gender. It will normally say when you're booking. I would say the average beds in a room is 6-10.
Think I've missed something? Love hostelling? Not ready to give up the luxury of your private hotel room yet? Let me know in the comments below!


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Packers' Aaron Rodgers: 'Playing fast, but my mind is slow.'
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Mind, body, soul, wallet — it definitely is good to be Aaron Rodgers.
Set to turn 30 in December, the Green Bay quarterback believes he is in tip-top shape, his intellect and grasp of the offense have never been sharper, his role as the team's leader is unquestioned and, as the NFL's highest-paid player after his five-year, $110 million contract extension in April, his future is set.
On Wednesday, after coach Mike McCarthy said his quarterback is in "a good place" as he preps for his sixth season as the team's starter, Rodgers spoke of being the team's longest-tenured player (a title he assumed after wide receiver Donald Driver's retirement), of how he's seeing the game.
"I'm playing fast, but my mind is slow, which is where you want to be," he said about how he's enjoying taking fewer snaps this camp as backups Graham Harrell, Vince Young and B.J. Coleman battle while he's on a pitch count.
Later, though, Rodgers spoke of the real reason he feels good — the "vibe" he's getting from his team. "I'm having a blast, I really am. I love this group of guys," Rodgers explained. "I think it's a young group. It feels young, there's an influx of energy. We've seen a lot of guys fighting for positions, but a lot of guys stepping up and letting more of their personality out. I think when you can get to that comfort zone where you're playing really fast and playing well but also able to be yourself, it's just fun for everybody else. It's contagious."
Whether that vibe translates into greater success remains to be seen. After going from 8-6 with two weeks left in the 2010 regular season to making the playoffs as a wild card and winning the Super Bowl, the Packers have put together back-to-back NFC North division titles, going 15-1 in 2011 and 11-5 last season. But after dispiriting losses in the NFC Divisional Playoff round each year, those seasons ultimately felt empty to Rodgers.
According to offensive coordinator Tom Clements, Rodgers' quarterbacks coach from 2006 through 2011 and the person who knows him best in the building, that is fueling him.
"I think he's been a little more focused. If things aren't right with a particular play — the running back, the line, a receiver — he talks to them and tries to get everyone on the same page," Clements said. "He knows that the last couple years we had good seasons but they didn't end the way we'd want them to. And he's taking the approach that he's going to do everything he can to get us to where we want to go."
To get there, Rodgers acknowledged Wednesday that it might mean his own personal numbers will drop. Although the passing game figures to remain the focus, if the Packers' hopes of a more robust running game are realized, Rodgers could be more efficient in a more balanced offense.
DuJuan Harris, who ended last season as the starter, and rookie second-round pick Eddie Lacy are the leading candidates to start at running back, but veteran James Starks has had a good camp and rookie fourth-round pick Johnathan Franklin looks like a viable third-down option.
"You know, one word we've talked about (this year) is sacrifice, sacrificing for the good of the team and putting the needs of the team in front of the needs of the self," Rodgers said. 'You look at the guys we've got in the backfield this year, it's probably the best running group we've had in my nine years as a whole. That could mean the (passing game) numbers might go down a little bit. But the most important thing, as we stress to the guys on offense, is about winning and playing well. If we can have a balanced attack this year, I think that means sustained, consistent play, and that's what we're looking for."
Rodgers has also had a lighter workload in camp this summer, and it's not only because of the competition for the backup job. McCarthy, Clements and quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo decided that in his ninth season, Rodgers needed to be monitored more closely in terms of throws and snaps.
"It's been a lot lighter, and I've appreciated it. Last year there were times where we took 60 out of 70 snaps in a practice, and that's tough for anybody, whether you're in Year 1 or Year 8," Rodgers said.
"Now in (Year) 9, they've done a good job (of) putting their heads together and taking off some of the load on my arm, so my arm's been able to stay very fresh. My legs feel have felt really good. I came in in really good shape, probably the best shape I've been in since maybe five years ago. So that feels good, it takes some load off my legs. I love football so I want to make sure I'm putting my best foot forward for these guys and lead them in the right way.


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Obama's Gulag Part CVI
Rob Meltzer
I simply in awe that the First Circuit has upheld the conviction of Tarek Mehanna today. He becomes yet another faceless zek in Obama's gulag. This travesty of constitutional trampling didn't happen in a bright red state with bright red judges. This happened in Democratic Massachusetts before a coterie of liberal justices. Under a Democratic president. This is farce. This is a travesty. Now we have to hope for some sanity from the Supreme Court.


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Walking is the ugly stepchild of the exercise world. Like Cinderella it is far more beautiful than her more ostentatious stepsisters.
J.J. Watt, defensive star of the Houston Texans said in an interview on his injury and subsequent surgery that he was not allowed to work out in his early rehab so all he could do was walk. As a result, he found himself walking around 12 miles a day. He said he loved what it did for him mentally as well as physically. His only complaint was that he was wearing out his shoes.
Here are no less than ten reasons you should walk more:
Physical activity guidelines and the benefits of walking
Is Walking as effective as running?
The connection between walking and blood pressure.
Walking gives relief to Glaucoma sufferers
Can walking cut chocolate cravings?
The benefits of walking and bicycle riding
Walking not sudoku for seniors
National Start Walking Day – American Heart Association
Mall Walking
Every Body Walk!
How good is walking for you – Infographic?
Walking an hour a day best for longevity – Study
The benefits of walking … backwards
Walking – Key to staying active and independent.


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Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Published by permission of the Crown's patentee, Cambridge University Press.
New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


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New Moon times. Could these be times in which the door to the psyche is open for us to enter and redirect our play just a little bit–at least emotionally? And is it a time for us to create and debate and elevate as well as fixate about our emotional nature? New Moon times could be the most important part of our creative nature since it sets the tone for how we interpret the world. Each month the dye is cast so-to-speak by our response to life at the New Moon time. If we could mark the time and be aware of it, we could control the nature of the dye we cast for the upcoming 28'ish to 30-day lunar cycle.
If you happen to know the house that the New Moon is in (for you), you can derive more insight from the vibes but even if you don't know that information, it's still beneficial to open to setting a new tone for your emotional responses to life. (If you should happen to know what house 0° Aquarius falls in your natal chart, this will give you an idea for the areas of your life that will be activated and in what life categories the potential for renewal will be natural and beneficial to cast your emotional die for the next 30-day cycle. But even if you do not know which house your 0° Aquarius is located, you can still benefit from simply knowing the sign itself.
So we have a New Moon in Aquarius! This sign rules the 11th house of hopes, dreams and also carries a humanitarian and "friends" as general meaning archetypes. Innovative thinking is part of the Aquarius vibe as well as freedom seeking qualities being a part of this energy. In evolutionary soul astrology, it also links with "the wound" of the past lives.
So in any of those ways we can cast the dye for this next month–changing our emotional responses to life in those areas.
(Again, if you know the house of your natal chart that holds 0° Aquarius, you can factor in that information as well.)
I just had a brilliant idea! (Now that's the stuff that Aquarius is made of actually–brilliant ideas.) Anyway, why not draw a few tarot cards to add insight to the Aquarius New Moon meaning here? Why not? It's my blog and I can do what I want!–that last sentence (too) is very 'Aquarian' in nature. 🙂
Let me first reiterate that a New Moon relates to heightened sensitivity to a particular energy for the purpose of casting new dye for the purpose of renewing the potential of that part of your psyche. Using emotion to rededicate yourself in some way–that's another way to say it. We can toss in "desire nature" as well here in that what we desire usually has a rather significant emotional derivative so using that energy to create something new in our lives.
Let me draw two cards now to help us to know more about this month's New Moon in Aquarius, asking how we can best use this time for our highest benefit and therefore highest benefit of all. I'm going to use the Hanson-Roberts tarot deck for this one; here we go. (By the way, I love the images on this deck and the cards are small and fit nicely in my hands during the shuffle. This is a deck that I used to program meanings from the divinitory method using my own memories.)
I drew THE CHARIOT and QUEEN OF CUPS.
Well, first impression: male image/female image so a hint at balance confirmed by the yin and yang on the Chariot. All those stars on the Chariot card really do remind me of the sign of Aquarius and now the Cup the Queen holds, definitely relates to emotions (cups equal emotion in the tarot system).
The Chariot also speaks of using one's will, directing one's energy and being determined; it is also about practice and practice making perfect. Practicing what? The Queen holds that answer–understanding your emotional reactions. Satisfaction comes from practicing using one's will to understand emotional responses and to keep on that path and exerting control in some way to achieve a goal.
Sometimes we let our emotions spin out of control. Yet, these cards speak of the suggestion that this New Moon cycle the directive is about making it a goal to control emotions so that they do not spin out, causing us to break down, go off our intended path and by failing to maintain our balance and by neglecting to keep the positive/negative pull of our nature (yin/yang) under control.
I think of the Queen of Cups always as it relates to intuition and also empathy/compassion — those energies, too, need to be balanced so that emotions don't spin out.
The Queen sits by an ocean and this hints, to me, that water can help in our endeavors this month and if there is a goal that you believe you'd like to reach regarding water in any way, this New Moon in Aquarius would support that. Many people feel very "at peace" near water or even in water. Aquarius, after all, is the "water bearer" (despite it being an 'air' sign. The Chariot does relate to the Sign of Cancer and Cancer is ruled by the Moon and Moon energy always relates to water.
So on all levels I do get that a message for this New Moon time relates to emotion and the goal of harnessing those in some way that relates to Aquarius energy — friends, hopes, dreams, humanitarian causes, group energy or perhaps it relates to a person with the Sun sign Aquarius with the understanding that the Sun and Moon are neck-in-neck right along side one another at the same degree when there's a New Moon.
Give it another go here–what I mean is to consider reading this post over again with what your intuition tells you Aquarius means to you! Cast the dye consciously.
Final thought: is there a way that you can balance emotions for a new cause, a new reason in this new lunar phase?


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University of Illinois (UI) Extension is hosting four livestock manure management workshops in February and March to provide hands-on training about the Illinois Manure Management Plan (IMMP) website. The IMMP website, www.IMMP.uiuc.edu, offers step-by-step instructions for developing manure management plans that comply with the requirements of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Illinois Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
"Illinois livestock producers can use the IMMP website as a recordkeeping tool or to develop a full-fledged manure management plan," explains Ted Funk, UI Extension agricultural engineer. "Producers can attend a workshop to learn more about how IMMP can help take some of the worry and frustration out of their manure management tasks."
The IMMP website was developed with support from the Illinois Livestock Development Group, Illinois Pork Producers Association, Pork Checkoff, Illinois Beef Association, Illinois Milk Producers Association, Illinois Farm Bureau, and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
The workshop provides assistance whether individuals are already using the website and have questions, or are new users seeking information about how to use the website to develop a plan and keep records.
Each workshop is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dates and locations are:
- Feb. 5 -- UI Extension, Lee County, 280 W Wasson Rd., Amboy.
- Feb. 16 -- UI Extension, Marion County, 1404 E Main, Rt. 50 East, Salem.
- Feb. 26 -- UI Extension, Champaign County, 801 Country Fair Drive, Suite D, Champaign.
- March 5 -- 1st Farm Credit Services, 2901 E. Jackson, Rt. 136, Macomb.


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The Pfister Recommends: A Pfister Holiday Tale [VIDEO]
Milwaukee is a wonderful city with a great story to tell, especially during the holiday season.
Take a seat in the Lobby Lounge, relax, enjoy a glass of the Pfister Hotel's signature glögg, and watch a Pfister Holiday Tale.
Peter captured some wonderful moments and activities in our fair city of Milwaukee. We'd love to know what you love to do in Milwaukee during the holiday season.
What's your favorite Milwaukee Holiday tradition? Be sure to cast your vote on our Poll on the right hand side of the Pfister Blog.
- Milwaukee Ballet's Nutcracker
- The Milwaukee Rep's Christmas Carol
- Annual Holiday Parade
- Pfister Tree Lighting Ceremony
- Leonard Bearstein and the decorations at the Shops of Grand Avenue Mall
- Jingle Bus and the holiday decorations around the city
Don't see your favorite on our list? Comment below and tell us what we missed.


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Back from the dead, but still on the brink?
With its striking colour pattern and vaguely lamniform appearance the 'red-tailed black shark', Epalzeorhynchos bicolor (Smith 1931), is an enduringly popular aquarium favourite. All of the thousands of individuals sold in the global ornamental trade each year are produced on a commercial basis and this can be said to represent something of a paradox, even an unintentional act of conservation, given its status in the wild.
The species is native to central and western Thailand with historic records from the lower Mae Klong, lower Chao Phraya and Bangpakong rivers, all of which drain into the northern tip of the Gulf of Thailand. It was officially declared extinct from these systems in 1996 with collection for the aquarium trade, agricultural and domestic pollution, plus other forms of habitat alteration such as dam construction typically considered to blame, but in 2011 a small, highly-localised population was observed in the Chao Phraya basin.
Now, a new study has confirmed that it is also still extant in the Mae Klong, with a single specimen collected from the river's main channel close to the Maeklong Dam in Muang District, Kanchanaburi Province in February 2013, and reported officially in the 'Biodiversity Journal' this week. The collection site comprised fast-flowing water of over a metre in depth, with a substrate of sand and large rocks.
The discovery of two separate populations in the last three years raises the possibility that E. bicolor may occur at other locations, although the authors of the new study note that the Chao Phraya record was not accompanied by any physical evidence or concrete locality data. In addition, it is currently considered 'Critically Endangered' by the IUCN and appears likely to remain as such until its wild status can be more clearly established.
For further information download the full, open access paper: Kulabtong, S., S. Suksri, C. Nonpayom, and Y. Soonthornkit. 2014. Rediscovery of the critically endangered cyprinid fish Epalzeorhynchos bicolor (Smith, 1931) from West Thailand (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae). Biodiversity Journal 5(2): 371-373.
Category: Blogs, Conservation | Tags: biodiversity, Chao Phraya, Epalzeorhynchos bicolor, Labeo bicolor, Maeklong, Thailand | 2 comments »


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Former justices
Justice Charles H. LarrabeeWisconsin Supreme Court Justice: 1848–1853
Life: 1820–1883
"As a judge, he was prompt and impartial, and his written opinions bear favorable testimony to his learning and ability; he possesses more than ordinary natural ability; is an impressive public speaker; his manners are free, affable and popular, and is zealous as a partisan and warm and devoted in his friendships." – Silas U. Pinney, Sketches of the Judges of the First Supreme Court (1876)
Charles Hathaway Larrabee was born in Rome, New York, on November 9, 1820. His family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended Granville College from 1834 to 1836.
Before studying law, Larrabee worked as an engineer and helped survey for the Little Miami railroad. He was admitted to the bar in 1841. Three years later, Larrabee moved to Chicago, Illinois, and served one term as city attorney. He also edited the Democratic Advocate.
In 1847, Larrabee moved to Horicon, Wisconsin. Later that year, Dodge County elected him to be a delegate to the 1848 state Constitutional Convention.
Larrabee was elected circuit judge for the 3rd Judicial Circuit in 1848. Pursuant to the state constitution, he joined the other four circuit judges to form the first Wisconsin Supreme Court. He was only 28 years old at the time, making him the youngest justice to ever serve on the Supreme Court.
When a separate Supreme Court was organized in 1853, Larrabee ran as a Democrat for the office of chief justice, but was defeated by the older and more experienced Whig candidate, Edward V. Whiton. Larrabee continued as a circuit judge until 1858, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Larrabee was among the first to volunteer and was appointed major of the 5th Wisconsin infantry. A year later, he was promoted to colonel of the 24th regiment.
Larrabee resigned from the military in 1863 and moved west. He practiced law and was involved in public affairs in the Oregon, California and Washington territories. He helped draft the state constitution in Washington.
Larrabee was married to Minerva Norton. He died in Los Angeles, California, on January 20, 1883.