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In the previous tutorial, we looked at an Collection Classes in particular the List<T> classs and in this one we'll continue with the Dictionary.
- Found this tutorial by accident? Start with the first C# tutorial.
Lists Are Ok But...
In fact they are very good for indexing operations and adding items at the end. But if you want to search through them or add items in the middle, well not so good. If you need fast searching on a List you use one of the three BinarySearch Methods provided, oh and the list must be sorted of course.
That Binary search is O(Log n) where n is the number of elements. Don't know this notation? Here's a link to Wikipedia on Big O Notation.
O(1) is best; that's constant time for example deciding if an int number is odd or even. A bubble sort is O (n2) which is particularly bad. To find the smallest item in an unsorted array is O(n) because you have a loop that compares each item. If you have more items it takes proportionately longer.
A Dictionary provides almost O(1)
That is for retrieving a value from it's key. Behind the scenes it uses a hashmap and most keys (which must be unique) map to a unique location. When two keys collide (i.e. the hashes are identical), then the second or subsequent keys are stored nearby and extra key comparisons must be done. This is why a Dictionary is almost but not quite O(1).
There are several Dictionary Classes in the .NET framework. Remember though that any that aren't descended from Systems.Collections.Generic tend to be older. For instance the System.Collections.Specialized Namespace has the following Dictionary classes:
- HybridDictionary Class.
- OrderedDictionary Class and IOrderedDictionary interface.
- ListDictionary Class
- StringDictionary Class.
And in the Systems.Collections.Generic namespace there are:
- Dictionary Class.
- SortedDictionary Class.
You need a shelf for all those dictionaries! We'll just deal with the Dictionary class.
The concept of a Dictionary (also known as a Map or associative array in other programming languages) is that you have a collection of keys/value pairs. Each key has an associated value and keys are unique.
What is a Key?
It can be any type though strings are more common. A numeric key is possible but unless you have wide gaps between numbers, you might as well use an array for that. In the example code, I've used a String.
The value can be any type, though value types will be copied.
I've created an example program that manages half a million directory entries. A function GetUniqueKey() returns a string of the specified length. I used a 25 char key and a 100 char len string. Ten of the keys are randomly copied into a List called randomkeys. After the half million random values are stored the ten keys are retrieved.
This is the declaration for the Dictionary.
private static Dictionary intDict = new Dictionary(MaxItems);
This specifies an initial capacity MaxItems - there are several constructor overloads, you don't have to specify the capacity. If you add more items then it grabs more memory and grows. This is true of most collection classes.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
namespace exdict1
class Program
private const int MaxItems = 50000;
private static Dictionary< String,String> intDict = new
Dictionary<String,string>(MaxItems) ;
private static Random r = new Random() ;
// Note this is from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1344221/how-can-i-
public static string GetUniqueKey(int maxSize)
var chars
="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890".ToCharArray() ;
var data = new byte[maxSize];
var crypto = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider() ;
crypto.GetNonZeroBytes(data) ;
var result = new StringBuilder(maxSize) ;
foreach (var b in data)
[b % (chars.Length)]) ;
return result.ToString() ;
private static void Main(string[] args)
Console.WriteLine("Generating...") ;
var watch = new Stopwatch() ;
var randomkeys = new List<String>(10) ;
watch.Start() ;
for (var i = 0; i < MaxItems; i++)
var key =
GetUniqueKey(25) ;
var value =
GetUniqueKey(100) ;
value) ;
if (r.Next(100) == 1)
if (randomkeys.Count() < 10)
randomkeys.Add(key) ;
watch.Stop() ;
Console.WriteLine("Generated... in {0}",
watch.Elapsed.TotalSeconds) ;
watch.Reset() ;
watch.Start() ;
for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
var akey =
var value = intDict
("Key= {0} Value = {1}",akey,value) ;
Console.WriteLine("Fetched... in {0}",
watch.Elapsed.TotalSeconds) ;
watch.Stop() ;
Console.ReadKey() ;
In this example, I've just declared everything static rather than declaring the code in a class and creating an instance of it.
On my PC it takes 11.5 seconds to generate the half million strings and keys and 1.2 ms to retrieve the ten values. The ideone version only does it for 50,000 keys/values as 500,000 x 250 bytes is far too much for a webserver. In fact 50,000 was probably too much as well but it worked though this probably comes close to their definition of abuse!
The routine to generate the strings and keys came from a stackoverflow question and I've left the link in to the question as a comment in the source. It uses a cryptographically secure source to generate bytes which are indexed into a char array to generate the strings.That's basically all there is to a Dictionary. Build it up by adding values wih a key then later retrieve them. There's no persistence, i.e. you can't save the Dictionary to disk but Paul Welter has created a SerialilizableDictionary class that saves it out in XML.
In the next C# tutorial I'll look at comparison and sorting in Collection classes.
- For more things to do with C#, see How to Do Things in C#.
- Want to Learn LINQ with C#? Start with the first LINQ Tutorial

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ada —
Teri LaJeunesse
ECU Sports Information Director
STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS – The East Central University men's basketball team dropped its first game of the 2012-13 campaign to No. 17 Tarleton State, 62-72, in the final game of the Taco Bell Texan Tip-Off Classic at Wisdom Gym.
The Tigers (2-1) were led by junior Jason Williams, who tallied a career-best 11 points for his second-consecutive game with a double-digit point total. Williams also added a team-best six rebounds and was rewarded with all-tournament honors.
Juniors Colby Carr and Chris Fisher also added double-digit point totals, with 11 and 10 respectively.
"I told the team in the locker room that there is a way to win and a way to lose and tonight we lost battling to the very end and I am proud," said head coach Mac McConnell. "I knew we would not be undefeated this season and we have a long road ahead of us. We battled hard and we just need to learn from this and get ready for St. Gregory's."
ECU opened the game with a 5-0 run, with all five points coming from Fisher, in the first two minutes. The Texans (2-1) countered with a 5-0 run of their own to tie game with three minutes off the clock. The teams traded points for the next 6:30 before a missed free throw by the Tigers gave TSU an opening.
With just over 10 minutes left in the first stanza, the Texans took advantage of several fouls by ECU and went on a 7-0 run from free throws to take a 12-20 advantage. TSU added a 14-6 run until 2:30 remained on the clock to push the advantage to 18-34. The Tigers fought harder in the final minutes of the half and went into the locker room trailing 24-38.
ECU out-scored the Texans in the second half, 38-34, but the deficit was too much to overcome. The Texans lead by as many as 20 points in the second half, but the Tigers battled hard in the last 3:15 with a 13-3 run to finish the game trailing 62-72.
Fouls and rebounding were the keys to the game, with TSU earning clear advantages in both categories. The Tigers committed 32 fouls to the Texans 16 and were out-rebounded 27-36. The teams were pretty even in shooting percentage (45.1% to 48.8%), with ECU making three more shots and one more from beyond the arc. The Tigers hit 58.8% of their free throws and the Texans hit 61.4%, but the difference was in the number of attempts. TSU went 27-of-44 from the charity stripe and ECU was 10-of-17.
The Tigers will remain on the road for the final of three-straight road games, Tuesday, Nov. 20 at St. Gregory's at 8 p.m. The game will end the home-and-home series with the Cavaliers for the season, with ECU having earned a 73-54 win Nov. 10 at the Kerr Activities Center.
ECU Sports
ECU men can't overcome 17th-ranked Tarleton State
Ada —
Teri LaJeunesse
- ECU Sports
ECU men preparing to battle Arkansas team as well
After two weeks off for the holidays the East Central University men's basketball team will return to Wayne Cobb Court at the Kerr Activities Center to battle with Arkansas-Monticello, Thursday, Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Lady Tigers ready to take on Arkansas-Monticello
After two weeks off, the East Central University women's basketball team will return to Wayne Cobb Court at the Kerr Activities Center, Thursday, Jan. 3 for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off with Arkansas-Monticello. The game is the first of 2013 and two-straight in Ada.
ECU teams grab Monday wins
After leading by 23 in the second half, the East Central University women's basketball team battled through for a 70-65 win over Mid-America Christian Monday at the Gaulke Activity Center in non-conference action.
ECU inks star
East Central University Head Volleyball Coach Dave Thorn has announced the signing of Bria Gambrell to the 2013 edition of the Lady Tigers.
ECU's Bryant cited
East Central University football defensive end Armonty Bryant has picked up two post season honors after a standout senior season. Bryant was named to the 2012 AFCA Division II Coaches' All-America Team and The Oklahoman State College All-Star Football Team Defensive Player of the Year.
ECU names new director of athletics
East Central University is going within the family to hire its new director of athletics.
- ECU men can't overcome 17th-ranked Tarleton State
Video Highlights: ECU Football Saturday
ECU vs Southeastern at Norris Field Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012
Lady Tigers fall at TCU
The East Central University women's basketball team got its first taste of action for the 2012-13 season, in the form of a 91-59 loss to Texas Christian University in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
WOW U.S. flag comes to Ada
Woodmen of the World's 1,800 square foot United States flag will be in Ada at 2 p.m. Saturday for East Central University's Senior Day match with arch-rival Southeastern Oklahoma State.
- More ECU Sports Headlines
- ECU men preparing to battle Arkansas team as well


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text:
Mercy students have the opportunity to participate in a class retreat every year. The retreats, centered on the four pillars of our school: Knowledge, Faith, Service, and Mercy provide the students an opportunity to grow as a class and within their own individual faith lives.
Freshman Retreat: Knowledge of Self, Others, and God- Focuses on self-awareness and relationships with God and others.
Sophomore Retreat: Pathways of Faith- Focuses on our own personal faith journey; the beautiful moments, bumps in the road and the path ahead.
Junior Retreat: Compassionate Service- Focuses on our call to service others, and the role that service has within our faith. Students spend the morning participating in a class service project, followed by prayer and reflection.
Senior Fall Retreat: Blessed are the Mercy-full- Focuses on where the students are currently, the journey that formed them into the person they are today and what it means to become a Woman of Mercy!
Senior Spring Retreat: The senior class has a very special final retreat shortly before graduation where they reflect on their past four years, hear from former Mercy students about college life, and enter into their final exciting days as Mercy Girls with class prayer.
Kairos Retreat
Kairos is an optional four day retreat that is open to students during their Junior or Senior year.


text:
Penfolds was founded by a young English doctor who migrated to one of his country's most distant colonies over a century and a half ago. Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold was born in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, graduating in 1838.
In 1844 Dr Penfold and his wife Mary purchased the Mackgill estate, "comprising 500 acres of the choicest land." By all accounts it was Mary Penfold who was responsible for the management and early winemaking responsibilities of the fledgling wine estate. Initially the wines - made from grenache – were prescribed as tonic wines for anaemic patients and the famous Penfolds slogan '1844 to evermore' harks back to its origins as a prescribed tonic.
By 1870 the Grange vineyard comprised over 60 acres with several different grape varieties including grenache, verdelho, mataro (mourvèdre), frontignac and pedro ximenez. The estate was producing both sweet and dry red wine and white table wines, with a growing market in the eastern Australian colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. A catalogue from 1889 lists wines from the Grange and Magill vineyards as Mataro, Grenache, Constantia, Grange Port, Frontignac, Grange Tawny, Pedro Ximenes, Tokay, Madeira, Grange Sherry and Muscadine. The catalogue adds: "We have also light red and white dinner wines of claret and riesling types, suitable for use in Clubs."
Penfolds and Co. – the newly formed partnership of Mary Penfold and her son-in-law Thomas Hyland and her cellar manager Joseph Gillard – now claimed to be producing over one-third of South Australia's wine. Mary Penfold passed away in 1896 after a remarkable contribution to Australia's wine industry.
Fortified wine production dominated the industry throughout the first part of the 1900s and Penfolds gained a strong reputation for its fortified wines during the 1920s and '30s. Between the world wars the market for fine table wine in Australia was extremely limited. Penfolds did, however, produce an 'Italian Red' for Italian migrants working the cane fields of Queensland.
In 1943, Penfolds acquired the highly regarded and valuable Auldana Vineyard and winery – adjacent to the Magill vineyard. In 1945, Penfolds purchased the Kalimna Vineyard in the Barossa Valley – at this time the largest vineyard in South Australia. By the late 1940s Penfolds had acquired or planted vineyards in McLaren Vale, Griffith, the Hunter Valley and Minchinbury.
The wine market was changing rapidly by the late 1940s, as soldiers returned from the war and new immigrants settled in Australia. Max Schubert, then a young winemaker at Penfolds, returned to Europe after the war to investigate winemaking. The mission was to learn about sherry production, however a side trip to Bordeaux led to Schubert experimenting with a long-lived red wine that he called Grange.
Schubert looks back on the 1950s Grange years as exciting years of discovery, faith, doubt, and ultimately triumph. In contrast, the 1960s were a period of vindication and Grange stole a march on the rest of the Australian wine industry by setting an incomparable benchmark for longevity, concentration and balance.
In August of 1995, Robert Parker, the world's most influential wine critic, wrote in his self-published newsletter The Wine Advocate that Grange was "a leading candidate for the richest, most concentrated dry table wine on planet earth." The acceptance of Grange as a great Australian wine had proved that Australia is capable of producing wines equal to the best in the world.
By the early 1960s Max Schubert saw the creation of a dynasty of wines that may differ in character from year to year, but would all bear an unmistakable resemblance to each other. The backbone of Penfolds' emerging red wine portfolio – Bin 389, Bin 707, Bin 28 and Bin 128 – were all introduced during this time.
In 1976 the baton of Penfolds Chief Winemaker passed from Schubert to Don Ditter, who continued to contribute to and refine the house style. The remarkable reintroduction of Penfolds Bin 707 in 1976 illustrated Penfolds' commitment to a premium cabernet sauvignon and within just a few years would come to be recognised as one of Australia's leading wines.
John Duval ensured a smooth transition of winemaking philosophy when he took over as Penfolds Chief Winemaker in 1986. Refinement of house style continued and Duval's outstanding technical ability and instinctive nature are decisively illustrated in the profoundly opulent and beautifully balanced wines of the 1980s.
The 1990s was a period of intense winemaking trials. The 'White Grange' project saw the release of Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay. The barrage of media attention was extraordinary, illustrating Australia's national interest in the Penfolds brand. Red wine trials resulted in the release of Penfolds' first Barossa shiraz, RWT (Red Winemaking Trial).
In 2002 veteran oenologist Peter Gago became Chief Winemaker and since that time Penfolds has reached into every major wine market in the world. Stand-out releases have included two Special Bin Wines from the 2004 vintage, Block 42 and Bin 60A. 2010 saw the introduction of Penfolds' first Bin Pinot Noir. Taking its number from maturation cellar 23 at Magill Estate, Bin 23 Pinot Noir is a bold addition to the range. Penfolds wines are now widely celebrated for their diversity and quality across many price-points. The strength of Penfolds is that the wine comes first. Penfolds' range of table wines is utterly Australian, evoking a generosity of spirit and the beauty of the Australian landscape.


text:
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text:
Breed Standard
American and Purebred Miniature Saanen, Sables
The Mini-Saanen are
vigorous with rugged bones yet the does should be feminine and not coarse.
Mini-Saanens are white to cream with white being preferred. Spots on the skin
are not discriminated against while small spots of color in the hair are allowed
but not desirable. The face is straight or slightly dished. Roman noses are
not desirable and are discriminated against. The ears should be erect and
alertly carried, preferable pointing forward.
A Mini-Saanen that is
any other color except solid white or solid light cream will have the
registration numbers beginning with XSS, AMSS or PSS designating them as a sable
colored Mini-Saanen.
height: Does 28" Bucks 29"
Evaluation of
Serious Defects
Dark cream color
Several small
dark spots in hair.
Examples of defects:
Photos needed
Copyright @ 2010 --
Miniature Dairy Goat Association


text:
Clarks Un.cedarSKU: #7992931
Product Information
- Add a casual mary jane look to your wardrobe with the Un.cedar from Clarks®.
- Premium leather upper with a hook-and-loop closure for easy on-and-off wear.
- Contrast stitching detail with a large button accent for much added visual appeal.
- Lambskin lining ensures an abrasion-free environment for all-day wear.
- OrthoLite® removable footbed massages the foot with each and every step.
- Rubber outsole provides traction and durability.
- Measurements:
- Heel Height: 1 1⁄4 in
- Weight: 8 oz
- Product measurements were taken using size 9, width B - Medium. Please note that measurements may vary by size.


text:
Finy Fichera
From Openwaterpedia
Finy Fichera from Taormina, Italy is a Sicilian masters swimmer who completed a double-crossing of the Strait of Messina in Sicily, Italy at the age of 82 in 2 hours 46 minutes in 2010. In 2008, Fichera completed a single crossing from Sicily to mainland Italy across the Strait of Messina. He was escorted by pilot Giovanni Arena and was nominated for the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year.
Fichera won the 800m freestyle at the Italian Masters Championships and participated in the Goteborg's World Masters Swimming Championships. He has one eye which makes open-water swiming a real challenge.


text:
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- Israel Bombs Gaza Back to the Stone Age … as Collective Punishment
- How would arrests of US/UK/Israel 'leaders' to end lie-began Wars of Aggression actually go down?
- First Examination of Malaysian MH-17 Cockpit Photo Shows Ukrainian Government Shot that Plane Down
- We Can Stop Listening to Hypocrites and Liars
- Israel Bombs Another UN School – Killing Women and Children – Despite UN Telling Israel 17 Times that the School Sheltered Civilians
- The Fed's Failure Complicates Its Endgame
- Polls Show Mutual Hostility Soars Between Russians and Americans
- On August 9 in DC: An Evening for a World Beyond War
- Top Financial Experts Say World War 3 Is Coming … Unless We Stop It
- Lancet Medical Journal Denounces Israel's Aggression, Targeting of Children, and Attempts to Kill Gaza – Seven Quotes
- American Intelligence Officers Who Battled the Soviet Union for Decades Slam the Flimsy "Intelligence" Against Russia
- Obama's Presidency Hangs by a Thread in Ukraine
- West Coast of North America to Be Hit Hard by Fukushima Radiation (179,488 views)
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text:
- Exclusive Author
- Has been a member for 2-3 years
- Pakistan
Limitz says
Hello Everyone,
I am creating a new PSD Template but don't know exactly which font would work… Can you please tell me some awesome Fonts that you use?
Thanks in Advance!
- Europe
- Has been a member for 1-2 years
Cara_design says
Its hard without seeing the design to know what could work
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- Exclusive Author
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- Sold between 1 and 100 dollars
- United Kingdom
brianpirouet says
Post up the design and we could possibly find one that would go nice with your theme.


text:
When Mayor Tom Perciak on Pearl Road last week, he said the project did not just create a wider roadway.
It turned a key to future prosperity.
"This opens up 500 acres of industrial land for development," Perciak said. "That's why the completion of Pearl Road was so important to us."
The easier access gives the city a better shot at developing the industrial park property -- land that could bring dozens of new manufacturing plants to town, along with hundreds of jobs.
The land is located off Foltz Industrial Park, just south of the city's bustling manufacturing and warehouse district.
Interest is already strong, the mayor said.
"As soon as it looked like , the calls started coming in about vacant pieces of land," Perciak said, with callers asking about zoning and development. "I don't know how many times we've answered these questions in the last few months."
The city owns 169 acres of the land, with the other acreage privately held.
Economic Development Director Brent Painter said company owners look carefully at access to major roads and freeways when locating their companies, and the two-lane Pearl was preventing new development off Foltz.
Many people leave the industrial park on Drake and use Pearl Road to access I-71 north or south, he said.
"This opens up access to freeways," Painter said. "It will really help us market the property."
The recently completed project widened Pearl Road from the post office to a point south of Drake Road.
The city has already started engineering work on the second phase of the widening, which will widen the road up Stoney Hill to Boston Road.


text:
Stephen Smith is not afraid of big tasks or daunting odds. He seems to relish the role of underdog, a David who, as quick as he gets a lick in on Goliath, goes looking for another giant to rock.
In the late '80s he took on the United States Department of Energy over the manufacture of nuclear armaments and the toxic pollution that results. Some, including people on the other side of the issue, credit him with making a lasting difference in the nuclear-environmental debate, not only in East Tennessee but nationally.
His next opponent was the Tennessee Valley Authority, the country's largest utility. He fought them over nuclear power and conservation policies, and his efforts have been met with increased citizen input into advance planning at the federal agency.
For years, he's been fighting that intractable human trait, cruelty to animals, most recently as a veterinarian at the Knox County Humane Society.
But for all the visibility his activism has brought him on the news pages of East Tennessee, Smith's most recent challenge to a giant has garnered him precious little attention.
He is taking on U.S. Rep. John Duncan Jr. for the Second District congressional seat that has been virtually a Duncan family heirloom for over three decades.
That challenge may be the most daunting the Nashville native has taken on in his 34 years of life. He'll not only have to defeat the popular conservative lawmaker as a Democrat in one of the country's most Republican districts--going up against a Duncan-centered power structure that is deeply embedded in Knoxville's civic life--but he's also trying to make the race from within a local Democratic establishment that is (a) not sure he's their man, and (b) despairing that any Democrat can win the seat.
As a man with a public history of involvement on important issues, Smith is the first serious candidate to take on Duncan in several years. And to a large extent, the story of Stephen Smith's candidacy is also the story of his causes.
Mr. Smith wants to go to Washington
Stephen Smith made his first appearance on the East Tennessee stage in 1988, when he entered the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. He had grown up in Green Hills, a well-to-do community in Nashville where his father was a cardiologist at Vanderbilt University Hospital.
"I grew up," he says, "in a family that was well off, but I was always aware of people struggling and not getting by."
He quickly established himself as one of the area's most passionate and articulate environmental advocates, and he has made his reputation as a leader with a string of activist groups: OREPA (the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance), TVERC (the Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition, in which he serves as executive director), and FGS (the Foundation for Global Sustainability).
Now Smith wants to turn from his outsider role as critic because, he says, of his concerns about where the country is headed under its current leadership, especially after the victories of conservative Republicans in the 1994 election.
"I asked myself the question: What would be the most important thing that I could be doing?" Smith says. "There's nothing else I could think of that's more important than turning back the radical right and gaining some sense of sanity in Washington."
The growth of an activist
Smith's move toward activism started while he was an undergraduate at Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro in the late '80s. He worked with the local humane society there, and also joined the Bridge Alliance, a group opposing a PCB processing plant near Henderson, Ky.
No sooner did he arrive in East Tennessee than he co-founded, with Ralph Hutchison, a group that opposed the manufacture of nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge and the attendant pollution the plants brought. OREPA soon became one of DOE's most persistent critics, and Smith and Hutchison led various protests, including annual Hiroshima Day gatherings.
"It was not pleasant going to work and having all those organizations criticizing us," remembers James T. Alexander, who retired a couple of years ago as the head of DOE's public information office in Oak Ridge. "They were tough. It was not very comfortable. We were put on the hot seat."
But Alexander developed a high degree of respect for Smith and Hutchison, and now feels that the attention they forced on Oak Ridge environmental issues put the local office way ahead of other DOE facilities across the country.
"Steve was a very sharp individual who always did his homework, a very quick study, a bright individual," Alexander says. "I credit the kind of scrutiny that Steve and OREPA placed on us with preparing us for the future. Only through that scrutiny did dollars come to Oak Ridge for cleanup."
The group would pore over governmental documents and question conflicting statements in phone calls or at press conferences. Smith and Hutchison became so well-versed in the environmental issues that they would take visiting journalists on their own tours, visiting the accessible parts of the DOE reservation.
"Sometimes the events would be heavy in emotion, reflecting the intensity of their cause," Alexander reflects. "But if everyone had done their homework and study like that. . . ."
From Oak Ridge, it was but a hop, skip, and an activist jump to TVA. Smith became a board member of TVERC in 1992, and in 1993 became its executive director. His attention to nuclear matters did not waver, and under his leadership TVERC became one of the agency's most outspoken critics, especially on the Watts Bar nuclear plant, which had been under construction for two decades.
When Craven Crowell became TVA board chairman and began to seek public involvement in planning for TVA's future, Smith became TVERC's representative on the review group that critiqued that process. Some of the TVA people who worked with Smith on the agency's Integrated Resource Plan remember him as diligent and sharp.
"He was very thoughtful and worked real hard," says one TVA staffer. "He read everything we sent, and we sent tons of paper. Toward the end of the process we were quite frankly struggling to come up with a good solution. Stephen and a few others pulled into a subgroup working with TVA staff and came up with excellent solutions to what we were trying to do."
Smith's activism almost damaged his cause as he worked on the TVA document. As the review process neared its completion, Earth First, a radical environmental group, staged a protest at the Watts Bar nuclear plant, trespassing and vandalizing government property. Though Smith was not arrested during the protests, he was nabbed when he went to see protesters who were being held at the Rhea County jail. TVA investigators later linked him through phone records to the people staging the protests.
"He erred in judgment in participating in the Watts Bar protests," says a TVA staffer. "It hurt his credibility inside TVA and with some of the people in the group. There were real strong opinions about whether he should continue in the review process, but management ultimately decided to allow it."
Not everyone remembers Smith's interactions with TVA so positively. John Waters Jr., former TVA board member and chairman, recalls not being so impressed with Smith and other activists.
"My general impression was that they are very anti-nuclear people," he says. "They were very careless with the facts. That organization said people were dying as a result of nuclear power, but there's no record to prove that."
TVA staffers still talk about one especially intense meeting when both Waters' and Smith's tempers flared into a yelling match. "It was ugly," one says.
Waters, one of the region's leading Republicans, admits to a bias in assessing Smith's campaign. "It's difficult to be objective. John Duncan has done a fantastic job. He's more than proven himself outstanding, beyond what his father did."
Taking it to the voters
A group of mostly African American seniors has finished their supper at the Martin Luther King Center in Alcoa. They settle back to hear a selection of candidates, including Smith.
The challenger's points are simple and most sound like the issues common in races across the country:
* Protecting senior citizens from cuts in Medicare and Medicaid that would also provide tax cuts for the wealthy. "I'm not rich enough to vote Republican, and you're probably not either."
* "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work." Smith says he deplores trends indicating that while productivity has gone up for American businesses, the majority of working people have not shared in the resulting profits.
* Promoting education and research in the Tennessee Valley, linking federal agencies, universities and schools in cooperative ventures.
* Environmental protection, especially for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here the challenger feels that his environmental activism clearly distinguishes him from the pro-business congressman. "You can't push environmental protection back on the states. You can't tell each state to do its own thing. There must be a coordinated effort, and the best group to do that is the federal government."
For a man who has spent much of his adult life protesting government policies, he comes across as very supportive of federalism.
"You'll never hear this from Jimmy Duncan, but the federal government has been good to East Tennessee," Smith elaborates later. "We have Oak Ridge, the national park, TVA, the national forests. . . . As taxpayers we get more from the federal government than we pay in."
"It's high time we spoke the truth. We're fortunate that people had the foresight to make investments in East Tennessee. We're still reaping the benefits. It's supremely ironic to have an incumbent trying to cut back on federal programs when our region is so dependent on them."
"Congress is sick as a dog..."
Smith often uses a slogan as an ice-breaker when he's introduced to potential voters. "Congress is sick as a dog. We need to send a vet to Washington."
As involved in causes as Smith has been, it's easy to forget that he actually completed his veterinary degree at UT and is now practicing. After two years with an animal hospital in Newport, he now is the consulting veterinarian for the Knox County Humane Society, a part-time job he's held since 1994. He supervises the medical care of some 15,000 animals the society takes in every year.
One recent Thursday morning finds him at work at the society's headquarters deep in the back reaches of Vestal. With the society's director, Vicki Crosetti, Smith is inspecting some of the animals belonging to a well-known "collector" whose animals have been seized by the city because they are neglected.
A red dog, more Pekingese than not, has what Smith calls "cherry eye." The dog is stiff as the doctor begins his inspection, but as Smith gently cleans infection from its eyes, it relaxes a little. He drops a fluorescent yellow dye into its right eye, which has an ulcer on the cornea itself.
"This will let us see how deep the ulcer goes," he explains. He talks to the dog softly as he flushes the shining drops out of the eye, and its tail begins to wag.
Another dog of similar parentage is brought out limping on a right forepaw.
"This leg has been broken some time ago and has healed without medical care," he says after palpating the floppy paw. "In fact, the broken bone didn't knit back together, and now the bone in the foot is no longer attached to the leg."
"Will we need to amputate it?" Crosetti wants to know.
"No, the dog's adjusted and is making some use of the leg," Smith says.
The morning continues with inspections of other animals seized from the collector as Smith pursues the concern for animals that first sparked his activism.
"I've never been a vet full-time. Helping animals in a clinic is one part, but I soon found that working to protect their habitat is another large piece of it," he says.
The "send a vet to Washington" joke is a humorous hint at Smith's fifth plank--campaign reform. He supports term limits and wants campaign financing reformed. He proposes a plan that would make television stations offer free or low-cost TV time to candidates as a return for the stations' access to the public airways.
"Republicans don't have a patent on term limits," he says, pointing to what he calls the Duncan dynasty, the 30-plus-year-total that Duncans senior and junior have represented the Second District. "Democracy, not dynasty," is one of his rallying cries.
For all that, he does not categorically reject support from political action committees, though he has not yet received PAC money. His donations have generally been small and from individuals, and workers say privately that the campaign coffers are shallow.
"I don't like PACs," he says, "but I don't like it more that we've got an important message to get out and I'm afraid it's not going to get out."
Smith candidly admits that he's not expecting much support from the Democratic Party nationally, since the accepted wisdom among Democrats and Republicans alike is that beating Duncan is, at best, a long shot.
Looking for weaknesses
Smith pins his election hopes on his analysis of Duncan's strengths and weaknesses. He praises Duncan for personal services to the people of the district.
"So many people have had an interaction with him," Smith says. "His staff has helped many get passports or social security checks. People feel almost indebted to him. I give him credit for constituent services."
Duncan's weakness, in Smith's judgment, is in representing the real interests of the people. In every talk he points to zeroes the congressman has earned on scorecards published by environmental and senior citizens groups. (To be fair, Duncan also rates 100s with Christian and conservative groups). But Smith makes the biggest distinction between himself and his opponent by contrasting their vision.
"No one has heard a vision of East Tennessee from Jimmy Duncan," the challenger says.
His own vision for the region revolves around what he calls "the three E's--energy, environment and economics."
"With the infrastructure that's in place, we could advance technologies in energy and environment that would let East Tennessee define itself for advanced energy-efficiency technologies," he says. He envisions a technology corridor that would include agencies in Chattanooga, Oak Ridge and Knoxville in cooperative research and development agreements on energy efficient, environmentally responsible technologies.
"There's a gold mine here," he says. "With TVA as a living laboratory, we could catapult the developing world over a lot of the mistakes we made."
Young David's Achilles heel
Smith has already had a sample of how vicious the campaign could get. As he answered questions on a call-in show on WUOT-FM, one caller accused him of failing to pay child support for his two children, who live with his ex-wife in Nashville.
The reference to child support angered his ex-wife, Rhonda Smith, when she heard about the exchange later.
"It bothered me when he was called a deadbeat dad. I wouldn't want anyone to think that," Rhonda Smith said. "He pays his child support. We had a disagreement at one point. Whoever said that didn't finish reading the case; they took bits and pieces out of the [legal] papers." The dispute apparently involved whether the support payments would include money for private schooling.
Rhonda Smith lives in Nashville now with the couple's two sons, Andy, 13, and Taylor, 10, and works in animal care. She says Stephen is always with his children on his weekends and every other chance he gets. "It's hard for him not to be with his children."
Rhonda Smith is more than willing to talk about Stephen, whom she met when they were 15 at Hillsboro High School in Nashville. They married at 20 and divorced about three years ago. She reflects for a moment on Smith's motivations: "He's not doing this [running] for personal ambition at all. Steve has never been one who's money-seeking. When we lived in Knoxville, we didn't have a lot. We grew our own food, kept a compost pile, and managed to take care of our kids and our animals."
Would she vote for her ex?
"Yes, I would."
The ambush on WUOT may have been more an effort to trigger Smith's temper than to spread untruths about him. Both Republican and Democratic insiders perceive him as quick to anger, even petulant, in the words of one observer.
Early in the campaign, in a call to Hallerin Hill's talk show on WIVK-AM, 990, Smith lost his temper on the air as he sparred with Hill and political commentator George Korda on TVA. Democrats listening were disturbed that he seemed to lose his composure.
"What he says is passion comes across like he's angry or spoiled," one observed. "If George Korda can get your goat. . . . "
Republican insiders say the Duncan campaign isn't very worried about Smith. "He's not even a blip" in early polling, one claims. "He hasn't been here long enough."
Lobbyist and former newspaper editor Ron McMahan is characteristically more outspoken. "I don't think he has a chance in hell--in no shape, form, or fashion. Any poll that I have looked at shows Duncan is 20 points ahead of everybody, including Victor Ashe. Duncan is ahead of [Sen. Fred] Thompson."
McMahan, a pillar of Howard Baker Republicanism, estimates Smith would have to raise three quarters of a million dollars just to get his name known and, he says, "that might not be enough to make a race of it." McMahan doesn't expect the Duncan camp to come after the challenger.
Old-line Democrats have advised him to focus his message on Duncan's record and not confuse this race with his earlier causes.
"Jimmy Duncan is on the ballot, not TVA," says one long-time Democrat. "He [Smith] has got to remember he's not running against TVA. He's already got the green vote and the anti-Duncan vote. In order to get elected, he's got to look to the people he has to have."
His current campaign shows that Smith has taken some of that message to heart. When he talks to groups now, environmental issues take a back seat to concerns about health care, wages and education. He's proving to be just as quick a study in the nuances of campaigning as he was in nuclear issues and energy policy. Early in the campaign he tried an informal look, with turtle-necks instead of the traditional suit-and-tie look. One older woman gave him some motherly advice, telling him the turtle-necks weren't appropriate for the campaign trail.
"Now he's actually wearing suits and stuff," says a Democratic woman from Oak Ridge.
Supporters and campaign workers still complain that he tries to crowd too much into his day. "He's punctuality-impaired," one observes, and others note that, as he attempts to get in just one more stop, he's habitually late for evening coffees and campaign events like his Fourth of July fund-raiser at the Foundry in Knoxville.
Smith expects Republicans to go into attack mode later in the campaign, especially on the issue of his arrests. He's been arrested during various protests, including the Watts Bar protest and one in then-senator Al Gore's Washington office right before the Persian Gulf War.
"I disagreed with Sen. Gore about the use of force in the Persian Gulf," he explains. "I was arrested in Al Gore's office the day after the vote to use force. Al was the swing in a tight vote. My opposition to the war was in no way against the men and women in the service."
As Smith takes on Duncan and the district's GOP political structure, he does so virtually single-handedly. Early on he rejected professional fund-raisers and campaign managers, and people inside his organization say he has no close personal advisers. He admits as much himself: "I don't have a circle of friends that I consider to be my advisers. I look at the issues myself, and no one person has a lot of influence on me. I have a tendency to want to talk to a lot of different people."
That solitariness worries some of the old-line Democrats, who don't see any critics in his own camp to help him make judgments. They sense that he doesn't take advice well, that he won't listen to criticisms meant to help him hone his campaign.
"Steve is a determined person with a broad vision of what ought to happen in the Tennessee Valley," Smith's fellow activist Ralph Hutchison says. "He's able to articulate that very well. But because he is driven, he moves fast. One of the challenges of leadership is to continue to move fast but go slowly enough for people to get on board.
"Sometimes our greatest strengths are also potential weaknesses. Because of the depths of his beliefs and his passion for the issues, he comes on really strong. That's a great strength, but it also sometimes scares people.
That passion is evident in the campaign Smith is waging. Though he is realistic about the challenge he is facing, he is confident of the outcome.
"We're not going to lose," Stephen Smith says. "We may not get as many votes as he does, but we're not going to lose.
© 1996 MetroPulse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Symbiosis. That word has always been one of my favorites because it gives a picture of people or entities working together in a manner that benefits both parties.
I like that idea, and it's certainly the central feature of the State University College at Oneonta's Music Industry internship program. Students learn how the music business works by serving internships, and the music business gains highly motivated, well-educated trainees who may become useful employees at the end of the internship.
Our students serve internships throughout New York state, and some serve internships in other parts of the country and the world.
The music department supports its student interns by sending faculty to visit the students who serve internships within a four-state area.
Internship sites are impressed and gratified by visits from faculty, saying that they value the interaction with faculty and students. An additional benefit for the college and the students is that faculty who visit internships are able to gather up-to-date information about the music industry by speaking with industry executives during the visit.
This enables SUNY Oneonta music industry professors to combine "real world" information with classroom theory.
During recent internship visits, I asked our students how their new music industry knowledge might help Oneonta's young musicians and performance venues.
Brianne Galli, a music industry major, is serving an internship in New York City at ASCAP and another internship at CMJ (College Music Journal) as she seeks opportunities to build a career in music journalism, public relations and marketing.
I asked her, "How can young people in Oneonta get into the music business and build careers as musicians?"
She said, "I've learned a lot about promoting bands through my work at ASCAP and CMJ. I'd advise bands to make their information easily available to music writers and publicists. Bands should have their own up-to-date websites and material on MySpace and Twitter. When I do research on bands, sometimes I can only find press releases on websites. Fans want to read personal statements and news about a band, not just a press release. Bands need to be willing to talk to anybody about their music and their lives. They have to be easy to interview, and when they do live shows, they need to make a strong connection with the audience."
She said, "When I was in Oneonta, I tried to support good bands by attending their concerts at the Clinton Pub, the Black Oak Tavern and other venues where good live music was being presented. After professional experience at both my internships, I've learned that bands need to work with venues to increase audience size and loyalty. The venues can help by paying for some of the advertising, and the band can help by using their online presence to bring in audiences."
I also visited SUNY Oneonta student Dakotah McKanic-Berman at her internship at the successful public relations firm Ariel Publicity in Brooklyn.
Dakotah showed me some of her work with online "street teams" who support artists and build their fanbase throughout the world.
Dakotah agreed with Brianne's suggestions, saying that Oneonta musicians should continue to increase their online audiences and work in partnership with Oneonta performance venues and clubs to attract new audience members.
Dakotah's internship supervisors explained that Ariel artists are encouraged to use online services such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace, and to build and continually update their artist websites.
Ariel Publicity executives showed me the comprehensive checklist they use with artists whom they represent, including work with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, Rootsmusic, ReverbNation, Podsafe Music Network and Delicious.
Ariel Publicity asks artists for MP3s and artist images, as well as Internet and radio station IDs, and encourages bands to reach out to fans by sharing their thoughts and music.
Music is a basic necessity for most people throughout the world because it "speaks" to people about important beliefs. My visits to ASCAP, CMJ and Ariel Publicity reminded me of the most important building blocks of the music business. Audiences will grow for bands that produce affordable and accessible high quality music. It's a lot of work, but it's the way for musicians to build a rock-solid fan base. Oneonta bands and venues who work together as a team are finding success by helping each other.
Dr. Janet Nepkie is a member of the music industry faculty in the music department of the State University College at Oneonta. Her columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/musicbeat.
Music Beat
Music industry interns talk about the Oneonta music scene
Symbiosis. That word has always been one of my favorites because it gives a picture of people or entities working together in a manner that benefits both parties.
- Music Beat
Oneonta student looks to take music industry training in different direction
At a recent concert reception in New York City, I was surprised to meet people who had imminent plans to move to the Otsego-Delaware county area. They explained that our area is so rich in musical and graphic arts that they knew they would enjoy living here.
Music Industry Tips
Complete education involves classroom, real-world learning
There is new, long overdue attention being paid in our institutions of higher education to the use of directed practical experience as an essential partner to the classroom lecture.
Music Industry tips
Copyright royalties can make you smile
A few years ago, I wrote an article on the skill and dedication necessary to become a songwriter.
Music Industry Tips
Build a team to build a career
People love music because music is that magical means of communication that never fails. The music industry is going through some rough times, but it is not going to die because music is a basic, central need in everyone's life.
Music Industry Tips about Percentage and Commission Agreements
Hairstylist finds balance through playing cello
Catch 22 is a successful American ska/punk band that has released several albums and has a record deal with the Chicago-based label, Victory Records. Although the band has its roots in New Jersey, founding member Ryan Eldred has friends with whom he produces recordings in Walton During one of Eldred's visits to Walton, he met Ann Jones, a home-schooled native of Walton, an enthusiastic cellist and successful professional hairstylist.
Music Industry Tips
Here are some of Ann Jones' guiding principles:
Do everything you can to show your support of all arts
Last week, a small woman of modest demeanor and appearance walked quietly on stage at the Glimmerglass Festival Theatre and seemed pleased but genuinely surprised when the standing room only audience rose spontaneously to its feet, expressing their respect with thunderous applause.
Many things go into choosing, protecting a band's name
Musicians who are trying to build the popularity of their band have an almost unending list of responsibilities. They need to keep their musical skills strong, take care of musical equipment, and if they are really thinking about a future career, they should also write their own music.
Music Industry Tips About Professional Musicians
Musicians know that every performance they play is an audition for their next engagement.
Practice really does make perfect for professionals
Shortly after I was hired at the age of 25 to work in the Music Department at State University College at Oneonta, I played a concert for members of this community. At the end of the concert, a young audience member said to me, "How many years have you been playing the cello and do you still have to practice?�
Stepping on the flag, and other memories
If we are to be defined all our lives by our high school mascots, then I suppose I am a Viking. But I'm also a Panther, having transferred schools after my freshman year.
From SUNY Oneonta to CBS Sports
Some people say the music business is failing, but I don't agree with that point of view. Neither does Joseph Miller.
12 Music Industry Tips from Joseph Miller
Figuring who owns a 1978 recording can be complicated
For most of us, the start of a new year is a time for reflection on the past and planning for the future. For the music industry, this new year of 2013 provides a dramatic scenario that may change the fortunes of some of the most famous recording artists and record companies in the world.
Music Industry Tips
Music Industry Tips from Nathanial Roberts
- Oneonta student looks to take music industry training in different direction


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Dragon Age III /
Dragon Age 3 is "Stunningly Beautiful", Says Dev
BioWare's artists are feeling optimistic after trying out DICE's Frostbite 2 engine.
Dragon Age III: Inquisition is shaping up to be a visual feast thanks to the new Frostbite 2 engine, according to BioWare's Neil Thompson.
Speaking to OXM, Thompson revealed that the game's artists have been left disappointed in the past over how their visions were realised using BioWare's own Eclipse engine, but were now feeling very positive.
"Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 were both done using BioWare's own Eclipse engine, and it was starting to creak a little bit when Dragon Age 2 came out," Thompson admitted. "Inquisition is being done on the Frostbite 2 engine and it is an astonishingly powerful engine."
He continued, "The Dragon Age artists were always slightly disappointed at how their work was visualised in the final product with Eclipse, but with Frostbite, they've just done some amazing stuff.
"There was a pre-production period where almost on a weekly basis I'd be sitting in the environment reviews and being blown away by what was coming out - it looks stunningly beautiful. So I think when we do start releasing screenshots, people won't be disappointed."
He concluded by saying that the team were trying something different to make the game stand out from the "subdued colour palette" of other fantasy games, pondering "Can you make fantasy beautiful in a different way? We think we have something special forDragon Age III: Inquisition."
Seeing as Dragon Age II came under heavy fire for its reuse of environments and textures, supposedly in a bid to cram more content into the game, we're pretty sure this is a good move.
Not much is known about the next entry in the Dragon Age franchise, though it's possible we've already been shown one screenshot. It's also all but confirmed that the game will be heading to next-gen consoles and targeting a 2014 release.


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After debate this year about sidewalk priorities, Hopkins started putting together a comprehensive sidewalk plan that will guide future development.
The Zoning and Planning Commission kicked off the process last month by identifying corridors most in need of sidewalks and other complete-streets features. will discuss ideas with the Park Board in July. Hopkins will then host three public meetings in August and September before bringing a draft to back to Zoning and Planning, the Park Board and the City Council for final approval in September and October.
Hopkins will welcome public input throughout the process. But with the planning just getting started, Bradford sat down with Hopkins Patch to discuss some of the ideas under consideration.
1. Blake Road North
- Importance: Hopkins' focus on Blake Road improvements stretches beyond sidewalks. It is a historically troubled area that has lagged behind the city's more-marketed locations, such as the downtown. It is also a heavily trafficked area with a mix of residential and commercial properties and the first glimpse travelers from the east get of Hopkins. A planned Blake Road light rail station will make the corridor's image and accessibility even more important.
- Current problems: The street is uninviting to passers-by. Pedestrian crossings are spaced far apart. Crossing the wide road can be intimidating to slower walkers. Multiple, unaligned driveways also make it confusing for drivers trying to turn onto Blake Road.
- Possibilities: Planners took the first steps toward making Blake Road a complete street when they built a sidewalk on the east side of the road a year or two ago. Residents had previously relied on a dirt path to walk up and down the corridor. The city will next pursue lighting upgrades and additional green features. It could also seek to transform the current shared turn lane into a median with separated turn lanes. This would reduce the width of the road's center and allow pedestrian refuges that make it easier for slower walkers to cross. Over time, the city could also work with property owners to re-align driveways into a less-confusing pattern.
- Upgrade challenges: Blake Road is a county road, so all improvements must be done through the county—although the county board has passed its own complete streets policy. The road also faces a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Street improvements will help attract the most coveted types of development, but the community needs the resources and interest of that development to support the street improvement.
2. Blake Road South
- Importance: Blake Road's southern portion is an important vehicle and bicycle thoroughfare, but it has much less pedestrian demand than the northern part. Already planned sidewalk improvements to Excelsior Boulevard will link to safe paths through east-side neighborhoods.
- Current problems: Very few, especially considering plans already in the offing.
- Possibilities: Possibly adding a bike lane.
- Upgrade challenges: Very few.
3. Oakridge Road
- Importance: Oakridge Road offers an obvious way to connect cyclists on the north side of town to the Fifth Avenue trail and on to the regional trails. An upgrade would also be cheap because it requires only a painted bike lane.
- Current problems: Oakridge Road is more of an opportunity to further complete a trail network than a true problem.
- Possibilities: A painted bike lane.
- Upgrade challenges: Hopkins and Minnetonka would need to work together to make the most of the bike lane.
4. Second Street North
- Importance: A path between 12th Avenue and Burnes Park would allow cyclists and runners to enter the city on the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail, get onto Second Street at Maetzold Field and then travel over to North Cedar Lake Regional Trail via Burnes Park and Minnetonka Mills Road trails.
- Current problems: Second Street is another example of an opportunity to complete the city's trail network.
- Possibilities: Adding a trail from Maetzold Field to Burnes Park.
- Upgrade challenges: Very few.
5. Eighth Avenue
- Importance: This is perhaps the most critical part of Hopkins' complete streets discussion because planners envision Eighth Avenue as a "pedestrian seductive" corridor enticing light-rail riders into the downtown. An extension to the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail near First Street would also linkers runners and cyclists to Cedar Lake Regional Trail in the south.
- Current problems: As it stands now, riders getting off the light rail face what Bradford calls a "sea of asphalt" that does little to clue them in on downtown amenities. Excelsior is also an imposing road to cross, particularly for slow walkers.
- Possibilities: A developer has at the old Park Nicollet site that will take the avenue one step toward the city's vision. The Johnson Building site at Excelsior and Eighth offer a similar possibility for the type of mixed-use development that attracts a variety of users. The city will also work to make Excelsior feel safer and more inviting, in part by enhancing the median.
- Upgrade challenges: Eighth Avenue is a good example of how complete streets isn't just about sidewalks. Planners must find a balance between various competing interests—motorists, store owners, cyclists and pedestrians. For example, motorists require parking. But parking takes away space for sidewalks, bike lanes and outside eating or shopping areas.
6. Fourth Street North
- Importance: Fourth Street is a natural route for students walking to Alice Smith Elementary. The on 17th Avenue will also attracts residents wanting to shop at the planned businesses there.
- Current problems: Fourth Street has a dearth of sidewalks.
- Possibilities: The installation of a sidewalk.
- Upgrade challenges: The street has what Bradford calls "significant engineering challenges." City rights-of-way pass close to the homes that line the road. Sidewalks are , who often object to the perceived loss of yard space and extra walking traffic. The closer the sidewalk is to homes, the tougher that sell becomes.
7. First Street North
- Importance: When workers upgrade Shady Oak Road, First Street is scheduled to become a cul-de-sac where the two roads meet. This will make it a safer, more attractive way for walkers and cyclists to access Shady Oak's new complete streets amenities. It will also offer better access to popular Maetzold Field.
- Current problems: Yet another example of an opportunity to complete the city's trail network, as well as a chance to take advantage of a planned road project.
- Possibilities: Adding a sidewalk between Maetzold Field and Shady Oak.
- Upgrade challenges: Few.
8. 17th Avenue South
- Importance: This avenue will eventually offer a connection to the Shady Oak light rail station. Upgrades would also offer better routes to nearby parks.
- Current problems: It's missing a section of sidewalk but is otherwise functional.
- Possibilities: Although it's functional, the city could make this better fit the complete streets vision—with different parking patterns, curb extensions, additional greenery and other improvements. It could also use a bike lane.
- Upgrade challenges: Very few.
9. Shady Oak Road
- Importance: Shady Oak is a high-volume road that connects Excelsior Boulevard and Highway 7.
- Current problems: It's not a complete street.
- Possibilities: After years of talk, to upgrade the often-congested Shady Oak Road. That plan includes a trail and consideration for those who aren't motorists.
- Upgrade challenges: Planners haven't been able to close a funding gap for the road project.
- to learn why the city is exploring complete streets.
- to see some features engineers use to transform roads into complete streets.


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Earlier in the week we brought you news that PalmSource had announced three new ODMs. One of those was PiTech, who already has a working phone ready for sale.
PiTech won't actually sell this unit on its own. Instead they've actually produced several that have begun various certification processes. When a carrier or electronics company decides to sell a Palm OS smartphone, they'll be able to buy this design from PiTech, which will save massive amounts of time and money. PiTech cashes in as they'll be producing the units. It's really a great plan for smaller companies that don't have the skillset to pull something like this off on their own. Time to market is the biggest gain, since the unit will already have preliminary approvals by the time it's sold.
Specs and release have not yet been determined as these will change by the time the design is sold. But here are a few pictures to get a flavor of what's coming.
Related News:
PalmSource Announces Three New ODMs - GSPDA, Inventec Appliances Corp. and PiTech (9/27/2004) As part of their goal to get more Palm OS powered Smartphones to market more quickly, PalmSource has signed on three new ODMs that will make Smartphones using the Garnet and Cobalt operating systems. These models will be pre-certified by carriers, so all it will take is a group to market, sell and support the devices. Once adopted, an ODM design could be to market in a fraction of the time starting from scratch would take.
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text:
You can still enter our active giveaways.
I'm happy to partner with Melissa Kaiserman from a time for everything to offer one of you this lovely camera strap cover!
Melissa blogs about scrapbooking, crafts and life in general, and sells camera strap covers, camera wrist straps and designer burp cloth sets in her shop. She soon plans to offer envelope system wallets, so be sure to check back in March!
A bit more about the camera strap cover: it is 22″ in length (check to make sure it will fit your strap!) and has a matching removeable rosette.
You can remove and wear the rosette clip anywhere you like: in your hair, or on your coat or handbag.
To enter the giveaway leave me a comment telling me what kind of images you are capturing with your camera these days.
Earn extra entries by tweeting, blogging or posting about this giveaway on Facebook. Leave a separate comment for each entry. Please make sure to enter your e-mail address in the field provided so that I can contact you if you are the winner.
Entries will close one week from today, on Friday February 18th 2011, at midnight PST. Winner will be announced Monday February 21st, 2011
Melissa is also offering all my readers a 15% off discount in her shop until February 28th! Simply mention Craft Gossip in the note to seller section during the checkout. The discount will be in the form of a paypal refund.
Thank you Melissa!
By Francine CloudenHave you entered all our giveaways?
77 Comments so far
Kellie Rizzi on
February 11, 2011 9:26 am
Never won anything except an Ethiopian coloring book once…… I'd love to win one of these.
Jacqueline R on
February 11, 2011 9:52 am
This camera strap is adorable! My camera is capturing lots of "daily life" photos for Project 365 right now.
Heathery on
February 11, 2011 10:01 am
I've wanted a custom camera strap for a while, and I love this one! Strangely enough, I mostly use my camera to take photos at costuming conventions!
Heathery on
February 11, 2011 10:01 am
I am reposting this giveaway on Facebook! (:
Tweets that mention Giveaway: Camera Strap Cover from a time for everything · Scrapbooking | CraftGossip.com -- Topsy.com on
February 11, 2011 10:02 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by CraftGossip, Francine Clouden. Francine Clouden said: new on #Craft Gossip Giveaway: Camera Strap Cover from a time for everything http://bit.ly/f4p3TH #Scrapbooking [...]
Ami Walstrom on
February 11, 2011 10:03 am
I am just starting up my photography business and my favorite images to capture are kids being kids . . . laughing, playing, throwing rocks, hugging their siblings . . . basically whatever makes them them
Ellen Lai on
February 11, 2011 10:06 am
I am taking mostly photos of my craft works for my blog. And sometimes, of my children's, and of course, the children themselves.
Meggan on
February 11, 2011 10:12 am
I'm a dentist and take pictures of teeth and procedures using a macro lens and ring flash. I keep the camera in my operatory and would love a washable strap cover!
Wendi on
February 11, 2011 10:19 am
I so love Melissa's work, her fabric choices are beautiful. The current pictures I have been capturing these days are Valentine's boxes, and parties. So much fun to enjoy these activities with your own children.
Kelley on
February 11, 2011 10:31 am
I am taking pictures of everything, trying to learn how to get my camera out of auto mode before we travel to Ethiopia this summer to meet our newest son
stefaniea4jc on
February 11, 2011 10:58 am
Hi, I LOVE ALL of Melissa's crafts. She is soo creative!
I just got a new D-SLR last week, and so far I have taken pics at my girlfriends kiddos b-day party, scenery on the way home, and my 3 beautiful kiddos. Still learning how to use it! Thanks for the entry!
Connie on
February 11, 2011 11:19 am
I'm always taking photos of my meals & other interesting things on hikes and drives. Thanks for the opportunity! This strap will definitely add the girly touch I'd like to personalize my camera!
Sonya M on
February 11, 2011 12:35 pm
I've been capturing the snowy wonder outside!
Thanks for the chance to win such a gorgeous prize!
Lisa Hughes on
February 11, 2011 1:53 pm
My photos are a hodgepodge of everything this winter. A rare freak Atlanta Snow storm that kept us out of school for a week. A girls week-end in the mountains. Pictures from my birthday. A ski trip with friends. I love the randomness of it all!
MrsHellbillyHero on
February 11, 2011 3:27 pm
I'm taking photos of my children and our 2 dogs. One is a foster dog. I try to keep his info and photos updated for the rescue group. My 2 younger children have birthdays coming up (March 7th and 9th). They LOVE having their photo taken!
Kira @ Kissing the Joy on
February 11, 2011 3:46 pm
Oh I *love* Melissa's stuff! I take pictures of my kids and the recipe triumphs and flops of the week.
emily (justem) on
February 11, 2011 4:24 pm
CUTE! I am doing the daily photo thing again this year…so they are really random. Yesterday I took a photo of blueberries that spilled EVERYWHERE. Yeah…pretty boring, but I guess that's the point…to document every day life!
Kat on
February 11, 2011 5:26 pm
I am photographing a lot of nature, Ive taken a lot of abstract images that show the underside of leaves and really close shot of flowers for interesting artwork! I work at the beach so I am always taking photos, I think its an addiction.
Mamata on
February 11, 2011 5:56 pm
I have a newborn son.. so all I my images are of my cute little man…..
amy in ne on
February 11, 2011 6:01 pm
I am taking pictures of my family. I have a different theme/focus each day. Right now I am in a black and white phase, it's amazing the difference black and white makes in the subject. These strap covers are just great!!
serena on
February 11, 2011 6:12 pm
nothin much, crafty things i make and food! thanks for the giveaway!! serena
Adri F on
February 11, 2011 6:27 pm
My word for the year is FOCUS, part of which is to use my camera to capture my beautiful family more often
Mariana on
February 11, 2011 9:04 pm
Love it! I am taking a pictures of our home renovation projects, as well as family photos and macro.
Rebecca K. on
February 11, 2011 9:10 pm
Love these! I am mostly taking photos of my sweet little 2 year old … LOTS of them, because I'm currently taking a photography class, so I have to take even more pictures than I usually do! :)~
felicia Follum on
February 11, 2011 10:32 pm
I have recently been photographing the architecture and buildings in downtown Laramie, Wyoming.
Shannon A on
February 12, 2011 8:38 am
I love this! I love to take pictures of my daughter and of nature! Thanks
Lorraine on
February 12, 2011 8:49 am
Most recently I took a photo of my baby boy standing so that his daddy – who is far away – could see it for the very first time.
Gwen on
February 12, 2011 9:50 am
What an awesome strap cover!
I capture my kids mostly. But I have an amaryllis in bloom that I've been capturing every day this week.
Vernellc on
February 12, 2011 11:18 am
Last photos I took were of my kitties. Hoping that this winter weather goes away soon so I can feel more inspired to take photos. Great giveaway!
Vernellc on
February 12, 2011 11:19 am
Posted on Facebook about this too
rebecca keppel on
February 12, 2011 11:56 am
Lots of pictures of the kids. Pretty much all that I;ve been taking pics of lately.
Hannah P. on
February 12, 2011 12:33 pm
I've been taking lots of pictures of my kids playing dress up lately!
Hannah P. on
February 12, 2011 12:35 pm
I shared on FB
Hannah P. on
February 12, 2011 12:36 pm
i tweeted
Marloes on
February 12, 2011 1:30 pm
Nice give away! My camera clicks especially when I find the time and peace to look at my little prince and princess and enjoy them enormousely. Which should be more often…, but then, what to do with all those pics if just a few every day would enough..
AJ on
February 12, 2011 2:35 pm
I am taking picture of my grandson… My son and his wife are living with us for a little bit to save money to buy a house so that means I get to spend every waking hour with my 10 mth old Grandson! I am one happy "picture snapping" Grandma!
AJ on
February 12, 2011 2:49 pm
I tweeted about the giveaway! AJ – queenofmynest
Erin on
February 12, 2011 4:07 pm
This strap is adorable!! These days my camera is taking a lot of pictures of my two little ones : ).
Btrflywmn on
February 12, 2011 5:07 pm
I love taking pictures of my kids and would love a camera strap cover.
Julie on
February 12, 2011 7:26 pm
I have been doing Project Life…so my camera is out daily capturing pictures of our every day life.
What a great camera strap!
Heather on
February 12, 2011 9:37 pm
I've got a new baby girl, I've been snapping photos of her constantly!
Nelly on
February 12, 2011 11:25 pm
all my camera is used for is- pictures of my kids!
nelly dot barney at yahoo dot com
Nelly on
February 12, 2011 11:27 pm
nelly dot barney at yahoo dot com
Deserae Fiedler on
February 13, 2011 7:10 am
I am capturing images of my little one year old nephews and niece!
Erin on
February 13, 2011 8:47 am
I take pictures of everything. I always have a camera with me and would love to be able to change out my strap without changing the strap… If I don't win, maybe I'll try to make some myself
Alysha Ruse on
February 13, 2011 11:36 am
Love to take pictures of my boys!!! Project 365!!
Emily on
February 13, 2011 3:03 pm
I've been taking pictures of my sewing projects… I only recently discovered flickr, so I'm loving snapping shots of all my quilts and whatnot and posting those!
Adrienne on
February 13, 2011 9:38 pm
Snow, snow, and more snow. Me and my friends in the snow, the snow falling, the snow piled on my car. I need to get more creative
Melissa on
February 14, 2011 5:32 am
Beautiful strap! I'd love a washable one! (Mine current strap is way too grimy I'm sure!) I'm taking a step back from my business this winter and just capturing some shots of nature, my boys, and crafty things and loving it!! Thanks for a great giveaway opportunity!
Lara Carson on
February 14, 2011 6:43 am
this is so pretty! I love the strap~! I have been capturing images of my kiddies and kitties!
Christina on
February 14, 2011 9:14 am
I am mostly capturing pictures of my new little girl.
Teresa Matz on
February 14, 2011 12:53 pm
been taking lots of pics of my kiddos and of houses that we are looking at (hoping to buy one soon) thanks for the great give away!
Colleen on
February 14, 2011 1:17 pm
Very pretty camera strap! Over the weekend I capture pictures of a house designed by FrankLloyd Wright.
Lisa B. on
February 14, 2011 1:20 pm
This strap is adorable. I have been capturing images of all the surprising Oklahoma snow.
carrie crigier on
February 14, 2011 2:23 pm
I have a 4 month old so photos are of him lately, otherwise it is nature photography. I am excited to get some ice photos with the melting snow. I would love this strap cover, it is so cute!
Kelly on
February 14, 2011 9:08 pm
I've been snapping a lot of photos of my two little monsters..errr.. I mean kids
Lisa on
February 15, 2011 6:30 am
I love this! I take my camera with me everywhere; this week I'm taking a long road trip through the Ozarks and hope to capture some cool pics of bluffs and maybe some old barns…
Giveaway Reminder · Scrapbooking | CraftGossip.com on
February 16, 2011 2:55 am
[...] Our giveaway for the camera strap cover is still open for entries! Click here to go to the giveaway post. Entries close Friday February 18th at midnight PST. You may also like… [...]
Deb Donovan on
February 16, 2011 7:11 am
I take so many pictures of my sweet 21 month-old grandbaby that I've had to add an extra hard drive to hold them all!
Sara on
February 16, 2011 7:18 am
i am in the market for a new camera right now. i want to be able to take better pics of my kids and my craft projects. i have been searching etsy for camera straps and covers to help give my new camera personality! thanks for the contest!
Jenny Heape on
February 16, 2011 7:21 am
I love this camera strap! I am mainly capturing images of my son! I have a million pictures already!
Mary Smith on
February 16, 2011 7:26 am
Lately, I have been taking pictures while scuba diving. I love underwater photography!
amanda on
February 16, 2011 8:25 am
i'm just getting started in the land of dslr, i'm way over my head but am loving it! to say the least, any one and thing is my subject. it all looks prettier with a dslr :}
Tabitha on
February 16, 2011 9:10 am
Lately I haven't been capturing any images. My daughter keeps taking my camera for events at school (and to take photos of herself). I'll get it back,though!
Ashlie on
February 16, 2011 9:12 am
Just got a new camera for V Day. Been taking lots of crafty pictures of my blog, and even more of my family!
Vicky on
February 16, 2011 9:42 am
I've been spending most of my camera time trying to get my son to look at the camera while smiling … he's 3 years old … he says "cheese" but doesn't look at the camera! He is, of course, my favorite subject! Would love to win one of Melissa's lovely camera straps!
Jenn Shock on
February 16, 2011 10:03 am
This is adorable! Right now my camera is capturing a lot of pictures of my baby boy
Dana J on
February 16, 2011 10:21 am
My pics these days have been of ice, ice and a little snow! Of course with cute little red faces in them too!
Stefanie E on
February 16, 2011 10:57 am
As always, pictures of my twins…lately, playing in the snow.
Thanks for the chance!
Alyssa on
February 16, 2011 11:00 am
Oh that is so cute!!! These days I am using my camera to take pictures of my crafts and of my 20 month old nephew Basically anything he does is so freaking adorable (I am a bit partial )
Judith on
February 16, 2011 11:08 am
Lately, I've only been taking pictures of my kids on holidays.
nichia on
February 16, 2011 11:16 am
My camera is busy with a new baby boy
Paula on
February 16, 2011 12:05 pm
I'm capturing hints of spring – which so far is just indoor flowers, but it makes me feel like spring can't be too far away.
Juanna on
February 16, 2011 9:58 pm
i've been taking photos of my scrapwork and places that i visit with my boyfriend! we love exploring!
thanks for the lovely giveaway!
Lee on
February 17, 2011 8:16 am
I have been taking creative photos lately with colourful food! Fun! Just payed off my first DSLR and would love a snazzy strap like that!!
Callie on
February 17, 2011 10:57 am
I love taking shots of my family and dog… they are the best things to capture!
Kayla on
February 18, 2011 11:22 am
i love to take pictures of my niece and nephews.


text:
No matter what happens on Sunday when the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants, Needham's will be a winner thanks to a friendly little wager with a temple in Larchmont, NY.
If the Patriots win, Rabbi Jeff Sirkman and his congregation at Larchmont Temple in New York will display a colorful sign that congratulates the Pats and the Needham temple on the win. This "Mazel tov!" will hang in the temple's foyer for one week following the game.
The wager also includes a "reverse" component—to help the New Yorkers cope with the Giants' loss, the Needham congregation will send them one case of New England's famous NECCO Wafers and two dozen chocolate chips cookies from The Boston Chipyard at Quincy Market, Boston. Temple Beth Shalom rabbis Jay Perlman and Todd Markley will also wear New York Giants jerseys for a day while at the temple.
"We negotiated back and forth and tried to think of something that would be fun and family-friendly and some things that were quintessentially Boston and some things that were quintessentially New York," Perlman said.
If the Pats don't do so well (fingers crossed!), Temple Beth Shalom congregants will hang a "Mazel tov, Giants!" banner in their foyer, and the New York contingent will send over one grate of Guss' Pickles and one New York-famous Junior's Cheesecake. The New York rabbis will also wear Patriots gear.
The New York food will be put to good use in Needham—feeding kids in the temple's religion school, Perlman said.
"It's just a great way to make a connection with the broader Jewish community," he said of the wager.
Temple Beth Shalom has been participating in friendly wagers of this type for many years, dating back to 2004, when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. That year, with the Sox taking on the St. Louis Cardinals, the Needham congregation connected with a group in St. Louis, MO.
In 2007, when the Sox were back in the World Series—this time against the Colorado Rockies—the Needham temple made a wager with a temple in Boulder, CO.
"What's different about this year is it's a reverse bet. The winning congregation is going to make the losing congregation feel better by sending the food," Perlman said. "In the past, with the other two bets, the winning congregation has been on the receiving end."
In 2004, Temple Beth Shalom received two cases of Fitz's Rootbeer, provided by the St. Louis-based company once they learned about the wager. In 2007, the Boulder congregation sent the Needham temple a case of IZZE soda.
Also as part of this year's wager, each temple has agreed to make a contribution to the other's tzedakah cause.
"So if the Patriots lose, then we will make a contribution to Larchmont Temple's charity of choice," Perlman said. "We've agreed to take a combination of the final score and multiply it by 10, and that will be the amount."
So what does Perlman think will happen on Sunday? The Needham rabbi declined to make his own prediction.
"I root for the Patriots, and I root for a good game," he said. "And I root for good commercials."


text:
\ There were literally thousands of people in and around the place. Just walking around in the store was not easy. There were plenty of things to do outside the store like get autographs, sign up for XM radio or pick up a free popsicle (and a key, which if you went and stood in line and your key opened a lock made you a winner in this NHL Unlock Your Dreams deal).\
\ But inside is where the action was at. To the left of the main entrance sat Lord Stanley's Cup, and there was a line out the door and wrapped around the block to get your picture taken with it. There are these gigantic photos about 25 feet tall along the left wall of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton and Martin Brodeur showcasing the new uniforms. Sorry for the shoddy photography, I blame the tools (my cell phone) with which I had to work with.\
\ To the right of the main entrance there is a display of all the new Reebok jerseys along a glass wall. In the middle of the store there was a spot for people to play both NHL 08 and NHL 2K8. Above the checkout kiosk are eight flat screen, high-def TVs but that wasn't as cool as the chandelier made out of hockey sticks.\
\ Above the back wall is the XM Studio, and NHL Live with E.J. Hradek and Don La Greca was going on and being piped into the sound system in the store. There is also a Starbucks attached to the back of the store.\
\ The store basically has everything. Jerseys (replicas at $114.99 and authentics at $249.99), t-shirts, sweatshirts, team-themed shoes, hats, sticks - it is all here. My favorite stuff was what I deemed the Retro Wall. There are shirts with all of the old school logos and old school teams (I nearly broke down and bought this sweet Quebec Nordiques shirt, but the line made me think twice). I did hear one customer expressed disappointment that only home jerseys were on sale.\
\ \ This brings me to the coolest part of the day, at least for me. I was scoping out the merchandise, and Will Arnett of Arrested Development fame walks past me. Now, I thought it was cool that a real celeb was here to check out the place, but it became pretty funny to me to watch him move through the store almost completely incognito while everyone else stared at the NHL celebs.\
\ The Commish, Gary Bettman and his right hand man, Bill Daly were down on the floor, former Devils Ken Daneyko and Bruce Driver were up on the balcony (and\ then in the studio on air with Don and E.J.), and I also saw former Islanders Eric Cairns and Butch Goring taping a segment in the Starbucks.\
\ I kept thinking it must be a New York thing, but here I am watching Will Arnett try on a Maple Leafs sweatshirt while a father was pointing out Ken Danyeko to his sons. Then came the best part - the line to buy stuff went all the way to the front door, so Arnett tried to talk his way out of standing in line. His first attempt didn't work, but eventually another store employee relented. \
\ But for anyone who visits Madison Square Garden (and considering the dozen or so Caps jerseys I saw today, people from the District do make the trip), the NHL store is not that far of a walk, and it is well worth it. You will probably have to stand in line to check out though.\
\ — Corey Masisak