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New potatoes are potatoes from the early crop that are smaller than old (maincrop) potatoes. The most popular and well-known new potato is the Jersey Royal. The unique growing conditions in Jersey (the combination of the gentle climate, the steep slopes and the seaweed used as a fertiliser) produce these delicate new potatoes, which have the same Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status as Stilton and clotted cream, effectively giving their name EU-wide protection from potential imitators. Other varieties of new potato include Arran Pilot, Home Guard and Red Craig's Royal.
New potatoes are delicious simply cooked in butter, added to Spanish omelette, simmered in a seasonal broth or made into salad. Leave the skins on as much of the flavour (and the vitamin C goodness) can be found just under the skins.
Type the ingredients you want to use, then click Go. For better results you can use quotation marks around phrases (e.g. "chicken breast"). Alternatively you can search by chef, programme, cuisine, diet, or dish (e.g. Lasagne).
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Home > Shop > Home Décor > Kids' Décor
Spark their imaginationswith personalized décor.Decorate kids' bedrooms,playrooms, or any spacethey call their own.
Create a nursery to drool for with photo canvases featuring family photos, your newborn's portrait, or close ups of baby's tiny hands and feet.
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Warm up their room with framed photos of your favorite smiles or art by big sister or brother. Choose white for a fresh, modern look. Black, walnut, and natural are also available to complement your crib.
Select frames
Starting at $8.99 each
Create posters
Make a modern statement with eye-catching photo panels. Display their darling faces in a sturdy table-top style, or hand up wall panels featuring their artwork in the entry way, living room, or any favorite room.
Create photo panels
Decorate your kids' worlds with personalized home décor from Snapfish. Create growth charts, canvases, posters and more to bring their imaginations to life. Custom home décor make fun decorations for children's bedrooms, playrooms, rec rooms, and classrooms.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hoist and Winch Operator Jobs in Michigan
2 Michigan Hoist and Winch Operator jobs found on Monster.Jobs 1 to 2 of 2
LINEMAN CREW LEADERS NEEDED FOR IMMEDIATE VACANCIES START DATE Immediately PAY RATE Highly competitive based on experience, plus company benefits package. QUALIFICATIONS: • High school diploma or equivalent is required. • Must have 2 years minimum construction and aerial experience. • Knowledge and understanding how to read design work prints\maps and work orders • Experience with OSHA/safety stan...
LOOKING TO FILL MULTIPLE ENTRY LEVEL VACANCIES, POSITIONS AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY LightSpeed Communications is seeking to hire entry-level telecommunication labor/line construction positions at our East Lansing location. This individual will work constructing a city-wide fiber-to-the-home build. They will be responsible for working in a safe manner outlined by their manager. Must be able to use hand...
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Skilled Trades Career Tools
Machine Operator
$18,720.00 - $45,760.00
Typical Salary for Machine Operator in Michigan
(507 Respondents)
Source: Monster.com Careerbenchmarking Tool
Education / Training
High School
Some College Coursework Completed
Some High School Coursework
(374 Respondents)
Source: Monster.com Careerbenchmarking Tool
Machine Operator
Forms product by operating fabricating equipment; maintains equipment.
Rate of Growth
8.50 %
Size of Industry in 2006:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2006
Related Skills
Controls and Instrumentation
Equipment Maintenance
Manufacturing Experience
Manufacturing Quality
Related Duties
Maintains continuity among work teams by documenting and communicating actions, irregularities, and continuing needs.
Maintains stock inventory by checking stock to determine amount available; anticipating needed stock; placing and expediting orders for stock; verifying receipt of stock.


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Special to the Record-Eagle
MIDLAND — Midland High quarterback Alec Johnson was a force for the Chemics on Friday night, while Traverse City Central quarterback T.J. Schepperly was the focus of a determined Midland defense.
Johnson threw for 281 yards — 263 in the first half — and Midland's defense contained Schepperly on the way to a 28-16 victory over the Trojans on a chilly night at Midland Stadium, giving the Chemics their first Division 2 district title since 2009.
No. 1 Midland (11-0) will host No. 3 Muskegon (10-1) next Saturday in the regional final. The Big Reds beat Lowell 15-13 on Friday.
The Chemics took to the air in the first half to build a 21-7 halftime lead, and their defense made big plays throughout the game to keep the Trojans at bay.
"Defensively we did a fabulous job against their quarterback," Midland coach Eric Methner said. "Our perimeter guys did a great job of bottling him up."
Trojans' coach Tom Passinault praised his team, which had earned the school's first playoff win since Traverse City split into two high schools in 1997.
"I'm really proud of the guys," he said. "We battled the whole year, and tonight was another example of that."
Schepperly, a senior, threw for 157 yards and a touchdown, but on the ground, where he is a threat to break off big runs, he had only 12 yards on 16 carries.
"They did a heck of a job on Schepperly," said Passinault, whose team finished 9-2 after beating Bay City Western 48-47 in double overtime last week.
Trojans' punter Nate Pupel pinned the Chemics down at their own 1 with a 77-yard punt in the first quarter. But two players, Alec Johnson found Thomas Smith in the right flat for a 95-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead with 7: 11 left.
After Midland turned it over on downs later in the quarter, Schepperly threw a 67-yard TD pass to T.J. Schwannecke on the next play to tie the game.
Midway through the second quarter, the Chemics drove 42 yards and scored on Johnson's 2-yard run for a 14-7 lead.
Midland forced a quick punt and then drove 86 yards in only five plays and scored on Johnson's 48-yard TD pass to Singer for a 21-7 lead with 2:24 left in the half.
After another quick Trojans' punt, the Chemics drove down to the TCC 20 and Singer missed a 37-yard field goal wide left on the last play of the half.
Midland had 351 yards of offense in the first half, including 263 passing yards by Johnson, while the Trojans had only 103 yards of offense, 67 of which came on the TD pass to Schwannecke.
Schwannecke, however, returned the second-half kickoff 61 yards to the Midland 24, and Jake Gorter kicked a 26-yard field goal to cut the Chemics' lead to 21-10 with 8:17 left in the third quarter.
On the Trojans' next drive, Singer broke up a pass on fourth down deep in Midland territory to halt the drive.
But three plays later, the Trojans' Pupel recovered a fumble by Travis Patten at the Midland 48. The Trojans cashed in, converting a fourth and 5 and eventually scoring on Pupel's 10-yard run to make it 21-16 with 10:12 left in the fourth. Schepperly's 2-point pass was incomplete.
But Patten atoned for his fumble on the next play from scrimmage, running 80 yards to the end zone to make it 28-16 with 9:51 left.
"We had a couple of chances in the second half, but they kept ripping off big plays at the right times," Passinault said.
Central then drove deep into Midland territory again, but the drive ended when Johnson intercepted Schepperly at the 3 with 7:04 left.
Midland eventually had to punt, but they sealed the win when Michael Wright recovered a fumble by Schepperly at the Trojans' 16.
"Nobody wants to lose, but I'm really proud of our team," Passinault said. "Where we've come from six years ago (as a program is remarkable). Now we've got to maintain that high level."
Schwannecke had two catches for 97 yards and a TD for the Trojans, and Pupel had 15 carries for 84 yards and a TD.


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Women's professional basketball seaon overseas is just beginning and another former Big 4 standout has signed a contract. Brittany Hedderson will play for Turun Riento, a top-division team in Finland. Her season begins on Oct. 6.
Hedderson was a first-team All-Mid American Conference selection from the University at Buffalo. She fnished second in the league last year averaging 20.4 points a game and set a school record with 39 points in a win over Oakland.
Her senior year was her best, scoring 631 points -- the second most points in a season in program history. Her 1,462 career points ranks fourth and she is one of only two players in school history to record 1,400 points and 300 assists. (Brenna Doty is the other.)
St. Bonaventure's Jessica Jenkins has landed in Iceland where she will play for the Keflavik club.
You can follow Jenkins on Twitter at @jessjenks14 and Hedderson at @bhedderson.
--- Amy Moritz
Twitter: @amymoritz
Photo from www.buffalobulls.com


text: Quote:Apologies for another (most likely) simple question. My CGEM DX mount came with a car adaptor only for power. The official AC adaptor is quite expensive and I was wondering if this product: Sunforce AD/DC Converter, is what I need to run the mount off of AC power? I don't want to damage any of the electronics so I figured it was safer to ask rather than assume.


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Texas Public Schools Week
This annual celebration and recognition of Texas Public Schools Week includes inviting parents and guardians to lunch as well as student/staff led tours for parents.
Kindergarten classes are known for the festive Texas school decorations as they welcome parents to come and eat lunch with their children.
Schedule this week is:
March 5th - Pre-K/PPCD (AM)Breakfast
1st., 3dr. 5th parents invited to lunch.
March 6th - PPCD/Pre-K (PM) Parents invited to lunch
Kindergarten parents invited to lunch
March 7th - 2nd and 4th Grade parents invited to lunch.


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Journal Sentinel book editor Jim Higgins highlights things worth reading, in print and online
Reading the John Updike stories: 'A Game of Botticelli"
The Library of America recently published 'John Updike: The Collected Stories,' a two-volume boxed set of 186 stories arranged in chronological order. I'm planning to read one or more a week and comment on them each Wednesday until I finish the collection or fall apart.
"A Game of Botticelli," the third story in this mega-Updike collection, was written in 1954, rejected by The New Yorker, and ultimately published in 1963 in The Liberal Context, a literary journal. After reading it, I can see why The New Yorker passed on this youthful trifle.
Mary and Martha, grad students living in Cambridge, Mass., are being wooed by Sam, "who came from the darkest Midwest," and George Davidson, a somewhat older and somewhat improbably named Indian chemist. ("Darkest Midwest?" As a lifelong Midwesterner, this one puzzles me, unless it's a touch of drive-by humor from the Easterner Updike.)
After 11 one evening, "Chastely George and Sam sat down by the mountainous knees of their loves, and in a darkness to which their eyes became accustomed all four played Botticelli." It's a guessing game: One player throws out the initial letter of a famous person's name, the others ask questions and attempt to guess who it is.
In Updike's story, the letter is K. These characters being smart young people, they come up with Klee, Kipling, Kafka and Kierkegaard, as well as baseball umpire Bill Klem and "Nestor Shylock," a fine Shakespearean corruption of a real umpire's name, Nestor Chylak.
They play the game fiercely, and at times petulantly. The answer to the mystery has a Wisconsin connection, but it would be an ungenerous spoiler to give it away. It also feels trivial and outdated to me, a throwaway that leaves me disappointed.
Next Wednesday, please join me for a look at Updike's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth," whose promising Shakespearean title has me excited already.
Previous blog entries in this series:
Tags: John Updike
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Changes related to "VIII HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA"
From World War I Document Archive
This is a list of changes made recently to pages linked from a specified page (or to members of a specified category). Pages on your watchlist are bold.
No changes on linked pages during the given period.


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The name of the Riverside police officer apparently slain by a vengeful Los Angeles officer still cannot be revealed, even as funeral plans are being finalized, police said Saturday.
The name of the 11-year veteran could be released by Monday night, said Lt. Guy Toussaint, the department's public information officer, in an interview with City News Service.
Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz requested that the fallen officer's name be withheld by news media while the whereabouts of Christopher Jordan Dorner were unknown. Dorner is suspected of killing the officer in an assassination-style attack at a Riverside intersection Thursday.
The dead officer's partner remained hospitalized Saturday, with serious injuries and stable life signs, Toussaint told CNS. His name has also been withheld.
Funeral services were scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Grove Community Church, 19900 Grove Community Dr. That church was also the site of services for slain Riverside police Officer Ryan Patrick Bonaminio in November 2010.
Like that ceremony, the entire Riverside police force will turn out for Wednesday's funeral, complete with an honor guard procession that will bear the 34-year-old patrolman's casket to Riverside National Cemetery for internment.
While the police department pays homage to its slain brother, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department is expected to handle all emergency calls in the city.
The unnamed officer was killed during an attack at the intersection of Arlington and Magnolia avenues around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. Both he and his partner, identified only as a 27-year-old officer on a training detail, were struck in the upper bodies, according to Diaz.
Diaz described the shootings as a "cowardly ambush."
Donations are being accepted to assist the family of the murdered officer. All checks should be made out to Riverside Police Officers Association Assistance Fund, or RPOA, and mailed to 1965 Chicago Ave., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92507.
-City News Service


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Mobile development – making work 'to go' really work
Wes Simonds 120000EFD6 firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  development connectivity worklight wes software product-innovation ibm rational mobile business-agility jim simonds zhang
0 Comments | 6,170 Visits
Mobile rocks the IBM InterConnect 2012 Conference
Tiffany Winman 12000065XB email@example.com | | Tags:  singapore asia event interconnect rational mobility cloud tivoli worklight ibmmobile cloud-computing security services conference mobile
0 Comments | 4,599 Visits
The IBM InterConnect 2012 Conference just ended yesterday, and Mobile was on everyone's lips here in Singapore. The conference was a huge success with over 2500 attendees from 50 different countries. You can find videos of much of the conference in three primary places:InterConnect Livestream agenda: http://ibm.co/Wb4Loz (offers a break ... [ + Read more ]
New IBM Mobile App Showcase announced at InterConnect
Steve Hellin 100000V3V4 firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  partnerworld ibmmobile mobility worklight partners mobile ibminterconnect interconnect
0 Comments | 2,547 Visits
In addition to all of the great product announcements made last week at InterConnect in Singapore, there was a very important announcement for our mobile business partners. The Global Solutions Directory (GSD) on PartnerWorld now includes a Mobile App Showcase, where IBM Business Partners can feature their mobile applications and ... [ + Read more ]
Reinvent processes for mobile and innovate with cloud
Mary Forlenza 270001BN8C email@example.com | | Tags:  mobile patterns smartcloud worklight bpaas mobilefirst pureapplication_system cloud odm bpm
0 Comments | 4,438 Visits
By Craig Riegelhaupt, Product Marketing Manager for IBM Business Process Management and Operational Decision Management In 2011, IBM conducted over 3,000 CIO interviews and 99 percent of these CIO's who had mandates to transform their business wanted to create better processes. The IBM Global CIO Study confirmed that process reinvention is ... [ + Read more ]
Smarter mobile device management: IBM's MobileFirst vision
Paul Hoffman 100000GRKW firstname.lastname@example.com | | Tags:  mobileapplicationdevelopm... mobilesecurity smartermobiledevicemanage... byod trusteer worklight mobilefirst
0 Comments | 1,293 Visits
By Wesley Gyure, Mobile Product Management & Strategy, IBM Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure IBM® closes on the acquisition of Fiberlink Communications today. Read the press release. The recent announcement that IBM will be acquiring Fiberlink has drawn much favorable commentary in the industry, and so it should—it's a sound move for many reasons. However, there's ... [ + Read more ]


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Win-win for Carl Icahn
As Wednesdays go, this must be one of the best in a while for activist investor Carl Icahn. He's getting two board posts at Genzyme, for which he is dropping his proxy battle, and he has charmed the Canadians into approving his tender offer for Lions Gate Entertainment, for which all he had to do was promise to keep the Canadian film division in Canadian hands if he takes control of the Los Angeles studio.
All this is a welcome turn of events for the high profile investor who has suffered through his share of misses in recent years, including his disappointing investments in Blockbuster and, most famously, Yahoo.
Icahn had nominated himself and three allies to Genzyme's board after a manufacturing crisis lead to shortages of two of the company's life-saving drugs. Genzyme has agreed to appoint two Icahn representatives — Dr. Steven Burakoff and Dr. Eric Ende — and in return Icahn will withdraw his slate and vote his shares in favor of the company's nominees. "I think overall this is a positive," said Michael Obuchowski, chief investment officer at First Empire Asset Management, which owns Genzyme's shares and oversees nearly $4 billion in assets. "It avoids a continuing confrontation with Icahn and provides more oversight over the direction the company takes."
On the movie front, Icahn said last week he would launch a proxy battle for control of the board of Lions Gate, after the studio posted a narrower-than-expected, but second consecutive quarterly loss. Icahn said he will put up his own slate of director nominees prior to the company's annual meeting. Lions Gate has not yet announced a date for the meeting. It may want to stay away from Wednesday when it gets around to choosing one.


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Let's get started. This is the train ride to the west entrance. It will not be that empty on the way back.
The CeBIT fair ground (photo was taken a little bit later). There were about 25 filled halls with a lot of exhibitors and over 200 000 expected visitors.
The first booth we saw. Not really spectacular, but we started with some boring halls in the beginning and left the entertainment halls for the end.
RFID chips are used to track packages here. The sensors in the front are used to check if a package has left or entered a storage facility.
Heise.de had a booth too and we saw a couple of Linux penguins in that hall too. The usual get 2 CT editions for free abo could be ordered here too. They also had a Sony Play station 3 running Linux on the other side. The funniest thing was some other booth in that hall where some woman announced that you can win a "Sony Play 3 Station ". We laughed our asses off.
Some Chebaba dude or chick was handing out candy.
The big companies SAP and Microsoft almost filled the whole hall 5 together.
Microsoft did not have anything new to show because most of its products have been released in the past months. It will take another 2-3 years for the next cycle. There were only some smaller handheld devices with Windows XP (like the Origami from last year) that looked interesting and a lot about boring business and security. I would have liked to see some info about Longhorn Server.
An Asian woman wanted to take this Audio sport car with her.
This is the data storage server for the whole Microsoft booth. There are 2 rack servers in here and about 24 disk drives. Some guy from Microsoft came over and explained to us that the server got 4 TB data storage and runs several services, all Windows based. But we smiled a little thinking of our little server at home, which is just a normal PC running Windows 2003 x64 (you will need that for any drive bigger than 2 TB), but got 4 TB on a single RAID 5 already, with some other backup and boot drives too. And it is not as noisy as the servers we saw here at the CeBIT.
Some cool relaxing chairs near the AMD business booth. There were a lot of water fountains in hall 1 and 2.
Another server with about 64 disk drives running a Windows Cluster service and there were showing virtualization here and explained how cool it is to have multiple virtual servers, which can balance each other. I did not wanted to spoil them by telling them that using virtual servers will just throw away almost 50% of your performance away. Using it for performance critical applications did not make much sense to me. Again, just 6.1 TB on this data server, not much if you ask me. In a few years everyone will have more memory on their home computers ^^
A blue haired girl at the ASUS booth. I was not sure if she is really from ASUS as she was handing out something to win some Intel stuff. Later I found out all the blue haired girls were from Intel and they were at 8 different booths, which you had to visit to win something boring. I would guess the total number of people how did that was zero. BTW: Did I mentioned that my mainboard that stopped working last week when I came back from the GDC was from ASUS? :-(
A Porsche! There was a PC inside, but for some reason the car was more exciting (and expensive). You could even get a price if you ask, but you know, when you have to ask, you can't afford it anyways.
Racing games all over the place. Why does everyone going to a fair want to play racing games? And why does everyone just show racing games? Man, this is boring! Ups, I did a racing game too, maybe I should be more exciting about this ...
The Samsung booth in hall 1. Samsung is a cool company anyways with all their support for e-sports and their range of cool affordable products, but everyone at this booth was extremely friendly. Most other booth in hall 1 were just focused on business and did not even want to be asked about anything.
A new laptop, which got the new Nvidia GeForce 8000 Go card in it. Coming out in 1-2 months. Pretty exicting. Makes my new laptop with a GeForce 5900 GS look much less impressive.
Here are the specs. If even such a small laptop can have a GeForce 8000 and do DirectX 10 stuff, bigger laptops will have some cool graphic boards too in the future.
The new 30 inch screen from Samsung. It has a better image than the 30 inch Dell, but it is still very expensive and the Dell monitors are much more affordable (especially the 24 inch). The resolution on a 30 inch is great: 2560x1600 ^^
Some guy was zooming in on girls with this new camera, but I was watching the watcher.
Two girls from Intel (again and again, they were all over the place) checking out each other. Not really hot, but getting to it ..
A sphere of monitors at the very unfriendly IBM booth. They had some business people explain the marketing ideas of IBM in Second Live, but they had no idea about the application and their "sims" were empty like no ones else. But who cares, as long as people keep pumping money into "3D worlds and presentations" they will keep going. IMO the Second Life technology is not really perfect for virtual presentations. There is no easy way to login and most of the required technology is not even implemented yet (Second Live does not even have voice support).
This is how the sphere monitors are controlled by the way. Each one has a laptop on its back. I'm not sure this is the best way to do it, but we are still on the IBM booth, no reason to be clever here.
A little later we saw Commodore. Every year someone new buys the name and brings out a couple of shitty products, when will it ever stop? For example they got some "new" 4GB mp3 players with some simple display, which costs 250 bucks. By the way, other companies like Samsung and Creative had similar shitty mp3 players and marketed them as "new" too. The walkman was something new, but everything after that is pretty much the same. I just do not get the point when people start speaking about "taking your music anywhere with you". Are you freaking kidding me?
For that you get a Zune or iPod with 30GB and much better technology. I got a Zune from the GDC by the way and it does not work here in Germany yet. First of all you are not allowed to download or pay for anything when you are not in the US or Canada (the only countries where the Zune is released yet), and then you can't even install the Zune software on a German operating system. There are some hacks to get around some issues and having direct access to the Zune drive (very useful), but they only work on a English windows version or XP. Here is the link if you are in the same trouble.
Did you notice that no booth chicks will look at me when I'm trying to take a picture? I will keep trying till the end of the day ^^ Please also note that we entered the entertainment halls and everything will look more like the Games Convention now.
An Asian RPG game, which has a really cool kill counter in the lower right. The game looked very manga like, but still had realistic graphics. I have to check back what this game was about later.
R2D2 was there too. Actually it was a pretty cool robot that is already available in Japan and it has cameras, can move around and it can blink and beep like the "real" one from the movies.
Hmm, this might look like a completely empty booth, but actually the very exciting dude there was showing invisible devices. Amazing, isn't it?
More cases and a lot of different displays on them. They all cost around 40 bucks, which is not much for computer cases anymore and the quality gets better and better.
The World Cyber Games 2007 Euro Championship was in hall 23 of the CeBIT. But it only was played from the 15. to the 18. March and it was all over when we were going into the hall.
Holy macaroni. This girl from Razer was throwing something at me while I was taking this picture. We could maybe count that as a girl looking at me while I'm taking a picture, but she was out to get me. This does not count, let's go on. And no, I did not catch the bandage.
AMD and ATI (also AMD) were in hall 23 too. Try to find the laptop facing in the wrong direction on this picture!
A cool Formula One racing car, which reminds me of the Speedy Racer Mod of the Racing Game. Ups, I already said too much ...
The ATI chick "Ruby" looks good as always.
And some cool water cooled gear with AMD stuff in it.
And finally some mainboards with AMD chipsets on a wall. Not sure if I would agree with AMD's new slogan "Smarter Choice" as they are currently very much behind the Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs and the Nvidia 8800 GPUs are also much faster than their ATI counterparts!
At the XFX booth the famous Quake world champion "Fatality" was playing against random people. Those two police girls where protecting the gamer area. Some people even wanted be be arrested .. strange people these gamers.
And another picture of those two nice girls. They had to be alert all the time, so I'm ok with them not noticing me taking pictures.
And this is Fatality playing against some random guy. They were playing Quake 4. The announcer had a pretty boring job:
00:00: The match begins ..
00:06: 1 to 0 for Fatality already
00:10: 2 to 0 for Fatality
00:36: 8 to -1 for Fatality ..
Oh no, we are at the Games Convention, aren't we? Just for a t-shirt everyone is going crazy again!
Now that is a pretty cool mouse. Mine can not do anything like that, I'm happy when it even works at all.
More cases, much more cases!
Power supplies and cases, almost like in a computer shop, just the prices are missing.
In hall 24 we saw a lot of hardware vendors, mainly for mainboards, graphic cards, power supplies and coolers. Zalman has really grown big. They got so many new products.
They do not only have coolers, power supplies and water cooling systems, but also cases like this one: The Z-Machine!
G.Skill memory. DDR3 and faster memory with 900Mhz, 1000+ MHz and more coming soon.
A pretty cool looking server mainboard for 2 CPUs and 16 memory slots, uffa!
Something is missing here? A nicely build PC with corsair ram and LEDs on them is there. A keyboard is there too and even speakers, but where the hell does the gamer look at? At a white wall?
DDR3 memory is coming. No, it is nothing really new, graphic cards have that already, but now the big memory sticks for the mainboards are going to be faster too. Also notice the cool looking cooler and the 8800 GTX build in here. I guess it is a Core 2 Duo system too, probably the X6800, which is still very expensive. The prices will drop in April however. Exciting times to come.
More stuff from Gigabyte. The hall was filled with hardware vendors, but we were tired and had not much power left walking through every single booth. For a more complete view about the halls 23-25 check out Guru3D's review of the CeBIT 2007. They have a lot of cool pictures too and more technical details.
HAH! Another Intel chick and this time I got her just as she was quickly moving forwad. Not only did I get her sharply while the world around her blurs away, she is also looking at me and smiling. Mission accomplished for today.
Professor Intel explains why everyone needs a X6800 quad core CPU for games today, when over 95% of all games do not even care if you have two cores. But still, even a single core from a Intel Core 2 system is much faster than anyone else can give you.
More cases .. Wasn't Apogee the software publisher behind Commander Keen and older jump and run games? That logo does look quite different.
Some big piece of cooling equipment. Not sure if that even fits in a normal desktop. But it is all passive and while mainboards are cooled passively too and the power supplies are very silent the only noisy part in your PC will probably be the hard discs. Haven't seen silent ones of those in a long time.
More cases .. and what the heck. Another girl is looking? The day can end now. It was not all that bad, but most pictures I took where blurry and when I gone through the photos I have selected for this post, I saw that all the girls from the first half were looking away ^^
Oh no, this poor guy just wanted to take a closer look at these half naked chicks and now he is in real trouble. I better keep going.
And there is the reason to buy a 1000W power supply (e.g. the Galaxy one from Enermax). Ok, you need about 24 hard discs, 4 CPUs and 2 8800 GTX graphic cards to even get to 933W, but does not everyone have such a PC at home? The raid controller here is looking cool, just 6 ports which 4 sata cables coming out of it. I did not know the vendor (BMC or something), but other RAID controller suppliers like Highpoint had similar cards too.
That's it for me. Time to get some rest. Next big fair will be the Games Convention in Leipzig in August, but there are a few smaller conferences till then and I will keep shooting photos :-)
Game Development | Other | Reviews
Download the game installer here (40 MB): DungeonQuestSetup.zipAlternative download (slow! from this site): DungeonQuestSetup.zip
Note: This game requires a Shader Model 3.0 GPU as it was build for the Xbox 360 and optimized that way. For lower end PCs it pushes way too many polygons each frame anyway so that it will be too slow. If you have a low end SM 3.0 GPU (like the Nvidia GeForce 6600), make sure you run in a lower resolution (see below for details).
Here is a little video from the current version of the game. Enjoy!
Ok, let's get started. What is this guy doing there. He doesn't look very friendly, maybe it is better to hit him in the head!
First quest completed. This key is important to open the door to the second level.
Nonstop fighting action. Well, at least if you don't lose your way.
This is how it looks like after I got angry. I told those guys, don't start any fights!
Ohh no. I did not use all my skills (see right side) and this Ogre killed me too quickly. I guess I have to start over.
The credit screen when the game ends. Notice my book :)
No reason to stop, let's start over and try again. The fight is continuing. The game is not that hard, you just have to use all skills and avoid being hit by fireballs or big enemies when you have low hit points.
Game Development | Other | Programming | Reviews
The Lobby of the Moscone North Building, which was also the XNA Lobby and the place we stayed all day to finish our game. The Gears of War theme music was getting annoying after hearing it a few times, but after hearing it for 4 straight days I guess I need a few weeks of silence before I can ever play Gears of War again ^^
Two of the other teams working hard on their XNA games.
Gabe Ahn from Sony introducing us at the COLLADA round table I was speaking at on Wednesday (left to right): Shaun Leach from Zipper Interactive, Ken Normann from EA (working on the Sims team) and me (some XNA guy from exDream in Germany? ^^)
The panel discussion was good IMO, hopefully more and more people get attracted to COLLADA and start using it for their tools.
The outside world at day 4, it might not look very bright to you, but after 2 days with just 2-3 hours of sleep this looked incredible bright and it was hard to open the eyes out here. But the weather was nice all week and it was warm enough to wear t-shirts all the time except at night.
A picture from Microsoft's XNA Party at Thursday evening. It was still early and we prepared our presentation of the XNA game we did in 4 days: Dungeon Quest. We had many problems in the last two days and just skipped some of our features, but we got it done and it looks really good, especially for the short time frame we had to develop the game.
Christoph and me standing proudly in front of our game at the XNA Party. Many people came and played and congratulated us on the great result.
One final picture from Saturday morning before we were leaving to the airport to head back to Germany. The trip was 25 hours for me and after that I felt as tired as Friday, I probably need to sleep for a week now .. but I got work to do ..
Game Development | Other
If you want an real early preview of the version so far, you can download it here (with installer and everything, about 38 MB). We will fix some issues today and make an update this weekend. There are many more features we had implemented (splitscreen, shadowing, quest solving), but we removed all that to just make the version run because there were still some issues. Anyway, enjoy the game so far. Thanks for all the nice comments.Update: Fast Download from new Server: Dungeon Quest Beta (38 MB) (Day 4 GDC version)Original Server (slow): Dungeon Quest Beta (38 MB) (Day 4 GDC version) (WARNING: slow download from this website)
Tomorrow there will be an update and all the beta issues will be fixed + more features will come, stay tuned!
Game Development | Other | Programming
Tomorrow I will post another screen for today and talk about what happened today (I spoke at the Collada panel, that was a lot of fun and we took some new pictures).
Our Dungeon Quest Game still looks pretty good and we advancing a lot, at least with the graphics. Keep in mind that we started with nothing, no real engine, I have never done point lights before and all the texture and 3d models were created in the last 2 days.
Some parts of the game are also implemented, but we will still have a lot of work to get all the quests, monsters and AI working properly and there are still some heavy issues like implementing shadow maps indoor with point lights (uff) and I still have no idea how to get the split screen stuff working efficiently.
Here is the screen shot for day 2 (yesterday), it shows the player model and the cave.
Stay tuned, more to come!
Our game is called Dungeon Quest and we are absolutely insane because we want to create a Multiplayer Role Playing Game in just 4 days and we haven't even thought of all the distractions here. I will try to give you a screen per day and tell you want we have done so far.
Yesterday we worked purely on the environment, the level and the general game idea and some smaller details. As I said before we started with nothing, I just created a new project and Christoph did just open up 3DS Max and started working, there are no textures or models we have already done. And we both have never worked on a role playing game before.
In the morning we still had a lot of problems getting our computers up and running (3DS Max wasn't starting, I needed lots of plugins and tools, stuff like that). It usually takes a day or more to set up a development machine in our opinion. Probably a week until you got all the important tools installed you forgot in the first day. Anyway, we finally started to build the cave, create new custom collada exporter for that and placed lights. While Christoph was working on the 3D cave I was getting the engine up and running and noticed that there are many things that have to be done:
Today we will focus on building the main character, getting some collision detection working and some basic game logic (keys, doors, monster state machines, player behaviour and animations). Hopefully I can provide you with a nicer screenshot tomorrow, just an empty level is pretty boring.
And here are some pictures from yesterday for your enjoyment.
This is the lobby of the Moscone North building at the GDC. The GDC Expo hall is below us and on Monday the Serious Games Summit was here, but we hadn't had any time to even check out who is speaking at the actual GDC. At wednesday I will be at some Collada round table speaking about Collada and issues we had with it so far ^^
There are many art galleries here in San Francisco and the Asian population is also huge. It was not hard to find an Asian Art Gallery.
Here you can see an ad for Microsoft's Vista Operating System directly in front of the big Mac building here (seems a lot of people got one here). There is nothing interesting about a Mac for a game developer IMO.
Alcatraz at day time. I already showed you a picture at night earlier.
A view from my desk at the Hotel over San Francisco. Its still impressive every day you wake up ^^
And some picture of a place I don't know the name of. Usually I would look it up, but I have to go back to work. Cya tomorrow!
Let's go, this is Germany at night, very exciting, isn't it? We started our journey at 4:20 am
If you have read my blog before you already know how the Hanover Airport and Amsterdam airports look like. We did not take much pictures there anyway. The plane ride was long as usual (11 hours alone from Amsterdam to San Francisco) and it was a really long day (~33 hours). This was our plane, a pretty big Boeing 767.
We arrived at our hotel at 3:00 pm and were pretty amazed about the 36 floors.
But then we saw this room. There must be something wrong, we are not the President. The registration gave us the wrong key to a conference room, but we stayed there for a while, took pictures and enjoyed the room and bar ^^
Our rooms were not bad either, pretty nice view over San Francisco.
Our Hotel (The Argent) from below.
And a view over San Francisco at the evening. We spotted the Golden Gate Bridge (right from this picture) and the Alcatraz Island.
And finally San Francisco at night. We were pretty tired by now and I still had to install stuff on my laptop, after merging the 2 HDDs all my data was lost and I had to download and install everything again, but at least the HDDs are faster now (yeah, Raid 0 kamikaze). The Chinese had some parade below us and made some noise, but we were very tired and went to sleep early.
More pictures tomorrow.
Other | Reviews
Here are some screenshots from the version. More to come till the end of march, when we will be done with the game and all new effects, etc.
New snow texture pack and heavy glow, may need a little weaker post screen effect ^^
Fight in Mission 1, water looks cooler now and some new effects, but I was to lazy to play more and go into a later level.
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MCDONOUGH, Ga. —
Police say a 15-year-old Henry County boy has died after he was accidentally shot by his 14-year-old brother at their home near McDonough.
Henry County police Sgt. Joey Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/VSVani) officers responded to a call at the family's home shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday and discovered the younger teen had accidentally shot his brother.
Smith said the brother and a friend had gotten the mother's handgun. Smith said at some point one of the boys loaded the handgun.
Smith said the shooting has been ruled accidental. But he said the facts would be presented to the district attorney and charges could be filed against the mother and the 14-year-old.
Police have not released the names of the mother or her sons.
Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
For more on this story and other local news, subscribe to The Valdosta Daily Times e-Edition, or our print edition.


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- Aligado Asian Cuisine
2780 State Route 35, Hazlet, NJ 07730
Aligado Asian Cuisine provides Monmouth County with outstanding Japanese and Thai cuisine. The chefs use fresh fish to…More prepare sushi every day. Aligado is open for lunch and dinner. This Zagat-rated restaurant can be very busy, but the service is fast, friendly and authentic. The staff is accommodating to your dietary needs and wants.
- Angela's Pizza & Restaurant
1326 State Route 36, Hazlet, NJ 07730
Angela's Pizza & Restaurant carries on the Italian traditions. It offers free delivery and will cater you events.…More When you walk in you will instantly smell the fresh aroma of pizza and Italian food. It has a variety of pizza available by the slice. The food is made fresh. All their dishes are available in trays for dinner and 3-6 foot subs are available.
- Asaginni Di Roma
3253 State Route 35, Hazlet, NJ 07730
Asaginni Di Roma is a pizzeria and elegant Italian restaurant with bar. It has daily lunch and dinner specials, as…More well as a cafe bar and area outside to sit and sip on a cappuccino. Gift cards are available.
- Asahi Sushi-Hibachi
2105 State Route 35, Holmdel, NJ 07733
Located in the Holmdel Towne Center is Asahi Sushi-Hibachi restaurant. Asahi specializes in fresh and healthy Japanese…More Hibachi Grill and Thai cuisine, as well as a full-service sushi bar. The menu features appetizers, soups, salads, tempura, Thai curry and a wide array of beef, chicken, seafood and vegetarian entrees. Asahi is a fun atmosphere that is made for a large group to enjoy a special night out together with great food, excellent service and authentic Asian decor. Log onto the Asahi website to receive 10 percent off your online order.
- Asian Taste
1358 State Route 36, Hazlet, NJ 07730
Asian Taste serves specialties from Malaysia, Thailand, China and Japan. Here you'll find pork chops Peking-style, bean…More curd seafood casserole, dumpling noodle soup and satays and curries. You can sit in the dining room or at the sushi bar; you can also get food to go or place an order online for pick-up or delivery (minimum of $8).
- Bayshore Bar
2870 State Route 35, Hazlet, NJ 07730
Located within the Hazlet Holiday Inn, Bayshore Bar is a full-service restaurant and bar serving a breakfast buffet on…More the weekends and American and Italian classics. It's operated by the same owners as Union Beach's Cervino's Italian & American Cuisine. Catering is available.
- Bertucci's
2847 State Route 35, Hazlet, NJ 07730
Bertucci's Restaurant in Hazlet, N.J. is part of a chain of restaurants serving Italian food. This restaurant includes a…More bar area as well as outdoor seating to accomodate guests. It is known for its fresh-baked rolls and brick oven pizzas.
- Blimpie Subs & Salads
2101 State Route 35, Holmdel, NJ 07733
Located in the Holmdel Towne Center, Blimpie has been making delicious and fresh sandwiches and salads since 1964. With…More high-quality sliced meats, freshly baked breads and only the best ingredients, Blimpie sandwiches set it apart from its competition. Blimpie's goal is to make the best sub around and provide its customers a delicious sandwich, top-notch service and a clean and comfortable restaurant.
- Cheeburger Cheeburger
2130 State Route 35, Holmdel, NJ 07733
Cheeburger Cheeburger is a franchise of burger restaurants with chains throughout the United States. The restaurant…More keeps a retro atmosphere and offers a menu that includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, onion rings and shakes. Burgers are made using all-natural Angus beef. Diners are offered an eclectic selection of more than 25 toppings for their burger or sandwich, including onions, guacamole, pepperoni, peppers, teriyaki sauce, artichoke hearts and Grey Poupon. Kids' menus, salads and other meal options such as melts and veggie burgers are available. The Holmdel location takes online orders.
- Chili's Grill & Bar
2105 State Route 35, Holmdel, NJ 07733
Located in The Commons at Holmdel, this popular Tex-Mex chain asks customers to get "Fired Up About Food" in a relaxed…More atmosphere. Drop in for friendly service, southwestern comfort food and tasty cocktails. Be sure to try the Texas Cheese fries - they're great.
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The Liberty Alzheimer Partnership of Greater Concord is pleased to present Jazz pianist and Acton physician, Elliot Steger and his Jazz Trio in the 10th annual concert to benefit the Alzheimer's Association. In celebration, the LAP will present a Gala evening at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington on Friday November 16th. The Gala, called "The Color of the Night is Purple," will begin with a festive reception featuring a complimentary wine bar and a silent auction, followed by Dr. Steger and his acclaimed Jazz Trio.
The Liberty Alzheimer's Partnership is comprised of community members and professionals. The organization works in alliance with the Alzheimer's Association to provide education, outreach, advocacy and support for people with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
RiverCourt Residences in Groton will be the presenting sponsor of the event: "We are pleased to sponsor the 10th annual benefit concert with the Liberty Alzheimer's Partnership in this, our own 10th anniversary year," said Maura Ferrigno, Executive Director. RiverCourt is an independent and assisted living facility with a special memory support unit. "We fully support the Partnership in their goal to bring services, support and hope to the families that are impacted by Alzheimer's disease and related memory disorders".
Last year's event raised $15,000 for the Alzheimer's Association Care Consultation Program, an in-depth, personalized service, provided in person or over the phone, for individuals and families who are facing many decisions and challenges associated with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a reception featuring appetizers and dessert and a complimentary wine bar followed by the concert at 7:30p.m. Tickets are $30.00. To purchase tickets online visit www.mktix.com/lap, or contact Nancy Crowley at 978-402-0088 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting. A limited number of tickets are also available at the door. The Museum is located at 33 Marrett Road, Lexington. For directions visit www.nationalheritagemuseum.org.end_of_the_skype_highlighting


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Parents/Students | Alumni | Contact Us
Timothy Garvey and Todd Ronco have been hired as teachers at MMI Preparatory School, announced Head of School Thomas Hood.
Two MMI Preparatory School students are attending the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership World Leadership Congress in Chicago this week.
Angel A. Alday, a freshman at MMI, has been accepted into the Peabody Institute of The John Hopkins University.
Thomas G. Hood, head of school at MMI Preparatory School, has announced the names of students who have been named to the President's List during the second semester.
Thomas G. Hood, head of school at MMI Preparatory School, has announced the names of students who achieved Honor Roll status during the fourth quarter.
More News...click here!
By Grete DeAngeloMMI Social Studies Instructor
I live in a small town and I love it. So many students tell me they can't wait to get out of this area, but I was one of those who never wanted to leave. In the summers, I walk early in the morning and I pass the same people on their own walking routes every day. It is unusual for me to drive or walk down Main Street and see anyone who doesn't at least look familiar.
By Kim McNultyMMI Director of Advancement
When I joined the MMI family as the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid in 2007, I was thrilled to be joining a team that stood for educational excellence. Despite not being from this area, I quickly learned the integral role that MMI had played in the lives of so many people. Those people were now bringing their children to MMI. My role was well defined and my job was clear-cut: recruit students to MMI and walk families through the admissions and financial aid processes.
By Aprilaurie WhitleyMMI Director of Admissions, MMI Graduate, MMI Parent
Many people are reluctant to consider sending their child to an independent, private school, because, hey, the public schools are free. That is true, but in this case, free is not for me. I believe that parents actually have very few obligations toward their children. Legally, we are bound to feed them, clothe them, and give them shelter. After that, practically everything we do is a parental choice. For one of those parental choices, I believe we must give them the best education possible.
More Blog Articles...click here!


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VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) -- Police are looking for a robber who hit three tanning salons Thursday in Vancouver.
The Columbian reports detectives are trying to confirm whether the same man is responsible for all three holdups.
They say the robber displayed a gun and got away with cash from all three tanning salons.


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York Countys growth rate and a spike in criminal activity have resulted in more cases than existing courtrooms can handle, Kevin Brackett, the countys solicitor, told elected officials on Tuesday night.
He told the York County Council that the county needs to spend money to expand the court facilities at the Moss Justice Center and to provide more office space for the solicitors team.
The amount of criminal arrest warrants filed in the county, Brackett said, has increased by 50 percent in one decade between 2000 and 2010.
Moss Justice Center courtrooms and offices have not been altered or expanded since 1994. The county has added a new prison facility on the 20-acre lot.
Council members met Tuesday night to discuss budget priorities and ways to pay for future county projects. An expansion of the justice center is needed within the next five years, Brackett said, and should be considered immediately in order to avoid a public safety problem.
Were just packed in there, he said. And we have made the best use of the space we have. We need to start planning now to accommodate for the growth thats going to continue to come.
Voters were asked to pass a bond referendum prior to the recession a few years ago to allow the county to borrow money to pay for an expansion of court facilities at the justice center. The referendum failed.
During tight economic times starting in 2006 and 2007, Brackett said, he didnt feel comfortable asking the council to spend money on construction.
But we cant wait any longer, he said. Were going to have to come up with a plan to accommodate for this growth.
If criminal cases cant move through the court fast enough, Brackett said, people accused of crimes may make bond in order to get out of jail and stay on the street for longer periods of times.
Given the choice between prosecuting a case for an accused criminal who has posted bond and a person who is still in jail, he said, most residents in York County want the accused criminal whos not in jail to have a trial and be sentenced first.
His team of solicitors prosecuted about 6,500 criminal cases in 2010. Trends show, he said, that the county could handle about 7,600 cases every year in the near future.
The problem is, its going to affect all aspects of the system, he said. Im going to have to push cases through. There will be less time for trials and more cases will be sitting in jail longer because the court time wont be there to process them.
Council member Bruce Henderson responded to Bracketts appeal for immediate action, saying hed like to see a multi-level justice center constructed in order to avoid the county out-growing its facility again in the next few years.
Voters might be ready for another proposal to spend millions on the project, he said, if the county can prove the necessity for the courtroom expansion and not include bells and whistles in the plan.
New construction at the Moss Justice Center could include, according to the councils discussion on Tuesday, building more courtrooms in an existing parking lot and adding a parking garage.
Courthouse construction
Council Chairman Britt Blackwell questioned on Tuesday night the progress of renovations to the county courthouse in downtown York.
Hes heard many complaints, he said, about how long the planning phase for improvements has lasted.
Council members have discussed renovations to the historic building for almost 10 years. County residents voted down an option for the county to borrow money to fix the buildings problems but the council designated existing money for the project in 2008.
Construction on the courthouse is expected to be complete by December 2015.
A consultant originally hired to oversee the planning and construction for renovations has since been dismissed. The architect designing the improvements also has changed.
The original architect, said County Manager Jim Baker, wanted to restore the courthouse to its exact historical features, which would have cost more than York County wanted to spend.
The challenge of moving court records and of eliminating asbestos and lead-based paint, he said, also has contributed to the wait time on the renovations.


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This regular column is for Dungeon Masters who like to build worlds and campaigns as much as I do. Here I share my experiences as a DM through the lens of Iomandra, my Dungeons & Dragons campaign world. Even though the campaign uses the 4th Edition rules, the topics covered here often transcend editions. Hopefully this series of articles will give you inspiration, ideas, and awesome new ways to menace your players in your home campaigns.
If you're interested in learning more about the world of Iomandra, check out the wiki.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT. The players know that a secret society of Vecna worshipers has been spying on them from a hidden demiplane. They also know that the Vecnites have a garrison of warforged at their command. Fleet, the party's warforged warden, is unwilling to face his fellow constructs in battle, so the players hit upon the idea of using an illusion ritual to disguise their characters as warforged, slip past the garrison unchecked, and infiltrate the Vecnites' inner sanctum.
reetings, fellow Dungeon Masters! My last two articles were a bit long-winded, so I'll endeavor to keep this one short and sweet.
It's been my experience that D&D players, by and large, tend to deal with in-game problems by hacking them to death with swords. When they come to a locked door guarded by a monster, they kill the monster and break down the door. How much I relish those occasions when a player decides to talk to the monster, fool it, or lure it away instead! To incentivize such behavior, I tend to reward players who take risks and solve problems without resorting to brute force. This approach can, over time, inspire players to take greater risks, which often fuels the most memorable adventures.
Before my players hit upon the idea of using a Seeming ritual (Eberron Player's Guide, page 119) to disguise their characters as warforged, their only working plan besides charging forth with spells a-blazin' was to have Fleet (played by Nacime Khemis) confront his brethren and persuade them to embrace their individuality and throw off the yoke of oppression thrust upon them by their evil Vecnite masters. This plan was even more audacious than the "warforged disguise" plan. Had Nacime agreed to let Fleet deliver a speech before a wall of warforged adversaries, I would've done everything in my considerable power as DM to reward him in some fashion. Ultimately, the players abandoned this plan because Fleet's low Charisma made it unlikely that a Diplomacy check would succeed. Unbeknownst to them, I probably would've given Fleet a bonus on his skill check, and I probably would've given the party some advantage even if Nacime had rolled a 1. Worst-case scenario, the warforged aren't swayed by Fleet's speech, but maybe there's some small victory to be gained. What if a single warforged sees through Fleet's unlikeable manner and chooses to help the party in some innocuous or profound way? What if Fleet's speech prompts an exchange wherein the players discovers a schism among the warforged, prompting their characters to drive a wedge between the loyal guards and the disenfranchised ones? My goal is to find some way—any way—to make the players glad they decided to put Fleet in the line of fire. As the DM, I can choose to be a rules monkey or a storytelling juggernaut.
I'm reminded of a previous session during which the Wednesday night heroes summoned the Sea Kings (oceanic merchant lords) to a "summit meeting" and urged them to unite against a common threat. By then, the party had already gone to great lengths to forge this alliance, so by the time the Sea Kings arrived, I wanted to reward the players for their accomplishments by having the alliance come together as planned. (My players are always stunned when that happens.) After an hour of roleplaying, I asked each player to choose a skill that his character might have used in the course of the encounter, and then had each player make an appropriate skill check against a moderate DC. The results of these checks had nothing to do with the outcome of the summit meeting. Instead, I gave the players one secret for each successful check. In the end, the party had its alliance, and they also discovered some things they didn't know previously about the various Sea Kings in attendance.
I know many DMs like to forgo dice rolls in favor of pure roleplaying, but my personal preference is to let the dice play their part. This is D&D, after all, not a Vampire LARP. Having said that, I'll be the first to admit that I've never been a slave to the rules. I try to be fair and impartial, but when it comes right down to it, I'm more interested in creating a fun and engaging campaign than crafting the perfect skill challenge or making sure a character is using a skill exactly as written. If my players want to infiltrate an enemy stronghold disguised as warforged, the rules say I need to make an Insight check every time a creature views or interacts with them, to which I say "Screw that!" It might seem odd that a member of Wizards R&D would discard D&D rules on a whim, but to quote Captain Hector Barbossa: Sometimes the rules are more what you'd call "guidelines."
The rules will boss you around if you let them, but they exist to serve you and your campaign. Don't let them shackle your creativity or the creativity of your players. By the same token, the rules aren't your enemies. They're your allies, ready to win battles for you on command. Use them as you will.
Until the next encounter!
—Dungeon Master for Life, Chris Perkins


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5 College Savings Tips for Adults Returning to School
Parents should consider starting 529 plans for themselves if college or grad school is in their future.
Don't wait until you're enrolled in college to start saving for your degree.
For 10 years, Karen Austin, deputy treasurer for Iowa, considered going back to school for her MBA. She didn't start a 529 plan, a tax-advantaged college savings account, for herself until recently. Austin was saving for her children and wasn't concerned with saving for her own education yet.
However, she's found a benefit to saving for college a semester at a time and then withdrawing the funds as needed: state tax deductions. "I don't have the benefit of having long-term savings, but I can get the tax benefits now," she says. She will be able to deduct about $3,000 from her state income taxes this year because of her personal 529 plan.
[Check out 10 colleges with the most older students.]
Adults paying for college using 529 plans should follow these savings tips.
1. Plan early, if possible: Parents shouldn't wait to start a 529 plan until a child enters college—and the same applies to adults who plan to return to school, Austin notes. For example, if an adult in Iowa contributes $3,000 for the next 10 years, he or she could save $30,000 for schooling, nearly tax free.
2. Carefully calculate costs: Adults generally don't have room and board expenses; however, they may have day-care costs. It's important that older students talk to schools, Austin says, particularly with the counselors handling returning students, about what expenses they should expect.
The good news for adults is they may have tuition reimbursement programs from their workplaces, says Ernie Almonte, chair of the American Institute of CPAs' National CPA Financial Literacy Commission. An older student could deposit money into a 529 plan, collect the tax deduction, and then get the money back from the workplace at the end of the semester. It's important to consider all options for college funding, he notes.
[Find out how to utilize workplace benefits for 529 plans.]
3. Review state tax deductions: Since adults returning to school do tend to wait to save until they're within a year of starting a program, state tax deductions and matching grant programs are the keys to determining whether it makes sense to save in a 529 plan, Austin says.
American University graduate Erin McRae deposited the maximum Maryland state tax deductible amount in 2012 into her 529 plan. She withdrew the money the same year to pay for tuition. "The tax break helps a lot when you're trying to pay for grad school," McRae says.
However, a Florida-based adult who plans on attending college next year wouldn't benefit from putting money in a 529 plan if he or she intends to use the money in the same year, because there isn't a state income tax, Austin notes. If immediate withdrawal is required, it's best to pay the university directly in this case.
4. Use money from education tax benefits: Adults who previously went to college may be paying student loan interest. Federal tax refunds can be deposited into a 529 plan for future education, Almonte says—and claiming the student loan interest deduction could add as much as $650 to a tax refund.
Parents who are able to claim education tax credits from paying for their children's education can use the maximum $2,500 received per child for their own education, he says. Using the money in this way qualifies the funds for a state tax deduction, too.
[Follow three steps adults returning to college must take.]
5. Get help from relatives: Family 529 plan gifts aren't just for children, Almonte says. Parents, aunts, brothers, and sisters can contribute to their adult relative's college savings account. Ask for funding for birthdays, holidays, or other special occasions, he suggests.
In addition, adults may be able to use leftover funds from the accounts of their children, nieces, or nephews, especially if those students received scholarships. Assets in 529 plans are generally transferable among relatives tax free, Almonte notes.
Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.


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July 31, 2014
After getting into trouble with health inspectors last week, a Bryan charter school's cafeteria is in business.
Harmony Science Academy in the 2000 block of South Texas Avenue received its permit to serve food Tuesday from the Brazos County Health Department.
Last Thursday, the school's cafeteria was shut down after inspectors learned it was operating without a permit, and that proper dishwashing and handwashing sinks were not installed.
Harmony Science Academy was fined $500 for the offense.
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Elise Ackerman, Contributor
I write about the future of communications technologies
Last summer Sony placed a big bet on cloud gaming with its purchase of GaiKai, an online-game streaming service for $380 million.
It was both a bold move and a bow to an inevitable future when video games will be streamed from the cloud to any device, just as Netflix streams movies and television shows today. While cloud gaming is only now starting to be offered to consumers, it will eventually grow big enough to threaten the market for consoles like the PlayStation.
In July Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, indicated that Sony would not sit around and wait for the console market to shrink. Instead, Sony would embrace cloud gaming. House promised "a world-class, cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of interconnected devices."
Last week's launch of the PlayStation 4 revealed just how far Sony has backed away from that vision.
Instead of integrating cloud gaming into the new console, a disruptive move that could have changed the dynamics of the game industry, Sony is using GaiKai's technology to allow gamers to try a game for free before they buy it and to play a game while it downloads. Other features of the PS4 let a gamer stream a friend's game and stream games that were made for earlier versions of the console.
These are nice capabilities, but they are not game changers. "It's hard to see this indecision as anything but corporate cowardice," Erik Sofge writes in Popular Mechanics.
Sony has reason to be afraid. During the quarter that ended in December, Sony's gaming-related sales fell 15 percent to about $3 billion thanks to the lower hardware and software sales for the PlayStation 3. This is in line with broader industry declines.
According to market researcher NPD Group, sales for video game hardware fell 27 percent in 2012 to $4.04 billion, thanks to the popularity of games played on smartphones, tablets and social networks.
From the standpoint of margins, it's not in the interest of Sony—or any other major player in the video game industry—to accelerate the move to cloud gaming. If the video game industry follows the movie industry in its transition to digital streaming, profits will take a hit as consumer behavior shifts to renting games from owning them.
But that perspective may be short sighted. According to Gadi Tirosh, a general partner with Jerusalem Venture Partners and a member of the board of directors of Playcast, a cloud gaming pioneer, cloud gaming does not attract the hard-core gamers that rush to buy the latest consoles and console games. "The people we cater to are what we call mid-core gamers," Tirosh explained. Based on usage patterns, subscribers to Playcast's gaming channel appear to be families who get more value out spending $10 to $15 a month to play 20 games on a publisher's back list than they would buying two or three new titles a year for a console that cost between $300 and $400.
By shunning cloud gaming, the game industry could be missing out on an audience that is at least two or three times bigger than the current audience for consoles, which based on console sales is roughly 300 million.
Meanwhile, the shift in consumer behavior from renting to owning is likely to be slow. According to BTIG Group, consumer rental of home videos will outpace retail store sales for the first time since 2000 in 2013.
While the shift to cloud gaming will likely occur faster, it won't happen overnight. Sony's fear of cloud gaming may be a bigger risk to Sony than the streaming services themselves.
I wouldnt call them scared. It makes sense. People already complained about OnLive because of bandwidth caps or just bad internet and they did the same thing when the PS4 was announced.
Until the internets infrastructure can cater to these services, the way Sony is implementing the PS4′s features makes sense.
I love OnLive!
The largest thing current Playstation owners are upset with is Sony's audacity in thinking we would be fine with "re-purchasing our content again" as they refuse to admit the extent of the damage the LV0 exploit has caused and instead make the PS4 NON-BC. This is NOT about the architecture change either, as ALL AMD chips have a very perfected Hardware Virtualization Layer that would handle the PS3 game transition just fine… this Double-Aught blast of data comes from many courses through AMD Partner Website on this very topic.
Many are all for the 'cloud' movement to be honest.
I am ANTI-Cloud …..
Yes people did save & stream data before cloud . Those things were called hard-disks Ytube etc etc . And now you a do it via Flash Drives & Micro SD .. Better 32 GB cost 20/30$
Though CLOUD Gaming is a good thing . But it goes against economic modl of consoles . Make consoles cost effective generate revenue by Over Priced Titles / Royalties .
Cloud Gaming beats his hegemony by making Titles Cheap . For Sony this equates to loss . As every-time they sell you a PS Sony is making a loss . PS costs more than the MRP ( Only Verified by Sony not Independent Sources)
Yes… SCEA tried to get us all to swallow they lost $300 per unit at the intial launch of the Playstation, now lets look at how many units were sold pretty much right out of the starting gate:
Within two months the US had sold over 1 million, as well as many in Japan and there were more elsewhare around the globe. So lets call it 2.5 million. That would mean that they lost AT LEAST $750,000,000. Are you freakn kidding me thinking Ill buy that as a real loss and they continued on as though it was fine?
Do you think this company will EVER deliver anything close to TRUTH?
Yes, They used the PS3 as a trojan horse for their Cell and Blu-ray business. They took that lost to establish themselves in both those markets. Cell Chip proved to become extremely hard to develop for game creators. So thats out. Blu-ray won out the hd disc war. Mainly because it was integrated into the system unlike Xbox360′s 200$ HDDVD addon. Things arent simple, there are reasons why companies lose money on their main product. Same way alot of iphone apps are free after months of costly developing. Its called the Gillette Model.
Xbox 360 lost billions in faulty hardware.
ELISE, beautiful article.
Lets tell the truth here.
Cloud Gaming is 10 years away and might never happen.
Its like Virtual Reality (headsets).
They have promised it for 20 years and it hasn't happened yet.
Lets say 2 million users wanted to play Call of Duty on Psx4. That is not a large number of concurrent players but there is no way Sony could do it.
I cannot see how even with the best Virtualization on offer today Sony could use less than 1 server for every 2 players. That means they need 1 million servers just to serve 1 game to gamers.
To put that in perspective Facebook has spent billions on its infrastructure and it only has 200,000 servers today.
If Gaikai could really deliver cloud gaming (nice buzzword) why would they have let Sony buy them out for $380 million after they had raised $50 million ?
Wouldn't Gaikai be worth billions if Sony could deliver gaming without the need to sell consoles?
Truth is…. the technology does not work. Its impossible. Both from a technology perspective and a cost perspective.
Some have said Sony bought Gaikai to get the ball rolling — to get the technology moving in that direction. That is bull. In 10 years Sony might not even be here.
The other reason that cloud gaming may never ever happen is that we dont need it.
Processors and Operating Systems are getting cheaper and cheaper and are being built into TV's.
Why do we need cloud delivery of games when you TV will have a strong fast processor and run Android and Ios (and maybe Windows).
note: Gaikai doesnt do multiplayer games. Only single player games. That's the past.
Sony made a huge mistake spending $400 million for Gaikai and now they are backtracking and trying to figure out what they heck they can actually use these guys for.
lol@the technology doesnt work
Ignorance rampant.
The biggest problem they would face would be matching internet signals… and lets face it, unless your lucky like my community to have affordable FTTH service (FIBER INTERNET)… you cant amaintain a signal that is equal in UL capacity as to DL capacity.
Such as XFinity can give you 100 Mbps DL but only 20 Mbps (and thats downhill on a windy day, lol). They have doubled both of those values recently, and only to select areas, but its un-balanced nature will NEVER provide for consistent, playable cloud games.
Its not about virtualization that much at all, TBH.
let me add one more thing. gaikai runs only in 720p and will never ever stream psx4 game demos. videos sure. gameplay NO! not happeninig. I don't care if a few people were able to be fooled. this technology does not work today and wont for 10 years.
its also stupid as heck to play a demo of a game in 720p (using compression video) when its meant to be played in 1080p. it wouldn't make psx4 games look great and tempt people to buy them in 720p.
also, gaikai cannot do multi-player games.
it just doesn't work.
10 years ago Quake 3 was still a hardware demanding game. today u can play it on browser. Never ever say what won't happened……
Sony bought Gaikai and utilized the technology properly. It will be used to stream games to Vita and other devices so you don't always need the TV. They also said a "subscription" based service is in the works. I personally disagree with the comment about it "not being game changing." I think it is. They are implementing features that utilize the technology, but are still making retail gaming viable.
Fact of the matter is everyone still wants retail gaming, and cloud gaming doesn't work like movies do. So it still has a long way to go to be "good enough" to be a core component. I've used OnLive and gaikai on fast internet connections and have not once had a streamless experience.
This article seems deaf, blind and mute, hardcore gamers like myself won't ever give Cloud gaming more than a cursory glance, so we'd buy a PC or a console for dedicated gaming, mid-core gamers as they are termed will, and casuals, so Sony has the service and even removes from their hands the need to buy any special gaming devices, they can plop down for the console and be set for an entire generation of mid-core and casual streaming.
The beauty of this approach is it lets them open the door to hardcore gaming, which is a vibrant and profitable market for Sony, while delivering what they desire. This article seems to utterly miss the point due to perspective, that perspective being that cloud gaming is inevitable, and in my view that perspective is utterly wrong for hardcore gamers like myself who just don't consider it at all viable for a myriad of reasons.
Sony is not afraid of cloud gaming, but consumers should be. Cloud gaming will suffer greater lag issues that cant be fixed over most internet users NOT having a sunchronous throughput. Im lucky enough to have FiberToTheHome and my UPLAOD is almost the same as my DOWNLOAD (overhead the only real factor between the two).
Wheras cable and DSL do not offer snychronous internet signals… cable has a large distant betwe3en the two and DSL seems to be stuck not going over 1 Mbps.
The real thing Sony, and Sony Computer Entertainment, is afraid of seems to be treating its existing consumer base. Just like Sony's decision to have only two TV's make use of a feature there ENTIRE 240hx BRavia line is capable of yet they refuse to let them… Sony Computer Entertainment has done even more dis-repsect to EXISTING customers by not making this unit backwards compatible with ANY content I might even be buying later tonight.
Cloud gaming is not a good idea until more places step their internet transmission game up… it will affect gaming of people like me on stable, fiber conenctions as well. Why Sony seems so afraid to remember its EXISTING consumers are spending a lot of money in good faith and 'slap us in the face' with comment of we will have the opportuinty to RE_PURCHASE content we already own… its a real mystery to me, as well as traders.
Check their stock since annoucning their new unit early, as well as its release AND giving out a large number of $10 loyalty rewards… yet it still only falls.
"…seems to be treating its existing consumer base" should continue as 'with any form of REAL respect and appreciation.'
Thank you.


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How did you feel when you sent your child to school for the first time?
As school goes back in session next week, I will join scores of other local parents sending my first child to Kindergarten.
So many emotions surround this particularly big milestone for me—excitement, nervousness, pride, and expectation. As our school principal told all of us newbies, this is a special moment in time that will never come again.
Oh, I know how important this time is; sometimes it's all I can think about.
Like many modern parents, I've invested a lot in my children, with the intention of giving them the best start in life I can. I've carefully considered the wide range of hot button childrearing issues, and done my best to make the best decisions on their behalf.
I don't really want to think I'm a helicopter parent—almost no one does—but well, sometimes the shoe fits.
I'll admit I really, really care how this first year goes, perhaps too much at times.
I keep thinking about what the author, Robert Fulghum wrote in his book, "All I Ever Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." Even though I know Kindergarten is a lot different than when I was a kid, sitting in my son's classroom, I think much of what Fulghum said still applies. Kindergarten teaches formative lessons that can fundamentally influence the adults those children become.
I think it just might also have the ability to be transformative for parents as well, especially those of us who might be prone to hover.
I recently asked some parents of older kids what they wished they had known when their first child started Kindergarten.
I think the most interesting response I got was: "That your little angel is not an angel, and neither are anyone else's kids."
I was kind of caught off guard and taken aback by that answer at first, even while I admired them for their honesty. Still, it seemed awfully discouraging.
But, when I started really thinking about it, I thought there might be an important insight there, especially for the helicopter parent.
Perhaps when your child takes those crucial steps away from you, as a parent you have the opportunity to really see them, and not who you think they are or imagine them to be.
With this awareness, perhaps you as a parent can put aside all your expectations, hopes, and goals, and start to really notice all those things from your child's perspective. Maybe this knowledge can help you put your own ego aside when the teacher tells you what they see in your child, whether those things are affirming or carry a challenge.
While raising a child and guiding them through their education involves you, it isn't really about you is it?
Maybe with this understanding a parent can step back and let them try, and fail, and learn, and try again.
Can we learn to hover less, and lift them up more?
To borrow from Fulghum, perhaps for a parent Kindergarten can also be an opportunity to learn; to learn what I really need to know about my kid, to help him become who he is meant to be.
Maybe that will make a "race to nowhere," actually a journey to somewhere.
What things are you thinking about as your kids head back to school?


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Imagine a world where a student unhappy with a college grade could get a judge to change it.
What would that world look like? Academic chaos, we would argue.
So we are pleased to learn an effort to have a judge intervene in the grading decision at a Pennsylvania university has failed. Any other ruling would have been disastrous for education.
The specific case at hand involved a student at Lehigh University, Megan Thode, who filed suit seeking to have a C-plus grade she had received in a therapy internship course revised.
As a result of that grade, Thode did not qualify for the master's degree in counseling psychology she was seeking. And, as a result of that, she argued in court that she was losing an estimated $1.3 million in lifetime income because she didn't possess the desired degree.
In her lawsuit, Thode didn't simply claim she deserved a higher grade. Instead, she said her C-plus was attributable to a zero grade she had received in participation in the program. She was given this grade despite a record that showed she had attended all her classes.
Thode said the participation grade had nothing to do with her classroom work. Instead, she charged it was because she is a strong advocate for gay marriage in her personal activities, and the instructor giving the grade is opposed to gay marriage.
Such an allegation sounds serious, but in court, Thode could not document it. And while Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano found it odd that someone could be given a zero for participation in the class — something that had never happened in the school's history — he said he had no legal authority to overturn the grade.
That's the way it should be.
In court, Lehigh professors portrayed Thode as an argumentative student who had difficulty taking criticism and relating properly with others. Supposedly, several professors conferred before the zero grade was awarded.


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Rachel Brown
Murray County Chief Magistrate Gale Buckner said none of her office staff personally notified her on Friday they were quitting, but she assumes that's what happened given that all their personal belongings are gone.
Employees Virginia Rector, Sonia Petty and Yesenia Galvin had notified County Attorney Greg Kinnamon through their attorneys days earlier they planned to quit on Friday unless officials took "corrective action" against their boss, who they said was inequitably enforcing a new dress code and job responsibilities and treating them in a way that made them feel "bullied."
Buckner said she was on the phone when the women left at the end of the business day Friday, but none of the staff spoke to her earlier in the day about their plans. They did take their personal belongings with them, she said, and they indicated on their time sheets they would not be working next week.
"All I can tell you is that I surmise that they are gone," she said. "There was no resignation tendered by any of them to me or to our county attorney. No one still has said to me that they are not returning next week."
McCracken Poston, one of the attorneys for the women, said his clients seem "relieved" not to be working there anymore.
"They are all individually relieved to be away from the pressure and somewhat bizarre actions of the new judge," he said.
Poston and attorney Stuart F. James said earlier Buckner had told one woman her blouse was too low-cut but said nothing to another employee wearing a similar neckline, appointed one employee to keep a citizen from "cornering" her, was assigning menial work, and was lowering morale by telling at least one employee she would be getting a pay raise while others would not.
Buckner declined to discuss individual staff members' situations but did say she is having everyone, including herself, learn to do all the duties in the office so workers can cover for one another as people are absent. She said she also put a place a dress code modeled after policies other offices like hers have and is in the process of writing job descriptions.
No job openings had been posted on the county's website as of 5:30 p.m. Friday. Buckner said she couldn't immediately discuss details of how the office will be staffed next week, but she said the services it provides will go on.
"The business of this court for the people of Murray County will continue without a glitch," she said.
The women recently received a right to sue notice from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after they complained of having to work in a "hostile, sexually-charged work environment" under their former boss, then-chief magistrate Bryant Cochran. Cochran has denied sexual allegations several different women have levied against him, but he resigned amid an ethics investigation and admitted he pre-signed — but never issued — a handful of warrants.


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This has been bothering me for sometime now.
When we burn a cd into our computers we are using a sub $50 transport in most cases. Personally I use a @ $70 usb HP cd burner to a net book, running iTunes. Nothing to write home about, and I need to step up my game.
We are all aware of the lengths we go to to purchase the best transport/CD player and power supplies bla bla bla.
I am not trying to start a flame thread, I am just trying to figure out if I am thinking right or missing something.


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August 1, 2014
CROSS LANES, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A couple staying at a motel in Cross Lanes was robbed late Sunday night.
According to a news release, the man knocked on the couple's door at the Motel 6 in Cross Lanes about 11:20 p.m. and said he "hated to do this in front of the baby," and then pulled out a handgun and ordered the man and woman to give him their valuables.
Deputies say the man told the victims if they called for help he would come back and "kill them." The man got away with the woman's purse and about $200.
The woman staying in the room told deputies she was familiar with the man who robbed them, according to investigators.
The suspect's name has not been released, but witnesses say the man left in a maroon colored Oldsmobile Alero, possibly driven by a female.
If you have any information about this case, you're urged to call Deputy Adams at 304-357-0169.
Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for the latest information.


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Baker updates press on fatal hit-and-run probeApril 12,2013Vyto Starinskas / Staff Photo
Rutland City Police Chief James Baker speaks to the press Friday about the investigation into the hit-and-run fatality in the city earlier this week.Rutland Police Chief James Baker told the Vermont media today that while criminal charges have not yet been brought against a man who admitted to being behind the wheel in a fatal hit-and-run crash this week, no special treatment was being afforded to the suspect, former longtime city official Christopher Sullivan.
For anyone to think that we are treating Mr. Sullivan differently than anyone else is ludicrous, Baker said of the ex-city attorney during a 2 p.m. press conference at the city Police Department.
Were doing the best we can to gather evidence based on facts and not on rumors floating around on a Facebook page, he said.
The chiefs reference to the social media site related to what he called a sense of anger hes noted in the community since Sullivan was identified Thursday night as the driver of the vehicle that killed 71-year-old Mary Jane Outslay as she crossed Strongs Avenue in downtown Rutland.
Baker said Sullivan was driving 2004 Lexus sedan, which police recovered with extensive damage to its hood and windshield. Sullivan remained free Friday, and the chief said he didnt anticipate charges being brought until next week by the Vermont attorney general, whose office is handling the case.
Baker said city police were devoting all of their resources to finding the vehicle involved in the crash after Outslay was struck just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.
But the chief said police found almost no forensic evidence at the scene and no video images of the vehicle involved. Then the department was contacted Thursday morning by Shrewsbury attorney Barry Griffith, who told police he was representing Sullivan.
Sullivan and his attorney met with police at the department at 1 p.m. Thursday and the former city attorney allowed law enforcement to seize his Lexus, which was found parked behind a garage at his Rutland home.
Baker said Sullivan admitted to being the driver who was involved in striking something on Strongs Avenue. Asked by a reporter whether Sullivan believed he hit an object other than a human being, the chief said he couldnt elaborate.
The chief said Sullivan was also interviewed briefly by detectives who are now working to find and interview people who were with Sullivan during the hours leading up to the fatal crash.
No information about Sullivans statements or his activities earlier Wednesday night were released at the press conference and Baker made it clear from the start of the press gathering that he wasnt going to discuss evidence in the case including witness statements.
I cant elaborate on the evidence, Baker said. Mr. Sullivan has rights that are afforded to him, the same rights we all have.
Sullivan served as assistant city attorney from 1988 to 1995, then as city attorney until 2007.MORE IN This Just InBroadband tower Full StoryBOSTON Anthony Ranaudo pitched six solid innings in his major league debut and Dustin Pedroia... Full StoryPutney Mountain Full Story
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