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Mental Health
Have Mental Health Questions? Ask a Psychiatrist Online
Hello, I am Rafael. Thanks for asking your question - I'm here to support you. (Information posted here is not private or confidential but public).
I can see why you feel this concerned.
Could you please tell me for how long have you been together, and how did you find out about his phone sex partner?
I am very sorry to know about this very sad and frustrating situation.
Then he has not been honest towards you for long. The sexual behaviors you described before, when isolated and not that frequent could not represent major concern, but when happening together as a pattern, they could easily point at sex & love addiction. Here we are talking an adult who regularly uses porn, masturbates, keeps secrets, is not loyal and presents other dysfunctional behaviors which together represent a serious situation for anybody in your shoes, since this is not about an isolated man feeling needy and lonely, but one that is in a relationship for three years and still actively involved in all these sexual behaviors.
He has been in therapy but he has perpetuated same patterns, what shows he has not been truly honest and consistent with such support, and obviously disrespectful and dishonest towards you. I think you are absolutely right when feeling concerned about your relationship and the soundness of beholding marring a person with these several and serious sexual - addictive and trust issues.
I am sorry but everything hare points at sexual addiction and all the typical issues around addictions from denial, to avoidance, manipulation and dishonesty, lack of accountability and disrespect. As with any addiction, these are chronic conditions, where rehabilitation is possible but only if regular and responsible treatment is started and maintained in the person's regular life.
Without the person being truly honest and taking full responsibility for how own rehabilitation process, the situation would be hopeless and would only get worse with time. most times next to addictions we find other mental health disorders, from depression to anxiety disorders, and obviously sexual disorders too like in his case.
In this case it is obvious he is actively in to his addiction and mental health disorders, then anything happening in his life would continue to depend and be undermined by such reality. My suggestion is for you to develop a very realistic and proactive approach, setting realistic and assertive boundaries and expectations here, in order to take good care of yourself and not to get even more hurt .
Unless a person is able to work on self and resolve core serious issues, including getting stable into his rehabilitation process from addictive and mental health disorders, that person would not be able to play a healthy role in relationships, even less to take good care of a close adult - romantic relationship. Real commitment would be unrealistic too.
Absolutely. There is no way for anybody to build a healthy and fulfilling relationship without total honesty and openness,
Here words could be useful, but many times are used to manipulate people too, that's why I invite people to trust consistent actions in time at different levels more than believing in words.
People presenting addictions with these serious problems for this long require consistent intensive individual, group and family therapy, and only as long as they show real progress and not being actively into the addictions but rehabilitating, they could commit to regular individual psychotherapy plus regular participation in a support group. If the person is not able to do this, then intensive inpatient treatment should be taking into account.
Again, any form of treatment, even those with the adequate approach and support, would become useless if the person is not being truly honest, accountable and consistent taking actions to work on his rehabilitation process.
Does it make sense?
Then reality is showing you he is not being honest unless pushed by evidence, and that the pattern persists after long periods of time, which is consistent with a person actively into an addiction. He uses porn and masturbates regularly, and these are at the very core of what fuels the whole addiction, it would be unrealistic to expect a person with sex addiction to rehabilitate at all while actively perpetuating addictive sexual behavior, even more when the core issues remain after years.
Attending psychotherapy sessions does not mean the person is effectively working on his rehabilitation process, unless he does benefits from such support taking consistent and responsible actions in his real daily life. Many people could spend years in therapy without showing any significant improvement, and even using therapy as an extra tool to create an unreal image, leading other people to believe they are truly changing. Unhappily it is also true that there are many incompetent and unethical therapist who could enable the very addictions and dysfunctions playing a codependent role, while keeping clients who are not truly working on their rehabilitation process, but representing a stable source of income for them.
You're very welcome. Thank you for your trust.
My suggestion is for you to continue working on taking good care of yourself with psychoptherapeutic support, without making any significant change in your life before sure about what you are doing, that it's truly what you want and that you have certainty that you are willing to afford the consequences of your choices. In this specific case, I would never suggest anybody in your shoes to make radical life changes getting deeper into the relationship, because of the serious and chronic issues the other person presents. rehabilitation is possible, but if it happens, it would take time, hard work, a lot of professional support and facing painful experiences and affording consequences from his choices and actions.
Please reassess your core needs and expectations about this relationship, being very realistic and knowing the pros ad cons you would have to afford depending on your choices, in that way you would take good care of yourself, without allowing anybody to use, abuse, neglect or manipulate you, in obvious or subtle ways, since that's, unhappily the case, whenever people have serious issues like he does, and get involved in relationship without taking full responsibility, essential to respect, understand, and support the other person.
You're very welcome. I support you. Please take gentle care.


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Snore No More Pillow by Hudson RCI is designed by a doctor to reduce snoring and promote deeper, more restful sleep. Improves breathing by keeping the chin away from the chest, the jaw forward and the airway open. Supports and positions the head and neck to improve alignment, whether sleeping on the side, back or stomach. Made of hypoallergenic premium foam; will not harbor mildew. Fits standard pillowcase.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Developing a plan, Part 1
Maybe some of you out there in reader-land don't realize this, so let me take just a brief moment to point out something very important. SPRING TRAINING GAMES BEGIN TODAY! That's right, the Phillies take on Florida State in an exhibition game this afternoon, officially kicking off the 2011 spring season. Yes, I know that it's only an exhibition and that actual Cactus league games begin tomorrow, while the Grapefruit league begins on Saturday. Still, starting today there will be live updates online to follow and the all-important box scores to pore over once again.
It really is a beautiful thing.
The beginning of spring games means we're into the home stretch for our fantasy draft preparations. Most of you will be drafting in the next several weeks, and the time is now to start developing a plan and formulating a strategy on exactly how you want the draft to go. The more time you spend working on this strategy and exploring what to do with each situation that could arise, the better off you'll be.
I can't count how many people I've seen go into a draft without a well thought-out plan in place, thinking that they know the player pool and they can freelance their way to greatness. They have no real idea of proper team construction. They often get flustered as the one-minute clock ticks down, pressuring them to make their pick. If a player they have their sights set on goes with the pick before them, they go "tilt" and make a forced, last-minute decision, rather than knowing ahead of time which direction to go. I'm here today to spell out a little of what I'm doing in building my draft plan, in the hopes that it will help some of you as well.
I'm no expert on this game. I don't claim that how I build my draft plan is the best way—it's just the way I've had the most success. I'm also always looking for new and better ideas, and strive to learn from those who are truly experts in fantasy baseball. I'm also aware that until you find out your draft spot, you can't accurately predict which players you'll target in each round. This is more of a basic overview of what I'm doing to set my plan in place before I have my draft slot. The league I am preparing for is a national competition, which is broken down into 15-team leagues. We roster 30 total players, 23 starters (two catchers, first base, second base, shortstop, third base, five outfielders, a utility man, a corner infielder, a middle infielder, nine pitchers) and seven bench slots.
By this point, I have my player rankings updated and broken down into tiers of value. The first thing I look for is where the most severe dropoffs are, and make sure I target a player in that tier.
For example, I believe that shortstop is the weakest overall position this year. According to my rankings, eight players are a class above the rest of the field. Hanley Ramirez and Troy Tulowitzki are in a tier to themselves. Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins are a cut below them, then Derek Jeter, Alexei Ramirez, Elvis Andrus and Stephen Drew are all serviceable options. After them, everyone has serious questions, downside or both.
I know going into my draft that I want one of the top eight shortstops. Let's say that it's the seventh round, and Drew is the last of these players available. I have him lined up and ready to go, and the person drafting in front of me takes him just before my pick. What do I do now? Unprepared for such an instance, some people would just grab the next best shortstop on their list, maybe Rafael Furcal. Knowing of the tremendous falloff after the top eight, I know that once Drew is gone, I'm not looking for a shortstop until at least the 15th round, and I look for value elsewhere with the current pick.
Another position where I see this top-heavy inventory is at first base. The top couple of tiers are very solid, but it goes downhill quickly after that. Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera make up the top tier on their own. After that, Joey Votto, Mark Teixeira and Adrian Gonzalez are firmly in tier two, with Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder right behind them. After these seven, Kendry Morales, Justin Morneau, Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko would all be quality additions, but come with more risk. After Konerko, other than maybe Billy Butler, there isn't a whole lot that entices me. Especially in a league that starts a corner infielder and utility player in addition to a first baseman, I'm making sure to target one of the top seven here as well. If I happen to miss on the top group, then I'm making sure I get one of those next four.
Another area I focus on is what I want to do with my catchers. In a 15-team, two-catcher league the talent at this position gets thin very quickly. Some people like to acquire top talent early and have two "plus" catchers on their team. Others like to punt the position completely and draft two players in the 20th round or later. My preference falls somewhere between these two extremes.
I believe that although the top tier of catchers is great, they aren't worth the price you pay to get them. Therefore Joe Mauer, Victor Martinez, Brian McCann and Buster Posey in all likelihood won't be on my teams. Just below this top group lies Carlos Santana, who I love this year and will consider, depending on how far he falls. The next tier contains Mike Napoli, Jorge Posada, Geovany Soto, Kurt Suzuki and Miguel Montero. It's in this group that I see the most value currently, and if I miss on Santana, I'm looking for my No. 1 catcher out of this group. I prefer to take my second catcher as a mid-late round pick and look for someone who's getting full time at-bats and won't be a complete drain on my average, like Carlos Ruiz or Yadier Molina.
You should also be giving heavy consideration to where you want to draft your closers. Some prefer to wait on closers, drafting a couple of guys who have a job in the mid-late teens and then working the free agent market all year, but I'm not a fan of this strategy. When doing this, not only are your closers speculative and a potential drain on your ratios, but you also end up wasting a good portion of your free agent budget chasing saves. In a national competition like this, you generally need between 90 and 100 saves to compete for the title. That's roughly 2.5 closers over the course of the year.
My strategy starts with locking up one of the elite closers early on. This means getting one from the group of Mariano Rivera, Heath Bell, Brian Wilson, Joakim Soria, Carlos Marmol and Neftali Feliz. I prefer to lock up my second closer in the 11th or 12th round, to make sure that I have someone with a stable job. When doing so, I also look for a player with limited competition for the role so I can handcuff his replacement in the reserve rounds.
I've heard from numerous people who think the most important thing you can do is build a team with all hitters early on and then use your knowledge of the player pool to fill out your rotation in the mid-late rounds. While this can be a viable strategy in smaller leagues, in this 15-team format, it's insanely difficult. You would literally need to hit on every pitcher you took, which seems highly improbable. You need to find a couple of the top arms to build your rotation around.
Currently, I am trying to identify who I want the ace of my rotation to be, and figuring out where I want to draft the rest of my pitchers. The way I'm leaning at this moment, my ace would need to be selected in round three, and I would follow up with my second starter in round eight. This would leave me with seven hitters and three pitchers through my first 10 rounds, and allow me to build my rotation in rounds 11-20, where I see the most value. However, if another pitcher I like as a No. 2 starter falls to the ninth or 10th round, I could always deviate from the plan and push back my corner infielder or second baseman to the spot where I would normally grab my No. 3 pitcher.
These are a few of the things I'm looking at as I develop my plan of attack. If you have questions, comments, concerns, insight, etc. feel free to let me know!
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great article, always provides useful information and insight. looking forward to see the next one!
@ Eddie: It's really hard to make that call without knowing what's available. If the positions you are weak at C/SS/3B have multiple options of similarly valued players on the board, to where you could pass on them and get someone of equal value a couple of rounds later, then by all means take the best available player. Awesome start to your team by the way.


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This clip from last year reminds one of Mitt Romney's lack of support for his gay foreign affairs spokesman. This is what happens when a candidate has no core!
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Creating "Meaning" in Breezi
Meaning is an annual business conference. Today we're recreating its 2012 event micro site with our web design app.
This is what their site looks like.
We'll follow the next steps to recreate this website:
- Create layout structure (containers)
- Install apps
- Enter content
- Set and style up containers and apps
- Additional configuration
We will have 9 Blocks in total, each of them with different numbers of Sections and Columns.
Here's a diagram that will help picture better what we're making.
Each white row is a Block, while the grayed ones are Sections. All Sections have at least one Column, or up to three.
Layout Structure
We'll begin with the structure of our site. We're building from scratch with a Blank starting point. As we examined it above, we're creating several additional Blocks, and within each one, some Sections and Columns.
Remember to turn on "Layout Controls" from the Design Mode menu, so that the "plus" buttons for adding Blocks appears.
The structure should resemble the diagram above: the header, intro below it, six bodies and the footer at the bottom.
Installing Apps
Next step is to add all the apps that need installing, taking the diagram also as reference. There are mostly Text apps, and a a few others.
We're not entering content nor styling them up just yet. This is what the micro site should look at this point.
Adding Content
In this step we have to copy and paste all text, images and content. For the Text and Image apps, double clicking around is the way to go.
For other apps like Navigation, we'll have to click on its respective "Edit Content" button on its app toolbar.
Since we're trying to mimic the same single-page navigation from the original site, we'll be using anchors as links.
Check this article out for detailed steps on how to create sections that you can navigate to on the same page. The anchors we'll be using on each item of our Navigation are:
- #top
- #speakers
- #schedule
- #themes
- #location
- #partners
Right now they won't work, but we'll worry about setting them up later.
Remember to mark headings on the text so it's easier to style later on with the Bulk Style Editor (BSE).
The Schedule Block features 3 embed apps. On each of them we'll insert some HTML tables so they resemble the original website.
We stored the code needed for each column and made it available for download on the following links.
The code above is for a table in each column. The first column features also the CSS needed to style the HTML correctly. We're performing some styling on this phase (content) because its code. We'll be taking care of the rest of the items' styling on the next step.
Next we'll edit the map. We'll click on the app settings button and enter the details for the map, and its height.
Street Name and Number will be: "The Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, BN1 1UE ", City, State Or Region: "Brighton", Country: "UK", and Map Height 510. We'll also move the Initial Map Zoom slider a little bit to the right.
Now that we have content entered in our site, we will proceed to the styling: colors, backgrounds, alignments and whatnot.
We'll go Block by Block, including containers and apps. Make sure you have the "Dots" enabled on Design Mode.
For the first one, the header, we'll change its background to color #222222.
We'll change the settings for the button and select to not display "Slogan Text". We'll change its style and have its background be #d02441, its left/right spacing to 3, its top and bottom spacing (each of them) to 7 pixels, and its width to 76%. For the text, we'll change it to Arimo (we'll be using that one for several other items), its color to white and size 15.
Since there's another button that will use the same settings, we'll save this style as a profile, so we can import it back in the other button.
We'll reduce the spacing of the Column that contains the Button too. It should be 0 (no spacing).
We'll continue to the styling of the Navigation app. We'll center on the settings and add some spacing between separators, to around 20 pixels.
Next, we'll apply this styling to the text:
- Font: Arimo
- Size: 16 pixels
- Default color: white
- Rollover color: #d02441
- Treatment: not bold
Intro Block: we'll change the background color to #333333, and select the custom image that repeats horizontally. We'll move the vertical slider all the way to the right. And we'll add 50 pixels to the bottom spacing.
The Text app inside has an image and some text. We'll center both, and make the text Arimo white, 24 pixels, with a line height of around 30.
For the button below, we'll import the profile we've already saved.
Will then be left with the text to edit by double clicking. It will have the same style as the former button (Arimo 15 white).
The next Block: speakers. The Block's background will be #47BAC4, and a horizontally-repeating image will be set also to the bottom.
Here we can start using the BSE (Bulk Style Editor) to edit Text for this and all Blocks below. We don't want to affect any of the previous Blocks' style and we'll later need to make some adjustments, Block by Block.
For the heading 2, we'll use the following settings:
- Font: Arimo
- Size: 60px
- Color: white
- Treatment: none (unbold)
- Line height: 50px
- Top Margin: 10px
- Bottom Margin: 10px
Heading 3 will be:
- Font: Arimo
- Size: 26px
- Color: white
- Treatment: none
- Line height: 26px
- Top margin: 20px
- Bottom margin: 5px
Then, heading 4:
- Font: Arimo
- Size: 24px
- Color: #2B2B2B
- Treatment: none
- Line height: 30px
- Top & bottom margin: 10px
Finally, heading 5:
- Font: Arimo
- Size: 14px
- Color: #d02441
- Treatment: bold
- Line height: 18px
Bulk Style editing saves a lot of time! Instead of changing piece by piece, we can do it all at once. The only thing we'll have to do manually wherever it's needed is to center text (or images inside Text apps).
The next Block, "Schedule", will have a yellow (#F1C326) background, with an image at the bottom, horizontally repeated. We'll also add 50px to the bottom spacing.
Except a few settings of spacing here and there, and the centering of text, it should be mostly already styled.
The "Themes" Block has a white background, which is what we've got by default. We'll add another horizontally repeating, decorative image at the bottom.
The text is already mostly styled, but it's got the wrong colors. So we're opening the BSE but making sure the only selected Block is body 3.
There we'll change the color of h2′s and h3′s to #47BAC4.
After centering the text that needs it, and adding/removing some spacing here and there, we're done with this Block.
"Location" (body 4) Block needs also its background updated. It should be #47BAC4, and this time we'll use another image that will go around the middle, instead of bottom. This one might be a little tricky to get aligned with the map, so we have to play with the slider of the image-background settings.
The next Block, "Partners", is also mostly done already. It needs updating the background, but instead of the image going down like we've done on the other Blocks, this will be moved to the top. Spacing to the bottom and top will be added too.
Then we'll modify some text. Since it's not too much, we won't need the BSE, we can just use the Edit in Place toolbar (by double clicking on the text we want to edit). The h2 will be yellow (#F1C326), and all the text centered.
The next Block (body 6) will have a gray, #333333 background, as well as its top, horizontally-repeated image. The text will be centered, some white, the last line yellow (#F1C326).
The last Block, footer, will have a background color #222222, and its text #ADADAD, while the links white and all centered, Arial 13px.
Additional Configuration
Some additional stuff we can do is change the favicon and page settings, like name (title) and meta keywords and description.
That's it
We're done and ready to publish!
Here's a screenshot of what the site will look in our web tool.
Liked this how-to? Let us know below!


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These Ultralight Ditty Sacks by Outdoor Research slide easily into your pack to organize and separate your essential items. Includes set of three in S, M, L.
- Weight: S: 0.6 oz / M: 0.7 oz / L: 0.8 oz.
- Capacity: S: 183 cu in/ M: 244 cu in / L: 366 cu in.
To Enter, fill in the following form with your name and email address. THE DEADLINE TO ENTER IS SUNDAY, 8-21-16.
Thanks to everyone that submitted an entry! The winner has been notified.


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like Python?
(Flash Animation)
Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. - John Lennon
You can twist perceptions, reality won't budge. - Rush
I just watched that one with the knight and the chair and the guy who likes to eat squirrels
Always remember, "Boss is just double SOB backwards".
OH SO KOOOOOL!!! I created a bunch of poses WHAT FUN!!
SilentTone: hulitoons blog of just plain silliness?
UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: 'I am because we are.)" So, I AM because WE are
my feeble attempt - call it the "lumberdoodle"
oppiejoe - 15 March 2006 03:54 PMmy feeble attempt - call it the "lumberdoodle"
Is that anything like a labradoodle?
Space…..it seems to go on and on forever, but then you get to the end and the gorrilla starts throwing barrels at you. - Phlip J. Fry
not quite as cute, but a wee bit funnier


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Looking for free checking? It may be as close as the nearest credit union.
CFPB fined the bank nearly $3 million for false advertisements of "free" checking accounts.
Consumers found more access to free checking after the Durbin Amendment, a study finds.
Credit unions keep free checking, hoping to lure members in for the long haul.
An American Bankers Association survey finds 55 percent of bank customers do not pay monthly account fees.
A new survey reveals that more account holders are willing to pay for mobile banking tools.
PNC is closing the door on its free checking program.
Despite many banks ending free checking, an FDIC data dump shows bank fee income is actually falling.
Banks have launched new advertisements that question whether credit unions are really helping the country.
A new survey of bank account balances shows that many consumers are keeping abnormally high amounts in their traditional checking accounts. Are you one of them?


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Laying down the law
|By Kurt Anthony Krug
Scott Turow discusses his legal thrillers at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids
Tuesday, March 13 — New York Times best-selling author Scott Turow — renowned for "Presumed Innocent," a seminal novel in the legal thriller genre — always wanted to be a novelist. "That was my lifelong ambition," said the 62-year-old Turow, 62, in a phone interview from his home in Chicago. "My mom had wanted to be a novelist, so I took on her ambition — that's what happened. I always thought I was headed to becoming a novelist from the time I was 11 or 12 years old."
Scott Turow


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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Dover, DE, United States, 2010/01/25 - Partnership promises to make PET/CT scanners available to underserved markets - MediScanImaging.com.
Mediscan Imaging LP is a turn key mobile PET/CT operator servicing small and mid-sized hospitals and medical centers throughout rural America. Mediscan Management LLC is the medical management company focused on creating and building strategic relationships for Mediscan Imaging LP. This partnership aims to successfully deliver this powerful, life-saving PET/CT technology to these underserved markets.
In providing this vital diagnostic technology to small and medium-sized hospitals, were able to completely mitigate the investment these institutions would otherwise be forced to make, explains Joseph Barone, General Partner of Mediscan Imaging and President and CEO of Mediscan Management. By entering into an equal partnership with these facilities, Mediscan Imaging can minimize the risk to all parties involved and get this critical technology into the hands of physicians where it can do the most good.
Barone continues: As healthcare concerns in America continue to grow, rural hospitals and clinics have found their budgets steadily shrinking and are generally unable to afford new equipment. In many situations, a partnership like this is the only way for these facilities to acquire this life-saving PET/CT technology.
With 12 years experience in marketing and business development, Joseph Barone is uniquely qualified to bring this partnership to fruition. As a general partner, Joseph will use his marketing expertise to bring Mediscan Imagings PET/CT (revenue sharing model) to the attention of administrators, executives and physicians of medical institutions across the country.
About Mediscan Imaging LP
Mediscan Imaging LP (mediscanimaging.com) is a state-of-the-art mobile imaging system provider that serves small to medium-sized hospitals and medical centers in rural America. The companys successfully proven business model enables medical institutions to provide the most modern treatment available for Cancer, Heart Disease and Brain Disorders, without any financial or operational risk on their part. The hospitals simply refer the patients and earn an incremental revenue for offering this care to their community. This benefits the patients, who no longer have to travel great distances to receive medical care, and the hospital, which is able to retain their patient and increase their revenue base.
PET, CT technology, Mediscan Imaging, Mediscan Imaging LP, Joseph Barone.
Written by / Agency / Source: MediScan Imaging
Availability: All Regions (Including Int'l)
Traffic Booster: [/] Quick Newswire Today Visibility Checker
Distribution / Indexing: [+]


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Modernize Your Viewing Experience with the Samsung 50" class LED HDTV 1080p Be smart, and upgrade your old TV to the Samsung 50 inch class 1080p 120hz slim LED HDTV. This slim TV is equipped with everything you need to give you the ultimate TV viewing experience, and it lets you find the movies and TV shows personalized for you. You can discover movies, shows and social posts with less searching and more watching. And the whole time, you will enjoy the crystal clear and realistic detail that only full HD 1080p can provide. The Samsung 50" class LED HDTV 1080p features Smart TV 2.0 with S-Recommendation, dual core processor, built-in Wi-Fi and Clear Motion Rate 240, which ensurenon-blurry images during sporting events or fast-motion scenes. Includes a universal remote control, built-in WiFi and DTS Premium Sound 5.1.
The Samsung Smart TV finds the movies and TV shows you like - and more. Navigate within the 5 smart hub content panels. Easily discover movies, shows, and social posts with less searching and more watching.
The Samsung Smart TV finds the movies and TV shows you like - and more. Navigate within the 5 smart hub content panels. Easily discover movies, shows, and social posts with less searching and more watching.
- Dual core processor
Dual core processing speeds allow you to perform multiple tasks at the same time. It also enables fast web browsing while playing apps or TV programs that you've recently opened through the Recent History feature.
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A Clear Motion Rate of 240 is a remarkable level of motion-clarity. TVs with this CMR can display action-packed movement with in-depth sharpness, clarity and contrast. Clear Motion Rate was developed to accurately measure how well an LCD or LED TV can depict fast moving images. Previously, motion-clarity was calculated by the frame refresh rate alone. But CMR offers a more complete measure by calculating 3 factors: frame refresh rate, image processor speed and backlight technology.
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ConnectShare movie lets you watch videos, play music or view photos from a USB connection without needing to use a PC or special equipment. Simply plug your USB directly into your Samsung TV's USB port and watch on the big screen with friends and family.
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With Samsung Anynet+ you'll enjoy expanded control and seamless functionality between all your Samsung HDMI connected compatible devices such as your Samsung TV, Blu-ray Disc player, AV Receiver and home theater system.
- Eco ensor
Samsung eco sensor measures the intensity of the light in the room and automatically adjusts the brightness of the image on the TV, for more intelligent energy management.
- 4 HDMI connections
High-quality single-cable digital audio/video interface for connecting the TV to a digital cable box, satellite box, DVD & Blu-ray Player, PC computers, PC portable devices, tablets, and devices featuring the HDMI output.
- DTS Premium Sound 5.1
Delivers immersive 5.1 surround sound from any DTS-encoded content and converts any two-channel audio content into a 5.1 DTS surround sound track for discrete surround sound playback.
- Dolby Digital plus/pulse
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|USB Inputs
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|Limited warranty - parts and labor - 1 year - on-site
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|Full Web Browser
|Accessories Included
|Universal Remote Control
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|Dash for Compares & Unknowns
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|Depth without Stand
|2 to 2-7/8 in.
|Native Resolution
|40 to 49-7/8 in.
|Item Weight (lbs.)
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|On/off timer, clock, integrated web browser, Anynet Plus, BD Wise, game mode, Touch of Color (ToC), AllShare, ConnectShare Movie, Samsung Apps, Wide Color Enhancer Plus, Eco Sensor, One Design, Smart Interaction 2.0, S-Recommendation
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|4 x HDMI ( 19 pin HDMI Type A ) ¦ 1 x composite video / component video input ( RCA phono x 3 ) ¦ 1 x network ( RJ-45 ) ¦ 3 x USB 2.0 ( 4 pin USB Type A ) ¦ 1 x digital audio output (optical) ( TOSLINK ) ¦ 1 x audio line-out ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm ) ¦
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|Depth - General
|12.1 in
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|127 cm ( 125.7 cm viewable )
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|Panel without stand - 44.9 in x 2 in x 26.2 in x 29.3 lbs ¦ Panel with stand - 44.9 in x 12.1 in x 29.4 in x 32.8 lbs
|Dimensions - General
|With stand
|Driver Details - Audio System
|Main channel speaker : full-range driver
|ENERGY STAR Version - Environmental Standards
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|200 x 200 mm
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|Digital audio playback, digital photo playback, digital video playback, WEB browsing
|HDCP Compatible - General
|Height (Shipping) - Dimensions & Weight (Shipping)
|30.4 in
|Height - General
|29.4 in
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|240 Clear Motion Rate
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|Picture-in-picture (PIP)
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|20 Watt
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|6 Series
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|2 x main channel speaker - built-in - 10 Watt
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|Weight (Shipping) - Dimensions & Weight (Shipping)
|42.1 lbs
|Weight - General
|32.8 lbs
|Width (Shipping) - Dimensions & Weight (Shipping)
|56.3 in
|Width - General
|44.9 in
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|Depth with Stand
|12 to 13-7/8 in.
|Screen Size
|50 to 59 in.
|ENERGY STAR Compliant
|Height with Stand
|20 to 24-7/8 in.
|Overall Color
|Depth with Stand (in.)
|Height without Stand
|25 to 29-7/8 in.
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|4 or More
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text:
Sep 17, 2001 | 300 Pages
A masterly synthesis by a master historian (Lewis, David)
Making stunning use of recently available documents and scholarly writings, this book succeeds in capturing the essence of a major American technological enterprise. (Roger D. Launius)
. . . establishes Bilstein as the most accessible guide to American aerospace history. (Technology And Culture)


text: A gathering of 22 stories representing more than two decades of the career of National Book Award finalist Dixon (Gould, 1997, etc.), whose distinctively flat style (—Anyway, there's my most vivid memory. Big deal, right?—) carries traces of both Hemingway and Mamet—with a bit of Woody Allen's attitude mixed in. An incredibly prolific author who has published more than a dozen titles since the late 1970s, Dixon has established a cult following with work that straddles the border separating the experimental from the comic. Unreliable narrators predominate throughout, turning accounts of straightforward events (—A man stands at a street corner—) into idiosyncratic interior monologues (—Did it last sumer so again itll be tuf the1st few days but then ill be all rt—). This is clearly a collection aimed at fans, and Dixon is bound to have a limited audience at best. Nevertheless, newcomers to his work will find it a good introduction to one of the more original voices on the contemporary scene.


text:
August 27, 2007
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, mahalo nui loa for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the state of VA care in the Hawaii. It is a privilege to be here on the Island of Hawaii-The Big Island-to speak and answer questions about issues important to veterans residing in Hawaii.
First, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for your outstanding leadership and advocacy on behalf of our Nation's veterans. During your tenures as Chairman and Ranking Member of this Committee, you have consistently demonstrated your commitment to veterans. As I will highlight later, your vision and support have helped us provide an unprecedented level of health care services for veterans throughout Hawaii and the Pacific region. In addition, I appreciate your interest in and support of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Today, I will briefly review the VA Sierra Pacific Network that includes Hawaii and the Pacific region; provide an overview of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System ( VAPIHCS) and the VA clinics here on the Big Island; highlight issues of particular interest to veterans residing in Hawaii, including outreach to the National Guard and Reserves, Compensation and Pension examinations, new State Veterans' Home in Hilo and our important affiliations with our academic partners. I also look forward to addressing any questions you might have for me.
VA Sierra Pacific Network ( VISN 21)
The VA Sierra Pacific Network (Veterans Integrated Service Network [VISN] 21) is one of 21 integrated health care networks in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The VA Sierra Pacific Network provides services to veterans residing in Hawaii and the Pacific region (including the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa and Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands), northern Nevada and central/northern California. There were an estimated 1.1 million veterans living within the boundaries of the VA Sierra Pacific Network in Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06).
The VA Sierra Pacific Network includes six major health care systems based in Honolulu, Hawaii; Palo Alto, California; San Francisco, California; Sacramento, California; Fresno, California; and Reno, Nevada. Dr. Robert Wiebe serves as director and oversees clinical and administrative operations throughout the Network. In FY06, the Network provided services to 235,000 veterans. There were about 2.9 million clinic stops and 24,500 inpatient discharges. The cumulative full-time employment equivalents ( FTEE) level was 8,400 and the operating budget was about $1.5 billion.
The VA Sierra Pacific Network is remarkable in several ways. In FY06, VISN 21 was the highest-ranked Network in overall performance (based on an aggregation of quality, access, patient satisfaction and business metrics). The Network hosts the highest number of Centers of Excellence and also has the most highly funded research programs in VHA. In the most recent all-employee survey, staffs in VISN 21 reported the highest overall job satisfaction in VHA. Finally, VISN 21 operates one of four Polytrauma units in VHA that are dedicated to addressing the clinical needs of the most severely wounded Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom ( OIF/ OEF) veterans.
VA Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS)
As noted above, VAPIHCS is one of six major health care systems in VISN 21. I am the director and a practicing cardiologist at VAPIHCS. VAPIHCS is unique in several important aspects: its vast catchment area covering 2.6 million square-miles (including Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas); island topography and the challenges to access it creates; richness of the culture of Pacific Islanders; and the ethnic diversity of patients and staff. In FY06, there were an estimated 102,000 veterans living in Hawaii (representing 8 percent of the total population in Hawaii and 9 percent of total veteran population in VISN 21).
VAPIHCS currently provides care in seven locations: the Ambulatory Care Center ( ACC) and Center for Aging ( CFA) on the campus of the Tripler AMC in Honolulu; and community-based outpatient clinics ( CBOCs) in Lihue (Kauai), here in Kahului (Maui), Kailua-Kona (Hawaii), Hilo (Hawaii), Hagatna (Guam) and Pago Pago (American Samoa). VAPIHCS also has outreach clinics in Molokai and Lanai. The inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) unit is now also on the campus of Tripler AMC (the unit was formerly in Hilo). In addition to VAPIHCS, VHA operates five Readjustment Counseling Centers (Vet Centers) in Honolulu, Lihue, Wailuku, Kailua-Kona and Hilo that provide counseling, psychosocial support and outreach.
In FY06, VAPIHCS provided services to nearly 22,500 veterans, 19,000 of whom reside in Hawaii. There were 198,000 clinic stops in Hawaii during FY06 (7 percent of Network total). The cumulative FTEE in FY06 for the health care system was 502 employees. The operating budget for VAPIHCS (i.e., General Purpose allocation from appropriated funds) increased from $68.0 million in FY02 to $110 million in FY07-an increase of 62 percent. For comparison, during this same time period, the operating budgets for VISN 21 increased 48 percent and VHA increased 43 percent. (Please note these amounts do not include Specific Purpose Funds and Medical Care Cost Funds.)
VAPIHCS provides or contracts for a comprehensive array of health care services. VAPIHCS directly provides primary care, including preventive services and health screenings, and mental health services at all locations. VAPIHCS does not operate its own acute medical-surgical hospital and consequently, faces challenges in providing specialty services. VAPIHCS recently hired additional specialists in Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Nephrology and inpatient Medicine ("hospitalist") and is providing selected specialty care in Honolulu and to a lesser extent, CBOCs. VAPIHCS is actively recruiting additional specialists (e.g., Urology) and will continue to refer patients to DoD and community facilities.
Inpatient long-term and acute rehabilitation care is available at the CFA. Inpatient mental health services are provided by VA staff on a 20-bed ward within Tripler AMC and at the 16-bed PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Program (PRRP). VAPIHCS contracts for care with DoD (at Tripler AMC and Guam Naval Hospital) and community facilities for inpatient medical-surgical care.
The current constellation of VA facilities and services represents a remarkable transformation over the past several years. Previously, the VAPIHCS (formerly known as the VA Medical and Regional Office Center [VAMROC] Honolulu) operated primary care and mental health clinics based in the Prince Kuhio Federal Building in downtown Honolulu and CBOCs on the neighbor islands that were staffed primarily with nurse practitioners. Congress approved $83 million in Major Construction funds to build a state-of-the-art ambulatory care facility (i.e., ACC) and a long-term care/rehabilitation unit (i.e., CFA) on the Tripler AMC campus and these facilities were activated in 2000 and 1997, respectively. VISN 21 allocated nearly $17 million from FY98-FY00 to activate these projects. VISN 21 also provided dedicated funds to enhance care on the neighbor islands by expanding/renovating clinic space and adding additional staff to ensure there are primary care physicians and mental health providers at all CBOCs.
Big Island CBOCs
VA operates CBOCs in both Kailua-Kona (75-377 Hualalai Road, Kailua-Kona, HI, 96740) and Hilo (1285 Waianuenue Avenue, Suite 211, Hilo, HI, 96720). VHA also operates Readjustment Counseling Centers ("Vet Centers") in Kailua-Kona (73-4976 Kamanu Street, Suite 207, Kailua-Kona, HI, 96740) and Hilo (126 Pu'uhonu Way, Suite 2, Hilo, HI, 96720).
The Big Island CBOCs serve an estimated island veteran population in FY06 of 14,291. In FY06, 5,081 veterans were enrolled for care on the island and 2,936 received care ("users") at Big Island VA facilities. The market penetrations for enrollees and "users" are 36 percent and 21percent, respectively, and compare favorably with rates within VISN 21 and VHA.
Kailua-Kona CBOC. Since the last time this Committee held hearings on the Big Island (i.e., January 2006), VA relocated the clinic here in Kailua-Kona. VAPIHCS now leases about 5,000 square-feet for the new clinic and spent about $500 thousand to renovate the existing facility. Although the current configuration and size is a vast improvement over the prior clinic location, parking at the new clinic is very limited. VAPIHCS is currently working with an architect/engineering firm to provide an additional 15-20 new parking spaces.
The current authorized FTEE level at the Kailua-Kona CBOC is 12.0, including a full-time primary care physician, psychiatrist and nurse practitioner. Currently, the psychiatry position is vacant and we are actively recruiting to fill it. In the interim, mental health coverage is provided by a mental health clinical nurse specialist (on "loan" from the Maui CBOC) and visiting psychiatrist for the Hilo CBOC. With this staff, the Kailua-Kona CBOC provides a wide array of primary care and mental health services. The Kailua-Kona CBOC also has a formal home-based primary care (HBPC) program that provides clinical services in the homes of veterans.
VAPIHCS provides specialty care services at the clinic by sending VA staff to Kailua-Kona from Honolulu and other VA facilities in California. Services provided by clinicians traveling to Kailua-Kona include cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, neurology, optometry, orthopedics and rheumatology. If veterans need services not available at the clinic, VAPIHCS arranges and pays for care in the local community (e.g., Kona Community Hospital) and Honolulu (including Tripler AMC). In FY06, VA spent more than $7.8 million in non- VA care in the private sector (i.e., not including costs at other VA or DoD facilities) for residents of the Big Island.
In FY06, the Kailua-Kona CBOC treated 1,055 patients and recorded 6,779 clinic stops. The clinic has short waiting times for new patients with very few veterans waiting more than 30 days for their first primary care appointment. The Kailua-Kona HBPC program recorded 598 clinic stops for providing home care to veterans residing on the west side of the island.
Hilo CBOC. VAPIHCS spent about $100 thousand in FY01 to remodel the Hilo CBOC and spent additional funds in FY06 to further renovate the clinic. The current authorized FTEE level at the Hilo CBOC is 15.0, including two full-time primary care physicians and a psychiatrist. This is an increase of four staff since January 2006 and reflects the reassignment of staff from the PRRP that was relocated from Hilo to Honolulu. With this staff, the Hilo CBOC provides a broad range of primary care and mental health services. The Hilo CBOC also has a formal HBPC program that provides clinical services in the homes of veterans.
VAPIHCS provides specialty care services at the clinic by sending VA staff to Hilo from Honolulu and other VA facilities in California. Services provided by clinicians traveling to Hilo include cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, neurology, optometry, orthopedics and rheumatology. If veterans need services not available at the clinic, VAPIHCS arranges and pays for care in the local community (e.g., Hilo Medical Center), Honolulu (including Tripler AMC) or VA facilities in California. As noted before, in FY06, VA spent more than $7.8 million in non- VA care in the private sector (i.e., not including costs at other VA or DoD facilities) for residents of the Big Island.
In FY06, the Hilo CBOC treated 1,683 veterans and recorded 8,843 clinic stops. The clinic has short waiting times for new patients with very few veterans waiting more than 30 days for their first primary care appointment. The Hilo HBPC program recorded 641 clinic stops for providing home care to veterans residing on the east side of the island.
Special Issues
OIF/ OEF outreach. VA estimates up to 15,000 residents of Hawaii have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq as active duty personnel, Reservists or Hawaii National Guard. All VAPIHCS sites of care, including CBOCs, are authorized to provide care to DoD beneficiaries as TRICARE providers under the national "Seamless Transition" initiative between VA and DoD.
VAPIHCS has an active outreach program to inform OIF/ OEF veterans about the availability and scope of VA health care services. As an example, a team of clinical and non-clinical staff from VAPIHCS attend all Post Deployment Health Reassessment ( PDHRA) events. PDHRA is a program managed by DoD and is designed to provide education, screening, assessment and access to care for military personnel who have returned from deployment. The assessment generally occurs three- to six-months after returning from deployment. At the PDHRA events, VA staff is available to answer questions and to enroll and make appointments for interested veterans.
All VA health care systems, including VAPIHCS, have dedicated OIF/ OEF program managers, who help OIF/ OEF veterans receive the services they need. VAPIHCS also has an OIF/ OEF case manager and support from a Transition Patient Advocate in VISN 21. OIF/ OEF veterans who need inpatient treatment for PTSD will be admitted to the PRRP program in Honolulu. Veterans residing in Hawaii also have access to the Polytrauma Unit at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. This is one of four specialized units designed to meet the needs of the most severely injured OIE/ OEF veterans and active duty personnel.
The total number of OIF/ OEF veterans seen in VA health care facilities is a relatively small proportion of the total "user" population, however, the number is increasing. In FY02, VAPIHCS treated 225 OIF/ OEF veterans; in FY06, the number of OIF/ OEF veterans seen at VAPIHCS facilities increased to 1,137. Very few OIF/ OEF veterans are waiting more than 30 days for an appointment.
VA recognizes that our newest group of veterans has special needs. About 18 percent of OIF/ OEF veterans seen in VHA have a diagnosis of PTSD. There are more women veterans in the OIF/ OEF cohort than the general veteran population. A significant proportion of OIF/ OEF veterans has been exposed to blasts and might suffer from traumatic brain injury ( TBI). Musculo-skeletal problems (e.g., low back pain) are common and constitute the most prevalent reason for seeking VA health care. In response, VA is aggressively screening patients (e.g., for TBI), training staff and hiring additional specialists (e.g., mental health, rehabilitation) to ensure we will meet the needs and expectations of these brave warriors.
Compensation and Pension ( C&P) examinations. Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) relies heavily on the medical evidence and expert opinion provided by C&P examinations to adjudicate veterans' claims. Consequently, the quality and timeliness of C&P examination results provided by VHA is very important. The quality of C&P examinations performed at VAPIHCS is very good, as measured by Compensation and Pension Examination Program scores (an external review of examination completeness and quality), insufficiency rates and remand rates.
Regrettably, for the past several months, there is a backlog of examination requests and the timeliness of examinations has not met VHA standards of 35 days. The underlying causes of the delays include a surge of requests from VBA, staffing vacancies coupled with recruitment challenges (especially, in more remote locations such as Guam), and space constraints in the ACC.
VAPIHCS is highly motivated to resolve these barriers and has developed a credible plan. VAPIHCS now has made additional examiners available to the C&P unit by reassigning staff, "borrowing" VA physicians from mainland facilities and hiring contract staff. VAPICHS is also conducting C&P clinics on some Saturdays and has plans to renovate the ACC to relieve space constraints. Assuming the number of requests from VBA remains stable (i.e., about 500 requests each month), VAPIHCS is confident it can eliminate the backlog and maintain timeliness standards by fall 2007.
State Veterans Home. The State of Hawaii is planning to open its first State Home in Hilo later this year. This will be the first State of Hawaii facility to provide nursing home and domiciliary care to eligible veterans. The 95-bed facility is on the site of the former Hilo Hospital on the Hilo Medical Center campus. VA awarded a grant of about $20 million for the project to complement state funding. VA is excited about this project and looks forward to our continuing collaboration with the State of Hawaii. I commend the State Advisory Board on Veterans Services for the recommendation to name the facility in honor of Mr. Yukio Okutsu. As you know, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Okutsu was a resident of Hilo and a recipient of our Nation's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his heroism during World War II.
Academic affiliations. VAPIHCS and the veterans we proudly serve benefit from an array of balanced relationships with academic institutions. One of our most important partnerships is with the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii. Prior to my appointment as Director, VAPIHCS, I was fortunate to have served as Chairman, Department of Medicine at the Medical School. I have seen from both "sides" the value of a strong relationship between VA and academic medicine. VAPIHCS serves as a training site for medical students, post-graduate housestaff (i.e., interns, residents and fellows), dentists, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists and social workers. We also work with the Medical School in recruiting physicians and research investigators. Our patients and staff also benefit from the training programs and other academic programs at Tripler AMC.
In summary, with your support, Mr. Chairman, and other members of Congress, VA is providing an unprecedented level of health care services to veterans residing in Hawaii and here on the Big Island. Our goal is to provide safe, effective, efficient and compassionate care to all veterans. We are committed to and active in our outreach efforts to veterans, including the brave soldiers in the Guard and Reserve, who proudly served in OIF/OEF.
However, VAPIHCS still faces several challenges, in part due to the topography of its catchment area, lack of an acute medical-surgical hospital, limited community resources in rural areas and difficulties recruiting staff. VAPIHCS will meet these challenges by utilizing telehealth technologies, hiring specialists, working with community partners and developing new delivery models. I am proud of the improvements in VA services in Hawaii, but recognize that our job is not done.
Again, Mr. Chairman and other members of the Committee, mahalo nui loa for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. I would be delighted to address any questions you might have for me.
House Committees | Senate Committees | Find my Representative | Find my Senator
Veterans and their family members who wish to contact the Department regarding a claim, benefits, or services, may call VA Toll-Free at 1 (800) 827-1000 or 1 (800) 829-4833 [TDD], or Contact the VA via the web.
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U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - 810 Vermont Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20420
Reviewed/Updated Date: November 10, 2009


text:
- 10 Sat May 2014
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text:
Good or bad? Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman plans to keep draft choices
One of the few good things that came out of the past two years under the former ownership and management was a much better ability to draft. Say what you will about the on-ice product the Tampa Bay Lightning put out there, the team drafted a heck of a lot better than it had under Palace Sports & Entertainment.
Granted, it didn't take rocket scientists to select Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, but selections such as Carter Ashton, James Wright, Dustin Tokarski and Richard Panik, all good prospects, show the team did its homework.
Sounds as if GM Steve Yzerman wants to build on that philosophy. With an eye on long-term stability while continuing to build organizational depth that was allowed to become almost non-existent under PS&E, Yzerman said on Sunday he will not trade his first-, second- or third-round draft picks in 2011 or 2012 as he looks at possible trade-deadline deals. Consequently, he said not to expect a flashy deal.
The best quote from Yzerman was this: "I don't want to hold myself up to say we're not going to do anything. But I think it would be very difficult to add without giving something up of great value I wouldn't want to give up."
On the other hand, some might say with the team atop the Southeast, and considering how wide-open the East is, why not go for a big move (perhaps get one more solid defenseman to stabilize the blue line even further). With the way this league is, if you have a chance to really make some noise in the playoffs, you should go for it.
On the other hand, while this team certainly wants to win when it has a chance, Yzerman said up front when he was hired this is a long-term strategy, and given the salary cap and that no one really knows what financial constraints will be in place when the next collective bargaining agreement is hammered out, its is better to have depth from which to home grow your own stars.
So, I guess the question is, which philosophy would you rather see? Are you with Yzerman when he says he will keep his draft choices or do you want to see him perhaps keep them on the table. As even Yzerman said, "If something comes along that makes you better, you will (do it). But the reality of that happening, I'd be surprised."


text:
When I was young, I knew something about underlying worldness which I afterwards forgot, or let lie. I knew things had aliveness, including trees and rocks, somehow bound up with their meaning and the meaning of everything. Communication happened with a spellbinding quality in a togetherspace that seemed to evade regular human communication.
What was this? Where did it go? Why did meditation and energy bring it back again, and then some? People like Ken Wilber have been misled by Jean Piaget into believing animism is a charmingly mistaken childhood phase of anthropomorphic projection. This is the worst answer since a schoolboy who was asked "What is ananke?" replied it was for wiping your nose. (Actually quite close to Tao in obscure Greek myths is the answer.)
It seemed impossible to pursue these feelings as adolescence went forward — but difficult to be myself without them. Felicitas Goodman has written beautifully of a similar predicament:On the eve of my twelfth birthday I had a severe headache… The next morning I bled for the first time. I went to my mother… "This means," she said, "that we now have an adult daughter in our house."… Very soon I discovered all on my own what being an adult apparently meant, and confided it to my diary: "The magic time is over"… I noticed the impediment first with the fresh, crunchy snow which fell right after my birthday. It was nice, but I could not make it glow…
I believe today that a large part of initiation in wiser societies… has to do with helping the adolescent to reconstitute the waning capacity for ecstasy. The harsh stimulation[s] of the nervous system… are designed, I think, to substitute a different, an adult, form for the spontaneous ability to call up that very special trance…
Obviously I was living at the wrong place. How gladly I would have submitted to whatever trial if only someone could have told me what it was I was losing… Actually, I was coming up for confirmation, which was modelled after ancient initiation rituals, but it was cruelly vacuous… nothing, absolutely nothing happened. I did not even know what I had expected, but it was very clear to me that I had not received it.
— Where The Spirits Ride the Wind (1990)
That's the only sad part of her book as she describes her very clever and intuitive rediscovery of ways to vivify that are still being used. Glenn's ideas perfectly chime with all this. Note the sexual energy redirected at menarche which corresponds with id and ultimately with kundalini. Also important are those methods of 'harsh stimulation of the nervous system' in traditional cultures which engage the same energy and are used in many quarters historically and today — see for example Shadow Strategies p. 286 or Martial Arts Madness p. 18, although, as the latter points out, "meditation seems a clear winner over torture".
Like Goodman I didn't know there were ways forward that actually worked. Of course, my culture didn't always want me to. I'd love to blame materialism and Christianity alone for the deadness of the material world as presented to me, and I wouldn't necessarily be far wrong, but there are no nature worshippers amongst the Platonists either. Even the Stoics, who valued harmony with Nature above all and knew about ch'i, didn't write on aliveness. The reason we tend to "grow out of animism" in the "Civilised West" is simply that there has never been a widespread mature version of it to grow into. Being raised on Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin, and seeing how important the idea of an alive nature was to many people, I wondered why.
After Kundalini these things were radically revivified and I began to get answers. The social mind programmes the natural one — right down to the energetic system. It went a lot deeper than I thought.
Big civilisations rarely have strong animist elements; polytheism may help maintain them since perversely monotheism tends to dualism (more on a subject related to that next week.) Some cultures keep more for longer in their learned phases, some less. China in some ways exemplifies the former, Europe the latter. Taoism of course is not mainstream in China since it rejects the Confucian emphasis on the sincerity of ritual in favour of Naturalness, but natural Tao itself in China is usually the basis. Ming era Confucians thus found Jesuit missionaries puzzling since Chinese sages said following Nature was the Tao, but the missionaries said that overcoming nature was the Tao. One may draw conclusions at that point.
Without some way to reconnect the energy, there's often nothing an individual can do. Society impacts our minds because we need to survive; society is our way of doing so, and we are its. Glenn points out somewhere that the social mind experiences only the reality allowed for it and that includes strong influence on your biology. If a culture likes to manipulate nature as a mechanism it probably can't conceive of natural aliveness and harmony, at least not without wincing, so it will have a job to perceive it. Individuals must thus know how to accept the Shadow, which includes the socially unacceptable, to experience the deeper truth.
Different civilisations, different rules. André-Georges Haudricourt had a wonderful little theory, interesting and at least somewhat true. He thought that in the Mediterranean and Middle East, herding became archetypal, more than agriculture. Herding involves shouting and prodding and enforcing your will on a bunch of often silly, stubbornly recalcitrant animals, so it made a monotheistic god who shouted and enforced his will on silly recalcitrant humans. The animal, hence nature, became the problematic half of a dualist value system. Shepherd images in Christianity are legion. The symbolism of the Hebrew alphabet, which is pictographic like the Chinese, includes not only an ox, but an ox-goad as well.China developed the more agricultural archetype. You don't yell at plants. Anyone who has done any gardening knows the magic is that it just happens, slowly, mysteriously, and often completely out of sight. At a certain time, given certain conditions, things know what to do. The principle behind that knowing is part of what the Chinese called 'Tao', which is mysterious, invisible, feeds all, and has the respect of everything, fulfilling itself in all natural actions. But without having to yell and try to be 'in charge'– indeed its silence and mystery in accomplishing everything is a measure of its greatness to both Taoists and Confucians. It remains animism-friendly, since the natural order is its sphere, and it forms the connection between all natural things, including us:
The Great Tao extends everywhere.
It is on the left and the right.
All Things depend on it for growth,
And it does not deny them.
It achieves its purpose,
And it does not have a name.
It clothes and cultivates All Things,
And it does not act as master.
— Tao Te Ching 34
The Tao produces;
Its Power supports;
Its Natural Law forms;
Its influence completes.
Thus All Things without exception
Respect the Tao and value its Power.
To respect the Tao and value its Power —
No one demands this, and it comes naturally.
— 51 (R. L. Wing tr.)
Since the Tao 'does not act as master', one could not imagine a 'jealous Tao' as there is a 'jealous God'. Tao has the respect of all things whether they know it or not, like any natural law. (Gravity and evolution don't exactly need to hector you into obedience.)
Spiritual actualisation is a question of optimising and harmonising the natural processes within a human being. People who do have a way to do that will find themselves perfectly capable of sensing similar processes in the wider world. There is aliveness, consciousness, and a motion which communicates in feelings and images. It's significant that Glenn associated the spirit of kundalini with the id, the creative power running through the human system, a concept which can widen to include "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower," as Dylan Thomas put it. Poets like him have to work hard to maintain aliveness and often write in image-feeling-metaphors of the kind one finds transferred with ch'i.
The language they write in may also be relevant since the western pictographs have long since vanished. All human lettering systems start out as image-metaphors, poetry in themselves. In the Chinese system these of course remain. Morrissey recently embarassed himself by spitefully calling the Chinese a 'subspecies' which is the act of a rather snide and bitchy poet alienated by a thoroughly different linguistic and philosophy. The Chinese are the only massive civilisation with very highly developed thinking in a non-Indo-European, uninflected language. They show little preoccupation with the static ideal beingness that Western philosophy has argued about since Greece, because unlike ours their language doesn't naturally refer to it. But science's new numerical language gets flow better and as a result the systems-science view has far more in common with the Chinese one than with the Platonist.
Saturating oneself with ch'i increases the vitality and with that comes awareness. It is natural to be so saturated when young, but requires more skill when older. Qigong is a far calmer way than romantic poetry, which is rarely content since it is always trying to leap for unattainable heavens which could only be actually attained in a state of peace. The feeling I have is often much more like the simple Navajo chant:
The mountains, I become part of it.
The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it.
The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering waters, I become part of it.
The wilderness, the dew drops, the pollen, I become part of it.
On many occasions when I was living with my adopted Navajo family in the 1950s, people would begin acting as if they had received some information from afar… after a month or so of herding sheep and carrying water to our corn plants day after day, some family members would suddenly prepare for a trip… I would hear offhand comments like, "Perhaps there's a sing [curing ceremony] down by Red Mesa"… On our way toward the Red Mesa area… we would encounter other Navajos heading in our direction… A day later we would pull our wagon over the crest of a hill and find a gathering of perhaps a hundred people near someone's hogan… No phone calls, no maps, no addresses, no written invitations, no messengers… the reservation itself is the size of Belgium, and families often live miles from the next… There is no doubt in my mind that these events… actually "happen", for they are witnessed by everyone who is involved.
Toelken calls this the 'moccasin telegraph'. 'Becoming part of it' would be an equally good term. Jung's name for it was synchronicity and it was really working for him since his theories are in the enviable position these days of having some interesting science supporting what he did instinctively. He liked the leaf-cutter ants which are too short-lived to observe mating behaviour in the previous generation but know exactly what to do; it just happens when the time is right. Human males will know that when the time is right to mate (when isn't it), the anima will provide the appropriate picture to guide that all-important nervous system energy; whatever an ant uses for an anima does the same thing. The ant may have less irony about it and less neurosis. Such flows and timings appear everywhere in nature. There are signs of it in the Middle Eastern religions we've inherited — Proverbs 30 for example, with its 'wisdom of the ants'.Exchanging ch'i with a tree on a regular basis will do plenty for you — Liang and Wu do some nice qigong in that line, including clever protection ideas I may try this summer. I know an oak in Regent's Park who is strong stuff indeed. No two qigongs work with trees the same way. Lam has a different approach as does Chia in this nice video.
The Tao achieves its purpose, spontaneous natural action in consonance with rhythms flowing in an immemorial patterned system… the geese fly West, the ants mate, the sing happens near the Mesa… a girl reaches menarche and begins her longing for spiritual contact. Humans are sometimes overcome by aspects of their delicately complex systems and can deviate from this livingness or from their own voice and identity in a way that causes them considerable pain. That's the dark side of free will and quiet is often a part of the answer. Accepting one's own nature, spontaneity, and living in the territory rather than the map, are all pointed up in the of actualised people.
The feeling of being connected back up with kundalini was for me such a relief, like being alive again, and synchronicity goes through the roof as heaven and earth find each other and new relationships open up. Accepting the Shadow matters here partly because you are receiving info with source and intent different from normal, that shapes the system in a different way. Info humans consider important is normally social, verbal, screen-based and other 'intellectual maps of desired results' which is useless for this. The ability to accept neutrally rather than to seek to repattern reality is what opens one up to these feelings, images and energies.
Since some may not believe that ants have mythopoeic subconscious minds, I give this next story for them, or anyone who believes animism is for kiddies. Lineage successor Rob Williams told it about Glenn:
Doc liked to go hiking… We drove out to New Iberia, right along the coast of the swamp… I happened upon a large gator… I got as close as I could… took a picture and backed away. Glenn had walked across a narrow foot bridge that was about 40 feet long. He was already on the other side looking out into the water. I noticed a brownish cloud coming up from the river on my left. As it approached I realized it was a swarm of wasps.
Glenn had told me about the Louisiana wasps that were huge yellow jackets. They had a powerful sting. I felt uneasy as they collected into a sphere shaped swarm between Doc and me, over the bridge. I thought back to when I first walked fire. I assumed the go for it attitude and, with no fear and great confidence, walked across the bridge through this swarm of wasps. They were bouncing off my face and body as I walked through them to the other side of the bridge. I didn't get stung. I walked over to Doc with adrenaline pumping through me. I turned and looked back to see the swarm circle, break formation and fly on down the river. I asked Doc if he had seen the swarm and he didn't answer… He was such a wizard. He was testing me using familiars in nature.
— Hoshinjutsu, pp. 94-5Animism says we are interacting with Persons. Glenn was in tune with the Tao enough to do that in a major way since he knew Persons don't all look like your auntie marge. We met talking swords months back. The Tao is a mass of intertwining morphic fields, a way of knowing and communicating, ch'i moving through the world. Each thing has its own identity, its own Tao within the mix, its own lifestream, all accomplishing itself in cycles and flows small and large.
The Tao has no fixed position;
It abides within the excellent mind.
When the mind is tranquil and the ch'i is regular,
The Tao can thereby be halted.
That Tao is not distant from us;
When people attain it they are sustained.
That Tao is not separated from us;
When people accord with it they are harmonious.
Therefore: Concentrated! as though you could be roped together with it.
Indiscernible! as though beyond all locations.
The true state of that Tao:
How could it be conceived of and pronounced upon?
Cultivate your mind, make your thoughts tranquil,
And the Tao can thereby be attained.
— Neiye ch. 5 (Harold Roth tr.)


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Coach John Tortorella believes Brandon Dubinsky belongs on the wing, but that's not where No. 17 was yesterday, and that's not where he'll be on Wednesday when the Rangers attempt to square their first-round series against the Capitals.
"He is still a left winger but I needed to use him in the middle and he has done a good job," Tortorella said after Dubinsky's goal on a four-on-four situation with 1:39 remaining in the third lifted the Blueshirts to a 3-2, Game 3 victory. "We are not scoring. Our middle of the ice, I think guys have been fighting it a little bit.
"I wanted to get him and Gabby [Marian Gaborik] together."
Dubinsky came to the Rangers as a center, and indeed was Jaromir Jagr's pivot the second half of his 2007-08 rookie season, when No. 68 could not adjust to playing with either Scott Gomez or Chris Drury. Dubinsky played both wing and center last year, but has been on the flank all this year other than for a few shifts.
Center Brian Boyle has been just fine in this series, crashing the net regularly, in fact getting nine shots on goal in 18:31 of ice yesterday. But Derek Stepan and Artem Anisimov have been struggling badly. Indeed, Stepan moved to right wing on a line with Anisimov at center. There were still 24 seconds of four-on-four remaining when Dubinsky scored the game-winner. Interestingly enough, Tortorella had the Stepan-Anisimov combination on the ice for that.
The Rangers were 1-for-7 in 10:33 of power play time, including a pair of failed 5-on-3s that accounted for 1:34. Erik Christensen got the power-play goal on a sharp-angle shot from the right corner at 5:30 of the second period that flew over Michal Neuvirth's left shoulder. Other than perhaps Gaborik — perhaps — no other Ranger could possibly have scored from that spot. . . . The Caps were 1-for-3 in 4:28 of power-play time, the disparity a reflection of the Blueshirts' aggressiveness and puck possession.
Gaborik had three shots and has 11 for the series, but his postseason goal-less drought has reached nine games, including his final six with the Wild in 2008. . . . Only one of Alex Ovechkin's seven tries was on net, but that was the goal he scored at 19:00 of the second period to tie the match 1-1.
The Rangers have played 15 previous best-of-seven playoff series in which they lost the first two on the road. They've never rallied to win one, being swept six times, losing in five twice, losing in six six times and losing in seven once, that the 1974 semifinals to the Flyers in the Dave Schultz-Dale Rolfe game.


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Crisis forces Spanish royals to tighten belts
Spain's royals will lower the salaries of top staff and trim spending on official occasions after their budget was cut in the midst of an economic crisis, an official said Thursday.
In a severe austerity budget for 2012, the Spanish government cut the amount allocated to King Juan Carlos's royal household by 170,000 euros, or two percent, to 8.264 million euros (by $223,000 to $10.9 million).
"The sections which could be cut are personnel expenses and protocol," said a palace official.
Salary cuts would mostly affect the top 11 staff on the palace payroll, the official said.
"The aim is to have a cut that is fairly shared out, so that the top officials with the highest salaries have the biggest cut and we try not to touch the most basic, smaller salaries," the official said.
The palace also planned to cut spending on official occasions such as the October 12 national holiday marking Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, when the king presides over a military parade.
Payments from the Spanish state to members of the royal family themselves are not affected in principle, the official said, but this had not been ruled out.
The palace was also working with other ministries seeking other ways to save money, such as on security.
Once the government's budget is approved by parliament in May or June, the palace is expected announce a final decision on how it has decided to spread the cuts.
Spain's conservative Popular Party government announced on March 30 a 2012 budget with spending cuts and tax increases amounting to 27.3 billion euros as it battled to trim a swollen public deficit.
In December last year, the royals revealed their detailed income for the first time, showing the king received a salary plus expenses of 292,752 euros in 2011.
The 74-year-old king's state grant of 140,519 euros was supplemented by 152,233 euros to cover expenses for official duties, said the accounts, published on the royals' website http://www.casareal.com.
Prince Felipe, 44, who is married to former television news presenter Princess Letizia, had half of that figure, which would be 70,260 euros in a state grant and 76,117 euros in expenses.
All top salaries including those of the royal family were cut by 15 percent in 2010 and frozen in 2011.
1 Comment To This Article
republican posted:
You´ve got to be fuckin´kidding me? IFor once, I´m speechless, see you in Botswana King..I´ll save you an elephant!


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Day 2 begins for the Adams County Fairfest
Posted: 07/17/14 08:50
It's Day two at the Adams County Fair, and tonight country music star Lee Brice hits the stage at 8:30. Meanwhile events in the 4H arena got underway yesterday with the swine and rabbit shows. Judges there raved not only the quality but the quantity of quality of the animals being shown. Ron Seymour UNL Extension educator for Adams County says it's something the county 4H program is proud of. Today the 4H shows will get underway at 8am with the sheep show going on at 8am, followed by the therapeutic horse show at 10am and the cat and small animal show at 2pm.
As per Federal Communications Commission Regulations following is certified: Platte River Radio Inc. does not discriminate in the sale of commercial time, and will not accept advertising which, in its sole opinion, is purchased with intent to discriminate unlawfully on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity. The advertiser hereby certifies that its purchase of commercial time is not made for an unlawful discriminatory purpose, including specifically that it is not based upon a decision to place advertising on a station on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity.


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Thursday, May 13, 2010
Calling out the Twi-moms
11 comments:
- Leila said...
We're going to have to fight for Foyle -- a little while back, I displayed the whole stack of DVDs on the circulation desk. The sign just had an arrow pointing to Michael Kitchen with a note that said, "My new boyfriend."
You wouldn't believe the number of patrons who came in and got all gushy. Oh, wait. Yes, you would. Because you would have been one of them.
Long story short, I also love him.
- 7:56 AM, May 13, 2010
- Roger Sutton said...
He's too old for you, Leila. Outta my way.
- 10:56 AM, May 13, 2010
- missprint said...
Isn't everyone Team DCS Foyle? It was a fine day when Masterpiece Mystery started showing a new season of Foyle's War.
- 5:51 PM, May 13, 2010
- bbqhuff said...
Dang! I thought I was the only one who thought of DCS Foyle as a heartthrob...Harruumph! Competition!
- 8:57 AM, May 15, 2010
Hey, we're team Honeysuckle Weeks here. I mean, Honeysuckle, how can you not love that?
- 12:09 PM, May 15, 2010
- gail said...
It was while watching Foyle's War that I realized I had reached an age at which I found men with receding hairlines attractive. I was quite shaken at the time. Now I must go tape this evening's Foyle.
- 8:47 PM, May 16, 2010
My mum and I are part of a similar phenomenon to the Twi-moms and their kids: we both love DCS Foyle. (And we think his son is rather dishy. And, like Anonymous, we'd love Honeysuckle Weeks for her name alone, even if she wasn't so jolly-hockeysticks charming.)
- 11:51 PM, May 16, 2010
- Moira Manion said...
From the article: "...this sense that's it's better to be young, and that you can and should stay young..."
I didn't know that staying young was a choice. Hmm. I wouldn't have taken it.
The "Twilight" popularity gives me the feminist creeps as it is, but this article about Twi-Moms has boggled my brain. I couldn't be even remotely interested in swooning for anyone too young to remember Watergate. (Working in a bookstore, I had a conversation with a theoretically young man in his twenties my coworkers were squeeing over, who had asked for a recommendation for his college history class reading. I suggested "All the President's Men." He asked what the book was about. "Watergate," I said. "Oh," he said, "yeah, Watergate. He was President." How could I cuddle with that?)
Give me Foyle, receding hairline, inscrutable pauses and all.
- 9:14 AM, May 17, 2010
Sorry, I meant "theoretically handsome young man." His youth was definitely real. His handsomeness seemed real enough to my younger coworkers
Oh, and I like the new font for your blog header, Mr. Sutton.
- 9:18 AM, May 17, 2010
- Roger Sutton said...
I'd like to read some PG slash fiction with Samantha Stewart and Chloe O'Brien.
- 9:56 AM, May 17, 2010
- gail said...
I would prefer a Samantha Stewart/Chloe O'Brien Deadliest Warrior episode.
- 10:50 AM, May 17, 2010


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CLEVELAND -- The Cavaliers won't risk losing Kyrie Irving for any more games. (See full story).
On Thursday, Cleveland coach Byron Scott said he will consider shutting down his All-Star point guard, who recently missed three games with a hyperextended right knee and said after Wednesday's comeback win over Utah that the injury was still bothering him.
"If Ky is hurting, I have no problem sitting him down," Scott said.
Playing his second straight game after resting for a week, Irving scored 20 points with 10 rebounds and seven assists as the Cavs overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter and beat the Jazz 104-101. Irving scored 11 points in the final 4:21, but after the game said his knee still wasn't 100 percent.
Gortat likely out for season
PHOENIX -- Phoenix Suns center Marcin Gortat probably is out for the rest of the season after spraining his foot during Wednesday night's loss to Toronto. (See full story).
The Suns say an MRI revealed a midfoot sprain to his right foot. Gortat will be sidelined three to four weeks, much of that time in a cast.
That timetable would mean Gortat might be back for a handful of games. But with the need for conditioning and the Suns out of playoff contention there is little urgency for a quick return.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - PS2 - Review
When one thinks of The Hulk, one does not suppose a being skipping lightly through a meadow, stopping to smell the flowers in a most dainty fashion. We are talking Bambi meets Godzilla here; a mean, green oversized destruction machine that only meets monsters bigger than itself, takes a licking, goes nuclear and ultimately always wins.
Hulk titles in the past have soft-peddled the destruction, giving levels to Bruce Banner racing about. Banner is still a part of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, but rarely is he seen, and the camera is fixed 99% of the time on The Hulk.
Radical Entertainment? Thank you. This is the way the Hulk is supposed to be. VU Games, this is a title to be proud of. With destructible environments, missions and side-missions, and a few collectibles thrown in, Ultimate Destruction turns the Hulk loose on the world – one which gives the green giant due fear and 'let's all run away' respect.
The game has a few stumbling points, some minor clipping problems that rarely pop up, and a challenge level that ramps up as you progress through the game – which is driven by the story and actually gives a reason for the destruction.
However, it should be noted that the game has a built-in threat meter. The more destruction Hulk lays down, the higher the meter goes until eventually there will be a major military response. Geesh, a guy can't even tear down a few buildings with his bare hands in peace anymore before some authority figure steps in.
But let's backtrack a bit, and talk about the storyline.
"I'm a big green time bomb, and I'm ticking."
Branson Military Base. A former NSA operative named Emil Blonsky has taken joint command of a military division bent on the destruction of the Hulk with Gen. Thaddeus Ross as sort of a co-commander. Blonsky has a profound hatred for all Gamma-irradiated creatures, and that puts The Hulk at the top of the list of his personal targets. When they destroy a cabin where Bruce Banner was trying to conduct experiments to quell the beast within, Blonsky spies in the ruins a container of bio-material. He grabs for it before it is destroyed and, as a result, he is flooded with a massive dose of Gamma radiation.
Ok, it may be predictable, but you just know that Blonsky is going to turn up as a variation of that which he hates the most.
Meanwhile, Bruce's friend, Dr. Samson has come up with a way to tap into Bruce's psyche and unleash the energies that turn Bruce into the Hulk. This, apparently, is a way to understand what triggers the change and learn to control or eradicate it. It is also a way to use the Hulk to acquire what is needed to build a machine to, perhaps, eradicate the Hulk from Banner.
(And we just know that is not going to work, but hey, give them props from continuing the underlying theme of all Hulk properties.)
Samson's little hideaway is a church, and the Hulk uses jump points to leap into the city and then back to the church. The church not only serves as a drop point for stolen items, but the Hulk can convert accrued smash points into new abilities at the store there.
Players can also find comic book covers (or icon representing them) scattered about and that translates into more cool stuff. There are a variety of power-ups and special attacks, and the Hulk will need them as the game progresses. Each step of the way he will be harangued by military helicopters, tanks, soldiers firing bazookas and other missiles. It is so nice to be able to rip a car in half and then wrap the sections around the fists for an impressive power boost. Those enhanced fists do wear out though.
Also, each time you destroy one of the humans, they emit a green glowing orb that helps restore life to the Hulk. And each time you return to the city, all that you destroyed has been restored, to some degree, meaning you can destroy it some more.
Because of his raw power and leaping ability, the Hulk is able to run up the side of buildings, jump from the upper reaches of the city and land with devastating force on the ground. The first time you land on a bus, and watch it disintegrate is truly a pleasurable moment.
The sound is spot on and the controls are very simple to use and grow accustomed to. About the only problems are the rare clipping problem and the camera that, again it is a rare thing, gets a bit hung up. The missions are a nice variety, from getting in to steal an item by breaking through barriers and snuffing the opposition, to a timed mission in which you have to accomplish a task (like early on when you must destroy the tanks trying to demolish a building) within the time limit.
Some of the side missions are a little on the young side, and lack a little creativity, but hey, you didn't play the game to record the fastest time on an obstacle course – the draw is the destruction, and that is here in spades.
While it may be a little simplistic in tone, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction makes up for it in just entertaining gameplay. This is a title that is fun because of what it presents, regardless of what it is missing.
Marvel fans in general, Hulk fans in particular, and all those craving a good PlayStation 2 comic-book adventure should definitely check this out.
Review Scoring Details for The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
The camera can be a little obstinate at times, but the game is very easy to pick up and learn to play. The developers made certain that the joy of this title is in playing the game, not mired in trying to learn how to play it. And the game does have a fair share of load times.
A few stumbles but jumping from the top of a tall building to land in the midst of several cars and watching the devastation that it causes is a ton of fun.
Solid audio supports the mood and style of the game.
Difficulty: Medium
The game has a couple of difficulty settings, but by the time you run into Blonsky's alter ego, you should have the tools for the ramped-up challenge.
The side quests are too simplistic and detract from the story, and the missions seem pretty short. The story is also somewhat predictable, but give Radical props from creating a Hulk game that is about the Hulk and does a very good job of representing his abilities.
Jumping, landing and destroying in raw, unabashed fashion – that is what the Incredible Hulk is and that is what is presented here. If you are a fan of the Incredible Hulk, you will be happy to know that a game has finally done him justice.